Crystal Academy Squad Opal: Second Year - Episode 1

## Summary

The Empire of Mowen, one of the three major kingdoms of A’lune, created in secret a school called the Crystal Academy. Threadtouched youths could hone their abilities in all aspects of the Thread, and in exchange for these three years of free schooling, food, and board, the students pledged to devote three years serving in the Mowen army after their graduation.

In 1216 A.S., five teenagers attended the Crystal Academy, together forming dormitory squad Opal. Caiteor, Mariska, Milo, Ohros, and Umber became fast friends. Their first year was a blur of excitement—attending classes and learning about their Threads; romantic relationships and making a boyfriend from body parts; releasing eleven devils and destroying a Hell Gate; the death of the dean; giving in to an inner evil that went on a rampage and killed fellow students; and the unfortunate expulsion of Ohros from the school. The rampage and devils had been erased from the minds of most faculty and students, though Squad Opal covertly protected their memories. Now the four remaining squad members had to continue their schooling while knowing that not all was as it seemed at the Crystal Academy. Far greater challenges would face them in the Second Year.

In this episode, the squad made a new friend, erased sigils, and chased a relic off-campus.

## Class Selection

By reaching the second year, Squad Opal gained an animal into their dormitory name. Rather than just Opals, they were now Fox Opals.

Most students spent their summer working off-campus with a professor on a project, but Squad Opal had caused a lot of trouble in their first year. As punishment, they remained at the Crystal Academy helping Wilter Cacian, the new dean. They cleaned up the school and set new sigils to repel fiends. It was a work summer rather than a fun summer, but the days passed and the second year started. Squad Opal took myriad electives, fortifying their strengths or exploring new possibilities. Umber, a Dhampir rogue who wasn't quite conscious of his vampiric abilities, saw Milo's interest in the forge and took smithing with him, along with Improving Under Stress, a class that would help him channel his inner rage. He also took Cloak, Stalk, and Dagger to improve his stealth skills. Milo the Halfling rogue continued to hone his stealth tactics and investigative skills, taking Disguises, Misdirections, and Poisons along with Fanciful Forensics and a smithing class.

Caiteor the Firbolg cleric, who had taken over the local Greeze Cane business from Ohros, was doing so well in classes that he enrolled in Coin and Trade, a third-year class that he was able to take early. Mariska the wizard knew that the stitching she had performed when making her boyfriend, Chad Internship, had been sub-par; though magic eventually made the body whole and beautiful for a time, Mariska didn't want to rely on that. This year, she took Minor Mending and Repair. She also worked closely with Dean Cacian as an intern.

## A Promise not to Haunt

About a month into the semester, Squad Opal was back into the swing of things. For Caiteor, Milo, and Mariska, not much had changed from the previous year. Umber, whose rampage and subsequent murder of a fellow student had been erased from most students' minds, was on the gamut team and had become rather popular.

A vigil was held for the students who had been killed in previous years. The names Billy ben-Rubie and Yeniece Mexia were included on that list. Umber knew that Yeniece had been killed by Cinder, the evil that resided within him; but no other student outside of Squad Opal would remember this fact. Umber created his own memorial for Yeniece, feeling the guilt.

Later in the day, the squad tried to contact Billy ben-Rubie, a ghost whose body they were attempting to find. They quickly discovered that Billy had been blocked from entering the school buildings. The sigils that Squad Opal had built throughout the school not only kept devils out; they kept spirits out as well.

Billy wanted to come back to life or die; he hated the middle ground of being a ghost. He knew that a spell kept his body from rotting, but also kept his spirit from moving on. Unfortunately, he was blind to his own body, unable to recognize his body and unable to see his ghostly reflection. Umber and Mariska tried to draw Billy so that he could see himself, but the artwork was atrocious.

Billy thought a third-year student might be able to remember him, since they would have been first-year students when he had died. After having Billy pledge to not haunt the school or make himself too obvious, the squad agreed to mess up some of the sigils in order to let Billy back in.

## Campus Tour Guides

Dean Cacian then summoned the squad to his office. None of Squad Opal trusted Cacian since he had erased the memories of all the students. That said, Mariska had enjoyed her internship, moving ever closer to figuring out how to rebuild her boyfriend. She knew the project went far beyond her knowledge, but over the summer she had gained an understanding of how massive a task it would be. It gave her hope that she could reach the goal someday.

Arriving in Cacian's office, the group met Luden Wilde, a Half-Orc street urchin youth, used to a rough life. He was confused and in awe of the Crystal Academy, and he didn't even know why he was there. Apparently he was Threadtouched and would do quite well, which is why Cacian wanted Squad Opal to give him a tour before his assessment.

Mariska noted the drawer from which she had stolen—and returned—the body parts that had become Chad Internship. It had a lock on it now.

Milo cased the office and saw that it had protective sigils, which could create an alarm or harm intruders; but there were no mundane locks around the room. He had learned in class that only the very paranoid would use both runes and locks, so this showed Cacian's confidence. The door, in contrast, had no sigils, only a mundane lock.

Umber gave some Greeze Cane confiscated from the previous year's dance to Cacian, but upon mentioning the dance, Cacian tried hard to change the subject. It seemed to make him nervous to refer to it. Umber took this as a sign that Cacian still thought Squad Opal had their memories wiped surrounding the devils and the rampage.

After beginning Luden's tour, Umber tried to give Luden his jacket, but Luden stated that he wasn't going to be so easily tricked. He had nothing that could be stolen. The squad tried to convince him that they weren't trying to steal from him and took him to the cafeteria, where he gorged himself, unused to free good meals. It brought him to tears. The squad warned him not to upset Goris, the Minotaur lunch lady, as she was the arbiter of food.

Mariska also introduced Femur, her raven familiar, to Luden. Luden thought that Mariska had trained the raven, an impressive feat, and Mariska let him continue believing that. They freaked Luden out by mentioning memory wiping and ghosts, Mariska wanting to keep this information a secret in case Luden was a spy from Cacian but Milo blurting it out. Mariska convinced the group to be subtle to prevent putting Luden in danger.

Besides the cafeteria, the squad took Luden to the lost and found, as well as to Billy ben-Rubie's room. They wanted to remove a sigil to let Billy back in. Over the summer, they had learned plenty about fiends and spirits from a book Cacian had lent them. They learned that to get rid of a demon or devil possessing someone, the person had to use silver to mix a tablespoon of salt with cold water while saying the true name of the fiend. With a binding sigil made of salt and the fiend's name, they could keep the fiend trapped for a time. Finally, a ritual could be performed to keep a specific fiend from possessing someone if they knew the fiend's name. To make a blocking sigil like the ones they had built during the summer required a special paint, though they didn't know what kind of paint was needed.

While such blocking sigils became invisible as soon as they were created, Squad Opal still remembered where some of the sigils were. Umber was concerned about the devils getting into the school, but Milo wanted to help Billy for the leverage of having his aid. Umber removed the sigil in Billy's room.

## Failed Assessment, Successful Theft

Rustil Aitham, the Half-Elf Half-Orc physical education teacher, gave Luden his assessment. From strength to speed to arcane resistance, Luden failed them all, implying that he was not actually Threadtouched. The squad returned to Cacian's office with a letter detailing Luden's scores. Cacian read the letter and Mariska noted that he mouthed the word "mistaken." The dean declared that Luden unfortunately could not attend the school and would be sent back to Záchálas. Squad Opal tried to fight this decision, but it was of no use; Cacian used a quartz crystal meant to erase the minds of mortals, attempting to wipe Luden's memory of the past week.

Squad Opal and Rustil escorted Luden to the docks and sent him away. The group tried to distract Rustil so they could sneak Luden to Billy's room, but Umber's acting skills were atrocious and Mariska's faked stomach cramps were met with a first-aid kit filled with herbs that would aid her. Luden was put on the ship and taken to Inzet.

It was a quiet, somber dinner. The squad retired to bed thinking about what they might have done differently.

At one in the morning, there was a knock at the dormitory door. Dean Cacian had summoned the squad. Mariska immediately wrote down the date and the time, hiding the parchment in a ceiling nook and relying on Billy to remember the location in case Cacian wiped their minds.

The precaution was unnecessary; Cacian told them that Luden had stolen a wine stopper from his office. The dean believed Luden may have actually been Threadtouched, assuming that the quartz crystal mind wipe for standard mortals—and not for Threadtouched—failed. He ordered the squad to chase Luden and retrieve the wine stopper, a dangerous relic that held a depiction of Svsx the Serpent Queen.

Cacian gave them a cloth in which to carry the stopper, three single-use paralyzing wands, a slab of slate that acted as a written-word sending stone, and a divining rod: a metal straw that when dipped in water would move in the direction of the tracked item. He didn't care whether they came back with Luden alive or dead. The most important thing was that the school be kept secret; the second-most important thing was that the stopper be retrieved. Finally, the dean gave them fifteen ounces of gold to help with expenses.

Before the squad knew it, they were in the thrumming city of Inzet, a pioneer town under constant construction. The divining rod was leading outside of Inzet, and Squad Opal wasn't sure they would be fast enough to catch up to Luden on foot. As a former Foultrapper whose parents still worked for that organization, Umber approached some Foultrappers to rent bison for the road. Irv Quan was amiable, but became suspicious as the group kept stumbling over their words and stories for why four teenagers were out and about in Inzet at two in the morning. Nevertheless, he still rented them two bison in exchange for five gold and a week's worth of labour from the group. Mariska let Cacian know about the week's worth of labour through the sending slate.

The bison were named Boom and Lunch, and while they weren't the stealthiest animals, they got the squad out of the city. Soon they found a caravan stopped dead in the middle of the road. The divining rod pointed towards the caravan, but also pointed in a different direction. Upon asking Cacian what this could mean, they learned that there were many explanations, including the item being split or being warded against detection.

The squad approached the caravan and discovered that every living being in it, from the riders to the bison, had been turned to stone. The divining rod pointed away from the caravan in opposite directions. There were tracks, but there was no way for them to tell if they were from Luden. The party split up, Caiteor and Milo reaching a river while Umber and Mariska went up a brambled hill.

Umber and Mariska could hear stifled whimpering near them. Umber tried to comfort whoever was crying and slowly a ten-year-old child approached. Half of his left arm had been turned to stone.

Meanwhile Milo was having difficulty tracking, but Caiteor continually gave him tips and put him back on track. Eventually they saw someone sitting against a tree. They tried to apply stealth, though Caiteor was far less proficient at it; reversing the roles, now Milo gave Caiteor tips and kept him from exposing them.

As they approached, they saw that the person was Luden, despondent. Though Milo hid in the shadows and Caiteor cast Disguise Self to hide his identity, the disguise quickly faltered as soon as he saw how distraught Luden was. Luden didn't know why he had stolen the stopper, didn't know how he even got into the drawer. Something had told him to steal it.

When asked what happened at the caravan, Luden said that someone had grabbed the stopper from him and used it, turning most everyone else into a statue. That person was a ten-year-old child with an arm made of stone.