Aerois - Episode 165: Night at the Museum

Katie Morrison as Aila

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Night at the Museum** is the 165th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was pre-recorded and broadcast on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 13th November 2022 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*Nova, Quill, Aila & Fuego have a plan to help rescue the students trapped in the Atlas Academy!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* New merch dropped last Sunday but there are still limited items available (pewter tankard and liquid core dice). Visit FreshMerch.co for shirts, dice & mat, tankards, and Xmas jumpers.
* If you are going to be at PAX unplugged in Philadelphia at the end of this year, go and say hi to Mark who will be there! He only has one thing planned that he cannot yet talk about.
* Follow High Rollers on TikTok, Discord, and other social media (Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc).

### **Recap**

*"Our party have entered the Genasi city of Vortinssar in order to stop plans to transport the city back to the elemental plane (or planet in my case of the astral universe) of Genas. Knowing that this attempt is doomed to failure, thanks to a vision granted by the Storm Eye to Quill (or at least a possible future that this endeavour is doomed to fail and result in the destruction of the city), the party have entered in disguise, appearing as other Genasi, commoners and travelling folk who have arrived here. They have established connections with people called the Seekers, who are basically acting as a sort of group within the city that is trying to oppose the current ruling party members. They are especially opposing the ruler, Harmony, as well as the Valkyrian propaganda artist, Shansara, whom the party have encountered once before. Having made the connection with Norfir, a Half-Elven spy and assassin who was once Lucius’ nanny, as well as Nova’s brother, Tornado (MORON!), who has sort of become the reluctant/clueless/accidental leader of the Seekers thanks to his charisma and good heart (people have put them forward).*
*They have established what missions and objectives they have here in the city having discussed this briefly with the Seekers, they are currently now seeking to increase the influence and positivity towards Aerois within the city as well as locate a number of planar devices that will be used to transport it, and then a number of secondary objectives that will help them in various ways (with various espionage mechanics). By the time this next thing they are doing is over, they will have five days to complete their missions and try to prevent what is about to happen.* *"*

### **Part 1**

*Students are imprisoned in the Atlas Academy but Quill, Nova and Aila have a plan to break them free!*

The party has decided to attempt to rescue the students from the Atlas Academy at night. Aila, Nova, Quill, and Fuego travel through the streets of Vortinssar in the middle of the night and notice the absence of any other citizens but the presence of guards. While there is no curfew in the city, they are stopped numerous times and questioned. Fuego keeps them on side streets through the Fire District, but they must go through a security checkpoint to go into the Earth District.

Quill takes the Wayfinders Guide from Aila and casts *Etherealness* on himself: all the colour and light in the districts, the neon magical paints on the signs of the restaurants nearby, the yellow-red glow from the lava flowing from the statue of Sutur’s hands, even the twinkling lights from the gemstones of the Earth District and the pale blues from the Water District – all becomes grey with a slight purplish-blue haze over everything, and he can now only see sixty feet. Quill has never been in Vortinssar and quickly realises that he will have to keep checking on his position lest he gets lost.

Fuego heads into an alleyway and uses nearby buildings to climb over the wall into the Earth District, but as visitors to the city, Nova realises that it will be safer for her and Aila to have a stamped card in case they are stopped. Julienne goes on a long diatribe about the history of the chilli pepper and eventually has to bribe the guards to let them through (after more arrive to see what is happening), but eventually they make their way towards the Academy and meet up with Fuego again.

Quill, already in the grounds of the Academy, sees many Genasi guards with the occasional Valkyrian rifleman about, but no students – the Academy is on lockdown. He makes his way to the floor where the students’ rooms are and patrolling the corridor, he sees a Valkyrian officer who appears to be covered in magitek gizmos including a visor, and he is flanked by two riflemen. Having studied the Valkyrians, Quill knows the officer to be an Inquisitor – designed to tackle espionage missions, to deal with magical threats, and to perform interrogations. Quill floats into the room above the guards, gets behind them and waits as they move down the corridor. He comes out of the ethereal plane, at which point the guards whip around (having heard him), and Quill quickly casts *Banishment* on the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor holds up a hand with a gem that pulsates, strains and calls, “No!” before moving into an attack position. Nova and Fuego have gone invisible and are still sneaking through the grounds of the Academy.

The Inquisitor pulls out his pistol and a small device, arming and throwing the device towards Quill – when it activates, all sound in a twenty-foot area around Quill goes silent before the device evaporates. He then taps his shoulder, and a crystalline drone flies up before shooting at and hitting Quill. The officer orders the soldiers to capture Quill alive if possible – he wants to know for whom Quill is working. Quill flies away from the soldiers, out of the silenced area, and casts *Banishment* on all three of them – the Inquisitor, raising his pistol, feels the spell and thinks that he will resist it… before all three of the soldiers vanish with a faint popping noise. None of them being native to Aerois, they are sent back to Gideon Prime.

Meanwhile, Nova and Fuego are making their way towards Quill. They pass mainly Genasi guards, but once they enter the buildings, the guards are dressed like normal guards, but Fuego tells Nova that they are Elemental Attack Ops troops and should not be messed with. As they make their way into the dorm area, the guards become the more familiar Valkyrian Rifle Corps and magical Genasi.

Nova suddenly gets a message from Quill: “Clear skies. Spotted but dealt with. Should I be worried about more guards? xoxoxoxoxoxo” Nova responds with, “More guards each level, increasing in rank. Do you need us to come to you? No unusual movement. Xo. Butts.”(see Trivia)

Quill starts to knock on one of the magically sealed and locked doors and hears someone stirring within the room. Quill whispers to the occupant that he is there to take them away from the Academy but is met with scepticism that it is a trick; Quill reassures him that he is with the Seekers and the student tells him that they are locked in and do not have a way to get out. The student also tells Quill that the students will be jumpy and spooked easily, plus Sampson is in his wheelchair – the student isn’t sure how Quill is going to get them out of there. Quill dispels the magic on the door, but it is still locked. He removes the magical seal on all the doors which also removes the magical alarms on them and is joined by Nova and Fuego as he completes the removal of the last magical door seal and is panicking about not having any way to unlock the doors physically. Nova and Fuego go down the corridor and release the imprisoned students (although Nova struggles with the task). As they finish the last door, there is the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps coming up to their floor. It appears that the Valkyrian troops have checked in with each other, and the banished troops have alerted the remaining ones to the break in.

All the doors are opened, and the students are assembled – five students between the ages of 15-19, one in an ornate iron and wood wheelchair, another apparently sick with some sort of flu, cluster around Quill and panic at the sounds of the footfalls that are approaching. Before they can decide to return to their rooms, Quill casts *Etherealness* on himself and the five students, leaving Nova and Fuego to go invisible. Quill takes the students to safety as Nova and Fuego head to the roof of the dormitory building, followed by the sound of heavy armoured boots and the noise of elemental energy and magic being summoned. They reach the roof which is flat with a ventilation shaft in the middle of the building that goes down about 400 feet, and the main building on campus is about a 100-foot drop from the roof of the dorm building (which is also 100 feet away). The main building appears to be some sort of museum and has a flat-topped roof surmounted by a large glass pyramid with a giant globe in the middle – the building itself is 300-feet high. There are multiple lights and floodlights around the grounds. Other than the museum, there is no nearby building, and there is no way down from the roof on which they find themselves. The guards are seconds behind them.

Nova asks Fuego if he can look after himself, but he is in disbelief that Nova would bring him to the roof and then abandon him. She tells him to stay where he is and to be as quiet as possible, so he moves away from where the guards will come out and flattens himself against the building. Nova sees a well-equipped magitek knight leading a group of the rifle corps burst onto the roof – she cancels her own invisibility to get their attention, then *Thunder Steps* away with a booming noise (that echoes through the city) to the building across the grounds. Aila, realising the danger of the loud noise reverberating across the city, pulls out The Howling Tempest and begins to cast *Control Weather* to bring in a storm that will hopefully give some context to the thunderous noise. Looking for a way to escape, Nova peers into the glass side of the pyramid in front of her and sees, suspended from the roof, a model of the first Air Genasi winged glider – she runs towards the glass as force rifle shots ricochet off the ground near her then hears the Valkyrian officer, a Phase Knight(see Trivia), summon a *Dimension Door* and appears ahead of Nova.

Lucius and Sentry are killing time in the safe house, playing cards.

The Phase Knight pulls out a sword hilt and activates it, creating a purple force blade. Nova dodges two attacks before *Misty Stepping* onto the glider inside the museum – with the sudden added weight, one of the ropes that holds the glider suspended from the roof snaps. The glider begins to swing, Nova slides and falls awkwardly onto the miniature statue of Atlas (to whom she apologises). Nova receives a *Sending* from Quill asking if she is ok after hearing the loud noise. She indicates in her response that she is being chased by the guards and that the skies are not clear. The Knight stares at Nova through the glass as she begins to climb down the statue and stares at a mezzanine level that she may be able to make with a successful jump – the Phase Knight, Octavius, uses *Blink Step* to teleport to the top of the plane before falling onto the same statue as Nova. The Knight casts *Fly* on himself and moves next to Nova.

Lucius and Sentry notice the storm brewing and decide to stay in for the night, playing a card game that the Seekers have come up with, called Coup(see Trivia).

Nova disengages from the Knight, manifests her echo on the observation platform (on the mezzanine level), runs and jumps towards them, landing right next to Tinagong. Octavius tells Nova that she can run but will not get away.

### **Part 2**

*The always flawless planning of the Stormchasers has gone awry! I could put this description into every episode.*

Nova decides that she will be unable to get away from the Phase Knight, so turns to fight him, cutting him with the twinblades and removing his ability to fly. As Nova attacks like a whirling dervish, the blades leave behind scorch lines of gold, silver, and black on the Knight’s armour and body. Nova finishes the surprised Knight off and then runs from the soldiers who are now running into the museum to look for Julienne. As Nova exits the building, a massive storm is overhead, and she sees that the Atlas Academy grounds are swarming with both Genasi and Valkyrian guards, but she manages to slip away and meet up with the rest of the party at the safe house in Coalsmoke Street. Nova and Fuego look exhausted.

It is not long before Norfir arranges a *Sending* to let them know that the city is stirring. Both Julienne and Wisp have been listed as insurgents who have attacked the Atlas Academy, abducted promising young students, and killed multiple guards – they will both have to spend half a day with Kay to establish new identities. There is some concern that because they all went through the checkpoint at the gate together, that they may all have been compromised somewhat. The city is now on amber alert – there is now a curfew, and soldiers are patrolling the streets actively questioning people.

The freed students are grateful and share all they know with the Seekers – they were tasked to be part of a think tank to assist with the calculations and magical formulae of the planar devices. While they do not know where the devices actually are, they do know that they are connected to the elemental leylines that exist throughout Vortinssar, and these are what will power the devices. They also give the party insight into the devices’ systems which will allow them to disable them or to deactivate them (requiring a full reset before they could be used once more). The students are able to get messages to their families to let them know that they are ok and that the Seekers actually helped them, and they hope that word of this will leak out to the wider community.

Nova is disheartened to hear the spin that has been put on their exploits, and to hear that the people actually believe the tweaked truth of what they have been up to – it is not the Vortinssar that she recognises. It is a very somber Nova who sits up thinking for a time while Fuego makes use of Stream’s medical knowledge and abilities to reduce his exhaustion.

The next day, they are visited by Tornado who checks in on them and their progress. He is pleased that they freed the students and that no one got hurt, even if they were compromised. He reassures Nova that she did the right thing, even if she got seen. He makes the point that it matters not if people hate him as long as the city and the people are saved.

Lucius goes to see Kay and gives them the rich outfits that he has purloined, and also asks if they can create two new personas for Nova and Quill. Lucius then gets in amongst people in the street, especially around the vendors, and tries to influence and steer the conversations as they happen. Sentry resumes attempting to find the missing Council members with Goliath, investigating numerous buildings that may be used to keep the council members under guard. Nova, Quill, and Aila all spend about half a day with Kay working on new personas and disguises.

Lucius then decides that he is going to try to work his way (as Azure) into a theatre troupe so that he might be able to use his dramatic performances to sway the population their way – he is, however, offered understudy roles for the main part, but it does open some doors for him. Goliath spends the rest of his time finding people who are badmouthing the Seekers and threatening them with violence if they persist. When Sentry completes her investigations, she believes that she has enough information for them to begin that mission.

She has discovered that a number of council members who directly opposed Harmony and her loyalists were abducted and taken to a secret hiding place in the Central District. It was rumoured that they had been assassinated by Aerosian insurgents and terrorists. The council members are alive: they are being held in one of the top levels of a secure high-rise tower in the Central District, called the Pillar of Open Skies. It is an architectural wonder and used by the city government as a research facility. It extends from the ground level of the city up to the upper ring and then even higher – it is approximately 5000 feet. The Pillar of Open Skies is well-defended as it researches the elemental magic devices and features that adorn the city: it does have a general public access on the ground level that features a museum, showroom, and general worker’s area, but has more exclusive entrance from the upper ring that leads to the executive suites, arcane studies test chambers and meeting rooms.

Norfir is not surprised that the council members are being held there – very few people have the permissions necessary to access the upper floors. She tells them that they will either need a very good reason to go to the top floors of the tower, or that they will have to use subterfuge or espionage. There is a landing area at the top for private air ships but it is not currently in use.

Before the night curfew is enforced, Aila spends her last hours breaking screens and tear down posters to influence the city in their direction. Nova spends time with Bolt and the rescued students to attempt to work out where the planar devices could be (Bolt is also attempting to work out how the devices work, what might go wrong with them, and how they are powered). When Nova mentions that she believes (from Quill’s vision) that the devices may be in the statues, Bolt agrees that this is the most likely place for them to be placed – the statues are placed on leylines and energy coalesces there. Bolt says that they had discounted the devices being put there because the statues are such an important part of the city – the devices would have to be placed under the statues or inside them, and they have not seen any evidence of work being done on or near the statues themselves. It is possible that there is a chamber underground.

Lucius later realises that his plan to open up a window in the theatre will not work in the five days they have remaining, so he speaks to Norfir to see what can be done to increase his fame around the city. He considers advertising that the council members are being held captive and must be rescued. Sentry spends time in the city attempting to counter the stories that the Genasi government is putting out about them by putting out her own stories about “Shamsara” (“The Lying Star”) and what the government does not want the people to know.

Quill uses the Eye of the Storm to ask “where the planar teleporters will be when they are activated”.

*Quill sees a vision of four different locations at once, overlaid upon each other and the devices are being placed simultaneously. He does not see where in the city they are – the visions, laid on top of themselves as they are, are blurry and hard to define, although there are similar elements to each one. Quill sees chambers with stone walls and magitek throughout them. He gets the sense of being underground. There are strong smells and other sensations – one smells strongly of sea water, another gives off intense heat, he can see certain types of rock and other materials with a glassy look to it in another, and there was old carved stone in yet another.*

Even though the information is confusing, and he does not know where they are, he describes the rooms to Norfir, Tornado, and to other members of the Seekers. This information is disseminated to other members who start to look for the places described. After discussion with Norfir, Quill gets the idea that the devices are incomplete, and the different parts will be brought together and assembled in the individual locations.

With the rest of the night, the exhausted party gets some well-deserved sleep.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:04:41 - Dun Duns
0:05:38 - Part 1
1:37:41 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Fuego
* Goliath
* Stream
* Kay

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Shansara
* Harmony

## **Featured Locations**

* Vortinssar
	+ Atlas Academy
	+ Coalsmoke Street safe house
	+ Various places around the city

## **Trivia**

* The Tweet to announce this week's episode on YouTube was "Nova, Quill, Aila & Fuego have a plan to help rescue the students trapped in the Atlas Academy! Will it be successful? Hint: it involves corridors." This is a reference to the High Roller's previously poor results when faced with this dangerous arch-enemy.
* Trott opened a Mr Kipling cake just after the Dun Duns – it was very loud and obvious, despite the fact that Trott tried so hard to get it done before the end of the intro. Tom promised to keep this in the podcast because that is his job, and he refuses to put effort into it (for which he then received friendly fire from Trott for it sometimes not going up on time, and from Kim for not being able to spell Genasi – which Tom spelled “Genassi”). According to Kim, Tom said that he “googled Genasi” although she is not sure exactly what he googled…
* Mark said that he wrote out lots of mechanics and missed out on a lot of things last session. He required all but Lucius to mark off two hit dice before the game began because they had progressed objectives, but Lucius spent his getting a flashback token.
* Mark gave Rhi a present from Misspenart – a book titled “Dice superstitions and cleansing rituals”.
* Kim spent the first 22 minutes of the stream with an “S” sticker on her forehead (that she had placed there). No one said anything to her about it, and she had forgotten it until she scratched her forehead. It said S for Small.
* Tom was worried that Vortinssar, having come from another plane, may cause problems with *Etherealness*, but Mark advised him that while it is on Aerois, it is on the material plane.
* Kim tried to make up details like an “all hours gymnasium” at the Atlas Academy that would provide a reason for Aila to ask for entry. Mark did not allow this because Aila is not a student. Kim countered with the idea that Aila is a touring Battle of the Elemental Mountain contestant and that she would like to use the gym with her mate, Fuego. It is a high DC deception check because while their stories are plausible, it is also the middle of the night.
* The Valkyrian Inquisitor has a +9 to Charisma and rolled a 22 (exactly what was needed) to avoid being banished the first time.
* Tom and Kim said that they would use the remainder of their sending message sending “xo” to each other, and Kim added that she would probably add a “butts”, too.
* Mark initially describes the Valkyrian knight as a “Tech Knight” before then describing him as a “Phase Knight”. Both terms are used again later. He used a book given to him by Roll & Play to choose a random name for the Knight, which was Octavius. He has an ability called “Blinkstep” that allows him to teleport 60 feet.
* Coup is an actual card game that started out as a Kickstarter campaign but is now freely available in shops. Katie had flashbacks of Mark getting very angry at Kim when playing the game and calling her a “fucking moron”.
* Nova’s eclipse twinblades have a special ability: “As a bonus action you can expend one charge and create either a crescent of light or a crescent of darkness for one minute or until you lose concentration (just as if you were concentrating on a spell). If you create both a crescent of light and a crescent of darkness, they merge to become an eclipse moon instead.” There is no indication what this does as of yet.
* The crescent of darkness (Bonus Action to summon) has the following ability: you create a 30-foot aura of magical shadows around you that create dim light. At the start of your turn, you can choose one creature within the aura to gain half cover until the start of your next turn or a creature to take 2d6 necrotic damage.
* Kim has to roll to make the jump to the observation platform and rolls a nat 20 – it takes a while for her to react, but she is delighted.
* The pre-part 2 return opened with Mark saying to one of the players, “You just wish you were a man.” There is no other context for this comment.
* The crew was given laser pointers (presumably for later use) and played with them throughout the episode.
* Kay’s disguises become less effective the more times they have to provide one.
* The alert level has increased because there was fighting in a public place. The alert level will decrease every day that there is not a problematic encounter.
* Mark was not expecting each day to take an entire session.
* Mark made death saving throws for Octavius - he rolled five times... we're not sure if he survived or not. Either way, it was a close thing!