Aerois - Episode 22: Primed and Ready

Katie Morrison as Aila

Mark Hulmes as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Primed and Ready** is the 22nd episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 3rd February 2019 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*Sentry prepares a meetup with the illusive(sic) Breeze while Quill and Lucius compete in their first ever Spell Clash battles!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players. Kim is away this week because she is unwell, Katie is here this week but is getting sick.
* Sponsor this week is D&D Beyond. You can link to see the extension on Twitch if you have a D&D Beyond account and see the character sheets in real time.
* Reminder to use your Twitch Prime sub if you have Amazon Prime, Podcast is doing well.
* There will be a new sponsor next week.
* Three people (Trott, Mark and Rhi) will celebrate their February birthdays next week.

### **Recap**

"*Our heroes have been exploring the city of Kalie's Rest, one of the largest settlements on the continent of Suvonna and a major stop on the trade road leading towards their destination of Goldthrone. After exploring the city, meeting a group of Guardians surviving together, witnessing a match of the magical duelling sport Spell Clash, and a stormy battle with an orc priest, the party found their way to the temple of H'esper, the god of magic, the sky, and knowledge. The party spoke with Dean Simon, the resident priest librarian; the old scholar and his library seem to have been neglected by the townsfolk over the years, but the Dean's knowledge seemed vast. They discussed the Eterna, including Nightfrost, the new magical accoutrement of Lucius, and Dean Simon revealed that his mentor had been studying and researching them, even as far as getting information from an Eterna themselves, revealing that they are lead by a group called the Eternal Triumvirate, of which Nova carries a shard of one of their beings. However, during your discussions, a group of religious followers of Palador arrived and demanded Dean Simon come with them to the Abbey of Flame, on orders of somebody called the Abbotess. Believing the group's intent to be evil, the party spoke up, and the religious zealots rebuked with staggering violence. A combat ensued, and whilst the party was victorious, the temple of H'esper's interior was ruined in the fire. The next morning, you awoke to news that the Abbot, the previous leader of the Palador faith in Kalie's Rest, had passed away, and the Abbotess was now in charge.*"
### **Part 1**

*Sentry has a meeting with the Guardians and prepares a meet up with the illusive(sic) Breeze!*

The party has vague plans to seek out the Guardians who have some knowledge of how to extend the Guardian life span; they also wish to partake in a Spell Clash match, and are also waiting to hear back from Milika Dawnblessed as to whether she is going to hire them as mercenaries to deal with the problems with the Abbey of Flame, given that the mayor of Kalie’s Rest seems to be in the pocket of the Abbey.

It is the middle of the day and surprisingly warm given the storms of the previous day. The sun is out, and the muddy ground has started to firm up. The city is busy but there is an edge to it following the events of yesterday, and smoke tendrils still rise from the burnt-out remains of the Temple of H’esper. Nova seems quiet and distant, and says that she will likely stay at the inn to spend time with Tiangong and maybe go to the Temple of H’esper to help them recover whatever books they can; she decides that she is not going to compete in the Spell Clash tournament – it does not seem right to her that she is using someone else’s magic (Tiangong’s) to compete in a sport. Quill agrees that bringing attention to the Eterna is probably not a good idea and says that he will enter instead of Nova.

They leave Nova at the inn and head back to the Guardians’ house on South Street – they pass through the Queen’s Plaza to see that a stage is being hastily built and there are people in white and red robes handing out notices that say that Abbotess Braelyn will speak at sundown tonight on the recent events. Quill notices their party getting strange looks, but he cannot tell if they are driven by hostility or merely curiosity; he also notices the heavy presence of the Harvest Guard around the plaza.

They get to the house and are met by Smasher, who directs them inside and indicates that something sad has happened with Tracker. As they enter the house, they see Scout, Sweep and Chipper all standing around Tracker, who is sitting in a chair, motionless with dull eyes and matrix. The others acknowledge them and let them know that Tracker has shut down – he has done this before, and they are hoping that he will reactivate but are not sure if he has shut down for good. Either way, they would like to take him to Breeze to see if anything can be done. Breeze has indicated that he will only be in Kalie’s Rest for another day or so and is wary about non-Guardians – he wants to meet Sentry alone in the gardens around the mausoleum before they take Tracker to him tonight at midnight, and he wants to perform the ritual away from humanoids and non-Guardians.

Quill asks the Guardians if they trust Breeze: they have no reason not to – he brings them coin and other things they need to survive. Chipper tells them that Breeze seems a little strange and that Breeze is definitely not his original name, being different to the kind of name a Guardian would normally have – he said to the other Guardians that he wanted to get rid of his old life and they think that he may have chosen the name Breeze himself. As they are talking, there is a pulse that comes from Tracker – his eyes begins to glow with green light, and he sits up; they realise that Tracker is frightened and does not know where he is. He takes a defensive stance against Aila and Lucius, believing them to be with the Court of Shadows and not recognising any of them. Sentry grabs him and puts him in a hold – he struggles, trying to work out why she is betraying him as she tries to calm him down. He thinks he recognises Aila as “one of those shadow elves” and Lucius convinces him that he, Aila, and Quill should leave. He recognises Sentry as a Solwynn Guardian unit, recalling seeing her in a parade, but is not sure why they are there. Sentry tells him that the war is over at which point he looks past her to the corner of the room and starts talking to nothing about “the Prime”, but saying that he is seeing “the gold Guardian”. “City of Glass? I don’t know where that is. What are you talking about?” he says. He looks around, confused, starts talking again, then shuts down again and falls on his face.

Scout tells them that this is the first time that Tracker has lost his memory like that, and while he has mentioned the Prime previously, the information has come to him more like a dream when he has been powered down. Quill considers the reference to “the City of Glass” – given that neither Sentry nor Tracker recognises it, he realises that it cannot have existed before the Sundering; he also knows that there is nothing like it on either Suvonna or Voksar and he thinks that the Starfall Archipelago might be the place to go to look for it. The Starfall Archipelago is a series of islands that once made up the very heart of Aerois before the Sundering – when the Sundering occurred and the lands were split apart, the Archipelago was formed out of the cluster of islands that was closest to the impact and is where the capital of all of Aerois once was: a grand city where Siaska and the gods lived which was destroyed completely, being at the centre of the blast. It is difficult to get to the Starfall Archipelago – the seas are very dangerous, and the winds are unfavourable. Sentry tells Scout to come and find them if help is needed.

They talk as they head to the gardens near the mausoleum at the centre to town. Lucius thinks it possible that Tracker has been sent a vision, knowing that there are powerful magic spells that allow visions to be sent vast distances, but who would send this vision, he does not know. Sentry wonders whether the Prime is linked to all Guardians and can send a message to any of them, whether it can sense a Guardian’s matrix; Aila wonders how the Prime knows that a Guardian is nearing the end of its life to send this message. Lucius wonders why all the Guardians are seeing the same Prime and Quill is curious what they will find in the City of Glass.

The mausoleum is a beautiful round building of polished stone with a large, rounded dome, decorated with beautiful gardens of vibrant blue flowers: it rests atop a small hill at the heart of the city, and paths lead up to the mausoleum from big iron gates that weave around the whole garden. The garden itself is thick with flowers, plants, and trees, and peppered throughout the garden are statues of a young woman in flowing robes carrying an open tome or another magical apparatus in front of her (such as a staff, a wand, an orb or a crystal); it is open to the public and the entrances are manned by members of the Harvest Guard. When they enter the gardens, it is eerily quiet, as if the sounds of the city outside the walls are dimmed, and there is a heavy scent of lavender from the blue flowers.

Outside the mausoleum are people wearing black robes with the symbol of a silver lantern with a single star in the middle of it – this represents Kellara, the goddess of the dead – they nod to the party and pass by silently. They move inside to see a single, square shaped marble sarcophagus in the middle of the open room. On the far wall, behind a thick pane of glass, is a beautiful golden staff, curved with a crescent moon with a single gemstone at its centre, and spilling down it a spiral of gold that makes its way around the handle all the way to another gemstone at the end of the staff itself; there is a plaque beneath it. The wall is a series of frescoes that depict a young woman’s life: she is the youngest of three sisters in a happy family, but later frescoes detail the War of the Three Sisters – the three sisters were the children of a former king who died suddenly, and the three sisters became eligible for the throne. The eldest was cruel and power-hungry, the middle sister was devoted to Palador, and the youngest sister was a quiet mage. The sisters fought over the throne, and it was Kalie’s intelligence, cunning and knowledge of magic that finally saw her succeed and lead Suvonna and Rooksfield into an era of prosperity. She was regarded as a very wise ruler but was always plagued by other noble lines that felt that they had been cheated out of the succession. She fought in battle, was a war wizard, but was also very good at court intrigue.

They look around for any signs of Breeze: Quill asks one of the priests, but they have not seen Breeze, although they are only there during opening hours – there have been reports of someone in the gardens at night when the mausoleum is closed, however, but the guards are keeping an eye out. Sentry walks around the garden calling out for Breeze but gets no response. Aila uses her tracking skills to see if she notices anything out of the ordinary; she finds strange footprints near trees and off the paths as well as thin pieces of metal near the branches of a tree – they look similar to what would come off a Guardian's Echo. She notices more and more traces of the tracks near the back of the mausoleum itself and sees a thin line in the marble that looks like a small secret door; footprints disappear out away from this area, and she cannot find a way to open it from this side.

Sentry discusses leaving Echo to watch for Breeze while they go to Spell Clash; Nightfrost offers to stay and inform Lucius if Breeze appears – he wishes to be useful and does not wish to be destroyed as Dean Simon had suggested. Nightfrost says that he can speak to Lucius over vast distances and knows where he is at all times. Nightfrost's vision is not like theirs; he sees their energy, their life essence. He tells them that he did not see a golden Guardian back at the house but did sense a magical presence, which seems to back up Lucius’ theory of someone sending a magical vision to the Guardians. Sentry asks if Nightfrost was with the Remnant during the Sundering – he tells her that he was in the ship in which they found him and they were bombarding a city near current Suvonna that was used to store food. Nightfrost knows of Solwynn, but other ships were tasked with attacking it and he says that the ship that he powered was a smaller vessel - a battleship but not a large one. Nightfrost says that they were mainly tasked with taking down smaller fortifications, farming installations, these sorts of places. Lucius wanders into the garden and allows Nightfrost to detach from him: Nightfrost melts into the shadows on the ground, becoming a hunched shadow-like being, drifts over to a tree and blends in with the tree’s shadows.

They head towards North Street and the Spell Clash arena and pass by Rosemeadow’s shop, seeing her outside because her shop front has been vandalised: all the flowerpots under the windows have been smashed, as have several of the coloured windows, there is crude writing on the wall in paint and “other materials that don’t look very pleasant”. Rosemeadow is wearing a scarf as a hood and constantly looking around her while she tries to clear up and make sure that more trouble does not come to her. Quill goes over to offer help – she is delighted to see him but has clearly been crying, with red eyes and puffy cheeks. She tells them that someone broke things out the front of her shop while she was asleep, and she woke up in time to chase them off; she thinks that it may have happened when the Temple of H’esper was burned down. Similar things have happened before, but never to this extent, and she thinks the perpetrators might be the people from the Abbey. The messages on the door tell her that she does not belong and should leave town. Lucius casts *Mending* on the windows (that have obviously had rocks thrown through them) and she gives him a small basket with hair lotions and soaps as a thank you.

### **Part 2**

*The gang have some time to kill, so Quill and Lucius compete in their preliminary Spell Clash battles!*

The party comes to the Spell Clash arena, a large stone dome that is able to house 200-300 people inside: the stone surface is inlaid with runic patterns that glow and they see pulses of magic explode all over the dome – swirls of colour, pulses of light, lines that sketch out geometric shapes. As they approach the dome, Quill sees a Dwarven man talking to two robed figures and recognises him as Torgin Emerdown, the manager for the recruitment company, Clash of the Champions, who watches them suspiciously as they make their way towards the ticket booth where they find Arval and Valla purchasing tickets so that they can watch Lucius and Quill competing. Lucius is nervous and having second thoughts, but Valla convinces him that he will be fine, and they get extra seats for Sentry and Aila. The two aspiring Spell Clash duellists see Daphne, who is surrounded by three other contestants – a Human man (Rick) with a short goatee, close-cropped hair and piercing blue eyes; a primal-looking Dwarven woman (Thornwhisper) with long, dreadlocked hair (with leaves and vines in it) wearing hide armour with bracers made of teeth and bones; and a little chubby Halfling man (Chauncey) wearing a little shirt and vest and ¾ length pants standing with his hands in his pockets. Lucius enters under the name of “The Painted Prince” and Quill enters as “Quill”.

Daphne gives them a rundown of what is to come:

* She will determine randomly who they will be paired against
* They will receive the Spell Clash shield that will absorb a certain amount of damage – they can replenish the shield using their own arcane energies (the more powerful the spell, the more the shield will replenish)
* Causing any harm to a contestant once the shield has been broken will result in a disqualification (including via summoned beings)
* There is no official forfeit in a Spell Clash match, so one cannot simply mind control someone into quitting – the referees will determine if someone is incapable of fighting
* The ward will remain in place for the duration of the battle
* Spells that require a physical attack will register against the shield (e.g., *Green Flame Blade*), but normal non-magical attacks will result in a disqualification
* Daphne gives them some advice – get the crowd on your side but don’t expect that that will get you through the match by itself.

Daphne takes them to the staging area near the entrance to the arena where there are two older officials and the three other contestants. She puts pieces of parchment with their names into a large, clouded orb and draws opponents: Quill gets Ricktor the Evocator, Lucius gets Chauncey Breewillow, Thornwhisper is moved through to compete in a normal trial match with handicaps. The other contestants begin casting defensive spells on themselves: Ricktor covers himself in a shimmering purple aura, and Thornwhisper begins to grow bark-like protrusions from her skin.

In the stands, Arval buys some salted, fried potato slices and beer or juice for all of them. Music begins to play, and spotlights appear in the arena: Valla is extremely excited, and Sentry starts to panic for Quill. The announcer announces Ricktor the Evocator and Quill (who plays up his injuries to get the sympathy of the crowd).

Quill wins his match with Ricktor reasonably easily with some clever strategic plays. Lucius’ bout with Chancey starts as a bit of comedy relief but goes down to the wire and Lucius is finally triumphant. As Lucius is led back to the stands and his friends, he sees Ricktor talking with Torgin and they look very unhappy – they eye Lucius up as he passes them. Daphne comes over to them with a metal sheet printed with their names and stage names and an etching of their image: attached to it on the back is a 6-pointed star made of a small crystal – this is their Spell Clash license and their mote of starlight. She tells them that there is someone who was watching the match who wishes to speak to them and points to Gideon Goldentouched, who is slouching near the food stand. Lucius checks with Nightfrost, but it is only just getting dark, and he has seen nothing suspicious yet.

Gideon is impressed with their skills and abilities and is happy to help them out, believing that they have great potential. He is happy to run them through some drills before he leaves for Goldthrone in the hope that it gives them an advantage in their next bouts. He advises them to watch their backs, suggesting that Ricktor and Torgin will not be happy that they lost. He tells them about some of the more unscrupulous types that are involved in the sport and warns them about some of the underhanded tactics that some may use. Sentry starts to panic as Lucius gets a whisper from Nightfrost – he has seen a Guardian emerge from the mausoleum carrying a staff and with its armour painted black, and it is now sneaking around the gardens.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Episode Start
03:57 - Intro
05:26 - Part 1
1:16:45 - Break time/Donations
1:26:28 - Part 2
1:45:59 - Spell Clash!
2:44:35 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

* Aila
* Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto
* Nova V'ger (played by Mark)
* Qillek Ad Khollar
* Sentry

#### **New NPCs**

* Chauncey Breewillow (Spell Clash contestant)
* Rick De Glendale AKA Ricktor the Evocator (Spell Clash contestant)
* Thornwhisper (Spell Clash contestant)
* Torgin Emerdown

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Arval Dagos
* Chipper
* Daphne
* Gideon Goldentouched
* Nightfrost
* Scout
* Sweep
* Rosemeadow
* Smasher
* Tracker
* Valla

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* The Abbotess
* Mason
* Milika Dawnblessed

## **Trivia**

* Tom compares the party to Wikileaks saying that people in the towns they visit are miserable when they leave only because they have uncovered problems that the people otherwise don’t know about.
* Lucius believes that he uses the power of Siaska and is but a vessel blessed by her with his sorcerous power.
* Quill proposes that he exploit his missing eye and wing to his advantage in Spell Clash and enter as “The Miserable Little Bird Man” before hitting them hard with *Guiding Light.* Mark suggests that he could be “The Little Bird Who Could”.
* **Continuity error:** Mark refers to “Rooksfeld” throughout this episode: this area is also marked as Rooksfeld on Mark’s map of Aerois (available on his Patreon), but Mark released a list of NPCs and their representative regions after episode 105, and this was spelled “Rooksfield”.
* **Lore dump**: Mark gives background lore as part of his answer to Sentry’s question to Nightfrost: *Before the Sundering, Aerois was split into the tenements (I think I called them). These were regions controlled by certain individuals favoured by a specific god, who was essentially the governor of the region: there were no borders because everybody was working together. Each region was allocated different things: the region you guys know as Suvonna, specifically Rooksfield, was given the job of making food for everybody else in Aerois. It was the god Palador who was in charge of this region, which is why there's such a strong following for the faith of Palador today, and each region has connections to the different gods. Nightfrost gives you a list of places that Sentry recognises as being within the region where the Sundering occurred: he would know of the original capital, which was just called Starfall, the original main city where Siaska and the other gods lived (and the reason for the name of the Starfall Archipelago).* Mark also says that he will talk to Rhiannon offline to discuss what Sentry knows and remembers, but agreeing that she will not remember certain things because she was shut down for a long time, parts of her memory may be missing, etc.
* Rosemeadow is described as a “white-bodied horse Centaur with a Human girl half, wearing a loose, flowy silk top, with long blonde hair with flowers woven into it”.
* Chauncey (the Halfling contestant) speaks with a West Midlands accent and comes from Aelseraph. He says that ice magic is his specialty and has dragon blood (which is revealed as a surprise in the middle of the contest).
* Thornwhisper is trained in Druidic magic.
* There are 50 points on a Spell Clash shield. As a bonus action, you can expend a spell slot to restore HP to the spell shield equal to 2x the level: once it is broken, it ends. Once per Spell Clash, encouragement from the audience can allow a contestant to regain a spell slot (depending on the roll for Performance or Intimidate).
* The last year’s Spell Clash tournament entrants accumulated 20-40 motes for the upper tiers, and about 5 for the lower tiers.
* If a Spell Clash duellist should encounter either a Spell Clash arena on their way, or if they encounter another duellist on the road, they can go to the nearest arena and request the referees to host a motes duel. The arena is made available to the duellists at any time of day, at any period, and as long as both duellists agree, the match takes place immediately.

## Notes

1. ↑ Mark says 'Vortinssar', but likely misspoke while hunting through his notes.