Aerois - Episode 30: The Depths of the Night Eye

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Oriya Marius

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Depths of the Night Eye** is the 30th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 31st March 2019 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*A waterlogged dungeon full of ghosts and magical defences...what could possibly go wrong? Let's explore the depths of the Night Eye(sic) Keep.*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The sponsors this week are D&D Beyond (it is the “offigital”(Markism) tool set) and Displate.
* Yog Con – first half of the tickets are sold already, and another bunch of tickets will be available in May.
* Twitch Con – sold out but catch us live on Twitch. Kim won’t be going to Twitch Con anymore but will be in chat.
* Merch: there are new HR phone cases that will soon be in the store.
* A fan art video was put out last week. Thank you to all the fan artists.
* There will be another cool announcement via Katie’s Twitter – there will be some work with a previous sponsor.

### **Recap**

"*With their ally and friend, Sentry, Guardian paladin of Solwynn, dead, the party magically transported to a new continent; they've sought the aid of a priestess of Kellara called Skaldi Ravenscar. The Dwarven priestess has agreed to heal their injuries and help protect Sentry's life force, in exchange for the party helping her resolve a problem with unquiet spirits in the ruin of an old watchtower called The Nighteye. The party set off, leaving Sentry's body behind in the town of Stenhill, and encountered some troubles along the road including a pair of Storm Griffons that descended from the sky. Arriving at the ruins, the party realised it had been the location of a desperate battle between Aerois and the forces of Kalus Starbane, with the remains of a giant metal war machine half-buried in the ruins. Nova felt the presence of a shard of Tiangong, the Eterna who has given her her magical powers; and after a battle against a swarm of angry spirits, the party have discovered the flooded entrance to the underground chamber where the source of the ghosts' anger and the shard of Tiangong remain.*"

### **Part 1**

*The party must learn how to swim as they head deeper into the ruins!*

It is night and the party is currently standing in cold, thigh-high, stagnant flood water that surrounds the ruin of The Nighteye. Nova has found a concealed trapdoor that is open and gives access to the flooded tunnels that lead to the submerged temple of Siaska. The water in the tunnel is cloudy with mud residue, and there do not appear to be any light sources from further within. The remainder of the above-ground ruins are illuminated by the eerie green light coming from the visored helmet of the submerged war machine in front of them, which emits a low-grade soft hum.

Nova proposes roping her off so that she can go into the flooded ruins and see if she can find air pockets or unflooded areas underwater in which the party could breathe, re-group, and maybe even rest, since she can hold her breath indefinitely. They finally decide to take eight hours of rest in the remains of the keep aboveground instead, and Oriya casts *Primeval Awareness* to ensure that they are not crept up on by undead while they rest: she senses ten undead creatures below them underground. Skaldi thinks the ones underground will stay put until disturbed, while Lucius is concerned that they may meet the unknown woman in white on the skeletal horse while they wait. Lucius and Aila keep watch: on top of the cold and damp conditions above, Lucius feels an unnerving and unnatural presence from below, with darkness and cold creeping through his mind; Aila, however, only senses a cold and flooded ruin that nature has reclaimed from its occupied and civilised state.

In the morning they enjoy some cold rations while Quill finds some worms and eats those. They know that a storm is incoming in the next four hours, so they rope Nova off while Skaldi casts *Light* on her scarf around her waist. Nova goes into the cold, murky water, where she finds that the soft light from her scarf creates a gentle glow giving her up to fifteen feet of illumination. As she moves up the corridor, it quickly splits into a three-way junction with paths off to the left and right as well as straight ahead.

The corridors are made of a plain worked stone that have begun to erode at the corners, and there are the odd empty metal sconces along the walls as she passes into the right corridor. She ends up in a flooded room that looks like it used to be a guard barracks or a watch room. There are beds floating on the roof along with three skeletal bodies wearing leather armour, and towards the south of the room are rusted iron bars on a metal hinged door. As Nova goes to leave the room, she hears a distorted ethereal voice from behind the bars asking, “What’s going on? Who are you? I don’t recognise you! What are you doing here?” although she cannot see anything or anyone. She points to herself as if to say, ‘who me?’ and the disembodied voice acknowledges her, “Yes, you! The others aren’t around here. What’s going on outside? How’s the battle faring? Are you a civilian? You shouldn’t be here!” Nova tries to signal to the next room, but when it is clear that she cannot speak, the voice becomes irritated and tells her to get out for her own safety.

Nova goes back to the group to report on her findings so far, then returns to the submerged main tunnel. As she heads up to the junction again, she sees three spectral soldiers (wearing uniforms of the Starborn Alliance(see Trivia)) patrolling the corridor in front of her. Nova backs up and the soldiers head into the room opposite the one that Nova had just investigated, so she heads up and talks to the group again. Nova, Oriya and Skaldi return to the flooded corridors and head to the left.

The corridor opens up into a wide room looking like a grand hall or visitor’s area; there is a large table in the middle of the room and there are no signs of the spirits. There are scraps of fabric, tattered pieces of old tapestries, attached to the walls, and while the whole room appears to be flooded, there are stairs at the back of the room that lead up, and several bodies again float around the ceiling. As Nova swims above the table and her hand scrapes away some of the sediment on it, she reveals part of a regional map that has been carved into the table’s top – there are stone pieces that appear to represent armies, units and war machines, as if it was a war room map used for planning the defence of the local area: they notice that there are black and white stone pieces, and there are way more black pieces than white. The keep has been placed in the centre of the table with the hills and regions around it, and the white pieces were forming a defensive line against a very large force of attackers. As she is looking at the map, Nova sees the three spirits descending the stairs in front of her – she looks to Oriya who makes a hand signal that Nova interprets as attacking the spirits, so she does, destroying one of the three. Oriya, who was actually signalling to pull on the rope to get Aila to remove them, suddenly sees the two remaining spirits pull out their blades and puts *Slayer’s Prey* on the nearest spirit and moves forward. Nova blasts them again and destroys another, so the last spirit heads directly for her and stabs her. Skaldi does some minor damage before Oriya destroys the last spirit. They head to the stairs and break into an air pocket that is stale; at the end of the stairs is a T-junction, both arms of which are blocked with fallen stone and rubble which contain skeletal bodies. One of the bodies is still clutching an ornate metal scroll case with a crystalline key on a chain attached to it. They tie the rope to a wall sconce and Nova sends a message to Quill for the rest of the party to join them, which they do.

Quill notices the map on the way through and heads back to check it out; he clears the remaining surface so that he can see it properly. The map is topographical but not too detailed: it is clearly for coordinating battles, and he notices that it does not really match anything that he knows – it dawns on him that this map was made before the Sundering.

Nova uses *Mage Hand* to get the scroll case from the skeletal hand that is holding it. The scroll case is ornate and finely etched (worth 200 gold) – it has opals inlaid into each end and the key is tethered to it by a silver chain. The scroll case is similar in design to the one that Quill found by Sentry’s body, but not the same.

### **Part 2**

*Plenty of treasure to be found in the Night Eye Ruins... Also monsters!*

Nova opens the scroll case with *Mage Hand* and finds a piece of parchment inside it – it has been hastily written in old Common and appears to be orders dispatched between a commander and front-line troops:

*Move the wounded troops to the dormitories and activate the magical security leading to the Shrine: I fear that the watch tower will be overrun.*

*Watch Commander Eloquis*

They discuss where to go, concerned that Quill will be seen by any spirits as an agent of Starbane because they would never have seen an Aarakocra before. Quill starts preparing *Detect Magic* as a ritual, asking Nova if she wants to cast it if she is going to go ahead and scout out air pockets – it is at this point that she realises that not only has she torn out her page of rituals from her spellbook, but that she has not protected anything from the water, so everything that can be destroyed by water has been, including the remains of her spellbook. Quill's maps are safe in his scroll case, but everything else they have is soaked, including their tents and bed rolls. Nova is stunned at her spellbook being soaked; Aila takes it to snap her out of the shock, telling her not to rip out any more pages, and Nova explains she tore out the rituals so she could learn more powerful ones and what happened to Sentry wouldn't happen again. Aila returns the spellbook and gives Nova her own rope, so they can leave the one currently linking this air pocket to the outside where it is. Nova heads back to the junction with Skaldi and Oriya, attaching Aila's rope to the other one at the junction. They head along the so-far unexplored corridor and find a half-lowered portcullis; impaled on the bottom spikes of the portcullis is a large humanoid creature. It is nine feet tall and very wide; its skull has huge horns curling upward from the temporal regions, and its legs appear to be more animal-like with cloven hoofs. The body is dressed in rusted black leather armour – it appears to have been impaled by the portcullis and been in place long enough for the portcullis to rust in place. The portcullis is held high enough that they can get underneath it with relative ease. The corridor turns off to the left; there is also a natural cleft in the rock wall to the right that they could squeeze through and descend into some sort of chasm.

They follow the corridor to the left and sense that it opens up into a room, though they can't see far in the murky water. Oriya notices a thin groove in the ceiling – she investigates it but is not sure what it is, so points it out to Nova. Nova investigates and thinks that it is a hidden portcullis that will drop and cut the doorway off, but does not know what will trigger the portcullis to close (she mimes this to the group). As they swim into the room, they see some stairs in the corner, and find this room is taller than the corridor, with about ten to fifteen feet of air from the ceiling of the room. Mounted into the ceiling above a stone lip is a colossal ballista, which targets them as they enter the room. Its rusted clockwork gears squeal as it shoots a bolt of light at Skaldi, and a weighted bolas attached to thick cord towards Oriya. Both attacks miss and the bolas, attached to a chain, is retracted back to the ballista. Nova uses the *Heat Metal* ability contained within Tiangong, but it does not appear to be particularly effective; Skaldi tries to hit with *Sacred Flame,* but it appears to be shielded against that attack. Oriya moves up to attack but sets off a trap on the stairs that turn into a slide, and the portcullis closes at the far end of the room – she tries to climb up the sloped stairs but slips on the algae covering them and falls back into the water. The turret shoots two energy bolts at Nova, rendering her unconscious. Skaldi drags Nova up to get some air and heals her, then hits the turret with *Sacred Flame.* Oriya fills the top part of the room with *Fog Cloud*, obscuring them from the turret’s view – it targets the vague area that Nova and Skaldi were in with an energy bolt, hitting Oriya and Nova (Nova loses consciousness again). Skaldi heals Nova once more and they see that the fog cloud starts to dissipate (since Oriya was distracted by the bolt). Oriya casts *Fog Cloud* again. Nova sees the faint outline of a doorway behind the turret. The turret hits Skaldi with a piercing bolt but misses Oriya. Nova hands a healing potion to Oriya then casts *Thunder Step* and takes Skaldi with her to the other side of the portcullis, making a thunderous noise. Oriya tries to use the cover of the fog cloud to swim away stealthily and hide; the turret hits her with a bolt but misses with a bola.

Meanwhile, Quill, Lucius, and Aila have been discussing favourite colours - Lucius's is purple. They all heard the thunderous noise, and Quill has been messaging Nova who now responds that Oriya is in trouble, and they need to come immediately; she also tugs on the ropes to give the signal that they are in trouble. Aila immediately takes off and heads towards the junction in the corridor, followed by Lucius and Quill. Skaldi moves to the portcullis but cannot see Oriya who suddenly appears at the gate, lifts it and swims under it to escape the room. They all head back to the main entrance and reconvene to discuss the problem ahead of them. They believe the door behind the turret probably leads to the shrine from which all the problems are coming. Quill heals them all, and Nova tells them that she thinks that the small natural cleft opposite the room with the turret leads back to the giant war machine, possibly to its submerged arm.

They discuss how to disable the ballista and eventually head back to the room – the portcullis has retracted, and the room is open. Nova prepares to *Levitate* Aila when she is underneath the turret, Aila swims towards it and rages. Lucius hits the turret with *Melf’s Acid Arrow*, Quill hits it with *Guiding Bolt*, and Nova puts *Hexblade Curse* on it. Lucius throws a *Chromatic Orb,* but it hits the roof instead; the turret hits both Quill and Lucius with bolts, and Aila destroys it with one hit of her hammer. Aila can now see that there are dead bodies on the platform holding rotted bows, and behind them a large ten-foot-wide gold door that has images of Siaska upon it.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:07 - Episode Start
06:55 - Intro
09:26 - Part 1
1:18:27 - Break time/Fan art video
1:27:04 - Part 2
2:39:06 - Outro/Donations
2:45:50 – Fan art video

*feel free to add extra timestamps of significant events!*

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Siaska
* Kalus Starbane
* Watch Commander Eloquis

## **Featured Locations**

* Myrskyr
	+ The Nighteye

## **Trivia**

* Tom gets in trouble before the announcements for moving his dice around and making too much noise.
* There were some camera issues this week resulting in some very dark panels, flickering or loss of image.
* Katie says that she is the unluckiest at rolling dice. This later becomes a risible statement as Katie has had more nat 20s by the later game than most players according to the stats done by 39SaltyCookies (CptnClusterDuck on Reddit).
* Mark lost Skaldi’s lantern abilities on his Google Doc but said that he remembers them enough to use them ok without it.
* The Starborn Alliance soldiers were forces who fought for Siaska and Aerois before the Sundering.
* Mark initially has air in the first room that Nova investigates but then realises that it would actually be entirely underwater.
* **Lore dump:** The Aarakocra race did not exist before the Sundering.
* **Continuity error:** Mark says that he imagines that the Storm Griffins are mammals. Last episode, he described them as having eggs.
* The highest that Rhiannon rolled all session was a 10.
* The turret was immune to a lot of different types of damage, so acid was a good choice from Lucius.
* A fan art video was played at the end of the episode.