Aerois - Episode 145: Titan of the Forge

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Titan of the Forge** is the 145th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on the highrollersdnd Twitch channel, and hosted on the Yogscast Twitch channel, on 1st May 2022 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Forge Titan Valena invites the champions into her demi-plane for her final projects!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Merch: there is a new “I wish I were a birdy” t-shirt now available on the Fresh Merch store, these are limited supply and will not be restocked once gone.
* Rhi has made her own store and is selling t-shirts with her own original artwork of 80s and 90s toy culture and tattoo design elements.
* Music: Trott had an interaction with people from TCT Adventures who made a game called Solasta: Crown of the Magister (which Trott and Tom are playing a lot of at the moment). Much of the music being played in today’s episode (and presumably future episodes) will be from the original soundtrack for that game.
* HighRollersDND now has an official TikTok channel.
* Today is the last day to get in on MCDM’s Kickstarter 5e monster book called “Flee, Mortals!: The MCDM Monster Book” which contains monsters and revamped 4e minion rules. It also has four monsters that Mark created called The Apocalypse Knights. Thanks to James Introcaso and the MCDM crew.
* Reminder that you can use your Amazon Prime free sub on High Rollers. Patreon also gives early access to the podcast and other good things.

### **Recap**

*"Last time, our heroes descended into the magma chamber of the immense Volcanos, a huge volcanic mountain in the Hawk’s Dawn Archipelago. Protected to some degree by the demi-goddess, Valla, who conjured up a sphere of magic that kept out the worst of the heat, the party slowly floated down through the magma to deliver a device that would stabilise the eruptions in the region. However, this endeavour was interrupted by Ghul’xor the Great Worm, a magma-infused worm that attacked them, knocking them out of the sphere and into the scorching lava (or swallowing some of them entirely). Defeating Ghul’xor and activating the device, Nova teleported the party back to the Stormchaser, their air ship, to recuperate, but during this recuperation, a rather careless comment from Lucius caused the wish ring he had gained in their fight with Graz’zt in the Feywild became(sic) active and the handsome High Elf became a glorious peacock Aarakocra, much to Quill’s dismay. Now the party have been invited to the titan Valena’s demi-plane to help in the completion of her final projects with the hope that she will then re-join Siaska for the good of Aerois."*
### **Part 1**

*Forge Titan Valena invites the champions into her demi-plane for her final project!*

Quill and D1 are coordinating at the helm of the Stormchaser and inputting their route to the underwater cavern but Quill is nervous that the shield, which has not yet been tested, will not provide the protection they need once they start the dive. D1 tells them that the journey will take approximately four hours, most of which will be travelled underwater, and much of that will be along the ocean floor. They discuss what they will do in an emergency – the Wolf Pack have their helmets but will only have the air that is in the helmet and their suit, Lucius has scrolls of water breathing, but they will only affect ten people per casting. D1 tells them that she does not anticipate combat when they locate Valena but also says that this does not mean that the process will not be dangerous. Nova enters the control pod in engineering and begins to manoeuvre the ship into the water, as Quill notices his readouts start to indicate depth rather than altitude. As the shield is engaged, it begins to push the water to the side and the encased ship displaces the water as it begins to dive, then submerges and follows the pre-set course that has been input into the controls by D1. With limited visibility of about twenty to thirty feet, they are surrounded by darkness.

The journey is fairly quiet as they pass by the colourful coral reefs and fish in the tropical waters of the archipelago. As they approach the sea floor, they begin to see the broken and scattered ruins of Solwynn, which Sentry tells them was an enormous metropolis, but it is likely that some of the ruins they see have been dragged and scattered by currents over many years. Eventually they come to a deep underwater gorge which they enter and continue to descend between its narrow and sheer cliff faces; Oriya is clearly very nervous as they move through the difficult terrain. Beyond the shield is pitch black and the crew has brought lights and magical torches on deck to provide them with some illumination against the gloom. Quill is monitoring their course intently on his screen and D1 occasionally leans in to adjust their direction to allow for recent seismic changes that have happened. Given the darkness and the abnormal quiet around the ship, Lucius has noticed that the crew has naturally started to whisper when talking amongst themselves.

Under D1’s careful eye, the ship navigates a labyrinth of narrow cracks in the sea floor, and they notice remnants of buildings wedged into the sides of the crevasse as they pass, such as the projecting tip of a spire or the rounded top of a domed roof, but all are broken and overgrown and teeming with plant and animal life. Eventually, the ship approaches the end of the gorge, seemingly a dead end: a great underwater mountainside and cliff face looms in front of them. Valla closes her eyes and can feel a strong sense of Valena’s magic though it is not the breach to her demi-plane: she says that Valena’s presence is suffused into the very earth in this place, and it extends well beyond the gorge – it is unusual, and she has not encountered anything like it before.

D1, all smiles, requests the appropriate activation, then stands completely still. It is a few moments before she announces that activation is complete, and they hear a grinding of stone as the stone wall in front of them parts like a curtain on a stage, rippling with magic as it separates, and they notice the smallest of movements from D1 as her fingers seem to direct the stone curtain to part. Beyond the stone curtain is the entrance to an immense cavern, the scale of which is impossible for them to grasp: it is like entering another world. There is a sky that they cannot see, a great voluminous space above them, and there are great columns of stone, mineral, and metal that are placed on either side of them as they pass through the cavern with dozens of bridges and platforms connecting them. It feels almost as if they are passing down a street of a fantastical, enormous city, because they cannot see beyond the columns and bridges. They see sporadic random flashes of light from all around them (Quill thinks maybe from magic, or possibly some sort of welding tool), they hear the faint clanging of hammer, steel, and stone; Quill can see multiple Maidens of Valena scattered across the bridges and platforms, using them almost as scaffolds, and sees that they are working at something, possibly buildings, but it is not clear to him because their object is just out of his sight.

The Stormchaser begins drifting past them all, through the enormous cavern. Sentry wonders if this was under Solwynn the whole time, but D1 corrects her, saying that they are not under Solwynn, that they are in the major metropolis zone that houses the majority of the remains of the City of Solwynn. Lucius asks if he has heard correctly, and if they are in Solwynn: D1 tells him that they are only in a section of it, saying that most of the city was submerged when the cataclysm took place when Atelicus sundered the earth. Sentry can barely see much beyond the shield in the darkness and from their position above the city, she can see whole buildings, towers, spires, domes, and streets, but the stone archways and bridges have been constructed. She thinks that the whole cavern may have been constructed over Solwynn, but she is not sure what for: D1 will not tell Sentry what they are doing, however, preferring that they ask that question of the Forge Mistress.

Quill can see the Maidens working and notices that they are purposely clearing out areas of the city; he also notices that the city clearing is not very wide, it is long and thin, almost as if someone has taken a long slice of the city and kept it intact. He also recognises pieces that the Maidens are working on: some seem to be repairing buildings, others seem to be building new tunnels or connections between them, while others again appear to be installing weapons like arcane turrets. While Sentry knows this is not the remains of the Royal Palace, Solwynn was so massive that she is not sure of which part of the city they are in. She casts *Commune with Nature* and discovers that there are no people in the remains of the city, but it is filled with aquatic plants (although no animals), she detects multiple sizeable chunks of ruby, topaz, sapphire, emerald, quartz, diamond, and so on. There is no influence from other planes although there is a hint of a celestial influence (which is hardly surprising given Valena’s presence all around them), and Sentry recognises the main barracks as well as the building that supplied magical power to the city: she does not find the palace, and notices that there have been some changes with some buildings having been taken down and replaced by other structures.

Quill notices that the newer buildings have been crafted with an element of Solwynn architecture, but the form and functionality is completely different – it looks to Quill as if the Maidens are building more covered structures like tunnels to connect the buildings to one another. Nova asks Tiangong why Kalus targeted Solwynn out of all the places on Aerois and they tell Nova that Kalus saw it as his greatest threat because it was the height of magitek weaponry which was comparable to the weaponry of the Valkyrian empire at the time. The only other thing that he considered to be a threat on Aerois was the titans. Tiangong tells Nova that the Sundering took place before Kalus could complete his conquest of Aerois – the city of Solwynn was besieged and was maintaining a defence although it was also close to defeat at the time that the Sundering occurred. Kalus, they say, was not present for the siege of Solwynn – Xarkira and other forces were primarily attacking the city while Kalus was engaging Siaska. Nova theorises that Valena is attempting to use Solwynn’s superior magitek ability as a defence against Starbane now. Sentry tells them that they are nearing the power plant, which Quill says is inactive, and Sentry suggests that this may be why Valena is there. After a significant amount of time and many miles of travel across the city, the Stormchaser finally stops at another stone wall at the back end of the city with an edifice carved into it. The edifice is of an older Dwarven woman hunched protectively over a small forge – she is almost sheltering the flame contained within it. The forge is decorated with hundreds of rubies that give the impression of a faint dying ember still in the forge and the Dwarven woman holds her arms around it protectively.

D1 tells them cheerily that they have reached their destination and Valla confirms that this is the breach point – a point from which they can access Valena’s realm. D1 tells them that they must leave their ship and crew and proceed to the final forge where she is not permitted to enter. Valla believes that she will be able to open a door to Valena’s realm from the deck of the Stormchaser because Valena will allow them entry: she tells Quill that Valena is sad but calm, yet there is also a sense of anticipation as if she wants to complete something. Valla raises her hands and focuses, her hair begins to lift up from the back of her neck becoming like a shimmering nebula around her (reminiscent of Siaska herself). When she opens her eyes, they have become bright purple energy: she raises her arms in front of her with her hands together and as she parts them, a glowing purple triangular door opens up leaving a glowing white-purple light in front of her. She holds her hand angled towards each other, as if maintaining the shape of the door and invites them to step through: Sentry guides them through with Max and Valla coming through last.

As they pass through the door, they go through a moment of transition where the world appears hazy and spins. When their vision clears, they feel a strange sense of familiarity: they find themselves on dry land with breathable air. They stand on a stone platform before an almighty forge, the platform and forge appear to be raised, suspended thirty feet off the ground of a larger chamber of rough, natural rock. To the left and right, pathways split off to smaller sections, almost like shrines, whilst ahead is dominated by an enormous anvil with a large forge behind it. On either side, a curved staircase leads up to gated chambers that look down on the central area. Stone columns and arches lead upward but there is no ceiling here, instead there is a night sky filled with beautiful bright stars and the shifting pattern of the Cradle. Standing behind the giant anvil is Valena.

Valena is Dwarven in appearance, although colossal in scale (almost twenty feet tall), grey-haired with leathery skin and corded muscles that have shrunk slightly with age. She stands in a heavy fur mantle clasped by golden brooches, wearing a fine circlet of mithril and adamantine upon her brow. A dark braid falls behind her and along her right shoulder and her ears are studded with numerous rings of gold and silver as well as studs of precious stones. Her lower lip is pierced by an onyx stone and a mithril ring pierced through her nose is connected to one of the golden loops in her ears (Presumably by a small chain?). Three diamonds are studded above her right eyebrow and her features are round and worn. Her skin seems to shift - streaks of colour ranging from the dull grey of stone through the black of onyx and brassy brown to a porcelain white - all seem to dance across her like clouds. A thick leather apron and a belt with all sorts of hand-made steel tools hangs at her waist and her hands are shrouded in giant leather gauntlets. She rests her hands, almost leaning on the anvil in front of her and welcomes the champions of Aerois to her domain. Lucius and Sentry bow to the titan before them.

Valena asks them to assist her in her final task, knowing that they likewise have something to ask of her – she tells them that if they help her, she will gladly join her mother in the Halls of Infinite Resplendence. While they appear relieved, Valena tells them that her task will not be easy to fulfil and invites them to ask any questions they have of her in the short time that remains. Sentry asks what Valena is doing – she tells them that when Siaska died and became the Cradle, she gave tasks to several the Titans. To Kellara, she gave the task of warding the dead, and to Valena she gave two tasks unknown to any of the titans but her: the first was to prepare a tool for those who would rise up to face the enemy while the second was to build a contingency that might keep the dream of Aerois from falling into darkness should everything fail.

Valena admits that her mother’s death left her forlorn and without inspiration for many years, though she was desperate to fulfil her wishes – she tried but failed to come up with any ideas and this lack of inspiration made her fall into despair. One day, when H’esper told her that Kalus had returned and told her of the Stormchasers, she began to watch them, and through this she has seen Hadar and the other great threats to Aerois, giving her inspiration to create something to fulfil the second of her mother’s wishes and all that she can do in the time that she has left.

The first project, she tells them, is nearing completion – she says that the Maidens will finish it and they do not need to assist with it: she has given the Maidens what power she can so that they may finish it, even though it has drained her. She tells them that when they leave her domain, they will witness it, and all will be revealed to them.

Valena tells them that her powers are not strong enough to make a device like the World Engine, nor are they enough to make a weapon that will defeat Hadar. The second project, the contingency to keep the dream of Aerois alive, is therefore more like an ark and is called the Starseed. This is a device that will connect the souls that Kellara gathers when they die, it will house the knowledge and memory of Aerois – the hope is that, should everything fail, it will be sent to another reality beyond the Web of Eternity to find somewhere to take seed and to grow, either restoring the dead to life or preserving the story of Aerois for other cultures to learn. Valena says that making a device that contains all of the knowledge, memories, and lives of the people of Aerois, and to survive the passing from this into a new reality will be no easy task – prior to this moment, she would have asked the other titans to assist, but they would be unwilling, are weakened beyond the point that they can share their power, or, like H’esper and Zephyr, have gone to Siaska: she must now call on the Stormchasers.

Valena gestures at the forge around her and points out six columns around the room, each embedded with a glowing light upon it: she tells them that she will forge the Starseed (which will take almost all of her remaining power), and that each of the six columns contains a focus – the foci are the components that will make up the power, or essence, of the seed. She indicates each of the foci: Memory, Magic, Spirit, Knowledge, Connection and Hope, and tells them that each of the foci must be infused, though she does not know what this will involve: once each focus is infused, the person who has infused it will not be able to move and must remain by it. Valena says that the foci must be infused in sequence (as described above) and can only be infused once each focus has been prepared: she will call out when a focus is ready to infuse. While Valena forges, there will be other tasks for them to do: they may be required to assist Valena in her forging, the considerable power involved may break sections of the forge that will need to be mended; they must aid her as best they can. The last thing that Valena says, as she reaches out a hand, is the aid of her sister, Valla: Valla contains a spark from Siaska and the Starseed cannot be made without it, but it will drain her power as well. Valena tells them that there will be dangers and consequences if things are not kept repaired or if the foci are not infused in time.

Valena offers to answer any other questions that they might have, although she admits that she has been withdrawn from the world for a long time. Sentry asks Valena if she ever met Queen Astoria and Valena says that she knew her, that Guinevere often prayed to her and was given inspiration where it was possible. Sentry also wants to know how the Queen created the Guardians, understanding that she worked with Root Prime but Valena tells her that Guinevere was talented long before she met Root – she was curious, driven, asked many questions, and was never satisfied with the answers that she was given, wanting to make a better world, but knowing that knowledge alone would not protect all that she loved, she was also a warrior and a protector. Guinevere was responsible for building infrastructure, architecture, weapons, and magic; Valena says that she was no saint, but that her heart was well-placed. Lucius thinks that it may be fated that Sentry has been brought back to Solwynn to help save Aerois or to send it somewhere safe, Sentry hopes that the destruction was not entirely for nothing and Max, staying silent, puts a reassuring hand on Sentry’s shoulder.

Valena tells them that the Starseed is the best contingency that she can offer, but that it is not infallible and could fail; she says (with the tiny hint of a smile) that, if possible, her siblings and her mother would like them to succeed. The Starseed might save the souls of Aerois, but it would not save the souls of any others in the multiverse (be they friend or foe), and any souls that were consumed by Hadar would be irrevocably destroyed.

Lucius asks more questions about the Starseed and what it will contain: Valena explains that it will hold the *essence* of Aerois and that it is connected to the afterlife where Kellara takes Aerois’ dead. The idea is that it will contain Aerois’ history, culture, knowledge, memories (of people, places, and things), and should the worst come to pass and Hadar consumes the world, and before the Web of Eternity is cut off from Aerois, Valena would launch the Starseed through the Genesis Well where it would seek out a new reality. The Starseed will also act as a beacon calling the departed souls to it, where it will house them, and it has been made to survive the journey between realities which most things could not do. She tells them that it is useable by other divine powers to bring back those within it, or to create a replica of places, things and people from Aerois, maybe even being able to re-shape parts of another world into a copy of Aerois. Should mortals discover it rather than a divine, they would have access to the knowledge, lore and history contained within, and Aerois would live on in that way. Sentry asks if only Kellara can add souls to the Starseed and Valena tells her that Kellara has actually stopped adding souls to the afterlife, but that any soul that was capable of the journey to Aerois’ afterlife would be called to the Starseed. Sentry wonders if a Guardian soul could be added to the Starseed but Valena does not know, saying that her powers are limited to her connections on Aerois and that the Prime Matrix came from beyond Aerois, likewise she is not sure what would happen to those who were not born on or bonded to Aerois.

Valena reiterates that if they help her accomplish this last task, she will join Siaska gladly – she did not wish to leave the world with her requests unfulfilled.

Max, telling them that he will not be able to assist Valla, offers to help the party with the foci where and as they need him. Valla tells them that she does not know what she will have to do but that if she is capable, she will aid them in whatever way she can, whether that be creating portals between two spaces to allow fast travel, enhancing time around one person, or by giving them a mote of her divine luck that will help with tasks.

Valena gives them more information on each focus as they prepare for the ordeal:

* Memory – the memory of people, places, moments, and stories, not scientific knowledge but lived experience.
* Magic – the power and wonder of magic, divine and arcane, the mote of possibility that magic creates.
* Spirit – courage, determination, strength, willpower, our long struggles in battle and adversity.
* Knowledge – facts, figures, data, instructions, timelines, history, and collected lore.
* Connection – bonds between people, emotive connections to the living and the dead, the power of unity.
* Hope – the hope for the future, small hopes, dreams, wishes, moments of hope.

### **Part 2**

*The Stormchasers attempt to infuse the Starseed with Aerois' memories in Valena's forge!*

The forge falls quiet as Valena places a silvery sphere, wrapped in bands of mithril and adamantine, and carved with intricate runes on the anvil. She pulls her hammer, which becomes infused with magical energy and, rather than striking the device, she seems to channel raw, divine power into it. The forging process has begun.

As Valena begins channelling power, the flames behind her begin to grow wild and she calls to them that they must find a way to cool the flames because the furnace is burning too hot. She tells them that if they have no other way to do so, there are pipes nearby that lead into the furnace and can be used to cool it, but the person must have a knowledge of engineering to work out how much water to flow through them or deft enough hands to cut off the water flow when required. Aila pulls on the chains and directs the water towards the flames, managing to cool them just enough that Valena can continue with her forging uninterrupted. Valla finds that she must concentrate on what she is doing and is unable to aid them for a while, while Sentry calls Starbreaker forth and Nova casts *Fly* on herself in case she needs to move somewhere fast.

Valena then calls to them that she has finished preparing it and that they must infuse the Memory focus, so Aila moves to it, puts her hand on the cracked gemstone embedded in the centre of the column, her vision begins to swim, and she finds that she is no longer mentally in the forge. She receives a request from all around her, from *existence*, to recall and share a memory of an event on Aerois that encapsulates the essence of this Focus. Aila recalls her time with the Airdeithe Clan and the moment that they gifted her The Howling Gale as it was then: they explained to her how important it was to the clan, and even though Aila knew that she was not part of that clan and would have to leave to find answers, they accepted that and gifted it to her anyway in order that she might both remember and represent them. This very meaningful gift is why Aila will only fight with this hammer and will defend Aerois with it. She thinks about the fact that the hammer has been with her from the start of her journey and how much she has learned along the way while carrying it. As she is telling the story of the hammer, the battles and her travels, she realises that what is important is the faces and names of the Airdeithe Clan, as well as other small things like the way they would go hunting, the places they had been, their homes, and the journey that she and the hammer have taken together, the feel of the hammer and the leather grip in her hand, the tartan that she carries and gave to her friends – all these memories flow from her into the Focus as she feels a shift in the ground and something lock into place. Aila’s mind returns to the forge, and she looks down to see a radiant, glowing line connecting the gemstone to her: she has successfully infused the Memory Focus.

Valla has, by now, worked out how to hold Valena’s magic steady as well as being able to offer her own support should they need it, and she holds out a hand that glows with purple magic, ready to assist if the need arises. Sentry *Enlarges* herself and tremendous power pulses through the forge as gravity increases throughout the room and they all feel a crushing weight on their shoulders. Quill summons Elder Quill and casts *Beacon of Hope* (missing Aila who is just out of range), while Lucius dashes towards the Magic Focus. Valena pulls out her chisel and they see more runes begin to magically etch themselves onto the surface of the Starseed but as she does this, a giant crack begins forming in the anvil in front of her – Valena tells them that they must fix this crack by whatever means necessary and Aila suggests that large Sentry may be able to help. With the crack appearing in the anvil, Valla must strive to maintain concentration on her spell and cannot assist them for now; Max offers to heat the anvil, which may make it easier to fix but Nova tells him to move towards his pillar instead. Sentry moves slowly towards the anvil, having to *Misty Step* to get in range – she plans to hold the huge chunks of metal together as the crack becomes wider, but cannot push it together. Nova’s echo is crushed and absorbed back into her, and the sword glows: she holds Tiangong out to the anvil, casting *Creation* on it, filling the crack with molten steel that hardens immediately, and with the crack fixed, the extra gravity disappears, Nova re-summons her echo.

Lucius casts a *Chromatic Orb* and absorbs it into his now wing-like gauntlet (he has a metallic right wing where a normal peacock wing would be) to give it two charges. Valena calls out to begin infusing the Magic Focus; Valla still needs to concentrate on what she is doing, so cannot assist them. Max chooses Quill to be the target of his *Royal Guard* ability and tells him that if he can reach Quill, he will protect him – Quill is flattered and touched.

The forge pulses once more: the flames in the furnace turn an icy white and the temperature in the forge rapidly decreases as does the temperature in the area surrounding them. Quill casts *Mass Cure Wounds* on the party, Lucius uses *Absorb Elements* to reduce the cold damage he would take and then leans forward to touch the pillar in front of him: his mind goes to a liminal space – an ongoing white space, in which he is back to being in his High Elf form. Lika Aila, he feels a request or need for something of him to be shared with the seed – the seed wants to use Lucius as a conduit to connect to the wider concept of magic in Aerois. Lucius recalls the moment that Valla revealed her potent power for the first time as the daughter of Siaska, the moment when great purple energy blasted out and disrupted their lives, setting them on the course they currently find themselves on. He recollects it vividly because it was both a poignant moment and also revealed the true potential of such a small person of Aerois and the untapped potential of all Aerosians. He feels a locking sensation, his mind recalls, and he finds himself as an Aarakocra once more but linked to the Magic Focus by a shimmering purple line of light.

Valena is delighted but worries that the forge may become more unstable as they progress. She resumes forging, bringing out bands of metal – with a gesture, they begin to hover over and rotate around the seed in various patterns becoming faster as they do so. The Memory Focus begins to brim and overflow with energy, and Valena tells them that they must transfer the energy from the Focus to another area that is not near the anvil or another Focus, and they can transfer it from person to person. Nova flies across the room and Aila touches the column next to her before passing the discharged energy off to Nova, Valla still cannot aid them and Max rushes towards them preparing to heal them when he can. Sentry dashes across the room to move next to Nova, ready to take the excess energy before healing herself. Nova flies towards the forge and its freezing flames, discharging the excess energy into the fires – the discharge has a 20-foot radius and just misses both the focus and the anvil. As the lightning discharges, the temperature in the room begins to rise again, allowing Valena to focus on the Starseed once more.

Suddenly, a surge of magic pulses from the anvil: Lucius and Sentry feel a pulse wash over them, but the rest feel heavy and slow, their bodies have been transformed into a living silvery metal, they now weigh ten times their normal weight and can only move half their normal speed. Quill casts *Mass Cure Wounds*, hoping that his *spellbreaker* effect will release the others from the effects, but it does nothing other than heal the party. Lucius casts *Fly* on Max, giving him some extra movement before Valena calls out that she is ready for them to begin infusing the Spirit Focus. They notice that Valena appears weaker with every focus that is infused: her muscles are slowly shrinking, her hair is going greyer, and she looks like she is getting smaller – it is as if her divine power is being siphoned away from her.

Max flies slowly towards the Spirit Focus but needs to dash to get to it, so cannot infuse it when he gets there; Nova moves her echo up towards Max, swaps position with it, moves herself towards Max, and uses the *Gravitational Thrust* from her Amethyst Gauntlet to create a gravitational wave that has just enough thrust to push him into the pillar. Max remembers something about a battle, although the party does not know what, and it must not have been adequate to infuse the Spirit Focus because he is rebuffed by the pillar which begins to spark, he is sapped of strength and exhausted. The metal effect ends on everyone before, suddenly, black lightning shoots out from the anvil and strikes Sentry, Quill and Aila: they are all slowed.

Valena shudders, looking over towards Max, seeing that the Spirit Focus is beginning to crack – she lifts her hammer and points at it: the hammer flares with magic, she shrinks in size and strength, but the column reforges itself. Valena, still pointing her hammer at the Spirit Focus, holds her left hand out towards Aila – the sparkling line that had connected Aila to the Memory Focus goes into Valena’s hand and she concentrates on holding both Foci stable: Aila is now free to move and infuse with a different Focus as necessary. They realise that by holding both Foci, Valena’s strength is being sapped extremely quickly, and they do not think that she can maintain this for very long. Max is clearly shaken, having seen some things that he has found very upsetting, he stumbles back, apologises, and holds his head.

Lucius casts *Wall of Ice* and creates an icy ramp one hundred metres long between the Memory and Spirit Foci, hoping that Aila can move quickly over to Max. Valena tells them that before they can re-attempt infusing the focus, the must take energy from the anvil to the Spirit Focus to recharge it. Aila climbs up onto the ice bridge and manages not only to remain upright, but to move acrobatically across it, dashing towards Max and getting to him in one fell swoop. Valla manages to concentrate enough to be able to offer aid if required and Max apologises, breathlessly, while moving to fetch the energy from the anvil – he is ready to accept it if someone passes it to him. Sentry moves to the anvil and picks up the energy, handing it to Max, who takes it and dashes back to the pillar, ready to recharge it when he can. Nova sends the echo of Tiangong up onto the balcony behind Valena and up to the Connection Focus.

The forge begins to rumble, and a number of dirt columns begin to erupt from the floor with the seismic activity: Quill, Sentry and Nova attempt to jump out of the way with only Nova being successful, while Quill and Sentry are pushed thirty feet into the air and find themselves on top of a single column. With Sentry being enlarged, she occupies most of the top of the column with Quill holding desperately onto her. They notice that Valena is withering away and fading with power as she holds both the Memory and Spirit Foci. Aila calls for Valla to give her haste, she feels as if a second version of her separates from her and watches as everyone else moves slowly and the second version of her does what she does a few seconds later. Aila takes the energy from Max, empowers the Spirit Focus, and then attempts to infuse it: Aila finds herself once again in a liminal space, and a similar request is made of her for a memory connected to spirit.

Aila recalls being at the top of the tower in the City of Glass trying to get Sentry’s beacon activated to save the Guardian race, all while they were surrounded by hordes of feral Guardians: Lucius let off the biggest spell they had ever seen him perform, Aila had done massive damage to the giant Guardian, and everyone was working together with the willpower to work as a team regardless of the situation in order to save part of Aerois and an entire race. Aila shares the memory, but it seems not to be enough, and she sees where everything could have gone so wrong: she sees a version where Lucius was ripped apart by feral Guardians before he could cast his spell, another where Sentry was ripped apart by the Overlord and never saved the Guardians, and she is rebuffed by the pillar. Valla maintains her concentration and offers them assistance if it is needed again. Max looks at Aila and says to her, “We failed separately, but we’re both warriors. When you’re backed into a corner, you find a warrior who has your back,” and reaches out one hand to her and the other to the Spirit Focus. As they both touch the Focus, there is a flash and Aila sees things that are not her own memories, and there is a moment when her memories and Max’s align – Aila sees Max on Alfheim, he is fighting alongside other Elves, fighting off Hadar spawn on the Elves’ home world. Max fights alongside Elves that seem so familiar to Aila that she almost recognises them – she sees Elves with powers of storm, fire, and ice that Max has known. Aila’s memories mix with Max’s, and his memories mix with hers: Aila feels like she is fighting beside him, she sees him training on Gideon Prime, she sees him being sworn in and knighted by Kalus and feels his pride. She sees him on worlds saving civilians from alien monstrosities of Hadar, she experiences battles that Max has fought in as if she was Max. Max has the same experience in reverse, reliving Aila’s memories as himself.

As they recall these moments of heroism and triumph, the Spirit Focus bursts to life and rather than a single line, there are now two brilliant arcs of lightning from the pillar – one to Max, the other to Aila. The forge flares to life again as Valena gets some respite with the third focus bursts into life and the burden is taken off her.

Three Foci have now been activated, three remain and two have already failed.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:08:41 - Dun Duns
0:09:40 - Part 1
1:24:28 - Part 2
2:39:56 - Outro

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* D1
* Max
* Valla
* Wolf Pack

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Hadar
* H'esper
* Kalus Valkyrian
* Root Prime
* Queen Guinevere Astoria
* Siaska
* Xarkira
* Zephyr

## **Featured Locations**

* Hawk's Dawn Archipelago
	+ Porta Sovrano
	+ Solwynn
* Valena's Forge (her demi-plane)

## **Trivia**

* This was one of the largest lore-heavy episodes for a very long time, and it was GLORIOUS to watch.
* Mark keeps referring to the engineering control pod as a “coffin” which mildly concerns Kim who is about to enter it to control the ship.
* It becomes apparent in the cavern that Lucius no longer has Darkvision.
* Sentry uses *Commune with Nature* to find out more about buildings, influence from other planes, and prevalent plants, minerals, animals or peoples.
* Nova and Tiangong can leave the Stormchaser, and it can function without them. They have trained members of the Wolf Pack to be apprentice engineers, although they lack the symbiotic relationship required to use the pod/coffin.
* When Mark describes the diamonds studded above Valena’s right eyebrow, he gestures to the space above his left eyebrow.
* Kim reads back the pillars that she has remembered from Valena’s descriptions: Magic, Spirit, Knowledge, Connection and Hope. The one she has forgotten is (ironically) Memory.
* Mark describes the actions that will happen out of character:
	+ Valena will be making the Starseed and as she does that, things may happen with which she may need help or that the party needs to deal with because otherwise it will mess them up (Mark rolls on a table to determine the task or crisis).
	+ When she can, Valena will call out a focus, and by the start of her next turn, it must be infused (meaning that they have to touch it, and “there will be a thing involved”).
* Valena will always act first: she will begin to construct the thing, an event will happen, and once that is finished, a focus will be called out – it must be infused before she takes another turn or it will fail and there will be a consequence, and she can only handle so many failures (Mark will not say how many failures she can handle, however – it may be four or five (definitely starts with an F!), but it is only “a handful”).
	+ Once a focus is successfully infused, the person infusing it must remain next to it: if they leave, the focus will become uninfused and it will have to be infused again – this would count as an automatic failure.
	+ Valla will have her own initiative, and ONLY IF she makes a successful saving throw on her turn, can she:
		- a) cast portals to allow fast travel,
		- b) enhance time around a player, casting *Haste* on them and giving them an extra action per round (but not changing their movement speed), or
		- c) give them a mote of luck, which will allow a re-roll of an ability check or saving throw.
	+ A successful saving throw means that any one of them (at any time) can call to Valla for any of the three assists but failing her saving throw means that she cannot help anyone that round.
* Mark made comments in the Discord after this episode that he had made some mistakes in crafting this fight, that he hadn't thought it through, and would change a few things if he could (but would not change things mid-fight for next week):
	+ "General concept was good, but a few tweaks in the management of the process and timing would make a big difference I think
		- Would remove initiaitve(sic) and allow the players to take their turns in whatever Order they want.
		- Foci would get assigned at Random when Valena calls them out, rather than PCs knowing which one would be where and when.
		- Valla's special buff would be changed to; she can do each of these once without fail.
		- Reduce Foci down to 3/4 only/Number of players -1/2 (big one, as I think 6 was too restrictive, without Max there they couldn't do it. XD)
		- Make the Events more disruptive and punishing. Too many of them were basically just 'half speed lol' but have them trigger on *failed* task checks and last until a Foci(sic) is infused. Also make it so they can stack.
* Mark indicated that he might post the "revised and improved" encounter on his Patreon.
* Katie had recently started orthodontic treatment with Invisalign, and was worried about not being able to talk clearly with her retainer in.
* Mark introduced his paddle that has “Critical Hit” on one side and “Blessed” on the other which he is now going to hold up when he rolls a nat 20. It came in a package from D&D Direct with a HUGE tankard that Mark drinks from throughout the stream.
* To cool the overheating furnace, they must deal at least 20 points (but no more than 30 points) of cold damage. If they choose to use the pipes to cool it, they can make an Int or Dex check (DC 20). The furnace must be cooled by the start of Valena’s next turn if they are to be able to infuse the first pillar.
* To infuse the Memory focus, Aila must describe and share a memory of an event on Aerois that encapsulates this focus: something about the small memories, the places, the faces, the people: something that is human, not knowledge or anything bigger, but something personal from the character’s point of view and what it means to Aila. After she describes her memory, Mark chooses Strength as the ability check due to the nature of what she has described, but because the memory does not quite match up to the nature of the Focus, he increases the DC (I think). Once she completes the infusion, Aila’s Str is reduced by 2.
* The increased gravity causes the following effects: halved movement, and 10 force damage at the start of a character’s turn. Flight is disabled, and anyone flying would have fallen to the ground, prone.
* When the forge furnace cools, players take 20 cold damage at the start of their turn.
* When Lucius activates the Magic Focus, he loses 2 Chr.
* With the energy overload, a creature can touch the Focus and collect the excess damage – the player will take damage, but with an action they can transfer the energy (and give damage) to another person. This energy can be passed from person to person.
* Aila takes 27 points of lightning damage which is halved for her: Trott calculates this as 18 points when it should, in fact, be 13 (rounded down).
* When the Anvil produces its magic burst, the players must make a DC 20 Chr saving throw. On a success, nothing happens. On a fail, the players become living metal, they weigh ten times their normal weight, their movement is halved, they have disadvantage on weapon attacks, deal double physical weapon damage, and have resistance to all damage except psychic damage. Quill’s spellbreaker effect may have removed this if *Mass Cure Wounds* was cast at higher than 5th level.
* The black lightning from the anvil causes necrotic damage, gives disadvantage on Str ability checks, and makes them move at half speed. These effects last until a new even occurs or a task is completed.
* Mark refers to Lucius’ *Wall of Ice* as “the ice bridge of doom”. Totally reassuring, Mark.
* When the columns of earth erupt from the floor, the three closest players must make a Dex check (DC 20). Success means no effect, failure either results in being knocked prone and pushed to one side of the column or being on top of the column and pushed thirty feet up into the air.
* Three of the players think they know what the Valena’s other project is, two said that they have no idea.

## **Quotes**

* **TMI** (afterdark)
**Trott**: I don't chew, I just suck.