Episode Eleven: Storm of the Century

Session One (11.12.11)

• Autumn and Mitchell arrive just in time to see the Regina explode and watch Rasayana and Malachite get blown out the windows. Mitchell vanishes into the hotel.
• Thanks to a Fate spell he'd just cast, Rasayana is unhurt after shooting out the window like a Hindi-American cannonball. In the wreckage near him, he finds a grimoire that he thinks is the one Meredith stole from us while under Seer control. He puts the book in the trunk of his car when he gets out his bulletproof vest.
• Malachite is badly hurt, but survives thanks to the Life spell Serafina had cast on the cabal and the healing syringe she gave him.
• Autumn rushes to Rasayana's side, and they both go into the hotel after Mitchell.
• Issa teleports into the sanctum, but our Seer attackers are already gone.
• Malachite uses Forces to start putting out the fires.
• Mitchell gets hurt when some of the stairs collapse under him as he tries to make it to the upper floors. He is able to heal himself.
• Rasayana provides some first aid to Mitchell and Malachite.
• Issa scries on Wai Chi. He sees Wai Chi and the rest of his pylon back at their sanctum. He starts chipping at the Seers' ward. Heroditas opens up a strange, unnatural portal and takes the pylon through it. Issa can see that it is not normal Space magic.
• Those of us with Matter magic do some quick, temporary repairs to the Regina to keep it from collapsing.
• Before we can start making plans to go after the Seers, a huge storm rolls in. But it is no mere storm; it is a Verge, which causes Shadow and normal reality to collide and overlap. It's traveling along the ley lines and converging on the Regina.
• Serafina tries to use Supernal Dispellation on the storm, but there is no Awakened magic to affect.
• Malachite attempts to cast Change Weather and promptly gets struck by lightning. Rasayana rewinds time to prevent him from casting the spell.
• As the storm worsens, we find that we can't use magic in or near any of the Hallows without getting struck by lightning. Even away from the Hallows, there is a risk.
• The storm is hurricane strength and pounds Astoria.
• Issa tries to call Ophelia and Danny, but he can't get a phone signal, so he scries to locate them instead. He teleports to Ophelia's condo in order to transport them to safety.
• Autumn and Mitchell head up to the third floor, so Autumn can try to figure out what's happening to the Hallow.
• Serafina comes back to the Regina to get Malachite. She suggests that he try to shut down one of the ley lines and see if that affects the storm. She leads him to the spot where she thinks he has the best chance of accomplishing this and guards him as he casts his spell.
• Issa manages to get Danny through a portal to New York (which leads to the basement of his wife's pizza parlor). Unfortunately, before he can do anything more, Ophelia's entire building collapses into the river.
• Rasayana joins Autumn and Mitchell in the Hallow. Autumn tries to read the resonance of the Hallow, but for some reason, it makes no sense.
• Using simple empathy, Rasayana gets a sense of something in the storm, something hurting and angry. He screams into the Hallow, into the storm, asking whatever entity might be there what it wants. He offers to negotiate with it.
• Ophelia is badly hurt in the building's collapse, but Issa manages to save her and get them both to New York before they drown. He tells his wife to call an ambulance for Ophelia and Danny and promises her that he'll explain everything later.
• Issa sends Rasayana to New York to take care of Ophelia and Danny. Rasayana heals Ophelia with one of Serafina's healing syringes. Danny has a minor meltdown over the magic he experiences and witnesses.
• While Malachite is in the middle of his ritual, two storm spirits called Cloud Swords close in on him and Serafina. Serafina just obliterates them.
• Autumn and Rasayana realize that there is an angry spirit trapped inside the storm, one known as the Thunderer. He's wild, like a rabid animal. He is trapped by the Hallow. He doesn't seem to be throwing lightning at us deliberately. It's more like the lightning is being pulled out of him.
• Serafina can see what's happening over the Regina and interrupts Malachite's ritual, realizing that that's where we need to be.
• We decide to help the Thunderer escape his cage.
• Autumn tries to kill the Hallow with Death magic. Rasayana builds a gauss cage to protect Autumn from any lightning strikes.
• Autumn's spell doesn't work, but Rasayana's gauss cage does, at least well enough to keep Autumn alive.
• Malachite casts a spell to suppress the Hallow at about the same time Serafina casts a spell to control the spirit. Malachite weakens the Hallow enough for the Thunderer to break free, then Serafina traps him in her spirit jar before he can kill us all.
• Once the Thunderer is freed, the storm dissipates. The Hallow has lost its Celestial resonance and is now only a rating 2.
• In Qurbani's notes, Autumn finds a connection between what's been happening in Astoria and a book called the Ishtar Codex, which we stole from the auction. Qurbani also notes that there is a mythical eleventh Exarch--the Exarch of the Abyss, sometimes called the Eleventh Seal--that some Seer cults worship. These cults are considered crazy even by Seer standards and are also connected to the Ishtar Codex.