Aerois - Episode 32: Whispers of the Void

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Oriya Marius

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Whispers of the Void** is the 32nd episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 21st April 2019 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*A silver masked woman with a glowing red broadsword stands in a room filled with darkness and void. A shard of Tiangong stands behind her. Time to roll initiative!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* This week's sponsors are D&D Beyond and Displate.
* This is the last date you can unlock Aila in Idle Champions.
* D&D Live is 16-19 May in Los Angeles, and High Rollers will be present.
* High Rollers will be at Yog Con on 3-4 August, there are HR VIP tickets which gives you a dinner with the HR crew and a special one-shot adventure with Mark. There is a fan art contest for Yog Con, the prize for which is a general VIP ticket, and you can submit new or old fan art.
* TwitchCon recently had HR attending, Elspeth Eastman and Nate Sharp were guests.

### **Recap**

"*It has been precisely one month since our group of travellers, aboard an airship bound for the sky city of Gusthaven, crashed into the bleak Bitterwood on the southern region of Suvonna. Their airship destroyed, and the hostile Lowlands around them nipping at their heels, our heroes rescued a few civilians and made their way north. Along the way they've made numerous allies, suffered injuries, and terrible losses; they have unearthed ancient secrets of their own world and of the powerful forces that lie beyond it. Now they find themselves on a faraway land, with one of their companions dead. Sent here by the near-immortal ancient enemy of Aerois, Kalus Starbane, after he was brought through the protective barrier called the Cradle, only spared because the party had befriended and protected his secret demigod daughter Valla. Sentry, a Guardian of the lost city of Solwynn, can be brought back to life. To secure aid in keeping her life force protected until then, the party have offered to assist a dwarven priestess, called Skaldi Ravenscar. Skaldi has taken them to an ancient ruined watchtower, to bring peace to unquiet spirits that have grown more and more aggressive. Deep in the ruin, having bypassed deadly traps and magical defenders, the group have entered the final chamber: an old shrine. The darkness is all around you. It crawls and stretches like bony fingers crawling along the floor and walls. Only a small section of stone remains untouched, and anything beyond is now just endless night, a void of light and hope. The vague shapes of an altar, and columns, and a large crystal sphere, rise up out of the darkness. The sphere emits a faint blue light, and at its centre is the shape of a tri-bladed throwing knife. But these are all eclipsed by the presence of a figure. A woman in tattered cloth and strange skin-tight armour. Dark hair falls over a beautiful silver mask that covers the upper section of her face, even covering her eyes. A long wide blade of red energy pulses and hisses in her hands, held as though it weighs nothing. "Little candles, clinging to life. Have you come to surrender to the eternal end?" were the last words she spoke, as the darkness of the entryway that you had passed through seems to vanish into nothing, leaving you in this room. That is where you are currently.*"

### **Part 1**

*A silver masked woman with a glowing red broadsword stands in a room filled with darkness and void. I think it's time to roll initiative!*

Skaldi stands beside them, clinging to her lantern, the symbol of her faith to Kellara, the goddess of death: the dim light illuminates an island within the dark void that covers the floor and walls of the room. Quill knows that there is a room here, but to the others it looks like they are standing on an island within an endless void - the woman, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, and odd-skin-tight metallic armour over the top of her body, stands in the middle of the void in front of them. The woman is masked, but stares in their direction as the door closes and seemingly disappears behind them. She holds an energy sword that hums and crackles, pointed towards the ground.

Quill asks Nova if the woman is from the Court of Shadows: the woman says she once served Kalus, but serves him no longer because now she knows the truth of the universe and now serves inevitability. Nova, currently disguised as Kalus, moves aside and dispels her illusionary disguise. Skaldi tells them that the darkness is not normal, and that undeath clings to the place. The figure moves towards them and encourages them to surrender; she tells them that she is preparing a temple that will be able to accept "everything". They see a metal construct behind the woman, and where its chest would be, sits a blue coffin-shape, within which lies a tri-bladed throwing knife made from the same material as Tiangong. Nova closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and holds Tiangong's hilt in one hand, then raises her arm and calls mentally to the throwing knife, calling it to her. In her head, Nova gets a sense of trust and a distant connection to the blade from across the room, when suddenly her hand grips Tiangong and rises into the air - there is a blue flash from behind the coffin as the knife phases through the coffin, flies through the air to Nova, and slams into Tiangong: the dagger blade changes into the tri-bladed form in Nova's hand. The woman is intrigued, but realises that they are not here to surrender, and brings up her blade.

She summons a wall of darkness (*Wall of Force*) around the party, then attacks. She uses the shadows that Skaldi's lantern doesn't reach to teleport around the room, and moves the walls to block people off from her. During the fight, she removes her silver mask, and they see that where her eyes and forehead should be is just a gaping hole of nothing - in the middle of the black void is a dark red light that starts to glow, and a voice seems to whisper from it, "I hunger...". Lucius and Nova attack the altar, which seems to damage the woman. Quill goes down in the battle from a slash with the woman's energy sword, and she stabs his unconscious body as it lies on the ground.

Aila tries to get through the *Wall of Force* to help Quill, but cannot break through the wall in time. Unfortunately, Quill bleeds out the next round before any of his friends can help him: even the spirit of Eloquis cannot save him, and their spirit is thrown out of Quill's body.

Eloquis then chooses to instead possess Lucius, to protect him like they tried to protect Quill. It is apparent during the fight that the woman is terrified of Aila and Oriya, repeatedly blocking them away. Lucius finishes the fight with a blast of Dichromancy (the orange taken from Quill's dead body) which he forms into a small feather - the acid hits her mask which falls away, and the darkness within her is sucked into a pinprick of darkness before vanishing. The darkness in the room begins to burn away and reveals a beautiful room of white stone speckled with gold and illustrated with symbols of Siaska, the Starmother. The altar is revealed as a resplendent opaline dedication, carved with images of the gods and goddesses and laden with treasure.

There is now a sense of peace, tinged with grief for the loss of Quill.

### **Part 2**

*After a shocking setback the team have some serious choices to make...*

After his death, Quill's spirit receives a vision:

*Quill remembers his last moments, then opens his eyes to see light and blue skies: he is flying, but higher than he has ever flown. Far below him, he can just make out the ruined watch tower where he was with his friends, and it slowly dawns on him what has happened. A quiet but familiar voice comes from somewhere around him.*

*"I'm sorry, Quill. I couldn't even see you in that place. Whatever darkness... I couldn't see past it." It is the winged humanoid god, H'esper, clutching his staff in one hand and his book in the other, his ghostly form is transparent but detailed. He looks sadly at Quill, "I'm afraid we don't have much time, Kellara will be here shortly." Quill tells H'esper that he did everything he could, and H'esper responds, "I know you did, and I could not be more proud to have chosen you. You did everything you could. This is fate, sometimes."*

*Quill acknowledges this and says that this is his path - "For now," replies H'esper. "You have very good friends who have a very difficult choice to make, but..." he raises the staff and a silver thread emerges from Quill's chest and begins to spin and twist down towards the land below until it connects with something. Quill knows that it has connected to his body: H'esper tells Quill that this is his life thread, his tether, and that it will remain for some time - should his allies find a way to bring him back, it will allow him to find his way past the Cradle and back to Aerois.*

*Quill asks tentatively, "And if they don't?"*

*"Then you will enjoy the afterlife of peace that my mother created, that Siaska created for all of Aerois' souls," replies H'esper. "It is a blissful land of peace and prosperity and good will. You'll be happy there, I know." Quill tells H'esper that there is still more that he wants to do: H'esper tells him not to rule his allies out yet, but that if they fail, that Quill can help him.*

*There is a rustle of leaves and flowers, and when Quill turns around, he sees a path of beautiful blooming flowers that quickly decay, but more appear as the materialising woman takes each step, and decay as her foot lifts and moves on. The woman, looking like she is perhaps in her 40s or 50s, has pure white, alabaster skin, is clothed in a black breastplate with a wreath of flowers around her neck and a long billowing cloak: she holds a lantern in one hand and a greatsword in the other. "Brother," she says to H'esper, "is this the one?"*

*"Yes, sister, this is my chosen," he responds. She sheathes her sword on her back and holds out her hand to Quill: "Come, chosen. I need to lead you past the Cradle." Kellara escorts him beyond the clouds, and the multi-coloured lights of the Cradle begin to appear before them. She raises her lantern and a small arched passageway opens - they travel through and Quill sees the thousands of lights of other worlds that begin to fade into white light as Quill's spirit is taken beyond into the afterlife.*

The rest of the party, meanwhile, is in a beautiful white shrine to Siaska, with the altar laden with treasures: silver bars, a platinum statue of Siaska, a shield with Siaska's holy symbol emblazoned on its face which leans on the altar, and a fine silver-chained necklace with a brilliant crystal star that glows faintly. Eloquis separates from Lucius, apologises for not being able to help Quill, and thanks them all for their help; they tell the party to take the treasures on the altar and accepts Kellara's call, vanishing. Lucius goes to Quill's body, collapses to his knees, buries his face in Quill's feathers and cries - he sees a loose feather and takes it as a memento. Oriya pats Lucius on the back as Aila starts pounding on the wall in frustration; Skaldi is waving her lantern and muttering something under her breath, and Nova walks over, wraps her arm around Lucius and Oriya and puts a hand on Quill's body. Aila takes the treasure and picks up Quill's body, ready to leave. Nova wants to investigate the temple further, to find out more about the woman they fought: there is no trace of her body, but she gets a sense from Tiangong that they know what the woman was doing and whom she was serving, without being able to communicate it. Nova asks if Tiangong can give her a name, and thinks that next time she rests, she may be able to commune better to get the answer. She then moves near to the altar and sees the colossal chest of the war titan that is buried in the ground outside. The colossal steel chest plate is the size of a small cottage; in the middle of it is a coffin-shaped crystal compartment with a tri-bladed depression, and within it are cables and lines of runes, similar to what she had seen in the shuttle that had carried the dagger form of Tiangong. It appears that this giant mechanoid has been here for 500 years, since the Sundering.

Skaldi offers to help them and to accompany them to Katuvagg, keeping both Sentry's and Quill's bodies preserved, and to allow them to speak to Quill if they can.

They quickly look through the rest of the temple, and find two recently dead creatures' bodies in the dormitory - they wear armour very similar to what the warriors in the ship below Rosewater Lake wore: black, skin-tight leather armour with no obvious buckles or fastenings, and bracers with strange technology fitted within them (a piton and a small chamber filled with blue vials that crackle with lightning). Nova takes both of them - they are lightning cables, but she notices that one is broken. They make their way back to a natural cave that they saw on the way in. Lucius and Skaldi take Quill's body back to the entrance, while Aila, Nova and Oriya go to check out the cave. It is an underwater chamber; the giant hand of the war titan has burst through the ceiling, and embedded in the hand like a thorn is a javelin inscribed with lightning bolt symbols. At the bottom of the cavern are multiple, huge piles of bones and rusted armour. Aila takes the javelin, which crackles as it is pulled free. Oriya looks for some "cool-looking teeth" from the pile of bones: she finds tusks, needle-like teeth, a gold ring engraved with bloodstones, and a bronze circlet with an opal in its centre (worth 250g each). They then go back to the Quartermaster's room, which is also flooded: there are boxes and chests behind the rusted bars of a strongroom - only three appear not to be ruined and are about 30 feet behind the rusted bars and underwater. One box is a decorated wooden chest with silver latches and the emblem of Siaska, one is made of metal and has bronze fastenings, and the last one that is not ruined is a thin, carved wooden box with gold and silver etchings in the shape of an hourglass. There is a door nearby that is heavily rusted and appears to be swollen shut. Aila tries to pull the door open, and with Oriya's help, they tear the door off its hinges. They take the chests back to the entrance, where they see the first rays of a new dawn.

Skaldi has laid Quill's body out and is casting Gentle Repose on him; Oriya takes the gold ring she found and puts it on one of Quill's talons. Lucius thanks Skaldi for looking after Quill's body, but she feels guilty because they were there at her request - she feels responsible for Quill's death. There is discussion that they will need to find another power source like they got from Kalus for Sentry. Lucius recalls stories and myths that he heard from Nanny, that it is very rare for people to come back from the dead, and it is usually only people who are very sacred to nations, or legendary heroes; however, there is also the tale of Dana Bloodfire (famous in the sky cities). Dana Bloodfire was a human woman who was killed and brought back through flame - her body erupted in flames and she was reborn as a baby; this cycle now keeps repeating for her, and she is currently the leader of the Sky City of Horizon, known as 'Dana the Phoenix'. In all of the stories of people coming back from the dead, there is normally a need for something of incredible purity, sacredness/holiness or incredible magical power, for example, the purest of diamonds worth thousands of gold. Lucius knows that the Elenastos would have the money to buy such a diamond and would know the people from whom to get it - all Lucius has to do is get to a major city, like Katuvagg, so that he can either board an airship or use a teleportation circle to get to Gusthaven.

Nova ponders whether the magical storms around Voksar could somehow be used to gather power to bring Quill back to life, but she realises that the power of the storms fade as they travel further from their source, so would be too weak to accomplish their goal. She thinks that if they travelled to the source of the storms (in the Valley of Storms), there might be enough power, but they would still need someone to cast the ritual. They discuss whether or not to take Sentry to see The Shepherd, but worry that if he casts Reincarnate (if it even works), that she will come back as another race (such as an Elf, a Human or an Aarakocra), not as a Guardian. They know that people who can cast spells to bring people back from death are very rare in any event. Another option for them is the Midwife's Forge, which, it is said, houses the spirit of Valena, the goddess of life and creation.

They know that the sky cities are constantly moving, and that Gusthaven will be closer to Goldthrone than Katuvagg, so it will take them 2-4 weeks to get there by sky ship. Skaldi suggests that they return to Stenhill for now and process Quill's death; Oriya elects to stay with the party for now. They begin to travel as fast as they can back to Stenhill, and have an encounter as they are about to make their evening camp with two Lizardfolk who travel from the direction of the Nighteye - the Lizardfolk ask about the safety of the road ahead with undead spirits known to roam the land. The party tells them that the spirits have been dealt with, and the older lizard advises them to steer clear of the Witchmoor, and tells them that the Witch of Black Fire is not to be trusted. The storms hit, and Oriya finds them a small rocky overhang in which to make their camp; Skaldi plants a lightning rod on top of the rocks to keep them safe.

The storm is furious - the wind howls and tears away the branches that Aila had used as a rudimentary attempt to screen their camp from the storm. There is a crash of thunder and an explosion of light as lightning hits the lightning rod stuck into the rocks above them. They take a long rest and identify some items: the javelin is a Javelin of Lightning; the necklace from the altar is a Stone of Good Luck; the shield is unique, was once the shield of a warrior of Siaska during the war, and is called Starlight's Bulwark; the bracers are lightning cable launchers, with a *Lightning Lure* spell built into the bracer. The instrument that Quill had is called a Fochlucan Bandore. In the wooden chest with silver latches are 3000 silver starfall coins (old coins from before the Sundering) worth 1200g. The metal chest with bronze fastenings holds a pair of ruby statues of the goddess Valena worth 150g each. In the thin wooden box is a potion of longevity. From the altar, Aila also picked up 10 pressed silver bars worth 100g each and a platinum statue of Siaska worth 1000g.

Aila takes the javelin, Lucius the stone of good luck, Oriya the shield, and Nova the bracers. Nova spends some time with Tiangong, and tries to focus on their conscious thoughts and faint memories - *Nova sees the woman, the darkness spreading throughout the room. Darkness and a hunger, a tiny point of red light amidst an ocean of stars. Hadar hungers. In Tiangong, this eternal being, there is fear.* Nova knows that while Tiangong feels fear and hesitation over Starbane, they feel a much deeper fear over Hadar. Nova wakes, screaming as the vision fades, and slowly begins to sob, then tells them about Tiangong's discovery about Hadar.

At the mention of Hadar, an old, old memory subconsciously rises to the surface of Aila's mind: *flashes... a child, barely a toddler at this point... she sees the red tartan of the clan as warriors prepare for battle. She is not on Aerois, she is somewhere else - she is on a world with a different sky, with three moons, and she sees Starbane's ships. Her warriors are being led onto them, her with them. She hears a voice: a deep, resonating, masculine voice, but all she can make out is "...to defeat Hadar...". She sees people, and hears noise, then blackness.*

Skaldi tries to console Nova who is worried that Hadar is worse than Starbane. Skaldi reassures her that the Cradle will protect them, that Starbane will be kept out by the Cradle which he has failed to destroy before, and that the gods would have told them if Hadar (whom she has never heard of) was a threat. They return to Stenhill and the Temple of Kellara, where Aila places Quill's dead body on the altar next to Sentry's.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:20 - Mark is from Mass Effect
2:04 - A night to remember (or forget)
6:30 - Aerois Intro
7:36 - Recap start
8:58 - Recap end
13:39 - Awkward disguise self
17:47 - Tiangong 2
19:00 - Battle begins
25:31 - Legendary action
27:31 - Peter Andre should be dead
29:38 - Voidmote
28:29 - Counterspell
38:47 - Mask removed
40:30 - Distressed Lucius noises
40:43 - Lucius winning the fight
43:05 - Hench Nova
51:08 - Heal your enemies to win
54:13 - Quill goes down
54:39 - Injury check
55:31 - Quill's one weakness
56:50 - Pleading with Mark is like pleading with the Grim Reaper
58:12 - Nat 1 to stabilise the bird
1:00:23 - Aila vs. Wall
1:02:50 - Death Saving Throw time!
1:03:56 - Eloquis' Saving Throw
1:04:26 - Welcome to the club
1:05:43 - Trotty the troll
1:08:26 - Mark's done something somehow
1:09:28 - If it bleeds, we can kill it
1:11:43 - Lucius sees Quill
1:13:45 - Using Quill for Quill's revenge
1:14:01 - Lucius' Kill
1:16:27 - Break starts
1:27:07 - Break ends
1:27:26 - Quill's Awakening
1:28:25 - Quill and H’esper
1:31:04 - Kellara
1:35:03 - Lucius and Quill
1:35:49 - Aila vs. Wall 2.0
1:40:31 - Nova and Tiangong
1:53:57 - Freudian slip
1:54:38 - Yay...
1:55:07 - There is triumph even in death, Tom
1:57:51 - The Tale of Dana Bloodfire
1:59:24 - Kim loves teleportation circles
2:00:16 - Mark about to smite us with knowledge
2:01:03 - Special Sauce
2:01:54 - Aila doesn't care
2:05:19 - 5th level spell finger guns
2:07:58 - Death is not just for the dead
2:08:33 - Oriya's pledge
2:09:44 - The VIP experience
2:10:32 - Random Encounter Time!
2:13:06 - Lizardman
2:15:07 - The Witch of Blackfire
2:16:17 - Missed Opportunity
2:16:34 - Storm prep
2:18:00 - Nova is Dr. Frankenstein
2:21:31 - The storm hits
2:22:14 - Tom makes a sad con save for his corpse
2:22:54 - Magic loot reveals
2:23:45 - If only
2:26:08 - Three boxes of spiders
2:27:49 - Worth it
2:28:55 - Hot tips from God
2:29:10 - The High Rollers are high rollers
2:32:27 - Lucius assesses the aesthetic value of the pendant
2:34:51 - Spider-Genasi
2:35:52 - Poor Tom
2:35:56 - Poor Reynard
2:36:05 - Let's loot Quill
2:36:15 - Trott vs. Lucius
2:36:53 - Tiangong's fear
2:40:37 - Aila's memory
2:41:59 - You're a spelf, Harry
2:45:04 - Ow.
2:45:30 - Episode ends
2:45:54 - Everyone is having this nightmare
2:46:28 - Donations
2:47:30 - Strangely accurate episode prediction from Frankthenpc
2:48:20 - Frank back again with some more unfortunate comments
2:50:24 - Refusal from Trotty
2:52:16 - Fan art video

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Lizardman (unnamed)
* Lizardwoman (unnamed)

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Watch Commander Eloquis
* Voidwitch Elisadra
* Skaldi Ravenscar

## **Featured Locations**

* Myrskyr
	+ The Nighteye
	+ Stenhill

## **Trivia**

* During the fight with the woman in part one, she does attacks that give the players stacks of "void motes". Sunlight cleanses the stacks of void motes.
* The woman they fight is Hadar-touched.
* Quill dies during this episode, and Tom said it is the first main series character death he has ever had.
* On exiting the temple, Mark advises that (although the characters do not know it), this is the start of a new month, and that each month in Aerois is 32 days long.
* It has been 3 days since Sentry died.
* The party has "cleansed the Nighteye, and prevented 'some great source of evil' from gaining strength here".
* **Continuity error:** Mark refers to "Dana Bloodfire" (who would re-appear as "Dannica Bloodfire" in episode 104 - Horizon Reunions).
* Mark refers to the encounter with the lizardfolk as a "Skyrim encounter".
* There is a suggestion that Goldthrone is the equivalent of Las Vegas in this episode.
* Mark suggested after the episode ended that Nova might have a nightmare about Quill's eyepatch falling off and him having just a gaping dark hole where his eye should be, with a single red point of light in the middle.
* Kim suggested that as this was their Easter episode, they should have had a resurrection today.
* **Magic item: Javelin of Lightning**
* **Magic item: Stone of Good Luck:** gives +1 to all ability checks and saving throws.
* **Magic item: Starlight's Bulwark:** allows casting of the Light Cantrip, plus the following once per day each: Guiding Bolt (1st Lvl) and Sanctuary (1st Lvl).
* **Magic item: Fochlucan Bandore:** allows spellcasting including Fly, Protection from Energy, Faerie Fire, Entangle and other spells.