Aerois - Chapter Nine: A Little Respite

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

 Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**A Little Respite** is the ninth chapter of the Aerois campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel between 22nd March and 26th April 2020, and consists of six episodes.

*In Chapter Nine, the party head to the Hawk's Dawn Archipelago for some well-deserved rest and relaxation after their recent trials. But a job clearing some gnolls takes them further than anyone expected!*

## Summary

With severe damage to the Stormchaser, Lucius has revealed some, but not all, of the truth about the explosion to the ship’s officers and Kamarra, the leader of the Wolf Pack, is suspicious. They take the badly damaged ship down to the outskirts of the City of Glass (once known as Kamina City and part of the ancient kingdom of Solwynn) and meet with a small Disaster Response Force from the local capital. Their posting is a punishment, and they offer assistance and information to the party: the captain tells them about the outer ruins, known as the Glass Scar, as well as a mysterious, black-winged Guardian who appears at night. They learn that the city was destroyed from space by a powerful weapon of Kalus Starbane’s that magically turned much of the city to glass.

He accompanies them into the ruins in search of information and treasure while his team assists in the repair of the Stormchaser. While they manage to sneak past scores of feral Guardians who have passed their 15-year maximum lifespan and gone feral, they are eventually ambushed and they manage to win a hard-fought battle but hear more Guardians coming their way.

Sentry sees the visage of a golden, angelic Guardian and chases after her with the party in tow. They come to a room that houses a winged, angelic echo in a prism and multiple dead bodies of the Remnant wearing the military uniforms of Kalus Starbane. Kneeling next to the prism is Maximillian Taldros, one of Kalus’ paladins, a Knight of Gideon. He has intel on all of them and says that he does not wish to fight against them, considering that they could be allies or enemies. Max has come to find a missing research team that has been looking into a Guardian that may have been corrupted by Hadar whom Kalus is sworn to destroy. Max is joined by a Dwarven mage, Dana Gloamfire, who has tried to break the prism enshrouding the echo without success. The echo recognises Sentry and she is able to take it from the prism. Sentry and Lucius both touch the echo, which is Herald’s, and see visions of The Prime, a huge being in an underground cavern, telling Herald to go to the City of Glass to await the successor – she does so, but the years pass, and no successor comes. She calls Guardians to her, but none are suitable to succeed the Prime or to take on her mission, so she syphons their life force in order that she may continue her mission: in doing so, she becomes corrupted. Before she loses all sense of herself and her mission, she instills her echo with all good that remains in her and locks it away before the hunger consumes her.

The party fights alongside their unexpected allies against a horde of feral Guardians, the corrupted Herald and Sentry’s superior, Rook, who has gone feral and carries one of a pair of beautiful swords called Her Majesty’s Rose. After a long and arduous fight, where Quill suffers a broken arm, Herald is defeated, and before they can speak to either, Dana planeshifts herself and Maximillion away. Sentry and Lucius stand over Herald with her echo and using their abilities, force the positive power of Herald’s matrix into her, changing her back into the golden angelic being that they had seen in visions. On being revived, Herald tells Sentry to go to Volcanos and then become the Prime herself: she touches Sentry and floods her with information on where to go and how to access the Prime. Herald is riddled with guilt, reinforced by comments from Lucius and Quill, and begs for death before going to the Temple of Siaska. Herald is just about to take her own life when Sentry convinces her that redemption is possible if she will make right what she has broken, and Herald agrees to accompany them.

The party, heading to Volcanos to find the Prime,is met mid-flight by Johan. He has had visions regarding The Valley of Storms and the valley becoming inaccessible because of the increasing power of the storms. Johan and Quill conclude that they will have to use the Stormchaser to get through withAila as a glorified lightning rod. While Johan is on board, they are all attacked by forces of Starbane under the direction of Xarkira, intending to kill Johan. After a fierce battle, the party manages to take a prisoner and destroy a construct that they break down for parts to use so that Aila can channel the lightning into the ship in a safe way.

Now at the edge of the Hawk’s Dawn Archipelago, the party finds an underwater entrance to the volcano that houses a magical research base from an age ago. The facility is lacking in power, unstable and full of dangerous lava worms that they fight and destroy, almost losing Sentry but for the bravery of an exhausted Nova and Herald. The party finds many items of interest including a Sequester scroll, and a painting of Queen Genevieve Astoria, and her daughter, known to Sentry as Petal.

They finally find  a huge 20-foot figure made of metal, stone, and wood, partially encased in the mountain itself. They follow shortly after and meet: it is  the Prime Guardian, Root, who has waited for 500 years to meet Sentry whom he is hoping will be his replacement. Root tells them that Queen Astoria worked with him to recreate the  Guardians after they were all destroyed in the last war with Hadar. He tells Sentry about how he was created by one of the first divines and how they both created the Guardian race before there was war: Hadar, one of the original Divines, turned on the others and began to consume them one by one. Eventually, the other Divines formed armies of mortals and Guardians to join them in fighting against Hadar in the War of the Crimson Star. Hadar was defeated and sealed away into the Far Realm, but there were massive casualties, including all Guardians except Root. He was sent, damaged and paralysed, hurtling through space until he ended up at the core of a lifeless rock that Siaska, not knowing about Root, later turned into Aerois. Hundreds of years later, he was found by Queen Astoria.

Root tells Aila that her people are not originally from Aerois but from Alfheim, a world that was created using a thing of great power, The World Engine. Somehow, Siaska used the same device to create Aerois and it now sits at Aerois’ heart. Root thinks that if the World Engine is here that Alfheim has been destroyed, and that Kalus wants the World Engine to defeat Hadar. Lucius touches the Prime Matrix and gets flashes of Root’s history and the terrible war that was fought centuries ago.

Root tells Sentry that she is the last hope to take on the Prime Matrix and become the new Prime, but first she must pass some trials. Sentry touches the Prime Matrix and is taken to a vision of Solwynn during the war with Starbane. She makes hard decisions, choosing to ask her companions to give their lives for the many and proving her worth and her skills as a protector and as a leader. In the final trial, she and her friends must fight against a terrifying foe, Hadarbane. With her own skills and power, and the help of her friends, they overcome this great enemy. Sentry ascends to become Sentinel Prime, leader of the Guardian race, but they must hurry away as the volcano erupts and begins to destroy the underground facility and caverns. They manage to escape, almost losing Nova in the process, and return to the Stormchaser, setting off to look for another shard of Tiangong and Quill begins to dream and hears from Valla.

## Major NPCs

List of major NPCs encountered in this chapter.