Aerois - Episode 119: Empty Husks and Soul Breakers

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Empty Husks and Soul Breakers** is the 119th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 18th July 2021 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Heading deeper into the war-torn City of Glass the party encounter more feral Guardians and a couple of old friends!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Sponsor this week is D&D Beyond. A new book has been announced: Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.
* Bonus content this coming Tuesday: HR will be playing a sponsored one-shot of Animal Adventures: Faraway Sea.
* HR will be playing Avatar: Legends Roleplaying Game from Thurs 29th July. They will play 2 one-shot adventures.
* Merch: Trell (+ his rope) will be the next pin on the store.

### **Recap**

*"Last time, the champions of Aerois, along with the newly mobile sky city of Horizon, have travelled to the continent of Gisella to rescue hundreds of Guardians who had all gathered at the City of Glass, a ruin of the Valkyrian war. Armed forces of Gisella, now allied with Kalus Starbane, are attempting to claim the ruined city for some purpose, but are being held off temporarily by a small guerrilla force of rebels and Guardians. Trying to combat drop into the battle zone, the party were knocked off course and split up, eventually facing off against an elite airship by themselves, on the edge of the city of glass. After its initial powerful barrage, Nova covered the warship in a terrible, reality breaking psionic storm of magical energy that turned the tide.*
*Leaving the wrecked ship off the coast, the party travelled into the city itself, but were detected by packs of feral Guardians. Sentry, wishing to help, approached them and attempted to use The Prime Matrix to save their weary spirits. Despite an initial failure, she attempted once more and managed to rescue one soul, and replace it with a fresh soldier called Archer. Now, the party stand in the ruins of the City of Glass, sounds of terrible battle all around them, and they must decide what next to do."*
### **Part 1**

*Heading deeper into the war-torn City of Glass the party encounter more feral Guardians!*

The City of Glass was once a large metropolis, part of the Solwynn domain, but got separated from Solwynn with the war. During the war, it was attacked using some sort of weapon that transmuted stone, metal, wood and people into a glass-like substance (actually a translucent resin). While they travel, Lucius asks Archer about what it is like being inside the Prime Matrix. Archer says that the only being that can sense the memories and feelings of the other souls in the Matrix – the rest are individuals, not a hive mind or a collection of consciousness. Archer says that it is like they are all swimming in the same river – the river keeps them there and afloat, but they are all individuals; until they are selected to possess a new body, they are more like spirits.

They decide to look for Herald at the Temple of Siaska where they had previously fought her. The sound of battle rings out all around the city with the prominent noise of barrages from skyships overhead; to the south, outside the city itself, the ground forces of the Gisellan army are fighting the rebel encampment near the gates. Sentry thinks it best to gather as many guardians together as possible and try to restore them as a large group rather than try to convert one at a time as they move through the city.

They notice that the buildings to the north of the city are more broken and damaged with many collapsed buildings and a lot of debris – the area is a lot more unstable and may be dangerous to traverse. To the west is a marketplace with open plazas and shops: it appears to be more intact, but this also means that there will potentially be more hidden enemies. They decide to use Quill’s Arcane Eye and Sentry’s Echo to scout ahead of them and move at a normal pace through the western buildings. Nova makes herself invisible.

The marketplace buildings are generally intact, but there are a few where some walls are broken, leaving a hollow hiding place inside them. Many have scratched walls that mimic frosted glass. As the pass through the marketplace, there is no obvious sign of battle in the area, but they begin to see people that have been turned to glass (Humans, Dwarves, Orcs, Elves and Halflings). Many of the bodies look like they were carrying goods, some look like they were frozen in postures of fear, but all have been eroded by time and the weather. The Arcane Eye reveals some nests of feral guardians within some of the hollow buildings as well as some non-functional guardians in the streets – some have simply stopped and powered down or fallen over, others have been ripped apart. The Arcane eye also reveals the presence of living forces in this area: ropes with grappling hooks attached to tall buildings and signs of areas having been cleared out.

Quill leads them carefully through the city but they find themselves in a large amphitheatre: he thinks this is a safe place, but the feral guardians have been moving around them – if they keep moving, there is a real risk that they will be spotted. They keep moving, trying their best to avoid the ferals, but end up being cut off by eight Guardians in an alleyway. They all link hands with Sentry or grip her shoulders to offer her support: she asks them to be calm and not to show fear or anger while she attempts to absorb as much of their energy as she can and exude calm towards them. There is a mixture of Guardian types: one the size of a halfling and another that is massive and was probably used for construction. They move in an animalistic fashion, and all have dull eyes. The party feels a tugging at them – the Matrix wants power – they give it. Quill calms four of them.

Sentry attempts to convert two of the feral Guardians, the massive one and the smaller one, sending a golden tether from the Prime Matrix into each of their matrices – she succeeds, pulling the smouldering embers of their spirits into the Prime Matrix and returning two new spirits. The three Guardians that Quill has calmed remain docile while the three uncontrolled feral guardians run off, realising that they are outnumbered. The small Guardian blinks its gold amber eyes a few times, stands up straight and smiles, looking around as if dazed and confused – it is a female gardener called Pumpkin and is an excitable little gremlin. The massive Guardian reacts much more slowly but opens its blue eyes, embeds its hands into two massive slabs of nearby glass and holds them up like shields – its name is Barrier.

They decide to leave before the calmed Guardians go back to their fully feral state. Quill recalls that the temple where they fought Herald and Rook and met Max and Danna is to the north. They decide to move as fast as they can and make it to the Temple of Siaska without incident. As they stumble into the area in front of the Temple, they realise that there has been a large battle there: there are bodies of slain Gisellan soldiers scattered on the ground. Some have been flattened, others shrivelled as if their life force has been sucked from them. Mixed in with them are the bodies of feral Guardians that have been likewise destroyed. On the steps leading up to the temple, they spy a number of Guardians just like they saw in Horizon: red glowing eyes, skeletal metal and stone with red vines replacing any of the wood, plants or flowers that would usually be present in their bodies. Two of them are as bigger than Barrier, being 20 feet tall with arms as long as their bodies, and they use their hammer and scything axe blade hands to break open the door. The leader, a lithe, agile-looking Dominator with wings that stretch out from the shoulder blades shouts, “You lumbering oafs, we must get inside the Temple. I must seek out the answers to Lord Voracitor’s questions!” While the others are trying to tear down the doors, he is hovering over the body of a normal Guardian pulsing red energy into it – the unconscious Guardian has one arm that ends in a chained flail, and is familiar to them from Kalie’s Rest – it is Smasher. The Dominator, Soulbreaker, calls for Sentry to be captured, and for the rest of the party to be destroyed.

Nova surprises them from her invisible state, casting *synaptic static*, then *wall of light*. Sentry realises that no Guardians were ever built as large as these two – it is clear that they have been constructed by fusing many Guardians together, and between the joins are red muscular fibres. Quill notices that neither of these two larger Guardians has a matrix while Soulbreaker’s matrix is a vibrant red. Lucius lobs a *vitriolic sphere* of acid at the two large golem-like Guardians while Sentry targets one of them with a *sunbeam*. The golems attack, both with their axe hands - Barrier protects Archer and Pumpkin, but both of the crystal shields that he holds shatter at the mighty blow, so he and the other guardians are now unprotected – he picks them both up and runs off. Aila attacks Soulbreaker, attempting to protect Smasher in the process – he extends his wings and flies into the air with a burst of red energy. Aila attacks him as he attempts to move away, but he makes it 60 feet into the air and casts *chain lightning* at Sentry, also hitting Nova, Lucius and Quill: Lucius would have dropped unconscious, but the Book of Shadows barely keeps him up. With multiple people having taken significant damage from the lightning blast, Quill casts *mass cure wounds*. Smasher’s matrix starts to flicker, and his eyes open: his legs are crippled as if one of the Golems had trodden on them. His head turns to Aila and he utters, “Danger. Threat… danger. Waiting… Sentinel Prime… message. Deliver message. Protect Sweep. Sweep inside temple”.

### **Part 2**

*The battle continues against Soul Breaker and his team of giant Dominators in the City of Glass!*

Soulbreaker takes some hits from *eldritch blast* while Lucius moves out of range. Sentry taunts Soulbreaker, who is ready to attack Lucius and then protects Quill from being hit by one of the Golems. Aila tells the group through the messenger ring what she was told by Smasher, then hits one of the Golems. Soulbreaker is angry, seeing one of his larger Guardian units about to go down, so thrusts his hand into it and starts syphoning its energy for himself, killing it. Quill *banishes* the other Golem and Nova casts *eldritch blast* at Soulbreaker again. Lucius coats Soulbreaker with acid again from a *chromatic orb*.

An enlarged Sentry jumps up then *misty steps* to grab Soulbreaker 60 feet in the air and they both plummet to the ground with Sentry landing on top of him: he dies as he hits the ground calling out for Lord Voracitor. Quill just manages to jump out of the road of the plummeting Guardian bodies before they land. When the last Golem reappears, it is destroyed by the party almost immediately.

With the threat now gone, Barrier returns with Pumpkin perched on his shoulder yelling, “That was awesome!” They make their way back to the Temple, noticing that there is a small hole in the doors that would allow a small being to enter or exit. They also recall fighting Rook and a number of feral guardians in this location, but those bodies have since been removed. Quill attempts to locate Herald using the Wayfinders Guide, but she is not within 1000 feet. Nova calls out to Sweep asking her to come out – Nova can vaguely make out the shape of a small Guardian huddled in the far corner of the Temple. Sweep says that Soulbreaker disguised himself and thinks that Nova might be trying to trick her to come out, but on seeing and hearing Sentry, emerges, relieved – Herald had told Sweep to wait for Sentry.

Sweep delivers a message from Herald: she thinks that there is a way that Sentry can help all the Guardians: a device that has been around since the city was Kamina City. The device and Herald were made at the same time by Queen Astoria; it was used by Herald when she was corrupted to connect to a Guardian’s matrix and allowed her to speak to Guardians at great distances. The device is called the Conduit and it is stored in the tallest tower in the city. Sweep is worried that Herald will do something rash, speaking of finding the Conduit as her last mission – she has taken Chipper, Scout and Rook with her because Rook, as a Royal Guard, has the access that is needed to access the Conduit.

Archer and Barrier offer to stay with Sweep, Pumpkin and Smasher at the Temple and keep them safe. They give a shortsword, bow and dagger to Archer and a grabby-handed and excited Pumpkin and head north to the tallest tower.

Sentry wants to send a message to Herald to ask her to wait for them but knows that while her matrix has the ability to communicate with other Guardians, it has always relied on visual range – while it may allow her to communicate as it grows stronger, today is not that day. She gets Quill to send a *message* to Herald: “*Herald, stop what you’re doing. We’re on our way to help you. You don’t have to be alone. Clear skies.”* Quill gets a heavily garbled response, understanding that magic does not work well in this place: “*…enemies…tower…must protect…cannot…Conduit…solution…Try…time…”*

He tells the party that Herald is being attacked at the tower and is going to try something. To get to the tower, they choose to traverse the difficult terrain to the east rather than the more dangerous tower district to the north which has airships hovering about it. Nova and Lucius cast *fly* on the party and head directly for the tallest tower being cursorily pursued by feral guardians on rooftops and by nearby airships. With them ducking and weaving between buildings, eventually both sets of enemies leave them be – they emerge into crystalline gardens that have been worn and eroded over time.

As they make a beeline for the tower, a small airship screams past them: it bears some resemblance to the airships and aetherium devices they saw being constructed at Shadowsong Pinnacle, but this appears to have been made entirely out of the bodies of other Guardians as a fighter jet in the form of a great metal bird with red engines. It screams to a halt and turns, mid-air, to face them, hovering outside the tower for which they are headed. Voracitor’s voice is projected from it: “*Ah! We meet again, Prime! Whatever remains in this tower, your little Herald, I will enjoy taking it from them and using it to educate the pathetic Guardians to their destined future. They will learn the power of Hadar, and when Hadar annihilates this world, we will be the one to rule it. You should have joined me, Prime.”*

Sentry warns him that if he touches another Guardian, he will die.

“*There is only one who will fall today*,” he responds, “*and it will not be me…*”

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:01 Welcome to a very warm HR D&D
1:14 D&D Beyond: Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
2:55 Who is Fizban
3:21 Not a fizzy drink
4:02 The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
4:29 Dun Duns hides spoilers
4:41 Mark avoid metal dragon sounds
5:04 Animal Adventures: Faraway Sea One-Shot
6:24 Avatar Legends Roleplaying Game One-Shot
7:02 What about Curse of Strahd
7:56 Trellimar Aleath Pin
9:54 DUN DUNSS
10:53 Recap starts
12:12 Recap ends
15:41 Inside the Matrix is like a river
16:10 Inside the belly is funnier
17:49 Feral with a chainsaw
19:24 Random censor beep
20:19 Nova's just thinking
23:51 Tom likes perception
25:21 Nova just on permanent invisibility
26:07 Optic camouflage
30:22 Context for actual war crime
32:53 Sentry has disadvantage on stealth
34:12 Archer used explosive arrows
38:07 Surrounded by ferals
38:58 Chill vibes
40:49 Aila's always angry
41:25 Quill wants to use Calm Emotions
44:29 Sentry focuses on two ferals
45:05 Brand new Prime Matrix rules
47:22 Sentry chooses an artisan and fighter
48:56 Little Guardian personality
49:18 Big Guardian personality
50:22 Barrier is ready
50:44 Pumpkin 55:10 "Small" army
56:40 New nickname Barry
57:46 Tom's got a dirty mind
58:57 Dominators
1:00:07 Skeletor/Starscream voice mod
1:00:37 Roll initiative
1:00:57 Smasher description
1:03:00 Nova gets a surprise round
1:04:01 Confirmed "huge" guardians
1:04:40 Mark's making a face
1:05:17 Dominators are immune to psychic damage
1:06:35 Soulbreaker
1:09:24 Can't be blinded
1:09:52 Frankenstein Guardians
1:10:32 No matrix
1:14:10 Sunbeam
1:17:47 Barrier protects his own
1:19:25 Golem int of 3
1:19:45 Mark's max damage
1:22:44 Hulk jump
1:23:22 Soulbreaker's a little nerd
1:25:10 Soulbreaker flies
1:26:00 Chain Lightning
1:27:27 Lucius goes down but comes back up
1:28:10 DC 26 for concentration
1:29:20 Soulbreaker's plan foiled
1:30:37 Smasher's condition
1:31:01 Poor Aila
1:31:17 Break starts
1:31:44 Hello, my name is Elder Quill
1:35:28 HR Community's guardians
1:39:48 Break ends
1:40:43 Tom gets a feeling
1:40:52 Gladiators reference
1:43:30 Mark's favorite persona
1:45:10 Lucius changed Quickened spell
1:45:48 Sentry taunts Soulbreaker
1:48:13 Synaptic static helps
1:49:58 Aila's so far from everyone
1:51:18 First miss in a while
1:52:31 M'turn
1:53:00 Soulbreaker lives up to his name
1:54:23 Oh, charisma is it
1:58:37 Falling for 2 attacks? Worth it
1:58:55 Anime-esque
1:59:17 RKO out of nowhere
2:01:29 Coolest kill in all of Aerois
2:01:51 Tom invites danger
2:03:29 Held actions go off
2:03:43 Majora's Mask moon
2:04:08 Pumpkin is hype
2:07:52 Sweep is safe
2:10:42 Device used to help the guardians
2:12:17 Herald is looking for redemption
2:15:03 Pumpkin's got Valla vibe
2:15:30 Bad guys are dirt
2:15:44 Qillek joked about having a bow
2:15:59 But Aila has 2 long bows
2:17:21 Bad guys are weeds
2:18:18 Tallest, unknown tower is the goal
2:19:58 To the Bridge of Khazad-dum
2:20:37 Short rest
2:22:30 Message to Herald
2:27:15 Some Thing screams past
2:28:40 Overlord Voracitor
2:30:03 Episode ends
2:30:34 Magepunk fighter jet
2:32:47 Jokes about copyright
2:36:20 Outro donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Pumpkin
* Barrier
* Soulbreaker (Dominator, a corrupted Guardian of Hadar)

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Archer
* Smasher
* Sweep

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Maximillion Taldros
* Danna
* Herald
* Rook
* Hadar

## **Featured Locations**

* Gisella
	+ The City of Glass

## **Trivia**

* This week saw the introduction of two Guardians that had been created by HR Community members: Pumpkin was the OC of PumpkanArt, while Barrier (Barry) was the OC of LenuaSepa. Art or descriptions of the large number of OC Guardians created by the fan base can be found at https://twitter.com/GAerois.
* Kim says that she was proud of (what Mark describes as) “the horrible murdering of an entire ship of enemies”, but that Nova was horrified.
* Mark equates Soulbreaker to Starscream (the cowardly lieutenant) from the Transformers™ franchise.
* Kim imagines (now that she has watched all of Avatar the Last Airbender) that when she casts *eldritch blast*, she swipes Tiangong in the air and there is a crescent blade of energy swipes out of it towards her enemies. Trott says that all of his *chromatic orbs* come out of his arse.
* Mark and Tom sing the line "Hello, my name is Elder Quill..." referencing the musical, The Book of Mormon.
* The party refers to the Tower District as the "Bridge of Khazad-dum" referencing Lord of the Rings.