Aerois - Episode 133: Temple of the Gods

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Temple of the Gods** is the 133rd episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 2nd January 2022 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*With Rosemeadow renewed the team prepare to face off against the Black Stallion Riders... but Quill has a risky new plan!.*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The sponsor this week is D&D Beyond.
* Studio update: Tom has been uploading videos of the studio preparations to Patreon. It is likely that the crew will not be into the new studio until at least the end of January. A set designer is coming in to build the custom set (which will be the biggest change), and a truss lighting system needs to be built. Much of the tech has been delivered. Thanks to all the people who helped to raise money and to those who joined the Patreon – the names of over 800 contributors (donators and those who were a Patreon subscriber until 31 Dec 2021) will go into the High Rollers tome as a way for the team to thank them.
* Tom wishes everyone a happy new year. Kim isn’t hyped by Gregorian new year – she’s waiting until lunar new year.

### **Recap**

*" Our heroes, the crew of the Stormchaser and Champions of Aerois, have travelled to the Feywild to aid their companion, Thalia Whisperwind, an Elven noble who was cursed and turned into a Medusa by a vengeful sorceress. After undoing the medusa curse, it was discovered that a deadlier curse had been hidden within it: the only one capable of removing it is the very person who placed it. To travel to the Feywild, the party also enlisted the help of another ally, the Centaur Rosemeadow, whom the party discovered was more than she seemed, and have taken time to travel across the Feywild to uncover Rosemeadow’s past as well as help her family.*
 *The journey has taken them across a foetid swamp and into Black Stallion Woods where a pair of deadly spirits upon ghostly steeds have hunted and harassed them with vorpal weaponry. Defeating the spirits once, the party managed to locate the sanctuary of Dawnweaver, who keeps her grove and Rosemeadow’s family safe from the hunters. Dawnweaver revealed that she was the one who sent Rosemeadow to Aerois in the first place and disguised her true nature as a Unicorn/Centaur hybrid in order to keep her safe from Xarkira, an enemy of the party’s.*
 *Dawnweaver also revealed her own nature, one of the powerful oracles and seers who connect the Web of Eternity, a nexus of multi-reality, multi-planar worlds, all inter-connected like a spider’s web, Dawnweaver being one of the three who watch over it.*
 *Now the party must face the hunter spirits once more to destroy them permanently so Rosemeadow and her kin can be free, and then the quest to save Thalia can continue."*
### **Part 1**

*With Rosemeadow renewed the team prepare to face off against the Black Stallion Riders... but Quill has a risky new plan!*

The party stands in Dawnweaver’s sanctum before Rosemeadow who has been revealed to be a Unicorn/Centaur hybrid with a long, silvery horn and silvery swirling patterns across her equine body. Dawnweaver, a giant white-bodied Drider, offers any help or answers that she can give, but advises them that they will need to kill the spirits who will reappear now that Rosemeadow’s true form has been revealed. She summons Walks on Morning Dew, a blue and white spider about the size of a horse, who also offers the party its assistance.

They discuss tactics against the riders, with Quill being concerned about their vorpal weapons (that were revealed to be Echoes of Eterna and imbued with anti-life) and Nova suggesting that banishing the horses again is a very good idea. Lucius is concerned that the spirits, despite having been defeated, have not been killed and will keep returning after they have been vanquished – Dawnweaver advises them that now that Rosemeadow has regained her true form, if the spirits are now killed and Rosemeadow is with them and seen by the riders when they are destroyed, they will remain dead: it was the action of disguising her true nature that made them unable to achieve their objective and caused them to linger. Once their geas is broken, the woods will be free of the spirits.

Rosemeadow shows them that her hands are glowing and believes that she can do things now that she was previously unable to – she then accidentally shoots a beam of light from the tip of her horn into the sky. Rosemeadow thinks that she might have the ability to heal and thinks that she may be tied to nature somehow.

Walks on Morning Dew leads them out of the sanctum, and they see several dozen tents along with some wooden buildings, comprising the Centaur camp. A large gathering of Centaurs is waiting for them to appear, ranging in ages from children to more elderly beings: all look weary and fearful, but when the party emerges with Rosemeadow, many begin to weep openly and whisper amongst themselves about the fact that “she’s been brought back” and that they “might finally be free to leave” now that “the child has returned”. Rosemeadow is clearly nervous and shy, trying to hide somewhat behind the party – she feels that she should say something, but does not know anyone. Sentry convinces her to at least wave to her family which she does – they are reluctant to approach this figure of reverence.

Thalia, staying at the back of the group, is quiet, wincing and holding her arm. When Nova asks, Thalia tells her that the pain is constant and that her hand is starting to go numb – she can move it, but there is no feeling anymore. When she holds her hand out to Nova to show her, Nova sees that the curse mark now extends up the arm all the way to the shoulder, her entire arm feels cold, and she does not feel anything in the arm when poked, prodded, and pinched. Thalia does not think that she will be of any use in a fight against the spirits, suggesting that she, Kyrie, and Big Cat should stay behind where it is safe – she is worried that her presence will take Nova’s focus off the fight and that the distraction will make them make mistakes. Nova is worried about the time that it will take if they have to come back to get Thalia, but Thalia says that Dawnweaver is powerful and may be able to teleport them straight to Heartspire. Thalia asks Nova if she knows anything that will help with the pain, but neither she, nor Quill can help her. Rosemeadow tries to help, but accidentally manages to create a healing wave (*healing light*) from her silvery horn which raises an audible gasp from the crowd; unfortunately, it does not help Thalia with her pain. She had not realised that she cast a spell until told by the party, but says that regardless of magical healing, it is still important that everyone sleeps with a chunk of amethyst crystal and apply a coconut and eucalyptus oil to their skins. She offers to do acupuncture on Thalia to try to help her pain.

Meanwhile, Quill has a plan: he wants to take an hour to cast *Temple of the Gods* somewhere in the woods – the 120-foot square temple would last for 24 hours, give them a safe spot from which to attack, it would keep the spirits out, and it would block the spirits from trying to enter the temple from the ethereal plane. The main concern with this plan is the length of time that it takes to cast the spell. Walks on Morning Dew confirms to the party that even though the spirits (riders) can “see through magic” (*truesight*), they cannot see through Dawnweaver’s magic, which is how she has kept the Centaurs safe for so long. They go to see Dawnweaver to ask if she is able to use her magic to hide them for an hour while Quill casts his spell – they find her with extra eyes painted on her forehead, her eyes are closed, and she is holding her arms and some of her Drider legs in the air. Between her Elven hands and spider limbs are glowing gossamer threads; she is weaving them into a new tapestry using magic. The tapestry shows Rosemeadow, now with her Unicorn horn, casting her healing spell and surrounded by the party. Dawnweaver stops weaving when they enter. Quill asks her if she can protect them with the same magic that she has used to protect the Centaurs.

Dawnweaver explains that she has not used illusion magic because the riders would be able to see through it with their *truesight*, instead she has phased them all into a different time and reality. If she did that with the party, they would summon the temple into the phased reality, and not the reality where the riders could find them. Lucius asks if Dawnweaver could send Quill back in time so that he can safely cast the spell: she explains that it would disturb the nexus and then timeline too much and that the spell would fail. Dawnweaver and her sisters have sworn that they will not meddle with timelines, either to travel forwards or backwards in time – events are what they are, and their history has shaped who they are as people, without it, they would not be the heroes that Aerois needs. She confirms that while she has the power to use time magic, there are consequences to doing so – she has knowledge of many possible futures, saying that the Web of Eternity shows her limitless possible futures. Dawnweaver says that if she focuses, she can search for things if she needs them, but she tries not to, preferring to let things come to her as she needs them.

Lucius asks if everything is pre-determined, but she says that they are not – a person’s decisions have huge impacts: there are key moments in a world’s life (and in a person’s journey) that are fixed points and will occur no matter what people choose or whatever else happens – what changes is how people respond to and develop from them, and how the world changes beyond them. She says that these fixed points are moments that define people, and that their death is not one of them because it is always determined by a person’s choices. Dawnweaver gets Lucius to consider that every choice that a person makes also affects others: his choices will affect people that he meets, inspires, makes afraid or cause to seek vengeance against him – every choice has ripples that will affect many other people. She mentions Kalus Valkyrian as someone who has affected many people: while Lucius may see him as an enemy, he has caused many individuals to do great and heroic things because they have been inspired by his story. Lucius just wishes that Kalus had not “cannonballed” into their pool – Nova points out that their crash on the Sparrowblade was due to Kalus and that everything they have done since to make a positive impact on people’s lives has been because of it. Dawnweaver confirms that meeting Kalus was always part of their destiny, and they were destined to come into conflict with him at some point – how it happened (she says, looking at Sentry) was unexpected. There is good and evil in all things, she tells them, and failure and death are not closed doors.

Nova asks Dawnweaver if there is any way that she can help Thalia – she tells them that they have with them what they need, indicating Rosemeadow. Once the battle with the riders is done, she will send Thalia, Kyrie and Big Cat to them and Walks on Morning Dew will accompany them. She agrees to shelter Thalia, telling Nova that she has no more than a few days left before the curse reaches her heart and kills her – she will become weaker, find it harder to breathe and need someone to assist her with movement.

The agreed plan is to have the spiders take them to a distant part of the forest where Quill will start casting *Temple of the Gods*, hoping that Quill can complete the spell before the riders find and reach them.

### **Part 2**

*Quill has one hour to summon the Temple of the Gods... will the Black Stallion Riders interrupt him?!*

Dawnweaver enshrouds them with a spell to hide them from the hunters while they travel and Walks on Morning Dew takes them as far as they can get from where the hunters last were: Dawnweaver’s spell allows them to travel faster than normal, so they cover considerable ground. Quill casts *Truesight* on Lucius and Rosemeadow gives him *Enhance* *Ability*, which gives him *Owl’s Wisdom* (advantage on Wisdom checks): Walks on Morning Dew then returns them to the real plane in a dense part of the wood with multiple woodland trails twisting and turning off the main pathway. Quill begins casting *Temple of the Gods* while the others keep watch: Aila climbs a tree to get a better view. Lucius is getting more nervous the longer they wait, and Rosemeadow suggests that the riders have given up or don’t exist anymore – Lucius suggests that a good name for her would be Hope. Sentry casts *Divine Sense* but only senses that Rosemeadow is a Fey creature.

After an hour, the temple appears – it looks very similar to the temple in Kalie’s Rest: he sets it so that only Fey can enter the temple. 18 seconds after the Temple is brought into being, Quill becomes aware that something tries to enter it but fails. Nova casts fly on Sentry, Aila and Lucius but advises them not to go too high in case she gets hit and loses concentration. The archer emerges from the ethereal plane and fires an arrow at Rosemeadow, but the arrow cannot pass through the temple exterior. Lucius casts slow on the archer: the steed succumbs but the rider does not – Lucius then floats into the air. Quill steps out to attack the archer - the swordsman appears out of the ethereal and charges Quill (readied action): Sentry uses protection on Quill, saving him from decapitation. Quill casts *guiding bolt* on the archer and hits it. Nova steps outside and casts *Hexblade Curse* and *Eldritch Blast* on the swordsman. The rider and mount become ethereal and disappear.

Sentry moves outside and *Banishes* the archer’s steed and moves back into the temple. Aila moves out and hurls her hammer at the archer which is now on the ground without its horse, it is hit and she returns to the temple: the archer takes cover behind trees. Lucius quickens a *Chromatic Orb* and flies straight up, trying to get a visual on the archer – it sees him, shoots at him but misses – Lucius casts an acidic *Chromatic Orb* and hits it before returning to the temple. As Quill readies a *Banish* to cast on the swordsman’s steed when it reappears, they see a beam of light come down from the sky just behind the archer. Nova steps out and casts *Synaptic Static* at range and hits, damaging and *muddling* the archer – she then returns to the temple. The swordsman and his mount reappear – Quill *Banishes* the swordsman’s steed and Sentry saves Quill once more from being hit.

Sentry attacks the swordsman with Starbreaker, adding a *Divine Smite* for both attacks, then steps back into the temple. The swordsman uses its legendary action to attack Quill (who portents) and it misses. Aila moves out to the swordsman and on the second hit, the creature wails and becomes green and incorporeal – the sword, however, remains corporeal and almost appears to be the focus of the spirit. The howling of three hounds is heard as they appear around Aila and Quill – two immediately attack Aila but miss, the last attacks Quill and also misses – Aila returns to the temple. The archer uses *Head Hunt*, shooting at Quill – Quill portents the shot to miss, then misses with both normal attacks. Lucius attempts to *Dominate* *Monster,* but the swordsman is immune because there is no mind to control – it is pure rage and spirit. Rosemeadow is prepared to go out to assist but is too large to fit into the melee outside – instead, she reaches over to touch Quill and gives him *Bear’s Endurance.* Quill casts *Turn Undead*, the three ghostly hounds evaporate into a green misty explosion but the rider resists and is unharmed – Quill attempts to move back into the temple and is hit by the swordsman in a savage blow: the blade connects with his neck leaving a jagged and life-sucking wound that almost slices through his jugular vein, had Sentry not grabbed him and pulled him forcibly into the temple, it would have severed his head from his body. Having taken significant damage, the *Banishment* on the rider’s steed ends and it reappears.

Suddenly, emerging from the tree line, they see a woman in a red dress with bladed metal wings and dark hair that is in disarray, power is radiating out of her, but they do notice that some small parts of her body have broken away leaving behind what looks to be icy craters: Xarkira has entered the battle. Xarkira casts *Globe of Invulnerability*\* and starts walking towards the temple – they notice that this is not the same Xarkira that attacked the Stormchaser in the Valley of Storms, her dress is of a different cut, and she wears a single bracer inset with an amethyst stone. Aila recognises this simulacrum of Xarkira as the one that was on the Tassadar – it has clearly been in battle and been injured.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Intro
 08:52 - Part 1
 1:26:05 - Break time/Donations
 1:34:32 - Part 2
 2:55:24 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Rosemeadow
* Dawnweaver
* Walks on Morning Dew

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Kyrie
* Big Cat

## **Featured Locations**

* Lunaria
	+ Black Stallion Woods

## **Trivia**

* Mark opens the YouTube episode with the most enthusiastic “dab” ever known to man.
* This is the first episode after the 2021 Christmas break. There were plans to play one more game prior to Christmas but one or two of the crew were sick, leading to this long-unresolved cliff-hanger.
* Mark confirmed that the spirits’ weapons are vorpal weapons and have a chance of killing the players outright (although there is a save against it), either by chopping off a player’s head or by piercing their heart.
* Rosemeadow is a Druid. She can cast healing light “a certain number of times per day”.
* Mark clarified that with the spell *Temple of the Gods*, divination spells cannot be used inside the temple, so Kalus or Xarkira (for example) would not be able to scry (or spy) on them, Quill’s WIS modifier is added to any healing spell that is cast inside the temple, the temple cannot be dispelled, *anti-magic field* has no effect on it, and *disintegrate* destroys it instantly.
* Quill confirmed that the Wayfinders Guide could act as a holy symbol of H’esper “worth at least 5g”.
* Rosemeadow can now move 80 ft per round thanks to the magic horseshoes that Sentry purchased for her, and her strength now that she has resumed her natural form is 18 (according to Mark).
* After a long discussion about whether anyone could cast *Haste*, Tom asked if anybody could cast “fast” on him… the rest pointed out that they had just discussed that to which he responded, “Oh wait, that’s *Haste*”.
* Kim refers to Walks on Morning Dew as “Walks on Mountain Dew”.
* Mark explains the ‘timey wimey’ effect of Dawnweaver’s magic: any magical effect cast on a person in the phase shifted reality would remain on them when they emerged into real time. The temple, on the other hand, is being cast on a fixed place in whatever reality they are in (real time or phase shift): if they tried to come out of the phased time just before the spell was cast, the spell would fail because, technically, they had moved.
* A dono question asked about extra campaigns once the studio is up and running: Mark said that there are plans to do other things when the studio is available, maybe other tabletop systems, and not just 5e. Tom is keen for Ironsworn (or Starforged), one-shots, Warhammer, etc. Mark is keen to do shorter campaigns (12 eps) with not just the HRs, maybe some HRs and a guest (Ravs, Boba, Ted, etc.). Mark would like Kim to run Call of Cthulhu or Star Trek. They also have board games that they can play.
* To work out how big the forest is, Mark did a lot of calculations using: travel pace from the PHB, the size of a large forest on Earth (using the Black Forest for reference, although this was too big!), and  how far the hunters can move in a round (180 feet using dash in the ethereal plane).
* Tom describes the *Temple of the Gods* as looking like “the last and only *real* Temple of H’esper I’ve actually been in, the one in Kalie’s Rest” – completely forgetting about the Temple to H’esper in the Valley of Storms. He describes the outer wall as being like the entrance to Diagon Alley from Harry Potter, with shifting stones that move top open and allow access and close behind you. The inside he equates to Hogwarts with shelves and steps moving around. Mark then reads the description of the temple and allows things on the walls but ensures that the central space is open. The altar looks like the statue of H’esper from the Valley of Storms (“you know, the *actual Temple of H’esper*”).
* Mark calculated that the riders travelled about 108,000 feet in the time given to them and the distance was about 4800 feet too long for them to get to the party in time to stop the casting of the spell.
* Tom realises that there can be as many windows in his temple as he wants, so he decides to make it “all window”, then changes it to “a decent amount of window”.
* Tom: “When you close a window, H’esper opens a door – it’s really annoying phrasing for that”. Especially when your temple is all window, eh Tom?
* Mark rolled 2 natural 20s against Quill this combat: the first was at a disadvantage, the second was when Quill moved, allowing an attack of opportunity (and reminded Mark of the fact). Sentry’s +3 aura helped to save him from being decapitated – it was a close thing.
* \*When the clone Xarkira initially entered the battle, the plan was for her to cast *Disintegrate* to remove the temple. Mark initially thought that the range was 120 feet (instead of 60 feet), so had to change Xarkira’s action. Instead, she casts *Globe of Invulnerability*, but Mark does not realise that this is immobile, so will retcon this at the start of the next episode.