ExU: Divergence is a four-episode mini series that follows everyday folks picking up the pieces of their world in the wake of a cataclysmic war between the gods. As the dust settles, the mortals of Exandria discover how their world has been changed forever.

Watch the episode live on Twitch and YouTube at 7pm PST. Restreams on Twitch at midnight and the next day at 9am PST.

Runtime Break start
4h 37m 2h 37m

ExU: Divergence | Part 3

“Mirror and Key”

We return to the world of Exandria.
In Torm’s hill.
It is the morning after: mourning, revelry, fierce battle, and a taste of freedom. The noise that summons you from sleep to wakefulness is the noise of the camp looking out to the west from a taller ridge out past the briars (towards the edge). Near where Erro, the night before, saw the dawn for your very first time as daylight broke. And you see people mesmerized, shouting, cheering, looking out as they point towards a vast valley to the west. Shaped in ages long ago before the Calamity, before even the Age of Arcanum (for those learned few in Exandria that even know of that eon of the world).
Looking to the west, people cheer and weep with amazement as you see Nez (one of the matriarchs of Torm’s Hill) going,
“This was briar and ash…briar and ash alone! There was nothing…”
And for any who join, you see (through the grey clouds overhead) areas where the clouds go from grey to white. No pure ray of light breaking through, but enough coming through the white clouds to illuminate. Black and red stone, charred rocky fields, and yet glimmers of distant grass or trees that seem to have sprouted up seemingly overnight. The arms of dead forest reaching towards Rybad Kol that were sundered in the falling of the Strife Emperor. Here (farther away from the realm of his influence) you see cool cold dewey wind blowing across the distant fields. For many of you the first time you have ever seen a field of grass in your life.
You gather belongings and rations; spend another day preparing for your journey forward. You see many similarly preparing. Torm’s Hill is enormous and more refugees and prisoners and escapees are pouring in every day. But Torm’s Hill (while it is a place of safety) is also closest to those realms of the Strife Emperor and whatever his former soldier or marauders (like those that Efkedrial joined in the waste) are doing back in that ash-choked land. Torm’s Hill is a place of safety and strength and gathering, but not a place for the tender. For the weak, the innocent. Those look to the west and to new fields growing and begin (perhaps much more slowly than you all) to think of their own preparations for what a free life would be under even the dim light of a sun behind the clouds.
The following morning, you are preparing to head out. Many of you with a resurgence of belief, of hope. A certainty of the gifts you now wield. And one of you (the only one who has not gained a level of a PC class) gainst a Wisdom of the Earth feature to inscribe on your stat block. Allowing you to add a 1d12 of Inspiration relating to terrain and structures. There is a deeper secret within, that if at some point we arrive in an area of of Exandria to which Garen has some ancestral familiarity, it may take whatever shape most pleases you.
As you prepare to disembark from this place, the morning that you are set to leave, a small group gathers. Erro, you see Nez and Klyssara embrace you once again. You see looking up at you, Klyssara grasps your hand (Nia), kissing it and thanking you. She’s been working side by side with you on the injured and sick. Since you’ve arrived, two more doctors and nurses have arrived; people with knowledge of medicine have arrived. So, even as you depart, there are two more to take your place. Garen you receive a large embrace from Bolray the old Bugbear (who now holds a small hammer at his side) and nods in a sense of the lessons you have imparted with him. Fiedra sees Otto and Tevine both cross their arms looking at you. You see Tevine make a face and say,
“Shame you’re leaving. Now that we cut out Marlath’s tongue, we could really run quite a game on this town. You know what I mean?”

Previous Episode: “Seven of Them”