Aerois - Episode 169: Daughter of Vortinssar

Katie Morrison as Aila

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Daughter of Vortinssar** is the 169th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 18th December 2022 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*The Stormchasers have crashed Shansara's performance: will they be able to save the city of Vortinssar?*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players. Katie is away this week, visiting family for Christmas.
* Mark thanked everyone for their donations and support for Jingle Jam last week. High Rollers raised £16.7K in total, £5k of which was raised for the HR charity of choice, Kidscape (which is a bullying prevention charity for children).
* The crew sang Happy Birthday to Kim to recognise her birthday on 15th December, then reprised the song for Sam who also had a birthday this week. The whole crew then wished a Happy Birthday to *anyone* whose birthday is this week.

### **Recap**

*"The Heroes of Aerois were backed into a corner in their attempt to aid the city of Vortinssar. The Eladrin musician and celebrity, Shansara, as well as the Genasi leader of Vortinssar, Harmony, announced that due to the PCs’ actions in the city, they would be accelerating their plans to transport Vortinssar back to its home plane of Genas sooner than expected. The event would take the form of a grand concert in celebration culminating in the planar transportation devices being activated. With the Valkyrian forces in the city disrupted thanks to their actions, the party have sent their allies to try and disable the teleportation devices or at least buy them some time whilst they, themselves, snuck into the concert and have challenged Shansara and Harmony directly. Despite an impassioned speech from Nova V’ger, the city is still not entirely swayed, and Shansara refuses to let the party stop her or her performance. The stage is set and the fate of Vortinssar will be decided one way or another."*
### **Part 1**

*The button that spells doom for all of Vortinssar in hand... can the Stormchasers put an end to Shansara and Harmony's plans!?*

The party is on the grand concert stage at the heart of Vortinssar where the grand plaza has been converted into a large performance area. Beyond the stage itself is tiered seating in a circular dome and a backstage area to the rear and a lighting gantry with cameras. There are various cameras, lights, and microphones positioned around the stage.

The entire stage is surrounded by illusory magic which currently makes the stage area look like a summery glade, a part of the Feywild. Shansara appears to be empowered by the crowd in some manner, seeming to draw power from them to become enhanced by the love of the crowd who are cheering her name. She stands on a magitek disc that hovers and is surrounded by illusory magic, and is also followed by two drones, both equipped with various pieces of gear. Shansara has begun to sing an Eladrin song about Summer and bright powers and she has been joined on stage by a Valkyrian mech suit with a pilot inside and a Valkyrian Phase Knight.

Aila runs towards the mech, zaps it with lightning and prepares to whack it if it comes in range. Shansara completes her performance of The Burning Heart of Summer, shooting out a blast of fire in a 40-foot radius, injuring Lucius, Aila, and the echo of Tiangong, and having some sort of charm effect on them where their minds are dulled to the pain and their hearts are filled with fervour towards Shansara’s music.

Shansara flies back to centre stage and her outfit changes from the fiery reds and oranges of Summer to take on the more golden yellows and dull browns of Autumn, she then switches to singing a chorus with one of the drones beside her amplifying the sound into a cone of sound (a Powerful Chorus). Shansara raises her hand and waves of sonic energy, and both Quill and Sentry are sent flying with Sentry being knocked back into a wall, landing heavily.

Nova activates her Twinblades, activating the Crescent of Darkness, then casts *Eldritch Blast* to hit the amplifier drone, hitting it three times, damaging it badly and causing its armour plating to start hanging off it and exposing its magitek and crystalline interior. Lucius, realises that Shansara is being both empowered and protected by the fervour of the crowd, and knows that if he can disable or destroy the cameras, or use the cameras to appeal to the crowd and get them onside, he might negate this effect. He decides to throw a twinned *Chromatic Orb* of lightning at the two cameras on the tall gantry behind the stage, and from his prone position, just manages to take them both out then runs to hide from Shansara behind the gantry. Quill flies back to the control desk and having seen Lucius take out cameras with a *Chromatic Orb,* he tries to do the same thing to the amplifier drone but misses. Shansara targets Quill and starts singing, casting *Polymorph* on him and turning him into a tiny red robin.

Sentry ascends to the control table and pokes at Quill with her weapon to break him out of polymorph. The mech moves towards the party and Aila smashes it with her hammer and a lightning blast – it responds by hitting her with a *Destructive Fist*. The Phase Knight teleports to the control desk and hits Sentry with his flaming sword before Shansara creates more illusions to enhance the performance and gain more favour with the crowd. Aila smashes the mech with a massive blow of the Howling Tempest and zaps it with lightning, breaking through some of its armour plating.

Shansara still enjoys the love and adoration of the crowd and, seeing how injured the Stormchasers are, she cuts off her mic and speaks only to them, inviting them to surrender and telling them that the teleportation of the city is going to happen with or without them – she is happy to let them leave, saying that they do not want any more violence. Having said this, Shansara holds up the microphone and flips the activation switch for the teleport devices.

Speaking now to the crowd, Shansara tells them that it is time to go and that they will not be held back by the party. A cheer goes up from the massive crowd and they begin to feel a rumbling in the earth.

Nova uses *Crescent of Darkness* to deal necrotic damage to Shansara, which shocks her since she does not understand why Nova would be attacking her. Nova then activates *Crescent of Light* – the two curved blades of Tiangong now both glow, one with blackness, the other with light. She steps out from her cover and tries to hit the drone with *Eldritch Blast*, but being overwhelmed with emotion, her blasts go wide each time. Flustered, she hides behind the stage again.

There is another deep rumble beneath the earth as if power is surging beneath their feet. Lucius thinks briefly before casting a spell, “I wish she had never pressed that button.”

There is a short moment where time changes – for Lucius, the world becomes like a coloured painting, a vibrant, vivid, still-framed portrait. The paint pulls back and begins to merge as the world around him becomes a swirling mass of colour and light, before it reforms into the moment before Shansara pressed the button. No one but Lucius recalls Shansara flipping the switch.

Shansara now says to them, “We don’t need to fight, you should leave. This is going to happen whether you like it or not. This is what the people here want, you’re wrong. I won’t warn you again, I have no problems with injuring and harming you if this is what it means to ensure that my and Harmony’s dream comes true.” She looks to the crowd and smiles brightly, holding the microphone and thinking about flipping the switch – but this time something stops her from doing it, and she begins another performance instead. The subterranean rumbling stops. Shansara begins singing a lament, the Tragedy of Autumn – a song about saying goodbye to people that you love and about farewells in general. The stress of this event causes Lucius to feel drained of energy and his bones ache to the point that he feels like glass.

Quill flies up to Shansara and casts *Anti-Magic Field*, causing her, the disc, and the two drones, to fall fifteen feet then start hovering again. Shansara’s voice cuts out for a few seconds while she is in the *Anti-Magic Field* but resumes once she hits the edge and starts hovering again – Shansara looks at Quill in a panic at what he has just done. Sentry moves towards Shansara, *Misty Steps* up onto her platform and grapples her before bashing her with the side of the lance and smiting at her. Shansara is shocked as the shield that she had built from the crowd’s fervour is almost shattered by this great blow. Shansara, fearing what Sentry will do to her in future, casts *Maze* on her but Lucius *Counterspells* it – and suddenly feels the effect of his earlier *Wish* spell, taking significant magical feedback damage and losing consciousness. The battle mech hits Aila with its punch and the Phase Knight pulls out a magitek blaster to take some shots at Quill – he fires once, and the blast disappears at the edge of the anti-magic field, so he shoots twice at Sentry instead, hitting her twice. Shansara casts *Phase Step* to teleport, taking her disc and drones with her, causing Sentry to fall to the ground, taking enough damage to fall unconscious – she is kept alive *Undying Sentinel*.

Aila swings at the mech, hitting it once and blasting it with lightning – the mech begins sparking and smoking and the pilot struggles to control it. Shansara’s performance finishes and she injures Sentry, Aila, and Lucius: Lucius is already unconscious, Sentry is knocked unconscious, and all three are temporarily banished to a separate demi plane. Shansara calls to the rest of them, “I don’t want to do this! Surrender now!” She looks around in desperation, “Enough, this is happening whether you want it to or not. These people want to go home!” The crowd cheers as Shansara holds up the microphone and flips the switch once more. There is a deep rumble under the earth that they feel once more.

At this point, Nova has had enough – she spins one blade and a gash of darkness hits Shansara, she spins the other and an arc of light follows soon after. Nova then crosses the blades in front of her, almost in a salute, before swiping them up over her head, and a silvery aura expands from her to encompass the whole stage. A silvery mist rolls in and Nova disappears… only to reappear shortly after immediately behind Shansara. She makes multiple attacks on Shansara tearing through the remains of Shansara’s shield and starting to injure her with multiple smaller cuts. Shansara looks terrified at the up close, personal combat, saying to Nova, “Why? Why are you doing this? I’m trying to help these people! You don’t understand!” Nova counters with, “Your actions are going to destroy this city! You’ve doomed us all!” Shansara looks crestfallen saying, “Harmony and I were doing this to make something matter. We were doing this so that we could *mean* something! You’re *ruining* it!”

Lucius’s body reappears. Quill flies over to Shansara and grapples her – he, Nova, Shansara, and the drones fall to the ground, but Quill manages to maintain concentration on his *Anti-Magic Field.*

Sentry’s unconscious body reappears. Seeing Quill grappling Shansara, the battle mech moves over to them and tries to reach in to get at Quill but once its hand enters the anti-magic field, its arm stops working. The pilot is confused momentarily but eventually pulls the arm back and backs off. The pilot then takes the mech over to Sentry’s body and picks it up – he was told not to kill any of them by Shansara – so he holds her hostage. The Phase Knight, having seen Quill messing about with the control desk, investigates what has been done and sees if he can repair anything that has been broken. Aila returns from the demi plane.

The rumbling deep in the earth has been building, the crowd is horrified at the violent fight on stage, and Nova looks up and out at the city to see energy build up and flow through Surtur, the Fire Statue – its hands begin to glow, and a string of energy emerges from it, trying to link up with the other statues which have not yet activated. As the crowd begins to see this, they let out a cheer.

Shansara grunts at Quill, “Get off me, you can’t stop it. I’ve already activated the system!”

### **Part 2**

*Look to the stars and remember her name. She is Nova V'ger, Daughter of Vortinssar.*

Shansara squirms under Quill’s hold and uses a knee to push him off her – she then runs and teleports away from Quill and Nova, but Nova strikes at her as she leaves. Shansara turns around and speaks to the mech pilot telling him, “Pilot, if they move from their spot, do what you have to - finish their friend!” She then turns to Quill and Nova, telling them not to take another step, and that they have been warned before preparing to cast a spell.

Nova teleports next to Lucius and pours a potion of greater healing into his mouth before staring at the other three statues across the city to see whether they will also activate. Lucius uses *Prismatic Mastery* but the *True Sight* that he gains only allows him to see through the illusions on the stage and that far below the centre of the stage itself is a major source of energy, some sort of nexus, far below it – he also gains resistance to all forms of elemental damage. He stands and guzzles a potion of healing. Quill ends his *Anti-Magic Field* – the disk hovers a few feet off the ground and the two drones immediately start following Shansara. Quill casts *Mass Cure Wounds* and heals everyone around him, including Sentry who regains consciousness. Sentry *Enlarges* and manages to break free from the mech’s grapple, regains a spell, and *Misty Steps* away from the mech. The mech pilot uses its *Arcane Missiles* to shoot at Nova and Lucius before moving over to threaten Quill while the Phase Knight teleports to Aila, draws his sword and tries to act as a barrier between her and the others, slashing at her with his sword and injuring her.

Aila rushes Shansara, taking an attack from the Phase Knight as she rushes past him, at which point Shansara casts the spell she had been holding, *Telekenesis*, thrusts out her hand, lifts Aila into the air and holds her 30 feet above the ground. Aila, in frustration, throws her hammer at Shansara, striking her and making her cry out in pain, but she manages to hold Aila at bay with her spell.

In the distance, they see the statue of Atlas activate, but there is the first sign of instability. The statue of Atlas cracks and the barrier or energy formed by the statues’ linked hands begins to flicker and waver, the rumbling in the ground becomes stronger and the entire concert venue begins to shake. The crowd begins to panic. Harmony calls out to the unnerved crowd, “Do not panic! Once the next statue activates, it will re-stabilise! There is nothing to fear!” Shansara, trying to calm the crowd, begins to sing another verse, The Lonely Kiss of Winter.

Nova teleports to Shansara and pleads with her to stop what is happening, indicating the instability that is now present. Shansara assures Nova that all will be well once the other statues engage and reveals that now it has been activated, there is no way to stop the process. Nova is aghast, “You’ve killed us all…” Shansara begins to deny it, but Nova is in no mood to hear excuses and attacks her. Nova curses Shansara with *Hexblade Curse*, then strikes Shansara with her blades much to the shock of the audience and Shansara herself, who is not used to dealing with violence against her person. Shansara is cut deeply and begins to bleed her silvery golden Eladrin blood as she calls Nova a brute and tries to defend herself with her bare hands. Nova mindlessly strikes as she repeats that Shansara and Harmony have killed them all, over and over again.

A weakened Lucius calls out to Sentry and suggests that they collapse the gantry onto the mech, Sentry gets the signal and nods her head. Quill, overhearing this, flies away from the mech and up as high as possible – the mech slams him on the way past, almost knocking him out of the sky, but Quill just survives. A very shaken Quill casts *Mass Cure Wounds.*

Shansara uses *Phase Step* to move further away from Nova as the sky behind her is suddenly lit up with an explosion at the site of the Air Statue, Kari – it is not a magical explosion, however, but damage from a giant mech - it appears that Fuego has arrived. Parts of the statue break apart and fall to the ground, damaging part of the city. Nova, being the closest to Shansara, sees her suddenly look shocked and frightened – without the statue in place, the magic grows more unstable, and it begins to crack and burst. The rumbling in the ground becomes greater and the whole stadium begins to shake and shift – Quill, from the air, sees a giant crack start to form on the stage beneath him and he spies the build up of elemental power shining through the cracked floor.

The crowd begins to scream in a panic, Shansara seems lost for words, and Harmony desperately calls out to the crowd not to panic, telling them that the guards will assist them out of the building. Shansara does not seem to know what to do, blaming Nova and her friends for making things unstable and ruining the device. Nova pleads with Shansara to deactivate the machine. “I can’t!” she cries, “It’s been activated! The ley line energy is already surging! It’s been sent to the devices!”

Shansara sends the mech pilot and the Phase Knight to get her forces and commanders and find out what is happening with the fourth statue. An enlarged Sentry, who has not heard what has happened on the opposite side of the stage, goes ahead with the gantry proposal and pushes the gantry over on the mech – this does not quite destroy the mech, but it does trap it under a pile of wooden and metal debris. The Phase Knight teleports to Shansara to protect her while the mech pushes the collapsed gantry off it and stands up – it is now limping, and one of its arms is short circuiting. Aila, mid-air, can do nothing, and oscillates angrily. Shansara has a hand to her ear and appears to be receiving some sort of report, Nova overhears her saying, “What do you mean it’s being attacked, by who? You need to get the statue under control. What is happening there?”

Nova looks out at the skyline and considers what she knows – she can only see two outcomes, but if things continue as they are, something bad will happen. The elemental energy that is stored within Vortinssar that Harmony once controlled to power the city, its transport, the statues, and its other wonders, has now been built up and diverted to these devices. Either because the devices are no longer stable or because the circuit has been broken, the elemental energies are out of control. Nova knows that if either the energies are not dispelled or the circuit is not completed, the city will ultimately be destroyed.

If she can stabilise the circuit, it may complete the system and transport Vortinssar to Genas, but if it is done incorrectly, the city will be vaporised in its transportation and anyone caught inside the city would be wiped out. If the elemental energy is dispersed and the entire system powered down, on the other hand, this would prevent the teleportation, but the failure could mean that the residual planar and elemental energy could affect Aerois (having a wider effect on other places nearby), the destruction to the city would be severe, but there is a good chance that there would be survivors.

Nova considers these options then approaches Shansara with her hands in the air as if to parlay – she asks Shansara if she can teleport Nova to Kari, the Air statue where the break in the circuit is. Shansara tells her that the Seekers are trying to disable the last statue and recommends that they try to stop this, or the situation will be far worse. Nova calls on Quill to send a message to Norfir to cease the attack, which he does. Harmony is flown down from the stands by a number of flying Genasi guards while Nova announces her plan to complete the circuit and discharge the energy since she believes that she is to blame for what has happened. The rest of the Stormchasers offer to help and Shansara tells them that she can teleport all of them, Harmony and herself to the statue. Shansara tells Nova that she will need her help and Harmony’s if the city is not to be destroyed and that since all of them have contributed to this problem, it is up to all of them to fix it.

Norfir’s response comes back to Quill, *“Good thing you messaged. Something weird is happening. Trying to disable or activate no longer seems functional.”* It is clear that the statue is doing something on its own without them doing anything. Shansara teleports them to the Kari statue with a long aria – they feel like they are picked up and carried by a wind, through the streets and down through the floor until they appear in a large underground ceremonial chamber. They see a miniature version of the Kari statue, hands outstretched and leaning over something but the room they are now in is completely cracked and shattered with a chasm-like pit that has opened up in the floor with elemental energy of fire, air, water, and earth being thrown up chaotically and randomly. Without the magitek device to constrain the magic, it has run rampant and run loose. The statue itself is almost bursting with the energy that is contained within it and appears to be where the device is connected. The ceiling above them is broken and there are pieces of a red painted Valkyrian mech scattered everywhere – they glimpse an unconscious body hanging from the mech itself.

Faced with this Armageddon, Nova’s first thought (which she does not share with the group) is to throw herself into the middle of the conduit to try to balance the elemental forces raging within. Shansara and Harmony are deep in conversation and appear to have their own plan. Lucius, out of sheer desperation, throws the Binding Sphere into the chasm, but it does not appear to do anything. Quill wonders aloud if creating an *Anti-Magic Field* might help somewhat, Lucius wonders if taking some of the energy into his gauntlet might be of assistance, and Sentry wonders if she can use her lance in some way. Quill and Lucius believe that their efforts will not solve the problem but might be able to slow down the process and buy someone else more time – the gauntlet has the problem that it might overload, and Quill’s spell might collapse under the amount of energy that is present in the area. Lucius does not care and immediately starts capturing some of the rampant energy in his gauntlet, suddenly feeling cold and hot magic, also feeling his skin almost petrify. Quill casts his *Anti-Magic Field* around him. Sentry considers the magic around them and recognises that the magic contained within her Matrix is similar, though not the same, and she considers that she may be able to use the Matrix somehow to connect to this river of instability in a similar way to how she connected to the Forges or to tap into other Guardians.

While the rest are desperately trying anything they can to stop the magical madness around them, Nova calmly takes a last look at everyone then turns to Harmony and apologises for getting it wrong. She manifests Tiangong’s echo on the lip of the crack and casts *Fly* on herself, intending to fly down into the crack where the magic is the most intense.

Nova, realising that this move will destroy her utterly, goes to hand the swords to the essence of Tiangong, but for the first time since they made their pact, there is resistance from the Eterna. *“We know what you are attempting, Nova V’ger,”* they say to her, *“you would sacrifice your physical form to protect your city.”*

Nova is resigned and saddened, “You have to let me do this, Tiangong,” she pleads.

*“You are mortal. You have much life left to live,”* they tell her, *“we are eternal. We are an Eterna, we are one.”*

Nova faces the echo down, insisting, “You are more important than this.”

Tiangong disagrees, *“Not this time,”* and they hold Nova in place, intending to take her place inside the deadly river of fluctuating energies.

“Don’t you dare!” Nova cries to Tiangong, “You can’t do this!”

*“I must,”* Tiangong replies simply and gently*. “I must protect. We are one.”*

Nova tries again, “You are more important than me.”

Tiangong is not convinced, asking, *“Who gets to decide that?”*

“You have a race to lead,” replies Nova quietly, almost in tears.

*“There are other leaders. There is only one Nova V’ger.”*

“I can’t let you do this…please…” a crying Nova begs Tiangong as they begin to lower themselves down into the fissure.

“STOP!” a familiar saccharine voice calls out as Tiangong’s image disappears and Nova finds that she can move freely once more. Nova is aghast and asks Shansara what she has done but she tells Nova that it is only temporary.

Shansara pulls Harmony to the edge of the chasm saying, “Well, we did want to do something that mattered, didn’t we? I don’t know whose fault this was, whether this was ours or yours.”

Harmony steps forward and tells Nova, “This energy is linked to me. I can control it. We’ll handle this. This is what we were meant for. The two of them begin to lower themselves into the fluctuating energy.

Tiangong reappears and Nova can see that Harmony and Shansara are struggling, trying to contain the wild energy and disperse it. Nova decides that she must help them to save her city and her people although Tiangong is still against the idea but says that they will not abandon Nova. “I guess if we go, we go together,” Nova tells her friend.

*“That is how it should be,”* comes the simple response and Nova replies with a simple thank you.

The rest of the party sees the four descend into the chasm. Lucius’ gauntlet has filled with energy, but he continues trying to take in power beyond its capacity. Quill prepares to plane shift the party using the Wayfinders Guide while Sentry screams Nova’s name over and over. The light from the chasm glows so bright that it becomes blinding. Lucius absorbs so much of the power that he is rendered unconscious only to be healed by Sentry – they start to take more and more elemental damage of all kinds as the magic becomes more and more unstable. Aila, out of desperation, has a hand in the chasm hoping to pull Nova to safety shouting, “Nova! Grab my hand now!”

Quill teleports everyone but Nova to the Stormchaser as Lucius starts to cry a cut off, “Nooo…!”

Inside the heart of madness, Harmony, Shansara, Tiangong, and Nova V’ger stand back-to-back, focusing their wills and trying to use their connection to the elemental power to disperse it, ensuring that it does not overwhelm the city above. Slowly, they begin to realise that they are fighting a losing battle as they begin to be overwhelmed. Nova has heard her friends calling her name, Shansara sings a song of her homeland, now more to herself than to control the magic, Harmony cries out that they just wanted to make their own decisions and to help their people, and laments that they wanted to do what they thought was right and do not understand why this has all happened. There is a sudden surge of power, their skin blackens, burns, and freezes and the magic overtakes them, but they know that in making this sacrifice, they will save the city and its people. Suddenly, they know no more.

On the Stormchaser, the rest of the party watches as the energy links between the city statues whip around out of control, carving great lines of damage through the city. Suddenly, with one great final eruption, the magic vanishes. The city is badly damaged but still present. Quill recognises that it is different to what he had seen in his vision, and he calls to Oriya to fly back into the city immediately.

Flying overhead, they see damage to the buildings and cracks in the ground, but they city is mostly intact, and it should be able to recover from the damage that it has sustained in time. The Stormchaser settles down near the site of the Kari statue and they overhear many Genasi citizens crying for help. They notice that the Kari statue has toppled and collapsed on its side, having destroyed several buildings, and the base of the statue is corrupted with a giant crater where the chamber once was. Lucius calmly asks Quill to find Nova, and he tries to work out how he might do that. Sentry, seeing the damage and probably suspecting what has happened, tells Quill, “We can’t save the world without her, Quill, we need her! I can’t protect her if I don’t know where she is. I don’t know what to do!” As Quill attempts to find Nova with *Locate Creature*, Sentry’s plaintive cries can be heard from the ship, reverberating around the chamber, “Nova! Where are you?!”

Quill’s spell gets no reaction. Nova is not here.

Quill uses the Eye of the Storm to ask, “Where is Nova V’ger?”

*Quill watches as his eye turns milky and cloudy. His vision pulls away from Aerois, drifting up. He sees a familiar path of light, that he has travelled, leading up into the stars. Guided, not by Kellara, but a weaker presence, a motherly presence, to a place that he knows is no longer part of the living world. And that is where, peaceful, Nova's soul rests.*

Quill excitedly announces when he first sees her that he has found Nova – and then realises where she actually is. The crew is ready to sail wherever they need to and it is only then that Quill reveals, haltingly, that Nova is dead and that he has seen her soul out beyond the Cradle. Aila has jumped down and been pulling stones out of the debris trying to get to where Nova was and instead finds the Twinblades, rusted, blackened and destroyed – the remnants of Kellara’s gift where the chasm, now sealed, had been. The remnants of the swords is all that remains of the valiant Nova V’ger.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:04:39 - Dun Duns
0:05:37 - Part 1
1:30:03 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Shansara
* Harmony
* Fuego

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Norfir
* Tornado

## **Featured Locations**

* Vortinssar
	+ Central District (concert stadium)
	+ Air District (Kari Statue)
* The Stormchaser

## **Trivia**

* Tom, drunk with power from being a temporary DM in the Jingle Jam one shot last week, attempted to usurp Mark's recap at the top of the show saying, *"Hello and welcome back to High Rollers! Last time, the High Rollers crew, they paraded into Shansara’s place. I wouldn’t know because I wasn’t there. We’re joined by my friends Chris Trott, Kim Richards, Tom’s back…”* At this point, he petered out, having run out of things to say and hoping by then that someone would have stopped him. Thankfully, Mark put him out of his misery.
* Mark did not save the encounter and could not find his notes (nor did he check the wiki!), so he had no idea what peoples’ initiatives were. Everyone re-rolled.
* Tom asked if he and Trott could swap characters for the episode. Mark vetoed the idea.
* Shansara's abilities revealed in this episode:
	+ Shansara’s performance (The Burning Heart of Summer) does 9d8 damage.
	+ Powerful Chorus requires a Con saving throw. A fail results in 40 points of thunder damage and the player being knocked back 30 feet. 20 was a fail.
	+ Shansara has an ability, Fan Favourite, allowing her to gain fervour from the audience which empowers her. The more fervour she has at the end of her performance, the more bonus damage she does and temporary hit points she gains each round. When Lucius breaks the two cameras, it lowers Shansara’s fervour score. Shansara later uses a legendary action to create more illusions (*Major Illusion)* to the stage that gives her +1 fervour.
* Tom somehow did not *Guiding Bolt* prepared on Quill so had to cast a different spell (*Chromatic Orb)*.
* The roper/squirrel kick from episode 35 was referenced again this episode.
* When Mark tried to impersonate what a robin sounds like, he made a turkey noise instead. Kim schooled him in the correct noise to make.
* Mech abilities revealed this episode:
	+ The mech makes an attack called *Destructive Fist* which does “several d12 damage” (4d12 + 10) and triple damage to objects (living targets).
	+ The mech has an ability to throw *Arcane Missiles:* Choose a point within 60 feet of the battle mech. Any creatures within …? (distance) must make a Dex saving throw or take 26 points of force damage (half on a save or with resistance).
* The Phase Knight’s flaming sword does slashing and force damage.
* Some of the Crescent Twinblades' abilities were revealed this episode:
	+ Crescent of Darkness: at the start of Nova’s turn, she can choose one creature to take 2d6 necrotic damage.
	+ Crescent of Light: at the start of Nova’s turn, she can choose one creature to take 2d6 radiant damage.
	+ Crescent of Darkness and Crescent of Light can both be used in the same turn.
	+ As a bonus action, the two crescents can be brought together to activate the Eclipsed Moon: a 60-foot aura of silver light appears on the wielder (staying linked to that point) and allows the wielder to teleport up to 60 feet within the aura – each teleport uses 10 feet of movement, and this can be done multiple times on the same turn provided the user has movement left. Once the Eclipsed Moon effect is created, the Crescent of Light and Crescent of Darkness effects end but the sword damage (d6 +8) is still enhanced by 1d4 necrotic and 1d4 radiant damage.
	+ With the Eclipsed Moon, on a critical hit, you can choose one creature within the aura to regain 2d8 hit points. This works through the anit0magic field because they are artifact weapons.
	+ The Eclipse Twinblades are artifacts, so are not affected by Quill’s *Anti-Magic Field.*
* Because of his use of the *Wish* spell, Lucius’ strength became 3, and he would take d10 necrotic damage per level of spell cast for 7 days. He retained the ability to cast *Wish*, however.
* Nova’s necrotic damage to Shansara removed some of her temporary hit points.
* Quill’s wing counts as a mechanical device, not a magical one, so he can fly inside the *Anti-Magic Field.*
* Sentry is considered a living creature, not innately magical for the purposes of spells like *Anti-Magic Field.*
* Trott makes a second death saving throw for Lucius – it is almost a 1 but rolls over to a 7. Shortly after, Rhi makes her first death saving throw for Sentry and it is a 1.
* It’s lucky that Rhi was healed, as the roll she made to get free of the grapple was <10, and would have been a 3rd failed death saving throw!
* The mech’s attack of opportunity (a crit) on Quill almost took Quill out (doing 105 points of damage) until Mark realised that D&D Beyond had already added the +10 damage, so Quill “only” took 95 points of damage, leaving him alive (barely) on 3 hp.
* Dropping the gantry on the mech does 6d12 damage to it.
* At the final attempt to save the city and each other, Mark had Nova, Shansara and Harmony make a d20 + Charisma throw- two of the three had to succeed on the check. Shansara and Harmony rolled a 2 and a 3. Nova rolled a 13 (it was a 20 and rolled over to a 13).
* Kim passes Tom a note when he is having difficulty deciding what to do and whether to save everyone but Nova. The note read simply, “Just let her go”.
* There was such despair at the end of the episode that Mark reminded them that they are 18th level and that they do not necessarily need a body to resurrect Nova if she wants to come back. He did say that they may need to find a way to help call the soul back, but that there are options.
* Kim said that the moment that Nova decided that she would sacrifice herself was the moment that Mark described Fuego destroying the statue and Nova interpreting that to mean that the destruction of the city was their fault. She felt that they had laid the seeds for that with Quill’s vision, and Nova had started doubting before they went to see Shansara. Mark then mentioned that this is the endless question: when Quill sees a potential future, do their actions cause that future to happen, or would it have happened regardless? They don’t know and they never will know.
* Mark discussed how, as a DM, he does not want to take away player agency. When he used Tiangong to stop Nova, he later changed his mind to allow Nova to do what Kim wanted (via Shansara’s *Dispel Magic* on Tiangong’s echo), although Kim agreed that Tiangong’s initial reaction made sense.
* Kim wanted to leave the show with a happier note and pointed out that Nova got what she wanted – the city and her people were saved. It’s a magical world and anything can happen. Tom countered Kim’s happy point with Thalia. Tom, you bastard.
* Mark confirmed on the Gundam building stream on 29th December 2022 that the party had levelled up to level 19 after this episode.

## **Quotes**

* Tiangong*: “We know what you are attempting, Nova V’ger, you would sacrifice your physical form to protect your city.”*
* Nova: “You have to let me do this, Tiangong.”
* Tiangong: “You are mortal. You have much life left to live, we are eternal. We are an Eterna, we are one.”
* Nova: “You are more important than this.”
* Tiangong: “Not this time,” and they hold Nova in place, intending to take her place inside the deadly river of fluctuating energies.
* Nova: “Don’t you dare! You can’t do this!”
* Tiangong: “I must, I must protect. We are one.”
* Nova: “You are more important than me.”
* Tiangong: “Who gets to decide that?”
* Nova: “You have a race to lead,” replies Nova quietly, almost in tears.
* Tiangong: “There are other leaders. There is only one Nova V’ger.”

* Sentry: “We can’t save the world without her, Quill, we need her! I can’t protect her if I don’t know where she is. I don’t know what to do! Nova! Where are you?!”