Aerois - Episode 13: The Princess and the Pixie

Katie Morrison as Aila

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Mark Hulmes as Sentry

Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Princess and the Pixie** is the 13th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd channel on 28th October 2018 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*The party begin a new chapter and head towards an elven keep that should answer a whole lot of questions!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Sponsors this week are D&D Beyond and World Anvil.
* Thanks to all the people HR saw at MCM ComicCon. Apologies for the cancelled signing session on the Saturday. There was a packed live show on Friday.
* New merch: tote bags (black and white), calendar with artwork from Nina and four paid artists from the community (Viktormon/Viktor Engholm (https://viktormon.artstation.com/, Joma Cueto (https://www.artstation.com/forgingmeanings), Emilia Nakielska (https://www.artstation.com/jezebath), Firely/Olivia Samson (https://twitter.com/fireStash)). Artwork is from Aerois, Lightfall, and various miniseries. One page of Nina's art gives some canon designs for important figures in Aerois' history and key dates for campaign events and cast birthdays.
* Podcasts are being posted on Mondays (first half) and Thursdays (second half). Please leave a rating if you like it.

### **Recap**

"*You had journeyed back to Rosehall, a little settlement where you'd been making friends, meeting acquaintances, doing a little bit of treasure-hunting out in some ruins outside of the town, when you became embroiled in a murder investigation after two of your travelling companions have been murdered by some sort of shadow-jumping assassin. Valla, a young girl that had been travelling with you, had been kidnapped. You set off in pursuit. You recovered her and managed to capture one of her kidnappers alive, and brought her back to Rosehall for justice: the daughter of Brett Brookstone, this patriarchal figure that was very prominent in Rosehall. When you brought her back, interrogated her, and had her arrested, news got out around town, and Brett Brookstone and several of his miners came to try and forcibly take her back and take revenge on you. I would not say antagonized by Quill, but Quill certainly  - yes, antagonized by Quill, Brett Brookstone was driven into a murderous attack on the party and you fought him back, narrowly avoiding death once more. But you managed to capture him, actually rescue him alive after Valla attempted to kill him permanently. You managed to keep him alive, see him arrested, and now you're about to make your way out of town. Aila, having rejoined the party, told them that she might be able to find some answers to her missing clan in a ruined elven palace on the shores of a large lake to the north, called Rosehall, where the village actually gets its name from. And with that it's the beginning of chapter 3.*"
### **Part 1**

*The party begin a new chapter and head towards an elven keep that should answer a whole lot of questions!*

The party comes down in the morning: Arval is the last to emerge. He has secured new clothing, a backpack and travelling gear, and a 10-gallon Suvonnan hat – he has also tidied and braided his beard. Aila and Sentry are still very keen to go to the ruin because Aila thinks that she will get answers from the Elven ghost about her past and Sentry thinks that she might get some information about Solwynn. Quill thinks that they may get answers about the Court of Shadows, now the Remnant; Nova still wants to investigate the ruin to see if paranormal activity is a real thing. Valla says that if it’s an Elven ruin and they were High Elves, she may be able to learn more about magic. Arval says that the High Elves were seen as favoured by H’esper, so if it is a High Elven ruin, there may be more information about H’esper there.

Quill says that they will have to look after Valla, but she would rather more people not get hurt if the Remnant are coming after her and says that she can make her way to Goldthrone and find a Church of Siaska.

They return to the Dalegeld Company to purchase some supplies and overhear Maximillian talking to one of the local farmers. He is excited to see them but calls them troublemakers for what they did to Brett Brookstone (“not that he didn’t have it coming,” he adds). They purchase rations and 3 healing potions. Valla brings out crudely made Wild Elf jewellery and exchanges it for some standard leather armour and 5 gold. Aila praises her for being prepared, Lucius for keeping her daggers sharp, and Nova for her growing up which makes her smile shyly.

Maximillian tells Quill that the Dalegeld Company has a larger store in Goldthrone that will have far more luxury goods including magical goods, aetherium items and larger trade goods. Goldthrone is a mecca for merchants and traders.

They go to Daysa’s blacksmith to get Valla’s armour re-sized and notice the wyvern leather in the back of the shop – Daysa is currently making studs to go into the leather. Daysa’s son, Eman, offers to polish Lucius’ boots and does them for (the exorbitant amount of) 2 silver (with a 1 silver tip). Quill asks if Daysa has had any troubles recently with anyone and Daysa smiles, saying that she has not. She then says that she cannot believe that Brookstone was involved in… she breaks off, looks at Valla, and says that his business in town was more nefarious than anyone had realised. She says that she cannot offer them much but is willing to help them if she can, and she will send the studded wyvern leather armour to Goldthrone when it is finished for them to pick up.

It takes them a day to reach the Rosehall palace ruins on foot. Halfway through the journey, they hear the flapping of wings – it is an Aarakocra in a royal blue robe carrying heavy leather bags flying along the northern road – it does some aerial tricks, salutes them and returns to its flight path. They discuss Quill’s one-eyed and one-winged situation and possibilities for replacement, and Sentry tells them that she will be able to repair Echo given some time.

It is late evening before they arrive at the ruins on the northern shore of Rosewater Lake. The lake, its water a very light pink colour, is huge and stretches out for miles. The palace looks like an old manor house in amongst walled and pristine gardens with roses, bushes, flowers and trees, but the unusual thing is that there are two houses connected by an archway bridge with a corridor inside it and windows along the bridge. There is a 14-foot high stone wall around the grounds, crumbling in some areas; most of the curtains have been drawn, although some are open and they occasionally glimpse a white figure moving around the palace. Quill, with his spyglass, sees that it is a pale-skinned Elven woman dressed in white with white hair – she hovers at one of the windows, seems to look straight at them, then moves away.

Nova and Aila decide to go and knock on the door, but they first encounter a locked metal gate in the wall. They notice a couple of areas where the top of the wall has crumbled away and it is only 10-12 feet high, but generally it is in good repair and looks to have been fixed in a few places.

They ask if Valla can pick the lock because she used to pick locks to get out of the Temple of Siaska – she says she will try, then does it easily – the only remaining barrier is that the gate is rusted shut. Fortunately, Aila pulls the gate open with no problems. They make their way through the gardens and Quill notices the faint sound of the tinkling of bells. Nova sees a glint of metal in the rose bushes nearby, and looks to see a number of old skeletons in remnants of armour that have been half-buried in the gardens. Quill asks if anyone can hear wind chimes and Lucius hears jingling and a faint giggle. Nova moves forwards towards the door and suddenly sees a horrific visage of a woman with a skeletal face in a ragged dress and clothing pulling itself from the door and coming towards her. It feels cold until Nova realises that it is only an illusion – it claws at her a few times, ineffectively, then vanishes when Nova ignores it.

Sentry, Arval and Valla hang back while Nova, Aila, Lucius and Quill are gathered around the door – Quill suddenly feels sleepy, then falls to the ground. Aila starts slapping Quill to bring him around and overhears a high-pitched grunt of annoyance. Once Quill is awake, he hears a voice nearby and knows there is a diminutive creature in the rosebushes nearby – he looks but cannot see anything, it is either well-hidden or invisible. The high-pitched voice comes again, “If you won’t leave, I shall have to take stronger measures”: Aila’s mind starts reeling, the world starts spinning, she starts to see hallucinations – members of her old clan, and a storm raging all around her – she is stunned. Lucius’ eyes are glazing over, too. Quill tells the creature that they do not intend to hurt it, but it tells him that they have to leave; he starts slapping Aila to bring her to her senses, but nothing happens.

Nova talks to where she thinks the creature is, saying that she wants to speak to the ghost, or failing that, the creature – the creature won’t do it. Lucius feels disoriented but realises that there is something playing with his mind and asks it to stop. Quill sees a creature pop into existence that looks no larger than a small doll: it is a slender female figure with green skin, bright yellow hair with little flowers and petals and all kinds of jewellery in its hair – it is wearing almost nothing except a couple of leaves covering its privates, and it's focusing and concentrating. It looks down, realises that it is visible and tells them to go away. Aila is still confused and sees a monster going to attack one of the clan members who helped to raise her, and instinctively takes a swing at it – she tries to hit Lucius, but is slow and confused, so misses. Quill recognises the creature as a Pixie – a creature that came from another world when Aerois was more open to the other planes; he knows that Pixies can also be created from the natural world by Elves and Dwarves. Pixies are nature spirits: they are generally summoned to perform tasks, and this one appears to have been trying to drive them away.

Quill tries to negotiate with the Pixie which is reluctant, but eventually agrees to answer some questions if they will leave. Nova wants to know who the ghost in the ruins is, but before the Pixie can answer, Lucius starts running towards the river, arms outstretched, telling his daddy that he loves him. The Pixie tells Nova that the ghost is an old High Elf noble called Veselvena, she was a princess and went crazy – she instructed the Pixie to keep everyone away. Aila goes back into a stupor: Quill walks towards it with an outraised hand, and the Pixie flies up and backwards because it does not want to be hurt. The Pixie says that it is being compelled to act by the ghost but would like to be freed. The Pixie says that it cannot stop the spell, so they can find another way into the house, knock the Pixie out, or get the party out of the spell; only then can they go inside. Meanwhile, Lucius stops before he gets to the water; Quill tries to convince Lucius to follow him back to the house, but he wants to spend more time with Daddy. Nova casts *suggestion* on Aila and gets her to go into the house and Lucius breaks out of his compulsion.

### **Part 2**

*We're trying to defuse a situation with a Pixie and begin exploring the elven ruins!*

The Pixie needs to try to remove Nova’s *suggestion*, so casts *dispel magic* on all of them*:* this removes the *confusion* that they are all experiencing as well. Aila goes up to the Pixie and grabs it and questions it aggressively – the Pixie tries to cast another spell on her but Aila resists, so Aila flicks it and knocks it out, then places it back in the rose bushes. The front door is locked, so they call on Valla to use her skills again and she unlocks the door.

The name Veselvena is familiar to Lucius: she was a princess, and the daughter of a very affluent family before the Sundering, and her father was King of a particular area with a mountain city. After the Sundering, she became obsessed with planar magic, which Siaska had banned, and her experiments with planar magic got her exiled from Gusthaven to the lowlands. They built her a palace and lovely grounds for her to live in – she was assigned a squadron of paladins and warriors to watch her and ensure that she did not do anything dangerous. Lucius’ nanny had told him the story of how Veselvena had managed to contact another world or planet and fallen in love with a handsome Elven prince from that world called Prince Swiftsong; they dreamed of being together and spoke to each other regularly. Veselvena found solace, compassion and peace with the prince and tried to find a way to bring him to Aerois, breaking Siaska’s ban on planar travel. Something went wrong with the ritual when it was performed, the soldiers had to stop it, and in doing so, everyone died. This is now used as a cautionary tale against the use of planar magic. Lucius’ nanny used to tell him that the prince looked like him.

Valla suggests that Veselvena is still a ghost because she is still looking for her lost love; Quill suggests that after all this time, she is probably mad.

As they enter, the house smells old and dusty. The entryway once would have been a grand hall but is now in a state of disrepair. There are faded paintings in the hallway: one is of a relatively plain Elven woman in an elegant gown, sitting in a chair; another is a strange landscape that does not look like it belongs in Aerois – there are strange-looking flowers, and the grass is a bluish hue (this is not a plane that Nova is familiar with). There is a door down the hallway in front of them and two side doors.

Quill casts *detect magic* as a ritual. Arval follows them, flinching at every shadow and ready to shoot at anything with his crossbow. Quill notices a little hole appear in the air; a small grey hand, like a child’s hand, reaches out and grabs Quills’s spyglass, drags it through the hole and the hole disappears. Shortly afterwards, another portal appears, and a gem is plucked off Lucius’ outfit before it vanishes. Nova sees, at floor level in front of the door directly ahead of them, a creature with a tiny body, head much larger than its body, big white eyes, goblin-like ears and teeth, and long arms: it has Quill’s spyglass under one arm, and is biting on the gem it has just stolen. When it realises that Nova can see it, it screams, makes a larger portal and jumps through it.

Nova opens the door at the end of the hall – it leads to a long corridor with a grand staircase going up to a landing on a second floor that overlooks the lower level. They hear a whispered noise before two figures that could once have been Elves emerge from the wall in front of them: the figures have sunken and gaunt faces, wear ragged armour that appears to have been blasted by energy, and carry great curved swords. Valla pulls one of her daggers and moves back behind Sentry, not knowing what to do. The two ghosts surround Nova: she is hit and feels the life energy sucked out of her. Valla attacks one of the ghosts with magic, and as it turns to look at her, its demeanour changes, “You!...”

With a mix of spells and physical damage, they destroy both ghosts. During the battle, Nova and Quill are hurt and unable to be healed. Lucius asks Valla what she is, but she does not know why she would be special. Nova asks if she ever dreams of other worlds, but Valla says that she does not dream that much. Quill asks her about the painting of the other world in the hallways, but she has never seen anything like it before. Lucius says that they must protect Valla at all costs.

Quill recognises that the creatures were undead and that he and Nova have had some of their life force drained; it should return after they have had a rest. Arval lets loose a crossbow bolt well after the creatures have died and is clearly disturbed and not looking well: he faints shortly thereafter. They discuss whether they should leave, but Aila wants to know more about her people, Nova wants to know if she can bring Jassavir back, and Valla wants to know more about her past.

Aila reminds Nova that Veselvena died because of her use of planar magic: they are all concerned that Nova will be responsible for injuring them with her curiosity about planar magic. There are doors to the left and right or the stairway going up. They go into the room to the right – it is an old study with a strong smell of rot and decay. The wall has broken, admitting the weather and natural overgrowth into the room: the bookshelves have long been ruined. One of the bookshelves covered a secret compartment, which is open, and there is a dark black scorch mark leading from it, lying in which is a bloated decaying corpse. There is a door on the far wall next to the secret bookshelf.

With his *detect magic* running, Quill sees a small metal box in the secret compartment radiating a glow. In the compartment are shards of glass of broken potion bottles, and a small metal jewellery chest inlaid with swirling patterns of the sea and sky and wind. It is locked: there is a key slot and a combination lock with four numbers. There is a faint glow of abjuration magic from a ring inside the box. Valla manages to unlock the box: there is a pouch of rubies and sapphires worth 300 gold as well as a ring.

Quill *identifies* the ring: it is an old ring and was manufactured just after the Sundering, probably in Gusthaven or one of the other skycities, to be used as a form of protection by the nobles of the city. Fearing that the Court of Shadows and the Remnant were still around, the Elves equipped many of their heirs with them as a subtle defence: it is called a Barrier Ring. Quill equips the ring.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:02 - Episode Start
11:43 - Intro
14:21 - Part 1
1:22:11 - Break time/Donations
1:30:00 - Part 2
2:44:46 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Arval Dagos
* Daysa Goodsmith
* Maximillian
* Valla

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Brett Brookstone
* Prince Swiftsong
* Veselvena

## **Featured Locations**

* Rosehall
* Rosewater Lake
	+ Ruins

## **Trivia**

* Halloween episode for 2018, featuring Mark Hulmes as Bowsette, Chris Trott as Kylo Ren, Kim Richards as Ms. Marvel, Tom Hazell as Ramona Flowers, and Katie Morrison as Merida.
* The Arcane Chromat draws magical energy from colour.
* Evangeline, Arval’s crossbow, is described as “double-ended” meaning that there is a mechanism for firing on the top and bottom of the crossbow and he can rotate it to fire twice. Tom thought there was a firing mechanism at the front and back of the crossbow so that if fired, Arval would shoot an enemy and himself at the same time. Makes sense, Tom.
* Aila indicates that there is something for everyone at the haunted ruin (except for Quill). She suggests that he might find a glass eye or a wing. All he does is lose his spyglass and not take a book of H’esper.
* Mark notes that Rosehall now has 3 horses… “some of them” made it back.
* The normal cost of polishing boots would be 1 copper for both boots according to Mark, so Lucius paying 2 silver (with a 1 silver tip) means that he was really ripped off.
* Quill bemoans the fact that he only has one eye. Arval tells him that in Goldthrone or the skycities, there are people that could use magic to fix his eye or wing, or that the same people could make him a magic eye. Quill seems intrigued by the idea of a magic eye. “Can we get a magic eye, is that possible?” asks Aila, before adding, “And a magic wing! You’d be even better than before! You’d be like a half robot man!” Sentry mentions that she can see through Echo’s crystal, so it may be possible to make an eye for Quill with similar technology.
* Sentry tells Lucius that the Dwarves built the Guardians.
* Mark says the bridge between the manor houses at the ruin is like the “Bridge of Whispers” in Venice. It is actually called “Bridge of Sighs” and connects the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before they were imprisoned, and the suggestion was that prisoners would sigh at their final view of the beauty of Venice through the bridge’s windows before being taken to their cells.
* Quill’s spyglass is a short spyglass: a bit dark and blurry, possibly cracked.
* Valla (Mark) rolls a natural 20 on her lock-picking for the gate.
* Quill rolls a natural 20 on his nature check to identify the creature as a Pixie.
* Most of the planes that are described in Nova’s book are of older worlds or very dangerous planes: planes of shadow and death, or old forgotten cities covered in dust on grey moons where skeletons and undead roam.
* Aila’s weapon The Howling Gale has a minor enchantment, but is considered a non-magical weapon.
* Valla gets a natural 20 when she attacks one of the undead creatures in the mansion.
* Arval is terrified of ghosts and never had the stomach for ghost stories since he was a boy.
* Mark says that Sentry is not a robot: she has a sentience, but there could be theological debate about whether she has a soul. She has the same spirituality as many others.
* **Item description: Barrier Ring**: As a bonus action, the wearer can create a magical spectral shield as long as they have one hand free. Whilst active, the wearer gains a +2 bonus to AC and is considered to be wielding a shield. If they are not proficient with shields, they suffer no penalties. The shield lasts for 1 minute and can be conjured twice per day.
* Mark gives 200 XP each at the end of the episode for uncovering the manor, finding the barrier ring and killing the spectres (a very small amount).
* This was the first week that there was Twitch integration for D&D Beyond with character sheets.

## Notes

1. ↑ Recap was briefly interrupted by argument, with Trott, Katie, and Kim all agreeing Quill did antagonize Brookstone.