Aerois - Episode 71: The Wings of Ishtar

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## The Wings of Ishtar

### Chapter

Aerois
71
Ten: Far From Home

## Cast

### Players

Chris Trott as Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto

 Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

## VODs

### YouTube

High Rollers: Aerois #71 | The Wings of Ishtar

### Podcast

Spotify: Part 1, Part 2
Apple: Part 1, Part 2

## Episode Guide

### Next Episode

The Last Feather
Astral Styx and Astral Stones

**The Wings of Ishtar** is the 71st episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 17th May 2020 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*The party meet up with resistance group, the Wings of Ishtar and Nova gets a pleasant surprise...*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The team is back after taking a week off last week.
* There are two sponsors this week: D&D Beyond and World Anvil.
* There are new shirts and a mug in the merch store: Nova's Atlas Academy shirt, new Aerois shirt, new High Rollers mug.
* Mark is trying to post more Aerois stuff to his Patreon: the guardian has been updated and the PDF is now available.

### **Recap**

"*Our party of heroes find themselves stranded in another world, Elysium, warped there by accident after trying to seal a rift to the Far Realm. Elysium was once a good and angelic world that has now joined the Valkyrian Empire. Arriving in Ishtar city, a major settlement on the world, the group makes an unexpected ally, and have twenty-four hours to escape before their identities are discovered. After exploring the city, the party head to the Star Port, a large floating ring above Ishtar that houses the many astral ships capable of traveling across astral space. They enter the Last Feather, a bar that serves the many captains who visit here. After meeting a cast of colourful characters, the group decide to hire the services of Captain Thalia Whisperwind, a medusa, and her starship, the Twinstar Longbow. She gives them eight hours to allow her to prep before they can leave and head back home towards Aerois. During this time, the group are contacted by the Wings of Ishtar, a small rebel cell that oppose the Valkyrian Empire. They visit an abandoned opera house, and find the rebels hidden within, where their leader, a solar called Zellion(sp?), greets them.*"

### **Part 1**

*An angelic figure presents the team with some interesting new opportunities!*

The party had gone below ground to a war room with a table covered in maps and parchments as well as illusory projections of starships, planet bases and military targets. Around them are a few figures: and angelic being with feathery wings and bright fiery eyes, another is an aasimar man dressed in fine robes, and an extraordinarily beautiful, well-built man with glowing geometric tattoos up and down his arms and neck - half his head is shaved while the other has long brown hair and is partially braided - he has a large pair of folded angelic wings and his eyes are glowing orbs of blue light: this is Zellion, leader of the Wings of Ishtar. He thanks them for providing the teleportation codes for the Tassadar. Quill wants to know how they can trust him; he smiles and says it is a good question but hard to answer - he says that his mission is to protect life and to get many worlds, not just his own, out from under the heel of Kalus.

Zellion speaks to each of them in their minds asking, "What do you seek to gain from this (giving the codes)?" Quill responds, "To strike a powerful blow against Kalus Starbane and also to save Valla", Nova replies that she wants to free the Tassadar, a member of the Eterna Triumvirate and Valla, Lucius just wants safe passage back to Aerois to protect it and his friends, Sentry wants "to gain an ally, perhaps a feeling that this fight is not just ours alone, to restore a light that's already beginning to fade away", while Aila just wants to get everyone safely home to Aerois. A smile crosses Zellion's face, as he has been testing the truth of their answers; he tells them that he has fought for the multiverse for thousands of years and that they currently find themselves in a time where there is little light left in the world. He moves to Sentry and places a hand on her shoulder, looking at the golden matrix, "I had feared that Root had been lost long, long ago and it relieves my heart immensely to know that the matrix could be passed onto a new guardian. Of you I have no doubt, warrior - if you have been chosen as the new Prime, then I know that you are truly an agent of goodness and of life, and I promise you that you have an ally in me as Root once did".

He says that there is no shame in wanting to go home, but hopes that they would be willing to fight to protect their home. The Eterna, he says, came after he exiled himself from the universe, so they are a mystery to him, but he knows that Tassadar is a powerful being and that Zellion would rather he be free than in the control of Kalus. Zellion says that he does not know who Valla is, but he wishes to give them the opportunity to save her as an innocent, he says that a decisive blow against the Valkyrian Empire can be assured if any blow can be struck. He says that the Wings of Ishtar are only a small group, that there are only a few angels and celestials committed to his cause, that he has long been a thorn in Kalus' side making him a target of the Empire; he also reveals that he and Kalus once fought together, and that Kalus knows that he is strong enough to match Kalus and some of his commanders, but Kalus has the numbers of a whole Empire while Zellion only has five other individuals and a few others scattered across the multiverse.

Zellion has a plan for using the teleportation code for the Tassadar, but says he will need aid from the party, that he will not be able to provide an army; most people find the Empire to be safe and easier to be in rather than work against. Nova asks if there is a resistance on Genas, but Zellion tells her that Genas is a staunch defender of the Valkyrian Empire and they will find no or very few allies there. He says that he will need their help with the mission: in retrieving the Eterna, Tassadar, in rescuing Valla and securing data that would be invaluable to the resistance, as well as supplying information about Aerois - what forces they have and what Siaska's plan is. Nova tells Zellion that Siaska is 'dead' which he denies is possible for a divine - she asks if he knows about the Cradle, which he does not: all information about Aerois has been destroyed or removed from public record. Kalus, he says, only took his most trusted soldiers to the war with Aerois and anyone with any doubts was left behind, the most that people knew was that he planned to attack an unnamed planet on the far edge of the multiverse. The Empire controls information and Kalus controls the gates between realms, his ships patrol the slipstreams or slipspaces.

Lucius tells Zellion that he is being cautious because he does not know whom he can trust: Zellion tells them that he was not born, but created from a certain essence, and that they thought of him being deceptive is something that he is struggling to comprehend that a being would believe of him: he is a Solar and was one of the twelve original protectors of the planet. Quill asks that if he used to fight alongside Starbane why he fights against him now: Zellion says that "thousands of years ago, Kalus was a warrior that protected life. He fought against Hadar, he fought alongside Siaska, your own creator. She fought alongside him, she loved him, they loved each other - it was a blessing to see them work together, their love was incredibly pure and to see it was a blessing upon any being. They fought against the Crimson Star, they saved planets, they saved cities, but over years, he began to change. His heart became colder, his will stronger, and I saw them drift apart, and it was a final thing that broke Kalus' trust with many of us. At Alfheim, things changed: when I saw what Kalus did, when I learned of what he intended, I knew that my place was no longer along side him, much as Siaska did. Your existence (indicating Aila) is a strange one that I have some theories about: most of the knowledge of Alfheim is lost - Xarkira has done well to mask the true events - if it had not been for Siaska, I doubt even I would have known the truth, but she told me before she fled. Kalus had planned to take something - he took a device, a relic, a powerful one that was at the heart of the planet that had given it life, that had given its people magic and power, he took it and without it the world crumbled. Kalus told the elves of Alfheim that this was the work of Hadar: he rallied them to his cause, he invited them aboard his starships and he took their magic, the knowledge of the Seeds of Rebirth, a powerful magic ritual that the elves here knew that allowed them to instill their memories and knowledge into new life. He recruited them into his armies, he spirited them away on his ships, but the thing that he took, Siaska stole. I do not know its nature, I do not know where she took it, I can only assume to your planet of Aerois is my best guess, and that was the last we ever saw of her. They claim that she died, but I knew that was not true - I felt her message in my mind as she fled. Your people (wild elves) - some still exist: they are creations, replications of the original elves of Alfheim - their bodies are made new, but memories, the knowledge of how to fight, of how to control magic is instilled into them, it makes them stronger, it makes them quicker, faster, better in combat. Many of them still serve in Kalus' forces, but there were breakaway groups, clans that fled that joined other nations, sadly most of those were destroyed".

Aila mentions that she has not found other wild elves with the same powers she has and shows him her lightning power, which he seems to recognise. "You know Siaska is a divine, yes? A true goddess, a power of divinity, well she is not the only one. There were ones who came before - the ones who sealed Hadar away and many more besides. The elves of Alfheim worshiped a pantheon of them, and that pantheon of divines bestowed upon their people gifts - yours must have come from such a being". Aila asks if he knows anything of these beings, but Zellion does not, "I was young when Siaska was brought into this realm, I was young then, and when you have lived for thousands of years, the memories become ethereal, difficult to grasp. I know that there were several of them, and the power of the storm belonged to one, a man, a divine man, great warrior, but my memory of him is fragmented at best. He would have passed back into the Genesis Realm like many of the first divines did when they felt that their work was done; he is no longer a part of our multiverse, I am afraid".

Lucius asks the meaning of the term 'multiverse', "The multiverse is our realm, not just our planes, but the encapsulation of all the realms; the inner, the outer, the far realms, the beyond - it is a multiverse, different planes and planets combined together, demi-planes, demi-dimensions, it is what we call the collective group of all of our life in these worlds". Zellion says that he would love to fight but is reluctant to given that previously he was a reckless warrior and that nearly led him astray, he is reluctant to go back to war - he takes no joy in killing anyone, even members of the Empire - he would like to resolve the war in a way that did not end in death and to return Kalus to the man that he once was, making the Empire something that would benefit all worlds. He says that this is not possible: Kalus has changed, as has his empire over the last 500-1000 years. Kalus, he says, has grown distant, he rules but like a shadow that looms over everything - Xarkira and his other commanders have taken far greater control and their influence has grown much stronger. Zellion says that he wishes that they could return the the multiverse as it once was, a place of peace and prosperity for all, before the influence of Hadar, before Kalus' madness took him.

Nova tells Zellion about the legends that they have on Aerois about the Dark War when Kalus came to attack Aerois, when gods and mortals alike rose up against the Court of Shadows. There was a 90-year war, and at the end, there was a large assault by Kalus: Siaska used her divine power to banish him from Aerois and create the Cradle, which protects Aerois from him. Siaska isn't quite dead because there is still something of her around the planet. Zellion says that while they believe this to be the truth, it is only true from their perspectives. He "knew Siaska and the divinities and she is not gone, nor is her being so dispersed that she cannot return. If she did this, if she created this barrier, it is made of her very essence, but she can return from this... it would require something - there is something that prevents Siaska from re-forming herself back into the goddess she was". He says that he cannot tell them what it is, and that only the party would be able to answer the question. He assures them that if Siaska's energy is still in the Cradle, that she can return to the world, that there are very few powers that could truly destroy a divine, and that the Hungering Star (Hadar) is only such power that he knows.

Zellion says that he last spoke to Starbane after Alfheim, perhaps 1000 years ago; after Alfheim, he exiled himself for hundreds of years before returning 200-300 years ago to Ishtar in secret to gather allies and form a resistance. He says that as a planetar, he can see through the lies of the propaganda that is spread on Elysium, but that many people choose to believe the lies they are told because it can offer them safety and hope. There is a suggestion that Xarkira has 're-written' history to enable the propaganda that has been spread throughout the Empire.

Quill believes that Zellion is their ally, and he warns them that there are some Solars who are not like him, who are battle zealots, blinded by their hate for Hadar (that he was once one of them). Zellion believes that with the sigils for the Tassadar, they can rescue Valla, get information that will bring peace and strike a blow against Kalus. He offers to tell Aila all he knows of Alfheim and the wild elves, tells Nova that he has a friend who can heal her undead arm, and tells Lucius that he is right to care for others and not to trust everyone. Zellion says there are three objectives if they are to infiltrate the Tassadar: it will need to be a stealth-strike mission with no more than ten infiltrators - 1. locate and rescue the Eterna that powers it (which will also remove one of Kalus' most prominent warships from his arsenal), 2. rescue Valla, 3. Obtain information from the IMD (Illusory Message Database) which is a record of all the messages and information that the Empire shares amongst itself - it contains plans, missions, operations that Kalus is conducting and will give them a significant strategic and tactical advantage.

Nova wonders whether the Seeds of Rebirth could have been used to create Valla, but Zellion says not: there is a spell where you can create a new body for an existing person, almost an exact replica, or a clone, but with the Seeds of Rebirth, the person is not an exact replica - they have a new personality, they have their own beliefs, dreams and ambitions, but they retain some of the memories and skills of the person that came before. He believes that this is how the elves of Alfheim continue to exist because they do not procreate in the way other races do, but re-create themselves in new versions, building upon themselves each time. If Siaska taught Kalus her ritual, then Valla is a demigod, she has a spark of divinity within her given by Siaska herself and rescuing her must be a priority. They must ensure that Kalus does not influence her.

Zellion suggests that nine of them travel to the Tassadar - the five party members and four of the Wings of Ishtar including Zellion. He suggests that they split into three teams because they will have very limited time to achieve their objectives before they are discovered. To prepare, he suggests that they get a copy of a detailed map of the Tassadar from an Valkyrian Archive showing systems and rooms they will need to access, they will need to get Valkyrian uniforms and signets tied to the Tassadar from one of the Imperial Magitek foundries that make them, lastly any magical supplies like scrolls and potions that will get them past magical defences (walls of force, magic eyes, etc.). He offers that his forces can obtain one of these, and then gives the party a small silvery rod, a focus rod which will allow a spell-caster who can cast a spell to teleport them across planes to take them to the hidden headquarters for the Wings of Ishtar deep within the city of Ishtar.

### **Part 2**

*We're finally heading into SPAAAAAAAAACE!*

Detailed description of the events of the second half of the episode.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Episode Start
00:43 - Sponsors
09:50 - Announcements
11:07 - Intro
12:07 - Recap
14:49 - Part 1
1:19:06 - Break time/Donations
1:27:40 - Part 2
2:44:56 - Outro/Donations

*feel free to add extra timestamps of significant events!*

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Character 1
* Character 2

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Thalia Whisperwind
* Zellion
* Character 2

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Character 1
* Character 2

## **Featured Locations**

* Elysium
* Location 2

## **Trivia**

* Trott's ad for World Anvil has him doing a demonstration for the world of "Blaerois". Tom says he is surprised that it wasn't called "Aeoris" which Trott says was in the running. This is a reference to the illustrated introduction played during the Dun Duns where Aerois is misspelled as "Aeoris".
* Trott shows the "influence of Starbane" in Blaerois covering most of Suvonna.