Aerois - Episode 137: Love and Death

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Love and Death** is the 137th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 30th January 2022 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*Graz'zt may have been dealt with...but will Mesmera finally remove the curse on Thalia?*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The two sponsors today are NordVPN and D&D Beyond. The digital release of *Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse* is coming on 17 May 2022. Fuzzy dice are only available as a subscriber perk until tomorrow.
* Thank you to WizKids for all of the minis they have sent for use in the High Rollers studio.
* Merch: Quill plushies are back in the store for the last time. This is a limited release of 500.
* With Lunar New Year just around the corner (Year of the Tiger), Kim has put the one shot she ran for High Rollers last year (The Jade Emperor’s Invitation) on her new website for free. It comes with maps, tokens, and everything you need to run the adventure.

### **Recap**

*" Our heroes assaulted the palatial tower of Heartspire to finally save their friend Thalia. With devils closing in around them, Nova uses a hasty plan to teleport inside the tower, leaving a portal for her allies to follow, but inside the party realise the severity of an Archfey’s power in their domain as Mesmera freezes them all in place and accelerates time to cause Thalia’s curse to quickly overwhelm her. In this desperate hour, Tiangong and Nova deepen their symbiosis and transform themselves, breaking free of Mesmera’s rule. Forcing the sorceress to change her other rules in panic, the party is freed and together they find ways to overcome this powerful and ancient magic, causing Mesmera to face the pain and fear she has hidden from over the centuries. As time is running out, Lucius attempts to break a mirror containing a reflection of Mesmera that is whispering controlling thoughts to her, but a hand emerges and stops his spell. Stepping from the reflection is Graz’zt, the Dark Prince of Pleasure, and an old enemy. With a gesture, Graz’zt pulls Mesmera into a ring on his finger and the Archfey’s rules collapse. Graz’zt, overconfident, challenges the PCs, seeking to kill Quill and Lucius for escaping his bargain with them on Azagrat, however, the Dark Prince is overwhelmed by the party and is defeated and returns to his home plane sore and a little bit put out, leaving behind one of his rings as Mesmera returns to the throne room. Rosemeadow calls out that Thalia looks to be in a bad way."*
### **Part 1**

*The Stormchasers struggle to finally remove Mesmera's curse on Thalia!*

Graz’zt has been defeated and disappeared and Mesmera has reformed; Rosemeadow stands at the door of the throne room cradling Thalia. Mesmera slumps to her knees, her arms going slack at her side, and all the while she is muttering to herself what a fool she has been for believing Graz’zt’s lies. Rosemeadow brings Thalia over to them and they see that the briar curse now covers the left arm completely, runs up her left cheek and covers her collar bone, looking to them like it is almost at her heart – she is very weak. Nova runs over to her, concerned: Thalia makes light of the situation, saying in a raspy voice, “Pretty good going, nerd – I like the sword moves,” while she reaches out with her right hand to stroke Nova’s shoulder gently. The rest of them notice that the room is growing cold, and frost is starting to crystalise around the windows.

Quill, ever cautious of Mesmera, approaches her and begs that she will listen to them now that they have removed Graz’zt and his influence over her. Mesmera looks up at him, her tears washing a trail through the grime left on her uncared-for face while her tattered dress and hair spill around her, “Help me? You help me by bringing the worst thing that happened to me, here?” She points at Thalia. “What were you hoping to achieve?” The ice continues to form and creep along the walls while Sentry and Lucius notice an oppressive sense of death begin to concentrate around Thalia. Sentry kneels next to Mesmera, sympathising with her for what has happened but reassuring her that wounds will heal with time, but Mesmera assures her that time has not helped her to heal the wounds of betrayal from someone who was once her friend. Thalia had lied to her, told her she was worthless and made her think horrible things about herself, and then when Mesmera was at her lowers point, Thalia cut off her wings and did other horrible things. Aila and Lucius notice that a dark figure, the cause of the cold and ice, floats through the wall from the outside of the tower – it is cloaked in long, tattered black cloth with a deep hood completely concealing its face (although from what they can see, it appears to be a half-formed spectral figure), and it holds an hourglass crooked in one arm and a long scythe in the other – it floats silently across the room and hovers ominously over Thalia.

Aila is blunt but impassioned, telling Mesmera that there is not much time and that she must stop this. “You’ve done the same to your people for the past few hundred years, look at what’s happened to them because of this! Look at your kingdom, it’s in ruins! Your people are being killed or worse by Graz’zt’s demons! You have to stop this, for them!” Mesmera counter-argues that it doesn’t change what Thalia did, and that what she is after is justice. Aila reminds her that she has had hundreds of years of justice and that it has not done her or her people any good – she asks Mesmera to end the curse so that they can help her rebuild her kingdom and help both her and her people. They can see that despite her deep hatred, Aila’s words strike home, “I don’t argue that I have done wrong by this kingdom and that there has been a lot of suffering, but you don’t know how bad it was – she does,” Mesmera says, not even looking at Thalia. Thalia begs to speak to Mesmera as Nova now sees the spectre of Death who says in a deep but resonant voice, “Time draws near. I await the result.” As Rosemeadow takes Thalia over to Mesmera, Death silently follows them. Quill had noted the noise of fighting outside the throne room, but with a sudden and loud thump of something big and armoured hitting the ground, the fighting stops, leaving only the sound of footsteps approaching the closed door to the throne room.

Lucius speaks to Mesmera, “I wish I had the opportunity to speak with someone who is no longer here that may or may not have inflicted pain upon me, and I think that’s worse, living with the unknowing – never having the opportunity to speak and make amends. It’s far worse than any torture I could ever face.” Thalia, having been brought over to Mesmera, speaks to her, “Mesmera… Mes, I didn’t come here to ask for forgiveness or to be saved. I do accept that what I did to you was terrible and I do deserve punishment. I didn’t come here to ask you to forgive me or to forget what I did, I came here just to simply say I am so sorry. I’m sorry for all the wicked things that I did to you, for the lies, for the mistreatment, the manipulation: I’ve learned so much. But I know that sorrys and words won’t fix and heal you. I’m most sorry for driving you to this dark place and I didn’t want you to become like the hateful, cruel, and jealous thing that I was. I didn’t bring my friends here to stop you, I brought them here to save you.” Mesmera’s eyes have welled up with tears and Kyrie flies over and clutches Mesmera in her wings, sobbing and saying, “Please don’t take her!”

Another form begins to appear behind Mesmera – the debate has attracted another spirit, this time a muscular female figure dressed in robes, wearing a blindfold and carrying a greatsword with a hilt shaped into a pair of scales. The spirit is not fully formed but is flickering behind Mesmera – it is being conjured but is still somewhat insubstantial. There is a sudden thud as the doors to the throne room burst open as thousands of rose petals fly into the room, filling much of the space: bursting in is an androgynous Elven-like figure with long, flowing pink hair and dressed in a military officer’s coat with lapels and a little cape, tight riding pants and tall boots and holding a basket-hilted sword in the shape of a rose. Flying alongside the tall figure is a small bee with a dandelion riding upon it. Realising that they have interrupted a very serious moment, the tall figure sheathes their sword and slowly begins to walk towards the group.

Mesmera looks at Thalia with anger and long years of resentment and bitterness, but the party can see that she is near breaking point. She looks at Thalia, “You took everything. You pretended to be my friend, you made me feel less than worthless, and then when I couldn’t get any lower, you ruined everything. Then I find that the one thing I thought I had that had given me the strength to fight back was a lie, and that you brought that thing to this world with your hatred, your jealousy and your cruel heart, and I fell victim to him again.” Thalia acknowledges this and apologises again, “If my death gives you any comfort, I welcome it. Listen to Aila, you have let this place fall into ruin – you have become just as cruel and disconnected as I was, and I don’t want that life for you.”

Nova steps up, “Mesmera, you know that I’ve seen what she did to you – I stand in between both of you. I love her, she saved us, she brought us home when we were far away, but I know what she did to you, I saw it, I felt it, you know. I’m not going to stop you; all I’m going to say is that these are the moments that define us: are you going to let this define you?” Mesmera lifts her head and looks at Nova with her big, blue, almond-shaped eyes – Thalia coughs up blood and her eyes begin to close. Mesmera pauses, winces, and says in a quiet, almost defeated voice, “The curse on Thalia Whisperwind ends.” The blind figure with the sword nods and vanishes, as does Death immediately after taking the cold and rime with it. They watch as the briar thorns rapidly begin to pull back all the way down Thalia’s arm to her wrist where she is left with a tattoo of a single rose.

The figure with Amidor is pleased that love has won out, believing it is fitting for Heartspire and blaming the demons for trying to keep them away. Nova pulls Thalia close, kissing her on her forehead and cheek then holds a hand out for Mesmera to take – almost unthinking, Mesmera reaches out to take it before pulling her hand sharply back, saying that she is not yet ready for reconciliation, she still has a lot of anger, hatred and fear of Thalia, but she says that she will not define herself by killing her. Mesmera says that there is much that she needs to fix, and that she is not ready to forgive or forget what Thalia has done, but that she is willing to consider that Thalia has changed and might deserve a second chance. Rosemeadow puts a renewed Thalia down, who nestles her face into Nova’s neck, while she moves towards Mesmera. Lucius is overwhelmed with emotion but irritated by a buzzing near his ear – it is Amidor, and he credits the Rose Knight for saving his life before simply flying around the room.

Mesmera turns to Aila telling her that she had needed to hear what she had to say even if Aila may not be as kind-hearted as the rest of the party: she has been alone for a thousand years and cannot recall kindness. Sentry goes to retrieve her cloak from the mirrored surface it is covering, but when she pulls her cape down she realises that none of the walls are mirrored any more – they have reverted to what they once were, stone murals of the fairy-tale kingdom of Heartspire: paintings of people dancing, making sculptures and art, people in a family – all symbols of the heart’s desire. They had become so reflective that they became mirrors, but they no longer exist. Near the surface where Graz’zt was defeated, however, Sentry notices a single gold ring lying on the floor – set into the ring are three diamonds, two of which appear to be burnt out. Rosemeadow is talking to Mesmera about her experiences in the Feywild so far, babbling about nonsense and trying to make friends with her.

The Rose Knight reassures them that there are no more devils or fiends in Heartspire; they had been barred from the realm for some time, but whatever evil had kept them at bay is now gone and they promise to be vigilant over the realm and Mesmera once more. There is concern that Graz’zt will try to return – Heartspire is a place of love, desire, and things that one wants to accomplish. Worried that they will be called away to other duties, the Rose Knight pulls their sword, and cuts it through the air towards Amidor and Pollenella who are engulfed by rose petals that rise in a swirl from the ground. When the rose petals disperse, the dandelion and bee are gone, replaced by two humanoids. The dandelion has been replaced by a dashing male musketeer with fluffy blond hair like a lion’s mane and a large blond moustache, he wears a musketeer’s tabard emblazoned with a dandelion, boots, and a sword. Standing next to him is a plump, curvaceous woman with black hair dressed in yellow with onyx black jewellery and a furry mantle collar around her neck. Amidor is astounded – he has arms! He has phalanges! He has a normal voice! The Rose Knight requests that Mesmera takes the two into service and she accedes to his wishes.

Thalia decides that it is best if she leaves – she does not want to cause Mesmera any more pain, she rescinds any claim to Heartspire and says that she will not come back. She asks Mesmera to release her family from the petrification spell which Mesmera agrees to do without looking at Thalia; Mesmera asks if she does not want to see them before she leaves but Thalia thinks it best that she doesn’t – she is too different and not ready to speak to them yet. She promises Nova that she will write a letter to be left for her family in the meantime but wants to get back to the Twinstar Longbow. Sentry collects the ring and gives it to Quill: Quill identifies it as the ring of wishes that Graz’zt offered all those months ago – there is only one wish left, however.

Lucius desperately wants to see the ring and snatches it from Quill, he then hides the ring and starts circling Nova and Thalia, trying to get Nova’s attention. Once he has Nova alone, he asks her about her cultural beliefs about bonding (see trivia) and offers her the ring of wishes with which she could propose to Thalia. Nova is startled, saying that she has only known Thalia for a few months, but Lucius is concerned that she is a great catch and could slip away at any moment. Lucius slips the ring into an astounded Nova’s hand and quickly walks away. Sentry is on board and offers to help plan a wedding if Nova gives her a day. Aila explains to Nova what the ring actually is, and she desperately tries to give it back to Quill – Lucius body dives between them and snatches it before Quill can take it: he says that he will keep it safe, immediately putting it on against Quill’s advice.

While they are having this conversation and wrestling over the ring, Mesmera is hugging Rosemeadow and crying into her shoulder. Thalia suggests that they leave Mesmera in peace. Before they leave, Aila tells Mesmera briefly about where they are from and the troubles they are having with Kalus Starbane, Xarkira and Hadar – she tells Mesmera to send them a message if she has any problems with any of the three and offers their assistance.  Mesmera tells them that Valkyrian has so far left her alone, Heartspire not being one of the more prosperous cities on Lunaria: she seems wary but thanks Aila for her offer and says that she will keep it in mind. Aila tells her that she does not want to see Lunaria end up like her own planet, destroyed by Starbane, Quill offers their help in any way that it can be offered – to repel any enemies (including Graz’zt), to help rebuilding the city or any other way that he can assist (and he gestures to his mechanical wing). Rosemeadow nervously tells them that she will stay in Lunaria for a while – she can heal Mesmera’s wings, can find her people, and can be what Mesmera needs most at the moment – a friend. When Lucius tells Rosemeadow that they will miss her, she tells them to call her Hope – a name that Lucius had suggested for her earlier and he is clearly touched by that. Nova says farewell and apologises for leaving Hope in the swamp: Hope grips her by the arms, moves in and stares her dead in the eyes before announcing in her singsong voice that she forgives Nova. As a parting gift, Quill offers to let Hope hug him as tight as she wants… and she does, squeezing so hard that a few feathers puff out of him into the air. She and Sentry hug as Sentry reminds her that she brings hope to so many people, before Sentry offers a healing potion to Mesmera, telling her that time will heal her wounds. Mesmera pushes the potion back at Sentry saying that she has something that will heal her hurts better than magic and looks towards Hope. They file out of the tower and Nova as the last to leave, turns to thank Mesmera – Mesmera apologises for inflicting her pain on Nova and thanks her for giving her closure and freeing her from Graz’zt. Mesmera believes that it will take her a long time to heal but hopes that one day, Thalia can return to Heartspire, if not as a friend, as a colleague who can help to build a better world. She asks Nova by what name the group is known and is told: she says in a clear voice, “The Stormchasers are always welcome in Heartspire, may they always find rest and peace here.” They feel magic pulse through them (and gain a long rest).

The party takes a floating platform down towards the ground so that Quill can set one of the gems of the Wayfinders Guide to this area, and they see some of the traps that they had bypassed by using the portal. They see what looks like a gazebo but is actually a creature with tentacles, slowly crushing the life out of the devils that it currently holds in its tentacles. When the last devil has been crushed and pops out of existence, it reverts to looking like a perfect, beautiful gazebo in a resplendent garden. This was a giant mimic that had been placed over the floating platform. They pass through what looks like a grand, spiralling library full of dozens of dead or unconscious fox-headed demons that are slowly returning back to their plane – they are all dressed as wizards, and it looks as though the Rose Knight has laid waste through this area. They finally come through the main, ground floor chamber that they would have entered initially – there are about 18 sets of animated armour in alcoves that look like they have just been fighting and are now throwing devil bodies outside. They would have had to fight all of these beings had Nova not gated them directly to the throne room.

As Quill sets one of the gems on the Wayfinders Guide to Heartspire, Lucius takes a long look around in case it is the last time he sees Lunaria – it looks magical, and like what he would have seen in story books as a child. The colours are highly saturated and there are many weird alien plants that remind him of the paintings that they saw in Rosehall. Quill presses the gem for Horizon, and they are pulled away from Lunaria, but for the first time, the teleport is not simple and clean – they feel their bodies come to a shuddering halt and the pressure of magic builds around them as something tries to stop their teleportation just before they reach Horizon. As they hover in mid-teleport, they feel almost as if they are being crushed against a wall before the Wayfinders Guide surges with magic: all the remaining gemstones are activated for an extra surge of power to push them through whatever is blocking their way to Horizon and they arrive back in their suite.

Quill hears the faint sound of screaming, shouting and battle from outside, both on the land and in the air, and there is fighting in the citadel. He looks out the large window of their suite over the city and sees a number of large airships flying over Horizon, all are coloured black and purple and look to have been custom built in the Valkyrian style. There are armoured troops that look like Valkyrian troops but amongst them are Naga and Mind Flayers – the city defenders are fighting them off, but they are struggling. One of the airships is exchanging volleys of fire with two other Valkyrian ships and they see two metal dragons swooping over the city (one is attacking the keep, the other is fighting something in the city), and they appear to be enhanced versions of the ones that they had previously fought. With a thump, one of the inner doors opens to reveal a feisty Arval Dagos with a crossbow – he was protecting Petal and says that they have been gone 4-5 days while the battle has been going on for a few hours and took the city by surprise. Petal tells them that Valla and Max were in the library doing research but that they have not heard from them. Quill suddenly gets a message:

> *Repeat, Stormchasers, this is Reyn of Horizon. Please, if you receive this message, respond. Horizon under attack, Valkyrian forces. Need aid.*
>
>

Quill responds that they are back and able to help in any way. He receives this reply:

> *Thank Siaska! Had no idea where you were. Attack began a few hours ago. Dannica fighting giant dragon. At least two more.*
>
>

Quill tries to cast a *Sending* spell to Prince Aridan in Gusthaven, but the spell fails.
Lucius receives a Sending spell from Valla:

> *Friends? Is that you? I think you’re here now. Xarkira is attacking Horizon. She’s magically blocked teleportation, I can’t use my rifts. She’s after me with these metal spiders!*
>
>

Lucius responds by asking where Valla is and if she needs help, otherwise they will help Dannica with the dragons. Valla responds with:

> *Had to flee library. Making way to Council Room – wards stronger. Need help, creatures strong. Max injured.*
>
>

Arval tells them that he and Petal will stay hidden in their rooms and that he will protect her as best he can before wishing them luck. Thalia tells Kyrie to stay with Arval and Petal: Nova casts invisibility on Thalia and Big Cat so that they can sneak onto the Twinstar Longbow and try to give them some cover from the air.

### **Part 2**

*Events very quickly catch up to the Stormchasers upon their return to Horizon!*

The party has returned to Horizon using the Wayfinders Guide, but not without difficulty. They have found on their return that the city is under attack and that they cannot contact anyone outside the city. Dannica, Reyn and the guards of Horizon are desperately trying to fend off the attack on the city, there are metal mechadragons on the loose, and Valla is being pursued by Xarkira’s final simulacrum and some constructs in the Citadel of the Reborn.

They begin to move as quickly as they can to the Council Chamber in order to meet up with Valla. Nova manifests her Tiangong echo as a nebula of stars that runs at her side, Lucius runs behind in awe of what he has just seen and tries to slip the ring of wishes into Nova’s pocket; Nova notices this and Tiangong chides Lucius, telling him to focus on the battle ahead. As they run through the corridors of the keep, they begin to see the dead bodies of city guards wearing red tabards with golden trim, impaled by large, spiked metal weapons, some have metallic shards like javelins sticking out of them, impaling them on the stone walls. Some of the guards have been cut by a blade or a scythe, others have been impaled by some pointed weapon that has been pulled free: the whole situation brings back memories for Sentry of the battle in Solwynn at the time of the Sundering. Many of the spirits that she had absorbed from the City of Glass, who had fought in the battle for Solwynn, see through her eyes and give her a feeling of fear, unease and anxiety, but it is also mixed with stirring courage and righteous anger, a need to fight, a hunger to win and not to let this city fall. Sentry, somewhat overwhelmed, sees some of the guards as fallen Guardians or soldiers of Solwynn in the Solwynn tabard instead, and falters slightly as the rest push ahead.

As they move towards the end of a corridor with Quill and Aila leading, they see two creatures about 50 feet ahead: a Naga dressed in basic armour (a breastplate and shoulder pads) who holds no weapons, and a giant brass ball that rolls into view before unfolding into something resembling a giant spider with multiple spiked limbs and spines of metal sticking out of its front. On seeing them, the Naga points to the party and tells the brass creature to kill them. It folds back up into a ball, filling the 10-foot-wide corridor and rolls towards the party before unfolding again. Nova sends her echo past the metal ball and teleports to swap places with the echo, she then hits the creature with multiple melee attacks, Aila swings her hammer and hits the creature twice, noticing that her lightning does no damage but seems to be charging the creature up. Lucius casts *Frostbite* on the brass creature but it dodges the spell; from another corridor, another ball comes rolling towards them, sealing the other end of the corridor behind them – it shoots a spear towards Sentry and tries to attack Lucius, but both attacks miss. Sentry casts *Enlarge* on herself and activates Starbreaker. At the end of the corridor, the Naga conjures a lightning whip (*Witch Bolt)* and hits Nova – Nova maintains her concentration to keep Thalia and Big Cat invisible. Quill takes slashing damage from one of the brass creatures then casts *Guiding Bolt* on the creature in front of them – it then shoots shrapnel in a cone of in front of it, wounding all but Nova and destroying her echo.

Nova summons the echo behind her, takes some minor slashing damage from the creature and she then attacks again with Tiangong, hitting it – she moves towards the Naga, leaving the brass creature behind her. Aila pushes her way past the creature behind them to stand on the other side of it, taking some slashing damage in doing so, then attacks with her hammer, badly damaging it. Lucius disengages then prepares to cast a wall of ice dome over the ball near Aila if it tries to use its shrapnel blast. The next moment, the creature attempts to do so, and the dome is cast just before the shrapnel blast goes off and the wall protects the party successfully. Sentry moves towards the Naga and *Misty Steps* the remaining distance so that she can hit the Naga with Starbreaker, hitting her twice – after two massive blows, the Naga is almost downed as an angry Sentry shouts, “Leave… LEAVE!” at her. The Naga does just that and vanishes. Nova tries to swing at the Naga in case it has turned invisible, but she does not connect with anything – the Naga is not invisible, she has vanished.

Aila takes minor slashing damage from the ball that she is entombed with before hitting it once – it is badly damaged but not yet downed. Lucius cuts a small doorway in the ice dome so that Aila has an easy exit when she finally downs the ‘ball of death’; the ball hits Aila and slices her then wheels erratically out the door to attack Lucius – Aila gets another hit on it as it leaves her. Sentry moves back towards the ball down the corridor and hits it once, destroying it with Starbreaker slamming through its centre.

With the last enemy gone, the party rushes down the corridor past some large windows that look out onto the city and make their way down towards the centre of the keep where they will be able to head to the Council rooms. Without warning, something comes down and blasts the wall near them with radiant breath - a chunk of the keep’s wall is blown out as they hear a loud, high-pitched metallic roar and a beam of light carves through the wall throwing dust, debris, and rocks as they are knocked off their feet. Nova loses concentration on her invisibility spell, leaving Thalia and Big Cat exposed to sight. The Dragon lands and sinks its claws into parts of the keep as its metallic scream calls out once more.

As with the mechadragons that they had previously fought, they see that this one has engravings on its armour plating that glow very brightly, there is a torso with a head, tail, and wings, but it seems that the limbs of the dragon are not connected to the physical body but joined to it by a mass of purple arcane energy. Aila moves to the edge of the broken battlement and leans over the streets below in order to hit the dragon twice with her hammer. The dragon attacks Aila as she moves back to a safer spot but misses as it tries to swipe her with its claw; its scales begin to glow and it begins to emit a high pitched frequency *(Booming Scales)* and causes thunder damage to Aila and Quill. Lucius casts *Fly* on Aila, Sentry and himself, telling them not to fall off the battlements before hovering 5 inches off the ground with his cape billowing dramatically behind him.

Nova manifests the Tiangong echo and moves in to attack the dragon, hitting it thrice herself and the echo hitting once. The dragon uses *Sapping Presence* then attempts to bite Aila (hits), claw Nova (hits) and grab Nova (succeeds) – once it has Nova in its claw, it flies off with her and the echo manages to grab onto its head to go with them. The dragon looks like it is trying to recharge its breath energy. Quill uses the Eye to scry on Valla to see where she is and what is happening with her:

> *The clouds pull in, Quill’s vision blurs and he quickly rushes as if moving at an incredibly high speed. He rushes through the various corridors making his way down into the council chambers. When he arrives, he sees a terrifying scene: the simulacrum of Xarkira gestures, holding Maximillion in some sort of spell – he is held up in the air, suffering in pain as if he is being electrocuted and she currently has him pinned with the spell. Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows of the room, 4 maybe 5 Retrievers (which Quill recognises as the thing that kidnapped him and took him to her ship) are slowly advancing on Valla. There are dead Horizon guards all around them as if they had tried to protect Valla. Just before the vision ends, the doors of the chamber fly open and a figure steps in – all Quill sees before the vision ends is a pair of tall, black armoured boots.*
>
>

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Intro
10:54 - Part 1
1:26:14 - Break time/Donations
1:35:39 - Part 2
2:42:28 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Death
* Justice
* The Rose Knight
* Pollenella

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Mesmera
* Thalia
* Kyrie
* Hope Rosemeadow
* Big Cat
* Amidor
* Arval Dagos
* Petal
* Valla
* Maximillion Taldros
* Xarkira (simulacrum)

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Reyn Talevir
* Kalus Valkyrian
* Graz'zt
* Skyprince Aridan

## **Featured Locations**

* Lunaria
	+ Heartspire throne room
* Horizon
	+ Suites
	+ Citadel of the Reborn

## **Trivia**

* This episode was originally titled 'Happily Ever After...?' on YouTube before being changed to match the podcast title.
* Tom used the plush Quill to create some sort of Frankenstein-like monster in the intro:
* Trott created a number of false starts for the DUN DUNs this week, restarting the video 3 times before the full intro video rolled.
* The Rose Knight is described as androgynous and non-binary.
* Aila says the things that people need to hear but are often too afraid to say.
* Mark starts speaking as Amidor before turning on his voice modulator. The result is… glorious.
* Mark describes the lovers’ chatter between Amidor and Pollenella as “lovey dovey sicky gross”.
* Lucius took from the whole scene in the throne room that “true love kills all - destroys everything.” Trott says that in fact, that “Lucius is enamoured by the whole thing but that it’s very difficult to be Lucius right now.” Kim marvelled that “in the 6 years of doing this, [Amidor] is what broke Chris Trott’s role play. Trott is dedicated to the role play, but this dandelion has broken him.” Very small creatures have now broken Tom and Trott.
* Before this arc, the ring of wishes was last seen on Graz’zt’s hand in episode 79, The Displeased Prince.
* The ring does not require attunement, a creature has to be wearing it, spends an action to cast the spell wish. Once the last wish is used, the ring becomes non-magical and it cannot regain any more wishes.
* Lucius excitedly asks Nova about her culture and “eternal bondage” – Nova is alarmed until she realises that he is talking about “bonding” and thinking about weddings.
* Rosemeadow chose her own first name this episode: Hope. Lucius had suggested this as a possibility in episode 133.
* After Mark gave the crew a long rest, 39SaltyCookies was seen to comment in Twitch chat, “If Mark's giving them the rest now, what's waiting on Aerois?”
* “The paintings in Rosehall” presumably refer to the paintings in the Elven Ruins on Rosewater Lake where they met Veselvena and saw paintings of Prince Swiftsong.
* The Wayfinders Guide uses all its charges to teleport them to Horizon – this is only temporary and the book will recharge over time.
* Mark describes the Valkyrian designed airships as “not open-topped sailing ship design, but have enclosed… sci-fi frigates… air transports.”
* Quill tries to cast Sending to send a message to Prince Aridan in Gushaven. Initially, Mark allows this, and Gusthaven is fine. He soon retcons this because he had forgotten that there was a barrier around Horizon that stopped both teleportation and Sending spells.
* Trott jokingly wishes: (1) that all of Lucius’ innards were outside, (2) that Prince Aridan was alive, (3) that his hair was purple.
* Nova tells Thalia that she loves her. Thalia’s response is “I know” – Han Solo reference perhaps?
* Aila can be more diplomatic than many people give her credit for: she sometimes says the things that people need to hear but are often too afraid to say.
* Tom forgot to put last week’s podcast episodes up for listeners because he was so busy with his “big people job” (Mark Hulmes).
* Mark mentioned that existing NPCs like Graz’zt are not particularly strong with their existing stat blocks and he would make the following sorts of changes: Graz’zt is not fighting you on his home turf (or you are fighting a reflection of him rather than the actual Graz’zt – via “some bullshit magic”), make it a mythic encounter with multiple phases, multiple HP bars, lots of cool abilities, and triple the regular hit points.
* Kim mentioned that she uses “D&D Beyond’s easily customisable features to troll the High Rollers Wiki team and change Nova’s name on a regular basis”. Damn you, Kim, damn you. NoVa VoYaGeR, Nova V’Ger, Nova V’ger, Ezri Dax… this will not be borne!
* Mark describes the metal spider creature as unfolding “like a droideka from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace”. He later describes it as a “ball made of swords that is spinning”.
* The brass droid has the following attacks:
	+ armblades (whirling blades constantly spinning around it at all times)
	+ shrapnel blast
* Jeremy Crawford has confirmed that the echo counts as an object, not a creature. Mark referred to him as “Jeremy Clawford”.
* Trott asks if he can use his Font of Magic to quicken a spell so that he can use it as a bonus action, then hold it since he also wants to disengage. When Mark says no, Trott’s response is, “Well fuck off, I’m out of this campaign”, he gets up and walks out of camera. Mark rethinks it and decides that actually, he can do so.
* Sentry does 105 points of damage in a single hit due to rolling a nat 20 and using a level 3 Divine Smite.
* The new and improved mechadragon (“Hollow Dragon” on D&D Beyond) does 12d8 points of “radiant breath” damage. It has legendary actions:
* Booming Scales (3 legendary action points) –  CON saving throw (DC15?) or take xdx thunder damage
* Sapping Presence – WIS saving throw (DC19) – immune for 24 hours on success, on a failure speed is halved, disadvantage on attack rolls until the end of your next turn
* Mark commented in the outro that some people may not have enjoyed the last couple of episodes, believing that the Mesmera and Thalia arc was a bit "forced or railroady". He made the point that people will enjoy different play styles and his concern is to make sure that the High Rollers players enjoy themselves. Tom thought that might have been a reference to some "comments in the last video" (comments made for episode 136 posted to YouTube), but Mark added that there had been comments in Discord as well. Katie added that some people had made comments about the difficulty of the fights being too easy, but that they are happy with them and enjoy not necessarily having lots of anxiety every week. Kim made the point that they have made some smart moves that have allowed them to circumvent some fights as well. Mark discussed the Mesmera fight: firstly, it was designed to facilitate Kim making her class change (especially the cinematic moment of everyone being frozen until Tiangong could make the change), secondly, there are different ways of playing  D&D and that breaking rules occasionally is ok if the players have fun, thirdly, Mark decided that if he did the fight again, he would not allow Mesmera to use the same Rule twice – each time she changed a Rule, it would have to be unique (the players liked that they could anticipate the possible Rules and work out a way around them, however). Mark doesn’t think that he would do something like that again because while it was a fun skill challenge, it was also very specific to the Feywild and this story arc.
* Kim said that she was glad that they did not have to fight Mesmera: she does not think that Nova could have attacked her.
* The long rest tipped Kim and Katie off to the idea that something was going to happen when they got back to Horizon. Rhi was happily oblivious while Trott thought they might have a moment of respite. Kim and Katie also referenced the simulacrum laughing at the end of the battle in episode 134, thinking that that “would come back and bite them in the ass”. Mark said that because of the time acceleration in the throne room and the party taking a long rest outside the city, 2 days had passed since they had fought the Xarkira simulacrum in Black Stallion Woods.
* Mark said that one of his favourite ‘fuck you Trott lines’ was Nova’s comment when Trott cast mending on the Tiangong shard that he had damaged (while dying from a punctured lung) “Oh fuck off you are, cast it on your own fucking lung, you prick” from episode 87.
* The players rolled a total of 7 natural 20s this week: Nova 3 (one was a saving throw), Aila 2 (one was initiative), Sentry and Lucius (initiative) 1 each.
* CptnClusterDuck (39SaltyCookies on the High Rollers Discord) posted the stats and analysis for this chapter on Reddit.