Aerois - Episode 43: Secrets of the Galecrown

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Mark Hulmes as Aila

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Secrets of the Galecrown** is the 43rd episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 18th August 2019 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*After some downtime, the gang refocus on the mysterious case of The Elenasto murders and unravel some hard truths...*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players. Katie is away this week as she is not feeling very well.
* Sponsors this week are Nord VPN and D&D Beyond.
* Mark, Katie, and Tom will be at PAX West at the end of August and will be there for all four days. On Friday at 1.30pm, they will be doing signings, and on Saturday at 4.30pm in the Raven Theatre, there will be a Q&A panel. There will be meet and greet sessions throughout the weekend at the Idle Champions booth. There is still the potential for a live game with two guests (whom Mark needs to find).
* Merch: there are two new shirts, a Sorcerer shirt and a Lucius shirt. There are also new HR hats.
* Thanks to everyone who subscribed or gifted subs on the HRDND Twitch channel. There were lots of gifted subs last month. There are lots of HR specific HR emotes. Reminder that with Amazon Prime, you get a free Prime sub.

### **Recap**

"*A week has passed in the sky city of Gusthaven, and the hectic lives of our heroes finally have some time to wind down as plans and preparations are made. Whilst half the group research and investigate their past, their plans, or their fears, Lucius finalises designs for the airship he has commissioned, and works with the Lily and Sprocket Shipwrighting Company to begin construction. The Stormchaser is under way, with only a few decisions left to make. Sentry, Quill, and Nova delved into the Emperyan Archives, and researched a number of topics, discovering clues about Solwynn, the City of Glass, and Hadar, a mysterious force in the Dark Beyond. The party feels a desire to investigate the City of Glass and Sentry's home of Solwynn after they have concluded matters here in Gusthaven. A crew is also gathered for the Stormchaser; Lucius takes his role as Captain, and assigns Nova as Engineer and Quill as Quartermaster, with a number of extra NPC hires fulfilling the other positions, mainly led by Oriya Marius, who was Rhiannon's temporary character, to take the position of first mate, who is on her way to the sky city of Gusthaven.*"
### **Part 1**

*A few days construction remains but the Sky Prince calls a meeting regarding the Elenasto Fiasco!*

The party is staying as guests with House Virinor whom Lucius has commissioned to create a secret base in the basement of his old family estate while they are given the rights to build a house on the land above. In the meantime, the party is staying with the Virinor family at their own estate which is a traditional home: white stone with blue pennants with a mason’s square and compass as the family emblem.

The house is elegant without being glamorous – this house is not as wealthy as the Elenastos were, but the house is very homely, and they have been well looked after by a member of the family, Adaela Virinor. Adaela is one of three sisters who run House Virinor, is a tall High Elf woman with long, luxurious hair kept neatly by a slender, bejewelled head band over her head; she has long bangs and a high ponytail. Adaela manages administration, social elements, and generally acts as the face of the House. She is the person whom Lucius originally approached with his offer regarding the Elenasto land. The two other sisters, Nira and Corina Virinor, handle the architecture elements of the business – Corina (who is an architect) handles the designs, plans, and blueprints, while Nira (who is a skilled mason and carpenter with some magical abilities) manages the construction and labour side.

The party has picked up their messenger rings and now try to work out what to do while they wait for construction of the airship and the secret basement (which will take a lot longer). Early in the morning, the party is interrupted by Adaela Virinor who enters the breakfast room dramatically to give Lucius important news – she has just returned from Galecrown (the palace) with the news that Sky Prince Aridan and Ellois wish to speak to him about some developments with the news of his family and Lucius’ reported death. The party lets it slip that they have been attacked by the Wind Barons – Adaela becomes concerned for the safety of her family having thought that the Wind Barons were sky pirates who raided cargo ships out in the mountains.

It does not take them long to travel from Azurebright Plaza to Galecrown. Galecrown sits at the junction between three different districts, all of which have access to the palace. They enter between wide, tall gates and follow a spiralling narrow pathway to the palace building. Gusthaven, before the Sundering, was built into a mountainous region and Galecrown was a citadel built into the mountainside – part of this still remains today, so in order to get to the palace, one must wind their way up towards the citadel in the mountain. The rest of Gusthaven falls away from Galecrown at an angle, eventually forming into an island base which spreads out quite wide. The sky lake, attached by various bridges, floats independently nearby. Galecrown, as the pinnacle of the city, also is host to a spider’s web of metal rods and spheres that spread out over the top of the city – this is what casts the globe of weather upon which the city relies.

At the outer gates of the palace, they are searched briefly before the magical sigils on their hands allow them admittance and they are directed to head directly up to see the Sky Prince. Each morning is busy in the palace – there is a public forum that allows the people to raise issues and discuss ideas, and the palace also hosts Royal Knights and Staves (wizards). The party is led to a small side room where they see Ellois, one of the Royal Staves, is also waiting. Ellois rises when they enter, bowing to “Lord Elenasto” and has heard from the Knight Captain about the attack on the party at Norfir’s. He tells Lucius that the Prince has news about the scrying that alleged that Lucius was dead.

Before long, the doors open and in flies a bright, silvery-white owl with a sparkling gem in the middle of its head – it swoops in and lands on the back of one of the chairs. Lucius recognises it as a Star Owl, a reasonably rare sort of owl in Gusthaven that is expensive to keep and often has aetherium mixed into its feed. Following behind not long after, wearing robes of deep blue and silver, is Sky Prince Aridan Irisen Pelony Starsorrow, and he has a very large sword sheathed at his side. Aridan has dark brown hair that falls down below his shoulders and wears a crown upon his head. When he sees the owl perched on the chair back, he calls to it, telling it (Malachi) that it should not be on the furniture, at which point it hops down and flies over to perch upon his shoulder.

Aridan sighs heavily and removes his sword, setting it aside, before apologising for being late – the forum lasted much longer than he had thought it would with lengthy discussions of some problems that have been occurring in the Chains that have been weighing on his mind. Ellois tells them about the mage that had been hired to scry on Lucius and had reported him dead – they have been looking for her, but she vanished shortly after Lucius’ arrival in Gusthaven (she returned to her quarters, vanished, and has not been seen since). There is a belief that she may have gone down into the Chains, a place that is described as “a wretched place that hangs beneath the city” that is full of exiles who refuse to leave and people who do not have authorisation to remain in the city.

Anastasia Magrona has also returned to the city upon the request of Aridan and Ellois and is now currently under house arrest – she is the one who hired the mage and gave the erroneous report to the Sky Prince, but she is also insisting that she is innocent. The scryer’s name is Adaela Venethor, a minor mage of a largely insignificant house: she worked as a Wand before some health concerns forced her to get a job in the palace performing scryings and sendings. Witnesses report that she had been acting strangely of late, being depressed for some time followed by periods of elation, although this had not affected her ability to perform her duties. Adaela was seen leaving her quarters and has not been seen since.

Ellois does not know what anyone stood to gain from incorrectly reporting Lucius dead – it could be to gain the Elenasto assets (which some families have gained, although Lucius has been paid compensation for them), it might have been out of fear that Lucius knew something that they did not want others to know, or perhaps the mage was either a pawn or the leader of the conspiracy. Ellois tells them that the Watch and City Guard are on high alert.

Lucius asks if they can compel the truth from Anastasia, but Ellois says that since they currently have no reason to doubt the truth of her statements, they have no reason to try to use magic on her like that, and in any case, she is a powerful mage in her own right. Virion Elenasto and Anastasia were business rivals for some time, he tells Lucius.

When Lucius asks about the Wind Barons, Aridan speaks up, telling him about their attacks on trade routes in and out of Gusthaven as well as some lowland villages that Gusthaven would normally trade with. Aridan tells the party, to the surprise of Ellois, that the Wind Barons have been getting stronger in the city and fighting with citizens in the Chains, accosting merchants, and raiding warehouses. He fears that they may be worming their way into the noble houses of Gusthaven. The Wind Barons, he tells them, are well funded and have knowledge of the government, systems, and patrols – he is worried and considers them to be a terrible threat. There is no fixed base and their information is compartmentalised so that no one knows who their leaders are – no one meets their superiors, information is handled magically, and the messenger is disguised in body and voice. Quill reveals the power of his magical eye and tells the Sky Prince what he saw of the man who sent the people to attack them at the warehouse. Ellois is astounded at the powerful magic that Quill has access to, unfortunately they do not recognise the library from Quill’s vision, and Quill does not believe that any of the rooms in the Empyrean Archive match what he saw.

Quill asks if he might be able to view the Magrona’s private library in case it was that room that he saw. Aridan cautions him against this, however, since there is still a great rivalry between the Magronas and the Elenastos, and even though Anastasia is under house arrest, Belanor will be there, as will his brother, Democles, who will be running the business in lieu of his mother. Belanor is more of a fighter and sportsman these days, rather than having much to do with the running of the business.

Lucius asks about the stone that comprises the building of the Magrona estate, wondering if it might match the description of the room that Quill saw, but Aridan tells him that all of Gusthaven was built using the stone that comprised the original city, same as the palace, and it is all white, sparkling stone. Quill asks to look at the library in the palace – Aridan is happy for him to do so and Ellois offers to show him to it. Before they leave, Lucius mentions their encounter with Moonstar at his estate – Ellois’ face shows his displeasure what he refers to as “a vigilante troublemaker going about her own justice”. He describes Moonstar as assisting on one hand by finding and helping to take down Wind Baron warehouses and hindering on the other by striking out at honest folk in noble houses, merchants, and trading ships. He suspects that Moonstar has a personal agenda that is causing her to strike out at whom she thinks is guilty rather than who is actually guilty. He thinks her a dangerous woman and is concerned that she may think Lucius some sort of charlatan, meaning that his life may be in danger from her. Moonstar has eluded capture and has taken down many Wind Baron agents and even guards by herself. Quill asks if there is a way to summon her or get her attention – he wants to talk to her about her claim to being “the champion of Siaska”, but Ellois has not heard of this claim or a way to get in touch with her.

Aridan summons his owl to him, picks up his sword and takes his leave.

Ellois speaks to Lucius, telling him of his concern that Lucius might be spending a considerable amount of money on the airship out of grief. He advises Lucius to take all the time he needs but reminds him that with his family line going back hundreds of years, that he will always be a son of Gusthaven. Ellois leads them through the palace to the library – it is a large, full, well decorated room. Oak and mahogany bookshelves with gold railings covering parts of them are filled with pristine-looking tomes (looking like copies of books to Nova’s eye, probably from originals at the Empyrean Archive), most of which look like they have not been opened or touched. Here and there are scribes, Staves, and Wands, going over tomes and arcane spell books.

To Quill’s eye, this library is clearly not the same place as he saw in his vision, but it is a very similar style. Most of the walls are covered in bookshelves, tapestries, and paintings, but as they pass a curiously unadorned and empty space of wall, Quill, with his keen eyes, notices the thin outline of a secret door. Ellois walks past it, oblivious, and apologises to them, advising them that this is all that there is to see of the library. Nova is unhappy – she thinks of this as a “show library” because the books have not been read or used, and she does not approve. Ellois tells her that there is less interest in history these days and that the noble sons of Gusthaven tend to spend more time dealing with aetherium and playing sports than reading.

Quill, explaining that they have been betrayed by those they trusted previously, asks Ellois if he would be prepared to submit to a *Zone of Truth* spell – Ellois maintains his composure but looks hurt and apologises if he has given Quill reason to doubt or distrust him. Ellois tells Quill that he does not need to use a spell, that Quill can simply ask a question and that Ellois will do his best to answer. Quill turns to Lucius who tells him that he has known Ellois all his life and never known him to do a wrong - Ellois reaffirms that his loyalty is to the people of Gusthaven, and that he has served the Sky Prince for his whole life – he has nothing to hide, but he does understand their plight.

Quill asks Ellois what he thinks of the Sky Prince – Ellois takes some time to answer, waiting for the library to empty a little and for the noise to die down. He looks around as if seeing whether he will be overheard before answering in hushed tones that Prince Aridan is a very well-meaning boy who grew up on tales of knights and heroes who fought in the war – he is still full of hopes and dreams. He is idealistic, Ellois tells them, and has become enamoured of the aetherium industry and what it can provide to the people of the lowlands, but in doing so, he has lost the support of the people of Gusthaven. He looks outwards too much. Ellois then gives them some information in the hopes that it will encourage them to trust him: he tells them that the Sky Prince receives funds from somewhere outside Gusthaven – it is not from taxes or from trading, and every time there is a financial problem, funding somehow appears. Lucius asks if this is not a breach of policy – Ellois says that it is, that the Survival Accords were created to keep the sky cities functioning (and every High Elf is taught about these Accords). Because there is limited space in a sky city, it places limits on where people can live and how much food they can grow. Every time that a ship of refugees comes to the city from the lowlands, even though there is no money to fund or feed them (according to the Council and the Magistrates), somehow the Prince finds the funds. Lucius is pleased to hear that Aridan is not lining his own pockets, but Ellois makes the point that he is getting it from somewhere, and that the Wind Barons have become a problem since Aridan took office.

Ellois cannot explain what the connection between these events might be, however. With everyone having sworn fealty to Aridan, it is almost impossible to investigate him because it would cause public embarrassment and be an offense and no loyal High Elf would wish to be a part of it. Ellois tells them that only a few people know of it thus far – he came to know of the issue through the people with whom he works, Anastasia knows, and now the party knows.

Sentry asks if Aridan is particularly close to anyone, but other than the Knight Captain, Valera, who served Aridan’s father (and grew up with Aridan), Aridan mostly keeps to himself. Valera is very protective of Aridan. The only other people who have been remotely close are the noble families, Lucius’ father, Anastasia, Savarion of the Aethereons, and the rest of the heads of the noble families.

Quill asks Ellois how well he knows the library and the rest of the palace. Ellois tells him that he used to be a Wand for a long time before becoming a Stave many years ago. As a Wand, he patrolled the streets of Gusthaven, and even defeated a number of Wyverns that tried to attack the city. His specialty is in defensive magic (abjuration). Ellois, being a scholar, prefers to spend more of his time at the Empyrean Archive than in the palace library with copies of books.

Since there is now an understanding between them, Quill takes Ellois back to the blank space of wall and asks if he knows what might be behind it – Ellois does not, thinking it just to be a section of wall. Quill points out the seam and it is only with intense scrutiny that Ellois is able to make it out, although he does not know what is behind it. The party invites Ellois to come with them if they are to investigate – he offers to clear the library while they attempt to find a way in. Ellois goes down to the ground floor and gives people tasks in order to clear people from the library while Quill begins the ritual casting of *Detect Magic* and Sentry casts *Divine Sense* (sensing nothing).

Lucius looks around for a hidden lever that will open the door – he presses on the glowing crystals set into the wall, he pulls books from nearby bookshelves, but nothing triggers the door to open. Lucius asks Smeek to see if he can open the door – Smeek looks at the wall before screaming and hammering on it with his fists to no avail. Aila pulls him back.

They hear the heavy doors of the library close, and Quill concludes his ritual cast as Ellois returns to them. Quill detects abjuration magic upon the door, which Ellois suggests might be some sort of arcane lock to make the door more difficult to open, alternatively it could be a glyph of warding, symbol, or alarm to protect the door. Nova waves Tiangong in front of the wall and casts *Dispel Magic* on the secret door – she feels a pulse and Quill sees the abjuration magic vanish. Quill puts his hand on the wall and nudges it gently, nothing happens. Sentry pushes the wall, and the heavy door opens into a stone corridor with stone stairs leading down. Ellois is astonished and agrees to accompany them, staying at the rear to guard their flank while Sentry and Quill lead them down the corridor. They close the door behind them.

The stairs descend about 30 feet and 15-feet down, over a 10-foot area, is a glyph.

### **Part 2**

*A secret room in the Galecrown Palace? What could be hidden inside?!*

Quill, seeing the glyph of abjuration magic, warns Sentry to stop, then asks Ellois what the glyph might be – a glyph of warding is his best bet. Nova dispels the glyph in front of them and they continue down the remaining 15 feet of the stairs towards a corridor that leads into a room in front of them. Over the entrance way of the corridor is another abjuration spell, and on the floor just inside the room entrance is another glyph.

Quill dispels the spell above the corridor but cannot dispel the second glyph. Sentry sends her echo into the room, and it sees a large circular room with bookshelves surrounding the walls. There are gold furnishings similar to the library upstairs, a desk over to one side covered in journals and papers, potion vials, and strange metal spheres. Echo’s attention is drawn to a creature that sits locked into an alcove in the stone wall – it is humanoid in shape but made from metal, not a Guardian, but of a similar style and design, just lacking the Matrix that gives a Guardian sentience. Echo is recalled and a description of what lies within the room is relayed. They suspect that triggering the glyph may activate the golem. Nova wonders if the metal spheres are similar to what appeared at Norfir’s before the explosion and Sentry thinks that they might be.

Lucius jumps over the glyph, just managing to clear it, then moves his way around the room, looking for loose papers. The books are mainly about magical theory, Gusthaven’s history, and history of the noble families. On the desk, he finds a collection of papers, written in Elven, which are written orders. They detail how to set people up into positions of power within Gusthaven, there are communications with someone called the Wind King (the leader of the Wind Barons), messages regarding troop placements and assignments on certain dates, and information on cargo transportation into the city – it provides information on where to strike and where to avoid, and supplies to steal. In addition, there is information that has been used in blackmail against several of the Knights of Siaska from the cathedral – they have been blackmailed into spying and providing information at the threat of injury to their families.

The last couple of pages really catch Lucius’ attention, however. One of them is the letter that he sent to his father from Kalie’s Rest, telling him that he was alive and on his way home, and attached to this is a note:

*The Elenasto boy is alive. We must deal with the contingencies. Our agents may be compromised. I’ve dispatched assassins to Kalie’s Rest, from where he sent the message.*

There is another note later on:

*The boy is missing from Kalie’s Rest – he seems to have vanished. Nobody knows what happened to him. We may have been lucky…*

And another:

*He’s returned. I must quickly deal with this. The easiest scapegoat is Anastasia – he knows that she hates his family, however, will need to move quickly. I’ll send agents to deal with him and his the nanny as quickly as possible.*

There are no names on any of the pieces of paper until, at the very last minute, Lucius spies a crumpled-up piece of paper that looks to have been thrown away in anger. The letter is from Salvarius Aetheron, the head of the Aetheron noble family:

*I can’t believe you’ve let this happen. Why haven’t you dealt with him already? He’s going to ruin everything. That welp owes me money. I won’t forgive this, Ellois.*

When he finishes reading the letter, Lucius turns around and sees a long iron staff above the door and Ellois, standing behind the others, his hands crackling with power. Lucius shouts, “It’s Ellois…!” All of a sudden, a *Cone of Cold* blasts towards the party from Ellois who has stepped back deeper into the corridor. Smeek is frozen into a statue by the spell, but Aila turns and grabs Ellois, shoving him against the wall – she demands to know why he has done this, but he refuses to answer a lowland wastrel of a Wild Elf. Nova fires up *Green Flame Blade* and attacks Ellois with Tiangong, only to find that he is warded with some sort of magical shield. As soon as Nova’s blade hits Ellois, Lucius sees the Guardian statue activate – he is so shocked that Ellois is involved that he staggers backwards towards the door and accidentally steps on the glyph on the floor. Black lightning shoots up and sucks the life out of Lucius, leaving him to slump to the floor, unconscious, but the glyph disappears. Quill rushes through to his friend and heals him. Ellois attempts to *Banish* Aila, but she manages to resist the spell.

The Guardian moves slowly out of its alcove and attacks the first person that it can reach – Sentry – who parries both of its lumbering blows with her shield. The guardian is approximately 9-feet tall but appears only to be as strong as Sentry. Sentry hits the golem twice, starting to cleave through the guardian that is trying to get to Ellois – she notices that its wounds are slowly starting to knit together. Aila tries to silence Ellois, but he starts to wriggle free, ensuring that he can still cast spells.

Nova casts *Hexblade Curse* on Ellois and misses with her next swing of Tiangong. Lucius throws an acidic *Chromatic Orb* at the back of the guardian, covering it with acid and hits Ellois with *Dichromancy.* Lucius suggests subduing Ellois so that he can answer for his actions and crimes. Quill tries to cast *Hold Person* on Ellois, but it is immediately *Counterspelled* by the cocky Stave, so he instead inspires Sentry to act. Ellois vanishes, then immediately appears next to the desk in the library and picks up one of the spheres, the guardian statue moves towards him, and Sentry cleaves it as it stomps past. The guardian holds up its hand, revealing a crystal embedded within it, and accesses its spell storage, before casting *Fireball* into the room. Lucius falls to the ground again, unconscious, joined in this state by Quill. Quill is thawed by the *Fireball* but is still unconscious.

Sentry feeds a potion of healing to Quill before Aila rages and runs in and recklessly attacks Ellois – he throws up a *Shield* to try to stave off some of the damage, but this fails, and he is both pummelled and zapped by lightning.

Nova moves to Lucius, takes a healing potion from his bag, and feeds one to him before drinking another herself. Lucius immediately asks Ellois why his father was targeted and Ellois responds that Virion was in his way and resistant to change. Lucius casts *Hypnotic Pattern* which Ellois counterspells. Quill strums his bandore, casting *Entangle,* managing to restrain both Ellois and the guardian with vine growth in the back corner of the room, and then casts *Shield of Faith* on Lucius.

Ellois conjures a *Wall of Force* separating Aila, the guardian and himself from the rest of the party and blocking them all in the room.

Ellois calls out to Lucius, calling on him to surrender and saying that if he does so, that Ellois will only throw Aila from the Sky City to see if she survives – otherwise he says that he will kill Aila then the rest of them. The guardian continues to regenerate before thumping her with both fists. Sentry *Misty Steps* through the wall of force and hits Ellois twice with her axe - he attempts to *Shield* the second blow but fails, and Sentry disrupts his concentration, removing the wall of force.

Aila’s first blow connects with a magical shield on Ellois before she manages to hit him with her hammer on the second. Nova moves up and attacks the Guardian, swiping through it with *Green Flame Blade* and burning Ellois in the process. Lucius is now seething with hatred and lobs an acidic *Chromatic Orb* at Ellois – it coats one side of his face and begins to drip down his body – he starts to scream as Lucius tells him that this is in revenge for his father as *Dichromancy* also hits Ellois. Quill casts *Command* and tells the guardian to “deactivate” – it immediately does so, powering down.

Ellois looks furiously at Quill and orders the guardian to activate once more – it begins to power up again. Ellois stares angrily at them all, “How dare you! I am Ellois Ironstaff Cellister! I am a servant of this great city and I have watched it fall to reckless young nobles like you for far too long. I will make sure that Gusthaven survives. You will not stop me here!” So saying, he throws a small orange bead to the back of the room, engulfing all but Aila and Sentry in a massive *Fireball.* Ellois also twists open the sphere that he has in his hand, a spell begins to emerge… then fizzles out – it was an experimental sphere. He orders the guardian to finish them.

Lucius and Quill go down in the conflagration that erupts in the room but Sentry rushes forward and with a massive blow of her axe, she slams him against the back wall into a state of unconsciousness. The guardian is still active and preparing to protect Ellois so Aila slams into it twice with her hammer. Nova pours a healing potion into Lucius’ mouth bringing him around – he casts *Chromatic Orb* at the guardian but misses with the main spell before hitting it with *Dichromancy.* The guardian scoops up Ellois with one hand, throwing his body over its shoulder, before punching Aila. The guardian then attempts to run from the room and is struck by Sentry as it leaves. Smeek, unfortunately, does not survive the encounter, and is stomped on as the guardian makes its hurried exit. Aila throws her hammer at the guardian, the hammer misses, but the lightning strikes Ellois’ unconscious body. Nova casts *Spare the Dying* on Quill before running to the nearby desk and gathering up important documents.

Lucius casts *Melf’s Acid Arrow* and hits the guardian with it and *Dichromancy*. As it attempts its final escape, the party wails on it with attacks until it collapses, and they find that Ellois is dead.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

02:52- Episode Start
10:07- Intro
11:32- Part 1
1:20:05 - Break time/Donations
1:30:54 - Part 2
2:51:18 - Outro/Donations

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

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Adaela Virinor
* Malachi (the owl)

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Ellois Ironstaff
* Aridan Irisen-Pelony Starsorrow
* Smeek

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Nira Virinor
* Corina Virinor
* Norfir
* Anastasia Magrona
* Adaela Venethor
* Belanor Magrona
* Democles Magrona
* Moonstar
* Valera Demethal, Captain if the Royal Guard
* Salvarius Aetheron

## **Featured Locations**

* Gusthaven
	+ Galecrown Palace

## **Trivia**

* A note appears in the YouTube vod: Pinned by High Rollers DnD "Hey everyone! Mark wrote a clarification post about something that happens in this episode, link is below (DON'T CLICK UNTIL YOU'VE WATCHED THE EP! IT HAS HUGE SPOILERS!): https://www.reddit.com/r/highrollersdnd/comments/csfcow/clarification\_for\_episode\_43\_spoilers/"
* The Messenger Rings are received and equipped in this episode. They need attunement and allow telepathic communication to anyone else wearing one of the 5 rings within a 5 mile radius.
* This is the first mention of the Survival Accords that were created to “keep the sky cities functioning”.
* Tom suggests that one of the books in the library might be “The Guide to Opening Bookcase Doors by A Plumbus (Aaron Plumbus).
* Mark was not expecting them to get into the secret room this early, so he took advantage of Trott’s mic dying and them having an early break to make a quick map.
* **Continuity error:** Mark refers to Savarion Aethereon, but this later becomes Salvarius Aetheron, the head of the Aetheron family.
* Kim refers to their betrayal at the hands of Ellois as them being “Brookstoned”.
* The players surprised Mark by finding the secret library too early. He had planned this session to be them following the clues of the missing mage into the Chains and had even written new lore for it. Tom had expected this to be an investigation episode and had learned spells accordingly.
* Ellois attempts to banish Aila and Mark says that it would not be permanent “because she’s on her home plane”. Tom asks whether she is, and Mark repeats the question in an unnerving manner. When they point out that Aila might be a space elf, Mark realised that this could have had some disastrous consequences.
* Mark decides to allow the use of a magic item as an action, then the use of a spell as a bonus action but says that he may change that ruling later.
* Smeek has two succeeded and two failed death saving throws towards the end of the episode. He dies at the end of the episode.
* The critical injury table got a good going over this episode with Lucius and Quill having to roll multiple times but avoiding serious injury.

## **Quotes**

* Lucius: I cast cuddle on Ellois. Hold Person. Embrace..

* Lucius (about Ellois): What a bastard. My whole life… and he was a cock.

* Quill: I healed!