STORMERE
Season 1, Episode 3: "The Ashen Veil"
EXT. CULT CAMP OUTSKIRTS – NIGHT
Torches flicker. Chanting hums through the trees like a heartbeat. The group crouches behind a fallen log, eyes fixed on the camp sprawling ahead.
HUNTER (whispering): We move quiet. No mistakes. One sound, one wrong step and we’re all dead.
LYRA (grinning nervously): I love a good pep talk. Good work, Hunter.
Soren peers through the firelight, figures in bone masks, kneeling before a massive effigy of twisted branches and ash.
ARIADNE (uneasy): They're praying. We need to be careful cause their god is listening.
KAEL (dark): No. He’s watching. He always does.
They exchange looks, then slip from cover, melting into the shadows.
EXT. CULT CAMP – CONTINUOUS
The group threads through tents and wooden cages. Cultists hum and sway, lost in trance. Kael leads, moving with grim familiarity.
LYRA (whispering): You sure you remember the way through this place?
KAEL: I escaped from that cell right there.(points) So unless they moved the whole camp just to confuse me, yes. I'm sure.
A flash of movement, a CHILD CULTIST turns, eyes glazed white. The group freezes. The child sniffs the air… then turns away. They exhale.
EXT. ALTAR PLATFORM – LATER
The path narrows between a pair of totems carved with spirals of blackened wood. Ariadne touches one and flinches, her skin glows faintly blue.
ARIADNE (shaken): These totems… they’re feeding off something. I think it's feeding off these people praying on them.
ALERIC: Great. Let’s keep walking before it starts feeding on us too.
As they pass, they start hearing whispers in the air.
VOICE (whisper, disembodied): Nox calls... Nox listens... Nox is here... Always and forever...
The sky above them seems darker than night.
EXT. CULT CAMP CENTER – MOMENTS LATER
The group crawls behind a half-collapsed fence. Beyond it: dozens of cultists in a ritual circle around the effigy, black smoke rising from their hands.
KAEL (low): That’s where they held me. Nox’s priests drain magic from anyone they catch.
SOREN: Then we stay clear of the center. Move fast but quietly.
As they slip along the edge of the camp, Ariadne steps on a dry branch.
CRACK.
Instant silence.
Every hooded head turns toward them.
HUNTER (whispers): Run.
EXT. CULT CAMP – CHAOS
The night explodes. Cultists scream and surge forward. Fire spreads from the effigy like a living thing.
Kael grabs Ariadne’s arm, dragging her through the smoke. Soren slashes through a masked figure, panic on his face.
LYRA (yelling): This your brilliant idea of “quiet”?
HUNTER: Guess it's time to improvise!
Soren shoves him forward, blocking a strike meant for Hunter. A torch falls down and the whole camp starts to burn.
SOREN: Move and run! I see the exit.
EXT. FOREST EDGE – LATER
They burst from the tree line, gasping, streaked with soot and blood. Behind them, the camp burns, the camp collapsing into a cloud of ash and embers.
ARIADNE (panting): Something's wrong. I'm feeling a weakness in the magic veil near here.
KAEL (grim): They’ll come after us. That camp isn’t all of them. Not even close.
HUNTER: Then we keep moving until they can’t reach us.
SOREN looks back once, at the fire consuming the camp, and the faint silhouette of something vast moving behind the flames.
SOREN (quiet): Who the hell was that?
KAEL (without looking back): A warning. Let's get out of here. Now!
FADE OUT.