Aerois - Episode 134: Valiant Knight of the Briar

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Valiant Knight of the Briar** is the 134th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 9th January 2022 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*We try to eliminate the dread riders but a simulacrum has other plans!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The two sponsors this week are D&D Beyond and Nord VPN.
* On Tuesday at 8pm GMT there will be a bonus stream one-shot with Tom, Kim, Rhi and Trott playing Guild of Horrible Games (showing on HighRollersDND). There is the promise of wackiness – it involves rolling and flicking dice. Trott is DMing it.
* Studio update: progress is being made and there is a new studio update video on the Patreon showing the new set being in progress. Everyone who was a Patron on 31 December will be put into the Tome, people are encouraged to check their names and make sure that spelling is correct. Mark does not expect them to be in the studio before the end of January, but they will make a big deal of it when the first stream is due to be done from the studio. There have been some stock and shipping issues that have held up the process somewhat.
* Reminder that people can watch High Rollers on YouTube – there are hundreds of hours of quality entertainment available for people to watch.

### **Recap**

*"As our heroes travel the Feywild to aid their companions Thalia and Rosemeadow, they now face off against 2 undead spirits sent by Xarkira; A power hungry and deadly spellcaster whom has caused many problems for the party thus far. Having defeated these spirits once before, and attempting to destroy them permanently this time, the party endeavoured to use clever tactics and powerful spells against them. Qillek has conjured a Temple of the Gods, praying the party would have enough time to complete the hour-long ritual, with seconds to spare before the spirits could reach them. From the safety of their magical creation, the party have whittled down the spirits and mostly avoided the danger of their deadly vorpal weapons. Though one close call nearly cost Qillek his life. However, just as the battle seemed to be in their favour, a new arrival has possibly shifted the odds. Though badly damaged, one of Xarkira’s simulacra has joined the battle."*
### **Part 1**

*We try to eliminate the dread riders but a simulacrum has other plans!*

(Minor retcon from last episode – Mark changed Xarkira’s last action from the last episode, saying that Xarkira is smarter than he is and would know how her spells work – the *Globe of Invulnerability* is immobile, so she did not cast that. When she appears, she flies 60 feet into the air, and rather than surrounding herself in a shimmering globe, she casts a spell that causes wispy blue flames to cover her body, and uses an ability, *Mistress of Magic*, allowing her to cast another spell as a bonus action to create four illusory copies of herself using *Mirror Image*).

The swordsman, just outside the door of the Temple of the Gods, is now in the form of a ghostly green spirit and clutching a very real Eterna longsword that is an abomination of what it once was. The injured Xarkira simulacrum is hovering 100 feet away and 60 feet in the air; the archer spirit is heavily damaged in its physical form with line of sight to the doorway. Nova lifts Tiangong to cast *Maddening* Darkness, and a shadowy darkness forms up and ripples down the blade to shoot out towards Xarkira – the air in the section of that space turns reflective like a mirror and shatters, looking like a kaleidoscope mirror as she says “Spell Warp”, sending the spell to target the centre of the Temple and catching all of the party in its effect. Lucius attempts to *Counter Spell* the effect but fails and they are all engulfed in darkness and the effects of Nova’s spell.

Nova moves out of the temple and the spell and moves away from the swordsman at the door, screaming for everyone to get out of the temple. The Nightmare hits her as she moves past. The Rider remounts his Nightmare which turns ethereal and moves. Sentry resists most of the damage from the *Maddening Darkness* and heals Quill with her *Lay on Hands* before she moves outside – she is hit by the archer on her way out of the temple but manages to hold concentration on her *Banishment*. Aila takes some psychic damage before she leaves the temple, taking cover from the archer behind a tree and holding her action in case any enemies come close. The archer tries to hit Sentry with a legendary action but misses, then tries to hit twice more but misses with both attacks and takes cover behind a tree. Lucius takes psychic damage, goes outside, touches the chain mail on his chest and causes storms to start swirling in a 60-foot radius outside the temple, calling a lightning bolt down on the archer before going back into the *Maddening Darkness.*

Rosemeadow takes minor psychic damage before she moves outside the temple next to Sentry and prepares to cast *Guiding Beam* on any enemy that comes in range.  Quill takes psychic damage and casts *Beacon of Hope* and stays put. Xarkira sends a telepathic command to the archer before casting a spell and a large, glowing hand of force appears in front of Nova, grabbing her and starting to crush her.

Nova dismisses *Maddening Darkness* then her pendant starts to glow as she casts *Misty Step* to escape the hand’s grasp, reappearing in the tree line further away from the temple – she readies an action to attack any nearby enemy with Tiangong. The archer moves and attacks Nova with *Heartseeker,* doing significant damage to her. The swordsman reappears and is hit with Tiangong before hitting Nova himself with his sword. Sentry *Misty Steps* over to the swordsman and hits him with Starbreaker, managing to evaporate part of its torso with her first hit, then pierces its chest with Starbreaker’s tip – its green, glowing form dissipates as it is about to swipe again at Nova, dropping its black longsword to the ground – its horse also disappears. As the creature dies, Nova is healed somewhat, and she moves *Hexblade Curse* to the phantom hand.

Aila charges towards the archer and hits it with the hammer – it is crushed, and its physical form dissipates, the green spectral form erupts, but before the three hounds can appear, Xarkira holds her hand out and appears to absorb the spell energy into herself. Aila’s second hit does significant damage, and the spectre barely holds together as it holds a physical black, twisted alien-looking bow in its hands. The archer shoots at Aila point blank and hits with the first shot but misses with the second. Lucius *Calls Lightning* on Xarkira, who uses *Absorb Elements* to reduce her damage and manages to keep the hand up – he then steps out and throws a twinned acidic chromatic orb at Xarkira and the hunter – the ghost dissipates and its bow falls to the ground, the orb hits one of the duplicates and it disappears – he uses dichromancy against the hand and steps back into the temple.

Rosemeadow moves closer to Nova and Aila before casting *Healing Light* which affects Nova, Aila and Sentry; she then moves back into the temple. Quill sends multiple *Magic Missiles* at Xarkira and her duplicates, removing the last two mirror images and hitting her for some damage (she loses concentration on the hand) before going back into the temple – he uses Elder Quill to cast *Shield of Faith* on Nova. Xarkira flies over to get eyeline on Nova, uses *Mistress of Magic* to create three more *Mirror Images* on herself, then sends a thin green beam from her finger at Nova as she casts *Disintegrate.* Nova tries to *counter spell* but fails – Tiangong manages to tell her to move and pulls her out of the way at the last minute: it burns away some of her clothing as it passes her. Nova tries to hit Xarkira with *Eldritch Blast*, hitting two mirror images and she picks up the vorpal sword on the way past – immediately Tiangong starts screaming in pain and she drops it again and runs away.

Sentry casts *Aura of Purity*, moves back into the temple and uses *Harness Divine Power.* Aila throws her hammer at Xarkira but hits the last mirror image leaving Xarkira vulnerable. Lucius throws a lightning bolt at Xarkira who uses *Absorb Elements* to mitigate the damage then starts to laugh as he throws a *Chromatic Orb* at her – she turns and smiles, with a sense of victory in her face as the acid engulfs the snow and ice, destroying the simulacrum – a silver bracer with a purple gemstone falls to the floor.

### **Part 2**

*The team journeys towards the Briarwood and meet a valiant knight on the way!*

A gentle peace has spread over the woods now that the spirits and the simulacrum have been downed – Quill is nervous given the laughter of the simulacrum before it died. He asks Nova about the sword that she dropped so suddenly, and she asks Tiangong what happened – they apologise but tell her that the feeling when she picked up the sword was deathly cold, unwelcoming and unpleasant, something akin to death and cold, the antithesis of what Eterna are. Tiangong could not sense any presence of a living Eterna in the sword – it appears now to be a shell of what the Eterna was – they are no longer Eterna, and have been made dangerous, being closer to a being of Hadar’s make. The life and energy have been taken from them so that now they can consume others’ energy, they can divide space and time itself and sever the connections of the living. Aila believes it would be dangerous to leave the weapons where they are – they agree to give them to Lady Dawnweaver who may be able to destroy them permanently (unlike the Stormchasers). Lucius says that they should also give the Centaurs the good news that they are now free to leave if they wish, now that the spirits are no more. They collect the bracer from the pile of snow where the simulacrum died – Quill identifies the bracer as an Amethyst Lodestone.

Nova will not touch either of the weapons, but when Aila picks them up, she sees that they look alien and crystalline in appearance but are both humming with power and beautifully balanced. When Quill looks out the window, he sees Walks on Morning Dew escorting Thalia, Kyrie and Big Cat as agreed with them earlier. Thalia is clearly in pain, being assisted by Kyrie and walking with her arm hanging limply at her side. Walks on Morning Dew looks at the temple which Quill proudly shows off – it asks him what has happened to the trees, shrubs and grass that are now beneath it and Quill advises nervously that they will grow back – its mandibles droop a little bit at this news. Sentry immediately casts *Plant Growth* and there is an instant burst of tree and vine growth that makes the temple look like an overgrown ruin. Walks on Morning Dew wishes them well from Mistress Dawnweaver and advises that the Centaurs will now be free to roam – Nova offers the weapons to Walks on Morning Dew to take back to Mistress Dawnweaver. Aila holds the weapons to the spider who uses its webs to adhere them to its body so that if can carry them – they say farewell and it disappears into the trees. Rosemeadow says that she will come back to help the Centaurs and for now will go with them to help Thalia, but ultimately wants to return to Aerois. She thinks that she can get them back to the lake where they saw the first Centaur family and take them there through travel via trees.

Nova catches up with Thalia who tells her that her arm feels dead now and that she can no longer move it. Nova sees that the briarthorn has now engulfed the entire arm and Dawnweaver has told Thalia that she has a couple of days at best. Thalia thinks that they could find their way to Heartspire if they can get back to the lake but is worried that the hardest part of their task is yet to come – she does not believe that Mesmera will forgive her, knowing what it is like to be blinded by hate, rage and bitterness. Thalia uses her good hand to take Nova’s, interlaces their fingers and grips her tightly, staying quietly close to her – Nova is blinking back tears seeing Thalia like this and Quill notices that Thalia appears quite calm and collected but resigned to her fate, no longer thinking that this can be stopped.

Rosemeadow casts *Travel via Plants* and they watch as lines appear on the huge ancient trunk of the tree – a door with a wooden handle and a small heart-shaped window appears – Rosemeadow grabs the handle and pulls the door open to reveal the golden rolling hills, blue trees and lilac grass of where they first appeared near the Centaur camp. They hurry through the door to appear close to the area where they first arrived – the Centaurs are nowhere to be seen. The sky appears blacker closer to the west and while Thalia is not sure exactly where it is at the moment, she says that she should be more familiar with the area the closer they get – they should be able to see the Heartspire tower, even over the treeline, because it was always extremely tall, though Mesmera may have changed something.

Over the next 6-7 hours, they travel through rolling fields of golden wheat, pass by old worn dirt roads: they do not see many people but do see, in the far distance, glittering jewels on the horizon – Thalia recognises that as an Eladrin Lord’s city, but works out along the way what direction they should be travelling in. Eventually they head down into a deep valley shaped out of the mountains – it is full of chest-high, white sunflowers with blue inner circles: Thalia remembers the valley and points to the far horizon where they see just the tip of a briar wall, a line of dark black-green, and sticking over the top of it is the tip of a tall tower. Thalia points at it and identifies that as Heartspire – it is another three hours travel away and Thalia is already struggling (she is nursing her shoulder, wincing and coughing every now and then).

It is getting darker and Lucius wonders if they can get there sooner with the use of magic, *Fly* spells included, but Thalia worries that they may need their strength within Heartspire and suggests that they should probably rest here if they are going to do so at any stage between where they are and the briar wall. Lucius casts *Fly* on himself and Sentry, Quill and Kyrie both take to wing, Rosemeadow can carry Thalia and Nova, Aila and Big Cat run beside them. As the ground team moves swiftly through the flowers in the meadow, they see movement amongst them and hear a rustling that startles Rosemeadow. Big Cat sniffs, starts growling and raises his hackles as he looks around. Nova calls out a cautious, “Hello?” In response, they hear a high-pitched voice that calls them villains and accuses them of taking his beloved from him.

Aila feels like a thorn, or something has poked her in the leg and notices fast movement in the flowers – there is something moving around in them, but they are so thick that she cannot see the ground. “I shall defeat thee!” comes the high-pitched voice: Aila is not amused, and something stabs her toe. Aila waits patiently then strikes out to grab what appears to be a plant – it starts fighting back and stabbing at her hand. She holds it up – it is about two feet tall and a dandelion, but it leaves are its hands and legs, it has a big bright yellow head but no face and holds a tiny rapier in its leafy hand. Its yellow head looks up at Aila, “Unhand me, you cretin! I am a true knight of Lunaria, and I shall defeat thee!” It appears that this flower knight has been cast out of Heartspire by false knights and his beloved has been taken by them. The flower now sees Rosemeadow and Thalia, asking whether Rosemeadow has been taken captive; she is entranced with this wonderful being, however, and tells him that these are her friends. The flower understands now that it has made an error and beseeches their aid to join him in battle in Heartspire. Aila passes the dandelion to Rosemeadow – he introduces himself as Amidor and he tells Rosemeadow his story.

Amidor was a swashbuckler, an adventurer, and he lived in Heartspire with his “beeloved”, Pollenella. When he was cast out, his beloved was taken from him and is now held as a prisoner. When he tried to fight the villains, they laughed and mocked him, throwing him over the briar wall knowing that he is too short to see above the giant flowers in the valley. He has been lost and cannot find his way back to try to get his revenge.

Amidor is convinced that Nova and Aila are clearly “the Star Emperor’s minons” – when Aila protests, he thinks that perhaps they have betrayed the Star Emperor. Aila explains that they were never his minions, and he accepts that they are his friends. Nova wonders if she has hit her head, but Thalia assures her that this is simply a citizen of Heartspire and typical of a native of Lunaria. Nova wants to know why Amidor is threatening them, but he says instead that he does not threaten, he ‘promises death to the blue woman if she crosses him’. Quill realises that the ground force has dropped back and flies back with the rest where Sentry is immediately taken with Amidor. Lucius asks them all to lay down their arms in the face of such a valiant knight – Amidor thinks Lucius to be an Eladrin Lord and a member of the Royal Court, sent to him to aid him in attacking Heartspire. Amidor warns Lucius that there is darkness in Heartspire – the knights are not of their right minds, having become cruel and malicious, and he fears that they are not true knights.

Lucius asks what ails Amidor – when Amidor tells Lucius of the loss of his beloved Pollenella, Lucius is overcome with emotion, grasps Amidor by a leafy hand and starts weeping. Lucius asks Amidor to ‘leaf’ it with them, but he insists on accompanying them. Lucius asks if he needs a steed – Amidor says that he does – his beloved provided that service, but he cannot see above the flowers to escape, so he asks Lucius to carry him. He climbs up onto Lucius’ shoulder and grips tight onto his collar as they take to the skies. Quill looks askance at them as they fly away and says simply to Sentry, “For lack of a better question really, what the fuck??” Sentry watches the small flower disappear into the distance and answers him, “Quill, the mightiest warriors come in all shapes and sizes”.

As they fly towards the briar wall, they occasionally see figures flying up above the briar wall as if they are patrolling the air above the city of Heartspire before they dip back down. Quill sees the creatures a little more clearly – they appear to be Elven, but they wear insectoid-like armour, like a carapace with wings. He notices that they carry thin spears and swords. They eventually reach the end of the valley, coming to an area with shrubs, rocks and scattered copses of trees - the briar wall is less than a mile away but is 100 feet tall and looks incredibly thick. They notice the remnants of a couple of main roads that once would have led into what they suspect is a city behind the thick walls but the road has been consumed by the briar wall which completely surrounds the city which they cannot see behind the briar wall. Quill sends messages to them all to fly lower so that nothing moving above the walls can see them too easily. As they get closer, Amidor warns Lucius that he cannot fly over the wall lest he lose his power of flight – such happened to Pollenella. Lucius asks more about Pollenella and is told that she has vibrant yellow and black stripes and luscious antennae – Lucius realises that Pollenella is actually a bee and that they will be looking for a normal-sized bee in a large city.

Lucius recommends that they rest prior to entering the city but Amador insists that they enter the city immediately. He heads back to the rest and reveals that they must go through the wall on foot. Thalia reminds them that the Archfey is able to create rules that are present in the realm, and she does not know what rules she has in place but suspects that given their history, the no flight rule may be one of them – it is likely related to Thalia removing Mesmera’s wings: it could be a punishment to everyone else or something to stop reminding her of what she has lost. Thalia advises that normally an Archfey can only impose three rules in their domain (three being a very powerful number in the Feywild).

Amidor offers to watch over the party while they rest and is amazed that Sentry can speak, comparing her to the guardians of the main door into the tower of Heartspire – they are a great lion and elk made of stone. Nova casts *Leomund’s Tiny Hut* for the party to take a long rest.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Intro
10:52 - Part 1
1:35:22 - Break time/Donations
1:42:53 - Part 2
2:48:28 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Rosemeadow
* Xarkira simulacrum
* Archer spirit
* Swordsman spirit
* Walks on Morning Dew
* Kyrie
* Big Cat
* Thalia

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Pollenella
* Kalus Valkyrian ("The Star Emperor")

## **Featured Locations**

* Lunaria
	+ Black Stallion Woods (outskirts)
	+ Fairmeadow Centaur camping ground by the lake
	+ outside Heartspire

## **Trivia**

* Mark called Quill “Quillek” during the recap and had a discussion with Tom about it afterwards.
* Mark describes Xarkira surrounded in the blue flame as looking like a super Saiyan Dragonball Z aura.
* Xarkira has an ability called “Mistress of Magic” that allows her to cast another spell as a bonus action.
* Mark explained how Xarkira made multiple simulacra: each simulacrum can cast simulacrum in turn, but there are diminishing returns.
* Spell Warp – targets one spell of 6th level (or it can be upcast) that targets a space within 60 feet of you or yourself. You cause the spell to target a different space or creature you can see within the same range as the original spell. The spell’s effect uses the original caster’s DC and modifiers, however, if the spell distinguishes between hostile creatures or allies, you may choose those creatures instead. The caster of the spell cannot end the spell’s effects before the start of their next turn.
* *Spell Warp* is a spell that Xarkira has developed herself.
* Had Quill’s magic missiles not resulted in the loss of Bibgy’s Hand, it was coming for him to crush his little hollow bones next.
* Had the *Disintegrate* spell hit Nova, it would have done 80 points of damage to her (Mark rolled to see), leaving her on 7 hp.
* Discussing *Spell Warp* at the break, Mark asked them to imagine if Quill cast a high-level *Mass Cure Wounds* and Xarkira just said “No” before *Spell Warping* and giving it to her people instead, or taking *Heal* to use on herself.
* This is the second simulacrum that they have downed. Mark clarified that once someone has cast simulacrum, they can never cast it again. The simulacrum created **can**, however, create a simulacrum, and it can create a simulacrum, etc… Normally there is diminishing returns and the simulacra down the line are weaker and cannot cast as high-level spells as the original (lose spell slots), but Mark’s current ruling is that if they use a **spell scroll**, there is no diminishing returns.
* **Magic Item**: Amethyst Lodestone looted from the snowy remains of the Xarkira simulacrum. Item went to Nova.
* When Mark introduced Amidor and mentioned his “beeloved”, Pollenella, all but Kim had a laugh. Verily, Kim was rageful and sayeth, “No! No! I quit!”.
* The end of this episode resulted in so many dreadful puns that most of the cast could not help but laugh and/or groan.
* Mark equates Amidor to one of the Musketeers like D’Artagnan.
* Mark initially says that Pollenella is the size of a King George Spaniel or perhaps a Labrador -this brings Rhi to tears. Once Kim asks for artwork, he realises that she is, in fact, a normal-sized bee (which also makes Rhi lose her mind).
* Amidor refers to Sentry as “the statue woman”.
* Quill rolls a 6 and 18 for his new portents after the long rest.