Aerois - Episode 10: The Thorns

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Thorns** is the 10th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd channel on 23rd September 2018 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*The team have their invites to a dinner with the Brookstones, but something sinister is unfolding elsewhere in Rosehall!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Katie is away for a few weeks, but will be back soon.
* This week's sponsors are D&D Beyond and Brilliant.
* Merch: Aerois t-shirts still available, there will be metal Aerois dice and tote bags coming.
* A Rogue's Gambit on Mondays.
* Send any HR fan art in to highrollersdnd@gmail.com.

### **Recap**

"*The party, who are currently looking for a name for their mercenary band, find themselves popular in town when news of their newfound wealth gets out. After being approached by several groups, they decide to set up a charity, to help the town in times of need. Sentry and Nova took Arval to Torval Blackhammer, a priest of Palador, and got his leg healed, finally filling a promise, with Arval promising to repay them once they can get back to Goldthrone. Nova asked the priest to teach her about a ritual for mending injuries, but Torval was uncertain as the ritual is knowledge given to him by his deity and through his training; he said he would think about it after a very successful attempt at persuasion. Lucius and Quill spent some time talking with Valla, a teenager that they met aboard the airship, who is being accompanied by two Siaskan priests and priestesses. They asked her about her magical abilities and her past, revealing that she has little memory from before four or five years old and has more magical power than perhaps they initially thought. Later that evening, Brett Brookstone, a patriarchal figure that the party have been warned against, visits them in the inn, The Brazen Hart, and invites the group to dinner to help dispel the nasty rumours about him and his business in the town.*"
### **Part 1**

*The team have their invites to a dinner with the Brookstones, but something sinister is unfolding elsewhere in Rosehall!*

Nova wakes to find a note in her room that she has been sharing with Aila – it has been hastily written on a scrap of paper, “*Wasting a bit too much time. Want to look into the wild elves. Will come find you guys when I’m done*”. The morning is cold and dreary with thick grey clouds keeping the sunlight to a minimum, and a cold winter air blows through the town.

They meet downstairs for breakfast and Nova announces that Aila is gone and that she can have Tiangong absorb Gadwyn’s Hammer so that she can use it as a weapon. Quill is concerned that Tiangong wants power, but Nova says that she trusts Tiangong completely: she asks Tiangong what they want and get a feeling of hunger from the sword – they need to feed. Quill agrees that Nova can take the hammer and Lucius checks the bulletin board to see if there are new names for their group. She meditates with both weapons – she closes her eyes and feels herself surrounded by blackness. It is almost as if a vision is given to her: *the blackness slowly begins to fill with stars. She begins to have the sensation of moving through space, the Dark Above, and feels a sense of growing cold. She starts to feel a light and warmth fill the space and starts to see more around her. There is an interior with glowing green lines, similar to the shuttle she saw before. She hears faint voices, but none that she can make out clearly. There is dark steel and black metal as the stars move past her. She sees Tiangong, a long blade in the middle of a glass canister, power leaching from it into the shuttlecraft itself. Her eyes open, she feels a sensation and hears “Good”. The hammer is gone, but Tiangong has shrunk down to the size of a small knife or dagger. Some of the etch work on the hammer now shows on the fuller of Tiangong’s blade and it now possesses the abilities and powers of Gadwyn’s Hammer.*

Quill spends the time asking around town to see what people think of Brett Brookstone: most people open up, recognising the good work that the group has been doing in town. Opinions are divided, but most believe that Brookstone is a selfish man who cares only about himself and his family. He currently runs the large open mine in the Ironweald. Quill learns that Brookstone came from a poor family that owned a small farm that was completely destroyed by Wild Elves when he was a teenager. He lost his parents to illness the following winter and since then has worked hard, scrimped and saved. He took a gamble, bought some mining supplies and found iron deposits in the Ironweald, setting up the mine that now exists. He has made significant money from this, employing people from the village. He respects hard workers but does not care about their backgrounds or prior activities. He has a large family, a wife and six children and they live in a nice house over by the Ironweald. He does not like Wild Elves. Brookstone is seen as a bit selfish, but people have never had a problem with him, mainly with his workers: when it is reported, their misbehaviour usually stops, at least for a while. Quill thinks Brookstone is a good guy.

Lucius asks Rosalina about the charity and its progress: she has been collecting names of people and the purposes for which they claim to need the gold. Lucius gives her another 20 gold from his own pocket to put towards the fund.

Quill returns to the tavern speaking to Kendra, a local farmer, who tells him that she has never had any problems with Brett Brookstone. Sentry does not trust Brookstone, thinking that he is influential in the town and does not stop his misbehaving workers for more than a short time. Nova tries talking to Tiangong, but just gets a feeling of contentment – for now.

They go to see Daysa about having the wyvern hide made into armour – Daysa tells them that she can make it into leather, studded leather or hide armour: it will cost 400 gold and take two weeks to make, but it will give the wearer the ability to avoid some poison damage. Daysa says that she will be happy to send the completed armour to Goldthrone. They give the iron ingots and residual gold to Daysa who will make studded leather armour for them.

They head over to Brett Brookstone’s at dusk. Arval knocks and is met by Brookstone opening the door. The house is decorated very much like a hunting lodge with many land-based creatures stuffed and on display – the most disturbing is a large, multi-eyed spider’s head. He takes them through to the dining room and seats them. At the table are four of his children: three boys aged 16, and two aged roughly 10, and a girl of 8 or 9 years old. At the far end of the table starting to carve a suckled pig is a small, pretty woman, Brookstone’s wife, Gemma. Brett introduces the family and the party introduce themselves. The children are astounded at the bird man and the robot at their table.

Brookstone proposes a toast to the party: to making new friends and to all the great work that the party has done in the town. Lucius adds “to stopping Brookstone people from beating others up”, but because it is not intended maliciously, Brookstone laughs and says that he will fix that issue up. It is a lovely dinner: The food is delicious and Brookstone is very entertaining. He says that he is pleased that Aila could not come to dinner and warns them to be careful of Wild Elves saying that they can be savage. Lucius tells Brookstone that his nanny used to tell him to “Judge one by the one, and not by the all”. They have noticed throughout the dinner that the children do as they are told, and Brookstone is definitely in charge, but more of a benevolent dictator to the family; when he talks about the Wild Elves, however, there is a lot of repressed anger and he clearly strives to say the polite thing rather than what he really feels.

After dessert, there is a knock at the door: it is the Field Warden, Merrick Tallfellow, and he has come looking for the travellers. Merrick is now wearing scale mail, a crossbow slung over his back and a longsword at his side. He tells them that they need to come with him, that something has happened back at the tavern. When they get back to The Brazen Hart, there is a crowd gathered around the stables at the back. When the guards clear the crowd away, they see blood spatter on the ground and two lifeless bodies in the stable.

### **Part 2**

*Two have been murdered in the quiet town of Rosehall. The party immediately make preparations to catch the culprit!*

The Harvest Guard is questioning the lookers-on to see if they know anything about the deaths of the two people in the stable. Nova and Lucius are too stunned to do anything, but Quill and Sentry note that both bodies are wearing Siaskan priest robes: one is a dark-skinned woman and the other is a young man: it is Yusef and Corin. There is a trail of blood as if Yusef crawled over to Corin’s body and they huddled together at the end, but it looks as though the robes are torn and something has ripped into the bodies. Quill immediately turns away and starts looking for Valla. Nova tells Lucius that the bodies are those of Yusef and Corin, and he immediately pushes through to see if he can do anything, calling for a healer. Windy Gale reassures him gently that they have tried everything, but that Yusef and Corin died an hour ago and cannot be saved.

Quill overhears a local telling one of the Harvest Guard that he saw Valla being carried off by a seven-foot tall, muscular individual wielding a large chain. Windy Gale says that they went towards the southern gate, but it’s like they stepped into the shadows and disappeared: the guards at the north gate had to head into the woods to deal with a dire wolf that came too close to the town. Merrick has dispatched scouts to try to discover who is responsible, and that they put up a fight and had defensive wounds. They want to know what has happened to Aila given that she disappeared on the same day this murder happened. Merrick tells them that if they want to speak to anyone in town, they will need to have one of his guards with them, and that Torval will preserve the bodies and escort them to Goldthrone to the Temple of Siaska.

Quill stands before the crowd, determined, and demands to know who has seen what happened. Reld steps forward and tells him that she saw the tall man, that he was grey skinned with tattoos, and that he stepped into the shadow in an alley and vanished (like he moved through the shadows to somewhere else). He also looked like he had some bruises and scorch marks on his arm, and a long coil of spiked chain with a bloodied blade at the end of it. Reld does not think that he was going for the south gate but was moving towards the shadows. Quill orders the Harvest Guard to check the alleyways and all the shadowed area.

Nova knows that there are individuals from different backgrounds and races that have the ability to blend with shadows and to jump from shadow to shadow like a teleportation, 30 to 60 feet away. The people that do this are always said to be quite disturbed, prone to madness and violence, and it is generally seen as a magical curse or disease, but it gives them the ability to merge with or travel through shadows.

Quill follows the large, bloodied footprints towards the alleyway identified by Reld: they get to the shadow between the houses… and just stop. Quill continues down the alley to find that the other side is well lit, and that the nearest large patch of shadow is near the north gate. He investigates the nearest patch of shadow heading towards the north gate and finds the same footprints that then vanish, estimating that the kidnapper can travel 30-40 feet in this way; continuing on this pattern, he ends up at the north gate.

Merrick asks them why they were at Brett Brookstone’s that evening – they tell him that they were invited to dinner. Merrick does not believe that Brookstone was responsible for this, but he finds it odd that they were at his place tonight. Lucius assumes that this attack is related to the one on the Sparrowblade, and that the Remnant is after Valla.

Sentry sends Echo out along the road – about 60 feet from the north gate and deeper into the Ironweald Forest, she sees ropes and horse feeding bags for four horses – nearby are fresh tracks leading away from the north gate at some speed.

They split up to recover Arval and get some horses from the Half-Elven Tack Keeper, Tammin. Arval is consoling a crying Rosalina and a shocked Reld, but he is ready to leave with his backpack and Evangeline – in his hand he holds Yusef’s holy symbol. Lucius gets them some rations and Sentry hugs Rosalina who cries and apologises, and they take their leave.

Tammin is 18-19 years old: there are many horses available, but Tammin is reluctant to let them take the horses since Nova tells him that she does not know how to ride. He agrees to rent the horses to them for 25 gold per horse (a deposit in case one of them is injured) on the proviso that they take the horses to the stables at Goldthrone. Nova quickly agrees and gives him 100 gold.

They ride hard for the first day and while they seem to be keeping up with the kidnappers, they know that they are still 2-3 hours behind them: the tracks are easy to follow at this point. At the end of the first day, the tracks stop at the edge of the Ironweald - it looks like they have let the horses go and started to travel deeper into the forest. They are at a bit of a loss as to what to do: Arval offers to take the horses to the nearest town, Ironwick, which is two days away.

Nova and Quill know a little about the Ironweald Forest: it dominates most of southern Suvonna and is nestled in the shadow of the Auric Mountains. It is hilly and dense, and there are iron deposits within the hills therein. It is also well known for its inhabitants: monsters, bandits and spirits, as well as old, overgrown, decaying ruins lost to time. One of the most infamous monsters in the forest is the Ironweald spider which incorporates iron into its carapace, making it much harder to injure.

Nova suggests that she can *speak with animals* and tell the horses to go back: it takes her ten minutes to prepare. Quill examines the ground and finds the tracks of four humanoids including one who is large. Nova speaks to the horses who have trouble understanding the concept of going back to Rosehall without a rider. Sentry tries the same spell and makes herself understood almost immediately. Nova writes a quick note and tucks it into one of the saddlebags as the horses start to take themselves back to Rosehall in a leisurely manner.

The party knows that the kidnappers have a lead on them and decide to travel at a fast pace in pursuit. As they are about to set out, Lucius realises that he has left his coat at the Brookstone Manor. For the first morning, they make their way deeper into the woods: the hills rise up and they start to get tired – they take a quick break for a rest and to eat, noticing that it is a very quiet wood with strange, brittle, silvery metallic plants. As it gets dark, Lucius spots a small camp ahead of them with a campfire, but this looks more permanent than he would expect of their quarry. There are tents and he sees four figures, most of them looking quite animalistic with stag horns protruding from their heads. They wear animal hides and are eating a meal, and they have not seen or heard the party yet. They cover their lanterns and Lucius extinguishes his dancing lights.

Quill overhears them talking about a hunt that they have recently been involved in and recognises them as Beastwalkers – a strange people created by Atelicus the god of nature after the Sundering. Their skin is mottled brown like a deer or stag’s hide, and they have large stag horns if male or small deer antlers if female. They carry longbows and hatchets with them.

Lucius steps out and calls a greeting: the Beastwalkers immediately arm themselves and ready spells. Lucius convinces them that he is not dangerous and calls the rest of the party to come forward, telling the Beastwalkers their business and asking for information. The stag introduces himself (Gen) and his wife (Leela) and kids, and they offer the party food, seeing how few rations they have. Gen says that he saw a dangerous looking fellow with three other humans – the big fellow, a Goliath, was carrying a sack that could very well have held a human. Of the humans, there was a boy and a girl, both about 18 years old, wearing rugged travellers’ clothes who looked very practiced in moving through the woods. The other man with them wore loose clothes, carried a mining pick and looked very out of place in the woods. The Beastwalkers offer to take them to a grove where they can rest for the night, telling them that they are about an hour behind their quarry; in return for their generosity, Lucius gives them 1 gold and Nova gives them the scimitar they found in Dwalinden. They follow Gen to the glade where he keeps watch and they huddle together for warmth during the chilly night, getting a long rest.

They resume in the morning at a fast pace, and while they manage to keep on track and avoid dangers, they are making a lot of noise and the terrain becomes quite difficult, making Sentry a little more tired than the day before. Eventually, Lucius catches a glimpse of a 7-foot grey skinned figure looming in the shadows of the trees – it is watching them as they come towards it, and there is no sign of the three humans. Lucius gets them to stop: he and Quill pretend that they are going to move in a different direction and Sentry activates Echo, sending it stealthily towards the Goliath. Echo does not see the Goliath but does show a small clearing with an extinguished campfire.

As Sentry focuses through Echo’s eye, she watches as it moves around – Echo stops and glances around at the last second only to see a grey skinned, tattooed face, and red veins crawling up its neck from underneath a loose tunic… it grimaces as its spiked blade cuts through Echo. Sentry hears Echo shatter and takes psychic damage as the connection between her and Echo is severed and all goes black.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

1:27 - D&D modules/official books coming out in 2018
2:33 - Trott’s Puzzle Dwarven Island (“Knights & Knaves”)
5:49 - Aerois Intro
7:06 - Recap
8:20 - Start
10:51 - Egg cannibalism? Or nature?
11:55 - Specifications/Corrections on Warlock Class
12:34 - Nice hot plates
13:28 - Pompous Mark impression
13:50 - Metagame Guesses
15:14 - Lucius’ father’s first name is going to be “Daddy” at this rate
15:57 - MY IMMERSION!
17:10 - Hammer techniques
17:51 - Everyone fights for cake
19:30 - Yes...power. Almost like a certain gauntlet + Echo sounds
21:18 - Morning Lucius
22:41 - Goes down the weapon list
25:00 - Hungry...hungry...hipp- erm sword
27:40 - Name suggestions bulletin board
29:08 - Fusing with Gadwyn’s hammer & visions
32:30 - Opinion on Brett Brookstone & history
34:48 - Name suggestion opinions
40:50 - Emotional Investments
46:11 - Plz No
47:03 - Nnnnngh!
49:15 - Quilvanastria
50:00 - Wyvern hide armor info
52:40 - “Fun”
53:25 - Spruce up montage
1:07:08 - Prince of awkward
1:09:13 - Wise words... which is immoderately ruined
1:12:13 - Serious change
1:14:56 - Oh shit... NOOOOOOO Break Music
1:15:20 - Aerois Main Theme
1:16:13 - Violin version of Aerois Main theme
1:20:26 - Piano version of Aerois Main theme
1:24:31 - Evil Cardigan
1:25:27 - Accurate Narrator Kim
1:35:55 - Belief of the afterlife & gods
1:37:00 - Quill taking the role of leader
1:50:00 - Echo location
1:53:20 - Robot hugs
2:01:40 Horse chase
2:04:54 - Oh... lovely. Hopefully there are no mountain spiders
2:07:53 - Horse talk + Mark impressions
2:11:14 - NAT 20 Horse check!
2:14:00 - Navigation Role Rules
2:20:35 - Beastfolk info
2:31:09 - Thing in the Ironweald
2:36:10 - Shadow watching in the trees
2:39:30 - NO ECHO!
2:40:47 - Dwarves & Duergar/Knight & Knaves Puzzle solution

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Gen (Beastwalker stag)
* Kendra (a farmer who gives her opinion on Brookstone to Quill)
* Leela (Beastwalker deer)
* Shadow-walking Goliath
* Tammin (Tack Keeper at the stables in Rosehall)
* The Brookstones
	+ Dent Brookstone
	+ Gemma Brookstone (wife)
	+ Sammy Brookstone
	+ Sanda Brookstone
	+ Will Brookstone
* Unnamed children of the Beastwalkers

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Arval Dagos
* Brett Brookstone
* Brother Corin
* Merrick Tallfellow
* Reld
* Sister Yusef
* Windy Gale

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Daysa Goodsmith
* Fela Brookstone (eldest daughter)
* Finn Brookstone (eldest son)
* Siaska

## **Featured Locations**

* Ironweald Forest
* Rosehall

## **Trivia**

* As Katie was absent, Mark had Aila leave temporarily to seek more information about her clan.
* Mark clarifies that while he mistakenly said that Nova was a Pact of the Blade warlock, he meant Hexblade warlock. It is effectively the same thing - her weapon, Tiangong, can absorb the properties of a magic item, meaning that she can use other weapons that the group finds without having to lose the visual aesthetic of Tiangong. Nova is a Pact of the Tome Hexblade warlock.
* Quill is announced as the unofficial leader of the group in this episode; later this is ratified by a vote.
* New names that have appeared on the bulletin board: “The Fallen Five”, “The Rose Petals”, “The Fallen Thorns”, “The Descendants”, The Sparrowblades”, “The Broken Sky” and “Daddy’s Boys”. Nova suggests “Nova and the Quarks”, while Lucius suggests “Quilvenastria” (*Tom says he would like to see someone spell it **– challenge accepted!***) One of the dono suggestions was “The Crash Quest Dummies”.
* Kim broke her mini during this episode.
* Nova tells Quill that he is like a big brother to her.
* **Item description: Wyvernhide Armour:** Gives the wearer the ability to ignore the first 5 points of poison damage. Mark points out that it does not give resistance (which would halve the poison damage). See episode 104.
* Mark incorrectly refers a couple of times to Merrick Tallfellow’s title as Field Marshall (rather than Field Warden).
* **Continuity error:** Mark refers to Torval as Torvin, although this may just be a Markism.
* **Lore dump:** Regardless of whom a person worships, the general afterlife belief is that those who die are guided beyond the Cradle to the afterlife by Siaska’s daughter, Kellara, who inherited her mother’s responsibilities. She comes down and uses a lantern to reveal a secret entrance beyond the cradle and leads the dead spirits into the paradise of the afterlife. A common saying is “may Kellara guide you”.
* Options for moving through the woods:
	+ Move at a slow pace - move stealthily, gives bonuses to spotting dangers or tracks
	+ Move at a normal pace – no bonuses nor penalties, can’t stealth
	+ Move at a fast pace – penalties to spotting dangers and ambushes
* This is the first skill challenge that Mark has given them. Moving through the woods, there are 4 roles (each player can only perform one role): a lookout, a vanguard, a rear guard and a navigator. The navigator makes survival checks to make sure you don’t get lost. The lookout makes perception checks to spot ambushes and hidden features. The vanguard clears the path (athletics or nature check) while the rear guard will help to determine the overall readiness of the group (initiative check).
* The party has encountered Beastwalkers before: in session zero, they met baggage thieves in Immixan. In general, Beastwalkers are as fickle as nature and animals themselves – some are kind-hearted, others can be vicious.
* Sentry refers to her Echo as her “branch baby”.