Aerois - Episode 9: Riches of Rosehall

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Mark Hulmes as Aila

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Riches of Rosehall** is the 9th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd channel on 9th September 2018 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*With their newfound riches the team seem to be gathering a lot more attention around Rosehall!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone.
* Sponsors this week are D&D Beyond and Brilliant. New module Dragon Heist has been released. Use discount code HIGHROLLING to get 25% off.
* Merch: Aerois t-shirt still available. Next week: new Aerois metal dice and tote bags. The Aerois t-shirt will be available on the US website soon.
* Twitch Prime – use your free sub on the HR channel! It is Subtember – cheap subs are available on Twitch.
* New mini-series, A Rogue's Gambit, will continue on Monday.
* (Not announced, but Katie is away this week).

### **Recap**

"*The party survived an airship crash long ago and befriended their fellow travellers and survivors, two Siaskan acolytes, a teenage girl, and a Dwarven merchant. Making their way across a dangerous part of the Lowlands, called the Bitterwood, the party previously had descended into a deep chasm that contained a few ruined remnants of a Dwarven town called Dwalinden. Here, the party fought a feral Guardian, which awoke strange thoughts and memories in Sentry, our Guardian paladin member of the party. The party also gathered various treasures and then climbed back out the chasm, exhausting themselves in the process. Travelling back to the small town of Rosehall in southern Suvonna, the party bartered with several members of the town for their recovered treasures and eventually sold a spear tip of a Wild Elf relic called the Blackthorn to a grouchy gnome wizard called Navill for 1,500 gold pieces.*"
### **Part 1**

*With their newfound riches the team seem to be gathering a lot more attention around Rosehall!*

It is mid-afternoon when they emerge from Navill’s Quills and Quandaries, and as they are in the Long Night, it is cold and will soon get dark. They need to take Arval to the temple of Palador to have his leg fixed, since they now have the 400 gold that will be required.

When they return to the stable out the back of The Brazen Hart, they find a miserable and bored Arval lying on sacks of grain that have been made into a makeshift bed. Arval is dirty and unkempt, his beard is tangled, and he has Evangeline perched prepared next to him. They tell him that they have managed to raise the money to fix his broken leg; Arval is deeply touched and promises to pay them back with interest once they get to Goldthrone. Yusef and Corin are not around – they have gone to find work to raise some coin to assist with the next leg of their travel to Horizon, Gusthaven and the Starfall Archipelago, the first part of which will take at least a week. Corin is helping at the school while Yusef is doing some healing in town and helping Rosalina at the tavern. Arval tells them that Valla is meant to be working in the tavern, too, but instead has been exploring the town and the forests.

Quill offers to give some money to Yusef, Corin and Valla to fund the rest of their journey, and they agree to give money to Arval and the other three so that they can bathe and get a change of clothing. Arval is grateful for their philanthropic gesture and general generosity of spirit.

As they make their way towards the Temple of Palador, people in the town are talking about them and what they may have found in Dwalinden. They are stopped by a farmer who asks if their group has a name and says that he has heard that Navill has bought something from them for gold coins, something that never happens. He goes on to ask if the group would be kind enough to donate 20 gold to him to fix his leaking roof, given that the harvest this year has been so poor. Lucius is happy to oblige, much to the man’s disbelief; the only task that Lucius lays on the man is to come up with a name for their band of adventurers.

Arval agrees that they need a group name, especially if they will be looking for jobs. Lucius suggests “The Siaska Squadron”, but Arval says that that would not be appropriate because they are not all worshippers of Siaska. Lucius finds this a bit odd given that Siaska protects them as The Cradle and made the supreme sacrifice for them (“she was murdered!”) – without her there would be no high elves or wild elves. Nova says that while she believes in Siaska, she does not worship her; Quill says that without H’esper, he would not be here. Aila says that you can respect the gods without worshipping them – Lucius says that they would surely worship the day that Siaska returns and gets silence in response. Aila says that Atelicus looks after “those of us who chose to walk a different path”; Lucius counters with the argument that Siaska created all the gods – she is the allmother.

As they continue towards the temple, more and more villagers come to them asking for gold – everyone has different circumstances and needs: one woman would like some money to go towards educating her children, and one of the Harvest Guard would like a donation towards building up the walls of the city. Lucius recommends giving a sum of money to Rosalina and setting it up as a charity to help the needy of Rosehall. Arval says that establishing a charity fund would do their reputation a lot of good. Aila heads back to the tavern, Nova and Sentry take Arval to the temple, and Quill and Lucius address the growing crowd. They tell the crowd about their plan to fund a charity, executed by Rosalina. While there is initially some grumbling about this, eventually people are pleased with the idea and thank them for their generosity.

Nova, Sentry and Arval arrive at the temple, push the door open and enter. Inside is a dark room with carved wooden pews, tapestries on the walls, and an altar with a statue of a man on fire; at the back of the room is a large orange and red stained-glass window with a flame motif, which casts a dull orange glow around the room. There are two braziers that glow with a light like fire but give off no heat. Torval Blackhammer, a soot-bearded grey Dwarf wearing vestments and an unlit torch sculpted into flames hanging from his belt, comes shuffling in: he remembers them and is happy to share the blessings of the Sunbringer for the agreed fee.

He takes them into another room with a bed where they gently place Arval and pay the required amount to Blackhammer. While Blackhammer goes to get the equipment required for the ritual, Arval thanks the party for taking care of him and the others, saying that they could have left them long ago. Torval returns and performs the ritual: he speaks of the Lord of Light raining down warmth, blessings and good harvests upon the land. He speaks to Arval saying that as a Dwarf, he is of the earth, the land and the mountains; as dwarves, they were placed upon the earth to protect the land and the earth, made possible by the Lord of Light. As his servant, Arval’s wounds will be healed by Palador, says Blackhammer. The ointment is applied to Arval’s leg, and although it causes pain, Blackhammer intones, “It may hurt now, but let the healing flames purge out the darkness – the cruelty of the world that has inflicted this upon you and fill it with the fire of devotion and compassion. Let it fill you with the drive to continue your work!” He sprinkles golden powder over the leg, and as it falls it disappears and the leg begins to glow with a white flame-like fire. Blackhammer throws his hands into the air, and suddenly, despite it being an overcast day, there is brilliant full sunlight shining through the stained-glass window at the side of the room: it completely covers Arval’s body and they watch as the leg re-sets itself and all of the wounds and bruises start to fade. Torval finishes with, “Lord of Light, bring your holy fire and heal this man!” The leg makes a final crunching noise as it sets completely and is healed.

Nova asks Torval if he will teach her the healing ritual – he is reluctant because to him the spell is an expression of his faith, and he does not wish to cheapen the gift he has been given. He says that he will ask Palador for guidance on this issue. Sentry asks Torval about the vision she saw where she was handed the shield and took the oath: she says that she does not remember saying the words before and asks if Palador could be connected to the vision. He says that he has only heard of Solwynn in legend, and that the words she spoke appears to be an oath similar to what knights and heroes of the gods would swear in order to achieve their goals – he says that the oath could be to Palador but might also be to Solwynn. He gives a small prayer book of Palador to Sentry and Nova containing basic teachings of the Lord of Light. He tells them that they may eventually find some people who say that they worship Palador; while they might say that they represent the Lord of the Light and do his justice, they may not follow his teachings of kindness and mercy, protecting the land and his people, even those who have made mistakes.

Making their way back to The Brazen Hart, Quill and Lucius are considering names for their group. They see Valla coming from the main gate: she has heard the rumours of their trip into the chasm and wants to hear all about it, and is amazed by what they tell her. Valla asks Lucius about how his magic works when he tells her about touching the Matrix: he tells her that his magic is innate, but he has honed his skills, using words and gestures and willing the magic to happen. She says that Lucius is like her, and she has been learning how to control her magic; there was some thought that Valla had wild magic, but the effects she causes are not random. Normally, a purple energy erupts out of her like an explosion: it seems to happen when she touches magical items – Valla feels that she gets stronger, and the magic does not have anywhere to go, so just erupts.

Yusef thinks it is dangerous for Valla to use her magic, and is very protective, but Valla wants to learn about her magic and is keen to spend more time with Lucius and join them on their adventures. Valla says that Yusef is a very strict guardian and will not let her try things – she was not even allowed to talk to the other acolytes at the temple. Quill asks Valla how she came to be under the guardianship of Yusef and Corin; Valla tells him that Yusef has told her not to tell anyone, but that Quill seems trustworthy, so she will tell him – she takes Quill and Lucius to an old watch tower for some privacy.

### **Part 2**

*Valla is ready to share some of her mysterious past and we meet someone we've heard a lot about!*

Nova, Sentry and Arval head back to The Brazen Hart via the Dalegeld Company so that Arval can buy some new clothes.

Valla tells Quill and Lucius that she was taken to the Temple of Siaska at the age of 4 or 5, before which she has no real memory. People high up in the church allocated Yusef to her as a guardian. Valla’s earliest memory is of dark and cold, then a bunch of people in Siaskan robes opening something and pulling her free. They then took her in and looked after her, telling her that her name was Valla; she has been kept in a temple in one of the sky cities (because she remembers getting an airship and going to various other cities). After that, she was put into the Abbey, a place they train a lot of priests and priestesses, and where they have a number of orphans who are trained for the priesthood. Quill asks if Valla was treated any differently to the other orphans – Valla says that she was: while she went to lessons with them, learning about reading, writing, history and maths, she had one-on-one lessons with an old elf to train in magic. She was not allowed to interact with the other students, either because she would get hurt or perhaps hurt someone.

Valla thanks them for saving their group from the pirates who almost killed them on the Sparrowblade; Lucius says that they still don’t know what their agenda was, but that Nova recognised them as being from the Court of Shadows. Valla tells them that she learned about the Court of Shadows in her history classes, and that they worked with Starbane, “the guy that killed Siaska and tried to invade the world”.

Valla tells them that when she casts a spell, she feels really strong, like there’s more she could do and her magic could be stronger, but that she is holding back. Lucius asks her to try casting a spell and wants her to cast Dancing Lights, but Valla does not know that spell. She says that she can move things with magic (using Mage Hand), as well as another spell that she demonstrates: she concentrates, opens her eyes that pulse with an energy – seven spectral swords appear around her, spin and then flash away outwards.

She tells them that a lot of her spells allow her to fire energy or conjure swords like she had just demonstrated, but some of them make her tired: the sword spell she can do as much as she needs as a cantrip. She can also make weapons have a purple flame that leaps between things, like Nova can do. Lucius thinks that the spells that she is casting sound like warlock spells, but that Valla is a sorcerer, but not like any sorcerous ability that he has ever heard of.

When she grabbed Tiangong, Valla says that she heard a voice that screamed or cried out saying “no” and that is when the explosion came out of her: when she picked it up again, it was fine. There was only one other time that it had ever happened, when her old teacher, Master Taelis, gave her a wand to use; although there was no voice, it seemed like she drew some energy from it, and the same explosion happened. Lucius gets her to touch his arcane focus, and while she can sense its power, there is no power within it like with Tiangong. Valla can feel a really old presence in Tiangong that is “way older than me or anything I know”.

Lucius reassures Valla that there is nothing wrong with her, but thinks that they need to define her magic – she is excited at the idea of coming on adventures with them and trying out her magic along the way. Quill says that they will speak to Yusef about letting Valla come along with them, but Valla says that she won’t let her go – Yusef isn’t keen on her summoning her magic swords. Valla says that she feels really trapped and while she respects and worships Siaska, she is not (and does not want to be) a priestess of Siaska. She wants to find ancient places – there is something in the world calling to her and she wants to find it. They wander back to The Brazen Hart.

Rosalina welcomes them back. Valla would be put to work cleaning the upstairs rooms, but Quill persuades Rosalina that it is late, and that Valla should go to bed. Arval thanks them all again for helping him out and offers assistance to Rosalina in return for her assistance: he goes to chop some firewood for her. The group speaks to Rosalina about setting up a charity fund with a 200 gold donation: she agrees to run it, encouraging Maximillian, Merrick and others who have the funds to contribute as well. Lucius suggests setting up a secondary charity in Goldthrone to feed into this charity. She talks about possibly setting Dwalinden up as an historical site now that it is cleared out, or using the Rosehall Palace or Rosewater Lake as tourist sites. The Rosehall Palace, an old ruin north of the city along the Whitebreeze River, might be problematic, however, since people think it is haunted with its strange noises and lights. It is an old Elven ruin: there are two keeps connected by an archway that spans the river, and travellers on the road have claimed to see strange lights in the windows and hear strange moaning or screams.

As they are enjoying their evening meal, a large man enters the tavern that causes the locals to be somewhat stunned: he is broad-shouldered, wearing a nice loose tunic with some trim, he has dark hair swept back, a trimmed beard and a ring on one of the fingers on his left hand. He sees them, smiles broadly and makes his way over to their table. The man introduces himself as Brett Brookstone; he apologises for their treatment at the hands of some of his men and says that he wants to dispel any vicious rumours that they may have heard about him. He tells them that a lot of people are jealous of his business and family doing so well. Lucius tells Brookstone (much to the despair of the rest of the party) about their finances and that they found some expensive items in Dwalinden. He then tells Brookstone about the charity that they have set up in town and invites him to contribute – Brookstone says that he will deposit 50 gold immediately because it is such a wonderful idea and gives this to Rosalina. Quill recognises that Rosalina is suspicious of Brookstone.

Brookstone invites all of them to dinner at his house the following evening – they accept with Quill asking if they could supply him with fresh worms, Sentry asking for just a warm plate and Lucius asking for something without beef. They mention that they will have to help Daysa out before coming to his house because “someone” is threatening her over some money – Brett Brookstone twitches slightly at her name before the smile comes back to his face and he is “horrified” to hear that the people threatening her were workers from his mine. He promises that he will speak to the miners. Sentry, not believing Brookstone, stands up to tower over him in an attempt to intimidate him – he assures them that there will be no shenanigans.

Nova has believed everything that Brookstone has said at face value, but Quill is not convinced: he believes that Brookstone is bleeding the town dry and that the donation to the charity fund has just been a show. Nova wants a code word for the dinner in case there are problems at the dinner: they decide on either “pineapple” or “by H’esper’s beard”. Rosalina tells them that Brookstone will make it appear that he is a good man, but that in reality he is a controlling patriarch. If they move against her, she says that she will put them to sleep and leave them in the pig sty. Nova reminds Lucius not to announce that they have so much money and Sentry advises him that announcing it is putting them all in danger.

Nova says that she has noticed that Tiangong has felt different since Valla has touched it, and wants to use Gadwyn’s Hammer to give more power to Tiangong. She tells the others about the vision that Tiangong had given her – Lucius decides to touch Tiangong to see if he will see experience something like Valla had. When he touches the sword, he feels old magic and sentience, hearing a cacophony of voices: *he sees* *a vision of space, the Dark Above, an endless night sky filled with stars and the sense of moving through them for a long time. He hears a strange voice that is more masculine, “Chromat”. The voices sounded like they were very far away.*

Nova believes that Tiangong will be able to absorb the power of Gadwyn’s Hammer, remaining in dagger form.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

2:04 Kim’s Puzzle “foot races”
4:44 Aerois Dice! 7:16 Aerois Intro video
8:32 Recap
9:40 Start & XP
10:55 spear innuendos
11:19 “I think the DM is trying to tell us something”
14:00 Sky island weather patterns
18:49 Wasn’t the cost 300 gold?
31:00 Town whispers
37:55 Reasons for a Group Name
55:00 Thanks and healing for Arval
1:02:16 Name of the healing spell
1:10:46 Priest warnings
1:15:00 How Lucius’ magic works & another sorcerer Break. Some pieces may be from Battlebards.com? Not certain.
1:24:30 - very slow piano piece
1:23:17 - Forlorn/somber slow piano piece
1:26:00 violin and piano Journey-like
1:29:39 Aerois main theme
1:30:46 quicker piano with somber/building tone
1:32:34 Dark Strings. Tense situation
1:34:42 Lullaby-like piano. Forest/fey like?
1:35:30 - End Of Break
1:39:12 Info on Cloud Cities & Electrum mining
1:41:20 Why the girl is in the temple
1:47:40 Lucius’ magic deductions
1:50:35 The Mysterious voice of Tiangong
1:51:55 ADVENTURE!
1:54:00 Elven lifespans on Aerois (oh boy ancient creatures like an old Lich or Aboleth must be absolutely terrifying to regular folk)
2:00:00 Charity Fund talks
2:07:23 CSI Rosehall
2:11:27 Here come the Brookstones
2:22:17 Different types of looks
2:35:10 Lucius touches Tiangong
2:38:12 Tiangong’s magic binding properties
2:45:10 “Foot Races” riddle answer

## **Featured Characters**

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

* Aila (played by Mark)
* Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto
* Nova V'ger
* Qillek Ad Khollar
* Sentry

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Arval Dagos
* Torval Blackhammer
* Valla

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Atelicus
* Brother Corin
* Master Taelis (Valla's magic tutor at the Abbey)
* Navill
* Palador
* Siaska
* Sister Yusef

## **Trivia**

* Mark awards 500 XP to each of the characters for the last couple of sessions.
* Mark noted the omission of the "cows" incident from the recap was a deliberate choice.
* Trott asks if the sky cities have weather patterns. Mark says that it depends: on some of them, mages control the weather patterns, and it is generally usually sunny, but some sky cities have adjacent islands that got raised with them that are left to their own devices. Some sky cities are unprotected, so are subject to natural weather of the surrounding areas. Gusthaven is one where they control the weather: they schedule rain for whatever crops they have, and it is normally kept at a regular, pleasant temperature.
* **Continuity error:** Mark says in this episode that the ritual to repair Arval’s broken leg is about 400 gold. Kim reviews her notes and reminds him that previously he had said 300 gold: “Did I? – it’s 400 now,” he responds. Mark then said he’s been doing some tweaking on how much things cost. It is clear afterwards that Mark just does not remember.
* In this episode, we see a healing ritual of Palador when Torval Blackhammer heals Arval’s broken leg. Torval comes across as a TV evangelist in his persona.
* After Arval’s leg is healed, he says that he is going to walk about for a bit and make sure that it is healed: Nova suggests that there will be “secret dancing” which Arval denies. He does suggest that there will be dancing later at The Brazen Hart, saying that he is very good at the “Toe and Step” – Mark then adds that Dwarven line dancing is now canon in Aerois.
* **Lore dump:** Torval Blackhammer says that Palador is one of the gods who has healing as part of his domain: he heals the land, he blesses the land with fertility. Sayanna also specialises in healing, as does Siaska. Palador learned healing from his mother, Siaska, but he is more connected to the natural world than she was. “May the light shine on you” appears to be a benediction for the Church of Palador.
* Lucius’ suggestions for names for the group: “The Siaska Squadron” and “Crash Course”. A viewer suggests "The Daddy's Boys". Someone in chat suggested "Broken Skies".
* Almost all citizens of the sky cities carry a Feather Fall token in case they fall off, though they also build fences to try to prevent that sort of thing. The people most at risk are those in the aetherium (Mark mistakenly says “electrum”) harvesting business (mainly halflings and humans), because they have to climb down chains and mine the aetherium crystals from the cages that hang below the skycities. They cannot simply pull the cages back up because of the risk of breaking and destroying the aetherium.
* Some information about Valla and her abilities and background was given in this episode.
* Valla is 15 years old, Quill is 3 years old (Valla calls him a big bird baby).
* There is a bulletin board in The Brazen Hart upon which there are two notices: the first is a flyer looking for a name for a roving band of heroes, the second advertises “Pigs 4 sale: speak to Jim”. Tom asks if there is a wanted poster with Lucius’ face on it for “cow murders” – Mark says “not yet, it’s only been a day”. The names on the first poster are: “The Dwalindelvers”, “The Rich Folk” and “Two Women, One Elf, A Robot and A Bird”. Kim (looking to camera) then suggests that by next week the “villagers” (viewers) will have come up with some better names.
* Once Tiangong absorbs Gadwyn’s Hammer, it looks like Tiangong’s form, but has all the abilities of the hammer.