Aerois - Episode 31: Hall of the Gods

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Oriya Marius

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Hall of the Gods** is the 31st episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 7th April 2019 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*The gang venture deeper into the dungeon of Night Eye Keep, uncovering traps and puzzles galore!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The sponsors this week are D&D Beyond, Displate, and Uncanny Collateral (a book by Brian McClellan).
* D&D Live 2019 will be held on 16-19 May in Los Angeles, and High Rollers will be there. They will do a livestream game, as well as a signing and a meet and greet.
* High Rollers will be at Twitch Con next week on Saturday at 3pm. It will be re-run on Sunday instead of a live show. There will also be a signing at Twitch Con on Sunday. There will be two guests for the live show: Elspeth Eastman and Nate Sharp.
* YogCon will be happening in August.
* Aila will be added to Idle Champions this week. Tom and Katie will do an extra livestream this week, playing and unlocking Aila in Idle Champions and doing a Q&A on Thursday at 7pm. Keep an eye out for more Idle Champions stuff!
* Merch: Phone cases are now available on the Yogs store.

### **Recap**

"*The party, having made their way to the ruin called The Nighteye, have descended into its depths to search for the source that is disturbing the undead spirits in the local area, and also look for a shard of Tiangong that Nova has sensed deep below. Upon entering the flooded chambers, the party sent Nova out as a scout, to make her way and try and find pockets of air and see what was going on. Nova discovered that there are a few lingering spirits still wandering around, as well as some arcane defenses. The party have eventually followed suit, discovering a few little clues and little hints along the way. However, upon entering one room, disaster almost struck, as half the party were locked inside a room with an arcane turret that rained down fire on them from below and behind a portcullis. However, the party managed to sync up, escape, and have destroyed it.*"

### **Part 1**

*Another floor to the Night Eye brings further puzzles and traps for the adventurers to overcome!*

The party has taken a short rest and is now on a platform that rises about ten feet out of the water in the room – it appears to have been some sort of security checkpoint. In front of them is a pair of gold-inlaid stone doors that lead further into the complex. Within the complex, they know that there is still a ghostly apparition, the Quartermaster, and a narrow-caved tunnel that they have not yet explored.

While Quill casts *Detect Magic*, Oriya tries to scrape gold out of the white stone doors, but when her rapier manages to get some out, the gold turns to dust, seemingly being fool’s gold or pyrite. They also investigate the remains of the turret but have no idea how the machine works beyond understanding the clockwork parts; Nova is interested in the base on the roof, which is marked with a symbol, the same symbol printed onto Sentry’s shield, the emblem of Solwynn (it looks like a maker’s seal – the turret was likely made in Solwynn and sent there). They salvage the bolas, and Nova goes back for the rope they were using to navigate the complex, but decides not to go all the way back on her own.

Quill’s *Detect Magic* detects faint magic around the turret, but the doors are not magical, so they head through into the temple which is faintly damp but otherwise out of the water. In front of them are stairs that lead down and curve around – they think that this temple would originally have been underground with the rooms outside being above ground, and the rest of the keep being placed above them. Along the stairwell, there are chunks of rock and mounds of dirt that have broken through, and they have to squeeze through the narrow space.

The stairway leads into an open antechamber, and their lights reflect off the sides of a highly polished stone corridor inlaid with murals depicting all the gods of Aerois – the Starborn Pantheon. At the far end of the chamber, they can just about see, in the light bouncing off the polished walls, a statue of Siaska with her arms outstretched. As they step in, a beautiful music begins to fill the air – it is a chorus sung in an alien language that none of them understand, and it seems to repeat. The ninety-foot corridor in front of them is divided into five-foot tiles, each of which is covered with a symbol, and to their left and right is a stone doorway that they assume will lead into corridors.

Lucius starts to walk out in amazement before Nova shouts at him to stop before he treads on the tiles in front of him. Quill detects strong evocation magic (offensive magic – blasts of fire, lightning, elemental in nature, and used by sorcerers and wizards in the harnessing of power) from the tiles on the floor. Since none of them understand what is being sung, Nova tries to write down some of the words phonetically so that she can try to understand them, and what she manages to understand are the following words: STARRY, GUIDE, YOUTH, BRIGHT, LEAD, MOTHERS in that order, but much of it is still unintelligible.

Quill realises that the symbols on the tiles are symbols of the gods of Aerois, who are Siaska’s children (they also notice that there is no symbol of Siaska on the tiles), and that the ninety-foot length of the floor is broken up into three thirty-foot sections. Oriya attempts to work out if she could climb the walls but realises that there are not really any hand holds for her and that the ceiling is completely smooth, so she will not be able to climb past the tiles. They realise that something will happen when they step on the tiles, probably through pressure plates, and there is no way to disable it from this end of the room (but thry think there is something at the other end). They try to work out what the safe path to the other end of the shrine would be but cannot fathom a safe way through.

Aila pushes open the door to their left, revealing a curved stone corridor – Quill and Oriya see a series of hidden grooves that blend seamlessly with the floor, and there is old, crusted blood splattered on the floor, up the walls, and on the ceiling. Oriya throws her waterskin ahead of them, but nothing happens, while Nova uses a *Mage Hand* to pat the floor ahead of them – again, nothing happens. Aila then opens the door to the right corridor only to see a shorter corridor, but with the same grooves down the hallway and blood on the floor and walls.

Quill uses his *Spiritual Weapon* to start tapping walls and the floor down the left corridor, but it is not until he and Oriya round the corner to see a door immediately ahead of them that they hear a metallic crunch, and then a high-pitched whine. Suddenly, seven spinning saw blades emerge from the floor and the walls; Oriya makes her way back to the door and dodges the blades which makes them spin faster while Quill is hit by the blades in his area of the corridor. Aila steps into the corridor, grabs Oriya and carries her out, taking a slicing injury from the blades. Quill casts *Blade Ward* and moves back to the main door before being struck again. Lucius casts *Acid Splash* on one of the grooves and damages one of the blades as it attempts to emerge from the groove. Nova tries to strike the blades with *Eldritch Blast,* but they are moving too fast, and she worries about hitting Quill, so misses. Oriya throws a weighted bola, tangling two of the blades together for a short while, but they still manage to strike Quill. Aila strikes one of the blades as it cuts past her, denting it but not destroying it. Quill throws himself out of the corridor into the main room. The party takes turns destroying the blades from the door until they are all incapacitated, then move into the corridor. As they come around the corner, they see that there is a magical sensor over the door at the far end that senses life forms and enables the trap.

As they open the door to the next room, they see a large stone and bonze water basin at the centre; in front of it, bound in spectral chains by the wrists and neck, is a ghostly androgynous figure in long flowing robes with ragged hair. The walls of the chamber are painted in dark colours, and multiple gems embedded into the walls emit a dim glow. When they examine the spectral apparition, they see the chains leading from the wrists and neck float into the air and then appear to vanish.

### **Part 2**

*The team have found a chained spectre in the Night Eye(sic) they're not sure they can trust!*

The spirit does not appear to have noticed them. Skaldi says that the robes they are wearing match the robes that the spirits outside were wearing, but she does not know why it would have been captured or restrained – she thinks it might be an old prisoner or perhaps a traitor, but is not sure. There is a suggestion made that the spirit may have been able to resist the commands of the necromancer and may have been chained because of that. Lucius notices that the chains are ghostly like the spirit but appear to be a darker hue, however; he also notices that the spirit has Elven features. Nova has been looking at her notes for the main room; she is still wondering who the youngest god might be, and wondering if the spirit might understand the song in the other room. Skaldi offers to use her lantern to hold the spirit off with her lantern if it tries to attack them and recommends that Lucius or Oriya speak to it, as they should be somewhat familiar to it as a High Elf and an Orc.

Aila pushes the doors fully open and they see the ghost’s head rise up weakly, showing them large black orbs where its eyes once would have been. There is a moment of confusion as it recognises that they are there, noticing that they do not appear to be like the others that had come through, asking who they are and whether they have come to torture the spirit as well. The spirit says that they are not with The Court of Shadows, and tells the party that there is an incredibly wicked power at work and that she commands a power unlike any that the spirit has seen. They ask Lucius his name, and Lucius is surprised to find that the spirit knows the name of Elenasto, saying that they have known a few officers with that name. The spirit introduces themselves as Watch Commander Eloquis, saying that they were trapped in the Temple by a woman and her undead creatures, and she has somehow ensorcelled some of the guard to make them think that she is a commander and one of the Starborn Alliance. Eloquis tells them that the woman is unlike anything they have felt before and that she is not of Aerois. She has taken over the shrine which is guarded by the Hall of the Faith, and which is warded against entry. Eloquis tells them that there is a safe path through the Hall of the Faith but that the song changes as you proceed down the corridor, and that this changes the order in which you must step on the tiles. They say that the party can disable the mechanism from the other side of the corridor, and they can get through the dormitories, but the woman has left several of her guardians there. Eloquis offers to assist them but does not know how to break the chains holding them – the woman who chained Eloquis said that the only thing that could free them was the one thing they do not have, and that they were chained up because they were the only one not convinced by her sorcery.

Eloquis is aware that the battle with the Court of Shadows ended long ago, although the other spirits are confused – Eloquis chose to give their life willingly and pledged their spirit to remain to protect the shrine. The party joins Lucius and Quill asks who chained Eloquis – they do not know, only that the woman, who was real and powerful, wore dark clothes with a silver mask over her eyes. Nova asks if Eloquis understands the song being sung in the next room – they do, and it was they who designed the puzzle in the next room; the song is being sung in Celestial. There are a number of set phases, the first verse being:

               *Our starry sky guide us with the steps of youth,*

*Shine ever bright and lead us to our mother’s arms.*

As you progress further down the hall, the verse changes and requires one to understand the different facets of the gods. Lucius asks for the answers to the puzzle, and Eloquis wants to trust them but cannot be sure that they are not agents of the woman, asking them to prove their good faith by freeing them. Lucius is likewise cautious, not knowing if Eloquis would try to kill them if released. Eloquis says that they will help if they can be freed, otherwise they just wish the woman to be stopped – she is corrupting the Temple somehow. Nova asks if Eloquis can give her more information about the song, but they decline.

The basin behind Eloquis was once used as a scrying pool; it was sacred and blessed and used to communicate with Siaska to see places behind the walls of the Temple. Eloquis tells them that there was a guardian of the waters and warns them that it may still be in the basin, restless and prepared to fight. They try to fathom what Eloquis “does not have” in order to free them – Quill opens one of his wounds to smear some blood on one of the chains, and the instant the blood touches it, the chain becomes solid and gains physical form. As it does, a large amount of water begins to pour out of the basin as the guardian of the waters appears.

Aila rages and smacks the chain that Quill has made corporeal, breaking it, and leaving two binding Eloquis. The huge form of water picks Quill up and pulls him inside it, giving Quill the feeling of being crushed. Oriya casts *Hunter’s Sense* on the water creature, then *Slayer’s Prey.* Lucius casts an icy *Chromatic Orb* at the creature, hitting both the creature and Quill, freezing part of the creature and rendering Quill unconscious whilst bruising his ribs. Nova moves to the corner of the room and hits the creature with an *Eldritch Blast* while Skaldi calls to them to get Quill out of the creature because she cannot heal him while he is inside it. They watch as the water spirit crushes Quill inside it and his armour begins to break and snap – Aila reaches in, grabs Quill and pulls him out.

Eloquis is weakly calling for the guardian spirit to stand down, but it is ignoring them, so Oriya hits it with her magical rapier and her shortsword. Lucius runs over to Quill and stabilises him; Quill starts to cough up water but is still unconscious. Nova’s two *Eldritch Blasts* finish off the water spirit, and it crashes back into the basin. Aila and Lucius cut themselves and smear blood over the remaining chains so that they can be destroyed. As the three chains are broken, Eloquis slumps to the ground and more light seems to flow into them: they look at their hands and they start to change from a grey to a more blueish colour. Eloquis offers them whatever help they can give, including taking them past the wards in the next room, and even accompanying someone from inside their body to offer them some added protection against the evil magic that the woman wields – they promise not to take control of anyone.

Nova asks about the song in the next room, whether the first verse refers to the youngest gods, and if these are Sayanna and Palador. Eloquis is impressed, then tells her that at the middle section, it would have asked for the eldest gods, Atelicus and Kellara, and the last section would have required the middle children, Valena, Zephyr and H’esper. Quill heals everyone and accepts Eloquis into his body, making him more resistant to psychic and necrotic magic; he can also speak to Eloquis and ask them questions. Before Oriya can start trying to remove gemstones from the wall, Eloquis asks that she does not, and suggests that they make their way back to the hall where Eloquis can lead them across the tile puzzle safely. The dormitories are on the other side, but it is full of the soldiers that had been convinced by the evil lady to do her bidding, and Eloquis recommends that they do not go there.

As Eloquis had described, when they make their way back to the main room and start crossing the tiled floor, the song changes when they get one-third and again when they get two-thirds of the way across the room. On the far side of the chamber, in a small antechamber and in front of a set of golden doors, there stands a large ten-foot-high statue of Siaska, behind which there are three skeletal bodies. One of the bodies is an Elf in robes, another is a Dwarf and the third a Halfling. Their equipment is rusted except for two items: the elf clutches a beautiful wooden instrument, a bandore (a multiple-stringed lute) that is engraved with stars and the symbol of Siaska, and the other is a smoking pipe engraved with multiple monsters on its side. Eloquis recommends that they take both items, saying that the instrument is enchanted, and that its owner was a good friend of theirs – the owner was able to channel and replicate spells using the bandore. The pipe, they say, can conjure amusing images through smoke. The group decides to take the bandore and pipe.

The gold door in front of them is locked and has a star-shaped crystal keyhole. Nova recalls the key attached to the scroll case and realises that it is the key to this door – they unlock and open it. Ahead is a short hallway with faded portraits of Siaska and the other gods painted onto the walls. Rich tapestries, now faded and worn thin, hang and drape down the sides of the hallway. At the end of the hallway, about twenty to thirty feet away, is a door that is slightly ajar, and an icy cold breeze flows through from it, though there is no noise and no light. Skaldi says that something is very wrong – whatever is behind that door, the gods are staying clear of it. Eloquis tells them that the feeling has been created by the woman as she corrupts the shrine that lies ahead. Oriya casts *Primeval Awareness* but does not believe that there are any Aberrations, Celestials, Dragons, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, or Undead behind the door – instead, she detects a planar presence there: there is something about that room that is not of their world. Nova feels that the shard is in that room.

Eloquis says that they should expect the woman in the next room – she will be wearing torn clothes, like a uniform of the Court of Shadows, but left shabby and worn. Quill sees a vision from Eloquis in his mind: the woman also wears a beautiful, intricate silver mask with relief patterns; it covers her entire upper face and is surrounded by her long dark raven hair. It also covers the woman’s eyes, but she has no trouble seeing, and the surface of the mask swirls with silver patterns, like galaxies. Her clothing reminds Quill of the Court of Shadows knights that they fought in the air ship, but it is tattered as if left in disrepair.

Nova suggests disguising herself as Kalus Starbane in order to distract the woman; she desperately wants to get to the shard of Tiangong. Quill asks if Tiangong would have any power over the shard, and Nova hears in her mind the single word, “Call”. Quill suggests summoning the shard, which Nova tries to do, but it fails; she thinks that she needs to see the shard before she can call it. Nova casts *Disguise Self* to make herself look like Kalus Starbane, then opens the door and steps into the room – as soon as she does, she vanishes from the rest who are hiding in the outer room.

Once, this place would have been a glorious temple to the Star Mother, white granite walls inlaid with veins of glittering crystal, rich drapes of dark blue fabric glistening with thousands of stars, but any peace and serenity these walls had, has long passed. The back wall of the room has collapsed, and a large metal chest protrudes from the wall. There is the vague shape of limbs and armour behind the stone, the centre of which is made from a thick looking crystal, and a faint glowing shape of a tri-bladed throwing disc can be seen behind it, matching in style to Tiangong. However, a strange thick, black, inky substance has spread out like an infection across the other walls and much of the floor, turning the room into a sweeping endless space of empty blackness that absorbs all light into a void of nothing. A numb chill spreads throughout the room, filling Nova with a trembling sense of futility. At the centre of this void is a woman, her skin pale white, with thick veins of pulsating blackness. Her clothing bears a resemblance to the Remnant forces Nova has fought before, but they are torn and shredded, and a mask of silver covers her eyes, her lips painted in dark crimson. “What have we here?” Her voice echoes across Nova’s mind as her lips move. “A little candle clinging to life”.

The rest of the party has watched as Nova has stepped into the room and a curtain of blackness has descended across the doorway – it does not look solid, but they cannot see through it into the room beyond. They immediately follow Nova and feel an agonising cold as they push through the membranous blackness and see the same as Nova – a once beautiful room that is now covered in a black void that seems to stretch out for eternity. The only physical thing that remains is the metal war machine’s chest, hovering in the middle of nothing, with the pulsating blue Tiangong throwing star at its centre. The woman asks them if they have come to preach at the temple, and when Lucius tells her no, she declares it a shame and pulls an enormous blade of dark red energy, six or seven feet tall. “Then let this begin,” she states.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Episode Start
09:33 - Intro
10:50 - Part 1
28:20 - It's a cedille, Kim!
1:07:36 - I'm imagining Quill is doing the Homer Simpson scream.
1:20:23 - Break time/Donations
1:24:04- Fan art video
1:29:17 - Part 2
1:48:56 - I can't believe Kim just said that
2:06:35 - Blood for the blood god, skulls for the skull throne!
2:15:53 - I miss Nightfrost, too!
2:43:10 - Outro/Donations
*feel free to add extra timestamps of significant events!*

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Watch Commander Eloquis
* Voidwitch Elisadra (Woman in Temple of Siaska)

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Siaska
* H’esper
* Palador
* Kellara
* Atelicus
* Sayanna
* Zephyr
* Valena
* Kalus Starbane

## **Featured Locations**

* Myrskyr
	+ The Nighteye

## **Trivia**

* **Lore dump:** Before the Sundering, the gods were real and walked Aerois and people worshipped all of them as a pantheon – you could meet with the gods and each had a sacred domain, H’esper being the god of knowledge and magic. Since the Sundering, the gods no longer walk Aerois and can only be contacted by certain priests. H’esper is a middle child. Atelicus is the older brother. Sayanna is depicted in the murals of the temple as small – she could be a Halfling. Atelicus is depicted as tall, well-built and has stag horns – he could be another race.
* Mark refers to Nova having a “Nathan Drake-style notebook” where she has sketched the floor puzzle. Nathan Drake is a character from the Uncharted video games.
* The Elven ghosts all had solid black eyes. In life, they would have been solid blue, but because the spectres are all shades of grey, white, and black, their eyes appear as solid black.
* Watch Commander Eloquis uses the pronouns they/them. They find the distinction between genders to be strange saying that the old Elves were “just us”.
* Lucius makes a prescient joke when he says that maybe it’s life that is needed to free Eloquis, “Quill, you’re almost on your way out!” An unfortunate joke at best since Quill will perish in the next episode.
* In order for Quill to coat the chain with blood, Mark allowed him to spend one hit dice to do so because he was already injured. For anyone uninjured, it would take two hit dice for them to open a fresh wound.
* Oriya studies the guardian of the waters, discovering that it is resistant to fire and non-magical attacks, it is immune to poison, exhaustion, grappled, paralysed, prone, restrained and unconscious. It is effectively animated water (a Water Weird).
* Bruised ribs (from Mark’s injury table) could be healed with a short rest; the character can take an action or a bonus action but not both, and their speed is reduced by 10 feet until they takes a short rest.
* Quill took damage from Lucius’ Chromatic Orb because he was inside a water being – the cold damage was conducted through it, as would lightning be. The Eldritch Blast hitting the creature did not hurt Quill. Because he is technically underwater and unconscious, Quill is also technically drowning while he is inside the water spirit.
* While Mark is looking something up, there is some discussion about unconscious Quill being spiced and cooked: Voksar Fried Quill.
* **Lore dump:** The youngest gods are Sayanna and Palador. The middle gods are Valena, Zephyr and H’esper. The eldest gods are Kellara and Atelicus.
* **Continuity error:** Mark keeps referring to the multiple stringed, lute-like instrument as a “bandalore”. A query on the YouTube comments for the episode mentions that they could not find this on a search. The High Rollers DND account responded that the instrument was a “Fochlucan Bandore”.
* It was identified that Quill would have some difficulty playing the bandore because of his lack of a second arm. Mark said that he might be able to get a sling made in order to be able to make use of it.
* Lucius refers to lungs as “breath balloons”.
* The pipe they find is a Pipe of Smoke Monsters.
* The woman’s energy blade is described as being like Kylo Ren’s lightsaber.
* Mark described the visuals of the infected temple as similar to one of the Destiny games where “void stuff spills out”.
* A dono question asked what everyone had to associate their characters with a classical instrument (and Mark one of the NPCs), what would it be? Mark said that he knows nothing about musical instruments, Quill would be a chicken drumstick, Sentry would be a saxophone, Nova would be a theremin, Aila would be an electric guitar, and Lucius is a piccolo.
* Another dono question was what is the best cereal? Tom – coco pops (later agreed with Rhi), Rhi – cinnamon grahams, Mark – frosted wheats, Trott – cinnamon grahams, Katie – frosties, Kim – no answer.
* A dono asked Quill not to die… a sad portent.
* A fan art video was played at the end of the stream.