Stormbreak

"Stormbreak" is the thirteenth episode of Book 1: Sand & Starlight of Regolus: Dark Age.
== Official Description ==
"Previously on Dark Age: The D-Rank legionnaires quelled the immediate chaos of the Sentinel event, yet true peace still slips through their grasp. Bubbles forged a closer bond with Iridia Thane, while Synnove and Lenore uncovered Isskari secrets with Katari—until Katari's attempt to steal Synnove’s book sparked a violent altercation in the barracks. Aelys, meanwhile, delved deeper into the ominous nature of the Xilyreon. Now, with dark clouds gathering, the legionnaires are told to lie low as Hareem Lord Hareem works to decipher the stone tablet bound to their mysterious sigils.”Stormbreak (YouTube).
== Plot ==
=== Part 1 ===
* The Xilyreon just revealed to Aelys that it is the Godsleep. Aelys asks why Ur-Viraan was saddled with it, but that is asking why it was born. They are each other's burdens, and yet it saved her as if it has need of her. It wants Aelys to guide the children to the Godkiller, Blade of Overseer’s Bane, the other fragment. It is bound and she is not. Aelys will help do this, but she will only swear this if it swears to only hurt the people that she lets it. The Xilyreon wants to make a bloodbind with her, not the first her kin would have made. Bloodbinds with the elvhen are not so easily undone, she should ask her leader. It will only harm those Aelys decrees worthy of such suffering, until she finds the World Wound. And then two become one. Aelys asks if when that happens, does it seek to harm the elvhen. The ichor changes its form to the image of Aelys like she was 10-15 years ago, crackling with power and arrogance. With her voice, it answers “Of course not. I have much loftier targets. After the wound is acquired, I will maintain your strictures if you join me.” Aelys wants confirmation that they are bound in a way the other inheritors before her were not. The other version of Aelys tells her that this is the one they have been waiting for. Aelys extends her hand, agreeing to the deal if it does not harm the elder bloods. As they grab hands, the temple around them expands away. Aelys is suddenly swimming in liquid air, in emerald waves of oil. She knows that feeling from when she suspended her face past the thin threshold of the Dreamscar, submerged only briefly into the physical manifestation of the Faded Realm, above and around her the crystalline roots of Heart of God, filled with potential. She opens her mouth which becomes jaws and mandibles and the horizon, and she is full. When the sensation subsides, Aelys finds herself on the shoreline, the temple behind her collapsed.
Level 5 for Aelys!
* Aelys feels separate, almost as if a part of her is somewhere else - divided but connected. She feels an itching on her dominant hand and as she unwraps it, three spiraling new birthmarks appeared that almost look like tree roots, conduits for her negative energy. She meditates for a while, when she finds herself sitting on the familiar ice throne - a new meditation destination for her, if unwillingly. After some time, a version of those skulls appears, that scanned Bubbles before at the Exactionem Inquisitorio.This one is by the Inquisition of the Dawn. Aelys provokes it, so it shoots at her, before it flies back to the city with speed. Aelys follows it but loses it in the crowd, so she stealthily makes her way back to the Keep. 
* Bubbles, JB and Synnove are still asleep in their beds in the barracks. Aelys enters the room and sees them, but also the hogtied Katari in her bed. She sits down at the window to observe the storm and the forming clouds of darkness that should not be in the desert.
* Synnove dreams and finds herself standing on a field, a modest cottage not far away. Halfway between the cottage and her is the adolescent Stella. She tells Syn that someone was here and that she didn’t know this place until they came here. Stella doesn’t know much about this space but that this is all that is left of it. She thinks she wanted this once, it feels warm here, like it was home. Stella reveals that it feels like a wound, made by fire and steel, like the cage. Stella knows that Synnove can’t go home at the moment so she would like them to burn this cottage, so that this wound can be healed. It was still in the cage but now it isn’t anymore so she would like it to not be at all. Stella thinks they can only grow if the wound is healed. Stella teleports them into the cottage, humble but cozy interior. Once, Stella wanted to be here, but some doors need to stay shut. Synnove does not want Stella to run away from something before she resolves it for herself. Stella tells her that if this home will be here, a part of her will always be here and not with Syn. They have been calling her back: “They have wanted me back. It is all she did it for.” They are asking for her, she can still hear them. Stella wants both her and Syn to grow, “for us to be I”. The second their hands touch, the green flames from the fireplace burn it all down. Stella grows and her form heals when Synnove’s light and essence infuse into her. They hear knocks and begs from where the voices in the house were, but the fire moves around Stella and Synnove until the house is immersed in flames and heat, and all that is left is glory. When the flames are gone, they both are in space of pure white. Stella is still holding Synnove’s hand. Across this field of peace and light are 5 individuals in a V formation. Four of them are shadowed, but the one in the front is Sol, Synnove’s first convert. He cranes his head, and Synnove wakes up.
Level 5 for Synnove!
* When the others wake up, they inform Aelys about the letter from Hareem and Synnove confesses why Katari is hogtied. 
* Aelys tells them what she saw on the beach and that it took a shot at her, but what is more confusing is the storm outside. When Theagus looks at it, his Sigil begins to prickle. 
* The others notice a different aura around Synnove and her hair is moving differently, almost flowing around her in the air. Synnove says it has to do with her being (close) to a divine being. 
* While JB takes a bath in the bathhouse, Aelys makes her way into the courtyard, where Urzok is currently doing something. She begins her training, as he starts talking to her. Aelys asks about the other recruits that he is the handler for. Urzok is interested in her way of training, as he only traveled with one other of the monastic discipline before. He shows her a symbol and says that the last one was Ignis, of Erthe, Wynd and Fyr. He only traveled with them once, the day they disappeared. Urzok asks her to demonstrate, but Aelys declines, as she has a bad feeling about the evening and needs her energy. Aelys asks about the Krill and how long they live, so Urzok tells her that they are usually short-lived, 10 cycles unless they take a morph, then ten more. He is just blessed. Urzok is in the soldier morph, so Aelys would like him to demonstrate his skills. He channels the soul flame and attacks the dummy. When Aelys asks if that brings him joy, he says that it would bring them joy, as he touches the sigil again. They once told him to make his own choices and he lives by that and makes choices to help those who cannot make them for themselves and do not have those freedoms. And that is also why he is here, to help others. 
* When Urzok is gone, Synnove joins Aelys in the courtyard and sits next to her. Syn just wants to check in on her after what has happened on the train, but Aelys says she is surprisingly okay. Syn reaffirms that she is here to help her and if she needs to find the book, she will help her with that too, because her God has told her to. Aelys asks what if one day her God tells her not to but Synnove will cross that bridge when she gets to it. Synnove says she likes her and they are friends. Stella told her to go to Aelys when Syn asks about the other gods and who to trust. Aelys reminds her that they are all here for their own purposes, that they are bound together, but they are still means to each other’s end. If one day the choice is between maintaining that friendship or hurting each other to achieve their goals, Aelys thinks it would be right to hurt them. But the closer the four of them get, the more pain will come with that inevitable end. Aelys wonders why the others did not tell the authorities about her and what she did, she is grateful but she does not really understand it. She and the Xilyreon have come to an agreement of sorts to not let that happen again without her knowledge. What is clear for Aelys is that Synnove would betray them if her god tells her to, because her god comes first, as they should be, and as the Xilyreon and her path would come first for Aelys. Synnove says that their paths are converging, at least for the moment. Synnove seeks to heal and to help but Aelys asks what will happen when this and Stella comes into conflict with the bonds Synnove made. Syn tells her that this is all part of God’s plan, and even if God tells her to leave someday, she can still create these bonds in the meantime. For Synnove, it sounds like Aelys is writing a future that has not happened yet. Aelys is simply preparing for one. Synnove does not think Aelys meant to do what she did on the train, and they helped her, so perhaps the reason will reveal itself to her in time.
* The clouds shudder in the distance, but nobody else seems to notice them besides the group. Synnove asks Damien about the clouds in the sky, but he does not see any. They inform the rest to meet on the Heirloom to talk to Hareem.
* Hareem lets them into his office, activates the privacy field and tells them that the storm is what predicates the lights in the sky. They tell him about the clouds they see but no one else can, and the direction of them. It will probably arrive around midnight. Hareem asks them to do what the Commander told them to, lay low, and asks if they saw the spear in her office this morning, the Orichalcum Spear. They ask themselves if they should trust her, because it seemed like she wanted them to fail their last mission. The more Hareem studies all of this, the more he thinks the Legion has something to do with it. Værina disappeared the same night these lights started showing and maybe it was because of that.
* Hareem tells them that he cross-referenced what they know with his family’s work and they need that spear, as it seems to be a key to get access to whatever the cryptoglyph will lead them to. 
* Later that day, they hear some town criers go by, who inform about the incident in Üthevhenan. 
* They head back to the barracks, where the other D-Rank members already found themselves for the night. They see that the boys Chrom and Barri are currently drawing something in the still sleeping Katari’s face. Voltaire tells them that they are not worried about her, as she is not part of their team. Voltaire came with the other three, and she is just an “extra”. 
* Aelys talks to Daisy-Mae about Urzok. Daisy tells her that he is wise, but far, lost and separate from the other Krill. Daisy is sad for him because he “lost brood". 
* They all go to their bed, some stay awake, others sleep lightly, as suddenly the storm clouds flood the sky like liquid. They can feel a lightness in them, but at the same time a secondary layer of pressure is added to everything, a weight on their shoulders that creeps up their spine. They wake up because of this thick cold pressure. Aelys feels a pull towards the outside, so the four make their way to the courtyard. On the way, the others are able to see the changes to Aelys’ arm for the first time. Bubbles can make out necromancy magic from it. Aelys just tells them that she came to an agreement. When they open the doors, the sky is tinged in green, ripples of green light shuddering through the clouds. As that happens, 25 figures are illuminated, floating and circling in the air above Spearhold Keep. They split apart and hum, before they let out a scream, and ask for help.
=== Part 2 ===
* From the 25 embryonic creatures, 5 drop down on the ground and reform there, as green lights begin to ripple through the storm clouds, beginning to take the first shapes. 
* Aelys feels sorry, but begins to attack them. With her right arm, she touches the tendrils of one of them, and finds herself in a vision of the train card, where a figure tells her to guide and lead them.
* Somehow, some creatures are able to metamorph and evolve into mature husks.
* JB uses his shield to save Aelys and later Theagus from being attacked.
* Another rumble through the storm appears, as the green light carves two arcing lines. The glow illuminates everything in a sickly poisonous light, as the sand now looks like acid beneath them.   
* Aelys orders them to stand down, but the creature demands a target from their mother. She tells it to be at peace, but it won’t listen, so she stuns it. All it can ask is “Mother, what leader are you?”.
* The symbol in the sky erupts into life and shows the Beaconsign of Longing. The whole storm is illuminated. All of the Sigils on their bodies burst to life, they can feel energy radiating through them and feel the possibility to connect to the symbol above them. 
* Aelys places her hand on the chest of the figure and begs them to stand down. Instead, it is the voice of the Xilyreon that says: “Go North. Seek the sister with the bands. She knows.” Hearing that, all of the creatures start to burrow under the earth, ready to follow the order. 
* Theagus opens the floodgates of the Sigil, as an massive arcane pulse ripples through the air. Everything around them slows, as they hear a voice as if the rest of the Sigil Bearers are directly speaking to them: 
* The light explodes out of the symbol in the sky, vaporizing and throwing back the creatures. Only some of them are still able to burrow through the ground and get away. The symbol itself coalesces and drops into the Heirloom and rockets out to the East. The Storm is gone, only starlight is above them.
* Out of one of the windows, Commander Bertrand asks what is happening. She wants the group in her office at the stroke of dawn or she will inform the inquisition. 
* Aelys immediately runs to the Post Office. She wakes up Rusty to send a letter to her sister Maravix at the Orphanos Monastery in Griseum.
* Afterwards, they try to decide what to do next. JB wants them to get the spear and go now, as they will not be able to explain this. Some of them agree, some of them are unsure about it, as they can’t stop once they start it all and they wonder if that is the right thing to do. They see Hareem up at the Heirloom and try to explain pantomimicly what they want to do so they don’t have to scream, but Hareem jumps down so they can talk. They discuss their next steps. 
* Aelys reminds Synnove that this is one of those choices they talked about earlier. Synnove puts her hand on her book to see where Stella is in all of this and feels a pleasant warmth. The seat of Stella’s presence feels like it is in transit somewhere between the book and Synnove. Synnove is still not sure, as she does not know what Stella wants. But Aelys asked Synnove, and not Stella, but Syn wants what Stella wants.
* They decide that Aelys and Theagus will try to see if they can steal the spear, Hareem prepares the take-off in 45 minutes, and Synnove, maybe with JB’s help, has another task to do.
Level 5 for Theagus!
== Characters ==
=== Player Characters ===
* Aelys Sa’Viraan
* Bubbles Bathington
* Jean-Baptiste
* Synnove Oleander
=== NPCs ===
* Xilyreon 
* Katari
* Voltaire 
* Urzok
* Stella
* Sol
* Vaxal
* Hareem
* Ygritte Bertrand
* Damien 
* Rusty
* Aloysius
* Leonaard
* Chrom
* Barridyne
* Daisy-Mae
===Mentioned===
* Værina
* Maravix
== Locations and Organizations ==
=== Locations ===
*Spearhold Keep
*Old Temple of Sindar/Beach
*Üthevhenan (mentioned)
*Orphanos Monastery/Griseum (mentioned)
=== Organizations ===
* Vanguard
** Inquisition of the Dawn 
* Erthe, Wynd, and Fyr
== Tarot Card and RP Warmup ==
The tarot card for the episode was The High Priestess, drawn by Kyle.
The roleplay warmup question was: "What would your character say their best trait would be?"
== References ==