Aerois - Episode 1: Welcome to Aerois

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Welcome to Aerois** is the 1st episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on the 1st of July 2018 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*The party are traveling to the Sky City of Gusthaven on an airship, the Sparrowblade. However, their journey quickly takes a complicated turn as they are awoken in the night by a thunderstorm and the sound of battle!*

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players and PCs:
	+ Katie Morrison is playing Aila, a Wild-Elf Barbarian (who will eventually be a Storm Herald barbarian). She has long, vibrant, fiery red hair with lots of braids (Viking style); she's also very muscular as a Wild Elf. She wears leathers and has a bit of tartan strapped to her belt. She also carries a massive war hammer.
	+ Tom Hazell is playing an Aarakocra (he describes it as 'a bird man') bard/cleric multi-class with only one wing. He is brown-feathered with one large wing coming out of a cloak, with the other wing missing and covered by a red cloak. He is also relatively short, shorter than most of the people in the party. His facial features are those of a peregrine falcon (more of a "Blyth falcon-hawk" says Tom, possibly meaning a Blyth's hawk-eagle?).
	+ Kim Richards is playing Nova V'ger, an air Genasi hexblade warlock. Nova is pretty young, blue with star freckles and tousled hair. She is dressed in a uniform with lots of pouches, scrolls, writing equipment, and books. Despite her scholarly appearance, she also carries a very long, elegant, alien-looking longsword with odd blue curves, and was clearly not made on Aerois (Kim says she does not know how to use it).
	+ Chris Trott is playing Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto, a High Elf sorcerer (Arcane Chromat subclass, a homebrew creation of Mark Hulmes'). Lucius is a classic High Elf with big pointy ears, pale skin, long platinum blond hair and two solid-coloured eyes, one blue the other orange. He is wearing very elegant noble clothing (usually purple) with a tall collar, a half-cape slung over one shoulder, a sash and silk gloves; he is covered in gems.
	+ Rhiannon Frost is playing Sentry, a Guardian paladin 'rocking Oath of the Ancients' (the Guardian race is another homebrew creation of Mark's). Sentry is a very tall robot-like being, she is silvery with a green tarp over her body, has vines in her hair with flowers growing out of it ("because she's really old"). She carries a massive shield and a dainty-looking but powerful battleaxe.
* High Rollers has sponsors for the first time: D&D Beyond and Brilliant.org.
* A D&D-themed Brilliant.org puzzle would be offered during the break.
* First sighting of the Dun Duns intro (complete with Aerois spelled as Aeoris) which shows scenes of Aerois lore. Thanks to Nina-Serena for doing the character art, the art for the introduction (Dun Duns) and Chris Trott for doing the music and animation for the intro.

## **Summary**

### **Part One**

*Sky pirates have attacked the Sparrowblade and send it hurtling towards the ground! The party look for some way to survive but face a large mechanical threat in the cargo hold!*

The episode opens on the sky ship, The Sparrowblade, in the middle of the night and during a thunderstorm; the only light comes from the stars, The Cradle, and the odd flash of lightning. Our heroes, who are travelling towards Gusthaven, are woken from their sleep by the uneven rocking and lurching of the ship, sounds of battle from above and screams from below decks. Quill is sharing a berth with Sentry, Nova and Aila are sharing a berth, and Lucius is sharing a berth with a Dwarf called Arval. Lucius (wearing pink satin pyjamas with 'sockies' and a hat with a bauble on it) wakes up, sucking his thumb, and is thrown out of bed, losing hold of his soft toy, Snubbles, and crying, "Daddy, Daddy!". Aila and Nova wake, not knowing what time it is or what is going on, but Nova is almost thrown out of bed, and is told to grab her sword, not the book she is cradling. Sentry and Quill are alerted by the noise, with Quill immediately panicking and repeatedly calling out for Sentry. Sentry opens to door to her room and sees across the corridor, another open door revealing a dark-skinned woman wearing robes and clutching a holy symbol (a half-circle with stars above it) which Sentry knows to be the symbol of Siaska, the Starmother, the main goddess of Aerois - the woman is using the light coming from the holy symbol to try to illuminate the corridor and see what is happening. Sentry sends her reconnaissance beacon, Echo, which is a flying ball of metal and wood surrounding a purple gemstone, into the corridor - there is nothing currently happening in this corridor, but Sentry hears a blood-curdling scream coming from the stairs leading to below-decks.

Arval gets into his armour and pulls out his crossbow and Lucius equips his arcane focus, not believing that sky pirates are real but only characters in stories that his daddy told him. Arval is revealed to be an older Dwarf: he has streaks of grey in his beard, his tunic and shirt are very well-made and finely embroidered, and he is wearing a thick leather vest; he also wears rings and necklaces and looks to be quite wealthy.

As Aila emerges into the corridor and passes by the room of the woman holding the holy symbol, she notices the other two occupants: a man (Corin) wearing similar robes to the woman and holding the same sort of holy symbol, and a 14/15 year old girl (Valla) with long dark hair wearing a ragged night shirt.

As they move down the corridor, the party feels and hears an explosion coming from the stern, behind them. They head towards the stairs leading below decks, but even with darkvision it is pitch black, and the screaming has stopped: Aila listens and can only hear metal scraping and heavy breathing. Suddenly, from around the corner come two figures wearing thick, black leathers with hooded robes and full-face masks depicting a skull-like grimace. Realising that the passengers are awake, they announce that they are going to finish them off. Battle is joined: Arval shoots with Evangeline, his trusty crossbow, and Aila takes psychic damage from a sword strike (some sort of energy blade). Sentry is likewise struck, and she recognises that the armour these foes wear is very similar to what the forces of Starbane wore during the war: she obliterates her ancient enemy in response. The priestess (the other female passenger with the party) attempts to ward off the remaining foe but fails, so Lucius throws an ice knife at him - the ice knife hits the enemy and explodes, also hitting Arval and the enemy soldier, but just missing Quill. Quill pushes the enemy back with Gust and heals(!) Aila. Arval throws Evangeline over his shoulder on a strap and pulls out a club which he uses to hit the assailant; seeing the situation has turned against him, the enemy figure teleports to the rear of the ship's hallway and throws a blot of lightning at Lucius, who dodges it. Nova, shouting, "Court of Shadows! Court of Shadows!" attempts to hit the remaining foe with magic, but misses. The priestess heals Sentry, and Lucius attempts to firebolt but misses, and accidentally sets the roof on fire; Arval, impaled by shattered ice, doesn't want to know about it. Nova attacks the man again, awkwardly wielding her sword, Tiangong: suddenly, she makes an expert swordsman move, cutting the enemy in half, her sword leaving a blue trail like a nebula behind it.

Arval is badly injured from the exploding ice knife, but the priestess chooses to check on her charge, Valla, first - she is fine and under Corin's protection. There is nothing on the bodies to identify who they are, there is the sound of fighting and crackling flames from above (the fire on the roof has petered out). The party realises now that the ship is descending - crashing - Nova points out again that the soldiers are from the Court of Shadows, Kalus Starbane's forces. At the mention of Starbane, Nova notices the priestess' eyes widen, though she doesn't say anything; Arval doesn't think it's important and suggests they find the captain. Everyone grabs their gear, and they notice that the stairs leading to the deck have collapsed and are now on fire. There is a boarding platform at the bottom of the ship, but otherwise no other way out that they know of. Nova wonders if the soldiers are coming for the Priest and Priestess's ward, Valla, but they aren't sure. Yusef and Corin have been charged with taking Valla to Gusthaven: she is "just an orphan with latent magical power". Lucius posits that they may have been after his business, but Nova doesn't think so.

Sentry sends Echo outside through a window and it reveals many dead crew members on deck with just a few left fighting; the Half-Orc navigator, big burly arms covered in tattoos, is fighting with two heavy maces. The captain is still at the ship's wheel, channelling magical power through one arm into the crystal at the centre of the wheel, and parrying enemy blows with a rapier in her other hand. There is another soldier standing alone, carrying a greatsword and gesturing; he appears to be avoiding combat and is directing the battle.

Quill uses his knowledge of sky ships to remember that they all carry glide cloths (enchanted, aetherium-infused cloth deployed with a harness, similar to a parachute) and these will be somewhere on the ship. The fire is starting to spread in the ship: Nova tries to blast a hole in the roof to get up to the top deck, but fails, the aetherium-infused wood being too strong. The only way out seems to be below decks from where the noise of some sort of beast is coming. When Lucius sends lights down the stairs, Quill just manages to see a black metal and crystal steel-jawed, panther-like body before it disappears into the darkness: Quill thinks it is some sort of construct or golem. Sentry recalls that Starbane had demigod commanders who loved to tinker and create forces, and based on the Guardians, they created things called Stalkers towards the end of the war: predatory creatures with powers of the night that can drain the life of creatures around them.

The party and Sister Yusef head down the stairs into the hold. Sister Yusef creates some extra light and they move through the hold and its contents. They see what remains of the crew - shredded bodies and pools of blood, then notice the parachutes just before something springs out of the darkness.

### **Part Two**

*Stranded in a dangerous land the party have to overcome Wild Elves and more to survive!*

Arval fires his crossbow at the Stalker, but misses in the darkness. Sentry hits the Stalker but only does minor damage, Nova curses it and notes that Tiangong is afraid of this creature. The Stalker jumps forward and voices a dark pulse that affects Nova, Lucius, Quill, Sentry and Sister Yusef. Aila goes into a rage and does more minor damage to it; Quill uses some of the residual lightning from his charred, destroyed wing to cast lightning lure on the creature, and the lightning around its neck shatters some of the crystal parts under its metal plating.

Sentry hits the beast again, as do Nova and Lucius. Lucius has hurled a glob of acid at the creature and it eats away at the metal exoskeleton of the beast, revealing a purple crystal inside that looks to Sentry like a deformed Guardian matrix. The Stalker responds with another vocal blast that hits the whole party: Lucius, Quill and Sentry are knocked unconscious. Aila attacks and destroys the crystal with her hammer which drops the creature. Sister Yusef heals Lucius and Sentry, while Quill regains consciousness. Sister Yusef goes upstairs to get Corin and Valla while the party retrieves and equips a parachute each; as they do so, the ship begins to lurch as it starts to go into a steeper dive towards the ground. They help Yusef, Corin and Valla into their parachutes as they arrive downstairs. Arval and Aila open the door used for loading the ship, and looking through a it, they see a snow-capped mountain range with fir forests below them. There is a sudden impact on the side of the ship that makes the ship start to rotate. On exiting the spinning, crashing airship, Corin hits his head and is knocked unconscious. Lucius is also unconscious: neither he nor Corin can pull their ripcords. Quill saves Lucius, while Aila saves Corin. Sentry and Arval jump late from the ship - Sentry is fine, but Arval falls into a copse of trees.

The Sparrowblade crash lands in a fir-filled valley somewhere in the wintry lowlands of the continent of Suvonna. It is about 6-7am. The party (PCs, Corin, Yusef and Valla) have landed together about 30-40 minutes travel from the crashed airship. Arval has landed somewhere away from the party.

The party takes a short rest, and Sentry notices that Valla has dark skin, black hair, and "incredibly violet eyes", which is incredibly rare for a Human. Sentry asks Valla if the God Siaska is still alive, but Valla replies in the negative, saying that "Siaska died at the end of the Dark War. The Tyrant, Starbane, came down to Aerois from the Dark Beyond and he killed her". Nova gently adds, "She's The Cradle now". Sentry reveals that she was alive before The Sundering - the splitting of Aerois into many lands and seas. Yusef says that "Atelicus, the Earth Warden, enraged at Siaska's death, plunged his spear into the earth and shattered the land, splitting it apart. Starbane was driven back up into the stars and beyond. Siaska's last act as a Goddess was to seal him away". Sentry reveals that she didn't know any of this because she has only been awake for 2 weeks. Sentry reveals her Solwynn origins; Lucius knows some legends of Solwynn (similar to Atlantis) being a place of great technology and being the creators of Guardians which was swallowed up by the sea. No one knows what happened to it or where it is now.

The party hears wolves howling and goes in search of Arval - it takes them about an hour to reach him. They see a harness 10-20 feet up in a tree, but Arval isn't in it: he's cut the harness and has dragged himself away. They party hears him shouting and shooting his crossbow at something. They follow and find Arval with a broken, but splinted leg, propped up behind a couple of large logs, being attacked by 4 Wild Elves who notice the party when Sentry accidentally breaks a branch with her hand.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

**Compiled by *Owen Cain* on YouTube**

0:00 Start
0:59 Character introductions
2:57 Sponsors
4:59 Beginning Enthusiastically
5:09 Intro Video that nobody talked over
6:12 Oh they did, sorry
6:38 It begins
8:15 Baby Lucius, Daddy begins
8:55 Nova & Aila
9:52 Quill & Sentry
10:20 Sleep mode activate
10:39 Lucius’ Pink PJs
12:05 Map reveal
12:43 Arval the carry
16:14 Meeting of the meek
16:40 Nova bravely joins
16:55 Character descriptions
19:52 Explosions
20:47 Well that’s not ominous
21:14 First roll
21:22 Sense the bad guys
21:55 Ok so goth bad guys
22:37 Initiative, Corridor encounter begins
25:09 So inspired
27:18 Tom, Who names a crossbow?
28:00 Well that’s cool
28:40 Mark’s been reading the Stormlight Archives
35:21 Thunderous Smited? Smote? Smitten?
38:01 Bolt of nice (Markism)
39:16 Arval Abuse
40:35 Spell slots!!\*finger guns\* & Cam Cleric
42:23 Mark the kind
43:34 Court of Shadows!
47:12 She protec, she attac…..
48:02 Mark loves Lucius
50:18 “Nova”(Tiangong) Badass / end of encounter
53:24 Ship Status - Not good
59:50 Echo recon
1:02:26 Maybe will crash…
1:06:44 Creature sighted
1:09:11 Stalker lore
1:13:46 Daddy wouldn’t approve
1:16:39 Stalker attacks
1:16:46 Break starts
1:17:08 Puzzle from Brilliant
1:20:02 Break ends/ recap
1:20:44 Initiative, Stalker pounces
1:24:03 Wordlessly moving
1:24:42 DM encourages Mocking
1:27:06 Stalker pulses
1:28:40 Not at full strength (Mark rolls poorly)
1:29:07 RAGE
1:40:18 Second Stalker pulse, Near TPK
1:42:00 Dew It
1:43:03 Stalker down
1:43:38 Nat 20
1:46:10 Visions
1:50:45 Cargo bay door open
1:52:35 Nat 20 He’s back
1:53:44 Jump out the door
1:55:03 Nat 20
1:56:37 Miscommunication
1:58:59 Noooo, Arval!!!
2:00:21 Lucius faceplates the ground, multiple times
2:03:49 Welcome to Suvonna
2:06:05 It was all a dream…
2:07:16 Echo cheers up Valla
2:14:10 Short rest sobbing
2:16:34 Sentry recharging
2:22:00 Joke analysis
2:24:14 Sentry’s not up to date on current lore
2:33:13 Arval Rescue
2:36:41 Episode ends
2:37:13 Brilliant puzzle solution
2:38:21 Donations

Date: 2nd Pallis 503 PS

## **Characters**

#### **PCs**

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Akamu (Half-Orc Navigator of the Sparrowblade)
* Arval Dagos (Dwarf, passenger)
* Brother Corin (Human Priest of Siaska, passenger)
* Captain Falthia Elucindriss (High Elf Windmaster, Captain of the Sparrowblade)
* Sister Yusef (Human Priestess of Siaska, passenger)
* Valla (14-15 year old Human girl, ward of Corin and Yusef)
* Wild Elves x 4 (names unknown).

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Atelicus
* Kalus Starbane
* Siaska

## **Featured Locations**

* The Sparrowblade (Airship)
* Suvonna
	+ The Bitterwood

## **Trivia**

* The captain of the Sparrowblade, while fighting to control the crashing ship, refers to someone called "Reefbreaker" ("Keep it going, Reefbreaker! We've got to keep this thing from falling, from nosediving!") but there is no further indication of who this is. It is possible that this is the First Mate.
* Quill rolled a natural 20 on his death saving throw so went to 1 hp.
* Mark refers to the Half-Orc navigator of The Sparrowblade as "Aruni" although his notes indicate that the navigator is called "Akamu".