Aerois - Episode 146: All That We Are

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**All That We Are** is the 146th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on the highrollersdnd Twitch channel, and hosted on the Yogscast Twitch channel, on 15th May 2022 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*The Stormchasers continue to remember all of Aerois while crafting the Starseed in Valena's domain...*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players. Katie will be away in Scotland next week.
* Kim showed her massive “ball stomping” boots.
* Mark thanked everyone who stopped by the Jasper’s Game Day charity livestream that he DM’d, including BrizzyVoices and Michael Galvis. There were two very familiar faces at the table, two of the community fan artists, PumpkanArt and Fael\_Draws, as well as Yogsbody and Ian. Jasper’s Game Day raises money for suicide prevention and support: US$1,261 was raised during the stream, on top of the USD$3,150 raised for the tickets to be at the table. A commendable effort.
* High Rollers is going to TwitchCon on 16-17 July in Amsterdam. They will be doing a live stage show (sans Kim, but with two guests) on the main stage. This will be broadcast live on Twitch for those who cannot attend. It will be a special canon prologue one-shot for C3. Set in the brand-new world of Altheya and the Dragon Empire of Ilmera, it will be a first glimpse of the new world. The players will not be playing their main characters for C3, but they may turn up as NPCs in the main campaign later on. There are plans for cool costumes, set pieces, audience and chat interaction. Mark has been working with the Twitch team (including Elyssa Grant) to make this a very special event. The exact time and date has not yet been locked in, and there may be other activities like a meet and greet.
* Merch: The “I Wish I Were a Birdy” shirt is only available for the next two weeks (until 29th of May), and once this date has passed, it will no longer be available. It is a unisex t-shirt, very soft, and looks good on all genders. Also check out Rhiannon’s own Burn the Past shop for her t-shirts.
* HR TikTok account is going well, and Mark gave a shout out to everyone who has followed the account and been interacting with posts there. YogTok Sarah has made some very funny posts and Tom even likes them! Thanks to everyone who has been posting clips in the HR clips channel of the Discord. The address is currently @DNDHighRollers, but they are in the process of trying to acquire the @HighRollersDND address.
* Congratulations to Sam Gibbs who just proposed to his partner. Laurie is standing in as the studio tech today.
* Trott got down on one knee to ask Mark... if they could play some D&D. Mark said YES! (Although he said they would talk about it later, what Tom called “A public yes, and a private no!”).
* Mark will be at MCM Comic Con next week (but will be back for the show). There will be a couple of weekends coming up where he will be away (for LARP, etc.).

### **Recap**

*"The Champions of Aerois have plunged into the ocean depths in search of the titan Valena’s hidden demi-plane and her final forge. Guided by the diamond construct, D1, the Stormchaser’s new magical upgrades allow the air ship to dive deep into the broken valleys and chasms caused by the Sundering of Aerois when the goddess Siaska was defeated. The ship comes to a dead end, but D1 reveals a hidden door, and takes the ship into a vast, enormous cavern hidden inside the earth itself. Here, the party see giant stone columns with bridges of stone and hundreds of gemstone constructs working on an untouched city, repairing it, adapting it for unknown purposes. Sentinel Prime recognises this city as Solwynn, once her home and one of the great, Exalted Domains of Aerois. The constructs, however, cannot reveal any details about the city or their task.

Eventually, they come before a great edifice of a hunched, elderly Dwarven woman crouched around a dying forge flame, as if protecting it from an unseen wind with her own body. Here, the demi-goddess, Valla, confirms that this edifice is the entrance to Valena’s demi-plane, and the party enter. With Valla’s help, they find a grand magical forge with an enormous anvil at its core, and behind it, a titanic Dwarven woman waits for them. Valena reveals that before Siaska transformed into the Cradle that protects Aerois, she gave her two tasks to complete: one was to prepare a tool for those who would rise up to face the enemy, and the other was to create a contingency to keep the hope and dream of Aerois alive, and to protect it from the eternal darkness that threatens it.

For centuries, Valena despaired and mourned until, to help find her creativity, the party triggered events that set much of this story in motion and, watching them, Valena was inspired once more, as one of her tasks now nears completion, the other still to be done. Normally, she would have called on her fellow titans, but with two gone and the others lost to rage and grief, she must instead ask the Champions to help her in forging the Starseed. This work requires them to attune six Foci to key elements of the Starseed: memory, magic, spirit, knowledge, connection, and hope. Doing so whilst Valena forges the incredibly powered artifact’s form is made difficult due to surges of magic, and tasks that must be completed. Struggling to attune the third Foci(sic), Maximillion Taldros and Aila work together to complete it, but their failures have cost Valena much of her strength, and three Foci still remain. With Lucius locked to one, the task falls to Nova, Quill and Sentry."*
### **Part 1**

*We continue to remember all of Aerois while crafting the Starseed in Valena's domain!*

With three Foci currently infused (Memory, Magic and Spirit), the Stormchasers have three Foci yet to complete (Knowledge, Connection, and Hope). They know that they have failed to infuse two of the Foci, and this has cost Valena power and strength (because she has now had to attune to the Memory Focus in lieu of Aila) - she does not have the strength to allow two people to share a Focus infusion again (such as happened with Max and Aila). The Starseed and Valena will only be able to withstand two more failed attempts (or 60 points of damage to the device). All extraneous environmental effects have gone, including the pillars that had erupted from the floor, and the ice wall.

**(Mark asks the players if they trust him with something…)**

As they prepare themselves to keep forging the Starseed, they see Valena buckle to her knees – her arm drops and the hammer clatters to the ground, her grey hair almost white. “Powering the Memory Focus… forging the seed… it’s too much, I cannot…!” Before they can speak or act, a bright, violet light flares in the centre of the room. They feel the sensation of something moving them although they remain stationary and, looking over at the anvil, they see Valla hovering in the air. Around her are a number of spoked wheels, geometric circles and clock-like designs of shimmering purple magic. The air around her seems to distort in triangular patterns and they begin to see reflections of the forge in them; they see themselves, though there are minor differences and changes, and they see a more empowered Valena in these spaces as well.

With a grunt, Valla throws her hands to the sides and the wheels, circles and clocks begin to spin in different directions, the triangular windows of space flash… “No! The odds were against us from the start! Somewhere, someday, things would be different!” As Valla finishes her motion, the lights stop, the magic vanishes, and while they are still in the same chamber, Valena’s strength has returned, and her hammer now hovers over a statue of Aila that is itself now tethered to the Memory Focus. Lucius, Aila and Max are no longer tethered to their Foci, but they do feel that their strength and their minds are slightly weakened.

**(There is a retcon(see Trivia) to the way that the encounter will occur because Mark was not entirely happy with it, and fortunately, they have a demi-goddess of time and space with them (Valla)… )**

Quill tries to work out what he just witnessed and realises that Valla has just used her true powers: in the same way that H’esper was the god of magic, or that Valena is the god of creation, Valla’s divine spark is connected to time and space. Having seen her create portals, Quill realises that the bubble that she used to protect them from the lava was not simply a shield, but was phasing them in time to keep the heat out. Nova works out that what Valla has done is brought in elements from variant timelines where their odds were better (in one, they arrived earlier when Valena had more strength, in others, the forge or Valena were different in some way).

While she does not know what Valla has done, Valena now finds some strength returned to her, and continues to forge the Starseed - she pulls out different tools, including a chisel and pliers, and she begins to bend the metal around the seed-like shape. Gradually, they all begin to hear a high-pitched frequency that becomes a constant intense ringing, and it deafens them. Valena’s voice breaks through to them advising that there is a harmonic imbalance in the Starseed and that it must be equalised before they can attune the next Focus. Nova tries to work out what is causing the effect and how to cancel it but cannot fathom it – she thinks that maybe playing a loud noise might help but does not know at what frequency it would need to be played. As she moves towards the pillar at the back of the room, passing Valena, she notices that every time Valena touches the metal to bend it, a ringing echoes through the forge. Sentry casts *Aura of Purity* on herself to protect people from being deafened, allowing everyone to be able to hear again. Aila channels her rage to force more lightning into her hammer, and it begins to hum and vibrate with a rolling and continual peal of thunder. With the hammer head vibrating, Aila leaps across the room to some metal bars at the back, slamming her hammer against them. The hammer stops dead against the bars that then proceed to produce a high-pitched ring – it meets the ring from the Starseed, and they cancel each other out to leave the room in silence once more.

The metal finishes wrapping around the Starseed, and Valena pulls out a hand drill, directing it towards the Knowledge Focus, linking it to the Starseed with a beam of energy. She tells them that it is now time to infuse the Knowledge focus.

Sentry casts *Bless* on Nova, Quill and herself before Quill flies up and touches the Knowledge Focus: he feels everything go still as he finds himself, without physical form, in an expansive, white space and a voice calls out…

*“The knowledge of the lost, of craft, of history, of the world. Bed in what you would share with others, tell me the history of Aerois, tell me what it means to **you**. That is your question.”*

Quill thinks back to the Temple of H’esper at Kalie’s rest and the day that it burned down. He thinks, not of the knowledge contained within, but the fear and sorrow of the local populace when they realised that it had been destroyed, and tries to focus on the idea of the missing knowledge being lost to such a reckless act. The loss of the facts contained in the books do not worry Quill so much, but there is fear of losing the past and a duty to protect it or preserve it. When prompted to consider what knowledge means to Quill, he thinks of history, friendships, the future, the past, the actions people take, the reasons people live, power, and everything.

There are moments when fear rises up in Quill, and it shakes some of his belief; he worries about what will happen if knowledge is lost – H’esper is gone, and the responsibility is now Quill’s as the most powerful priest of H’esper remaining. He feels Sentry’s presence nearby and the overwhelming sense of responsibility dissipates somewhat – the responsibility is still his, but he is reassured that he is not alone… as the Knowledge Focus is infused. It flares to life with a golden light of floating feathers, and they see a tether from Quill’s heart into the Focus.

Now that he is successfully connected to the Focus, Quill feels it drawing more from him, not taking the information so much as copying it from his mind: it knows about any book that he has ever read, the names of places that he has been, geography, geology, information that he may have glanced over or seen once is all absorbed – it is almost as if he has had an eidetic memory. Quill also notices that the Tome at his side is vibrating and he knows that the information contained within the Wayfinders Guide is being copied as well. Aila feels a similar sensation, recalling times that she has fought, how to wield a weapon, how to strike an opponent when they block your blow, how to climb a mountain – all physical things that she knows how to do or has experienced, and being tethered to Max, she starts to see some of his memories, too. She suddenly sees Max fighting alongside other Wild Elves and in the distance is a Wild Elf that looks like Aila, she sees codes to a base on Gideon Prime which she somehow remembers herself, she sees Max training as a young boy, she sees him as an orphan on the streets of Gideon Prime fighting for survival, and she sees him being taken in and trained as a knight. More memories surface and she sees his home world being destroyed and Max being saved from his world as a refugee by a Valkyrian ship – all of the moments are moments of courage, anger, hatred, rage, survival, and battle. For Lucius, it is similar except he recalls intimately every spell that he has cast or experienced others casting, every magical effect that he has encountered, it is copying and learning from him – he sees Xarkira casting the *Meteor Swarm* again, watching her subtle hand gestures and reading her lips as she speaks the words required to create the magic. He experiences again how it feels to summon the magic from within, and he sees the moment that H’esper crafted the magic to find Quill and created copy upon copy of himself. While this is happening, Lucius almost sees two realities – the forge is one, but overlaying that is a disconcerting shadow image of all of the other information playing out: he realises that the pillar is learning about magic, the different ways that it functions, and how it works.

Nova swaps places with her echo so she is now standing next to the Connection Focus and she helps the echo to climb up next to her.

Valena begins to work on the next piece of the Starseed – she reaches down and her hands meld into the anvil, as she pulls her hands out, she brings with them two giant chains which she hooks onto either side of the Starseed. The chains are inscribed with runes and power flows through them. Two enormous chains begin to drop from the ceiling on either side of the anvil, close to the pillars of Knowledge and Memory; Valena grips the chains on either side of the Starseed, and she tells them that the party must pull both of the descending chains which will be difficult to do, but that this is required to activate the next stage. Looking at the chains, the party sees that they are enormous, heavy, thick, and even the size will make it difficult for them to pull on them.

Quill summons a large Celestial Avenger to aid Aila – a massive light suddenly projects from his chest and takes form: it has the vague outline of a winged humanoid (much like H’esper) but is made purely of light, feathers occasionally drop from its wings and dissipate in the air before they touch the ground. It is ordered to assist Aila in pulling the chain, whereupon it grips the huge chain in both arms and readies itself for when Aila should start pulling. Aila grabs the chain and pulls with all her might – the lightning crackles up and down her back as her muscles tense, she sweats as she pulls down on the chain without any help from the Celestial which looks over to Aila and nods to her with respect.

Lucius jumps and flaps over to the other side of the room in order to assist Sentry, he manages to fly long enough to get onto the chain and grab on, at this point, Nova casts *Gravitational Thrust* on him to add further assistance. Sentry *Enlarges* and grabs onto the chain, she heaves, feeling her wooden muscles and vines tense and almost tear, her metal begins to creak and screech, and with Lucius and Nova’s aid, the chain begins to move. As both of the large chains begin to move and speed up, rotating, they see Valena starting to turn and twist the Starseed while the other chains are attached to it – lines of magic start coiling around it and Valena says that she can prepare the next Focus as the large and small chains vanish into the ether. She holds up a workshop vice and the magic connection flows from it to the Connection Focus behind her where Nova and her echo are already waiting. Nova calls to Valla to aid her, and Valla pulls from her long, straight, dark hair a glowing piece of magic, perhaps a star: she flings it towards Nova, and it becomes a drifting orb, like a clock spinning in three dimensions, it floats over towards Nova and hovers next to her. Nova and Tiangong then reach out and touch the pillar together.

They find themselves in silence in a white space that seems to stretch on into nothingness. Neither Nova nor Tiangong has any physical form in this space and Nova feels another presence with her, but she is not sure whether it is beside her, inside her or around her: it is a shared space but almost as if the other presence is behind a glass door. A voice speaks in Nova’s mind…

*“Connection: what bonds the people of Aerois? What connections between the living and the dead to call them within the Starseed? What is unity?”*

Nova feels the desire or request for her to share memories and thoughts about connection. She thinks back to the recent dinner in Gusthaven when they were all together around the dinner table with their family and loved ones: all sorts of races were represented, including Sentry with her Matrix, housing the memories of many lost Guardians and a type of Starseed in and of itself. Nova remembers the laughter, of Lucius inadvertently making lewd gestures, she thinks of the way that she feels when she looks at Thalia, her family, her friends, and all those she has met along the way from rulers to star ship crew. She believes that Aerois is these people coming together and working together against such forces as Kalus and Hadar in order that they may survive another day. It is also people living in the moment, enjoying the warmth, food, laughter, and connections like love (romantic, familial, and friendship), and she adds her connection to Tiangong that has become central to everything that Nova does now.

She feels a lingering question wondering whether connection is just love and positivity, and it wonders about the connection that she feels with figures that she has hated such as Kalus and Hadar. The question seems to hang in the air as to whether one can be connected to people that one hates or have caused one pain? Does the connection change that?

Nova recalls the first time she saw Hadar in The Nighteye when it was a distant threat and then again when Lucius and Sentry had to be saved from Hadar in Horizon – she realises that there is a connection between them, and while it is not love, there are elements of survival, the need to thrive and to stand up in the face of destruction. Towards Kalus, she feels sorrow and empathy – she understands his drive to be better, and a frustration that he is turning away from them rather than wanting to work with them. She realises that connection can also involve conflict.

*“And what of the dead?”* asks the disembodied voice. *“Have you lost? Do you know the path to the afterworld? Have you glimpsed it?”*

Nova is immediately taken back to the deck of the Stormchaser where she kneels beside Lucius’ broken body, hands bloodied, as she desperately tries to cast a ritual that will take almost ten minutes too long to cast. She recalls the desperation of the rest of the crew as they scrambled for options, and Lucius’ own last selfless act as he used *Mending* on the fragment of Tiangong that he had damaged. This is the closest to death that she recalls seeing someone; she then remembers the first awful gasping breath that Lucius took when the healing magic repaired his broken body, the relief, the exhaustion, and Tiangong’s message to her, “All you have done, we know. Thank you.”

While the memories are strong and related to the main point of the Focus, there is something missing – Lucius did not die, and while Quill and Sentry have died, they have also come back. The Starseed is meant to call out to, and summon the dead to it, and Nova has not yet really had the experience of losing anyone close to her. Nova attempts to infuse the pillar but with the missing memories, she feels like she has missed something - the connection to the dead or the thoughts about connections to her enemies, she is not sure, but is filled with doubts and fear. Suddenly, she has a memory of Valla as a small child in Kalie’s Rest and realises that with her loss of Yusef and Coren, that the party became Valla’s family. Nova cannot see it, but hears the ticking of a clock as Valla’s magic is used – she refuses to give into her fears, again recalling all of the same memories - the added memories about Yusef, Coren and Valla have filled the gap - that is when she connects with the Focus through a blue starry line to her sternum, and there is almost a nebula of stars around the pillar as it connects to her. As with the others, the Focus now begins to copy information from her – every face of every person that she has met, the way they made her feel, the memories that she has with them, incidental things including the first same that she met the other members of the party. It wants to know about what is important, what friendship and family are, what is it to hate someone, what is it to be a brother in arms, what love is and why Nova went to such lengths to save Thalia.

### **Part 2**

*We reach the end of Valena's project and uncover another of her secret works!*

The Starseed is now a large sphere inlaid with coils of runic magic, gold, silver, adamantine, and mithril with six huge diamonds inlaid into its base, five of which glow with an inner light. To the party, the great work appears to be finished, but Valena holds her hand out to her hammer which is hovering above the metal statue of Aila – it has been acting as a placeholder for Aila since she had to help Max with the Spirit Focus. Valena warns them that while it is almost finished, she must retrieve her hammer to do so – doing this will give them precious little time to act, and if they fail to infuse the Focus almost immediately, the great work will fail.

She calls them to aid her in working the metal – they must strike it with sword, hammer, or spell – they must use as much power and strength as they can. She calls her hammer to her hand, then twenty more appear around her and start repeatedly slamming into the Starseed, but the metal statue of Aila starts to dissolve slowly.

Quill flies in to get a better angle on the target (the anvil or the Starseed) and lets go with a massive *Guiding Bolt:* there is an intense blinding light and a sensation of wind and air as nine bolts burst, intertwined and revolving around each other to form one giant blot of light, from his hand to hit the target. Lucius focuses and the iridescent metal of his wing that is now his prismatic gauntlet shines as it powers up to full: he raises a clawed hand and starts to form a *Chromatic Orb,* pulling in all the available charges from the gauntlet as it spirals in his hand – he flicks his hand and throws the orb at the seed. The acid, which would normally splash nearby targets is instead absorbed into the seed, but they are hit by a shockwave of magic afterwards.

Sentry raises Starbreaker and thrusts it towards the anvil twice – the green energy spirals around the lance as she calls out its name. Added power from the Matrix joins a golden swirl of light into the green – as the tip hits the Starseed, all of its force is driven into it and the resulting shockwave nearly blows down both Valena and Nova. Aila has been attuned to not just one, but two Foci, she has also mustered her great strength to pull on the massive chain, and she is tired: she swings the hammer, but her first attack does not manage to do any damage to the anvil, she musters every last bit of her strength and manages to strike the anvil hard enough with the second blow. Finally, Nova unleashes her full power, using aid from Valla to make multiple attacks on the Starseed and her movements seem impossible – she seems to shift out of phase as if time folds around her, and every attack takes milliseconds. As the final strikes hit, Valena holds her hands out as if to stop them, then brings her hammer down gently onto the very tip of the Starseed.

They watch as a shield of force begins to emerge and enshroud the seed – Valena looks at the last Focus, then at Sentry, “See it done, Sentinel Prime”. Sentry asks Valla for a teleport; Quill casts *Guidance* on Sentry and Lucius tells her through the messenger ring not to worry because hope is innate to her. Sentry steps through the portal and is confronted with a pillar with a green crystal. When she touches it, instead of entering an empty space, for Sentry, this is like entering the Prime Matrix, except that before her now is a calm, green rolling river that winds and branches but makes no sound. A voice comes from nowhere and everywhere…

*“Hope. Hope is for the future; small hopes and large, dreams, ambitions, children. What hope is there for Aerois?”*

Sentry thinks back to the Sundering and the destruction she has witnessed as her world and family are torn apart in front of her. She feels again the helplessness, guilt, grief, and uncertainty before she falls into the ocean and drifts away until her power shuts down. Eventually, after an age, she wakes to see Quill looking at her and saying hello; she recalls their travels in the lowlands of Aerois and him teaching her about the new world that she finds herself in. She begins to feel the joy of family and the hope of a new life with Quill, but it is not long before disaster strikes, and the air ship that they are travelling on crashes. Joy gives way to despair and hopelessness as they and their new companions have to deal with constant struggle and hardship. Sentry loses all hope when she realises that Solwynn and everything that she has ever known is truly gone, and then she gives her all to defend her new friends, even unto death. After what feels like an eternity, her eyes open and she sees her friends yet again – she realises that no matter what happens, her friends have, and always will be with her. Her life has been a regular series of good moments and bad, taking her from joy, triumph, and fellowship one moment to grief, hopelessness and despair the next, and yet she has always been able to make it through every bad time to find some good and happiness thanks to her friends. For Sentry, hope is her friends, the people she cares for most, and she knows that they are all still with her no matter what she lost in Solwynn. She knows that she has held onto her anger, grief and despair, and that it is time to embrace and commit to hope, to let those other feelings go and to leave her sadness behind.

The voice comes again, *“And when you are gone, who then do you hope for? Who would carry this hope if you were not here? Perhaps one who is not yet born, one who is yet still young, for they are also hope.”*

Sentry’s mind is immediately drawn to Petal – everything that Sentry has learned, she has taught Petal. All of the values that Sentry holds dear, Petal also holds, and will carry them and the legacy of Solwynn with her.

The voice, gentle, soft, and fading, asks one last thing. *“You face such dark odds. Hadar will not just destroy – it will end things. You have foes of great strength. What do you seek? What is your hope, your ambition? What do you hope to achieve?”*

“A world that no longer needs heroes,” replies Sentry, “a world that no longer needs people to fight for it”.

Hope resonates in the space and the river is suddenly surrounded by green hills – a world that needs no heroes. Sentry comes back to the moment to see that the pillar is covered in vines, trees, plants and flowers.

The seed glows all colours; prismatic in its appearance, it flares for a short moment. Valena’s strength finally fades, and she becomes old like the edifice outside – she clutches the seed in her arms like a mother holding a child. She tells them that they have succeeded, and that should all else fail, Aerois has one last hope. She says that she will take it to rest with her brother Palador on the sunship, and if necessary, it will find its way to the Well of Eternity and a world beyond so that it can take root where it can. Valena tells them that when she leaves, the forges will no longer remain and that the demi-plane will collapse. She tells them that they have one more task, and they notice that the Starseed has vanished. She holds out her hands, asking them to take her to the door that no longer exists. She walks with them, aided by them, and is stooped, hunched, and slow but still powerful. When they get to the edifice, suddenly they are outside again in a protective bubble of Valla’s – they see the Stormchaser off to the side and a long strip of Solwynn in front of them.

Valena looks down at the Stormchaser and acknowledges it as a fine ship, well-made, and perfect for the five companions, but it is not what Aerois needs. As she looks over to the city, the lights begin to switch on and the earth begins to shake before she asks Valla to “take them above” – Valla is confused but teleports them so that they are now hovering in the sky above a stretch of ocean. Initially they are confused.

Below them, they suddenly see, emerging from the water, towers with turrets, buildings that have formed into long corridors that are connected as an enormous battleship rises from the depths with water pouring off the sides in waterfalls. Its hull is made of the earthy foundations of the city, they see on deck a number of buildings and turrets, connections with crystals, multiple weapons including arcane cannons, and a mighty bridge at the stern – the Grand Cathedral of Solwynn has now been forged into a great bridge that looks down the ship, and the symbol of Solwynn is directly on its side. Valena points to the ship, “The Astoria,” she proclaims. “My gift to those who would stand against our enemy. Kalus thinks he has all of the firepower he needs – he did not face this. Use it well, Champions.”

Valla guides them down onto a street of Solwynn on the deck of the ship that runs its entire length. As they land, Valena begins slowly to turn to dust – a mix of mineral and metal – she cries out at the last, “Mother! My mother!” and she is gone. There is a period of silence as the Stormchasers, Valla and Max pay their respects to the fallen titan.

As they look, wild-eyed around the enormous ship, Quill wonders how they are going to be able to crew it when suddenly they hear the happy voice of D1 – behind her are hundreds of Gemstone Dwarves. While there are not enough of them to run the ship, they have been given orders to assist in the maintenance, repairs and running of the ship as it prepares for battle against Kalus and Hadar. She volunteers that they are not fighters and will still need crew in order to be able to carry out its function. It appears that the Maidens of Valena can travel through the stone of the deck in order to move anywhere on the ship that they need to. There are multiple floors to The Astoria that have been built with magic to look like they are outside – they have parks and open areas for people to relax on their downtime.

Within about ten minutes, the Stormchaser joins them and is absolutely dwarfed by the massive Astoria. The Astoria is la Nova realises that The Astoria will need to recharge a lot more than the Stomchaser and asks D1 whether it is powered by an Eterna – D1 says that it is actually powered by a fragment of the World Engine. D1 also advises that part of the duties of the Maidens of Valena are to teach anyone who comes to work on The Astoria, but since they currently do not have a Commanding Officer, they are waiting for the Stormchasers to assign them one. D1 advises that Lucius not be made the CO of The Astoria since he will be needed to fight Kalus and Hadar on a far more mobile platform – instead, D1 recommends them placing someone in charge who has great tactical knowledge as well as the ability to coordinate between multiple forces; they will stay in their current location and have functioning teleportation circles that may be used.

D1 tells them that they would need a significant number of people to crew The Astoria, but it is also designed to be a way to protect the citizens of Aerois if war were to come – in previous conflicts, citizens were killed in outlying regions, but there is housing and farmland within the confines of The Astoria, so it can be used as a shelter or ark if required. Lucius realises that they have a lot to consider and asks for a meeting aboard the Stormchaser, leaving D1 with the Stormchaser salute, which all the Maidens of Valena return. As they are making their way towards where the Stormchaser has docked, closer to the Cathedral (now main bridge), Sentry sees a large statue out the front of the Cathedral – it is Queen Guinevere Astoria, sword in one hand and staff in the other, gesturing forwards. She looks like a grown-up version of Petal, regal, intelligent, dressed in a trailing gown with a high collar and armour – the epitome of a warrior wizard queen. Sentry kneels down in front of the statue, her hand to her chest, and says to it, “You’re still fighting, we’re going to do this”.

Valla suggests that with Valena re-joining Siaska, they may wish to make a visit to the Halls of Infinite Resplendence, which they are more than happy to do. They notice Max behind them, silent and wide-eyed, looking around until he speaks quietly, “I’d heard of Solwynn. I never fought here…I heard of it. Impressive.” They can see his military brain ticking over, and he appears to be both impressed and slightly fearful, seemingly not knowing who might win in a battle between the Tassadar and the Astoria.

The party discusses the last few hours – Quill tells them about his panic when trying to come up with an appropriate memory, Aila laments that she failed, Max accepts that he also failed – when Quill points out that Max and Aila helped each other, Max looks to Aila with an immense amount of respect. Aila acknowledges Max as a good fighter and tells him that he should stay with them, Sentry also makes the plea, but he says that his duty is to stay beside Valla. Max tells Aila that he is interested in some of the memories that they shared as he had not made the connection between her and the Elves of Alfheim: he had heard quietly of their magic and technology, the “regrowth chamber”. Max asks about her memories, not just the ones on Aerois, but about her memories that did not appear to be her own – fragments of memory of another life, fighting in the Empire. Aila says that she does not know much about them but has been trying to open doors to her memory, and Max offers to try to help her since he knows a little about the warriors of Alfheim although his knowledge may be limited. He wonders how Aila came to be on Aerois. The Elvish warriors of Alfheim, he says, were incredible, even without their elemental powers, they were strong, talented, skilled, and agile, and it was said that their collective knowledge (their memories and training) was passed from one body to another like a cutting from a tree.

The Elves would grow themselves a new body (sometimes changing in gender or appearance), but that new body would have the same knowledge, experience and memories as before – Max thinks that Aila may be one of these warriors, a descendent of a warrior from long past. He thinks it likely that there is only one version of each warrior at a time, since to have more copies at once would be a sacrilege to their beliefs. He describes the warriors of Alfheim as reckless, dangerous, valorous, and strong, often dying young in battle. Max offers a possible reason for why Aila’s memories are so incomplete and fragmented: that either the ritual was not completed correctly, or the magic was changed in some way; Max has never heard of Thor, and his part in the passing of magic to the Wild Elves means nothing to him. Quill asks about the process of creating a cloned Elf, but Max does not know the details, only that the new body was grown (unlike Xarkira’s magically created clones), and while it was given the memories early, the new body was not awakened until the old life had ceased. As the child grew, much of the instinct would be inherent to the body (for example, knowing how to block or dodge a melee attack), but magic was used to unlock the memories that the child otherwise should have, those of places, names, faces, and people. Max thinks that to unlock these memories, Aila will need to speak to Elves of Alfheim, but she thinks that Rethra might be a bit mentally fragile. Max says that there was one that he had heard of who was treated with deference, a priest of sorts, who served the Life Tree or World Tree, and the rituals involved them somehow.

Aila does not remember much except that she discovered that her clan had adopted her, she never knew her parents, and that when she would get angry, she would inadvertently create lightning sparks (which scared her and her adoptive parents). Max tells her that for the Elves of Alfheim, the concept of “parents” was different: there is not the same intimacy and children are not born, so much as created through magic (possibly Druidic magic). These children, once created, are raised by friends and family of their previous life.

Quill asks about The Astoria and how quickly it can fly to places like Horizon. D1 tells him that it is not really designed to fly in an atmosphere and would be much more manoeuvrable in Astral Space, she says that it would be able to keep ships like the Stormchaser safe while travelling across the Astral Sea; Quill thinks that it might be a good idea to discuss this with Dannica and to see if they can find a crew to man The Astoria.

Valla asks where they would like to go next and they agree to go with her to the Halls: Valla appears relieved, but also nervous – her hands are shaking and sweat has soaked her dress, she has clearly gone through significant exertion at the forge. Quill activates the Wayfinders Guide, and they find themselves instantly in the unending white hall with the illuminated crystal sarcophagus in the centre. The sarcophagus has changed slightly – there are golden feathers that drift around and fall towards the floor, only to vanish before they hit the ground and begin again near its top, and there is the gentle zephyr that blows around it; in addition, however, there is also the faint sound of a crackling flame, a distant and gentle rhythmic pattern of a hammer striking an anvil, there is a sea breeze and the smell of the sea, and parts of the base of the sarcophagus have now become gold, silver, and adamantine as if it has been re-worked and decorated. As they approach, they feel the main difference – there is an atmosphere of divine power that hitherto has not been present but is now apparent. When they look above them, they see not the usual white marble stone, but the faint image of a night sky that is forming above the sarcophagus. Valla is clearly moved – “She’s coming back. It’s happening, it’s really happening. I need her help now more than ever. I don’t know if I can do that again – what happened in the forge. That was scary, I almost lost myself, and I don’t want to risk that again. I think is she can teach me, I can control it better – it may help one day in the future, I know it will, in fact. I don’t know how I know, but I know it will.”

They suddenly hear a soft, “Well, you’re back!” and see an aged Halfling: Sayanna now looks to them like a grandmother with white hair in a braid over her shoulder, and wrinkled skin, yet she still smiles with her rosy cheeks and cradles her lute in her hands. She tells them that she felt her sister come back – she asks if Valena was ok and of sound mind, and they tell Sayanna about her great works. She tells them that she has been keeping an eye on things while they have been away and says that their scouts have returned to Horizon, having found Kellara’s knights deep in the woods, holding her demi-plane. She encourages them to take a moment for themselves, to ensure that they are themselves of sound mind and body (looking at Lucius), and that they are ready for the next challenges. She tells Lucius that his new form is fitting for him and that her powers are, unfortunately, long gone – she cannot change him back into an Elf – she strums her lute and creates an elaborate full-body mirror for him to see himself in fully for the first time. Aila goes over to Lucius and plucks one oh his feathers, adding it to her hair next to Quill’s – she never wants to forget how hilarious this moment is for her.

Quill asks how Sayanna is, and she tells him that she still has a spring in her step but that her magic and divine powers are long gone – she is now just a very talented bard. Nova thanks her for helping with Thalia and tells Sayanna that she is cured, Sayanna knows and thinks that is the perfect end to a love story.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:07:30 - Dun Duns
0:08:30 - Part 1
1:22:44 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

#### **The Stormchasers (Player Characters)**

* Aila
* Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto
* Nova V'ger
* Qillek Ad Khollar
* Sentry

#### **Returning NPCs**

* D1
* Maximillion Taldros
* Sayanna
* Valena
* Valla

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Corin
* Hadar
* Kalus Valkyrian
* Siaska
* Thalia
* Yusef

## **Featured Locations**

* Valena's demi-plane
	+ The forge
* Solwynn
* The Astoria

## **Trivia**

* Mark opens the episode asking the players if they trust him with something. Everyone says yes except Tom (“it was a snap answer – I trust you with my life”). Kim then asks if it is her first born – Mark says that he doesn’t want her first born unless it’s Milo (her cat).
* Mark refers to Valla as a “demi-goddess of time and space” when explaining the retcons that he has made to the encounter in the forge.
* The retcon to the forge encounter - everything is still the same with the following exceptions:
	+ Those who previously could not leave their Focus can now move away from it but they cannot attune to another Focus (they are locked to the one they have attuned to already).
	+ Anyone already locked to a Focus has disadvantage on **any** ability check that cannot be countermanded (e.g. if you get advantage from rage, you would still have disadvantage on the check, any concentration spell cast will only last for one round).
	+ Valla will no longer have to roll to make a saving throw before she can have abilities that are available to the players: instead, each of her three abilities (the ability to grant haste, her ability to give a re-roll, the ability to create two portals) are now one-use abilities for the entire encounter. Any of them can choose to use her ability at the start of their turn before they take any other action (movement, action or bonus action).
	+ Instead of having set (rolled) initiatives, Valena will always go first, something will happen, then the players can decide who goes when after that so that they can aid each other as they wish.
* Mark makes the comment that as a DM, you should never be afraid to reflect on a session and realise that you were not really happy with how something worked or that something did not seem to be fun in the way that it was intended: his recommendation is to change it, because the idea of playing is to have fun and enjoy yourselves.
* After Valla did her magic to alter time and space, Kim asked Mark if he had been to the cinema recently. The recent film that she may have been referring to was Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He had seen the movie but said also that it was not influential since he has known Valla’s powers since the start of the campaign.
* Mark had criteria to set the DC for each Focus after a memory was given to it. These included:
	+ How personal is it to the character?
	+ How impactful has it been in a character’s life?
	+ How well does it match the theme of the Focus?
* Mark will be re-painting Nova’s old miniature in fancy nebula paint to use as the Tiangong echo mini.
* Valla is described as having an Indian/Arabic mixed type heritage, and she has long straight dark hair. She gives Nova the ability to re-roll an ability check (Nova needed that because she rolled a 4 initially – on the re-roll she got a 17).
* Mark says that the Connection Focus would have been OK with Quill’s death experience and Lucius’ experience of his family’s death, but it would not have counted if Sentry had connected with it because Guardians do not go to the afterlife. Nova had the advantage that she is the only one in the party with a romantic partner.
* Mark describes the almost completed Starseed as “like a beautiful Faberge egg but made of magic and runic power” but huge, almost the size of a medium creature.
* Mark did not need to roll for Valena’s last task – he chose it. The task was to do as much damage in one round as they all possibly could. For the purposes of this task, Valena and Valla were considered to be immune to damage (but the players were not). They have to roll against an AC21 because there is an inherent toughness that they have to beat.
	+ Quill casts Guiding Bolt at 9th level, doing 12d6 damage for a total of 43 radiant damage.
	+ Lucius casts Chromatic Orb at 9th level with 7 charges of the gauntlet plus Dicromancy (12d8 + 7d6 + 13) doing 44 + 32 + 13, a total of 89 damage.
	+ Sentry uses Starbreaker with a Staggering Smite and a Level 6 Improved Divine Smite, she is enlarged (4d6 + 2d12+ 7d8 + d4) doing a total of 63 for her first attack. Her second attack is a Level 3 Divine Smite (2d12 + 6d8 + d4) for a total of 53 for her second attack. 116 damage total (although Mark notes it down as 117).
	+ Aila misses with her first swing of the hammer but hits with the second doing hammer, lightning, and aura damage (15 + 5 + 15) for a total of 35 damage.
	+ Nova produces a flurry of blows with Haste (from Valla), she attacks with Unleash Incarnate, Action Surge with Unleash Incarnate. This gives her 11 attacks, 10 of which hit. Her normal damage is d8+9 + d4 + 6 (Hexblade Curse) – for 10 attacks, she does a total of 61 (+90) + 24 + 60, she then does an Eldritch Smite for 15 damage. Her total is 250 damage.
	+ The total damage is 532 (Mark records it as 533 because of the error with Sentry’s.
* Mark inadvertently says that Valena will place the Starseed with her brother Helios aboard the Sun Ship. He did, of course, mean Palador.
* The Astoria is bigger than Horizon. A fleet of ten Stormchasers could dock in it. There are hangars for air ships, areas for smaller magitek devices, as well as arcane turrets and guns. “Imagine a star destroyer mixed in with an aircraft carrier with a bit of helicarrier from Shield as well”. Mark refers to the Stormchaser as the equivalent of The Normandy from Mass Effect. He says that it is basically a star destroyer. It is bigger than both the Tassadar (a little smaller than Horizon) and the Vivex, both of which are about the size of Horizon. There are “a lot of guns…and arcane turrets” as well as things they have “never seen before”. There is a long description of The Astoria that includes: there is a shopping plaza that has been turned into a domed building of some kind with turrets and towers that have been added on, but it looks seamless… like an enclosed city that is also a big air ship/battleship. It’s like walking through a mall, if that mall is also an aircraft carrier and had loads of guns on it”.

## **Quotes**

* **Katie**: Quill, am I a tree?

* ***Mark (as the Hope Focus)**: “You face such dark odds. Hadar will not just destroy – it will end things. You have foes of great strength. What do you seek? What is your hope, your ambition? What do you hope to achieve?”*
* **Rhi (as Sentry)**: “A world that no longer needs heroes,” replies Sentry, “a world that no longer needs people to fight for it”.
* **Mark (as DM)**: I would very much like you to make an ability check of whatever you damned well fucking want, Sentry.

* **Mark (as DM) to Trott**: What Sentry’s just done is determined the DC.

## **Notes**

1. ↑ Mark says 'Valena', however, it makes more sense if this is Valla.
2. ↑ Mark inadvertently says Helios instead of Palador.