Aerois - Episode 155: The Fall of War

Katie Morrison as Aila

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Fall of War** is the 155th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on the highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 7th August 2022 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Kellara’s four dread knights descend upon the party in Nightbloom Hold! Who will prevail?*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The TwitchCon live game (campaign 3 prologue and sneak peek) is now available on YouTube and podcast. Thanks to Twitch, to the stage personnel, and to Jack, the intern artist at Yogscast . There have been a lot of confused comments on Twitter and You Tube from people thinking that Aerois had ended – Aerois has not ended yet (it was designed to show of the new setting and to try to attract new viewers), Kim will still be playing in C3, the characters they played in the show are not the characters they will be playing in the campaign, and the special guests will not be regular players when C3 rolls around.
* Merch: there are new bundles available on the Fresh Merch store while they try to shift some old merch out to make room for exciting new things. Rhi described the new thing as “really cool” but was warned off saying what it actually was by both Katie and Mark.

### **Recap**

*"The Champions have travelled to the thick jungles of Jakkesh to find the breach point that will allow them access to Kellara’s hidden demi-plane, from which she has cut off most of her followers and turned her most loyal knights into a force of methodical killers. If Kellara is defeated, or brought to peace, her divine essence will return to Siaska, the true deity of Aerois, and aid in the battles to come. A turbulent journey has led the party to Nightbloom Hold, the defended keep and monastery of Kellara’s knights, and after a failed attempt to sneak in, they have launched a full-on assault against the forces here (including the powerful Knight Commanders of the Blackened Rose), during which Nova V’ger teleported away to the colossal tree that seemed to be enhancing Kellara’s forces and has used a beacon of light to call down arcane blasts from their air ship, the Stormchaser.*

*"Now, an intense battle wages beneath the burning, breaking boughs of this enormous tree. Nova flees the destruction with the Guardians, Hotshot and Shade, pursued by the newly reborn Serrise, the Plague Knight. Meanwhile, the rest of the party face off against the Orc War Knight, Lady Elwyn, and various minions as well as Sir Godric, the Death Knight, and the Famine Knight, Lammalles, who begin to close in."*
### **Part 1**

*Kellara's four dread knights descend upon the party in Nightbloom Hold!*

Elwyn, the War Knight, is on the top of the tower with most of the party, while Godric (the Death Knight) and Lammalles (the Famine Knight) ride into the courtyard on their flying steeds. Quill is flying a short distance away, Sentry is a floor below them in the tower, fighting a Grieving Errant, and Nova is somewhere in the distance near the badly damaged tree, or Death Root, is a flying Nova. Serrise, the Plague Knight, has just been birthed from some sort of sap cocoon at the roots of the giant tree.

Max makes two attacks against Elwyn, hitting her with his first attack, but on the second attack, she catches his greatsword then snaps the blade. Lucius, having been ejected from Elwyn’s mind, sees that the last vestiges of her own person are taken from her as her fiery armour erupts with flame, and her skin darkens as it begins to burn and crackle. Elwyn summons a giant mace to her hand that flickers with embers, she slams it into the ground – giant cracks begin to form in a 60-foot area around her, fissures that steam and erupt with flame, affecting the tower they stand on, the walls within of the keep, and the ground in the courtyard. Elwyn summons a blade, attacking Lucius and destroying a mirror image then misses with her second blow, frustrated, she summons a javelin and hurls it towards Quill, who summons a spectral *Shield* to ward off the blow.

Sir Godric keeps turning, as if distracted and concerned, back to the tree being destroyed behind him, then turns towards the tower, raises his fist, and whispers something: there is suddenly an area of silence around the top of the tower. The errant swipes at Sentry three times, only managing to make contact once and Sentry manages to avoid some attempt to further weaken her that it makes.

The giant tree in the courtyard, having sustained heavy fire from the Stormchaser, begins to crack and collapse: as huge branches snap off, they begin to destroy parts of the outer walls, they begin to see rivulets of green-blue magic running through it, but it appears to be fading in power as the black pollen ceases to fall. The Grieving Errant, black ichor pouring from its eyes, ears, and nose, having just attacked Sentry, suddenly collapses to the ground, like a puppet with its strings suddenly cut. In the courtyard, there is a cry from the undead as if a ripple of force burst through them, and they call to the ground. The Knight Commanders stagger as if hit by a powerful wave of nausea or pain, but the undead near Godric (under his command and control) are unaffected.

Sentry runs back to the top of the tower and attacks Elwyn – on her first attack, Elwyn grabs the tip of Starbreaker and squeezes the tip until a crack appears within it, when Sentry tries to force Starbreaker towards her again, she simply smashes her other hand into the side of the weapon, causing another crack to form within the weapon, but takes a mighty blow from Sentry in doing so. Sentry’s blow breaks the armour at Elwyn’s shoulder exposing her blackened, burnt skin, and they can see red veins that seem to emit fire and steam from her own body.

Nova, flying over the cathedral and dodging the falling branches of the great tree, knows that Shade and Hotshot are somewhere on the ground below her. She flies down to the ground and sees them about to enter the cathedral through a side entrance, and she also sees, emerging and dripping from the sap cocoon, Serrise – her armour is not fully-formed, one of her legs is skeletal, thin, and mutated, she has a pair of vestigial insectoid wings buzzing at her back, as if she has not been fully regrown. She points at Nova and the two Guardians, uttering an angry and guttural, “You!”

Nova demands that Serrise stands down, indicating the tree that she has destroyed, and intimating that she will not hesitate to destroy Serrise again. Serrise, drawing their bow and taking a bead on Nova, indicates that she cannot help herself, that she has no free will in the matter. Nova calls on Shade to heal her and Hotshot to assist her with attacking Serrise. Nova casts *Eldritch Blast*, hitting with three of her four beams. Nova uses a Potion of Greater Healing and Shade adds a regular healing potion to the mix before Hotshot misses with a blast of her arm cannon. Serrise fires a tethering shot at Nova and the Guardians – while they manage to avoid the tether, Nova is skewered and tethered to the door behind her: she and the Guardians all look badly injured. Serrise finds a cover behind some of the fallen and broken trunk of the tree nearby.

Quill begins to feel exhausted from the intense heat being generated by the mace. He mimes to Aila throwing something at the flying Knights, Godric and Lammalles, then flies away using the wall as cover. He prepares to cast *Holy Weapon* on Aila’s hammer when she throws it at the knights as he had indicated. Lucius casts *Absorb Elements* on the fire around him and The Captain’s Command erupts in flame, and she swings it at Elwyn, slashing her for some minor damage. Aila throws The Howling Tempest at Godric which hits him, striking Elwyn with lightning on the way past. Quill’s spell goes off, causing the hammer to explode in holy radiance when it hits Godric, further injuring him and Lammalles, blinding Lammalles in addition. Aila causes a burst of lightning that hits Elwyn who falls to one knee, clutching her chest, then yells out in rage before regaining her feet – Aila suspects that this would have killed almost anyone else.

The Famine Knight casts *Insect Plague* around Quill causing a swarm of biting insects to swarm around Quill and bite him, then waits patiently until they can see before acting. Max, unconcerned with the intense heat, shouts, “Your flames mean nothing! They are nothing compared to the flames of Gideon! Call yourself a knight? You’ve fallen too far!” He tries to cast something (*Blinding Smite*) but is silenced, then attacks Elwyn with his broken weapon, plunging his broken greatsword into her chest – she staggers back, almost falling off the tower, then her relentless endurance kicks in before she is able to die. Elwyn slashes at Max, tearing his armour off him and exposing his chest.

Sir Godric holds his head for a moment, reaches over and touches Lammalles to end their blindness – Lammalles hits Lucius with a *Withering Ray* – Quill then hears Godric tell Lammalles and Elwyn to press the attack while he returns to the temple to revive the Rot Heart. Godric then sends a black flame surging into Elwyn (which heals her) before he and his undead minions return to the temple.

The Stormchaser fires on the spot they had seen Quill’s holy light, catching Lammalles and his spectral steed in the blast, and the steed is killed. Sentry enlarges, then shoves Elwyn off the tower – as Elwyn starts to fall, she grabs Sentry’s leg and pulls her off the tower with her. Both Elwyn and Sentry topple and Sentry plunges Starbreaker into Elwyn before they can hit the ground twenty feet below. Sentry stands above Elwyn’s prone form and tries to convince her that they can end things differently, but Elwyn’s own personality is gone, replaced by the madness of Kellara.

Nova tells Shade and Hotshot to run but Hotshot declines and tells Nova, “Not this time. None of us are going to win this fight if any of us stay. You stopped me doing one thing once, I can stop this now.” Hotshot readies her arm cannon and exposes her matrix and explains that she can take Serrise out the same way she had been planning to take out the tree, but that she needs time. She finishes by telling Nova, “All my force died because of me. Let me make this right.” She begins to channel excess energy, not into her arm cannon, but into her matrix, and tells Shade to get Nova out. Shade cuts the tether binding Nova to the cathedral door, Nova then reluctantly grabs Shade, salutes Hotshot with, “’Til all are one,” then they make their way into the cloister of the temple. The last thing they see is Hotshot slam her own matrix causing a crack to appear before she runs towards Serrise yelling, “’Til all are one!” There is a sudden and incredibly large explosion of light and force that throws the door near Nova and Shade off its hinges, and they hear the cracking and breaking of nearby trees from the massive arcane explosion. Nova realises with a sinking feeling that Hotshot has truly sacrificed herself – because she has used her matrix to cause this explosion, she is gone forever and will not be able to be taken into the Prime Matrix. Nova makes herself and Shade invisible and they make their way towards the courtyard.

Quill casts *Mass Cure Wounds*, healing all but Nova and gains another level of exhaustion. Lucius absorbs the fire damage from the grounded mace then leaves the area of silence; he throws an acid chromatic orb at the mace – the weapon is pitted but otherwise unaffected, being made of some sort of magical metal. Aila picks up the mace, burning and blistering as she holds it – it is unnaturally heavy – the flaming ground effect ends the minute Aila picks it up. She jumps off the tower and aims at Elwyn, falling on her – Aila then steps back, ready to strike again. Aila’s lightning aura blasts Elwyn, rending her armour and exposing her blackened, burned rib cage, and her still-beating heart covered in black flames. Lammalles clicks her fingers and flicks her hand, ready to throw a chip of ice at Quill, but Lucius *Counterspells* the spell successfully.

Max, having seen what Aila did, and seeing his broken greatsword still wedged in Elwyn’s armour,  jumps off the tower. Diving headfirst, he casts *Blinding Smite* on his own fist, and hits Elwyn in the chest cavity, his blinding belief in the Valkyrian Empire snuffing out the black fame that had kept her alive. As the fire is extinguished, the rage in her eyes dies down, she gives them a grateful, sad look and mouths, “Thank you,” as her body goes still.

### **Part 2**

*A moment of respite offers a chance to reconsider plans to assault Nightbloom's keep!*

Sentry heals herself and Nova makes her way into the plaza with Shade. Quill hits Lammalles with *Guiding Bolt* – Lammalles opens his mouth and sucks in, draining Quill’s spell power as a result. Lucius casts *Fly* on himself and heads towards Lammalles, brandishing The Captain’s Command. Aila moves towards the Ember Elf hitting them with the super-sized hammer once before it shrinks to a weapon more Aila’s size – Lammalles takes a second blow and lightning damage and starts to look terribly injured. They teleport away from Aila and looks at Lucius, hitting him with *Blight* before turning and hitting Aila with a black ray that saps her strength (by 2).

Max gives Sentry a *Shield of Faith* before she uses *Misty Step* to get to the top of the tower and pulls the ballista off its mount. Nova and Shade (still invisible) emerge into the courtyard with Nova telling Shade to hide and stay out of battle. Quill flies towards Max and casts *Resistance* on him, Lucius flies towards Lammalles and swipes at him with The Captain’s Command but misses as he brings up a coiling whip of black and ice that knocks Lucius’ blade away. Aila moves to Lammalles again, hits him once in the face with the mace, and blasts him with lightning – their eyes glaze over and they gratefully embrace their release from undeath.

The party regroups after Max has taken a greatsword and a pauldron from one of the Grieving Errants and decided against taking their armour that will not fit. Nova shakes off her invisibility and they can see how injured she is: she tells them about her escapades with the tree and Shade tells them of Hotshot’s sacrifice. Quill stops them grieving to warn them that Godric has gone to try to restore the destroyed tree and tells them that they must stop him, before healing Nova. Sentry heals Lucius, and Max gives what healing he has left to Aila. Max then tells them that if they defeat Godric and when they have time, he may be able to fix Aila’s hammer and Starbreaker: he is a blacksmith and learned from his father, who was a particularly skilled artisan and blacksmith himself. He suspects that because the keep is so isolated that there must be a forge somewhere so that the knights could have their weapons and armour maintained.

Nova reminds them that they have potions and scrolls that they can use, but Aila reminds them that they need to fight Kellara as well, but they know that they may have some reprieve – with the Rot Heart destroyed, the knights and general undead, once killed, will be dead for good.

They review what they know of Godric: he is essentially death, carrying a large scythe and riding a skeletal steed. He strengthens the undead horde around him which he can also order to charge forward and explode, causing them to restrain the targets with shattered bone, his scythe is charged with necrotic energy that replenishes Godric with each strike, and his skeletal hand harms the living, leaving festering wounds behind that cannot be healed by magic. He can also create an area of silence, raise dead, and has never been beaten before.

Quill, Nova and Lucius drink potions of necrotic resistance and Sentry casts *Death Ward* on Aila before healing them both, Quill casts *Death Ward* on himself, and Nova summons Tiangong before telling Shade to go and hide. They approach the cathedral an open the slightly ajar double doors – looking in, they see an antechamber with a dry font, and spaces where great lanterns would once have hung from the ceiling on great chains (only the chains remain, and the lanterns are now missing). There is a spiral staircase leading up to the side of the antechamber and corridors that lead off to the cloister and other parts of the cathedral. Ahead of them is another closed set of huge ornate double doors engraved with symbols of giant iron fences covered in flowers with gravestones and mausoleums behind them and standing watch over them is a woman in a black veil with her hands outstretched, tending to her garden and mortuary. From behind the doors, they hear the sound of musical chanting from perhaps a dozen voices, and a muffled voice, as if prayer and a ritual is being undertaken.

They notice that with the tree no longer dropping the black pollen, things are beginning to get gradually lighter, almost as if the night is ending and dawn is breaking. Sentry pushes open the huge doors to reveal a barren chamber, a hundred and twenty feet long and forty feet wide: what was once a place of worship has now been cleared out with the pews being removed. The room is full of hundreds of lit candles of various shapes and sizes along its sides and it leads to what once would have been a stained-glass window (now broken) that looks over the courtyard and the now shattered remains of the great tree. Along the sides of the room, as if waiting, stand seven skeletons clutching swords at their breasts. At the altar, about a hundred feet away, is Sir Godric in his plate armour with his greying hair pushed back, holding up in one hand a Celestial: it is wearing a black metal helmet that conceals its face, its hands are bound behind its back and its legs are chained together. Its black, feathery wings are curled up around it, but the Celestial itself is lifeless. There are six friars in black robes on their knees, chanting, three wights kneel in prayer beside them, and Godric is singing a mournful prayer to Kellara. Around the altar and under the window, arrayed in a semi-circle, are hundreds of bent and broken iron lanterns that will never be used to cast light again, but there is a single unbroken lantern that sits on the altar: it is beautiful, octagonal, made of a silvery metal with multiple chambers, and intricately engraved – it looks like a holy relic.

Godric, scythe in one hand, turns to look at them, stops his singing and drops the Celestial, who falls onto the altar and lies still in front of the lantern. As Godric rises and turns, so do the monks and wights. Godric understands that the other Grief Knights are dead and is pleased that they have peace and will not be reborn again, and while he regrets the path that he must now take, he says that he has no choice, being sworn to his Lady, even if he hates it. He gestures to the open room as a clear battlefield and begins to spin the scythe around his head.

Quill slowly walks towards Godric and casts *Beacon of Hope* on the whole party. The three wights leap up and rush sixty feet towards the party with their longswords, while the friars begin a death chant, targeting Godric. Lucius moves 30 feet into the room and throws a ball of acid towards the altar, hitting Godric, the skeletons, and the friars: the skeletons and the friars are destroyed in the blast, he then hits one of the wights with his dichromancy. Nova kills the injured wight with *Eldritch Blast* shots before she moves 30 feet into the room, leaving Tiangong by the door. Aila moves up 30 feet and pulls out her bow, aiming at one of the wights, she hits with two arrows and heavily wounds one but does not kill it.

Sentry moves up with the others, casting *Aura of Vitality* on herself, and ready to heal the others if required. Godric moves 30 feet towards the party, says “Let the pathway show your souls their true nature”: from behind Quill, 10 feet of the floor moves forwards towards Godric in a golden light like a pathway under Quill, Lucius, and Sentry. Sentry is protected by the Prime Matrix, but she sees Quill and Lucius’ bodies fall immediately to the ground, their souls are pulled out of their bodies and 60 feet towards Godric – they are now untethered souls on the ethereal plane. Godric then raises a fist, casts *Animate Dead,* and reanimates the seven dead skeletons, ordering them to march forward – they rush forward 60 feet to join the two remaining wights.

Max rushes over to Quill’s prostrate body and, unable to rouse him, stands guard in case Quill is attacked or endangered. Quill’s soul dashes over to his own body and gets ready to try to re-enter it. One of the remaining wights moves to attack Sentry and Lucius’ unconscious body, while the other moves to Aila and Nova: Sentry blocks the attack on Lucius and then avoids being grabbed herself. The other wight grabs Nova, injuring her, and strikes Aila with its longsword. Lucius’ soul dashes towards his body. The skeletons dash towards the party and are ahead of Godric, 30 feet away from the party.

Nova attacks the wight near her and Aila, destroying it with two well-directed slashes of Tiangong, she moves to the other wight and slashes it with her blade, injuring it; she moves Tiangong’s echo 30 feet into the room, just ahead of Quill. Sentry attacks the wight nearby, striking it twice with Starbreaker, and ripping it apart. There is now a wall of seven skeletons between them and Godric. Sentry heals Lucius and while his body is repaired, it does not help him to regain consciousness.

Godric moves 30 feet up, just behind the skeletons, swings his scythe in the air and casts *Circle of Death* on the party before throwing his scythe at Aila and Sentry – it hits Aila but misses Sentry. Max lifts his blade and casts *Crusader’s Mantle*, calling out “Let not this darkness take our light. Flames of Gideon, let us do battle!"

Initiative carry over: Lucius 16, Quill 20, Aila 9, Nova 12, Sentry 7

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:03:43 - Part 1
1:17:24 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Maximillion Taldros
* Hotshot
* Shade
* Sir Godric Graves
* Lammalles
* Elwyn
* Serrise Fairwind

## **Featured Locations**

* Jakkesh
	+ Nightbloom Hold

## **Trivia**

* Kim broke her glasses just before the stream.
* The stream started late because Mark said “they were trying to sort out some stuff” which caused them all to laugh in a cringy manner. Other than Trott’s rushed “Tom booked a holiday on the wrong day” just before the Dun Duns, the mystery may never be solved as to what happened.
* Mark used his Christopher Walken impersonation to try to push the merch bundle that is currently available.
* Tom sarcastically apologised to Katie for damaging The Howling Tempest. There had been much discussion in the Discord about how angry Katie was going to be at Tom for what had happened to the hammer while he was controlling Aila. It ended with Tom offering to let Katie punch him in the face whenever she wanted, to which Katie replied, “Not now, Tom. Later.”
* Elwyn’s legendary ability that allows her to plant her mace and start the area burning is called “Victor per ignum”. A failed con save at the start of a turn results in gaining a level of exhaustion from the intense heat.
* Immediately after the tree is destroyed, the Knight Commanders have disadvantage on their attack rolls (for that round), and their AC is reduced.
* When Nova is skewered by Serrise’s tethering shot, Mark takes the average damage because he “does not have enough d8s” – this leaves Nova on 3 hit points. The Guardians, who take half damage, are also left on 3 HP each. A close thing!
* Mark asked Tom to roll d100 – he rolled 100, which Katie has never seen before. We later found out that this allowed the Stormchaser to target exactly where Quill’s holy radiance spell was cast (on Godric and Lammalles).
* There was much excitement at the bearing of Max’s chest during the episode, and both Tom and Kim seemed to enjoy flirting with Godric. It was a thirsty session, and the fan artists made the most of Tom’s later request for all the fan art of a shirtless Max. Shirtless Max… phwoar!
* When Sentry tries to shove Elwyn off the tower, they make a contested strength (athletics) check – both have advantage. Mark rolls a natural 20 on his first roll, Rhi rolls the same on her second. Both have a +4 strength bonus, so Mark suggests that they throw each other off the tower which Rhi agrees to.
* o7 Hotshot
* The magical mace initially does 4d6 base damage + 2d8 fire damage (as a huge maul), and is a +3 weapon – it deals 5 points of fire damage at the start of every turn it is held. Once Elwyn dies, it resizes and does 2d6 base damage + 1d8 fire damage – it no longer does the fire damage at the start of each turn once this occurs.
* When he casts a spell at the Famine Knight, Lammalles, Quill fails his saving throw, so loses a 2nd level spell slot (rolled by Mark).
* Katie’s “Mark bait Hoo ha ha” is a reference to Finding Nemo.
* There was some debate as to whether Lucius could use chromatic control against necrotic magic. The table ruling was no, but later Mark thought he may have got that wrong.
* Quill does a level 9 heal on Nova, healing her for 100 HP.
* When they entered the cathedral, many people were reminded of the disastrous events of episode 26 at Brightflame Abbey.
* Mark describes the area around the altar to Kellara (with the broken lanterns) as having Dark Souls vibes.
* Godric of the past would have joined the Stormchasers without a second’s hesitation.
* Godric is described as being in his 60s, being a bit like Uther from World of Warcraft or Revolver Ocelot from Metal Gear Solid, with long grey hair, with “a slight tash going on”, hollow with a skeletal arm. Mark described him as a GILF.
* Friars’ death chant: choose one friendly creature that can see and hear the caster. That creature gains 3 temporary hit points and a +1 bonus to damage rolls for each caster that is within 60 feet of the target. The aura remains, even if the casters are killed.
* When Godric pulls the souls out of Quill and Lucius’ bodies, their bodies count as incapacitated – if they are hit, it will be an automatic crit. Movement for souls on the ethereal plane is limited to 30 feet of flying speed and this is not affected by exhaustion levels on the material plane. A being on the ethereal plane can dash, and it is a bonus action to re-enter a body. Quill must make a con saving throw to see if he can maintain concentration on Beacon of Hope while his soul is on the ethereal plane (which he does), although it cannot affect spellcasting on the material plane.
* **Continuity error:** the re-animated skeletons had already been ordered to rush at the party. Mark likely forgot this because he was controlling so many enemies at once, so he got them to rush the party a second time. The DM is merciful.
* Circle of Death: a sphere of negative energy ripples out in a 60-foot radius from a point within range. Each creature in the region must make a constitution saving throw (incapacitated targets can still make a save) or take 8d6 necrotic damage. (Mark rolled five 1s for a total of 15 damage).
* The heat caused the cameras to freeze multiple times during the stream this week.
* Kim announced that she was a big fan of a silver fox (talking about Godric), and both she and Mark imagined him being played by Mads Mikkelsen.
* Katie brought out a fan with “SHADE” on it during the outro.
* Nightjar's theory for why Nina appeared in chat:

## **Quotes**

* Quote 1

* Quote 2