Aerois - Chapter Seven: Maiden Voyage

Chris Trott as Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto

 Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

 Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Pyri Adhara
and Qillek Ad Khollar

**Maiden Voyage** is the seventh chapter of the Aerois campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel between 8th September 2019 and 5th January 2020, and consists of eleven episodes.

*In Chapter Seven, the party embark on their first voyage in the Stormchaser, headed for the City of Glass, but run into plenty of trouble on the way - settlements under attack, an abandoned astral citadel, an encounter with dragons, and Starbane technology that causes a rift in the party!*

## Summary

The party heads for the City of Glass on the continent of Gisella in their brand-new ship, the Stormchaser. Along the way, they get involved in a battle helping Orcs and Tritons at Yama Lo’Tai. Doing so, however, draws the attention of a number of Sahuagin priestesses and they respond by attacking the ship. After dispatching the Sahuagin, they meet with the leaders of the Orcs (Wavelord Joani) and the Tritons (Baroness Erin Coralsong). Baroness Coralsong is a Triton noble of the underwater realm of King Tidesilver, a Triton who rules the seas of Aerois.

The Sahuagin have become increasingly aggressive over the past three weeks and Yama Lo’Tai has come under attack from them:they are oddly intelligent and aggressive, and using weapons and armour from the Court of Shadows and the Remnant. Coralsong has been sent to investigate a nearby Triton settlement, the Twilight Corals, that has recently gone silent, and she requests the party’s aid to discover what has happened and to eliminate the High Priestess of the Sahuagin. Fearing that the odd behaviour of the Sahuagin is related to the plans of the galactic tyrant, Kalus Starbane, they agree to assist, and Sentry takes Helios the Eterna with her (shifted into the form of a cape) into battle. When they reach the Twilight Corals, they find evidence of abduction and violence before being attacked by Sahuagin and a mutated and malformed Tritons.

Continuing onto the Coldlight Depths, a ravine where they believe they will find the lair of the Sahuagin, they discover a breeding chamber for the Sahuagin and a strange shield generator that is far more technologically advanced than is expected. Sentry destroys this, and they free prisoners whom Coralsong escorts to safety. The party finds a mysterious portal which they enter, emerging in some sort of Starbane astral citadel that is in space above Aerois – it is called Aegis V. Helios and Tiangong feel the presence of a corrupted Eterna on the station and they hear strange music coming from the same area. The doors of the station only open to Aila for reasons they cannot fathom, and they realise that the station has been abandoned but was apparently used as a staging ground for Starbane’s troops during the war 500 years ago. Much of the station is broken or destroyed, and Nova finds an interesting piece of tech (a crystal) called the ILS (Illusory Leadership System) which she takes with her. At its lowest level, they find a corrupted Eterna, Silveredge, that is still powering the station and is being worshipped by the Sahuagin high priestess. The Sahuagin transforms, revealing herself to be an Eladrin called Shansara who works for the Starbane Diplomatic Corps. She has been feeding the life force of Sahuagin to Silveredge to power it back up, thereby corrupting it.

They manage to destroy Silveredge and Shansara escapes, leaving them a minute to escape the station themselves. After racing back towards the portal, it looks like only some of the party will make it out until Nova uses her own life force to keep the portal open for a few more seconds. They manage to make it out alive but at the cost of Nova’s arm that has now become withered and skeletal. Safely back aboard the Stormchaser, they start to make plans for where to head next when Sentry suddenly shuts down, so they decide to head straight to the City of Glass, a ruined city on the continent of Gisella. Nova has discovered that anything living that she touches with her damaged hand is drained of life. She secretly spends some time talking to a holographic Kalus Starbane that is generated by the ILS but seemingly has his mind and personality. Sentry and Lucius spend more time with the Wolf Pack, trying to earn their respect, and after a heavy night of drinking, Lucius wakes up to find that he has married one of their number, Faeth. Sentry gets to know their cook, Howard, better.

As they pass the island of Korsadi, the Stormchaser is accosted by a Dragon ship, the Vivex, and the party is called to meet with the Dragon, Ammadrassos. Upon finding a Starbane uniform in Lucius’ quarters (that he had taken from Aegis V), the Dragon is enraged because they had fought against Starbane in the last war. The party convinces him that they are Starbane’s enemies and tell him about Aegis V, Brightflame Abbey, Kalus and Valla. They are ordered to the city on the island below to discuss what they may do next. When they arrive in Vivex City, a settlement built around a great Dragonborn warship, they are told by the military council that a meeting of the leaders of Aerois is planned for a month to discuss the Starbane issue. Sentry sees the Dragonborn artificers who advise her that she has about three months left to function, and Nova speaks with the ILS to discuss the fate of Aerois - it tells her that the gods of Aerois are not divine “Gods” like Siaska (since they lack a divine spark), but powerful beings called titans which have a fraction of Siaska’s power.

There is a surprise attack on Vivex City by cultists, snake women, and stone giants and the party lends its aid. They return to the Stormchaser to find it and the crew have survived intact and take their evening rest, during which Kalus contacts Nova in a dream. Quill secretly becomes aware of the ILS and has a private but intense conversation with Nova, questioning where her loyalty lies but proceeds to keep the information to himself for the time being. He uses the Eye of the Storm to see that Nova is connected to Kalus in some way. They are allowed to leave Vivex City, but only on condition that they take a pseudodragon, Vis, with them who will spy for the Dragons. Quill dreams of H’esper, now appearing as an old and weary man, who tells him that he must go to the Valley of Storms to get a weapon and that their future is in the hands of mortals.

Nova finally reveals the presence of the ILS to the others – Sentry is upset and everyone but Nova wants to destroy it since they think that Nova is being manipulated and Starbane may be using her to find extra shards of Tiangong. Quill reveals that Nova and Kalus have a connection and that Kalus is on a dying sky city somewhere on Aerois, he also uses the Eye of the Storm to discover where another shard of Tiangong lies. Aila takes matters into her own hands and destroys the ILS as they are coming into land outside Kamina City (the location of the City of Glass) – this causes a huge explosion on the Stormchaser, killing one member of the Wolf Pack, and wounding Sentry to the point that she loses an eye.

## Major NPCs

List of major NPCs encountered in this chapter.