Aerois - Chapter Nineteen: Wild Hearts

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

 Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Wild Hearts** is the nineteenth chapter of the Aerois campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel between 3rd October 2021 and 30th January 2022, and consists of fourteen episodes.

*In Chapter Nineteen, the party head to the Feywild to help a friend - and meet an old enemy again!*

## Summary

Sayanna’s magic begins to falter again, however, and she struggles to maintain her magic against an unseen powerful force that is overheard saying that Thalia does not deserve a happy ending. When the spell is finally completed, Thalia emerges having regained her Elven form once more, but there is a tattoo of a thorny briar around her wrist that was never there previously. Quill and Sayanna immediately realise that breaking the curse has unlocked a second, hidden curse, that appears to have been placed by an archfey with demonic influence. The new curse will kill Thalia in about two weeks unless it is somehow removed. Thalia reveals some of her history to them – she was once a horrible person and tormented a good-hearted sorceress, Mesmera. The medusa curse, and now this new curse, are her penance from Mesmera.

The Champions decide that they must save Thalia – Nova loves her, and she has done nothing but good for them. To do this, they must travel to Lunaria (also known as the Feywild), but they must do so quickly or Thalia will die en route. Nova tries to talk to Mesmera using magic but instead sees what was done to Mesmera by Thalia from Mesmera’s point of view; she is horrified and screams at Thalia to leave.

Quill believes that the Wayfinders Guide may be the only way that they will be able to get to Lunaria fast enough, but they will need a fey creature to make it work. They get Rosemeadow to place her hand on the book and the whole party is transported to Lunaria. They meet up with a roaming band of Centaurs who tell them of Rosemeadow’s past. Rosemeadow’s family was hunted down by Xarkira because Rosemeadow is a Centaur-Unicorn hybrid, and full of powerful magic; Rosemeadow’s family escaped Xarkira but have been held captive in some nearby woods ever since. The party decides to free the descendants on their way to helping Thalia.

After some tough travel through the swamps (and almost accidentally leaving Rosemeadow behind), they make it to the woods where Rosemeadow’s family is trapped. The party fights and temporarily defeats a pair of spirit hunters that had been left by Xarkira to prevent the Centaurs from leaving or anyone else from entering the woods.

The Champions meet with Dawnweaver, a powerful oracle and seer in the form of a giant spider – she and her two sisters (one of whom is Duskwillow, who gave coins to Quill and Aila that granted them a wish) guard the web of eternity, a nexus of multi-reality, multi-planar worlds that are all inter-connected like a spider’s web. Dawnweaver has been keeping the Centaurs safe from the hunters since they escaped and is the one who sent Rosemeadow to Aerois all those years ago, disguising her unicorn characteristics to hide her from Xarkira.

Attempting to leave the woods again, the party once again fights against the spirit hunters, but this time they are joined by another Xarkira simulacrum. After a tough battle where Quill is almost slain, they dispatch the spirits once and for all, and destroy the second of Xarkira’s simulacra.

They head to Heartspire, once Thalia’s realm and now home to Mesmera, and make their way through a giant wall of briars with the help of Amidor, a sentient dandelion knight. When they get to the tower, rather than fighting their way through, Nova uses reverse gravity and Arcane Gate to get them straight to Mesmera’s throne room. They soon realise that Mesmera is under the influence of Graz’zt, and they must fight him while trying to persuade her to come to their side. Mesmera is all-powerful in her own domain, constantly changing the rules that one must obey (her rules of three). Eventually, Graz’zt is defeated (dropping his ring of wishes which now contains only one wish)), and they convince Mesmera to break her curse, allowing Thalia to live. Rosemeadow stays behind to help Mesmera to heal.

On returning to Horizon, the party finds the city under siege from Xarkira’s troops. They receive a message from Valla telling them that she is being pursued by Xarkira. As they are fighting their way to her, Quill sees a vision of Valla, unconscious and surrounded by spider-like constructs before a tall figure in black armoured boots enters the room…

## Major NPCs

List of major NPCs encountered in this chapter.