Aerois - Episode 136: ...Must Come Down

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**...Must Come Down** is the 136th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 23rd January 2022 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*Will Nova's dangerous plan work? Will the party be able to stop Mesmera before Thalia succumbs to her fatal curse?*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Thank you to WizKids for sending a gigantic “mini” of Tiamat to High Rollers.
* Sponsor today is D&D Beyond. New book, Mordenkainen’s Monsters of the Multiverse is for sale as a pre-release (due for release in May).
* Merch: A second run of the Quill plush will go on sale next week (4pm BST 30th January) – this will be a limited run of 500, never to be repeated. While there, grab a shirt, a dice set or a hoodie!
* The High Rollers tome has arrived! Made by Umbra Armouries, this will contain the names of all those who were members of the High Rollers Patreon and all those who donated during the studio fundraiser stream (Kim will be handwriting each name into the tome in copperplate calligraphy).

### **Recap**

*" Our party’s quest into the Feywild nears its end as they make their way into the city state of Heartspire to confront the sorceress, Mesmera, to try and save their friend, Thalia, from a terrible curse. The awakened dandelion, Amidor, informed the party of the three rules Archfey Mesmera had placed upon Heartspire: the Rule of Grounding, preventing any creature from flying in the city, the Rule of Harm – harming others is revisited three times upon the attacker, and the Rule of Property – creatures cannot destroy the property of another. Knowing this, the party began to head into the city itself, also learning that the knights of Heartspire seem to be immune to these rules as though they have been made exempt. With Lucius’ clever use of his chromatic magic, the party bypassed the immense thorn wall that surrounds Heartspire and begin to explore inside as they travel towards the central area with hopes of remaining undetected.*

*Quill, under the effects of Truesight, discerns that the knights here are actually glamoured devils and demons, and with other clues gathered from visions and analysing Thalia’s curse, the party begins to suspect that an old enemy, Graz’zt, the Dark Prince of Desire, is somehow connected to all of this. As the party approach the inner wall of the city that protects the central spire, Nova attempts to use Tiangong to cast Passwall but the spell seems to trigger an alarm, and the two stone gate guardians attempt to engage the party, though slowed due to the party’s careful tactics. Rosemeadow, Kyrie and Big Cat are petrified by the guardian’s gaze, but the others manage to resist the effect, Quill, using Greater Restoration on Rosemeadow, whilst Aila and Sentry handle the two large guardians though several disguised knights are en route to engage them.*

*Nova, seeking a faster entry to the tower’s upper floors, finds a clever way around the Rule of Grounding, and uses Reverse Gravity to propel herself 100 feet up to the top floors. Now suspended there whilst on-rushing devils and the remaining guardian fight below, Nova peers through a window into what appears to be Heartspire’s throne room."*
### **Part 1**

*The team try to navigate the shifting rules of Mesmera's Domain!*

There are two Erinyes devils en route (about 20-30 seconds away) and an elk guardian engaging the party on the ground while Quill has just removed the petrification on Rosemeadow. Aila moves closer to the guardian (without looking at it) and pulls out her longbow but misses with both shots. Rosemeadow casts *greater restoration* on Kyrie to remove the petrification effect and prepares to run away with her. Sentry attacks the elk guardian and damages it with the lance, also managing to shake off the *slow* effect. The elk, in turn, tries to slam Sentry thrice with its hooves but misses. Quill notices that the elk’s eyes have not stopped glowing since the other guardian was killed, then restores Big Cat to his flesh form, telling it not to look at the elk; he notices the main gate burst open and admit two equine/humanoid demonic forms covered in rocky basalt with angry faces and curved horns – they appear similar to creatures that they fought in Azagrat.

Lucius casts *wall of ice* against the wall of the tower to create a helter skelter around the tower towards Nova to give her a slide down to the ground if she needs it. Nova instead yells to them to “Look for the portal!” before *misty stepping* 30 feet into the throne room – she gets a brief glimpse of the throne room: it is a large hexagonal room with highly polished segmented walls, almost like there are six mirrors facing towards the centre of the room. There is a large throne, once beautiful and upholstered with soft red fabric with gold filigree, now torn and covered in black ash, soot and grime. Also around the room are large rose bushes with thick briar thorns similar to the wall around the city – the roses on the bushes are large and beautiful, surrounded by the large sharp thorns, but constantly wilt and drop their petals into huge piles on the floor. Nova prepares to dodge if anything comes for her.

Aila hits the elk with her hammer, it retaliates and then crumbles away – she and Sentry hear more enemies coming in from about 90 feet away, so she moves closer to Quill and Lucius. Rosemeadow prepares to cast *healing light* when Sentry comes into range, which she does when Sentry runs over. Sentry prepares to cast *turn the faithless* if any of the guards come within 30 feet. Thalia falls to one knee and coughs up black blood which splatters against the stone ground – Aila assists her to her feet and supports her once she stands up. Quill prepares to move through the portal once it appears, and Big Cat prepares to attack anything that comes into range. When the centaur-like demons approach the party, Sentry raises her shield and both the symbol of Solwynn and the Prime Matrix burst with a golden light in the direction of the creatures: as soon as the light hits them, both Armanites run away again in the opposite direction – Sentry notices that the Erinyeses are still heading in their direction, however, and are about 120 feet away. Lucius prepares to cast a twinned *chromatic orb* when the Erinyes are within 90 feet of them. Nova gazes out the window, swipes Tiangong in the air casting *arcane gate* – a portal appears near her, and another appears on the ground near the rest of the party – Quill dives through the portal and immediately notices a woman lurking behind the throne. As Quill appears through the portal, the lurking woman, they assume Mesmera, steps out – she is young with a pale complexion, blue almond-shaped eyes that appear quite gaunt, her hair is pale blonde almost white (with a hint of straw colour to it), extremely long and almost trailing behind her like a dress, all the way to the floor. She wears a crown of black briar and red roses, and a white dress that is pristine with a dazzling red sash… until it gets to her bare feet when it becomes black, dirty, tattered and torn; around her shoulders is a black cape with stitching in gold and silver that looks like a pair of six-fingered hands holding the cape onto her. As she appears, she says. “Rescind the Rule of Grounding, only citizens of Heartspire may move or speak in the throne room” – Nova and Quill are paralysed and cannot speak. Lucius casts his *chromatic orbs* at the oncoming Erinyes, and both hit then everyone moves through the portal – like Nova and Quill, they are paralysed and silenced and are separated from each other on the ground.

Mesmera looks at them all with barely contained rage. They notice that three of the mirrored walls have reflections of Mesmera, but they appear to be independent of her – one is crouched on the floor, peeking from behind her hands and shaking as if she is terrified, another stands and looks absolutely furious, pacing up and down and pointing at the party, the last looks like a monarch, proud, confident and arrogant. All three reflections speak to the real Mesmera – the frightened one suggests killing the party before they can hurt her like Thalia planned, the angry one wants to kill the party in front of Thalia to make her suffer, but the proud one declares that they can show the party what they can do. The real Mesmera tells Thalia that she will never hurt her again and will pay for what she did to her. Thalia alone can move – she takes out one of her pistols, pointing it at Mesmera and telling her to let the party go. “Rescind the Rule of Harm. New Rule – time in the throne room flows faster: every second is one hour” – Thalia drops to her knees, coughs up blood and struggles, the briarthorn tattoo rapidly crawls up her neck and begins to spread down her chest. Mesmera tells her that it will all be over soon and that everything will be repaid in kind.

Nova is trying to shout to Thalia to put her gun down but then begins to scream silently in her head as she sees Thalia collapse – this is interrupted by the familiar voice of Tiangong, which they all hear, “Activating quantum cognoisis space.” For Nova, time seems to stop – everything grows darker and Mesmera appears to freeze in place. Nova can move, but it is not her body – it almost feels separated from herself like an astral projection: standing in front of Nova is the humanoid form of Tiangong. It is blue and gold, light and energy, filled with endless stars and swirling nebulae – there is a vague humanoid shape, male? Female? Androgynous? The eyes burn gold.

“Nova V’ger,” it says to her, “I have accelerated our thinking and communication speed to allow instantaneous mental communication. Whilst this may give the appearance that time has slowed, I’m afraid that time is still functioning as normal, but it allows us to communicate at an accelerated rate. I have an idea.” Nova pleads with Tiangong to do anything to stop what is happening. “I understand that you care greatly for the being known as Thalia Whisperwind.” Nova confirms that she does, but values Tiangong above all things, even Thalia. “Of course. Our relationship has grown to an unusual one, and whilst your feelings for Thalia Whisperwind are confusing and perhaps a little different, I do feel a great bond with you, and it is only through this great bond that I can present… a possibility, a chance. I fear that if we do not do something, Thalia Whisperwind and perhaps ourselves will be eliminated in this space, and as such I have a proposal: I believe that I have a way to break this Archfey’s rule, at least this temporary one. You are familiar with our relationship being a symbiotic one – I give you access to magical essence, and you draw magical energy forcibly from my Eterna being to cast spells. Up until now, this process has only been one way, but I believe that I have a way to reverse this process: to pour my knowledge and essence into your physical form. This would dramatically change the way that we currently function, and you would no longer have access to many of the greater abilities involving teleportation magic that I present, but it would give you my martial prowess as well as new, unusual abilities. More importantly, I believe that it would allow me to reconfigure our magical essence so that we are considered Archfey.”

Nova asks if Tiangong would still be Tiangong – they believe that they would be, and so would Nova still be herself but says that it will “thin the barrier between [them] – it will be a greater level of symbiosis than [they] have experienced before”. Tiangong says that if they master this process, they are hopeful that it may be possible for them to save the other Tiangong as well. They also note that Mesmera is haunted by the past and the future. She is enraged and afraid of it and has created the rules based on what has happened to her and what she does not want to face again – this will not be a battle of arms, but of wits, and they must force her to change her rules to save Thalia. Nova’s physical form does not change, but a golden blue space humanoid rushes forward into her and she gets flashes of memories that are not her own although as if she was there: she also now has knowledge of fighting and Eterna combat forms. Nova realises that Mesmera’s rules are based on her own traumas: the Rule of Grounding to stop people flying was created because she lost her own wings, the Rule of Harm was created because Thalia physically tortured and hurt her and this protects her, and the Rule of Property Destruction is because Thalia destroyed her belongings and took away her home – the rules are all designed to protect her from traumas that she does not want to face. Nova realises that she needs to find a way to break through the barriers and to make her change the rules to save Thalia or time will run out and she will die. Nova also realises, suddenly, that thanks to Tiangong adjusting her DNA somehow, she is the only one who can move.

Nova gets up and walks forward and a golden blue shadow trails out of her like light and stars – it forms into almost a second version of her, but androgynous, and not clearly defined – it is somewhat transparent with stars shining through it, and together they walk forward as this echo pours from her. Mesmera is focused on Thalia and raving at her when she turns to see Nova moving and is panicked because Nova is doing something that she should not be able to do. Nova and the echo speak simultaneously, raising their hands in a peaceful gesture and asking Mesmera to stop, telling her that they do not want to hurt her. Mesmera looks at them in a panic and says, “Rescind the Rule of Holding! New rule! Only I may speak in the throne room!” Suddenly the rest of them can move, but no one can speak.

As soon as Nova starts moving, the reflections in the mirrors start screaming at Mesmera to kill Nova or to run away before she hurts them. Aila moves between Mesmera and the reflection in the mirror to the NE to block her sight of it, she puts her hammer on the ground and holds up her hands, points at Nova and shows that she is not a threat to Mesmera. Big Cat runs to Thalia’s side, lies down and whimpers, trying to look after Thalia. Sentry pulls out a notebook, writes on a page then pushes it towards Mesmera, trying to get her to read it – Mesmera just ignores it, drawing her cloak around her and looking as though she is going to back away – Sentry moves towards the mirror in the SE (Anger). Lucius also moves towards the mirror at the SE, he looks at Nova, shocked at her new appearance: he then points at the tattered rug on the floor, points at the mirror to the SE, then makes a throwing gesture. Mesmera watches Thalia gasping and struggling on the ground – she begins to back away towards the throne, seeing the party spreading out around her. Rosemeadow moves towards Thalia and rests her hand on Thalia, trying to reassure her.

Nova and her echo walk very slowly towards Mesmera with their arms out then, maintaining some distance, kneel down in front of Mesmera and using *Creation*, Nova and the echo place their hands on the floor and a multitude of beautiful roses start to grow and bloom in front of Mesmera – Nova is crying with tears pouring from her eyes. Seeing that Nova has cast a spell, Mesmera rescinds the Rule of Speaking, replacing it with the new rule that only Mesmera can cast spells in the throne room.

Quill looks at Mesmera and sees her cloak – to the others it looks like an elegant, glamorous, and fashionable cloak, but Quill sees something quite different: gold and silver threads stitched in the image of hands looking as if they are holding the cape on her shoulders, he notices that not only do the hands each have six fingers, but also that they actually appear almost to be choking Mesmera. Quill decides to fly at Mesmera and to try to separate her from the cape or to intimidate her enough with his flight that she would change the rules – when he takes to the air, Mesmera immediately looks away and the reflections start shouting – Fear does not want to remember flight, Anger cannot believe that Quill would dare fly in front of her and suggests that she is being mocked. Mesmera immediately rescinds the Rule of Property and rules that no creatures can fly in Heartspire. Quill falls to the ground but reaches out with his and H’esper’s channelled magic (although not a spell) to grab the cape and realises that it is extremely powerful – it resists the abjuration magic and almost tightens its grip on Mesmera. Mesmera has started to unravel a bit from seeing Quill flying.

Kyrie rushes to Thalia and says to Mesmera, “I know that she did horrible things to you and I can’t begin to imagine what that was. All I can tell you is the things that she’s done for me and the way that she saved me,” and continues to tell Mesmera briefly how Thalia saved her, took her under her wing and looked after her. She continues to hold Thalia and pleads with Mesmera not to take Thalia away from her. Thalia, however, is getting swiftly worse – the briarthorn has grown up her neck and she is clutching her chest as she struggles to breathe. Aila picks up her hammer and moves to the mirror at the NE of the room and tells Mesmera that she needs to face her fears, that they can help her if she gives them a chance, but she can no longer be scared – she rushes up to the mirror reflecting Mesmera’s fear and hits it with The Howling Tempest. The mirror cracks, then shatters into thousands of pieces. They can see that Mesmera now does not look like an Archfey so much as a very traumatised and hurt woman – when she sees the mirror broken, she rescinds the Rule of Spellcasting and reinstates the Rule of Property.

Sentry moves to the mirror in the SE of the room reflecting Anger: she takes her cape off and throws it over the mirror, turning to Mesmera and telling her not to let her anger blind her, that they have come to Heartspire to make things right. Mesmera cannot believe what she is hearing and does not know how they will make things right: she thinks Nova should understand this after seeing what Thalia did to her – she pulls the cloak tighter around herself, but it appears that something that Sentry said got to her and now all that is left is hurt and pain and the angry reflection from the mirror is silent. Lucius pleads with Mesmera to let Thalia speak saying that she will live and regret not knowing what she has done, but Mesmera says that Thalia only speaks lies and that she spent centuries ruining people’s lives – Lucius tries to cast *Dominate Monster* and this backfires with Mesmera being immune and now believing Lucius to be just as manipulative as Thalia – she is furious and reinstates the Rule of Speech while dropping the Rule of Grounding. Rosemeadow points at her hands, then at her mouth, then at her back and finally makes waving motions with her hands – Quill realises that she is trying to say that if she can cast a spell, she can probably do something with healing or nature? Rosemeadow moves very slowly with her hands up towards Mesmera in a very non-threatening manner.

Nova, wanting to speak to Mesmera, but unable to, walks softly towards her and gets up next to her – Mesmera backs off, revokes the Rule of Speaking and invokes the Rule of Distance – since no one can come within 20 feet of her, Nova is thrown back 15 feet, but they can now all speak. Nova says that she knows what Thalia did to Mesmera and asks Mesmera if she knows what she is doing to her kingdom and her people – Mesmera says that she is looking after and protecting them from people like Thalia. Nova counters this argument by telling her that her people cower behind doors from her and that the demon whose sign she wears is in her heart and kidnapping her subjects and doing cruel things to them. Nova then offers to give Mesmera back one thing… and casts levitate on Mesmera. As she begins to lift into the air, Mesmera starts to reject everything thinking of it as a lie – she believes that she is helping the people and does not want what Thalia took from her (her flight); she says that her “knight” is helping her and is not a demon. She rescinds the Rule of Distance and re-establishes the Rule of Speaking. Nova realises that part of Mesmera does believe what Nova is saying but she grasps at her cloak and pulls it tighter to her saying that her prince, her knight wouldn’t hurt her in that way, that he was the one who helped Mesmera punish Thalia.

Quill sees Aila about to pounce on Mesmera to grab the cloak and prepares himself to help her. Kyrie starts helping Thalia to her feet and drags her closer to Mesmera; Mesmera doesn’t care what they say and says that Thalia will run out of time soon anyway. Aila rages, runs at Mesmera and tries to rip the cape from her shoulders (Quill moves in to tackle her to assist); as Aila grabs at the cape, she feels the hands tighten and it is clear to her that she is not opposing Mesmera, there is something else holding on. Aila grabs the cape and pulls it free, and Mesmera scrambles away from her, rescinding the Rule of Speaking and instils the Rule of Gravity where gravity in the throne room becomes five times heavier for everyone but Mesmera. Suddenly they all feel a crushing weight slam onto their shoulders, and everyone can barely move – Aila struggles to speak but calls to Mesmera to tell her that “he was literally strangling you and your people” while pointing to the cape. Mesmera insists that he was comforting her and had always been there for her, that Aila does not understand, that she wasn’t there. Aila tells her sternly to wake up. Sentry tries to persuade her to listen to Aila but fails, and she notices that the remaining reflection (Pride) is still speaking to her, telling her that they are beneath her and convincing her that she is right – Sentry *Misty Steps* towards the mirror to the NW.

Lucius reaches out under the effects of the gravity and casts a twinned *Chromatic Orb*, one at the mirror in the NW and the other at the black cape on the ground – the cape seems to almost come alive and pulls itself out of the way of the blast, the other orb heads for the mirror and is about to impact… when the reflection’s hand comes out of the mirror and stops it and grips it – the orb explodes into acid over the mirror. The reflection looks at the hand extending into the throne room through the mirror, shakes its head, pushes its other hand out to grab the mirror frame and starts to pull itself through. Mesmera is stunned and looks at the party and the mirror – she is utterly confused and changes no rules. Rosemeadow uses her Horseshoes of Speed to get to Mesmera under the crushing weight of gravity and she reaches out to Mesmera who has turned around, showing her stumps of wings, burned, torn and shredded: Rosemeadow puts her hands on the stumps and begins to cast *Regenerate.* They watch as the bones and feathers slowly start mending and Rosemeadow calls out that she needs to concentrate because it takes a long time and begs Mesmera to let Rosemeadow help her. Mesmera gasps audibly and is stunned, wanting to know what Rosemeadow is doing.

Nova sends her echo to Thalia who desperately wants to speak but is in too much pain, she then uses *Dimension Door* to teleport next to Mesmera – Nova takes her armoured chest plate off and offers herself to Mesmera in lieu of Thalia: she asks Mesmera to take her anger out on Nova if she must but asks her to let Thalia speak. Mesmera has tears in her eyes but does not want to hurt Nova, just wanting Thalia to get what she deserves, of which Nova is aware – she says that Nova is not to blame, and that Thalia has manipulated her just like she did Mesmera. She tells Nova that Thalia was her closest friend but turned on her and took everything from her, weeping all the while and collapsing into Nova’s arms – Nova holds Mesmera in support. Quill casts *True Seeing* on Mesmera and tells her that they are trying to save her from the demons: he tells her to look at the reflection in the mirror and while he is looking for the Erinyes, he realises that there is fighting just outside the throne room.

Mesmera looks up, about to initiate a new rule, and her eyes go wide as she looks towards the mirror, “You’re not my knight!” They all look at the mirror and see the reflection of Mesmera as a pretty maiden, as it pulls itself into the room, the illusion begins to fall away like ash from a fire leaving black skin, 6-fingered hands that stretch around the frame, and a 9-feet tall, rock onyx-skinned humanoid with perfect grey hair, a chiselled body, and golden eyes steps through the frame saying, “Well, isn’t this a wonderful reunion”. They recognise him as Graz’zt.

### **Part 2**

*The truth is revealed to all and an old enemy returns for blood!*

Mesmera sees Graz’zt’s grotesque, true appearance and also his malevolence and horrible intentions – she is stunned and completely taken aback by his presence. Mesmera is about to speak when Graz’zt holds up a hand, a ring on one of his six fingers glows and Mesmera vanishes – all Rules cease and Graz’zt emerges from the mirror. He tells them how much he loves Heartspire – a city built on desire and lust, the perfect place for the Prince of Pleasure – he has been in Heartspire for many years and Thalia had no clue what was behind the changes to Mesmera and the city. Although the curse has spread significantly, with the Rule of Time now gone, Thalia is in less pain and asks Graz’zt how he could have been behind it all for so long and what was behind the game with the ring. Graz’zt tells her that she was born thoroughly wicked and vain and that her soul was basically his once she started debasing and indulging herself, but even sweeter was gaining a corrupted soul – a pure soul turned to wickedness: Mesmera was easy to turn once Thalia started treating her so poorly. Graz’zt was a bit concerned when he heard that Thalia was actually doing good by saving Harpies and Imps and doing good deeds, he worried about his investment, so he put out rumours about a ring of wishes so that she would come for it and wish away her curse and then Thalia would die from the secondary curse, and her soul and Mesmera’s would be his. He looks at the Stormchasers, “Then you all had to get involved and spoil my fun! Well, it’s time for me to have some fun. I’m going to enjoy this!” Graz’zt holds out a hand and a curved, waved-bladed greatsword (a flamberge) appears in his hand. Rosemeadow gathers up Thalia and Kyrie and they and Big Cat run out of the room – as she is leaving, Thalia calls out weakly to Nova, “Finish him, put an end to him!”

Sentry senses pure evil and malevolence coming from Graz’zt, declares her disgust with him and activates Starbreaker – the lance grows with a green spiral energy, expands in size nearly doubling in length and width as Sentry herself starts to *Enlarge* to become the same size as Graz’zt – she advances on him, shield in one hand, giant lance in the other. Aila runs over to Graz’zt, calling him a cheat, and smacks him twice with her hammer, which he finds mildly unpleasant; Graz’zt swings his sword, The Wave of Sorrow, in response, and hits Aila with his sword and acid damage. “You call me a cheat? Well, what’s the point in playing fair when you’re playing to win?” Graz’zt says before casting *Greater Invisibility* on himself – they can see a faint shimmering where he should be, but Graz’zt is much harder to hit. Lucius casts *Slow* on the wall near where Graz’zt was: it hits him and he fails the save but uses his legendary resistance to pass the check, then teleports next to Quill saying, “Nothing personal, kid”.

Nova (having removed her chestplate) and her echo move towards Graz’zt – she strikes out at him three times, hitting once, while her echo misses. Graz’zt (using a legendary action) attacks Lucius with his acidic sword who uses his gauntlet to *Absorb Elements* on the acid. Quill moves away and gets hit as he moves then casts *Beacon of Hope* on everyone saying to Graz’zt, “We humiliated you in your own domain, we will have no trouble destroying you here” – his golden eyes flick up… “You’re going to regret saying that my little birdie”. Sentry moves between Graz’zt and Quill, thrusts Starbreaker forward, spiralling with green energy, Graz’zt tries to parry it, but it hits his invisible shifting form, *Divine Smite* activates and black blood sprays everywhere while Graz’zt grunts in pain; Sentry’s second attack is parried. Graz’zt acknowledges Sentry’s hit and uses a legendary action to cast a spell at Aila – Graz’zt’s *Invisibility* drops, but through *Dominate Monster*, Aila is told to “kill the bird”.

Aila attacks Quill as Sentry tries to protect him but cannot: Aila’s first hit does physical and lightning damage, but Quill maintains *Beacon of Hope*, her second attack misses. Graz’zt hits Lucius twice with physical and acid damage, “I will teach you what it means to defy me!” Lucius responds angrily with, “And I will teach you… nyahhh!” as he disengages and runs behind Sentry. Graz’zt tells Lucius that he will get to him sooner or later as he takes a swipe at Nova as one of his legendary actions, hitting her with physical and acid damage. Nova puts *Hexblade Curse* on him, and attacks Graz’zt multiple times again, slashing him twice, missing once with her echo making another successful attack with *Unleash Incarnation* – she sees thick rivulets of black blood sliding down the limbs of his perfect, chiselled Herculean form, “You’re making me bleed me own blood!” he cries angrily. He attacks the echo that has just embedded its sword into him, making it vanish.

Quill casts *Mass Cure Wounds,* attempting to use his *Spellbreaker* effect: as Graz’zt is about to try to *Counterspell* the heal, Quill quickly uses his *Portent* to make Graz’zt fail in his efforts as Elder Quill’s Storm Eye glows, ensuring that the heal takes effect. As a result of the heal taking effect, the *Dominate Monster* effect on Aila is removed. For his legendary action, Graz’zt reaches out his hands to his sides and picks up all of the scattered broken glass of two reflective mirror windows of the chamber, it swirls into a stormy tornado affecting Sentry, Nova, Quill and Lucius and starts cutting them to pieces – *Beacon of Hope* drops. Sentry hits Graz’zt, adding a *Divine Smite* and ripping through a part of his muscular physique before shoving him with her shield, pushing him back 5 feet.

Aila hits Graz’zt with two massive blows dropping him to one knee, clutching his chest which is scoured by lightning – he manages to redirect Aila’s lightning Aura but is gasping for breath. Graz’zt is on the ropes, “No, I have to at least take one of you with me, one of you owes me a soul!” – he brings up his other hand, each finger bearing a ring, one of which has two of three glowing gemstones – he clutches his wrist and casts heal on himself by using a *Wish.* Lucius casts an acidic *Vitriolic Sphere –* as it travels through the sky, he peels off dichromancy to hit the throne, uses that to cast *Defensive Dichromancy – Resist Acid* on Nova, then uses *Chromatic Control* to convert the *Vitriolic Sphere* to ice: the ice explodes behind him and Graz’zt, barely fazed, just brushes the ice off his shoulders. Lucius, frustrated, yells at him, “Just take my soul, for fuck’s sake!” Graz’zt looks at him, “Very well,” and teleports behind Lucius. Nova brings back her echo next to Graz’zt and moves herself to the other side of him – she hits him twice before he attacks Lucius, Sentry tries to protect him but cannot. Quill uses *Shocking Grasp* on him sending lightning pulsing through his arm, “I feel more than that in my pleasure palaces, boy!” says Graz’zt in disgust. He tries to hit Lucius again, but Nova uses *Shadow Martyr* to throw the echo in front of Lucius and sacrifice itself.

Sentry moves back, throws her arms open and a golden light emerges from her chest as she casts *Sunbeam* on Graz’zt who, still confused by the Tiangong Nova shadow taking the blow for Lucius, is struck by the golden beam and blasted backwards into the mirrored wall behind him, smashing against it. His body begins turning to smoke, “This isn’t over, this isn’t done!” he cries, “I’ll re-form in Azagrat, and I will have my…” and he becomes dust before he can even finish his sentence. One of his rings falls to the ground and Mesmera re-forms in front of them, gasping, as she looks around at them all – they all see Rosemeadow clutching Thalia who is in a bad way, Rosemeadow calls out to them, “Something’s really wrong!”

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Intro
10:22 - Part 1
1:52:03 - Break time/Donations
1:58:34 - Part 2
2:50:02 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Mesmera
* Rosemeadow
* Kyrie
* Big Cat
* Thalia
* Graz'zt

## **Featured Locations**

* Lunaria
	+ Heartspire
		- Main City
		- Throne room

## **Trivia**

* Mark had Rhiannon, Katie and Trott remove their headphones to discuss what Quill would see upon porting into the throne room.
* **Markism:** Mark describes one of the images of Mesmera as “one is crouched on the floor, peeking from behind her **eyes** and shaking as if she is terrified”.
* Mesmera’s “Rules”:
	+ Rule of Grounding – stops people flying – because she lost her wings
	+ Rule of Harm – does 3x damage reflected to the one who harms – created to protect herself because Thalia tortured her
	+ Rule of Property – Thalia destroyed her belongings and took away her home
	+ Rule of Movement and Speech - only citizens of Heartspire may move or speak in the throne room
	+ Rule of Time – every second is one hour in the throne room
	+ Rule of Speech – only Mesmera can speak in the throne room
	+ Rule of Spellcasting – no one may cast spells in the throne room except Mesmera.
	+ Rule of Distance – No one can come within 20 feet of Mesmera.
	+ Rule of Gravity – gravity in the throne room is 5 times stronger for everyone but Mesmera. Movement is reduced to 10 feet (effectively a *Slow* spell).
* Mark clarified in the Discord that "Nova isn't actually an Archfey. Tiangong simply masked their magical essence as if they *were* one for the purposes of Mesmera's citizens rule. Would be weird for nova to be an archfey. She has no fey connection beyond Thalia. That’s not to say her lifespan isn’t increased with the symbiosis with Tiangong. Think of it like Tiangong is a magic VPN."
* Kim had another character sheet prepared for her change from warlock to warlock/echo knight. This was a surprise to all but Kim and Mark.
* Kim said in the Discord, "I've personally been thinking of changing up Nova for quite a while now, but it was probably a month ago that I actually asked Mark if we could have a conversation about it and this is the course of action he suggested. I actually kinda had other ideas for Nova/Tiangong, but the multiclass switched worked better."
* Fans have been concerned about the flow of time since the party has been away from Aerois, but Mark reassured them in the Discord saying that, "PC’s have been in the feywild about 3 days + 1 for time rule."
* Mark had worked the Mesmera combat out so that once the Time Rule was established and Mesmera allowed them all to move, they had 4 rounds to succeed at a skill challenge either to convince Mesmera to change the Time Rule or to face whatever she needs to face in order to give up the Time Rule. If they did not succeed with this challenge inside of 4 rounds, Thalia would die.
* Mark confirms that when Mesmera vanished, she was put into Graz’zt’s ring.
* Mark used Graz’zt’s official stat block and made no changes even though he thinks that Graz’zt is really weak for his CR. Mark later does “a little bit of improv tweaking” just because it’s cool: he was allowed to cast any of his spells as a legendary action and cast the weird bladestorm using *Telekenesis.* Graz'zt is a CR 24 creature.
* “You made me bleed my own blood” is a reference to The Simpsons (said by Nelson) – this was adapted from Dodgeball’s “Nobody makes me bleed my own blood!”
* Tom made a dick joke in this session about Graz’zt: “He’s a Prince of Pleasure, I can see his greatsword”.
* Graz’zt’s heal cast by use of the *Wish* spell does 80 healing.
* On discovering that Graz’zt is resistant to cold damage (after using a complex sequence to cast a cold-based spell), Trott’s reaction was “Oh, fuck a piss!”
* Nova revealed at the end of the episode that she is now a multi-classed Warlock 5/Fighter (Echo Knight) 11. Mark and Kim had worked on this change together because Kim had not been enjoying the pure Warlock, getting frustrated with having only 3 spell slots, and not being particularly impressed with level 17-20 of Warlock. She had been planning to multiclass into Fighter with her last 3 levels anyway. As an alternative, Kim had considered a Psionic Warrior, but loved the image of an echo (basically Tiangong coming out to play). Whenever Nova did swordplay, it was always Tiangong who took over and controlled the blade - this way, Tiangong has given their knowledge to Nova who has learned to be a warrior. Dropping *Arcane Gate* was the hardest thing that she had to do.
* The players levelled up to level 17 at the end of this episode.
* There was a degree of insanity during the end donos with images like this to haunt people for the rest of the enening:

## **References**

1. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/190275359932022784/190694050326773761/935844561073365002
2. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/190275359932022784/190694050326773761/935844769949696000
3. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/190275359932022784/190694050326773761/935845549624660028
4. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/190275359932022784/190694050326773761/935845380439027743
5. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/190275359932022784/190694050326773761/935845380439027743