Aerois - Episode 108: Aerosians... Assemble!

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Aerosians... Assemble!** is the 108th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 11th April 2021 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Gusthaven is under attack once again and the Aerosian Avengers are here to clean up all the mecha dragons and crab giants!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players
* Mark has written some lyrics for today's D&D Beyond ad-read (see Trivia)
* A shout out to Crispi for the giveaway this week on the Official Discord of some copies of Candlekeep Mysteries and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

### **Recap**

*After the revelation at the leaders' summit that two major factions of Aerois have already joined with Kalus Valkyrian, as well as Quill's vision that Kalus' plan to use the World Engine would fail, the party took a moment to decide their next steps. Nova was reunited with her family - her mother Breeze, her father Wade, and her sister Aurora, though her brother Cloud is still missing. The family revealed that Vortinssar had indeed been given a vote on the city's allegiance, and that propaganda and a lack of understanding had swayed many genasi towards Kalus' side. Professor Jocelyn Whitsong, Nova's old professor, also revealed that the Cypher Academy, a shadowy organisation working alongside Vortinssar's Atlas Academy, may have been working with Kalus on a deeper level.*
*Speaking with the remaining leaders of the summit, vague lines of allegiances were drawn, though some parties remain undecided. Before these discussions could be continued however, Lucius and Prince Aridan both received a Message that Gusthaven was under attack. Dannica Bloodfire teleports the party and the Skyprince along with the blue dragon Faelissa and the druid Shepherd Parick back to Gusthaven where they discover it is under attack by magically enhanced humanoids and strange dragon-like constructs, all bearing the markings of Xarkira.*
*With three major locations under attack, the party decide to head to the docks to try and protect The Stormchaser and help Thalia, hoping that they can provide more support; Prince Aridan and his knights fly to the aetherium refineries, whilst the druid Parick heads to the city centre to try and heal, and slow down the enemy until the party can arrive to support. With The Stormchaser and Thalia under siege, the party are in the midst of the Battle of Gusthaven...*
### **Part 1**

*Gusthaven is under attack once again and the Aerosian Avengers are here to clean up all the mecha dragons and crab giants!*

Combat continues from last week. A rundown of the current battlefield: the Stormchaser is in the airship skydock on Gusthaven, her crew running around the deck with weapons at the ready and Oriya at the helm to coordinate attacks. Giant Sentry is on the deck of the Stormchaser next to Kamarra and one of the hulking crab-like brutes, with Aila also on deck facing down a giant metallic dragon construct. Quill and Lucius are both flying, being assailed by two strange creatures with manta ray-like wings and another of the large dragon constructs. A number of other creatures line the side of the docks, and Nova is currently inside the hanger with Captain Thalia and the Twinstar Longbow, which is being attacked by one of these brutish creatures and two more smaller ones. Above the hangar, the wizard Azaria Perel is also trying to offer some support, having originally created a barrier to try to keep the monsters from the Twinstar.

Aila decides to hit the dragon in its face twice, and does so - it takes both physical and lightning damage. Nova creates a wall of light to make it harder for anything to approach the Twinstar Longbow, all enemies failed their saving throws, taking full damage and being blinded. Lucius casts a cone of cold that he converts to acid, hitting one of the dragons and two shock troops - the second shock troop fails his saving throw and melts. Azaria flies across to the Stormchaser while Quill tries to escape the two flying manta soldiers and lands on the deck - he gets his future self to cast banishment on the second dragon to the port side of the Stormchaser, and the dragon vanishes with a faint pop. Sentry tries to attack the brute, misses with her first attack and crits on her second, doing massive damage, killing it. Quill is attacked by the two flying manta soldiers, but they miss; Thalia shoots at the brute, then runs for the Twinstar with Kyrie and Big Cat.

The dragon to the starboard of the ship shoots his mouth weapon at Lucius and Aila, both save but Lucius loses concentration and stops flying - he lands on the edge of the ship and manages to clutch onto the side without falling off Gusthaven. The last shock troop clambers onto the ship and attacks Aila, hitting her once. The brute in the hangar stumbles through the wall and swings at anything it can find, missing everyone, remaining blind; the two shock troops at the hangar stumble backwards and remain blind. One of the wolf pack stumbles towards Aila, having failed against the dragon's malevolent presence; the rest of the crew collectively fire at the dragon, doing moderate damage.

Quill receives a mental message:

> *"This is one of Prince Aridan's knights. We're encountering very tough resistance. This dragon is proving more than we can bear. We may need someone to assist us". Lucius also receives a message: "Brother, we're getting bogged down. This druid that you've sent - we're not able to keep them off too long. The citizens are being attacked, this dragon is causing untold destruction. We may need assistance."*
>
>

Aila hits the dragon twice and it takes minor lightning damage. Nova moves into the Twinstar Longbow, but the blinded brute manages to clip her for minor damage; she shoots some of the wall of light at the brute and hits. Lucius tells everyone through the Messenger Ring about his message from Moonstar and calls to Oriya to get the ship moving - she says if they can finish off the dragon, she can go, and prepares the crew. Lucius, in the meantime, throws a chromatic orb at the dragon which just misses with his dichromancy almost finishing off the wounded creature, then scrambling back onto the ship. Azaria throws a ray of frost at the dragon, not realising that it is immune to cold. Quill heals Lucius, himself, Sentry, Aila, Kamarra and one of the wolf pack.

From behind the near-dead dragon construct, a beam of light appears as a figure arrives accompanied by a creature: a familiar-looking woman with long dark hair, wearing dark red and back robes and a face-plated crown that curls up in spikes, she is holding a long-bladed staff: it is Xarkira. Beside her is a large metallic spider-like robot. Xarkira surveys the battlefield, saying "It seems you have fared far better than I expected. I was hoping my little encounter would wear you down a little before my arrival, still, no matter!" Xarkira casts polymorph on the heavily-injured dragon construct, turning it into a large metallic triceratops and giving it a brand new health pool. Sentry moves up to the triceratops and hits it twice doing considerable damage. Xarkira casts Mind Whip on Sentry and Aila. Quill is attacked by the manta soldiers who miss with an acid spit and a javelin, one acid spit and one javelin hits. Thalia straps in and waits for Nova to boost the engines. The triceratops misses Sentry and Aila, Xarkira points her finger at Quill and the spider-like being scuttles onto the ship towards him, hitting Kamarra once (not being able to reach Quill) and fires a beam of force at Quill from one of its eye stalks; the shock troop misses Aila. The brute is blindly hammering on the Twinstar Longbow, and one of the manta soldiers can see again, the other still being blinded. Aila attacks the shock troop, throwing him over the side of the ship and snapping his neck, killing him; she then attacks the triceratops and does moderate damage to it, finally sending a message through the Messenger Ring to Nova to advise her that Xarkira is outside. Nova uses wall of light to blast the brute trying to get into the Twinstar Longbow and kills it, then moving to the engine room and seeing the disabled/non-functioning engine.

Lucius casts Vitriolic Sphere against Xarkira but sees there is a 10 foot sphere around Xarkira that the acid will not touch; it explodes on the triceratops which then reverts to the dragon construct and melts away. Azaria folds her arms, looks to the large spider creature and Xarkira, then flies to the side to observe the battle. Quill casts Expeditious Retreat on himself, then flies next to the spider creature to cast shocking grasp on it and flies 50 feet into the air to get away. Xarkira flies onto the deck of the ship and casts Prismatic Spray - Lucius tries to counterspell at 7th level, Xarkira counterspells Lucius' counterspell - the spray hits Sentry, Aila, Lucius, Penny and two of the crew. Penny manages to avoid the spell, Sentry takes acid damage, one of the wolf pack starts to turn to stone, Aila and Lucius take fire damage, and the second crew member dies to poison damage.

### **Part 2**

*Someone incredibly dangerous enters the battle for Gusthaven and tries to intercept Quill!*

Sentry removes the magic effect on the petrifying Wolfpack member via Cleansing Touch and casts shield of faith on herself; Xarkira shakes her head, saying "You had the perfect opportunity to attack me, yet you saved this insignificant individual. Why?" Sentry responds with, "He's not insignificant. He's part of all of us! Get off this ship!" to which Xarkira retorts "And this is why you will lose". Xarkira casts Tasha's Mind Whip on Aila and Sentry and hits. The two manta soldiers try to hit Quill with acid spits and javelins - he shields, so all attacks miss. Thalia shouts to engineering, "Nova, it would be a very good idea if we could get moving now! Kyrie, Big Cat, get ready!" and readies her turn to take off when the engines are brought back online.

The spider, a "Retriever", runs 30 feet up the rear mast, just out of range of Quill for melee attacks, spitting fine filament webs out of its mouth which Quill avoids. The shock troop that can't see runs along the side of the Stormchaser towards the boarding plank. Lucius and Oriya direct the Wolfpack to concentrate their fire on Xarkira, who is amused as the bolts hit the sphere surrounding and protecting her. Aila takes some shots with her bow at the spider creature and hits once for minor damage - she sends a message to the group that she can't hurt Xarkira, asking what their strategy is and where Nova is. Nova is working on the engines - she knows that the devil or demon is bound into the engine and that they work because the devil/demon is angry, but it is currently almost as if the bound creature is asleep. She puts her hands on the engines and blasts them with a high level spell, and feels the engines begin to warm up before they erupt in an infernal flame. The roof of the warehouse breaks away as the astral ship breaks free from the building.

Lucius twins a chromatic orb on one of the manta soldiers and the spider creature - the soldier dodges out of the way, but the spider retriever is impacted with cold damage for moderate damage - then using his dichromancy to hit Xarkira. She is surprised, saying "How curious, you will make an excellent specimen for my research!" Lucius calls for Oriya to start the Stormchaser and about half the crew run to their positions to ready the ship. Azaria Perel flies over and calls out, "How very interesting! This is not the real version of Xarkira - this appears to be some sort of creation". Xarkira looks at her, and Azaria continues, "How curious. Would you be interested, perhaps in negotiations? I find your creation most fascinating." Xarkira responds, "Indeed, you seem to be a woman of talent yourself. Come here, help me against these individuals and a discussion can be had". Azaria says that her offer is tempting and offers parlay to talk, conjuring a wall of force around Xarkira and herself.

Quill tries to fly down within 15 feet of the crab so that he can lightning lure it off the mast and have it fall, however it is too strong to be pulled off the mast. Quill heals Sentry and ends the effect of Tasha's Mind Whip on her. Xarkira casts a spell on Aila and instructs her to knock Lucius out; Sentry uses Cleansing Touch to remove this effect. Quill notices that Azaria and Xarkira are having a muted conversation and lip reads parts of it; Xarkira says "...valuable offer... magitek power yours..." and Azaria responds with "...interesting... fully-funded... unlimited resources..."

The two manta flyers are still after Quill - one hits with an acid spit, the other hits with his javelin, neither breaking his concentration. As the Twinstar Longbow shoots into the air, Nova yells to Thalia to go and help the Prince - Thalia winks at Nova and blows her a kiss, "Leave it to me, darling. I'll deal with these dragons". Nova is ready to jump out of the Twinstar at 80 feet in the air and prepares to activate her feather fall token. Kyrie tries to blast the spider retriever, but misses. The spider hits Quill with one of its forelegs, breaking his concentration (losing his Expeditious Retreat). The other foreleg also hits, as does a paralysing beam from its second eye stalk, this breaking his other concentration causing the dragon construct which had been banished to re-appear. Quill falls to the deck at the edge of the airship, rolls off the edge of the ship, and starts plummeting towards the ground under Gusthaven, completely unable to act. The retriever jumps down, looks at Quill's falling body, then dives off the ship to pursue him.

The shock troop finally makes it onto the ship, but misses with both attacks; the other is still blind. Aila runs to the edge of the ship and jumps over to the now un-banished dragon construct, then whacks it with her hammer and shoots lightning at it for moderate damage. Nova jumps out of the Twinstar Longbow, activating her feather fall token and casting Eldritch Blast on the spider, hitting twice. Lucius casts chromatic orb on the dragon and hits for moderate acid damage, trying to hit Xarkira with dichromancy again but it hits the Wall of Force instead and dissipates. Azaria dispels the Wall of Force, steps back and says to Xarkira, "A lovely offer, my dear, but I know a snake when I see one", then casts Banishment on Xarkira, who responds with "Aaargh! You dare, you thought to betray me?" but the banishment fails - Azaria looks a little nervous at her failure.

Quill continues to free fall, still paralysed. Xarkira looks towards Azaria, saying "I thought you a better spell caster than that. Let me show you what a true mage is capable of." Xarkira thrusts her hands up and in the entire aft half of the Stormchaser, gravity changes direction - Lucius attempts to counterspell and fails. Nova, Quill, Aila, Oriya and some of the crew are unaffected, but others including Sentry and Lucius start to fall upwards - although only 20 feet due to their feather fall tokens - others rising to 100 feet, to the extent of the spell. Sentry casts Sunbeam on Xarkira, which does mild damage but breaks her concentration, breaking the reverse gravity spell. Lucius and Sentry fall 20 feet, the rest of the people affected are knocked out as they slam back to the deck; the lone shock troop on the deck of the ship was tossed up and fell to his death as gravity was reversed then corrected. The manta flyers attack Sentry, but miss; the dragon attacks Aila and hits with its claw and tail for minor damage.

The spider creature falls next to Quill, grabs him in its legs and plane shifts - Quill is no longer falling, but finds himself in a dark crystal and metal room, purple energy glowing through its chambers. The retriever scuttles away from Quill and leaves, and a barrier erects around Quill's prone and paralysed body. Aila continues to hit the dragon, doing significant damage. Nova shouts at Xarkira, "Where have you taken him, where has he gone?" to which she replies, "Oh, excellent! My creature has fulfilled one of its primary missions." Nova casts Hexblade's Curse on Xarkira and tries to hit her with Blight, but it bounces off her with no effect. Lucius casts a twinned Chromatic Orb at 6th level on Xarkira and the Dragon; both hit - the dragon melts, Xarkira is hit by the acid, but despite it being a grievous wound, they can see powdered white blue ice where her flesh, bones and blood should be. "How irritating," she responds, "Xarkira Prime will have to repair me, still we have at least one prize..." - Lucius cuts her gloating short with his dichromancy doing more damage. Xarkira appears frustrated and angry. Azaria Perel dispels the Globe of Invulnerability and readies herself for something.

Elsewhere, Quill is still paralysed, feels some sphere of magic encapsulate him, and can hear muttered voices from beyond his vision.

In Gusthaven, the Xarkira simulacrum looks around. Seeing her troops dead and the damage to herself, she reaches up to the jagged gem-studded face plate crown that she is wearing and attempts to cast teleport - Azaria Perel counterspells and says that they must destroy it now before it tries to teleport again. Sentry keeps the Sunbeam focused on the simulacrum doing moderate damage and blinding her. In a desperate response, the Xarkira simulacrum throws out a hand and casts a Fireball that explodes near Sentry, Kamarra, Azaria and two of the Wolfpack; Sentry and Azaria take minor damage, Kamarra and the wolf pack take no damage. The manta fliers flee, and Aila jumps back to the ship and recklessly hits Xarkira in her face twice. Aila points her hammer at the simulacrum and states, "It doesn't matter what you've done because we're going to find him, then I'm going to come and end you" - it responds with a faint smile "Oh I intended it..." as Aila's second blow crushes and destroys it. The body turns into a pile of snow and ice, the jagged, gem-studded face plate and a ring dropping to the ground. It is revealed that with things in retreat, two of the dragons destroyed, without Xarkira, and with assistance from Faelissa and Thalia, they party had ***just*** managed to stop any further casualties in Gusthaven.

Quill eventually breaks free of the spell and sees that he is in this dark crystalline metal chamber with a faint purple light; strips of purple runes are glowing around the whole place. He can hear very muffled voices coming from nearby - he sees serpentine men and women through an observation window, some wearing scholarly robes and medical-looking outfits, all taking notes and making observations of Quill. Quill examines the runes and realises that he is in an anti-magic field - spell-casting will fail here, but it is unclear whether things like the Eye of the Storm are affected. He recognises the serpentine figures as agents of Xarkira. From the structures surrounding him, Quill does not think he's on a world, but an astral ship. Whether it is the Tassadar or Xarkira's own ship, he does not know - he just knows that he is in some sort of containment room. After about an hour, a female figure appears in the observation window, flanked on either side are copies of the same woman - the middle figure is taller and more imposing, while the two figures to her sides seem subservient to her. The middle figure places a fingernail on the glass, and her voice echoes through it, "Well, well. It seems that we have caught quite the little prize! I had to sacrifice one of my little pawns to do it, but I think that Eye of yours will prove most interesting". Quill responds, "It wouldn't be of any use to you - H'esper will never join your side". The woman smiles, "Oh, I'm certain that there's more to the Titan's magic that I can unravel than you may guess, but we'll see, won't we my little friend." She takes her finger off the glass and it goes silent again. Quill shouts in frustration, "You couldn't even get Johandrius, don't think you can get a Titan!" The woman looks at the other scholars and starts talking to them. Quill tries to cast Divine Intervention to try to return to the Stormchaser... but it fails and he is left in the containment room.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:03 - Episode Start
1:13 - Announcements
6:47 - DUN DUNs
7:46 - Recap starts
9:33 - Part 1
1:22:35 - Break time/Donations
1:31:17 - Part 2
2:51:50 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Kamarra
* Captain Thalia
* Azaria Yorien Perell
* Xarkira

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Skyprince Aridan Irisen-Pelony Starsorrow
* Edea Elenasto

## **Featured Locations**

* Gusthaven docks
* Unknown location - astral ship?

## **Trivia**

* Mark's ad-read for D&D Beyond today was some lyrics to the song "American Boy" by Estelle and Kanye West:

*Got a natural 1 in D&D just now (yeah)
Combat DM just frowned (just frowned)
TPK on the board right now
Just wiped out his well-planed town
The cleric just got downed
No revive, guess new character needs to be found
There's an inn not far just around the street
Time to roll up a new character sheet*
*Take me to your website D&D Beyond
You can browse homebrew like this magic wand
I'd really love to run a campaign with you
We can be pro D&D players, pro D&D players*
*DM said "Hey player, the character builder is a marvel
Like for example it can help you calculate your HP
And spell slots, I know those confuse you a lot
The builder tracks them and rolls all the dice in the game log"
There's a link you can click here
And sign up fast there's nothing you need to fear
D&D Beyond is great
More than you can contemplate
I'm a cool pro D&D player, cool D&D player*
*Take me to your website D&D Beyond
You can browse homebrew like this magic wand
I'd really love to run a campaign with you
We can be pro D&D players, pro D&D players*
* The party levelled up to Level 15 after this episode.
	+ Aila took her 15th level in Barbarian, and rolled a 9 on her d12 hit die (taking her from 164 HP to 177 HP)
	+ Lucius took his 15th level in Sorcerer, rolled a 3 on his d6 hit die (taking him from 82 HP to 86 HP) and learned the Dominate Monster spell
	+ Nova took her 15th level in Warlock, rolled a 6 on her d8 hit die (taking her from 125 HP to 134 HP), the Shroud of Shadow Eldritch Invocation, and the Maddening Darkness Mystic Arcanum
	+ Quill took his 13th level in Cleric, rolled a 7 on his d8 hit die (taking him from 107 HP to 116 HP) and learned the Etherealness spell
	+ Sentry took her 15th level in Paladin, and rolled a 4 on her d10 hit die (taking her from 154 HP to 161 HP) - This may be incorrect, as it appears Rhi rolled a 7 on her hit die at the end of the stream, so has not included Sentry's Con Modifier into the level up HP
* There was a donation question about the question asked of the Eye of the Storm, "where in Aerois will the Valkyrian Empire attack during the meetings?". Mark commented that the eye sometimes can't answer questions if there is no obvious answer, Kim thought it was because the meeting was over, Tom said it could be because Xarkira isn't part of the Empire any more or that she had just made the snap decision to attack. Mark also suggested that there may be magic that prevents divination magic from working on Xarkira - either way Mark suggested that chat not worry about it and leave it to HR to tell them what happens. Kim reiterated that the Eye is not infallible - Mark further queried whether what the Eye showed about Kalus' plan was correct. Mark admitted that they all make mistakes and forget things, but he's not trying to get the players or screw them over, and not to worry about it.
* Mark has said that Pyri is not available to play - things might have happened to Pyri. Pyri can't come to the phone right now, because he's DEAD. Maybe.
* Mark ended the episode saying that Tom should keep playing Quill for now... that the party may not know where he is, but that they do have a lot of allies in Astral Space (the Wings of Ishtar), information that they may be able to glean, and Quill might even free himself.
* Mark confirmed that this is the first time that a member of the party has seen the real Xarkira. He stated that simulacra cannot regain spell slots, and this is the same one that cast meteor swarm on them in the Valley of the Storm, so it did not have a level 9 spell slot available to it.
* Dono question from Oldmanbro (paraphrased): Could Sentry like warm plates because it also feels warm when you're hugging someone, and Sentry is a hugger? If yes, confirm it's canon. Mark and Rhiannon agreed that was the point.