Aerois - Episode 117: The City of Glass Jump

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The City of Glass Jump** is the 117th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 4th July 2021 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Horizon's course is set and the team jump into the City of Glass above an active battlezone! HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY AEROIS and thank you so much to you all for your kind messages and support! x*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Today the team is celebrating 3 years of the Aerois campaign (the three years was on Thursday, but this is the first Aerois episode since then). Mark thanked everyone who had sent in special anniversary art, posted well wishes and who had gifted subs for the occasion.
* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Rhiannon announced a special surprise for Mark: a third anniversary video featuring personal messages from mods and community members on behalf of all the viewers. Featuring in the video were: Kirsten Solumia, Pepper (AKA Pizza), Viztee, ReeKorl, Rosie, Pumpkan, Fael, Matt C, Kuupa Ork, Crispi, Sarimanna, peggells, elennare, Bandai Nenzai, Spec, Zephyr, 39SaltyCookies, Zaka and Nightjar.
* Today's sponsor is D&D Beyond. They now have a dark mode available for character sheets. Use the HR link to assist HR when creating an account or making purchases.

### **Recap**

*"After returning to the Skycity of Horizon, rescuing Valla Valkyrian from the astral ship, The Tassadar, and returning home to many questions and potential new goals, the party have set forth towards the city of glass in the hopes of rescuing the guardians assembled there by Herald ahead of Sentry. After being attacked in Horizon's streets, the party now know that a faction of guardians have become corrupted, and become servants of the old god Hadar, a hungering entity that threatens the multiverse. Calling themselves the Dominators, these corrupted constructs feed off magical energy and their leader, Overlord Voracitor, a guardian once called Breeze whom the party had encountered, greatly desires the Prime Matrix that Sentry now holds.*
*As they near the continent of Gisella, where the City of Glass is located, the Horizon scouts report that the peninsular ruin is under attack by enemy forces: a fleet of airships and ground troops held off by a small rebel force and guardians assembled there: they will not last long. The party decide haste is necessary and to head down to ground level first, leaving the mobile skycity to deal with the airship fleet."*
### **Part 1**

*Horizon's course is set and the team jump into the City of Glass above an active battlezone!*

Horizon is slowly moving towards the northern peninsula of Gisella wherein lies the City of Glass: there is about an hour before the city is in position. From where they are, the party can see a fleet of airships around the City of Glass, and scouting reports have indicated that there are massed ground troops and vehicles with magitek weaponry positioned around the entrance to the city; it is only because there is a natural choke point that the defenders have been able to hold the troops off thus far. The party is keen to get to the ground after receiving a garbled message back from Herald, fighting someone inside the City.

Lieutenant Reyn, their liaison in Horizon, comes to advise them that they will be approaching the Gisellan continent from the east. Reyn supplies them with a map of the area (each square is 2 miles across, and would take 1 hour to traverse), telling them that the flags indicate where they know a ground assault is happening; the wagons are magitek cannons/artillery with extreme long range, currently bombarding the rebel encampment outside the city, and it is anticipated that they will attack Horizon and anything that attempts to leave the city. Lucius is aware that if the party leaves Horizon to attack the ground, that Horizon will not have assistance with the airships that will inevitably attack it: they know that the Stormchaser has been delayed, and Thalia and the Twinstar Longbow are in Gusthaven.

They decide to take a sky skiff from Horizon to get to the City of Glass because Horizon cannot get closer than 2000 feet from the ground, but they will also take windchutes (parachutes) with them just in case. They also give Reyn all of their feather fall tokens to ensure that they do not accidentally activate while they are trying to drop in.

There is some discussion about taking out some of the artillery before going into the City of Glass, which will benefit both ground forces and Horizon, but eventually, it is decided to attempt to make for the crater to the east of the defenders' camp just outside the city. Reyn mentions that the terrain outside the city is difficult since it has been bombarded and is full of craters, and that the City of Glass will likely also be difficult to traverse with several of the buildings (tall spires made entirely of glass), being broken and shattered, leaving razor-sharp glass in the streets, and making travel very dangerous. There has definitely being fighting inside the city since Reyn's scouts have seen flashes from spells, but they have no idea of numbers inside the city.

There is some concern about extraction from the city once they have achieved their mission; Reyn says that if they can secure a ground location, they can send mages down to facilitate removal of people using the teleportation circle in Horizon.

Quill suddenly notices the statue in the glade to the east of the map and realises that it is familiar: it is mentioned in the scroll that he has been carrying around since he met Sentry (he found it lying next to her). The scroll says, "And so the knight and his squire were laid to rest in a tomb a day's pilgrimage from the City of Glass. The lance they had used to defend our world stood between them." It is a treasure map! Quill now wants to land near the statue, but Lucius says that there is no tactical advantage to this because people will die if they do not stick to their original plan. The rest of the party agrees with Lucius.

Reyn points out the encampment to the south-southwest of the map and indicates that this is the encampment of the Sanzesian Commonwealth forces. Quill keeps trying to convince the party that they should go to the statue, but Lucius and the rest point out that time is short, and that they can do much more good at the City itself; Quill finally agrees that they can think about the statue and artillery later. Reyn gets a message and tells them that Horizon is coming into weapons range, and that they must leave before it is too dangerous for them. He leads them to the sky skiff, the equivalent of a rowboat, a small sloop with two small sails and a small prow, a wheel and tiller for navigation, with a few lines connecting to a small, low-powered aetherium engine. The sides of the skiff are reinforced with metal, and there are no weapons. Lucius takes the wheel at the helm, Quill is navigator, Nova looks after the engine, and Aila and Sentry stand to the sides. As they take off, Horizon begins to come under artillery attack from down below.

They immediately begin to drift off course because of the smoke and high winds. It is hit by a giant purple beam of force energy from ground artillery and takes significant damage from one beam of three that hits (a huge chunk is torn out of the hull) - the skiff drifts 4 miles off course to the southeast because of the artillery barrage, and Aila begins to repair the skiff, ensuring it will be able to withstand more damage should it get hit again. The skiff's hull is peppered by rifle fire from ground troops, takes minor damage and drifts 2 miles to the west; Quill, Nova and Lucius also take minor damage from stinging blasts.

### **Part 2**

*The Skyskiff has taken many hits but the Stormchasers continue their drop into the City of Glass!*

The skyskiff is slowly travelling down towards the Gisellan peninsula; there are magitek cannons firing from the ground up towards Horizon. There is fierce fighting on the ground, with thick plumes of smoke rising up to meet the skiff. Sentry casts Aura of Vitality on herself, and begins to radiate golden light from where she is standing in the middle of the skiff - as the light touches Lucius, some of his wounds begin to mend. Quill navigates successfully and the skiff moves back towards the encampment. They are starting to move over a section of rocky hills with a forested canopy, and are coming down at a shallow angle, but are still reasonably high up. Lucius tries to move the skiff to the north of the hills in order to avoid some of the incoming artillery fire, but the skiff needs to swerve to avoid explosions from another barrage. One shell hits the helm and explodes in a blinding light, doing significant damage, blinding Quill temporarily and causing the skiff to drift towards the City of Glass. Nova casts Eldritch Blast to triangulate where they are to assist Quill, Aila assists Lucius, and Sentry summons nearby birds to act as an early warning system against the next attack. Sentry also heals Quill with her aura. Quill does not succeed in navigating the skiff, and heads north towards the City; the skiff is getting lower and will soon be at risk of smashing through the glass spires of the city. Lucius suggests that it may be time to jump from the ship.

Lucius pitches the skiff downwards and Aila pulls in all the sails, causing the skiff to fall rapidly towards the ground: the birds alert the crew to some incoming shots which hit the hull, damaging it and knocking it in further towards the city. Smoke obscures their vision as flames begin to lick up the sides of the skiff. Nova (with Quill assisting) casts a portal between the skiff and the ground, having to guess from memory where the ground would be because of the smoke obscuring her vision - Nova, Lucius and Aila take the portal and disappear. Quill, having assisted, cannot take the portal, so Sentry tries to grab Quill and jump off, but fails. The skiff smashes through a glass spire, covering both Quill and Sentry with thick chunks of glass debris, and injuring them both significantly - they are both knocked out of the skiff. Lucius, Aila and Nova tumble out of the portal and end up safely on the ground, although they have to duck under cover of an awning to avoid the falling shattered glass spire that the skiff has hit.

Quill and Sentry are both in the air, free-falling - Quill is thrown southeast then east, and Sentry goes to the northeast then east: both are now over open ocean. Sentry ends up under a nearby airship which, seeing a falling golden guardian, begins to fire at her and Quill is buffeted by strong winds but manages to use his wings to control his descent. Sentry is hit by two of the three shots of the barrage from the airship, taking significant damage - she deploys her airchute quite low to the ground, hits the water and begins to sink.

Aila, Nova and Lucius emerge after the rain of glass has ceased, and having seen Quill and Sentry careening off back towards the ocean in the distance. They decide to get somewhere safe and hope that Quill will contact them, given that he no longer has a messenger ring. They know that the City of Glass was once a dense metropolis, a shining beacon of culture before the Valkyrian war. The streets are tight and compact with tall buildings, all of which have been turned to glass causing reflections and distortions. They cannot see any enemies around them, but sounds echo - they heard the echo of the skiff crashing, but can also hear sounds of fighting within the city, they just are not sure where from given the distortion. Aila contacts Sentry by messenger ring - Sentry reveals that she is in the ocean and has been separated from Quill, and that she does not know where he is. Sentry says that she is hurt, but can summon her steed, Alnisyx, and fly back. Lucius tells Sentry that Quill fell outside the city walls, probably into the ocean, somewhere south of her, and that she should go and find him while the rest of the party heads east to the outer wall of the city where they can rendezvous.

Nova makes Aila, Lucius and herself invisible so that they can move through the city more safely. There are still packs of feral guardians roving around the city (they remember there being hundreds of feral guardians under Herald's command last time they were here); they move like packs of wild animals; many of them have disjointed or broken parts, and many having been in ill-repair for centuries. They get safely to the eastern wall of the city without having to engage any enemies.

Quill casts expeditious retreat, and swoops over the top of the water, bringing himself to a stop with his wings without ending up in the ocean. He begins to head north along the coast, sending a message to Sentry to head south along the coast, with the idea that they will meet up and get back to the rest of the party. Quill glides, wings outstretched, using his spell to propel him over the surface of the water to the north. The airship knows that Sentry is in the water and starts to look for her: she heads underwater to summon her peryton, and breaks the surface as it emerges. As she breaches the surface, the peryton, a mixture of metal, branches and vines enshrouded in a golden light, emerges: the airship sees this, and the crew take aim at her with their underhull arcane turrets. Sentry notices that this is not an elite Valkyrian crew - they look to her like normal airship sailors (about 15-20) with some scattered Valkyrian equipment between them. Sentry decides to avoid the airship, so Alnisyx sweeps, dives, ducks, and weaves and presents the crew with a very difficult target to hit: they miss with the first and second shots of the arcane turret and their force rifles. As Alnisyx begins to tire, it slows and makes fewer weaving motions, and while the turret misses, the rifles hit the mount for minor damage. Quill can see this occurring about 100 feet in the distance, and tries to cast Divine Intervention to see if a strong gust of wind will throw the airship off course, but nothing happens.

Sentry uses Lay on Hands to heal herself, and as she draws closer to the City of Glass, she begins to hear or feel loud voices or whispers, something like a chant or song coming from a great distance. Some of the voices are afraid, some are full of rage, some of them are hungry and desperate for sustenance, she can even feel silence from some where there should be a voice, and she can feel this for thousands of them. Feeling this, she glances towards the City of Glass, distracted, and a barrage from the airship connects with the peryton, doing enough damage to destroy it. Sentry begins to fall from the air. As she is about to impact the ground, she casts Misty Step to break some of the fall damage, and skids onto the shore line, churning up dust, rock and dirt, to land outside the walls of the City of Glass. At this point, Quill swoops in, and the rest of the party, having found a defender's ladder, climb up to the battlements.

They see the airship 200 feet in front of them about to engage them in battle.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00 3rd Anniversary with Aerois
1:27 Thank you Video
14:52 Mark has just broken down
16:29 D&D Beyond's gift to HR Aerois
19:27 Mark will remember this
20:39 DUN DUNSSSS
21:35 Recap starts
22:52 Recap ends
23:07 Katie being cute
29:30 Mark/Reyn's cool map
31:07 Map available on Patreon
32:02 Tom throws shade at Kim
32:25 Such nice-looking trade wagons
33:24 Each square is 2 miles
35:32 People with small arms
37:48 Stormchaser is mysteriously delayed
38:29 Gravity is a good friend of mine
41:02 Aila hates falling
41:52 Sentry is a hoarder
44:35 Nova wants to fire
47:26 All ideas are good ideas
50:04 Teleporting at the same time
50:42 Crater will shelter from fire
51:04 Lightning never strikes twice
51:33 You can move your own token
52:14 Quill playing with the token
53:53 Each square involves a roll
54:13 Something about that statue
55:00 It was a treasure map all along
55:43 Treasure hunting or battle
56:20 Sentry's sick burn
57:57 Mark defends Quill
1:01:32 Time isn't on our side
1:02:51 Plan is decided
1:04:57 Quill is the navigator
1:06:28 First sounds of battle
1:07:10 RELEASE!!
1:09:16 Skiff game mechanics
1:11:47 Not as easy navigating
1:12:42 Drifting south
1:14:55 Trott to Tom
1:16:27 Evasive maneuvers
1:17:46 There's no engine room
1:20:07 When it happens
1:20:21 All out barrage
1:23:50 Ready for a mishap
1:27:06 Lucius and Quill will go last
1:27:36 Thanks chat
1:29:31 Roleplaying
1:30:12 Advice on navigation?
1:31:22 Successful navigation
1:32:00 More flavor
1:33:24 Tom's had to go
1:34:23 Everyone's taken an action
1:36:42 BREAK STARTS
1:37:42 Quill's "plan" succeeded
1:49:06 BREAK ENDS
1:53:22 Quill Betrayal level
1:55:53 Barrage and obscured vision
1:58:16 Quill Betrayal level
1:58:48 That's the role play everyone
2:01:16 Speak with the birds
2:04:46 Lucius's voice
2:07:18 Buckle up
2:07:52 Nat 20
2:08:38 Going in blind
2:11:01 Everything rides on Nova's portal
2:12:46 Sentry wants to jump with Quill
2:14:59 Advantage saved the team
2:16:28 Skiff crashes
2:18:12 Quill and Sentry are in the air
2:19:28 Literally flew 4 miles from where they crashed
2:21:02 Heavy barrage on Sentry
2:22:09 Quill's flight pattern
2:34:09 "Alnisyx"/Golden Peryton comes out
2:34:45 Sentry vs. Airship
2:39:47 Sentry blocks with her shield (minus 24 sec)
2:49:52 Remember Divine Intervention everyone?
2:41:56 Should Sentry heal herself?
2:42:42 Sentry hears the guardians' voices
2:44:07 Alnisyx gets destroyed
2:45:06 Misty step
2:45:36 Double jump always works
2:47:01 Episode Ends
2:50:02 Alternative Reality
2:52:19 Outro/Donations
3:01:30 Good-byes

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Dannica
* Thalia

## **Featured Locations**

* Horizon
* Gisella (continent, peninsula)
* Gisella - City of Glass

## **Trivia**

* The episode opened with special music composed for the 3rd anniversary by Matt C ("Stormchaser"), followed by "Stormchasers" byt Kit & Matt C, and "Aerois Metal Cover" by Lukas Ostergaard.
* The special anniversary video was an idea of Kim and Rhiannon, and they were assisted by Nightjar, the other mods and players. Tom's instructions were to "make Mark cry" because "Mark's tears fuel us". When the video opened, Mark's comment was, "what are you doing? Is this an attempt to make me cry? It's not going to work". Thirteen minutes later, after multiple messages of love and thanks, the screen cut to a speechless Mark's tear-streaked face. His response was, "you fuckin' dicks for not telling me about that. I had to deal with Coco's graduation this week, now this. Fuck you, fuck you all!"
* Nightjar was confirmed to be either a bot (or a cat) from the video.
* The Dun Duns were accompanied by "Aerois Theme Cover" by Sam Gibbs, a rock version of the usual theme. The animation had an unusual purple and green tint for the occasion.
* Skyskiff mechanics: 1. Any single player can use their action to adjust the sails to match course or avoid enemy fire. 2. You have to make a straight Str or Dex check without modifiers - on a success, you will give advantage to your choice of either the navigator or the pilot; on a failure, it gives disadvantage. 3. If there are any mishaps with damage, the engine may need to be fixed, which will take one action for the engineer (Nova). 4. The pilot (Lucius) can choose to be either:
	1. evasive: spend an action to try to move the skiff erratically to avoid enemy attacks; make a vehicle check (d20 plus dex or int/air vehicle stat) - on a success, any attacks against you have a disadvantage against the skiff and you have advantage on Dex saving throws - on a failure, the skiff will drift (roll a d8 to determine direction, drift the number of squares equal to the damage divided by 10), or
	2. brace: any player aboard the skiff can use their action to brace for impact - the character takes no damage from the skiff's damage threshold being exceeded, and has advantage on Str and Dex saving throws until the start of your next turn (i.e. if the skiff takes damage over its threshold, the skiff takes it and all of the party takes the excess damage).
* For the skyskiff, Mark used a mixture of stats: he used keel boat stats and the Descent into Avernus damage threshold. Mark rolled a d4 to see which part of the ship he was hitting: (1) the hull (100 hps, AC 15), (2) the helm (50 hps, AC 12), (3) the sails (100 hps, 12 AC), or (4) the engines (50 hps, AC 15). There was a damage threshold of 10. More than 20 damage in one hit results in a mishap (roll on the mishap table).
* During the break, Nightjar posted a link for the HR team directing them to a page where the community had been able to leave messages for the anniversary. Katie mentioned that there were over 200 messages for them.
* The crew commented on the video: Mark was very impressed with ReeKorl's beard, Tom loved Fael's wallpaper, and Mark, Kim and Tom gave a shout out to Pumpkan for her "legendary hat" (before Kim mentioned the Hat War in the Discord).
* Quill tries to cast Divine Intervention, then realises that he has tried this once since H'esper was reclaimed by Siaska, and that it failed. He realises that it will not work, but tries anyway. It doesn't work.
* It emerged during this episode that the scroll that Quill had been found near Sentry's body and had been carrying around since episode 1 was a treasure map referring to a statue on the continent of Gisella.
* Quill had read the scroll out once before, in Episode 29.