Aerois - Episode 3: The Midnight Raid

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Mark Hulmes as Aila
and Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Midnight Raid** is the 3rd episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 15th July 2018 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*The gang are attacked by Wild Elves who won't accept Gold as a ransom! It's time for a midnight raid!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone.
* This episode starts late because of technical problems resulting in the Highrollersdnd Twitch channel not hosting the episode live.
* Rhiannon and Katie are away this week.
* Sponsors this week: Brilliant and D&D Beyond; there will be a puzzle at the break from Brilliant. D&D Beyond has updated all their character sheets.
* Viewers are encouraged to use their Twitch Prime subscription on the Yogscast or Highrollersdnd channels.
* Merch: dice, shirt, hoodies are all available. Kim showed off the Yogscast pride shirt which has been brought back for a short time with all profits going to Stonewall (an LGBT charity).
* All VoDs and episodes are now on Highrollersdnd YouTube channel, no longer on the Yogs Live channel.
* There is now a podcast of Aerois. They go live Mondays and Thursdays in two halves. Available on iTunes, Sound Cloud, Spotify, Google Play (US). Listeners are encouraged to give a rating on iTunes.
* If sending fan art, please send to highrollersdnd@gmail.com - this means that we know you have given consent for your art to be show in a video. We will re-tweet and share it on @highrollersdnd.

### **Recap**

*"The last time, you had been journeying across Aerois aboard an air ship called the Sparrowblade. One night, during a thunderstorm during your journey, it was attacked by masked, mysterious assailants. You're still not quite sure why the ship was attacked or what their objective was, however, the resulting chaos caused the air ship to crash. It crashed onto a continent you now know is Suvonna, into a place called The Bitterwood(sic): an icy, cold forest on the southern region of the continent itself. You escaped from the airship using glide cloths (like parachutes), but one of the NPCs you had rescued, a Dwarf named Arval, had drifted off course. You set out to rescue him and discovered him being attacked by a group of Wild Elves, these barbaric, shamanistic, tribal Elves that are found across the lowlands of Aerois.*
*You managed to avoid an actual encounter, with Sentry healing Arval and saving him from death, however it cost Lucius some money to bribe these Wild Elves to go away and leave you alone. They left with an ominous warning that you had paid for them to leave you this time, but that there were more of them, and that their leader, called Kalla, would not be as easygoing. After that, you struggled to decide what to do, finding yourselves in a strange wilderness that you don't know, in unfamiliar lands. You took some time to decide what to do next and it was eventually decided that you would go to the airship crash to see if you could scavenge supplies, look for survivors and generally assess the situation. You made your way there and you encountered a pack of wolves which you managed to scare off, but not before they considerably hurt poor Lucius, who had to be saved and spend some time recovering (hiding under a glide cloth for a little while). You searched the wreckage and found a number of things: you found some supplies, food, and general adventuring equipment. You found the body of the Captain, who, on her person had bits and pieces including a key, a thunderstone pistol and a rapier. Quill and Nova also discovered a key component of the airship itself: some sort of nodule or command module that would generate magic to help keep the ship afloat.*
*After that, you discovered that Valla, a young girl that had been travelling with the NPCs you'd saved, had followed you and was watching you. After having a brief conversation with her about why she'd done it and the dangers of such, Quill heard a bunch of Wild Elves appearing from the north into the clearing where the airship crash was. You were spotted by a falcon-like creature - a bird with icy white and blue feathers. The last thing you heard was the bird cry out to alert its masters - you hear the cry echo through the haunted trees, and you hear the rapid movement of people becoming alert. Something is amiss: you hear shouts and cries in Elven, something along the lines of 'Over there!' and people beginning to move..."*
### **Part 1**

*The party meet more Wild Elves, but these ones want more than gold!*

With how injured they are, and the fact that Wild Elves are incoming, the party decides to run. Given the heavily wooded forest with thick underbrush, they struggle and are unable to be stealthy. While Sentry and Aila are fine, Quill is a little short of breath, but Nova and Lucius quickly become exhausted. The Elves following them are also struggling, though the bird of prey is able to track and follow them from the air and guides the Elves with its cry. The Elves aren't tiring, and the occasional arrow flies past them into the woods. The party keeps running, and it isn't long before Quill and Nova realise that they have split off from the rest of the party and aren't sure where they are; Lucius sees them and indicates that they should hide. Quill dives under a log and covers himself with brush, Lucius hides inside a hollow log and Nova also attempts to hide; the others have hidden in the woods or climbed a tree. Nova and Lucius, being exhausted, are breathing heavily, and it isn't long before they are grabbed by the Wild Elves. They both cry out as they are grabbed, and the Elves try to silence them - there are five Elves in the party, including a shaman covered in tribal tattoos (some of which are of animals, others are Celtic ring knot patterns or thorns), totems and bone fetishes. He wants to finish salvaging the broken ship and then take them back to Kalla. Lucius tries to reason with them and gets slapped for his trouble, he then tries to bribe the shaman, who considers releasing them if Lucius will give him power. The other Elves begin to protest, but the shaman casts a spell and vines begin to grow around the boots of one of them. Lucius casts a Firebolt in the air to try to impress the shaman... who isn't impressed. The Wild Elves pat Lucius and Nova down and he decides that he wants Lucius' arcane focus and Tiangong (who responds by sending Nova the sense of 'danger'); he takes both items. The eagle swoops down and lands on the log next to Quill, looks at Quill and starts to cry out - the Elves, having been alerted to his presence, take Quill and put him with the others. They search Quill and take his two scrolls and all the rations that they have. The Elves leave them to die in the woods and go to salvage the ship. Both Nova and Lucius realise that without their items, they will not be able to cast spells; while Lucius has spare arcane foci in Gusthaven, Nova is desolate without her stolen blade. Aila suggests getting some rest and then going to the camp that Quill had seen and taking their stuff back, killing the Wild Elves in their sleep if necessary, while Valla suggests a more stealthy approach.

Lucius offers to get Nova another sword, but Nova says that Tiangong is different: they have a bond, and he speaks to her. Nova found them near Vortinssar in a crashed, abandoned skiff that belonged to the Court of Shadows or 'the Remnant' - Nova is an explorer, and she found the crashed ship at an archaeological site. Lucius wonders if Tiangong is an evil entity, but Nova assures Lucius that they are not, Lucius then indicates to Quill that Nova may be mad. Quill wonders whether the attackers on the ship may have come for Nova and the sword, however, Nova doesn't think so because one of the soldiers was next to her, saw her use the sword and did nothing to her. Sentry says that when she was fighting the Court of Shadows, there was always discussion about how they powered their devices - there was talk of weapons and armour that was beyond even the understanding of Siaska and the other gods.

The party determines that they're going to get their equipment back, but they need to get rid of the bird - Aila wants to fix the problem with a bow and arrow or a magic blast. They make their way back to the NPCs. Sister Yusef is angry at Valla for running off, fearing for her safety, Lucius tries to stand up for her, but Yusef vows to deal with the issue later. The party relates what they found at the crash site, and decide to take a long rest at the camp that Yusef and Corin have made. Since it is about midday, this would mean that it would be dark - about 8pm - when they wake up, and would make a night raid into the camp while some are sleeping or meditating. Since it is at the end of Grand Harvest, the middle season, the sun goes down fairly early. Nova might be able to create a connection to Tiangong if she rests or meditates, but she's only had him for 2-3 cycles (months), so she isn't sure. Valla sees how upset Nova is and offers Nova's own dagger back to her, but Nova still has a dagger and a crossbow, so she refuses. Quill offers the thunderstone pistol he found to the others to use, but no one knows what it it or how to use it. Sentry has seen the dragonborn use something similar when they arrived (and also says that the Court of Shadows also used something similar) but they fired magical light that burned instead of a stone projectile. Quill keeps the pistol. Corin and Sentry make a rudimentary shelter with the glide cloth to keep them out of the rain, the others catch game and forage for delicious grubs, mushrooms and fruit, and locate water to keep them sustained for the day. Lucius struggles with the idea of eating food without plates or cutlery. No one has a bed roll except Aila, which she unfurls and goes to sleep immediately. Lucius, exhausted, takes watch and soon falls asleep despite the rustling in the bushes nearby.

### **Part 2**

*Plans are in place for the midnight raid! It's time to get back what was stolen from us!*

Lucius falls back into his trance because he is so exhausted, and he drifts off to a faint rustling. They wake to find that a small animal has taken some of their food. Nova has tried to meditate to feel for the bond with Tiangong - sometimes it feels cold like looking up at the stars: she has not quite memories - sensations of being out amongst the stars, in a cold sea surrounded by lights, then a sensation of being trapped and taken somewhere - these were events of long ago - then the sensation of becoming weakened and the power being drained away slowly for an unwanted purpose, but unable to stop it. She sense a faint, fragile string is tied around her heart and is gently tugging her towards the north, and thinks that this may help her to locate Tiangong.

Quill dreams:

> *He imagines himself on a coast, on a cliff looking out at the sea, and he can see that there is a great storm out on the oceans. He can see black clouds and swirling winds and he watches as flocks of birds fly across the ocean and some of them fly into the storm itself whilst others land on the sand below. He watches as the birds that land, their wings fall off, and they begin to cocoon themselves like moths; they begin to wrap themselves in these cocoon-like shells then sink into the sand. He is not sure what has happened to the birds that fly into the storm, but is almost certain that it is painful. He feels hands on his shoulders and sees glowing human skin from a human man's hand that glows, and hears the rustling of feathers, but he can't turn around. A voice calls to him, "What do you wish to do?" asking whether Quill would choose to fly into the storm or cocoon himself like the other birds. Quill believes that he would join the birds in the storm, and he feels the arms underneath both of his wings pick him up and start to fly him into the storm. The voice comes again, "Freedom always has a cost", and as he hits the storm front, Quill is wracked with pain and feels his arm ripped off again before he wakes.*
>
>

Sister Yusef offers to go with the party to steal back their stolen gear, Valla wants to go as well, but Yusef forbids it: Lucius suggests that he doesn't want to "see" her near the camp (indicating that she could follow them but stay hidden), Corin and Arval will stay back at their camp. They make their way to the Wild Elf camp, taking some hours to get there: it is close to midnight, and though there is no moon, the sky of Aerois is littered with millions of bright stars providing light, but thick clouds moving across the sky occasionally plunge the night into near blackness. They see in a ring around the planet is a multi-coloured protective layer: the Cradle, the last divine essence of Siaska that she used to push out Kalus and the other demigods and immortals, this sealed off the planet from ships, planar magic and such things. They stealth towards the camp.

There are four ramshackle buildings in the Wild Elf camp, two on the ground and two in the trees; they are quite large, but look like they have been hastily erected. There are two Wild Elves asleep in bedrolls on the ground, another two sitting around a campfire (including the shaman they met previously), and three sentries - one by each ground-based building, and another at the rear treeline, they are all armed with short bows and each carries a small bone whistle around their necks. Nova can sense Tiangong but not pinpoint its location. Lucius suggests setting fire to one of the buildings to create a distraction, but given that their gear may be in one of the buildings, the others think this might be risky. It is suggested that they either take out the sentries quietly or go in "all thunderstones rumbling".

They decide to take out the nearest sentry behind one of the buildings and then check that building for their gear. and Aila moves to do so, but is not stealthy enough, so is heard by the sentry - he ducks her hammer attack and fumbles for the whistle around his neck. Aila manages to hit him with her hammer and dazes him, stopping his from blowing the whistle. Lucius throws an ice knife, killing one of the sentries but alerting some of the other Wild Elves. The Elves use their bows to attack the party, Quill uses his thunderstone pistol and a thunderous boom erupts (the bullet goes wide of any target) - it wakes someone in one of the buildings, Quill also heals Aila. Nova casts *Eldritch Blast* at the shaman, but he is protected and not affected.

The shaman attacks Lucius with a Thorn Whip but misses while Aila swings and misses at one of the other Elves. The scouts attack Aila and Quill, they miss Quill, but one hits Aila for minor damage. Quill tries to cast Gust at the Elf that is attacking him, but it fails. Yusef heals Quill while Nova attacks another Elf with Eldritch Blast and hits - the Elf pulls a knife and threatens to kill her. Sentry hits the shaman with her axe and kills him. A woman comes out of one of the building - she is wearing a white painted robe, a fur mantle and a stag-antler helm; she carries a wooden staff and looks quite young, but her face is lined and wrinkled. Around her neck is a spear tip on a leather necklace - it is made of black iron with runes carved into it that pulse with a slight power. The woman is Kalla - she glances around, points at Aila and Aila seizes up, freezing in place.

Lucius casts Acid Splash on two of the Elves, and Quill casts magic missiles at them killing one of them. Lucius is hit by the Elf he just hit. Two Elves with bows shoot at Lucius and Sentry, both are hit for minor damage. Yusef heals Lucius and Nova blasts one of the Elves after demanding the return of their gear - he stabs her with a blade. Sentry tries to attack the Elf attacking Nova. Kalla is concentrating on a spell, and refuses to let them leave after killing her people: she transforms into a large bear. Lucius casts a Firebolt on one of the one of the Elves and hits - he is engulfed and erupts in flames, then collapses to the ground. Sentry is attacked, but the blade misses, Quill casts Guiding Bolt at the bear doing significant damage and enraging it. Yusef heals Lucius again with her last spell. Nova blasts the Elf she has been fighting and kills him.

The bear roars and bites and claws at Sentry, the claw rips the shield out of Sentry's hands and knocks her to the ground, the bite then snaps wood and metal, taking Sentry out. Aila is still being held, and cannot break out.

(Due to time constraints, time was called on this episode to be finished next week)

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Episode Start
06:45 - Intro
07:58 - Recap
11:17 - Part 1
46:24 - Chunkies
56:00 - Quill is really well-equipped with weapons
1:07:20 - Break time/"Brilliant" question
1:10:10 - Part 2
1:25:55 - Lucius likes to set things on fire
2:12:19 - Outro/"Brilliant" solution/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

#### **The Adventuring Party**

* Aila (played by Mark)
* Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto
* Nova V'ger
* Qillek Ad Khollar
* Sentry (played by Mark)

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Arval Dagos
* Brother Corin
* Sister Yusef
* Valla

## **Featured Locations**

* Suvonna
	+ The Bitterwood
	+ Wild Elf camp

## **Trivia**

* Thunderstone is a new resource that people have found. It's a stone that stores thunderous energy, and when hit with a sharp object, it has a concussive force. People have learned that you can channel the concussive force down a barrel, so they've learned to put thunderstone on the end of a bullet and use it in lieu of gunpowder. It is, however, also subject to any force placed on it, so there is a chance that it can go off unintentionally. It can also misfire and it can blast backwards out of the mechanism and do damage to the wielder of the weapon. The thunderstone pistol does 1d10 damage.