Aerois - Episode 11: Eye for an Eye

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Eye for an Eye** is the 11th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd channel on 30th September 2018 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*We've caught up to the shadow-walking Goliath, it's time to get revenge!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Sponsors this week are D&D Beyond and Brilliant.
* MCM Comic Con: High Rollers DnD are going and will be doing a live show on Friday 26th October 2018 on the main stage. Rhi will be away but all of the rest will be there. It will be a one-shot in Aerois and there may be a special guest. There will be two signing sessions, one on Friday and one on Saturday.
* Merch: new silver and blue metal Aerois dice (they are not spindown dice, but randomised), there are also t-shirts, HR hoodies, plastic dice, note pads and mugs. Tote bags will be coming soon. Get 10% off everything in the Yogscast store using the code HIGHROLLERS at checkout, this also supports the show.
* A Rogue's Gambit is on Mondays at 6pm (new series). Find this on the HR and DnD Twitch channels, plus there will be a podcast.
* Thank you to Russ Charles (from Dungeons and Doggies kickstarter). He has sculpted custom Aerois character minis - Steamforge Games have printed them. They will be professionally painted.

### **Recap**

"*The party have been getting to know the residents of a town called Rosehall, and found the place to be a welcome break from the horrors of the airship crash and deadly Lowlands that they've been travelling in. Making friends, plundering chasms, they even got invited to dinner by the town's rumoured bad guy, Brett Brookstone, who welcomed the party as honoured guests and introduced his family. However, the pleasant evening was cut short as the town's sheriff, Field Warden Merrick, arrived to inform the party that something had happened back at the inn they were staying at. Sadly, Sister Yusef and Brother Corin, two priests of Siaska, that the party had helped save from the airship, and the caretakers for a young girl called Valla, had been killed. With Valla missing, the party quickly realised she'd been kidnapped by a tall Goliath who had the ability to travel through shadows. You secured horses, made off in quick pursuit, eventually giving up the horses and the road to delve into the looming forest of the Ironweald. However, on the trail, Quill spots a figure looming ahead, and as Sentry sent Echo to investigate, the Guardian's companion was sadly destroyed. The very last thing we see, the last image that Echo has, is of this tall, grey-skinned, tattooed Goliath, with a long barbed chain, swinging this weighted end, slamming it into Echo. As it breaks apart, the rest of you see Sentry stagger back clutching her head, as this psychic energy erupts.*"
### **Part 1**

*We've caught up to the shadow-walking Goliath, it's time to get revenge!*

The figure is no more than 100 feet directly ahead of Sentry who has just screamed at the loss of echo: the rest of them are hidden in the underbrush of the forest. Lucius checks on Sentry to see if she is OK, and by the time Quill looks back to check on the tall figure, it has vanished – he thinks that it may have moved through the shadows to somewhere else.

Lucius casts a vertical line of *dancing lights* to try to dispel as much shadow around them as possible and they move to recover what is left of Echo from near a camp with three bedrolls and the remains of a campfire. Suddenly, a large, grey-skinned figure appears in a nearby shadow: it has metal studs embedded into its skull and red veins crawling up its neck and along its arms. The creature, wearing pitch black studded leather armour, pulls itself out of the shadows and grins, showing its pointed, filed-down teeth as it swings its chain, one end of which is weighted, the other end of which has a blade: it goes for Quill with the weighted end, wrapping the chain around him and grappling him. The creature misses at first then hits Sentry with the bladed end, knocking her prone and damaging her. The creature looks at all of them saying, “You should run now before I fill my hunger”.

Lucius lies down next to Sentry in an attempt to get some cover and hits the creature with *Melf’s acid arrow.* Quill attempts to free himself from the chain wrapped around him, fails, and tries to cast lightning lure on the creature through the chain – the creature flicks the chain to the side arcing the lightning to the ground and avoids any damage. Nova casts *hexblade curse* and *suggestion* – the spell goes off and hits him, his eyes go white briefly before the red veins in his neck pulse and his eyes come back to normal. Sentry stands, moves towards him, and hits him, but as he sees her coming, he makes his grey skin take on a stone-like appearance and reduces the damage of her blow.

Arval shoots the large character with his crossbow, claiming the hit for Yusef. The Goliath tightens the chain around Quill, then does further necrotic damage as it pulses red energy along the chain at Quill: Quill collapses and the Goliath pulls the chain back from his body before *shadow stepping* across the clearing. The Goliath then hits Lucius, grappling him with the chain and hitting him with the red necrotic energy. Lucius casts *acid splash* on the chain that is holding him and starts to melt it but does not manage to break through it at once so Nova comes forward and slices the remainder with Tiangong – the Goliath, now angered, starts swinging the bladed edged end at Nova.

Sentry casts *ensnaring strike* on her axe and hits, but the Goliath is too strong and immediately breaks out of the energy that starts to envelop him. Arval shoots and misses, and the Goliath *shadow steps* to face Nova: he hits her with the bladed end of the chain and the red crackling energy hits her, syphoning the life from her. Lucius frees himself and stabilises Quill while Nova chooses to retreat towards Arval. Sentry hits the Goliath again, but he stands firm, then *shadow steps* to Lucius and Quill, hitting Quill out of spite against Nova, and Lucius watches as the blade manages to gouge out his right eye. Lucius is attacked and goes down, breaking his leg in the process – Nova starts crying; Quill is revived miraculously mid-battle. While the Goliath stands over the broken bodies, swinging his chain weapon, Nova just cries and asks why he is doing this: he answers that “the hunger compels [him]” – she tries to *eldritch blast* him, but misses and moves closer to him.

Sentry moves to stand protectively over her fallen comrades as Arval hits him with another crossbow bolt: Sentry takes one blow and feeds the red energy with her life force but deflects the other two blows successfully. Quill, unnoticed by the Goliath, reaches a hand up and casts *guiding bolt*, hitting the Goliath as a beam of bright light leaps from his hand to the Goliath’s chest: the Goliath staggers back, confused, believing that Quill is dead. Nova misses him and he starts aiming a blow at Lucius, determined to take one of them with him but Sentry drops her shield and slams into his forehead with her axe, killing him. The Goliath’s red veins explode, shooting black ichor onto the ground that seems to writhe like a symbiote before melting away into nothing. As his body falls, one of Arval’s crossbow bolts whizzes harmlessly past his head. Lucius, Quill and Nova are healed.

Arval tries to set Lucius’ broken leg but is not a skilled medic and does not know what he is doing. Quill is in shock, staring into space while Nova cries and apologises to him, feeling responsible for his situation.

### **Part 2**

*We sustained some terrible injuries, will we press forward to save Valla?!*

The Ironweald is quiet, almost silent, around them. The broken body of the Goliath lies beside them but there is no sign of the other kidnappers or Valla. Arval says that while he is well-travelled that he has never seen anything like the Goliath, and the rest of them believe that they are out of their depth, worrying about what they may face from the other kidnappers.

Arval thinks that they are about a day’s travel from Ironwick, a small town on the edge of the Rosewater Lake, he says that there may not be a priest there, but there should be medical supplies and horses. He goes off to attempt to track the other people from the camp as they all decide that they still want to try to rescue Valla, although Lucius is concerned that he will slow them down too much with his broken leg. Arval returns to advise them that there appear to be three humanoids left without horses and carrying a heavy burden – he says that they are heading towards Ironwick, so they can either move at a fast pace without Lucius or they can all go together slowly.

Arval splints Lucius’ broken leg and fashions him a crutch which allows him to walk without pain while Sentry fashions a poultice for and bandages Quill’s eye. Arval returns the remnants of Echo to Sentry – it is now a handful of twigs and metal shards bent around a spherical device with a gem in the middle: the gem is completely shattered, the frame is cracked and splintered and many of the branches are broken off. Nova uses Tiangong to cast *mending* on Echo, and it begins to glow blue as the jagged cuts and tears begin to meld back together, the crystal of the gem begins to reform and the branches snap back together with twigs from the ground flying up to make it whole again. When this is finished, Echo’s form is whole once more, but the central crystal remains dark – there is no light within.

Sentry grabs the chain from the Goliath’s body so that she can tether Echo’s inert form around her waist and notices that there is documentation stuffed into pouches in his tunic with 100 gold coins. The paper has a wax seal that is broken, it reads:

*Rend, I need you to get the girl tonight. Her friends won’t be there. I’ll have my men waiting by the north gate with horses. Head to Ironwick. Meet the contact. (signed) BB.*

Sentry shows them the note, telling them that Brett Brookstone was behind the kidnapping: Quill is angry because he liked the guy. He says that they have two options: go to Ironwick and try to stop them before they meet their contact, or go back to Rosehall and confront Brett Brookstone – Nova and Lucius are concerned as to what would happen to Valla if they leave her to the kidnappers.

They resume their travel towards Ironwick as a group at a slow pace before Lucius spots in a small glade, a small, squat moss-covered stone building with smoke coming from its chimney; attached to the building appears to be a small forge. There are animals frolicking and gambolling in the glade around the house and there are many art sculptures of animals and humanoids made of iron and wood around the place.

Nova cautiously makes her way towards the building and starts to hear humming and a high-pitched hammering: she knocks on the door eliciting a yelp from the occupant before hearing something hit the ground and a *whoosh* noise – the place then goes silent. Nova calls out and gets no response before the door creaks open. Inside it is hot: she sees a small bed, a work desk, a small forge connected to the chimney and a tree in a planter in the centre of the room – the tree’s canopy is what actually forms the roof of the building. Nova calls out again assuring the occupant that she means no harm and needs help for her friend with a broken leg. A face stretches out from the tree and a long-limbed being starts to appear behind it before Nova is *charmed*: she explains to the creature what has happened to them before starting to cry. The creature pulls itself fully from the tree, she is about 5 foot 2 in height, made of wood with long limbs, she has hair like a tree with branches and leaves falling down – she wears a cloth apron and has a hammer at her belt. She appears alarmed and tries to soothe the crying Nova before opening a window and calling to a deer, Ruffles, to bring water. She introduces herself as Selomie and gets reassurance from Nova that her friends will not hurt her or her tree.

Nova retrieves the rest of the party and brings them to the house: in addition to what Nova had seen on entry, they also notice blacksmithing tools, metal ingots but no leather. Selomie is coaxed out of her tree and introduces herself as a Dryad, a fey spirit, before creating 8 *goodberries* for them. She is concerned at their injuries but does not grasp their scale until Lucius likens his broken leg to a snapped branch and Quill’s eye to her tree being uprooted – she is horrified and faints. Quill explains their mission to her and Nova suggests that Selomie could send a bird with a message to the Ironwick guard a description of the kidnappers and a request to stop them – they sign it as ‘under order from The Harvest Guard’. Selomie is under the misapprehension that Sentry is a Dryad because of her wooden parts (despite Sentry telling her that she is, in fact, a Guardian), and suggests that she must get back to her tree – she calls Mr Eker, a giant elk to carry Lucius and another two people back to Sentry’s tree near Ironwick.

Lucius, Arval and Quill ride the elk and the others are on foot – it looks like the three kidnappers got lost without the aid of the Goliath, because the party manages to catch up to them within a couple of hours. A hundred feet ahead of them in a small opening, they see three humans and a large sack on the ground: the woman is wearing chain mail, and carries a shield and longsword, the younger bearded man (looking like Brett Brookstone) carries a short bow, and the miner carries a heavy pickaxe are all looking around. In front of them is a plant with long vines and red flowers is moving around them – it descends from the trees, shuffling forward with its red-tipped ferns. It throws out a vine that wraps the miner up and begins to crush him as he calls out to Finn Brookstone for help: Finn moves up and starts to hack away at the plant, trying to free the miner. He fails in this attempt, however, and poison seeps over him, meting his flesh as it is crushed by the vines until he is dead – the vines then start looking for its next target. Sentry runs forward and grabs the sack with Valla, pulling her out of the way.

A writhing mass of plants begins spreading out around the creature grabbing the woman, Finn, Arval and Lucius (Mr Eker pulls free) and restrains them. Quill points the Thunderstone Pistol at the Brookstones before firing into the plant monster, ripping parts of it away: he tells them that he is going to take them back to Rosehall. Finn tells Fela to grab Valla and get out of there, but none of them can escape the grappling vines. Lucius pulls himself free and makes his way to the protection of Mr Eker, Fela swings her blade at Sentry but misses. The vine creature grabs Finn, who then panics, calling to his sister to save him. Mr Eker stomps on the plant creature tearing parts of it away, and Nova frees a drugged and unconscious Valla. Sentry gives the two Brookstones one final chance to surrender before she will kill them all – Fela drops her sword and agrees as long as Sentry will save her brother: Sentry uses her *flame lance* on the plant, and the red tips seem to heat up as it resists some of the fire damage. Quill’s *magic missile* hits the plant creature, tearing more vines away, but not quite killing it – the poison melts Finn away. They manage to free Arval and Fela (restraining her) and destroy the plant creature.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:06 - Episode Start
09:58 - Intro
10:38 - Mark's thespian burp
12:29 - Part 1
1:14:19 - Break time/Donations
1:25:25 - Part 2
2:41:27 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Arval Dagos
* Fela Brookstone
* Finn Brookstone
* Rend
* Valla

## **Featured Locations**

* Suvonna
	+ Ironweald Forest

## **Trivia**

* Aila was not with the party this episode, having left to seek information about her clan.
* In the intro, there is a reference to "That's How... for now" which was the catch phrase of Fred Dinenage on the show "How 2" which was a children's show from the 1990s that tried to make learning interesting and fun. Tom did not know the show, being too young, Kim spent most of her youth out of the UK, but it was known by Mark, Trott and Rhi.
* Kim says that she did not know who the Chuckle Brothers were (until they "did the Hitman thing") which resulted in a disappointed look from Mark.
* Mark had been applying *dichromancy* incorrectly, because he had told Trott previously that it must hit another creature, not the primary target of the spell. Mark admitted that his notes showed that *dichromancy* could hit any creature in range.
* The creature they first fight is a Goliath, and he uses his racial ability, *stone’s endurance*.
* Mark says that Arval is not a ranger, “He’s literally a scrub”. How dare you, Mark? How dare you.
* Quill goes down in the first combat, but Mark forgets him for his next turn. Tom reminds him next round (like the rules lawyer that he is) that he made neither an injury check nor a death saving throw. He succeeds on the injury check with cuts and bruises but fails his death saving throw. Quill is not given inspiration for being a good boy. Tom does, however, get in trouble for rolling in notebooks, resulting in cocked die: Kim lends him her tray in which he can roll.
* Tom reminds Mark about the injury roll which results in him losing an eye. This results in him having disadvantage on perception checks that rely on sight as well as ranged attacks. It also gives him a -5 to his passive perception.
* It is noted that Tom does not use his left arm during the game (to simulate Quill’s missing his left arm and wing). He threatens to sit at the table with his right eye shut for “what Mark did to him”.
* Quill revives mid-battle because he rolls a natural 20 for his last death saving throw (with advantage because he uses inspiration).
* Lucius asks Quill about resuscitation techniques for Aarakocra wanting to know if there is a “mouth to beak” (although he actually calls it “beak to mouth”) technique. Mark says that they would have to jam a pipe down Quill’s throat to perform artificial breathing.
* Mark reveals after combat that the Goliath not only made injury checks but also death saving throws. He failed three death saving throws, and so died. There was a possibility that he could have stabilised and Mark suggested that he might have come back in future.
* **Continuity error:** Arval says that he can’t cope with emotional outbursts, and this is the reason he’s never married. In episode 125 he tells the party that he’s been married a few times and references an ex-wife and an ex-husband.
* Nova asks if she can call Arval “dad”. His response is, “No, missy, you may not! I am not that old!” He’s such a dad.
* There was another "birb plushie" before the Hug-Me-Quill, and it was available on the Yogscast store (nowhere near as cute as the Hug-Me-Quill, though!):