Aerois - Episode 122: One Month Later

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**One Month Later** is the 122nd episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 29th August 2021 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Catch up and find out what the Stormchasers got up to during a month break as the war in Aerois progresses.*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* There has been a time skip (both in and out of game).
* This week's sponsor is D&D Beyond.

### **Recap**

*"Kalus Valkyrian, known to most of Aerois as Kalus Starbane, the man who slew their goddess Siaska and was banished to astral space, has returned. After a proclamation heard across the world, he has offered any who join him a new life in his grand empire but made clear his intent to claim the world. The Stormchasers, a band of heroes brought together by chance and united in the protection of a young girl, know that Kalus desires a powerful artefact, a Genesis Relic called the World Engine at the heart of Aerois. With it, he believes he can finally stop the ultimate evil of the multiverse. Hadar. A being of pure entropy and hunger, a goal Kalus has pursued for millennia. However, with a divine gift, the Stormchasers peered into the future and saw that if Kalus does as he intends, using the World Engine to try and destroy Hadar, it will only empower the old god at an exponential rate and the universe will be consumed into pure void.*
*Meanwhile, the goddess Siaska slowly returns to life, reforming in the Halls of Infinite Resplendence, but her titanic children, the ‘gods’ of Aerois, refuse to let go of their divine power and have hidden themselves away in pocket realms inaccessible to mortals. Siaska’s half-daughter, Valla, believes she can find and unlock these spaces for our heroes, but it would require time. After saving the Guardian race in the City of Glass, gaining a sturdy army of artisans, soldiers and scouts, the Stormchasers have spent months engaging in various skirmishes, diplomatic activities and intrigue, creating magical items and training. But now, one incident has brought them all together once more."*
### **Part 1**

*After a one month break the Stormchasers are back together to show off their new skills by defending a village against Valkyrian rule!*

Greenhollow is a small town on the southern edge of the continent of Jakkesh: over the last few months, propagandists of the Valkyrian empire have been slowly infiltrating the town, and reports from a few escapees suggest that the townsfolk are being magically charmed and influenced by the Valkyrians. They have asked for aid. The town borders a great wood that covers most of the continent, and amongst the small stone and wood houses, two 19-foot-tall Treants and other wooded, tree-like humanoids made of vines and twigs, accompanied by dozens of humanoid creatures made of wood, are preparing themselves for battle as dazed-looking citizens (Humans, Halflings, Gnomes, Dwarves and Half Elves) are escorted toward a Valkyrian transport craft under the command of four Eladrin warriors. The Stormchasers have fought their way to the outskirts of the town, having been sent to put down the Valkyrian force.

The citizens being taken to the escort ship are not under duress, but being led, gently, towards the transport ship. Nova, who is first in via *dimension door*, realises that the citizens are not in their right mind, and think that they are being protected by the Eladrin.  Nova casts *maddening darkness* to affect one of the Treants, a number of the smaller creatures and a summer Eladrin. The Eladrin is wearing red clothes, his hair is made of flowers, vines, and plants in full summer’s bloom: there are trails of flame along his longsword. He grins maniacally, “The Stormchasers are here! Good! A chance to prove my mettle!” Nova now has a bracelet on her wrist that has a pendant on it in the shape of a royal crest – she grips the pendant, whispers some words into it and *misty steps* onto the top of a nearby building: in the space from which she disappeared, there is a brief glimpse of a forest scene, leaves fall to the ground and there is the smell of flowers and trees. The summer Eladrin is not impressed, “I know that trick. Are you running away from me, Stormchaser, mighty hero of Aerois?”

Inside the magical darkness, all of the smaller creatures are instantly destroyed in silence as they are ripped apart. Hearing the cry of their ally, a number of the blights move to attack Nova, and one manages to hit her.

Quill flies in and lands on the ship – he spreads his wings and casts *mass cure wounds* on the closest six dazed and confused civilians. As he spreads his wings and the golden feathers of H’esper fall down around them, the *spellbreaker* effect occurs and the citizens blink their eyes, looking confused and scared of the plant monsters that they now seem to be seeing for the first time. Another Eladrin, young and petite with pale green skin, wearing greens and yellows with flowers budding and blooming in her hair, looks alarmed, “No, don’t listen to him! He’s cast some spell upon you. We’re here to help you!” The citizens look confused. The spring Eladrin continues, “We’ve been your friends, we’ve given you everything you’ve wanted! We’ve been here for so long!” The six that Quill healed start backing away from the Valkyrian forces, but the rest of the citizens, untouched by Quill’s spell, agree with the Eladrin and agree that they need to leave.

Sentry arrives on Alnisyx and heads for the transport ship; she dismounts and holds aloft her new lance, calling, “Starbreaker! Form for me!” The long metal lance, which can be used on foot, has an engraved spiral along the edge of the lance that glows green. When she calls its name and holds it aloft, the light explodes outwards, and the lance seems to triple in size creating an enormous green energy lance around it. She points the lance towards the two nearest Eladrin and demands that they let the citizens go. Sentry sends Alnisyx to go and rescue the citizens who are no longer charmed, and it manages to collect two almost immediately – one of the other citizens who tries to grab on is grappled by one of the vine creatures and prevented from leaving.

Aila saunters in and strolls over to the transport ship: she cracks her neck as she looks at the spring Eladrin and tells her, “Don’t worry, I’ll be your friend”. The Eladrin looks panicked. Aila rages and attacks her new friend twice with the hammer – the Eladrin tries to parry the blows with her rapier but fails. Aila zaps her with lightning and sees amber coloured blood starting to flow from her nose and the side of her mouth – she is horrified, calling Aila a brute.

The Treant in the *maddening darkness* does not scream, but there is a mournful creaking of wood as it takes damage from the spell and stumbles out into the street. It breaks off a chunk of stone wall nearby and throws it at Nova, its tormentor – it hits her, and the damage causes her to lose concentration on the spell. The other Treant sings a mournful song, and the trees from beside the ship near Sentry and Quill start pulling themselves out of the ground – their branches animate and the leaves flutter as another Treant emerges from the tree that was there.

There is a blue-skinned Eladrin that had been mustering some civilians to the southwest of the town – they look around saying, “Ah yes, the barbarian one, we’ve been warned about her. Get away, Silver!” They summon an *ice storm* on Sentry and Quill. The spring Eladrin looks shocked and offended at the fury and suddenness of the attack on her and disappears in a flurry of flowers only to reappear on a rooftop nearby. She calls Aila a brute again and tells her that she needs to find more joy in things, before casting *Otto’s irresistible dance* on her; Aila cannot help but start dancing while the Eladrin sings happily to herself.

The autumn Eladrin, seeing that Nova has hurt the Treant, goes to it and casts *cure wounds.*

Lucius runs in, out of breath, “Oh there you all are! This is where it is!” His prismatic gauntlet fully charged, he cracks his knuckles and casts a twinned acidic *chromatic orb* at the spring and winter Eladrin. The spring Eladrin dodges the orb, but the winter Eladrin is hit and sprayed with acid, so turns her attention on Lucius.

The summer Eladrin looks up and sees Nova get pummelled by the rock. Saying, “You seem to have things in hand, my dear. A fitting price for your cowardice. I’m off to find a more worthy opponent”, he heads for the ship. “You,” he yells, “the Guardian and the Barbarian woman! Fight me! Fight me, I wish a worthy challenge!” The newly created Treant attacks and hits both Sentry and Quill: some the villagers are confused and turn to run and get away, managing to evade the Vine Blights that try to attack them on their way past. The rest of the villagers whom Quill had purged of the charm effect dash away: the remaining villagers, however, continue to do as they are told by the Valkyrian forces, with two starting to board the ship.

Nova casts *synaptic static* on the nearest Treant; the aura of the spell causes the Vine Blights’ heads to explode, damages the autumn Eladrin and the Treant, and causes the Treant to become muddled.

A number of Twig Blights surge around Lucius, Aila and Quill. All of them are hit by the little creatures, but Aila’s enforced moshing makes it hard for them to hit her. Quill holds up his spear, and an older Quill in priestly robes with greying feathers projects forward as a ghostly form; Quill flies 30 feet in the air, taking multiple attacks from the Twig Blights and the Treant, then uses Elder Quill to concentrate on *summon celestial*. The summoned golden, radiant angel version of Quill then attacks and hits the Treant which staggers back under the damage.

Sentry attacks the Treant near her with Starbreaker: when it hits the tree, it does not just dig in, pierce and rip some of the tree apart – it causes force damage and punches a hole through the middle of the Treant. She then attacks the summer Eladrin who parries her blow, “A challenge!” he cries, “you will make a fine challenge for me!” Sentry looks at him and responds, “Careful what you wish for”. She sends Alnisyx to collect another two villagers, these ones unwilling, so he snatches them up in his claws and ferries them away.

Aila, still dancing, throws her hammer at the spring Eladrin on the roof, hitting her but not breaking her concentration. Three of the Twig Blights around her are blown apart as collateral damage. The Treant near Nova manages to hit her before shaking off its befuddlement, the one near Aila hits her twice, and the last hits Sentry twice. The winter Eladrin draws her longsword and hits Lucius; the spring Eladrin shoots at Quill with her longbow but misses both times; and the autumn Eladrin climbs the Treant, pulls her sword and swings at Nova but misses.

Lucius, being within the winter Eladrin’s *sorrowful presence*, is charmed and overwhelmed with sorrow. Lucius casts a quickened *Armor of Agathys*, then pulls out The Captain’s Command and salutes them with the sword, at which point Lucius is revealed to have a little bit of stubble. He starts swinging at the Twig Blights flamboyantly, apologising to the winter Eladrin, then killing one of the Twig Blights with his sword and another with *dichromancy*.

The summer Eladrin grips his longsword in both hands and charges at Sentry with a “Have at thee, hurrah!” He hits Sentry once. The Treant that was hit by Quill’s angelic form grabs the angel and buries it into the ground, destroying it. Nova has to resist the charm of the Eladrin near her – she doesn’t even think it’s a conscious effect, just being near the Eladrin is intoxicating; she wants to be friends with it and wants to listen to it, but she shakes it off uttering, “Sorry love, I’m taken”. Nova casts *synaptic static* again, destroying the nearby Twig Blights, muddling and damaging the Treant again, and damaging the Eladrin and herself.

Most of the remaining blights swarm towards Sentry, but some Needle Blights shoot needles at Quill and he is hit once. Three Blights miss Sentry, but two hit Aila. Quill flies to Aila and casts a *mass cure wounds*: the *spellbreaker* effect ends both the charm on Lucius and the dancing on Aila, much to her relief.

Sentry uses the lance against the summer Eladrin and the Treant again but misses both: the summer Eladrin gracefully ducks and weaves away from the attack against him. “Ha ha! I’m afraid you’ll have to do a bit better than that!” he retorts. Aila kills two blights and hits the Treant next to her.

The Treant near Nova hits her again; Aila’s Treant hits her as well. The winter Eladrin moves away from Lucius, dancing away from his attempted attack: it projects a *cone of cold* that hits both Treants, two Vine Blights, Sentry, Aila and Quill. The Treant near Sentry freezes and crumbles into pieces, the two Vine Blights die and Sentry, Aila and Quill take damage.

The spring Eladrin casts something on Sentry that starts to muddle and confuse her, but Sentry resists it which annoys the Eladrin. The autumn Eladrin *fey steps* away from Nova to the building opposite, moves to her spring Eladrin friend and casts *heal.* Lucius sees her, clicks his fingers and briefly produces a barrier between the two Eladrin that prevents the *heal* from working (C*ounterspell)*. They look around and the autumn Eladrin whispers something into the spring Eladrin’s ear.

Lucius moves away from the last Blight on him, which attacks and kills itself on his *armor of Agathys*. He then throws an acid *chromatic orb* at the winter Eladrin, and her blue, black and brown clothing is ripped and melted, and her skin begins to burn as she cries out in pain; a burst of d*ichromancy* almost finishes her off and she cries out to her brothers and sisters that they must flee.

The summer Eladrin fighting Sentry cannot believe his ears, “Flee? In our moment of triumph? Never! Ha ha!” He charges towards Sentry and misses with both attacks.

Nova *hexblade curses* the nearby Treant and pulls out Tiangong to attack it; Tiangong looks a little larger and more glowy, and says, “It would appear that our allies are in great need of our assistance, Nova V’ger. I would hope that we can deal with this creature quickly” – they seem more intelligent and fully-formed than previously. Tiangong hits the tree with additional *green flame blade* damage; the Treant reacts badly to the fire damage. A Needle Blight hits Sentry. Quill heals himself with *healing word* and casts *sacred flame* at the winter Eladrin: a holy white light erupts from her, her wounds glow and she collapses to the ground, dead.

Sentry blasts a beam of sunlight from her chest (*sunbeam*), hitting the summer Eladrin in the chest and blinding him, but he is still keen to fight – the spring Eladrin also takes some damage on the roof. Aila holds the Howling Tempest up and flies onto the roof, landing in front of the spring and autumn Eladrin – they look at Aila with absolute terror. Aila smacks the spring Eladrin in the face and she goes limp in the autumn Eladrin’s arms: with her second attack, she hits the autumn Eladrin causing her to bleed silver blood. The autumn Eladrin looks at Aila with absolute hatred. One of the Treants attacks Quill, hitting him twice, while the other hits Nova.

The autumn Eladrin, clutching her dead sibling, calls out, “If you want to die here, that’s your choice, but I’m going to save my sister”. She pulls out a Valkyrian wand with a crystal at the end, presses a button on it and they vanish in rainbow light as they teleport away.

Lucius hears the faint sounds of a tree smashing Quill, of Nova fighting something, and the blinded summer Eladrin saying“I can still fight! Ha ha!” He casts a *chromatic orb* at the Treant near him, covering it with flame.

The summer Eladrin tries to look around, but is still blinded. He then holds his sword aloft and drops it – “My allies have fled, I am clearly beaten. I will surrender for now, but I will not give you any secrets. I am loyal to my Lord, but I will go. If you will take me as an honourable prisoner, I will surrender.” They finish off the Treants and take the summer Eladrin prisoner. Lucius casts *dominate monster* on the summer Eladrin and takes full control of his mind, asking him to tell them everything he knows. The summer Eladrin begins, “We were sent here to help and encourage the residents to join the Valkyrian Empire. It is a little-known fact that my kind have a natural influence on the people around us, and so we were sent here to help spread the word of the Valkyrian Empire. We were taking these people to safety – we were taking them to a nearby settlement where they would be taken aboard…” He has no deep military secrets but can give them intel on the mission here and what his siblings were doing. The four of them are a unit that are sent out to control an area because they have this natural pacifying element about them. He tells them whatever military things he knows such as where there might be other Valkyrian units, information they would be able to pass on to other military commanders.

The Stormchaser flies in. It has now been significantly upgraded: there are more armoured walls along the sides of the open top deck, the main arcane cannons have been completely finished and integrated into the hull, so the gunners are not exposed. It is still a work in progress, but there are rows of crystals projecting experimental fields which would give them a way to look out on something but still be protected. Oriya lands and delivers a unit of soldier Guardians, led by Lasso, to secure the village; she tells them that Dannica and Valla both need to speak to them back on Horizon. Lucius dismisses the *dominate monster* and ensures that the Eladrin remembers that he has told them everything. The Eladrin is furious, “You villain! You made me betray my oaths! I will never forgive you! I will never forgive you, Stormchasers, this dishonourable…” – he is left in the care of Lasso and the Guardians. They take a long rest on the way back to Horizon.

### **Part 2**

*The Stormchasers return to Horizon to explore where they've been for the last month!*

After the battle, Starbreaker resumed its form and Sentry was exhausted. The Stormchaser makes its way back to Horizon and Oriya deftly lands it at one of the four airship towers. Lookout has been trained as a secondary gunner to Penny, and the Wolfpack has been trained in boarding combat, not just ranged combat, so that if the Stormchaser is boarded, they can take on the boarding party. Kamarra is now Second Officer, looking after the ship when Oriya is not available, and Faeth has moved permanently to Gusthaven(Markism).

They are taken to their chambers in Horizon, which are now fully warded. Nova has had amulets made by Azaria Perel for herself and Lucius (in Lucius’ colours) that protect them against scrying, and Aila has had some upgrades done to The Howling Tempest. Nova hands Quill a circular metal device that starts glowing in his hands – it is a magitek grenade (it requires glyphs to be pressed in the right order to activate and functions as a scroll of *fireball*), and terrifies Quill until she clarifies it's not active. Sentry has spent a lot of time on the Stormchaser with Howard and Greylauno – she has been finding out what foods they enjoy and learning how to make them with Howard.

They go to the War Room in Horizon – a section of Horizon that has been set up with a large table with illusion magic that can show different zones, battles, and troop placements, as well as a large board with reports and priority communications (see trivia re: domains).

Lucius has a meeting with Skyprince Aridan regarding resettlement in Gusthaven of refugees and people displaced by the war; he gets assistance from Faeth to do this because she has skills with talking to people with problems – she is believable and honest, but can also be cunning, knowing when she is being lied to or manipulated. His aim in attempting this is to show other nations that Gusthaven and the Stormchasers are on side of good, and thereby influencing other nations towards them. This will allow a boost to their defences and resolve. There is a big ceremony where Aridan meets with Lucius – they shake hands and Gusthaven agrees that they will act as a field hospital or spillover for people to take refuge. This boosts the morale of Horizon.

Aila has gone to spend time with the Wild Elves to try to recruit them, and tried to find any more that have similar powers to her. She has tried to pass on her knowledge of fighting Valkyrian to the Wild Elves, while also trying to dispel the misconception that the Wild Elves are brutish or violent. She has had difficulty tracking them down because the Wild Elf tribes are nomadic, and she has still to meet with the tribe that lives in the tundra in the north of Aelseraph. From the Wild Elves she has met, her powers are very rare and no one else really seems to have the same or similar powers to her. To recruit the Wild Elves, they send Rethra as diplomat, because he has a connection to them and the Wild Elves will react better to a Wild Elf fighter. The Wild Elves fought in the first war against Valkyrian, and they are more than happy to fight against him again. Rethra tells stories around campfires of the rescue from Grazzt’s casino planet; he talks about the fights he has seen the Stormchasers take part in; he has spoken about the evil of the Valkyrian empire and stoked the Wild Elves’ sense of injustice telling them about the destruction of Alfheim. When the Stormchaser returns, one of the chieftains, a tall woman who wears a crown of antlers, meets with Aila and they have a blood ceremony to unite them against the common enemy. A platoon of Wild Elven commandoes, covered in facepaint and wearing cloaks made of leaves and other natural materials appear, step into the woodlands, and simply vanish, showing their stealth skills.

Nova had joined the expedition to find the last available shard of Tiangong, which is why they are now powered up. She now wants to do some espionage in Vortinssar as she is very concerned about what is happening there and what her parents told her; she wants to know how it happened that Vortinssar turned to Valkyrian and how she might turn them back to fight with Aerois. Primarily, she wants to weaken their alliance to the Valkyrian Empire – sowing the seeds that they are being misled and don’t know what Valkyrian is. To do this, Lucius suggests sending Nanny Norfir, who is an elite espionage agent. They get secret communications that Norfir has begun and met with an internal group called The Seekers, who are trying to get to the bottom of what has been happening in Vortinssar. Norfir sends a *sending:*

> *Nova, my dear. Request mission parameters. Am I permitted to eliminate substantial targets?*
>
>

Nova asks her to define targets, at which point Norfir identifies them as “high-ranking members of government who are in bed with Valkyrian, promoting propaganda amongst the city base: Valkyrian loyalists”. Nova declines her request, concerned that this will turn the people against them; Norfir confirms that there will be no fatalities, but points out that it will make her job a little harder.

Quill wants to improve communications between allies: he wants to assist his mother in rejuvenating the Messenger Guild (he has gone home to spend some time with his family, and also wants to spend some time in personal growth connecting better to Siaska). He wants to ensure that the Aarakocra know that Gisella and Vortinssar are enemies of Aerois, and that they must not be assisted by the Guild – his emissary for this mission is Mireeka Ad Khollar . Mireeka speaks to individuals from the Messenger Guild, to nations and to countries saying, “They are our enemies now: we cannot work with them. We cannot sit on the fence of this conflict. Our skills will ensure victory for the true inheritors of this planet”. It is agreed, and the Guild is with them.

Sentry wants to set up Guardian patrols around trade routes and trade towns: she wants to bolster the Harvest Guard and protect routes around places like Gusthaven and Porta Sovrano – this is to protect supplies from looters, the Wind Barons and Valkyrian fighters. They choose Reyn as the best person to coordinate this, and he does so successfully, improving the defence of Horizon's resources.

They also send a message to the Grand Strategist of Xiphenna to let him know that they have gained a Guardian army, have a skycity that can fly independently, and have made a lot of new allies; on top of this, they tell him that Xarkira has sided with Hadar. His response is, “I am very compelled by your arguments and by the evidence I have been presented. But also the occupation of my own city… it seems that sitting on the fence is not something that this Valkyrian takes lightly. I am more than happy to lend my aid to your cause if only I am able to escape my own palace. If you can send forces to help extract me and bring me to Horizon, my forces are yours. I would be glad to count you as an ally for a timely rescue. Though I am not being ill-treated, I am also not permitted to leave, something I find too uncomfortable for my own tastes”. They send the Guardian scouts, led by Scout and Tracker, who communicate with the Stormchasers via a scroll of *sending* before the operation saying that they are near Xiphenna and about to engage. A few hours of silence is followed by a panicked report, saying that they were successful and that they are on their way back to Horizon.

Maximillion has started looking after himself, eating and training; he won’t leave Valla’s side and won’t do anything other than guard her. Dannica is more comfortable letting Max and Valla wander around the city, but they always have four guards with them. Max is wary – he has come back to their suite a few times grumbling about how the city of Horizon is poorly managed, and thinks that Dannica is a weak leader because she did not kill him when she had the chance. He complains that there is crime because he saw a pickpocket who escaped the law; he is highly judgemental and critical of anything that is not the Valkyrian Empire. He has seen crime, poverty, and drug addiction in Horizon, none of which exist on Gideon Prime – if people need housing, jobs or food, they are given them, and drugs, he says, are evil and a sin. Quill points out that the Empire also has bad places, such as Azagrat with its demon casinos; Max says he dislikes the demons, but insists that none of this exists on Gideon Prime itself.

Over the past two months, Valla has become more regal in her movement and her stance – there is an aura around her that is somewhat magical, and her hair seems to gently float around her as if she is growing into her power. She now enters the room via a purple tear in space that she parts like a curtain, and she and a very uncomfortable Max step through. Valla tells them that she has found one of the Titans – Atelicus is proving to be very difficult to find, but she has located Zephyr. Zephyr has always been chaotic and violent, tempestuous and reckless – they should expect a battle, because she wants to go out in a blaze of glory. Valla thinks that she will be able to open the rift required: it will be difficult because of the scale of the rift needed, as well as the ability to penetrate into Zephyr’s domain, but she has become practiced at opening portals. She says that she will need to come with them, and since Max will not leave her, so will he.

Valla suggests that they speak to Oriya about getting a sea-faring ship, as they will need one in Zephyr's domain, and heads off to the kitchen with Max for some food. Max asks that they walk, rather than teleporting.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:32 Tom is Crimson Chin
1:12 The start of the anime Wow
1:48 Sponsored by D&D Beyond
3:08 When Mark's in control
5:25 Dun Duns
6:25 Recap starts - Final Arc
8:35 Recap ends
8:45 Roll Initiative
9:28 Greenhollow in Jakkesh
10:37 Battle map is out
11:20 Tom never listens
12:51 Don't kill the civilians Nova
15:12 War crime spell again
16:31 60ft radius sphere for reference
17:37 Summer Eladrin description
18:50 Nova's new magic item
22:54 Spell Breaker
26:04 Starbreaker! It's morphin' time!!
29:27 Aila, the badass
30:21 New damage bonuses
41:06 Finally Lucius' turn
41:50 1 out of 4 success
44:20 Summer Eladrin has a personality
47:32 Synaptic static
52:44 Elder Quill is out and an avenger
57:55 Starbreaker is awesome
59:29 Treasure hunting = Worth It
1:00:50 Birth of Al
1:03:30 Upgraded Howling Tempest
1:05:25 The start of the Bruh Tree
1:11:27 Stubble you say
1:12:54 Summer Eladrin: Have at thee!
1:19:30 Quill's heal came in clutch
1:20:34 "HA HA HOO HOO HEE HEE!"
1:27:42 No Heal
1:29:18 Attack me daddy
1:31:05 We must keep Summer Eladrin
1:32:00 Tiangong is fully formed
1:34:18 Bruhhhhh~
1:37:01 Tourist trap
1:38:16 Howling Tempest = Mjolnir
1:42:46 Eladrin sisters are wholesome
1:44:36 Fire chromatic orb
1:45:55 Summer Eladrin is too precious
1:47:05 Dominate Monster
1:49:27 Stormchaser's upgrades
1:50:52 Poor Summer Eladrin
1:51:45 Break starts
1:52:28 Mid-break donations
1:55:01 Execute Order 66
1:57:10 “Purple burglar alarm”
1:57:46 Katie's cat Angus
2:00:47 Break ends
2:02:38 Stormchaser crew are veterans
2:04:20 Amulets of Proof against Detection
2:05:29 Introduce Fireball Grenade
2:07:47 Sentry gets some mom levels
2:08:49 Matt Colville's Kingdoms and Warfare
2:14:25 Stormchaser's Allies
2:19:55 Lucius's downtime
2:25:41 Aila's downtime
2:34:35 Nova's downtime
2:41:00 Nanny Norfir. Period.
2:48:53 Quill's downtime
2:55:51 Sentry's downtime
3:03:11 Grand Strategist of Xiphenna
3:14:00 Max and Valla
3:15:01 Max is highly critical & judgmental
3:16:16 Valla's appearance
3:16:48 Valla is too lazy to walk
3:18:28 Valla found Zephyr's realm
3:23:31 Mark forgot when stream should end
3:25:05 Outro break donations
3:29:49 Love you Bye

Thanks to Nick Ahn for doing the timestamps!

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Spring Eladrin
* Summer Eladrin
* Autumn Eladrin
* Winter Eladrin

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Valla
* Maximillion Taldros

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Dannica Bloodfire
* Reyn Talevir
* Arval Dagos
* Moonstar
* Mireeka Ad Khollar
* Nanny Norfir
* Hadar
* Kalus Valkyrian
* Atelicus
* Zephyr
* Lookout
* Penny
* Kamarra
* Oriya Marius
* Faeth
* Azaria Yorien Perel
* Howard Swiftwhistle
* Greylauno
* Skyprince Aridan Irisen-Pelony Starsorrow
* Rethra
* Grazz't
* Tracker
* Scout
* Sumar Xemeks Elledovian, Grand Strategist of the Xiphen

## **Featured Locations**

* Continent of Jakkesh
	+ Village of Greenhollow
* Horizon

## **Trivia**

* When Mark introduced the payers at the beginning of the game, Tom was demonstrating how large his chin is.
* Trott suggests that Nova is Hadar-touched, so that all life should be destroyed. He suggests her new name should be Nadar.
* Tom refers to *maddening darkness* as “the war crimes spell”.
* “Bruh” was said 32 times this episode according to Nick Ahn.
* There is a downside to using the transformed lance: it is very draining because Sentry is physically fuelling the lance. After using it, she gains one level of exhaustion.
* Lucius incorrectly calls his sword “Storm’s Command” during this episode.
* Lucius having stubble has created much heated discussion in the Discord (known variously as “the Elf Beard War”, “Wrong opinion about Elves” and simply “Nope”). The Anti-Elven Beard movement is led by Fael\_Draws who was seen in the Discord saying, “You heard it here folks, elves with beards are, in fact, evil” and “I think Elves with beards are an abomination”. (1/10/21 #lobby) We await word that Fael has returned the chain of office for President of the Lucius fan club.
* Two Vine Blights caught in the winter Eladrin’s *cone of cold* should have died in the battle but were forgotten (lucky them!).
* The magitek grenades are effectively flavoured scrolls of fireball, so you need to be a spellcaster to use them: they are charged with magical energy, then thrown and a fireball goes off.
* Mark used some of MCDM’s Kingdoms and Warfare system (simplified and adapted) for the Aerois campaign to deal with the war effort and Domain skills/defences.
	+ Horizon is considered to be their Domain: there are Domain Skills and Domain Defences – these represent things that their friends, forces and allies can do in the world (e.g. making allies with a faction/group = diplomacy skill, spying on Kalus/Vortinssar/Gisella = espionage skill, researching big topics – where the colossus is, does Kalus have a weakness? = lore skill, mustering/training troops or deploying forces = operations skill).
	+ Each skill has a rating that can be increased by recruiting certain NPCs, spending money, or achieving certain goals and upgrading a relevant skill. There are three defences: Communication, Resolve and Resources – these are things that their enemies (the Valkyrian Empire, Vortinssar and Gisella) can attack, striking a blow at the Stormchasers, reducing their resources, capturing forces, denying them territories, or denying them diplomacy with other groups. These can also be improved or decreased.
	+ In between story arcs or mini adventures, there will be a “Domain Turn”, a period of downtime where they can elect to do six main things: e.g. Nova wants to know what is happening in Vortinssar: to do that will take an Espionage roll to get information out of the city – this will not be the Stormchasers getting this information because they will be elsewhere, fighting other battles and perform other essential duties. Instead, they will assign a retainer or agent to that task – these will be all the friends and NPCs they have made/met along the way, but they must be really close to the party and owe them something . They must want to repay the party in a big way and would be willing to throw their life down for the party. They can only be sent on one thing per turn, and they will get a bonus based on their personality, skills and knowledge.
	+ The group will also get war assets: these represents all of the military forces that they have control over – the Guardian Army (elite, well-trained, sturdy standing army), Guardian Scouts (more skirmish and light infantry, scouting force), Horizon City Guard (defensive unit, locked into Horizon, hold the line against other enemy forces). Thay also have allies – the druids of Myrskyr, the skycity of Gusthaven, the Dragons – who can supply a temporary unit as a war asset (e.g. Gryphon Cavalry of Gusthaven, Dragons to harass Gisella to deplete their resources (see next point).
	+ The Stormchasers can attempt to use diplomacy to recruit allies: instead of the team making an operations roll, they make a diplomacy roll and Mark makes the roll for the recruited unit. The Druids of Myrskyr have a special unit of Healers/Landshapers (can re-build terrain); the City of Gusthaven has Gryphon cavalry; the Dragons have a unit called War Dragon, which is… a dragon, fully-armoured and badass. If they fail on the diplomacy roll, they ally doesn’t agree to commit to the mission, and that operation turn is lost. Every war asset has keywords rather than hard and fast stats, and if keywords fit, they will get a bonus: e.g. Guardian scouts are elite (+1) and adaptable (+1), while the Guardian army is elite and stalwart (good at defence).
	+ Whenever there is a Domain skill roll, they can pay 1,000 gold to get a +1 bonus to represent giving supplies, building fortifications, giving bribes, etc. Some of the NPCs they might want to use include: Arval Dagos provides +1 to Defence (he’s rich and is happy to spend money on stuff); Rosemeadow has made them potions for base cost; Azaria Perel makes them magic items for base cost, etc. Some super-powerful NPCs such as Dannica and Azaria Perel cannot be counted as retainers because they have their own stuff to do and do not feel beholden to them.
	+ Current retainers: Reyn +? to Operations (good bonus to operations, used to coordination, knowledgeable about warfare and logistics). Moonstar +? To Espionage (willing to go on spy missions, stealthy, has gadgets). Faeth +? To diplomacy (charismatic, has some training in persuasion). Arval can be used for operations – not the best at it, but he has a lot of connections and trade friends and agreements that he can use for leverage. Guinevere (Petal) – Lore-focussed – daughter of a very infamous and powerful mage, good at research, studying and understanding magic; bonuses to magical research and looking things up.
	+ Mark has already factored in, based on what they have already done, any bonuses to the Domain traits for Horizon. Note: a bad roll can result in an NPC being captured, killed or other bad things happening. When Horizon gets domain turns, so do their enemies, and they have a chance of doing damage to Horizon or undoing damage that has been done by them.
	+ As power factions, Vortinssar is about the same size as Horizon (size 2), Gisella is a little larger (size 3); the Valkyrian Empire is very big compared to Horizon (size 6) but limited in what they can do.
	+ Espionage: good for destabilising and weakening as a domain (weaken resolve), giving knowledge of troops, what is going on (asking questions about the enemy), or disrupting communication or supplies (disruption/resolve).
	+ “Does Kalus have a weakness?” would have a very high DC for the domain skill check.
	+ Failing domain checks: fail by 1-3 something bad probably happens, but it’s not the worst, fail by more than 5 it’s “pretty fucking bad”, natural 1 “it’s REALLY fucking bad”.
* Trott advises for the lore fanatics that when Mark originally wrote about the skycities, Gusthaven was one of the original refugee settlements and created the Accords which created the rules and regulations of the Skycities. Gusthaven was first skycity to take people from the Lowlands as long as they had space.
* Nova asked what Pyri is up to, seeing if she could send him on an espionage mission for them. Tom said he was dead, Mark said simply that he was “unavailable to them”, indicating that he may be alive and fighting for the enemy.
* Mark confirms that Nanny Norfir was a legitimate assassin, and that she has a very dark background. She would take a client such as Lucius’ father or the nobles of Gusthaven.
* Mark doesn’t mind Tom using Mireeka as his emissary, because if he rolls badly, something bad will happen to her.
* The one thing they cannot use domain abilities for is to assist Valla in finding Titan domains, because only Valla has the ability to find and learn how to break into the pocket dimensions.
* Lucius wants to do research into dispelling Hadar energy.
* Gisella is playing the victim since they were attacked.

## **References**

1. ↑ This action is resolved by a Diplomacy check (Horizon +1, Faeth +2, +d20; the DC is quite low because Horizon and Gusthaven are allies). It is successful, boosting the morale of Horizon by +1 to Resolve.
2. ↑ This action is resolved by a Diplomacy check (d20, Horizon +1, Rethra +2). It is successful, creating a new war asset: Wild Elf Commandoes – an elite force built around stealth and hit and run tactics – this will be a permanent unit unless something bad happens to them.
3. ↑ This action is resolved by an espionage check (d20, Horizon +2, Norfir +4). It is rolled against Vortinssar’s espionage and is therefore a contested roll: Kim rolls a natural 20, meaning that their defence resolve is reduced by 2, and because they were beaten on the contested roll, they do not know which agents are doing this - they may guess that it is Horizon, but not how, or who the agents are.
4. ↑ This action is resolved by a diplomany check (d20, Horizon +1, Mireeka +3), which is successful. This adds a +1 to Horizon’s communication defence.
5. ↑ This action is resolved by an operations skill check (d20, Horizon +2, Reyn +4). This improves the resources defence of Horizon by +1
6. ↑ This is an operations action that uses a military asset; the guardian scouts are an elite unit and adaptable, getting a bonus for both - the numerical value is not said as Rhiannon rolls before Mark clarifies them, and the roll (a natural 18) is successful.
7. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/190275359932022784/190275359932022784/893159316465528872
8. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/190275359932022784/190275359932022784/893186755392577556