Aerois - Episode 118: The Gang Commit a War Crime

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Gang Commit a War Crime** is the 118th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 11th July 2021 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*The Stormchasers take on an entire warship. Who will prevail?*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The session today will be shorter because of the Euro 2020 football final.
* This week's sponsor is D&D Beyond. Use the HR link to help the crew out.

### **Recap**

*" Last time, our Stormchaser crew, the party, have made their way on the Skycity of Horizon to the continent of Gisella, the northernmost peninsula above the City of Glass where they hope to be reunited with Herald, and reunite the guardian race with Sentry. However, things are not going to be easy as it seems the City of Glass is under siege. Fleets of airships, as well as ground troops for the Sanzesian Commonwealth, working with Kalus Valkyrian, have begin an assault.*

*The party decided to head down to the ground forces and to aid them in defending and repelling these forces as well as seeking out Herald and saving her from whatever situation Herald has found themselves in. To do so, they took a skiff from the skycity of Horizon and attempted to sail down into the City of Glass, however, things are not as easy as it appeared. Under a barrage of artillery fire, strong winds and all sorts of other difficulties in navigation, the party have been blown off course, and instead, Lucius, Nova and Aila found themselves crash landing in the City of Glass while Sentry and Quill were knocked far out to sea.*

*With an airship discovering Sentry's position and giving chase, the party have now vaguely reunited on the walls of the City of Glass and on the coastal shore of Gisella's peninsula as this airship moves in to attack Sentry, who is currently stood on the coast, separated from the rest of her companions."*

### **Part 1**

*Who would win? 5 level 15 player characters or one heavily armoured floaty boy?*

Nova, Lucius and Aila stand on the walls of the City of Glass, looking out onto the rocky coast, Sentry is about 200 feet away, standing on the shore and looking up at the airship which is barrelling towards her, and Quill lands behind Sentry. Quill estimates that there are probably about 40 armed soldiers on the airship; there are broken remnants of arcane cannons on the city walls, but they have been transmuted to glass and are non-functional.

The party can hear battles both from within the city and from Horizon above, defending itself from other airships. The ship approaching them is gargantuan in size, about 20 feet wide and 100 feet long, and it is descending from about 300 feet in the air as it comes towards them. Nova wants to run, and Aila is waiting to see what the others will do. The approaching warship fires its arcane cannon at Sentry and Quill, fires its ballista, and the soldiers on deck fire their rifles: the cannon misses Sentry, but hits Quill, the ballistae fire at Aila and Nova but both shots miss, finally the soldiers on deck fire at Sentry with their force rifles in a fusillade, and Sentry is peppered with multiple shots. Nova casts dimension door, grabs Aila and they portal next to Sentry and Quill - the reinforced ram hull is rapidly barrelling towards the four on the shore. Quill uses his elder image to cast Beacon of Hope, then quaffs a superior healing potion to restore some health. Two more combat squads lean over the side of the ship and fire at Nova and Aila - both squads hit, peppering them both with force shots. Lucius casts Fly on himself, then hovers above the wall in anticipation. Sentry casts Enlarge and wants to parlay with the ship's crew but realises that they think they have the upper hand and will not listen, so she steps in front of the rest of the party in order to shield them. Aila rages, then throws her hammer at the cannon on the bottom of the ship's hull: she hits and does significant damage - it is still functional but heavily damaged. The ship attempts to ram the party: it has a ram built into the prow which churns up the rocks on the shore as it scrapes against the ground. Quill, Aila and Nova dodge to the side as the ship plows into the earth, but Sentry cannot dodge and is hit by the ship which is slightly stronger than she is: Sentry takes significant damage as she goes flying and is slammed into the ground next to Quill. The warship's ram is now splintered and barely functional, but the ship begins to ascend again.

Lucius sees a cannon on the ship begin to glow as it fires at him - he is hit but manages to stay in the air. The ballistae fire at Quill and Aila, Quill is hit, but it misses Aila. Nova casts Maddening Darkness on the deck of the ship, catching three of the four units on the prow of the ship: unfortunately, it also catches Quill, doing friendly fire damage and ending quill's Expeditious Retreat. Quill casts Mass Cure Wounds, healing Nova, Sentry and Quill. The ship's crew is engulfed by Nova's spell and takes massive damage - they all hear screaming and cries of terror as crew members begin to die.

The crew in the bow of the ship shoot a fusillade at Quill, hitting and removing Beacon of Hope. Lucius has just seen an airship barrel into his friends, an unexpected attack hit him in the face, and the ship being engulfed in darkness and terror: his mind is filled with pain and darkness as he grips the air, creating a ball of light that he throws at the front cannon and the first squad - his Vitriolic Sphere does massive damage to both cannon and men - the cannon melts and turns to sludge, and the crew begins to scream as they either fall, dead, from the ship or try to leap away from the darkness and acid, and fall to their deaths. The captain, in a desperate panic, attempts to activate an engine system to dispel the Maddening Darkness on the ship, but fails. Sentry takes damage from Nova's spell as she is still within the darkness, but manages to stagger out of it to get to safety; she chops at the sails with her sword, hitting once, shredding part of the skysail and causing the ship to list a little.

Aila jumps up onto the ship, landing next to the captain and one of the squads - she swings her hammer and begins to massacre the crew as one soldier flies off the back of the ship; a second soon follows him. The ship begins to turn, trying to avoid slamming into the wall of the city, and the crew attempts to fire both ballistae and a fusillade at Nova, even though they are blinded by the darkness: one ballista and the fusillade hits, and Nova manages to keep concentration on her spell. Nova is clipped by the sphere and takes damage from her own spell, but manages to keep concentration, she manages to stumble out of the darkness to safety. Nova casts Eldritch Blast at the crew near Aila and kills another crew mate. Quill Heals Sentry.

The screams that have permeated this combat suddenly cease as most of the soldiers succumb to the damage of the darkness, and the ship is left in an eerie silence. Three soldiers, all that is left of the deck crew, begin to rappel down the side of the ship and attempt to escape - one falls to the ground and does not move again. Aila is still fighting the last squad, which manages to hit Aila twice, but she barely notices the damage. Lucius flies up, glancing at the slaughter and chaos on the ship - he can only see Aila fighting the last crew - he sends Aila a message via the rings asking if everything is OK, and Aila asks him if he wants the ship; Sentry moves towards Aila. Aila makes two attacks and takes out three of the four remaining crew, her hammer throwing their dead bodies off the side of the ship on the upswing: the last crew member sees that he is the last, drops his weapons and surrenders. Aila asks if she can have his ship: he responds, "You can have whatever you want, just leave me alive!" The captain is not happy, yelling that they should die in the service of Her Majesty - he turns the ship to slam it into the ground, and attempting to ram Nova and Quill at the same time.

Quill flies off the ground to avoid the ship, Aila jumps off the ship before it hits taking minor damage, Nova and Sentry both take bludgeoning damage as the ship plows into the ground and disintegrates, spraying them with debris. They see the one surviving crew member crawl out of the debris with a broken arm, and flee. Everyone else is dead. Nova ends the darkness, and they see a ruined ship smashed into the coast - a number of bodies slide off the ship's deck while others are tangled in and hanging from the sails, blood has poured from their eyes, ears, nose and mouth; brains and eyeballs have been melted and turned into liquid goo, limbs are shrunken and withered. There are flames breaking out from within the warship, and it begins to burn.

### **Part 2**

*The team head into the City of Glass and Sentry tries out her new powers!*

As the ship that they recently destroyed burns on the beach, the noise of airships fighting Horizon n the air above them continues to ring out. They notice explosions and the sounds of battle coming from behind them, deep within the City of Glass, as well as from the main gates of the city. Nova casts Fly on Sentry, Aila and herself, and they all fly over the wall to meet up with Lucius. As they begin to make their way deeper into the city, Sentry begins to hear the muttering, whispers, raving and screams of thousands of feral guardians echoing through the streets, and it is hard for her to ignore as it is almost overwhelming. The screams are those of rage, and of hunger for energy or sustenance, but there is also deafening silence of voices that should be there but are not, as if the souls are in a deathly slumber; Sentry, distracted, looks off into the distance.

They fly just above the city streets, doing their best to stay as hidden as possible from any feral guardians, but as Nova points out, magic is erratic within the city walls, and within a few minutes, the fly spells seem to behave oddly, as if working in quick bursts rather than continually. Nova is making herself invisible every turn. With the erratic magic dropping them to the ground occasionally, and making flight erratic, some of them accidentally hit a wall that collapses with the noise of shattering glass that echoes through the city, and this is followed by a horrid metal screeching sound as feral guardians begin to seek her out.

As they discuss what to do, the sound gets louder, and it is clear that there is a number of them nearby. Sentry wants to try to help the guardians, but the rest want to run and hide. Lucius casts Vitriolic Sphere at a glass clock tower which is 150 ft away from them: the sphere destroys the bottom corner of the clock tower, and the upper levels fall to the ground in a loud crash. Nova casts invisibility on the rest of the party, and they stand still to avoid detection. In the sudden stillness, they hear the cracking and breaking of the rest of the tower, before 8 guardians come crawling between broken glass columns, with two crawling up on building walls. They move in a military pattern, even though they look withered, rusted, broken and animalistic, with their mouths hanging open and their eyes scanning their surroundings.

As the feral guardians pass Sentry, she can hear the guardians yelling inside her head, and it feels as if the voices are trapped inside them as if someone is trapped in a trunk from which they cannot escape. The voices are all of fear, anger, disappointment, regret and hunger, but they are so broken physically and mentally that they have resorted to these base creatures that must hunt to survive. Sentry communes with Root Prime: as her mind dips into the golden river of energy that flows through her, she senses other voices inside the Matrix requesting to be sent into a new body, until finally the large commanding presence of Root appears. Sentry says to Root that there are so many feral guardians and asks if they can be saved: Root's response is "Yes, but it will not be easy. You have only experienced this once - direct interface with the matrix to transfer a soul, but it is possible. If you have the strength and the will, you could try to convert more than one. I was once able to save hundreds of guardians before their deaths, taking them into the Matrix, but it is strenuous... difficult. It could cause you great pain, great suffering, but it is possible." Sentry says that she has come back from Hadar, and apologises. Root responds, "You did what was expected of a Prime. You sought to save one, even one that had turned its back on us. I knew that I had made the right choice when you made that decision." Sentry asks how she is to save more than one: Root responds, "You will know how, but you must speak with them. You cannot do it from secrecy - they will need to see you. You will need to link your mind to their matrix - connect them to the Prime - transfer the souls as you have before, but to do so with numerous targets, to do so at range, without physical touch makes it much harder on you and on them". Sentry says that they used to scare her, as did the thought of being one of them, but that she understands them now and feels sad, wishing that the guardians had more time to live. Root tells Sentry that she now has the power to give it to them as his spirit drifts away with the Commune spell spent. Sentry feels a sense of possibility.

Sentry walks, invisible, out to the square and begins to follow the feral guardians. Lucius, hearing footsteps, asks through the messenger rings who is moving and advises them to stop. Quill sends Sentry a message saying that he knows what she is doing and offers to go with her, but Sentry does not want to put them all in danger. Sentry follows the pack down the street, getting about 100 ft from her companions before one of the feral guardians, hearing a noise or feeling Sentry's presence, stops and turns, looking around. Within it, Sentry feels a fury and anger within it - anger at itself, its enemies, anyone who left it here to die, but it is anger born from the fear of being alone.

Sentry calls to it, saying that she is sorry and that she knows how it feels as she drops her invisibility. When she does, the whole pack snaps around and fans out around her: they can sense the power emanating from Sentry, but there is hesitation as if from fear, like they recognise Sentry as a pack leader. The feelings that she has felt from them before, hate, anger, fear, hunger and regret are emanating strongly from them, so Sentry tries to present them feelings of peace, calm and safety. While it manages to calm the aggression, she now feels a mix of fear and curiosity: as she sends out the new emotions, she feels a connection to the feral guardians, almost like golden tendrils from Sentry connecting to, and pushing against faded grey tendrils coming from the ferals. Sentry can try to fix as many of the guardians as she likes, but she knows that with each one it will become harder and harder. There is a short tussle between Sentry and one of the guardians: Sentry's mind is overwhelmed by pain, grief and sadness, and she starts to feel exhausted. The guardians around her seem to be agitated, and begin to show their claws: Sentry tries to turn another guardian to her cause, and this time her golden tendril connects with and enters the matrix of the feral guardian - she feels a shriveled, scared spirit that she grabs and welcomes it into the Prime Matrix. Sentry decides to send a warrior back into the rusted body - in a burst of golden light, its eyes and matrix start to glow golden, which causes the feral guardians to start and scatter. The golden eyes slowly start to turn pale blue, and a soft feminine voice thanks Sentinel Prime for the new body and says that she is honoured to serve - this is Archer.

Archer is aware of who the Stormchasers are because of Sentry's previous experience - she says that while she has an awareness of what has happened, it is not detailed, but their names, faces and deeds done with Sentry have left a strong emotional impression that all guardians will know of them, their skills and what they mean to Sentinel Prime. Nova asks if Archer likes warm plates, too, and she says that all guardians do because it is a comforting sensation. Quill assumes that Archer's favourite colour is green (because Sentry's is), but Archer says that she has her own mind and preferences, but that she has been watching them through Sentinel Prime's eyes.

Quill wants to know whether Sentry can do the same thing again, but she says that it was very tiring just doing one. Lucius wonders if there is something in the City of Glass that will amplify her abilities, and Nova wonders if they can help in some way. Sentry realises that the process itself must go through the Prime Matrix, and that the reason that she became so exhausted was because she was trying to bear the brunt of so many years of anguish and negative emotions - if her friends were nearby to give her support and mental fortitude, that would probably help. She also thinks that if she had other sentient guardians, that she might be able to pass the signal through them like a daisy chain.

They plan to take a short rest, and then try to find Herald. At the end of the hour long rest, Quill receives a garbled message from Reyn: *"Qillek... Horizon.. difficult... fleet strong... not much longer... status report".* Quill replies *"Landed in the City of Glass, trying to find Herald. We're safe. One airship down".* He gets the following response from Reyn a few minutes later*: "Saw... ship... ground forces... overrun... getting close now...Pulling back..."*

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00 Episode Start
0:56 Announcements
4:43 DUN DUNs
5:42 Recap starts
7:20 Part 1
1:35:14 Break time/Donations
1:44:17 Part 2
2:24:35 Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Reyn
* Root

## **Trivia**

* Mark forgot to write up a recap for this week, so this one was improvised.
* During the week, Tom tweeted a recap playlist:
* Mark made today's map on Inkarnate.
* Nova' s use of Maddening Darkness was generally referred to as a war crime by the group because of the immense damage done to the enemies and the horrible way in which they would have died. This led to the title for this week's episode. Twitch chat discussed if this action was against the Geneva Convention - it was decided that there is no "Geneva" on Aerois, and perhaps it might be against the Gisellan Convention instead.
* 39SaltyCookies calculated the damage that was done by Nova with the Maddening Darkness spell:
	+ She did 586 damage to the crew members (Excluding the captain), and killed 27 out of the 33 caught in the bubble. Nova dealt a maximum of 740 damage and a minimum of 701 with the spell. On top of all of this Nova killed an extra guy with an Eldritch Blast, dealing 34 damage. Meaning that Nova killed 28 out of 41 people on the ship by herself, for a total of 774 max and 735 min damage for the whole combat (note: this also includes friendly fire).
* In the middle of the airship battle, Trott asks, "my god, what have we done? Are we the baddies?" referencing the Mitchell and Webb sketch.
* Mark revealed that if Sentry had made her strength saving throw against the ship ramming her, or Aila had decided to stand and brace, he had a mechanic to attempt to stop the ship in its tracks and hold it in place.
* Nova's defence to casting the Maddening Darkness and "committing war crimes" was that "she panicked".
* Mark coined a new Markism that was used at least three times this episode - "knife jack" was used to describe the ship jack knifing into the ground.