Aerois - Episode 143: The Great Oscillator

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Great Oscillator** is the 143rd episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on the highrollersdnd Twitch channel, and hosted on the Yogscast Twitch channel, on 10th April 2022 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*A ruined city among an erupting volcano... and the Stormchasers intend to jump in!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The High Rollers are coming to you live today from their very own studio!
* Thanks for the huge surge in Patreon support - things are looking really special and there are other improvements in mind.
* Trott thanked Tom for his efforts with the studio. Thanks to Laurie (@Electronics111 in Twitch chat) who has worked on the electrics and measurements for the truss. Thanks to Sam Gibbs who is running the stream remotely from home. Thanks to Lois and Kingsley who made the sets and did a great job.
* Merch: There is a lot of stock left over and they are making room for new items, so there are now MYSTERY BUNDLES available - a mystery item of apparel and two accessories for £35.

### **Recap**

*"Last time, the crew of the Stormchaser, or perhaps soon to be the crew of the Starchaser, finished examining the upgrades to their airship by the enigmatic and unusual Lady Azaria. Then they made preparations to take off and head to the Hawk's Dawn Archipelago to deal with one of three major events taking place on Aerois currently. On arrival at Porta Sovrano, the party witnessed the effect the erupting volcanoes, tidal currents and earthquakes had been having. Seeking out Duke Sovrano himself, as well as Baroness Erin Coralsong of the Tritons, they got their bearings, learned more information about the situation and then went in pursuit of strange female Dwarves made out of gemstones. Finding a group on a small island dismantling old Solwynn ruins, the party approached and were surprised to be recognised. One of the Dwarves, a construct-like creation, seemed to connect their consciousness to another who called herself D1 - a cheerful Dwarven personality who informed the party that they were en route.*
*D1, appearing from the earth via magic, is a construct called a Maiden of Valena. Made entirely of diamond, also known as Diamond 1, D1 revealed that the Maidens are attempting to finish the last two of Valena's great works: these projects are causing fluctuations with the heat and sonar outputs of the World Engine and causing environmental issues in the Archipelago. The Maidens and Valena are determined to continue their work, but D1 does mention that there are two possible ways to reduce the environmental impact, however the Maidens are unable to fulfil these tasks themselves. One task involves delivering a special crystal device to the heart of the magma chamber within Volcanos, the largest volcano in the region, however to do so would require going down through the caldera and swimming through the lava into the chamber's heart itself. The Stormchasers, with potions, magic, and their ally, Valla, believe they can reach the chamber and activate the device."*
### **Part 1**

*A ruined city among an erupting volcano… and the Stormchasers intend to jump in!*

The party has decided to go to Volcanos and try to deliver the crystal device to the base of the magma chamber. As they head towards the volcano, the air is incredibly warm and thick with ash, and the ship is struggling to fly in the unpredictable air currents – they cannot see Volcanos, even Quill with his extra sensors. Oriya slows the ship in order to approach more safely under the limited vision and they plan to take the skiff, “The Salvation”, over to the volcano when they get closer. As they approach Volcanos, the ship begins to lurch as the winds change and buffet the ship; Lucius tells Oriya to halt the ship and they prepare to board the skiff to continue onto their destination (although it is noted that the skiff does not fly so much as glide and is also made of wood, and they are heading into a fiery pit of doom).

Quill hears the explosion of a volcanic eruption followed by a rumble, a blast, and a whistling noise – he warns Oriya to move the ship immediately, and she tries to move the ship to one side. The ship is hit on one side by one of a number of rocks that have been thrown up by the volcano and Quill sees more rocks coming. Nova orders the shields to be raised but they are of no use, so Lucius orders Oriya to turn the ship about and retreat to a safe distance. Sentry uses her *Enlarge* and manages to absorb another blast that spreads hot lava over the deck of the ship, and that is quickly removed overboard by the crew before it has a chance to catch fire. Nova blasts two of the oncoming debris rocks out of the sky with *Eldritch Blast* while Aila, using the starboard arcane cannon, blasts one of the larger rocks from the sky. Lucius, meanwhile, has made it on board the skiff and is preparing it for departure, while Quill attempts to track the reverse trajectory of the rocks back to the volcano using *Locate Object* from The Wayfinders Guide, which helpfully draws a map for him to follow.

The rest of the party follows Lucius into the skiff, as do Valla and Max, who is carrying the crystal device, and D1, who has to adjust her density so that she does not overload the skiff. D1 confirms that the Maidens would die while trying to place the object, and indeed they have tried and failed, which is why they need the Stormchasers. Once the skiff pulls away from the retreating Stormchaser, those on board it are blinded with ash and buffeted by hot winds. Lucius pilots them through the ash and dangerous rockfalls until he begins to see the outline of the volcano ahead.

As the skiff starts to fly lower, and the ash begins to clear and the visibility becomes better, Quill thinks he sees sections of old Solwynn ruins in the walls of the caldera of the volcano: standing on top of two sections of ruin are two giant-sized humanoid figures, each wielding two giant spiked shields. They seem to have fire or lava running through their veins and are moving erratically, as if watching or waiting for something.

Sentry thinks that these types of constructs are more like programmed golems that were made in Solwynn and used for security or to carry heavy objects – they look ancient, and their armour has been scorched black from heat with years of grime and ash built up on them. D1 identifies them as Solwynn Constructs, Protector Variant Mk IV and says that they have malfunctioning systems due to elemental and magical energies caused by the eruption; she advises caution.

Lucius decides on a bold (or foolish) plan – he is going to crash the skiff into one of the golems, and screams at the rest of them to abandon ship.

Before they abandon ship, they all quaff their fire resistance potions and Max casts *Fire Resistance* on Aila as they had agreed. Lucius casts *Fly* on himself, Valla and Max; Quill flies off himself; Aila uses her hammer to fly off, taking the echo Tiangong with her; and enlarged Sentry simply jumps off – she falls badly and ends up on her back next to one of the giants, as the skiff rapidly approaches it at ramming speed. Nova prepares to exchange places with her echo at the last minute as the skiff slams into the giant. At the last second, the giant's eyes light up and two beams of fire shoot from its eyes into the skiff, carving through it – the skiff explodes into shards as it knocks the golem prone. Nova changes places with her echo; Lucius is thrown from the skiff, taking damage as he does; D1 is also thrown, bounces off the giant into the sand and starts to sink into it. Nova casts *Reverse Gravity* on the golem to the right – it flies 100 feet into the air and gently starts to oscillate. Quill heals Sentry and casts *Sacred Flame* on the prone golem. The golem to the left slams Sentry with its shields twice then slams its shields together, blasting them all with air that blows Quill backwards and knocks him prone onto silt that is extremely unstable and slippery. Aila rages and prepares herself for her next move. The golem in the air attempts to eyeblast Nova during one of its rotations but misses, then tries to slam its shields together to push it towards the ground – it falls 20 feet before floating back upwards again.

Lucius attempts to *Dominate Monster* against the left golem, not realising that as a construct, it is immune – he also fails to realise that this will cancel his *Fly* spell and he falls out of the air, as do Max and Valla. The volcano rumbles and Quill and Lucius, both standing on the unstable ash and sand, skid towards the volcano’s opening – Quill’s feet touch the lava and start to burn. Nova summons her echo once more and casts *Eldritch Blast* at the golem on the left, hitting with one of her four bolts. Quill takes more fire damage then moves away from the lava towards Valla and Max; he casts *Bless* on himself, Sentry and Lucius before flying up towards the golem on the left. The golem takes a swing at Quill and Lucius with each of its shields – Nova uses her *Shadow Martyr* ability to send Tiangong to intercept the hit meant for Quill: the echo deflects the blow, then falls 20 feet to the ground and disappears; Lucius takes a massive blow from the golem’s other shield. Aila moves over to the left golem, slipping and falling into the lava before moving the rest of the way and hitting the golem, doing massive damage to its legs. The oscillating golem on the right fires its eyebeams at Nova, hitting her, but she maintains the reverse gravity effect.

Sentry calls out to the left golem (using her “angry mum voice” and Solwynn connection) to say, “I am Sentry, Guardian of Solwynn. In the name of Queen Astoria, I command you to stand down and let us pass.” The golem, about to bring its shields down on Lucius, pauses before lowering its shields and going into a standby mode: Sentry is not sure if the golem is permanently disabled. Lucius attempts to *Slow* the golem in the air, but it resists the magical effects. A blast of rock and ash suddenly blows from the volcano – Valla and Max are protected from damage by the shield that she is creating while Lucius and Sentry get hit by lava and rocks.

### **Part 2**

*Two great defenders block the Stormchasers(sic) path into the volcano!*

Nova manifests her echo once more, being prepared to attack, if necessary. The golem that Sentry had ordered to stand down remains docile, however. The oscillating construct hits Nova with its eyebeam again, but she manages to keep control of her spell. Lucius throws a vitriolic sphere at the oscillating, floating guardian and splashes it with acid while Nova lobs a number of *Eldritch Blast* bolts at it. Quill casts *Aura of Vitality* on Lucius and heals him a little, and Aila stands by ready to hit the subdued golem. The oscillating golem tries to hit Nova with an eyebeam but suddenly rolls in the opposite direction, so misses. Sentry *Misty Steps* up towards the oscillating golem and tries to convince it to stand down as well, but it ignores her command as it rolls backwards and forwards – Sentry falls back to the ground. Lucius throws another *Vitriolic Sphere* at the creature and bathes it in acid again. A shimmering golden dome has now appeared 10 feet around Valla and Max. The volcano rumbles again and Lucius slips, falling deep into the lava – his clothing starts to catch on fire. Nova wades into the lava towards Lucius, grabs him and casts *Dimension Door* to save him – she calls to Quill to heal him, which he does. The construct that Sentry had bamboozled suddenly snaps out of it and Aila immediately smacks it with her hammer with a solid blow – it reciprocates with two massive blows of its shields and tries to blow her away but fails, and she responds with two massive hits of her hammer, breaking one of its knees and denting the remainder of its armour. The oscillating golem sees Sentry below it and blasts her with its eyebeam – the blast of heat and force presses her into the rock, and her consciousness flickers momentarily before she feels a surge from the amber river of the Prime Matrix: she hears the soft whisper of Root Prime, “Til all are one” and her eyes open once more, before casting *Ice Storm* on the golem.

Lucius attempts to *Slow* the golem, but it resists once more; he then tries to hit it with *Acid Splash*, which misses. Nova casts *Hexblade Curse* on the grounded golem and hits it with Tiangong twice – it shuts down and pitches forward into the lava. Quill flies into the protective dome with Valla and Max, then heals Sentry and himself. Aila joins the rest under the shield. The oscillating golem fires its eyebeams at Nova and hits her. Sentry and Lucius move towards the shield while Lucius throws an acidic *Chromatic Orb* into the area of reverse gravity and lets it drift up to hit the golem. Nova moves into the shield and Aila pulls Sentry in with them all. The oscillating golem can only see Lucius and hits him with its eyebeam – Sentry runs out and pulls him in under the shield. Valla tells them that she can keep the bubble up for a while and that it should keep them safe from the golem who cannot see them now. D1 is still somewhere outside, but they do not know where.

Under Valla’s shield, they walk into the centre of the caldera, and they watch through the shield to see the construct fall 100 feet as the *Reverse Gravity* spell fails: it is heavily wounded but not dispatched.

Valla’s bubble (now obviously a sphere) begins to sink down into the lava and even though they are protected from the worst of it, they feel an intense heat as they begin to sweat and start to feel mildly injured as time passes (except Max, who appears to be unfazed by the intense heat). Max’s hair appears brighter and more energetic, and he appears to be more empowered – he believes that there is some sort of elemental connection beyond just an active volcano. Sentry casts *Commune with Nature*, seeking to find out how deep the cavern is (it will take another 2 minutes for them to get to the base where they need to plant the device), where D1 is (she can sense a large presence of diamond very close to them but about 20 feet outside the bubble and slowly descending), and something about powerful creatures (she remembers lava worms when they were here last, but they are dwarfed by something within the magma chamber – an old, ancient elemental power). Sentry suddenly understands something:

*When Siaska created Aerois, the World Engine began to pour heat and life into it, drawing on the elemental planes, the power of things like water, air, earth, and fire to heat the planet from within; on occasion, the World Engine would sometimes pull through creatures that were attracted by this power being drawn from their own planes, the actual ethereal planes. Long ago, the World Engine drew one of these creatures to Aerois and Siaska placed it within the heart of its mightiest volcano – this creature is the reason that Volcanos has the size and the intensity that it does… and it has been awoken. A name suddenly comes to mind: Ghul’xor the Great Worm – it resembles a giant snake with a huge, gaping maw.*

Sentry knows that the great worm is below them somewhere in this chamber – this is its realm. D1 also begins to pass them, meaning that they need to grab her now or get her on the way back up. They ask Max to assist – he grabs Aila’s hammer, and she swings him out into the lava: he grunts as he smacks into something cheerful and is then pulled back into the bubble with the ever-cheerful D1. Valla says that she will be able to maintain the shield for another ten minutes or so, but that it may be easier to teleport out when they are finished – Nova has fortunately taken a crystal from the Stormchaser to make teleporting back to it easier, and D1 thinks it wise to do so because she believes that there will be a surge of elemental power when they activate the stabilising unit that could be dangerous.

As they continue to descend, they suddenly start to see tunnels opening up and leading away from them: Quill notices the faintest movement of the walls around them. It is a few seconds later that he realises that a giant serpentine body is wound through various caverns surrounding them before a great maw bursts through and strikes out towards the shield.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Intro
01:00 - Part 1
1:21:47 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* D1
* Valla
* Maximillion Taldros

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Ghul'xor the Great Worm
* Siaska

## **Featured Locations**

* Hawk's Dawn Archipelago
	+ Volcanos

## **Trivia**

* This was the first Aerois episode played in studio since 8th March 2020 (Episode 63: Arise).
* Mark spent about £2000 on DwarvenForge miniatures after the studio fundraiser.
* Mark had the skiff do 10d10 damage as it was rammed into the golem – it was halved for the golem’s resistance to non-magical damage.
* When Sentry uses her angry mum voice on the guardian, Rhi rolls a nat 20 on her persuasion. Mark decided to roll at the beginning of its turn to roll to see if it would break free of the effect, then later determined that if it failed 3 successive rolls, it would shut down for good.
* A fan art video was played at the break.
* This was the first time for a long time that all donations were read at the end of the stream.
* There were a few minor technical difficulties with the stream: all of the cameras would occasionally freeze, and Twitch was very… twitchy, requiring that it be refreshed for many a number of times during the stream.
* The players and Mark forget that *Reverse Gravity* affects an area – Sentry manages to stand under the golem without being affected by the spell effect. Kim remembers this much later and it is suggested that Sentry was simply skirting the effect (even though it has a 50’ radius).
* When Nova saves Lucius from the lava, Mark starts quoting, “You were my brother, Lucius! You were the chosen one! You were meant to destroy Kalus, not join him!” Tom referred to this as a Lord of the Rings reference: both Katie and Kim (rightly) immediately pounced on him for his lack of Star Wars knowledge.
* *Commune with Nature* is part of Sentry’s Oath of the Ancients abilities.
* Nova’s taking a crystal from the Stormchaser was a surprise to Mark because Kim had said nothing about it – she had left a note in her campaign diary to do so but neglected to say anything. Mark (oh generous DM) allowed this to be retrospective.
* The custom table will be made by Geeknson.