Aerois - Episode 151: The Stalking Sickness

Katie Morrison as Aila

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Stalking Sickness** is the 151st episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on the highrollersdnd Twitch channel, and hosted on the Yogscast Twitch channel, on 26th June 2022 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Rescued by the Guardian forces the Stormchasers discover a new threat looming in the shadows...*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* On Tuesday at 8pm BST on the HRDND channel, the crew will be doing a sponsored one-shot with Steamforged Games. They will be playing Local Legends (which will be available via Kickstarter) for 2 hours. SFG also make amazing miniatures, and one of their old epic encounter miniatures will be used soon for Kellara.
* This Friday at 10pm BST, Mark will be playing in a charity level 20 one-shot DMed by B Dave Walters on the DND Beyond Twitch channel. It will also have other D&D folks and will support survivors of sexual assault and crisis centres (pride edition). Mark will be getting all dolled up.
* Reminder that High Rollers will be at Twitch Con soon. Information is all available on Twitter.
* Support HR on Patreon or with donations that they will read at the end of the show.

### **Recap**

*"Seeking to face the titan of life and death, Kellara, the Champions of Aerois have arrived at the dark and sorrowful Gravebloom Valley and descended to an abandoned Guardian outpost, hoping to meet with the force they had sent to locate a place called Nightbloom Hold, a stronghold of holy knights of Kellara. However, instead of their allies, the party were forced into a desperate battle to hold off waves of undead creatures. Pushed to their absolute limits, the champions succeeded in holding off the strange plant-undead hybrids long enough for the Guardian scouts to destroy something nearby creating a diversion and then securing a safe exit to their second base of operations. Escorted by the scouts, the battered and exhausted champions must now decide their next move and investigate what has happened here in the valley."*
### **Part 1**

*Rescued by the Guardian forces the Stormchasers discover a new threat looming in the shadows...*

The party is being led to the Guardians’ second base of operations by Gearshift, Wayfinder, and a force of eighteen Guardian scouts. The Guardian scouts lead them through the thick jungle in a solemn, almost fear-ridden silence until they hear the sound of rushing, crashing water that indicates some sort of waterfall or plunge pool nearby. Wayfinder disappears to disable the traps and alarms that were left behind before they are led to a small camp near a plunge pool beneath a rocky outcropping. The camp is camouflaged with torn tent and cloth smeared with mud and covered with torn off foliage.

Lucius sends a message to Oriya to update her on their situation and gets a message back from her telling him that Oriya is keeping the Stormchaser at high altitude and that they cannot penetrate the gloom or thick canopy to see much of anything: if the Stormchasers need help, she tells him that they will need to find an elevated spot and provide some source of bright light to indicate where they are.

It is clear to the party that morale in the Guardian camp is very low, the Guardians are clearly scared and they jump at the first sign of any noise, drawing their weapons at even the sound of a twig snapping. They also realise, looking around the camp, that where there should be about forty Guardians, there is only about half that number – Quill and Aila notice some caves behind the plunge pool, and lying on the ground are about ten Guardians that are being checked on by one other. The prostrate Guardians are alive, but do not appear to be in a good way, and the remaining Guardians are staying away from them.

Quill talks to Gearshift about the camouflage and asks if the mud and foliage approach might be of use to them: Gearshift tells Quill that it will not help against the undead creatures who have a shared intellect, share vision and hearing, and have a heightened sense of smell. Gearshift tells Quill that the camouflage is more to hide them from another creature that they call “The Stalker”, that this is why they had to abandon the first camp, why their numbers are so low, and that Quill should speak to Hotshot for more information.

Gearshift tells them that the Stalker first appeared a few days after Dowser and Stave went to Horizon to report, and they noticed that patrols would disappear by ones or twos. They found one body before The Stalker could take it away and found that it was poisoned or diseased (something that Guardians are normally resistant to) – the disease appears to be a rot that affects their living matter and is contagious amongst Guardians. The team has only one medically trained Guardian remaining, Vines, and she cannot do anything to heal the disease, furthermore, she thinks that the medics were targeted specifically to stop them from healing the injured.

Gearshift tells them that the disease appears to cause the following symptoms in Guardians: nausea, great pain when moving or doing any physical activity, and delirious weakness causing instability and inability to function properly. Lucius starts to hyperventilate having heard the symptoms, and the Guardians appear more nervous than before at the sight of one of the Heroes of Aerois being so badly frightened by what they face; Nova notices and Lucius regains his composure, convincingly thanking Sentinel Prime for inspiring them all and settling the Guardians around them.

Nova sends her echo and Quill sends his *Arcane Eye* into the cave with the injured Guardians and Vines. Seeing ten injured Guardians lying on bedrolls, they notice that all of them are either moaning in pain or babbling incoherently, also that they are wounded and almost “bleeding” some sap-like residue from these wounds that will not stop; there is also a foul, putrid smell of rot and death coming from the cave.

Vines turns to Tiangong (the echo), she is a lithe, feminine-looking Guardian with almost no stone or metal parts (just a very small stone chestplate, and enough stone and metal to keep their living parts together). Vines’ limbs are elongated and vine-like, they have vine-like dreadlocks down the back of their head, and a single eye made of wood. She tells Tiangong that the Guardians were attacked by The Stalker, took injuries, and only after they escaped, they started to show symptoms – any movement causes a torpor in the injured, and the fluids will not stop running from their wounds which is draining their life force. The disease can be transmitted by touch as well, for one of the Guardians who was uninjured, but helping to carry injured Guardians now lies at the back of the cave with the same symptoms as the others. Vines is not sure why they have not been affected by the disease, but it is possibly due to their primarily plant-like construction, or that they are just naturally resistant to it. On further questioning, it appears that because Vines grows out their arms (like vines) which then break off and decompose when they get too long, this may have protected them from the disease.

Quill, through the *Arcane Eye,* can tell that the Guardians are both diseased and poisoned (despite being naturally resistant to poison, this one is so strong that it has overridden their resistance). The disease appears to be a variant of slimy doom – in living creatures this prevents the blood from coagulating, causes great pain, and makes the body start to decompose from within, and it is affecting the plant-like structures on the Guardians. Quill knows that it is a magical disease and that without treatment, the Guardians will probably suffer and die – it can be magically cured, however.

Quill asks the Eye of the Storm, “What is The Stalker that attacked these Guardians?”

*The eye clouds and Quill’s vision turns to smoky white, and then rushes as if rewinding through time. He sees the outpost where they also fought the undead hordes, but now it is filled with Guardians who are preparing for the Stormchasers’ arrival. The vision shifts in time as the outpost quickly comes under attack – Quill does not see the details of it, instead his vision is pulled deep into the treeline where a pair of Guardians, who were engaged on patrol when the attack happened, rush back towards the outpost. There is a sudden flash of movement and metal in the tree line, and the two Guardians fall over. Quill’s is initially not sure what happened, whether it be a spell or an attack, then his vision rushes to the tree line where he seemingly sees nothing but foliage… he then sees the outline of a cloak draped in moss, vines, mud, and leaves, as well as a suit of armour similarly covered with moss, mold, growths, and fungus, blending in with the foliage around it, although on this there is also the symbol of a lantern and a black rose. Through a slit in the hooded helm and face mask, he sees a pair of almond-shaped eyes and the rough shape of Elven ears sticking through the hood. He sees a humanoid(?), probably Elven figure, watching, almost invisible in the natural terrain, camouflaged against it. It is a Wild Elf of some form.*

The Stormchasers discuss what Quill saw in his vision and what they know of the disease. Nova also asks Tiangong about what forms Celestials may take – they can shape change, look like a giant ball of light, a pyramid, seven wings attached to a giant eyeball, and many other things, although generally they tend to have an otherworldly appearance or a supernatural power about them and may glow or have some light about them. Nova wonders if this Stalker might be a Celestial. Sentry wonders if the disease might affect the Prime Matrix and gets a sense of trepidation from Root and the other souls in the Matrix – there is concern that if the disease affects the Guardian soul and that the soul is then brought into the Prime Matrix, that it may infect everyone within it.

The party takes a long rest, but two hours in there is a commotion as Hotshot returns and asks to speak to them. Hotshot is a tall, lithe, sleekly built feminine Guardian with one arm designed like a magical cannon. They are draped in a home-made camouflage cloak covered in mud, twigs, and foliage and the party notices that they have been cut, scratched, and dented in many places, but that they still look determined and focused like a trained member of the military.

Behind Hotshot is Wayfinder and two smaller Guardians, one that is spindly with long trailing hair of leaves and vines and a singular eye (Tinker), the other is a cheerful little Guardian with adjustable lenses over its eyes, an alchemical-looking device for its hand (Helper). Behind them again are two more Guardians, one is masculine, wearing dark coloured clothing, looking like a ninja and carrying a sword (Shade), and the other is seven-feet-tall, broad, and muscular, of unknown gender, and with gemstones built into its arms and parts of their body, their left side is fragmented and broken, and they carry a sabre rapier in their hand (Protector).

Hotshot approaches and tells them that they do not have a lot of time – things are progressing quickly, and she is fairly certain that The Stalker is following her team – they may have an hour or two before it catches up with them. Hotshot admits that they are no match for the limitless undead and the Grief Knights and she wants to evacuate the Guardians that remain. Hotshot thinks that the Guardians have been used as bait to draw in the Stormchasers, and that if she and they push forward on their mission to Nightbloom Hold that the Grief Knights will ignore the Guardians who are escaping to a village south of the valley where they can later be picked up by airship. Regardless, The Stalker is coming, and is probably just over an hour away.

The party takes a short rest and tries to get more information from Hotshot. Hotshot and her team had been out trying to destroy Rot Hearts, large outgrowths of plant matter that she thinks may be the source and hive mind for the undead. Hotshot’s team managed to destroy one that was blocking the route to Nightbloom Hold while the Stormchasers were holding off the waves of undead – she thinks that it grew in place as a defence not long after they discovered Nightbloom Hold. Hotshot tells them that the Rot Hearts, tree-like growths, create the Deadroots and send them out to support and enhance nearby undead, they also summon more undead and can reclaim them once destroyed to be made again elsewhere.

Quill asks Tinker if the decoy that he created has been destroyed, but because it was made in a rush, Tinker is not sure if it has even been activated. Hotshot tells them that the priorities are to evacuate the Guardians (taking care with the diseased ones so they are not touched) and then stopping Kellara, because she is the one creating all of the undead activity in the valley, and possibly even the disease itself. Hotshot tells them that she and her team of specialists will stay with the Stormchasers and help them to penetrate the keep. Quill works with Tinker to make and recover rudimentary traps around the camp in case they are followed: tripwires attached to bells, spiked pit traps (that Tinker had already placed around the camp previously), trip wires attached to projectile weapons, and miniature bombs. Quill takes the Goggles of Night, Nova spends some time attuning to the Rod of Alertness, and Aila and Sentry make camouflage cloaks and smear themselves with mud. Lucius provides a rope for Sentry and Nova to hold onto so that he can guide them, blinded as they are by the magical darkness, through the jungle.

Sentry addresses the Guardians that are going to travel south out of the valley: *“I just want to say thank you everyone for getting us here and rescuing us. Our lives are in your debt, and we would not have survived that without all of you. We have to go, but I hope that you will find a place to heal and somewhere safe to rest soon. Hopefully we will meet each other again soon as well. Go quickly, go safely, The Matrix and I will be thinking of you. Be careful.”* The Guardians know that their sacrifices have been valued by The Prime (effectively their god), and it dispels their doubts and fears – they will leave with heightened morale, and a greater chance of success.

The Stormchasers take with them Hotshot, Tinker, Shade and Protector, sending Gearshift and Helper with the rest of the escaping Guardians. Aila leads them away, noting that there is something supernatural about the jungle – it pulses, shifts, and grows around them, making it difficult to make easy pathways. Quill looks for places to place traps behind them, and the remainder focus on trying to travel stealthily – due to the darkness and difficult terrain, they struggle to stay quiet.

### **Part 2**

*The journey continues as the party struggle with more stealth checks!*

The party is attempting to travel through the jungle towards Nightbloom Hold with a few Guardian scouts in tow, but they have managed to go slightly off course and make a lot of noise in the process: they are ambushed by dozens of skeletal minions who rush towards them. Aila reacts immediately by lashing out with her hammer, destroying three of them; Nova, being nearby, is affected by grief rot. Aila calls on Hotshot to make an attack on one of the distant skeletons and she shoots a beam from her arm, damaging several of the minions. Quill lifts up the Spear of Oracles and casts *Destroy Undead*, a wave of radiance bursts out from the spear and is then sucked back in, disintegrating all of the surrounding skeletons.

They all decide to hide so that they do not attract more skeletons. Lucius asks Tinker for assistance to *Disguise Self* so that Lucius can give him camouflage to look more like tree bark – he casts *Fly* on himself and flies up to hug a tree trunk, but his cloak gets caught on a branch and he starts making noises of frustration. Nova makes Sentry and herself invisible, Quill flies above the treeline and hopes to use his stillness and exceptional hearing to avoid being spotted, and Aila uses her natural ability to meld into the surrounding jungle. Lucius lower himself down to the branch which is about 10 feet off the ground and goes completely still, hoping that the undead will not see him. Not long after, several packs of the skeletal minions sweep through the area as if searching for something: the party avoids detection.

Lucius is still stuck on a branch, so Aila grabs his feet and pulls him to the ground – the cloak of billowing rips and is stuck in the tree, tattered and torn. Nova is concerned about leaving it in the tree as an indicator to The Stalker that they were there, and Hotshot agrees that they need to remove it somehow. Lucius casts *Firebolt* on the cloak which ignites and begins to burn away as does the branch to which it is attached. Realising that there is now a source of light, they decide to leave urgently. Hotshot gets them back on track as the new pathfinder and as they are travelling, Quill gets the feeling that they are being watched, that Aila knows that The Stalker is tracking them and is close. They know that it is a medium-sized humanoid creature, and that to be catching up to them so quickly, it must be using a mixture of magical and mundane tracking.

Lucius asks Tinker if he can make something to help those who are not very stealthy, and he says that he can assist two people – Nova and Sentry get a device each from him. Quill realises that the traps he wants to place may, in fact, be leading the stalker to them if they are unsuccessful, Sentry uses *Divine Sense* but senses nothing around her. The party attempts to stealth but too many of them fail in the attempt, snapping twigs, kicking stones, and catching on branches, that they are found by nearby undead and something else… nearby, they see a flash of metal.

Nova throws herself to the side as something whizzes past her. Quill and Tinker, however, feel a sharp pain as they are both pierced by something that poisons them and tethers them together, a cord of sinew. When Quill looks around, Tinker is dead. Quill managed to see something like an arrow, and he thinks that it either came from the northeast or southwest. Lucius, seeing an impaled Quill and dead Tinker, tells them that he thinks the Stalker is near them.

Tiangong takes an attack that was meant for Quill, sacrificing themselves, before Quill starts to see mushrooms and mold growing from the ground beneath him, making it much harder to move. Nova and Lucius are both hit with black rotting arrows that are poisoned – Lucius manages to shrug off the aftereffects but Nova is blinded by whatever disease the decaying plant matter carries. A gust of wind blows from Nova to Aila, carrying the disease with it, but Aila manages to resist its effects as she moves to the nearest pack of skeletons and destroys three of them.

Nova casts *Detect Poison and* Disease, attempting to locate The Stalker, but senses nothing nearby. Sentry calls forth Starbreaker and *Enlarges*, pushing back some of the horde. Quill casts *Turn Undead* to rid themselves of as many of the nearby skeletons as possible, and he realises that in trying to move he would be hampered by the fact that he is still tethered by a sinew to a dead Guardian’s body. The area around them with the fungus and mold begins to emit spores causing them all (except Sentry, Aila and Nova) to be poisoned. Lucius casts a quickened *Wall of Ice* behind them in an arc in an attempt to protect them from any potential attacks from that direction, then attempts to slice through the sinew tethering Quill to Tinker but while he severs some of the strands, it is still somewhat intact. Lucius then asks Protector to protect the blinded Nova.

A blinded Nova is hit twice by The Stalker’s arrows and the ground around her begins to decay as it becomes an infectious zone, Aila manages to avoid the arrow strike. The skeletons behind them move up to the *Wall of Ice* and start attacking it, trying to get through to the party. Aila moves towards the source of the arrows, moving deeper into the forest. Nova asks Tiangong to guide her in placing a large area of reverse gravity, deliberately not hitting Aila, but placing the area where they think The Stalker might be – the gemstone glows, and loose parts of the foliage, leaves, and branches begin to lift into the air. Aila also sees dozens of caltrops no more than 5 feet in front of her shoot skywards, but The Stalker is not caught in the reverse gravity zone. Nova moves the echo back towards the group within the ice walls and teleports back to them, leaving Protector alone. Sentry is looking around for The Stalker in her area but sees nothing.

Quill pulls out The Wayfinders Guide and casts *Locate Creature*: being the only one to have seen The Stalker, he manages to track it as it moves immediately after shooting, past an oblivious Aila, through the tree line towards the northwest: he can now point in its direction. Quill heals Nova while she is in reach, but he is not able to end her blindness. Lucius uses the Stormcaller’s Chain to summon a large storm cloud around them, the lightning from which incinerates three minions behind them. Lucius tells the party to stay within the ice walls so they won’t get hit in the back, and from Tinker’s mouth, they hear a distorted and hushed voice that is definitely not Tinker’s, “I’m afraid that I must keep you here a little longer. Can’t have you interfering with the Lady’s plans!” Three shots hit the Wall of Ice at the back and shatter it. Lucius warns them not to move through the frigid air that remains in the area and from Tinker’s mouth there is an unearthly chuckle.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:03:42 - Dun Duns
0:04:40 - Part 1
1:30:28 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Vines (Guardian medic)
* Hotshot
* Gearshift
* Wayfinder
* Tinker
* Helper
* Shade
* Protector

## **Featured Locations**

* Jakkesh
	+ Second Guardian camp
	+ Jungle

## **Trivia**

* Trott had notes (notes!) that were correct about last session. Unbelievable – our boy is growing up.
* Lucius admits to being “a bit of a hypochondriac”.
* This week there were a ridiculous number of nat 1s and other low rolls. Rhi’s dice gaol was overflowing with dice:
* Mark describes Hotshot’s cannon arm as being “like a Megaman buster”.
* Guardian OCs: Gearshift (39SaltyCookies), Wayfinder (Omegasama??), Tinker (Ate), Helper, Shade (Bandai Nenzai), Protector
* The party was given an hour (if they wished) to create ad hoc camouflage cloaks made from torn tent material, foliage, and mud. This would give them a +4 to stealth checks.
* Quill is allowed (during their travel from the camp) to spend some time to set up traps – the length of time he spends determines the DC for The Stalker to avoid or see the trap.
* Travel works thus: one person must be the pathfinder to lead the way and avoid difficult terrain (the same person cannot do it two rounds in a row; Aila, Hotshot, and Pathfinder would make the survival check at advantage); people can use their action to assist the pathfinder, cast spells, keep a lookout, etc, but anyone who does not just focus on travelling stealthily will have a penalty to their check. Because of the magical darkness, anyone without darkvision is considered blinded. At the end of any PC’s turn, they can order a Guardian to assist them with a special move:
	+ Hotshot can
		- make a single ranged attack at +10 to hit and doing 1d10+10 force damage, or
		- provide overwatch (can be used 3 times) – gives 1 PC +2 AC against the next attack made against them, and allows Hotshot to take a shot at the attacker (at disadvantage)
	+ Tinker can
		- give a buff by making a small device (granting advantage on a single ability check for a PC within 5 feet, adding 1d8 lightning, fire, cold or acid attack to the next weapon attack, or
		- replicate any 1st level spell that is not a healing spell via making a device: each of these effects can be used twice before Tinker needs to recharge),
	+ Helper can make simple potions that have unique effects,
	+ Shade can hide and/or attack (sneak attack),
	+ Protector can protect (add AC or give a bonus to saving throws) or can attack, and
	+ Wayfinder can give benefits to stealth or perception/survival checks.
* When Quill wears the Goggles of Night, he ends up with two beaks because of the item’s look.
* In a callback to the Lightfall campaign, Mark is heard to utter, “That’s my rope!” when Lucius is trying to work out how to help them when they leave the camp.
* Sentry addresses the Guardians before they leave and rolls a natural 20 on her persuasion check. Truly she is worthy of being The Prime!
* Helper can create three potions: one that grants 15 temporary hit points, one that gives advantage on con and dex saving throws until the end of your next turn, one that reduces piercing and slashing damage by 10 but reduces speed by 20 feet until the end of your next turn.
* On their first attempt at moving stealthily, Kim rolls at advantage and rolls two 1s.
* A fan art video was played during the break.
* Mark reduced the passive damage of each skeletal minion to 6 again, feeling that otherwise they were too strong.
* Tom reminded Mark to apply the death effects of the skeletal minions (much to the chagrin of Katie and Kim, who were affected) and would have been awarded inspiration except for the fact that he already had it and had never used it.
* To determine how quickly The Stalker would catch the party, Mark gave it “progress points”. Every time they failed a stealth check or did something that left behind obvious clues as to their location, it added points. After Lucius burned his cloak in the tree, The Stalker had 6 progress points. Tom later discovers that for the traps he is leaving behind, if they succeed, they remove progress points but if they fail, it leaves a clue and add progress points – his next roll to lay a trap is a nat 1 (off to the dice gaol!).
* The party failed multiple stealth checks this episode.
* Mark threatened to make them a corridor made out of trees and/or foliage.
* Quill’s poison resistance from the Wyvern Hide Armour is not effective against the Stalker’s poison, which ignores any poison resistance.

## **Quotes**

* Rhi (to Tom): You’ve got good perception.
* Tom: *Good? “Good” perception?*
* Rhi: It’s all right. It gets us by, you know.
* Tom: I’m not boasting about it. It’s not good, it’s *phenomenal.*
* Rhi: It does the job though, doesn’t it?