Aerois - Chapter Eleven: Demonic Deals

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

 Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Demonic Deals** is the eleventh chapter of the Aerois campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel between 28th June and 2nd August 2020, and consists of five episodes.

*In Chapter Eleven, the party and their new friend Thalia tackle a demon's game with a very tempting reward - but very high risks!*

## Summary

Azagrat is a demonic world dedicated to indulgence and pleasure. The planet is ruled over by the Demon prince, Graz’zt and the party hopes to engage in a challenge called the Dance of the Sixth Finger, a game of chance that will leave the winner with a magic ring capable of granting three wishes. No one has ever won this contest before. On the way to the Argent Palace, they seek out a blacksmith who can enchant Aila’s hammer, The Howling Tempest, and in the forges find an Elf with powers and tartan similar to Aila’s own. The Elf, Rethra, has suffered from great mental trauma, however, and is unable to communicate with them. They vow to return for him hoping that Quill’s healing magic will help him to recover his wits.

Graz’zt is delighted to accept the party’s challenge when they arrive. He reveals that the challenge is a card game using a Tarokka deck and allows Thalia to be joined by two other players -Quill and Lucius readily step forward. If the party wins, they will get the ring of wishes, but if they lose, they will spend 200 years in servitude to the Demon prince. They play to the last round with the Champions narrowly behind – Quill uses the Eye of the Storm to ask which card he should choose in order to win, but the answer is uncertain, and he chooses a card that puts them in the lead. Graz’zt’s final choice of card was the only card that would have meant an automatic loss for the party, and Quill uses the Eye of the Storm once more to discover that Graz’zt had the card magically marked, although it only gave him a 50% chance of winning depending on how it was oriented when flipped over.

As Quill, Thalia, and Lucius were being led away, Aila is prepared to call out the cheating Demon lord but is contacted by an angel who warns them to stay quiet and encourage their friends to escape. A brave fight from both halves of the party sees them reunited and rushing out to the main streets of Azagrat. Graz’zt, furious, turns out his guards and puts the city on alert to the escaping fugitives. They are rescued by a group of Drow who take the party before their matron mother, Ilharis Sembre, and she offers to help them escape.

The party has to split into two: they free Rethra, disable the magical barriers and chains that hold the ship in place, and ambush the guards that are stationed outside the ship. With the help of the Drow, they reactivate the magical barrier once they have left in order to prevent them being followed. They must now pass the Shifting Straits, a massive labyrinth of ice and rock that moves chaotically, and somehow get past Palador’s Sun Ship and the Cradle, both of which protect Aerois from incoming forces.

Nova uses the Dream spell to contact Valla, and Valla implores Nova to come and rescue her. Nova spends some time talking to Thalia and coming to understand her and the curse that she is under: Thalia was once an Elven princess of the Feywild before being cursed to become a Medusa. Quill attempts to remove this curse to no avail. Aila spends time comforting Rethra, the freed Wild Elf, and it is clear that the years he has spent as a gladiator and in forced labour have traumatised him.

The crew and the party work together to navigate the Shifting Straits but the Twinstar Longbow suddenly begins to malfunction unexpectedly. They receive a distress call from a Valkyrian ship, and Quill sees something moving amongst the ice before the distress call abruptly cuts off. A colossal worm made of frost and starlight roams the straits, its icy body encrusted with multiple wrecked Valkyrian ships. One of the ships on the creature’s back appears to have the presence of Hadar coming from within, and also another shard of Tiangong. The party lands and fights through ice elementals and make it inside the crashed, dead ship.

## Major NPCs

List of major NPCs encountered in this chapter.