Aerois - Episode 129: Rock the Boat

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Rock the Boat** is the 129th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 7th November 2021 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*The party begin their journey to find Rosemeadow's family...but first they've got to get out of this swamp...*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Kim displays her plaque from YouTube that celebrates High Rollers getting to 100K subscribers.
* This week's sponsors are Terciel and Elinor (a new book by Garth Nix set in The Old Kingdom series) and D&D Beyond.
* Merch: there will be a new holiday collection - returning to the store will be a limited stock of the Starbane pin, joining it will be a new Siaska pin (limited edition). The High Rollers limited edition jumper will return to the store, but it is now "slightly off-white" and 50% cotton. There is an item that will be limited edition for pre-order: there is a new dice set and holder coming out, a faux leather scroll that rolls out to show artwork of Siaska and Starbane (by Nina-Serena) and has a zip up pouch to hold the dice (which are embossed with the HR symbol on the 20, coloured blue/green shimmer and inspired by the Cradle) - it is hoped that these will be delivered by Christmas, but there may be delays depending on where the shipping destination is. These will be available from 4pm BST on Sunday 14th November.
* You can also support High Rollers on the Patreon which allows them to do "amazing things". Currently you get early access to the podcast, but there will be more things on there for patrons in the near future.
* Next week is Katie's birthday - Angus will be in a cone, not a party hat, as he will be being neutered.

### **Recap**

*"Our party of heroes have travelled to the Feywild, also called Lunaria, to save the life of their ally, Thalia, an astral ship captain who has been cursed by a powerful sorceress. To reach the Feywild, the party have brought a kind-hearted and energetic Centaur woman not native to Aerois, called Rosemeadow, with them. On arrival, the party travelled through expansive, strange woods and encountered a band of knights and soldiers attempting to fight a huge powerful manticore. After defeating the creature, the knights offered to escort the party and take them to a nearby resting point, a camp of nomadic Centaurs who may be able to give them more information. The Fairmeadow Centaurs welcomed them openly and gave them much information about the city state of Heartspire, Thalia's former home, and the location of the sorceress responsible for her curse. The Centaur Commodore, Ulstace Fairmeadow, also shared with them the tragic tale of the Rosemeadow family, a branch family of the Meadow Roamers, telling them how they were blessed with a Unicorn-Centaur child, but Xarkira came to take her away. Seeking the aid of a witch in a place called Black Stallion Woods, the Rosemeadows are now trapped there as Xarkira set two relentless spirits to hunt anyone who enters those woods.*
*We left things with the party deciding what they were going to do next after having a beautiful, very peaceful, calm and picturesque long rest under the stars here in the Feywild on the edges of a place called Everclear Lake amongst the Fairmeadow Centaur clan."*
### **Part 1**

*The team are given directions to help Rosemeadow in the Feywild and encounter a ton of natural problems along the way!*

(There was a slight retcon to allow people to put in orders the previous night with Ulstace for his goods).

Quill pulls out the chest containing their wealth, puts it down, walks away and closes his eyes – he knows that this shopping expedition is going to cost them a reasonable amount of gold. Nova purchases Goggles of Night, Gloves of Thievery, and a Headband of Comprehending Languages (Ulstace has several of the latter pre-made). Now that Lucius has his Cloak of Billowing, he is not interested in any other items. Sentry, thinking about the dangers that Xarkira poses to Rosemeadow, purchases a Ring of Protection and Horseshoes of Speed: the ring is a cut gemstone ring made of rose quartz, delicately inscribed with elven runes inlaid in silver. Rosemeadow returns with some of the other Centaurs, having been out helping them with the gathering of firewood. Ulstace calls her over and tells Rosemeadow that the party has paid for her to have new shoes, so she raises her hooves as if she is having a manicure/pedicure. Aila purchases some Boots of Elvenkind; Ulstace takes her normal boots, fixes and cleans them for her, and they come back with bands of leather around them, each band having Sylvan script on them with a couple over the toe and heel as well.

Ulstace asks what they plan to do: help Rosemeadow or head to Heartspire – they advise him that they will be helping Rosemeadow, but also want the directions. He tells them that it is a few days’ travel to Black Stallion Woods, but he will make sure that they have provisions and give them boats to help them cross the lake. Thalia is pleased that they are going to help Rosemeadow, given that they used her to get to Lunaria; Nova has been monitoring the growth of the curse tattoo (while Thalia sleeps!) and thinks that they will have plenty of time to deal with both issues. Provided the growth does not accelerate, she thinks they have 7-10 days before it will reach Thalia’s heart: Quill and Nova think that the spell *greater restoration (*possibly also *heal*, *regenerate* or any such powerful healing magic) may slow or pause the spread of the tattoo for a short while. To get rid of the curse would require someone of the same level of power as Mesmera. such as another Archfey, but they also know that Sayanna struggled to rid Thalia of the first curse. Nova offers the energy crossbow that she has been lugging around to Thalia, given that her pistols don’t work on Lunaria, but Thalia points out that this is also a Magitek weapon and would suffer from the same problem as her pistols. She takes it because it will pack a little more of a punch than her pistols and it will allow her to stay at range where she can look after Kyrie and Rosemeadow. Nova and Quill know enough to be able to say that the curse is a magical one and that the tattoo is simply a reminder of how much time is left. Quill suggests “cutting out her soul and regenerating that” which would certainly work (according to Mark) but Quill is not sure how one would go about it – Sentry suggests pulling Thalia’s soul into the Prime Matrix, but they do not know what effect the curse would have on a Guardian’s body. Nova suggests that if Thalia were turned into a Lich, she might be unaffected by the curse, but is not sure if she wants a Lich for a girlfriend unless she, herself, was to become a Lich.

Ulstace finishes attaching the horseshoes to Rosemeadow and is trying valiantly to explain to her what the horseshoes do and how they work, but she does not understand (in true Rosemeadow fashion). Rosemeadow seems to think that the horseshoes are there to help her to run…which she can do already… She comes over and shows Sentry her new shoes and Sentry gives her the ring of protection – when it is handed to her, Rosemeadow’s cheeks go red, her eyes go wide, and she then asks Sentry to confirm that Sentry is just giving it to her because they are friends (she had a moment where she had believed that Sentry was proposing to her, but felt it was all too sudden). Sentry affirms to Rosemeadow that this is all to keep her safe and better protected and she is reassured that she does not need to do anything to activate the ring. Quill tries to make sure that Rosemeadow understands that she has magic items on her person, which goes over her head, so he simplifies it to, “Ring make strong”. Rosemeadow is a little put out by Quill seeming to think that she is stupid, but she is gladdened that she just needs to keep wearing the ring to be attuned to it and gain its benefit.

Lucius goes to Ulstace, shakes his hand and thanks him for his hospitality and assistance – he says that a night’s rest and a good meal is the least they could do for those who would help one of their own. He will leave them kayaks and provisions and hopes that they will return to Lunaria in the future without being in such dire need. The Centaur clan is filling knapsacks with food for the party to take on their journey, while athletic young Centaurs carry two large kayaks down to the edge of the lake for them. Lucius is impressed with the Centaurs’ charity and thinks that Aerois would be a better place if more people there were like the Centaurs – Thalia says that while it is nice that people like this still exist, many of the people they meet in the Feywild will be very much like people from Aerois: wondering about what you can do for them rather than what they could do for you.

The party tells Rosemeadow that they think they might know where to find her family, but that she should not have too high expectations: she says that she grew up alone in Kalie’s Rest, never thinking that she had any family, but she is happy that she has been able to see the wonderful areas of the Feywild. She says emphatically that she does not want to take time away from helping Nova’s girlfriend. Sentry tells Rosemeadow that her family may be in danger and that they want to save them from the danger, and Rosemeadow thinks that this is only right since the party are heroes – she has complete faith in them. There is nobody on Aerois or anywhere else that she trusts more than them – she hugs Nova then trots away with a smile on her face and without a worry in the world because she has her heroes to protect her. Lucius recommends that they give her bits of information along the way so that she is prepared, and Aila believes that they should also do this because it is possible that she is not *the* Rosemeadow in the stories. Thalia says that travelling through the wildlands will be good and bad – there will be natural threats of monsters and creatures, but also places that they might be able to go for help – but she recommends avoiding that because it would become a political game, one of favours and Fey politics which are complicated at best.

Ulstace gives them directions, telling them that where they are headed is far out of the way of where the Centaurs will be heading when they strike camp in a day or two. He directs them to travel across the Everclear Lake to the far edge, then to follow the river that drains into the lake until the land becomes swampland, which they call Yon Fen. Yon Fen stretches out 20-30 miles, and on the other side they will reach the Gazing Hills – once they get up into the hills, they will encounter The Old King’s Way (train tracks). If they follow the Old King’s Way, that will take them directly to Black Stallion Woods. Overall, Ulstace thinks it will take them up to three days to travel there. Quill asks about any threats they might face on the journey and Ulstace says that they should be fine until they hit Yon Fen where they might run into creatures, critters, and bandits. He tells them to be careful of the swamp itself with its mud pits, razor vine and marsh gas – he says it will be hard going on foot, but if they can find a raft it might be easier. Getting prepared for multi-day foot travel, Lucius decides to stretch and does some elaborate yoga. They recall the “good old days” – Aila carrying their dead bodies around, Nova creating the illusory fire bear, walking through the river with Arval with a broken leg, Aila falling in the river, Lucius having to sleep outside in the rough, Quill losing an eye to the Goliath, Quill’s jaw getting broken in Gusthaven…before Lucius screams at them that they have to go. They head down to the two large kayaks and split the party in two to ensure that they do not sink either of them.

Lucius pretends to fall in the water and then shows that he can walk on water thanks to his Stormcaller’s Chain (that they looted after the fight with Zephyr). Quill and Kyrie decide to fly, acting as lookouts for the party and making the boats a bit lighter for each of the paddlers. Quill notices a large dark shadow moving underneath the kayaks in the lake – at first, he thinks it is one enormous creature, but then realises that it is a dozen smaller creatures – river fish, each the size of a horse. They appear to be attracted by the boats but also appear not to be hostile, but their size means that their movement is causing turbulence in the water that may adversely affect the boats; Thalia, nervous, pulls out one of her pistols. As the school of fish gets closer, the water disturbance becomes extreme and the people in the boats try desperately to hold on and not fall out; Big Cat is unnerved and trying not to rock the boat but is watching the shapes on either side of them.

Big Cat starts to yowl, so Nova casts *mislead* and throws her double into the water, making lots of noise in an attempt to frighten the giant fish away – most of them scatter, although a few do not and start to whip around near the kayaks, threatening to overturn them once more. Thalia is thrown out of the kayak and immediately begins to sink – Sentry holds out her paddle for Thalia to grab onto and pulls her back into the boat. Given that Big Cat is becoming more and more unnerved, Lucius casts *fly* on himself and Big Cat and goes to grab him to calm him – Big Cat immediately pulls himself and Lucius into the air at speed. Quill fires five *magic missiles* from his wand into the water to startle the remaining fish and they immediately disperse, no longer being interested in the boat. Big Cat continues flying at speed towards the opposite bank of the lake.

Big Cat and Lucius manage to make it almost all the way to the lake's edge, falling into the water 15 feet from the bank as the *fly* spell runs out after 10 minutes. There is furious cat paddling from Big Cat before he manages to pull his bedraggled form back onto dry land. The rest of the party take about 30 minutes to paddle the rest of the way uneventfully, watching as Lucius attempts to reason with Big Cat before drying him with *prestidigitation* (which he very much enjoys), Big Cat giving Lucius a lick when the job is finished. Lucius then dries himself by the same method, with Big Cat now trying to catch any stray gusts of magic air in his face.

They find the river that is feeding into the lake that they were told to follow – if they follow it upstream, they will be passing through green, hilly grassland, similar to what they might expect in Aerois, although the ground is a little soggy. Nova’s double, still swimming in the lake, sees some more fish, aquatic insects and water plants: those on the shore see fish with feathered wings flying up the waterfalls falling from the rocks that float above the lake – they spend a short time in the lakes on the flying rocks before flying back into the larger lake below and eating flies and midges that hover above the lake itself.

A bedraggled and unimpressed Thalia makes her way over to them and is magically dried off by Lucius (who averts his gaze at her request) while Quill remarks that everyone has now fallen in the water at some point in their travels. When Lucius turns back to see Thalia, she has moved off and has been replaced by a cross-armed Nova who stares him down and tells him there is nothing to see here. Kyrie tells Quill that it is a long time since she has flown that long and that she very much enjoyed it – she says that she will stay out of the way so that she does not get in peoples’ way or cause trouble. Kyrie still wears her old t-shirts with Shansara the Eladrin on it.

While they can see the grasslands ahead, they can also smell the brackish and wet stench of the swamp nearby, and while the ground seems firm enough where they are, they can see that they trees change to willows and mangroves further in the distance. They follow the river upstream for a few hours but do so from under the trees rather than by the riverbank and notice around the 2–3-hour mark that the ground becomes moister and squishier. They also notice that the air becomes stickier and more humid, and they begin to hear the droning of insects from up ahead somewhere.

They encounter one of the more bizarre elements of the Feywild when they almost cross a line between trees and pass from grassland immediately into the swamp. There are suddenly large mangrove trees with large hanging vines and long high-arching aerial root systems that sit over muddy brown brackish water: the swamp looks huge. About 100 metres ahead of them is a wooden signpost with “Yon Fen” scratched into it. Lucius is repulsed by this place, but Thalia explains that the land is affected by those who are in power over it, and that this best suits their nature – there will be no change to the land until it meets resistance from other powerful Fey, and this explains the clear border between land types. Around them, all they can see is trees and swamp land – there is no sign of any settlement or other creatures anywhere nearby.

### **Part 2**

*It's time to craft a raft and cast a look at the past! (We're making a boat to cross a swamp.)*

The party is now faced with crossing a vast swamp and there is no raft in sight, nor do any of them have the skills or knowledge to make one – Lucius suggests that Sentry *commune* with Root to see if one of the Guardian souls inside her could share some knowledge with her of how to build a raft. She does so, joining her soul once more with the amber river that exists in the Prime Matrix and hearing the quiet murmur of thousands of voices until she hears the deep, booming voice of Root. She asks Root if it is possible to acquire knowledge from other Guardian souls – he says that it is, but it is something he only did a few times and that the knowledge is not permanent, but will slowly drift from her mind, and it will drain some power from the Prime Matrix. This time, Root will act as a conduit for Sentry to gain the knowledge she needs, but he says that he will teach her how to use this ability so that she can do it alone in future. Root casts around and finds ten Guardian spirits that have the requisite knowledge of how to build a raft and creates a tether between them and Sentry. She suddenly gets multiple flashes of information sent to her mind, each being so rapid that she cannot follow them before the communion suddenly ends. When she wakes, however, she finds that she has the knowledge of how to use carpentry tools, how to cut wood and how to build a boat or a raft.

Sentry knows that even to build a simple raft, it is going to take at least 6 hours and all their ropes and some spellcasting to build a 10-foot by 10-foot raft. The trees are huge, dense, and tough, Lucius weakens them with acid and other spells and Nova rigs a system of ropes and pulleys to help transport the trees once they have been felled: Sentry and Aila’s boundless endurance helps them to keep going with the task. Rosemeadow is exhausted from carrying loads of logs back to their camp and will need a long rest.

After two hours, Quill notices the water level dropping and realises that a raft would now get stuck, after four hours, the water level is at its highest again – they are moving through tidal mangroves. Quill realises that at low tide, they will need to either stop or drag the raft through the mud flats: although it is mid-afternoon, the light is very low in this swampy area. In order to travel by raft, they will need a pathfinder (to navigate hazards and find a path through the swamp) and a lookout (to watch out for enemies and ambushes) – they can do one of these tasks for 4 hours before they must change with someone else. Lucius decides to walk out ahead (given that he can walk on water) and act as pathfinder first – Thalia is happy to do either, and Rosemeadow is happy to help pole the raft along. Thalia starts as lookout and Aila starts pushing the raft along (she will change with Sentry later).

After an hour, the water level drops, and the raft gets stuck in the mud which is thick and sticky; they are surrounded by mangrove trees with their spider-like roots hiding critters and creatures that live in the mangrove. Aila decides to rig up a harness with some rope and start pulling the raft though the mud – everyone else has to walk. Eventually, Lucius realises that he has led them in the wrong direction, and he estimates that they will have lost about two hours of travel time – they come up against a thick, unpassable barricade of tree roots – they will either have to find a way through them or double back. He heads back to the group, falls to his knees and apologises to the group for leading them astray fearing that this will result in Thalia dying. Rosemeadow comforts Lucius, reassuring him that he has done his best – Sentry thinks that if they could get past the root wall, she could lead them back to the north where they want to be going. Nova casts *arcane gate* as the water level starts to rise, Lucius removes his Cloak of Billowing (struggling to fold it as it continues to billow) and he pulls the raft through the arcane gate, scraping the sides off the raft that just fits through the portal.

They get back on the raft. Quill takes up the position of pathfinder, Aila provides a lookout and Sentry pushes the raft. The tide stays high for at least four hours and Quill is confident that they are heading in the right direction – ahead of them, the trees thin out and it looks as if they are headed for open water, but Quill can see what looks like mud piles or little columns. As they get closer, he can see that this large open area is full of bubbles that are surrounded by a brown mucous membrane – there are hundreds of them ahead and they are quite large, maybe the size of beach balls. Quill also noticed the strong smell of old cheese.

Aila knows that gases will get trapped and can form bubbles. Nova thinks that this is probably not a mundane gas but may have a magical or unusual nature to them – it could explode, turn them into frogs or something else. Nova recommends avoiding them, but it will take a long time to go around them. Lucius recommends freezing the bubbles and popping them from a distance, then using *gust* to blow the gas away. They need to consider how they are going to blow up a swamp.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00 - Intro
 17:46 - Part 1
1:36:59 - Break time/donations
1:50:30 - Part 2
 2:45:34 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Ulstace Fairmeadow
* Thalia
* Kyrie
* Big Cat
* Rosemeadow

## **Featured Locations**

* Lunaria
	+ Everclear Lake
	+ Yon Fen

## **Trivia**

* Nova cannot wear the Headband of Telepathy and the Headband of Comprehend Languages at the same time but can use an action to swap them over. Nova wants to use the Goggles of Night as an extra set of lenses – Kim imagines them flipping down over her scrying lenses in a steampunk fashion, but she will have to spend an action to do so because they occupy the same equipment slot.
* The party paid the following amounts for the items from Ulstace: Ring of Protection 1,000g; Horseshoes of Speed 2,000g; Boots of Elvenkind 500g; Nova’s three items 1,400g total.
* Mark confirmed that the curse is tailored to Thalia and bound to Thalia’s spirit so they would not be able to simply chop off her arm and regrow it to get around the curse.
* Tom made the pun that if Nova became a Lich, he’d have to fight her, and he didn’t want to “smack my Lich up”.
* Ulstace is described by Mark as a “giant horse man” and is the size of a Clydesdale or larger with a large muscular human male torso on that, so is probably 10 feet tall.
* Rosemeadow idolises the party – she thinks they are the greatest heroes, and that as long as she is with them, no harm will come to her.
* The flying fish have wings like pigeons.
* Thalia does not own any bras.
* Kyrie is a J-pop-style fangirl of Shansara’s.
* A dono message from SkyrimWitch read, “I miss Max! Totally ship MaxiQuillian.” The response was amazing:
	+ Tom: Me, too.
	+ Mark: Well, make it happen, then! Make the first fuckin’ move!
	+ Tom: I’m down to fuck.
	+ Mark: Do it then, coward!
	+ Mark then followed up later with: Chat, I want you to remember what Tom said – if he doesn’t fuckin’ flirt and ask Max out on a date, then you know he’s a filthy liar and a coward.
* Rhi tells Tom to get on it before Sentry and Max have their inevitable paladin pal fight, because one of them has to go. Mark didn’t know about it but he’s excited about it now.
* The idea of using the Prime Matrix to get information from the Guardian souls within was Trott’s, suggested in-game. Mark said that he will update the Prime Matrix so that there is now the ability to expend a charge to gain a proficiency temporarily (until the next long rest).
* There were a number of cheese puns at the end of the episode: Tom – “It doesn’t smell gouda”, Rhi – “Are we going to be edamed if we go near them?”, and Mark - “It’s better to brie prepared.”
* Much of this adventure has been adapted from the module The Wild Beyond the Witchlight - it was a very big source of inspiration for Mark.