Aerois - Episode 180: The Wrath of Starbane

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

Tom Hazell as Aila
and Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Wrath of Starbane** is the 180th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 2nd April 2023 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*The Champions of Aerois deliver a fight worthy of the Leader of the Valkyrian Empire: Kallus(sic) Starbane!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark opened with this gem...
* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players. Katie is away this week because she has “stuff that she needs to deal with”.
* Merch: Freshstore.co has glittery dice (The Blessing) that comes in a lovely scroll case/dice mat (and will also be a memento of the Aerois campaign), wood cut designed shirts (T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, and hoodies).
* On Wednesdays, HR is playing through the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying RPG (pre-made module, The Enemy Within). HR is really enjoying this game by Cubicle 7. The first episode is available on YouTube to everyone, and all games will be available to YouTube channel members or Patreon supporters. Streams will also be available on Twitch for 60 days after the stream, after which they will only be available to members. Grab a membership to YouTube or Patreon – there will soon be a Behind the Scenes update (and should be a lot more as they roll into campaign 3).

### **Recap**

*“The Champions of Aerois find themselves in the lost sky city of Kassatoris which had crash-landed into the ocean after the delivery of Project Vanguard, a giant mechanical construct that they used to help fight the titan, Atelicus. After that great battle, they met with Kalus Valkyrian, Emperor of the Valkyrian Empire, Ruler of Astral Space, and a long-time enemy and antagonist of our party. But this time, it was different – a conversation was had where Kalus revealed that he had explored many of the secrets that the party had revealed to him and had considered their words, and had come to make an offer, that they would pull back their forces in exchange for a meeting. And in that meeting, a duel – a battle to test the party, to test the characters against himself to make sure that they are prepared to fight the great threat of Hadar, which looms ever closer."*
### **Part 1**

*Unarmoured but fast as lightning... Starbane is throwing everything he can at the Stormchasers!*

The party has engaged Kalus in battle. He began the battle in the open plaza of the dead city, Kassatoris, wearing thick, heavy plate armour, seemingly able to shrug off or absorb most of their attacks. After a time, Kalus removed this armour, which also served to restrain him, and showed them his full potential as a true warrior: quick, accurate, and deadly.

Kalus presses a device on his wrist and a large magical area appears around him, Sentry, Nova, and the disembodied Tiangong. He then makes a quick flurry of slashes, hitting Sentry three times, and rendering her unconscious with the second slashing strike. Sentry’s *Driven to Purpose* activates, but Kalus tells her that, “Hadar will show you no mercy, fight me as if I were him,” before he hits her again and knocks her unconscious a second time at which point her summoned Celestial also disappears. Aila moves to attack Kalus, staying outside the magical field.

Aila swings her mighty hammer, and despite the fact that Kalus is moving at an extremely fast pace, she manages to hit him, taking damage herself with his riposte. Kalus is not expecting to be hit – when the hammer makes contact with him, he stumbles and loses his burst of speed. Kalus spins his blade and casts GEMINI VORTEX, creating two new vortices of energy nearby – they pass through Nova and Sentry (who is unconscious), both of whom take damage. The defence drone dispels *Shield of Faith* from Quill, and he feels the spell break around him.

Quill flies towards the party, casting *Mass Cure Wounds*, but it is *Counterspelled* by the shielded defence drone. Kalus’ comment that, “You’ve fought a seed of Hadar before, you know it can consume magic!” only serves to irritate the Aarakocra. Kalus teleports to hover behind Quill and, not wanting him to heal Sentry, grabs him and throws him to the ground, knocking him prone.

Nova, meanwhile, has been locked in place as a battle of wills occurs between Kalus’ version of Tiangong and her own. She is caught in the middle of this titanic struggle, focusing her mind and energy, trying to assist her own Tiangong in their efforts. Everyone else is so busy with the battle so that only Nova notices that the shadowy form of her own Tiangong, looking like an androgynous, astral, nebular form of Nova locked hand in hand with the other version of Tiangong – it is humanoid, androgynous, but looks like neither Nova nor Kalus. It is more muscular, completely bald, and wearing only a cape for clothing over its blue, space-like (but less astral) form. Nova tries desperately to fill the other version of Tiangong with the memories of her time with her own version, trying to show the other half what her Tiangong was and the connection that they had. She remembers the last time that she saw her Tiangong as they descended together into the magical vortex, and the feeling that she did not want Tiangong to go, but to return to being a leader of their people. She is filled with sadness and grief but also a gratitude that they spent their time and did everything together.

There is an additional whisper of a memory from the shade of her Tiangong from the same moment near the magical chasm, and their choice to try to take Nova’s place before they decide to go together. Nova watches as her Tiangong’s hands seem to start to merge with and sink into the other Tiangong. Kalus’ version sees Nova’s Tiangong merge into its body. Nova sees some minor changes begin to take place in their form – the cape and pale blue skin stay the same but their hair changes to a short version of Nova’s own, the features become slightly more Genasi, and within the skin are different blues that shimmer like a night sky captured in the reflection from an ocean – the two strain briefly before they become one. They stop the struggle, look down at their hands and then to Nova, “Nova V’ger, we remember you.”

Kalus, hovering above Quill, looks around to see the merged Eterna and cocks his head. Tiangong speaks once more, “We… do not wish to fight. This is wrong. Emperor, this is wrong.” Tiangong floats away, “We must think. Tassadar, the others, we must see them”, and having said this, they vanish. Nova looks to Kalus, who is still looking curiously at her, “You should have held on tighter,” she tells him.

“Perhaps,” he responds. “I never wished to control Tiangong, we worked together. Perhaps you have shown that there were different ways.”

“I only wanted them to be complete,” says Nova.

“I only ever wanted them to do what they wanted – to serve a greater purpose,” he replies.

The gun drone fires a disc at Nova, which misses, but hits Lucius with a spell suppression shot which binds his hands with a gel that feels like it is sucking the magical energy from him. Lucius runs to Sentry through the Magitek field, becomes slowed, and uses *Wall of Ice* to protect them from the vortex – he manages to stabilise Sentry using his prismatic energies to stabilise her matrix.

Kalus’ blade, which until now had had a blue-purple glow to it, is now a dull, lifeless grey and looks dormant. He runs a hand over its surface, coating it with his own Magitek field, before swinging it before him and making a SWEEPING PLASMA CUTTER attack – this knocks Quill unconscious and almost destroys the *Wall of Ice,* but Lucius and Sentry are unharmed. He destroys some sections of the wall then shoots a force blast at Aila, but she dodges before running over and attacking both Starbane and the shielded drone. The drone takes a serious blow but is immune to lightning, an infuriated Aila drops the hammer, grabs the drone and uses it to hit Kalus (also damaging the drone in the process). Kalus manages to spin and cut Aila long her arm in retaliation.

Kalus targets Aila with a thin beam of force and she is suddenly paralysed as she is held by *Hold Person.* Quill’s eye suddenly opens as he miraculously regains consciousness – he studies the shielded drone and realises that it has some sort of Magitek ability to dispel and counterspell magic, although how it does this and what its range is, he does not know. There is also some sort of field around the drone itself. Quill points his Wand of *Magic Missiles* at the drone and shoots all of its seven charges at it, and while the shield tries to rebuff the magic, the sheer number of the missiles allows the magic to pass through – it appears that the more powerful the magic, the less able it is to redirect or protect itself from it. The missiles slam into the drone, and it begins to spark but somehow remains floating in mid-air. Quill turns and does some minor healing to Sentry which the drone attempts to counterspell but fails. Kalus grabs Quill then throws him into the wall next to the drone, knocking him unconscious again.

Sentry steps out of the field, heals herself with Lay on Hands then *Misty Steps* towards Quill. Kalus takes the opportunity to attack Aila, making a mighty blow against her paralysed form, slicing across her chest with his sword. Nova summons her echo, which appears as Tiangong, and it moves to Kalus while she picks up her sword from the ground, and it then attacks him. Its first attack misses but the second and third are precise hits as the echo finds gaps in his defence. Nova uses her action surge ability, hitting Kalus twice more but Kalus parries two further attacks. The attack drone shoots and misses Nova’s echo and misses Lucius with *Suppression Shot*.

They notice that Kalus is now looking a little more worse for wear – he has cut marks on his cheek and his armour is starting to look scuffed and broken, and the man himself is breathing hard. Lucius steps out of the Magitek field and attempts to cast *Prismatic Wall* in a dome on Kalus, telling Kalus to fight against himself as he makes his way out of it. The defence drone, however, manages to *Counterspell* the wall. Lucius throws a necromantic bolt of *Dichromancy* at Kalus, followed by a *Firebolt* that he changes again to necromantic magic – as the surging bolt of black magic is throw desperately at him, Kalus tries to use his blade to deflect the spell energy, but it is too much and overwhelms him. They watch as Kalus’ armour is stripped away as the necrotic energy begins to corrode his armour – it exposes some of his skin which looks burned and blistered. The vortices drift off in random directions and do not manage to strike anyone.

### **Part 2**

*The Champions of Aerois deliver a fight worthy of the leader of the Valkyrian Empire!*

The party has managed to deal some decent damage to Starbane and he is now beginning to look pressed, while one of the two drones with him appears to be badly damaged. Aila is still paralysed, and Quill is still unconscious.

Kalus changes his stance from the high guard to a low, defensive stance. He then uses his replicate spell ability to summon a *Blade Barrier* in a 40-foot diameter around him and places it so that Aila is within the spinning blades in the outer ring. Kalus then hits Nova’s echo dispelling it, and the paralysed Aila twice, before leaving her to the mercy of the blades. With his last attack, he moves to Lucius – replying to Lucius’ earlier rejoinder to fight against himself, he tells Lucius that he does not need to fight himself because has been fighting against himself for a thousand years. He then hits Lucius with a slashing attack of his sword. Aila takes slashing damage that she cannot avoid from the wall of blades surrounding her and cannot break out of the paralysis from which she suffers. Kalus slashes at Lucius before the defence drone, still fluttering and sparking, tries to escape once more – Sentry reaches out as it flies past her and casually destroys it with Starbreaker.

Quill remains unconscious and Kalus moves in for the kill on Aila, plunging his blade into her stomach – her relentless rage keeps her alive, however, as he screams at them all, “You think this will be enough? You think this will be enough to defeat Hadar??” Sentry heals Quill with Lay on Hands then casts *Spirit Shroud* on Starbreaker before moving near to Aila. Nova uses her blade to cut a portal in the air, casts *Vortex Warp* on Aila, and teleports her behind Quill. Kalus sees this action and nods to Nova, recognising that saving her friend was the most tactical move that she could make. Nova moves away from the attack drone that attempts to hit both her and Lucius, but misses.

Lucius sprints towards Kalus, casting *Armour of Agathys* on himself, making the armour necromantic instead of ice, then moves to tackle Kalus. Kalus does not even turn around, simply pushing Lucius off with an outstretched palm. Lucius retaliates by trying to launch a *Firebolt* at him, but he knocks Lucius’ hands aside, causing the magic to go wide of its intended mark. Kalus finally turns to face Lucius, telling him that he is aware that attacking Lucius will hurt him but that he imagines it will hurt Lucius far more. He then hits Lucius, picks him up, holding Lucius by the throat, and swivels to push him into the barrier of spinning blades. Lucius’ necrotic armour shatters and he begins to take slashing damage from the magical blades – Kalus maintains his hold on Lucius and watches, dispassionately as Lucius is torn to shreds by the magical effect. Aila finally breaks free of the paralysis that has been affecting her and, seething with rage, she prepares to attack Starbane.

Kalus punches Lucius in the stomach, knocking him unconscious. Quill casts *Mass Cure Wounds*, healing all by Nova and bringing Lucius back to consciousness. Kalus attempts to use his wrist device to cast *Magic Missile* on Quill, however, Lucius *Counterspells* it before he can do so, much to Starbane’s surprise. Sentry *Misty Steps* through the blade wall to stand toe-to-toe with Starbane – he parries the first blow but cannot block the second and she slams Starbreaker into him with the Guardian spirits within holding him down. Most of Kalus’ armour is broken as he takes the massive blow to the chest and they see the barrier of blades dissipate. Kalus turns and retaliates with a great one-handed blow of his sword as he holds his ribs (which Sentry suspects may now be broken). “It’s been a long time since I fought like this,” he utters breathlessly.

Nova manifests her echo which appears as Harmony, and it slashes at Kalus, hitting him twice and catching him off guard. Blood begins to drip down his side and he stumbles as the echo makes a lightning quick final attack, cutting the last of his armour away and slicing into his back, causing him to slam into the ground. The attack drone suddenly falls from the sky to lie motionless on the ground.

All goes still for a moment.

All of a sudden, they see Kalus pushing himself up, most of the armour lies on the ground - they see a bulging chest of muscle, he wears black leather trousers and a couple of plates of his leg guard armour, and his hair is loose and wild. Leaving the dull blade of Tiangong on the ground, he lurches to his feet with a wild joy saying, “It has been a thousand years since I have fought a battle like this. It reminds me of my youth! Yes! YES! By Gideon, I am not done. Do you think Hadar will be this easy? NO!” This is a different Kalus to what they have seen to now: gone is the calm and tactical mind, and cool demeanour - it has been replaced by a sort of wild, savage, and enthusiastic persona that is unknown to them. “Let me see how truly strong you are!” he yells at them.

Lucius launches an acidic *Chromatic Orb* at Kalus followed by a shot of *Dichromancy*, the acid scorches his chest, leaving a red glowing burn mark on his skin. Kalus simply laughs as his flesh bubbles even though he must be in plain, “It has been too long!” Lucius stands up and Kalus immediately goes to punch him in the face – Nova has been expecting this and throws her echo in front of the attack, taking it in Lucius’ stead, causing it to dissipate. “Lucky!” roars Kalus.

Kalus then hits Lucius despite Sentry’s attempt to protect him – he grabs Lucius and flings him across the arena into a statue which both breaks the statue and causes Lucius to fall unconscious. He then turns to Sentry and throws two punches at her – she catches his first fist in her hand but takes the other in the face. She looks him in the face, “There you are, you monster!”

“Monster?” he asks her. “You feel this inside you, too. You have the heart of a warrior, the rage of a protector! This is what it means to do battle!”

Aila charges in, full of rage, and she swings at Starbane, slamming into him with her hammer – he retaliates by booting her in the chest and kicking her away from him. Being now out of range, Aila launches her hammer at him from a distance – the hammer strikes him in the head, but as it passes him, he grabs it with his free hand saying, “A fine weapon!” and spins around to hit Sentry with it, knocking her unconscious. Kalus then throws the hammer back to Aila.

Quill hits Starbane with *Guiding Bolt* which he partially deflects before catching the spell and throwing it back to hit Quill. Kalus’ hands are now blistered and smouldering from catching the radiant magic; both Quill and Kalus are covered in radiance. Nova tucks herself behind cover and summons her echo, Harmony appears and slices into Kalus twice – Kalus sways on his feet but appears to be standing by pure will. Harmony hits once more, stabbing and slashing at his chest – Nova believes that Kalus should be going down at this point since he looks like a dead man walking, but something unknown is keeping him going. He looks at Nova, “Trying to hide, Nova V’ger? There’s no hiding from your destiny, from this final battle! HYAHHHH!” He leaps through the air with a roar smashing at Nova with his hands. He attacks her again, picks her up and throws her next to Sentry in an unconscious heap.

Kalus pummels Aila with multiple fist strikes – her relentless rage allows her to fight on and the two of them stand and pummel at each other like drunk titans. Kalus looks towards Quill saying, “I haven’t forgotten about you, Champion of H’esper!” He stomps on the ground and causes a large piece of debris to shoot up into his hand – he launches this at Quill and Quill is winded as it slams into him. Aila, full of rage, ignores her hammer which lies on the ground beside her and launches herself at Kalus. She punches him, he punches back, and the pugilistic brawl continues: Kalus’ face is a mess of blood and bruises, both of them gasp for breath. Aila makes one last punch with a lightning-crackling fist, “You… are ready,” Kalus grunts, “You… are strong enough…” and he collapses to the ground to rise no more.

Suddenly, there is a ripple in the air, almost like a wave of bright, prismatic, colourful light that comes from the direction of the Halls of Infinite Resplendence. A figure suddenly appears, a woman that they know but have never seen – she is tall (seven, nearly eight feet tall), and wears a white dress that flows around her like mist or cloud. Her skin is made of starlight, dark but flecked with light and radiance, and her hair defies gravity, floating around her like some amorphous thing. She is timeless, both in beauty and wisdom. The Champions find themselves revived and revitalised as she smiles. The purple doorway opens behind her and through it walks Valla and Maximillion. Valla sees Kalus, clutches at her chest and looks worriedly at him then looks at the Champions and her mother, who confirms to her that Kalus is alive. Max runs straight to Kalus’ side, kneels down, turns him over, bows his head and utters reverently, “My Emperor!”

Siaska turns to the Champions, “You have done very well. Do you feel that you have proven your strength as he wanted you to?”

Lucius is bowing, having no words.

“I know I am technically a goddess, but you have done so much for me, I feel we are beyond bowing.” She smiles. “Please, stand, speak with me. You have done much for my world, for my children, for me, for my family,” she gestures to Valla. “It is I who should bow to you,” she says as she inclines her head to them, floats down until her bare feet touch the stony ground, and curtsies to them. Sentry tells Siaska that she does not feel worthy of her, but Siaska disagrees, saying that they are not that different with both of them protecting and carrying the destiny of a people. Sentry gets the impression that despite Siaska being in a magical slumber since the destruction of Solwynn, she is still aware of what has happened over the many years since.

Siaska asks the Champions what they wish to do with Kalus and Lucius tells her that, “Alone, we would fall,” and he indicates Kalus, “but together we will stand.” Siaska just smiles, “I hope that this time, perhaps, he will have learned that lesson. I do not forgive him for many of the things that he’s done. I do still love him, but I do not forgive him. I know why he did what he did, why he intended to do what he intended. It is through love, fear, his protective nature, but it was fear and selfishness, and that I will not forgive him for. The horrors that he inflicted upon us – misguided, but I have my own part to play in all of that. If I had dealt with him more directly, perhaps it would have saved many, many lives, but we will need him. You’re right, we can only do this together, all living things in Aerois, in the Astral Space, we have one common enemy. Hadar does not care for laws or honour, it does not try to protect, or care, or love – Hadar is an ending, cold, empty darkness. That’s all it will ever be. Kalus may be misguided, but he is not that, there is still hope for him. If you are ready, I will bring him back to consciousness, but if there is anything you wish to speak of, to ask me, now is the time.”

Quill looks up to the sky, and for the first time when he looks up, the sky is just blue – there is no shimmer of yellows, pinks, greens, or reds – the sky is still and silent.

Quill asks Siaska if she still hears the titans, and she responds with, “In a way, yes. They are parts of me, and even when I slept I heard them, I just could not speak to them, and they could not hear me. They are within me, but they are also who I am, who I was. H’esper had my curiosity, my protectiveness, Atelicus had my rage, my survivalist nature, Kellara was my duty. They all had parts of me in them. There is one whose voice is stilled to me forever,” and she looks up to the glowing orb of light that is Palador and the Sun Ship, “but he has become his own being. I would have loved the others to have found the same. Some were close, but they did not have the power, the source of energy needed. Perhaps they will live again one day. I am afraid that the Cradle took much of what was me, and much of Aerois has unknowingly weakened me.” Siaska looks at Lucius, “Aetherium – not quite my blood, but my essence, distilled. It has been harvested and cultivated here on Aerois, and in doing so, I know that much of my power is gone. I am not as strong as I once was, and I will never be again – that power is lost to me forever. Not that I mind it or blame the people of Aerois for it, not only did you have no way of knowing, but even if you did, I would not hesitate to give my children and the world I created that gift. It does mean that we have much to do, and that the battle ahead will be the hardest one yet.” She turns and offers a hand to Valla, who takes it. “But we have her, we have you, and now perhaps we have a chance.”

Valla steps up beside her mother, “I’ve seen mother’s plan, she shared it with me. We need to travel into Astral Space. We need to go to Hadar’s realm. It’s strange,” and Valla looks at Siaska, “when we fought Kellara and Zephyr, and I would create that space within their own demi-plane for us to fight, I didn’t know it at the time, but it must have been an idea that mother had or something within me that prompted me to think that way. The same principle can be used to fight Hadar. The Far Realm is deadly to mortal and immortal minds alike, but with my power and mother’s, we can create a temporary space, a pocket realm within the Far Realm within which you would be safe. You would need to protect us both but if we can maintain that field, as mortals, you might have a chance of defeating Hadar. Without a Divine spark in you, if one of you were to defeat Hadar’s physical form in the Far Realm, there’s a chance that we might be able to break his hold, break his power. You wouldn’t become the next Hadar. If we can do that and escape, we can leave it locked in there, powerless. That’s what she wanted to do before, when she was stronger – she wanted to go there with father, create a pocket realm and have him fight Hadar as a mortal, but he wouldn’t risk it and he wouldn’t risk her. There is a real chance that none of us will make it back, even if we defeat Hadar, even escaping the Far Realm poses threats and dangers.”

Quill asks if they might, in theory, be able to create a cage that is strong enough to contain a creature that is capable of eating away at the edges of every universe that it touches, but Valla corrects him. “Not a cage, no. The Far Realm already is a prison. The difficulty is that Hadar is so powerful with all the Divine souls, the Divine energy, the worlds and people that it has consumed, it is able to reach out between the bars of its current cage. What mother and I can do is create a space, a magical bubble within the space of the Far Realm, within which for a short while, you would be immune to the effect of the Far Realm itself. You would still be in danger but would not immediately be driven mad or have your minds explode from psychic energy. Within that bubble, if you can fight or weaken Hadar, then we can escape and leave it trapped in the prison that already exists but without the power to reach out beyond it or the strength to break free again. Unfortunately, mother does not know how to break its strength.”

Siaska nods, “We studied it. I knew all of the gods that it devoured. I don’t know exactly what to do when we get there, but I do know that there must be a way to weaken it in some way. Draining it of its fighting energy may be enough, or there may be some other trick to it, but we won’t know until we are there. This is why Kalus was against the plan and felt that it was too risky, but I do believe that it may be our only chance to be safe and to be free.”

Nova reminds Siaska that there is still another loose end that they must resolve – Xarkira.

Siaska says that she caught only glimpses of Xarkira while she was asleep, and that was mainly when her son, H’esper, came to Quill’s rescue. She asks if Kalus has told them much of her history, and they tell her that he has not. “She was his best friend,” Siaska tells them simply. “She was his confidante. They travelled together, as you do, a group of them – heroes, every one. She was a wizard, a powerful mage, she saved his life and he saved hers, they all did. There was always a hunger, however, a hunger for power. At first, it was the desire to have the strength and the knowledge to protect her home world, which later was destroyed by Hadar, much like Gideon and many others, but that hunger quickly grew into an obsession. It is this that has likely allowed Hadar to enter her mind. She is a threat that must be dealt with, and I imagine that Hadar has pulled her back to its lair – we will need to go to them.”

Nova asks if they will have time to say their goodbyes to those most important to them. Siaska believes that they will have a few days but no more – The Astoria may be powered, but they still need to find an army and a crew for it. She tells them that Kalus will ensure that his fleets accompany them to protect them and get them to the Far Realm. Hadar knows that she is awake, she can feel his eye upon her and he hungers. Valla, still coming into her power as a divinity and with only a small piece of divine energy, is mostly hidden from Hadar. Siaska, on the other hand, is like a beacon to him and she believes that it will do anything to get at her as soon as it can. She encourages them to gather their strength and their forces, and to say their farewells – it may be their last chance.

Siaska looks to Kalus and moves over to him. Maximillion looks confused – loyal to his Emperor but in awe of Siaska – he has his hand on his blade as Siaska approaches, “Please, Lady, Goddess, whoever you are, please do not hurt him.”

Siaska smiles, “Loyal Knight, you have no idea. I have no intention of hurting him. He’s been doing that to himself for far too long.” She gently lifts a hand and Max, not realising what he is doing, but calmed by her presence, stands up and backs away. Siaska leans down and over Kalus whispering, “Wake up.” Her gentle breath passes over his raggedly breathing body and his eyes flutter open. He looks up at her with his bruised and bloody face, and all of his coldness and rage immediately disappears. Kalus tries to keep his face tight and controlled but tears appear on his face, almost against his wishes, and a ragged whisper comes from his broken mouth, “My stars!”

Siaska looks down on him, “I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done, but I know that I had a part to play in it all of it as well. Let’s finish this. Come with us. Come with me, come with your daughter, and these champions. Let us end this.”

Kalus sits up and looks up at her with adoration, guilt, and sorrow. “For you, anything.”

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:05:49 - Dun Duns
0:06:47 - Part 1
1:18:00 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Kalus Valkyrian
* Maximillion Taldros
* Siaska
* Valla

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* H'esper
* Hadar
* Kellara
* Palador
* Zephyr

## **Featured Locations**

* Starfall Archipelago
	+ The crashed sky city of Kassatoris

## **Trivia**

* Mark announced that it had been announced that Sonic the Hedgehog had died. This was not an April Fool’s joke, since Sega had just published a new, free (real) murder mystery game on Steam ("The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog") that involves someone killing Sonic. The thought of Shadow the Hedgehog crying at the funeral set Tom and Rhi to laughing for all of the introduction. Trott compared leaving the two of them to incite each other to laughter to putting buttered toast on the back of a cat (which creates a perpetual motion machine).
* Immediately after the DunDuns, Trott opened a can of Coke and swore after injuring his thumb nail. Kim called for them to stop the stream there and then since it had been nothing but chaos from the start.
* D&D Beyond did not save the encounter from last week, so the everyone re-rolled initiative this week. They decided to consider this as a Phase 2 reset.
* While Kalus is in his high-speed state, attacks against him are made at disadvantage. The first successful hit against him in this state will cancel the burst of speed.
* Tom, controlling Aila this week, did not use *Reckless Attack* because Katie specifically requested that this was not used.
* The unconscious Sentry only takes one automatic death saving throw because it is only damage, not a melee attack.
* Kalus ability
	+ Dash Strike – teleport and attack?
	+ Powerful strike – The target makes a strength saving throw or is grabbed and slammed into the ground, knocking them prone.
	+ Deflect Spell Energy – When Kalus is hit by a ranged spell attack, he can reduce the damage by (a certain amount – it is reduced by 21 when Lucius hits him with *Firebolt*).
	+ Lowguard stance – reduces damage taken by a fixed amount.
* When Kim was making her third fateful roll, Trott and Tom were looking away, too afraid to affect the dice roll in a negative way. Rhi moved all her badly rolling dice away from Kim. Kim rolled a 9 and had an ability modifier of +5, resulting in a 14 – Kalus’ Tiangong rolled a 3 with a +6 resulting in a 9 (and great relief in chat!).
* Attack drone:
	+ Spell suppression shot – d10? force damage, until the end of the player’s next turn, any spell cast has its effect halved (damage, duration, etc.) and DC reduced by 4.
* Defence drone:
	+ has a magical field around it that automatically protects it from low level spells.
* Lucius’ *Prismatic Wall* would most likely not have been effective against Kalus had it not been *Counterspelled* since he would have been able to teleport out of the effect without taking any damage.
* Mark admitted that he “fucked up” with *Dichromancy* since the damage is flat and does not increase with the level of the spell that has been cast.
* Mark says that this is his favourite meme but Tom insists that it is this one.
* When Echo appears as Harmony, it can do an extra 2d6 damage from an element of Nova’s choice from the following: bludgeoning (earth), fire (fire), lightning (wind), or cold (water).
* Nova’s shadow martyr saved Lucius from a punch from Kalus that would have been a natural 20.
* After Kalus went down for the final time, Mark rolled to see what would happen if he had not gone down and had had a chance to take a reaction. He would have hit Aila and she would have most likely ended up as unconscious as well as Kalus.
* The party levelled up to Level 20 at the end of this episode.
* Kim’s notebook does not have many pages left and it is likely that she will fill it completely by the end of the campaign.
* Mark appreciated Tom’s reminder prompt to mention that the Cradle was gone. Tom’s comment, “Can I look up at the Cradle” and Mark’s rejoinder, “What Cradle?” was one of the most beautiful moments of the stream. Tom said that Clear Skies was unintentional but was now perfect.
* Mark said that he will be happy to put a lot of the Aerois info out for people after the campaign is over. Some will be free for the public other stuff will be available on his Patreon. He said that he often deletes things when he is done with them but keeps most of his monster stat blocks. He believes that people may be disappointed because his notes are very disjointed and that some things won’t have any information because the players never went to certain places.
* Mark had the Kalus Valkyrian fight in his head for almost 5 years. The Kalus fight was a mix of Sephiroth, Metal Gear, Gurren Lagann, a lot of Mark’s favourite stuff. The third phase is called “The Rage of Gideon” where Kalus thinks, “YES, I am finally a warrior again.”

## **Quotes**

* Tom: Can I look up at the Cradle...
* Mark: What Cradle?
* Tom: Yeah, OK.

* Quote 2