Aerois - Episode 141: Technological Upgrades

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Mark Hulmes as Aila
and Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Technological Upgrades** is the 141st episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 27th March 2022 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*The Stormchaser has received some incredible technological upgrades! And we have something very special to show you...*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players. Rhi is away in London doing “cool exciting things” today, and Katie is unwell.
* There are no sponsors today.
* Everyone wished UK mothers a Happy Mother’s Day.
* There is great hope that there will be something to show of the studio for next week or the week after. It was recommended that people click the bell on Twitch to get notifications, because it is likely that they will be doing some unannounced, “guerrilla” test streams soon.

### **Recap**

*"The heroes have enjoyed a few quiet weeks of peace following the various events in the Feywild and the Sky City of Horizon before a council is called between their allies to [discuss] the current state of the world. With Kalus’ forces taking a less aggressive stance, and seemingly focusing their efforts elsewhere, the party discuss the matters of the giant magitek construct, Project Vanguard, and its whereabouts, and use Quill’s prophetic powers to learn its current location and status. Nova is informed about developments in the Genasi city of Vortinssar and a plan to transport the entire city back to the Genasi home world. After a meeting with their allies, several groups come to speak to the party directly, old friends and allies who share a number of troubling events happening across Aerois.

In the Hawk’s Dawn Archipelago, volcanoes are erupting, and earthquakes create tidal waves, strange Dwarven women made out of gemstone have been spotted amongst the ruins of Solwynn in the island chains and deep beneath the sea in Triton territory. An order of once benevolent knights, the Order of the Blackened Rose, went missing when Kellara’s priests lost their power, and now they have returned as merciless but sorrowful killers. Finally, three giant and terrible beasts have been unleashed around the continent of Aelseraph by the titan Atelicus. All of these problems will grow worse in time, so it falls to the PCs to determine which matters they wish to address first including the fate of Vortinssar and the titan-killer, Project Vanguard."*
### **Part 1**

*Azariah(sic) returns with some massive upgrades to the Stormchaser!*

There had been some discussion within the party about which of the problems they wished to address first: they had been able to send people out to try to occupy the beasts of Atelicus and had sent scouts to try to locate the fortress base of the Knights. The party has decided that they will go to the Hawk’s Dawn Archipelago to investigate the happenings there; they also wanted to try to recover the broken gate at Yama Lo’Tai which was a smaller, 2-way teleporter that allowed travel beyond the Cradle to Aegis V for Azaria Perel to investigate. Nova’s other consideration was to get more information from Norfir or her “moron” brother about the Arcane Gate that is being built in Vortinssar, but she suspects that they will need the party’s assistance as it is likely that the blueprints are kept in the centre of the city, surrounded by Valkyrian troops and the Genasi’s forces.

Lucius is approached by the enchantress Azaria Perel, formerly of Gusthaven, now a free agent working with the allied forces of Horizon – she advises him that the modifications that she had been asked to make to the Stormchaser are now complete. She is curious to see how the modifications go in field tests, either from them directly afterwards or from their deaths (which will still give her significant information). Lucius is a little alarmed at her turn of phrase, hoping that the modifications made are not going to “encourage” their deaths – Azaria finds this amusing but says that it is in her interest to see them remain alive because they have brought so much of interest for her to study: the Twinstar Longbow, strange creatures they have started fighting, and even Valla, a demi-goddess. Lucius wonders how she will get information from the Stormchaser when it goes out on manoeuvres – she has installed systems to send her data on all the magical systems on the ship and will scry on them when required to get the information she needs. Quill mentions casually that he and Sentry have already died which interests Azaria immensely, but Nova is insistent that she is first in line to ask about his experiences. A disappointed Azaria instead suggests that they take a look at the ship: she explains that there is a special system for Nova and Tiangong based upon their symbiotic relationship.

Lucius excuses himself for a second and comes back with a very ornate walking cane and tries to walk with it and look more noble – his chin is up, and he looks very regal. Lucius says that the new look will make the aristocrats take him seriously – Quill agrees that he takes Lucius much more seriously with the cane. Lucius demonstrates its raw power by whipping the cane up and pointing it at Quill, explaining that he now wants to do whatever is asked of him – Quill, on the back foot, agrees before Lucius tells Quill to get the door for him (which Quill immediately does).

From the main central keep (at the back of the floating city) are four pronged walls that stretch out and divide the city into a fan shape – many of them have airship docks at the end – one has a military presence and seems to be where Horizon stores its war air ships and there are many guards around. Azaria leads them to an area that has scaffolding and privacy screens that shelter a ship that appears to be under repairs. There are several offices and a number of people milling about: Gnomes from the Lily & Sprocket Shipwright Co., enchanters and mages, magitek engineers, as well as construction workers; unusual forges have been built nearby that look almost like Aetherium refineries. Azaria has set up a special viewing gallery for them and leads them to a hovering, shimmering blue magical door with no handle on the side of the dock – she speaks a word in Elvish (“bone marrow”) and the door opens to show an opaque void. She gestures to it and tells them not to worry, it is just her conjured mansion which has a tall tower that overlooks the docks and has a viewing platform from which they can see the construction.

Lucius asks how much the presentation experience has cost them – Nova and Quill have no idea, but she tells them that while they have funded some very basic supplies, and she has not charged them for what she considers a personal project – she is using the project to expand her own understanding of the magic of the Twinstar Longbow. She understands that they intend to fight their oppressor (Kalus Valkyrian) and the greater evil (Hadar) so it serves her interests to make sure that they are victorious, and the universe survives. Azaria says that she “cannot unlock the mysteries of all magic, time, and space” if she is dead; Quill adds that if they find anything interesting, she will be the first person they come to, she smiles at this and is glad that they recognise the nature of their relationship. Quill invites Azaria to lead them into the mansion – she asks Quill to enter first: it gets awkward until Lucius points his cane at Quill who meekly submits and enters the mansion.

As they step through the doorway, they feel as if they have walked into a glamorous noble’s mansion with a grand, curved stairway in a large round tower, except… the entire interior is decorated in an unsettling style – everything is made of bones and gauzy fabrics. The banister of the curved stairway looks like a giant spine, the curtains are made of black, gauzy funerary fabrics, there are dead flowers everywhere: the architecture is gothic, and the stone walls are of a dull dark grey colour with arched doorways surmounted by gargoyles – wherever wood would be used, bone has been used instead, instead of lanterns on the walls, there are skulls with their jaws open with a magic flame in their mouths. Azaria follows them in and summons Charlemon, a decrepit looking skeletal butler (looking for all the world as if it has just crawled out of the grave), wearing tattered suit tails appears carrying a try and shambling over to them: he speaks to them in a rasping, unearthly voice of death and offers them refreshments including what they hope is red wine in goblets with skull hands holding the glass goblet section. Lucius is alarmed at the appearance of the butler until Azaria explains that he is a magical creation, made in Azaria’s personal taste and she finds his presence quite comforting. There is a howling, shrieking wind that blows through the tower and Azaria sighs as if this is pleasant music to her.

Azaria glides through the house, leading them to a bone cage lift connected to a spiky, gothic metal chain, the floor is made of stone, inlaid with mosaics of skeletons curved around staves and books. Seeing this, Lucius makes a general statement about old tales about ancient, undead evil entities that go slowly mad and must be vanquished (Azaria understands that he is talking about liches) – he says that he is getting a strong lich-like vibe from the mansion: Azaria looks like she is blushing before saying “one day… one day!” Azaria says that she looks forward to not having to eat, sleep, or drink, and could study and work to her heart’s content. She pulls a giant lever with a skull on top of it – there is a sudden scream as the cage starts to lower, Quill spills his wine and Azaria calls a maid to clean it up: a shrieking banshee in a mage’s outfit comes to clean up the spill. Nova asks if Azaria happens to own a mansion outside of Rosehall, but she says she has no need of property – Nova is interested in learning the mansion spell.

Eventually, the large bone doors of the lift open onto a nondescript grey stone platform surrounded by glass walls, there are six good looking wood-framed chairs with leather trim. They walk to the glass wall that looks down onto the docking area and see a vastly improved Stormchaser – the hull has been reinforced with magically enhanced metal, aetherium and crystal (similar in nature to Valkyrian ships, the Twinstar Longbow and Draconian ships) but still keeping faithful to the original design. The ballistae (one on the deck of the ship, the other on the hull) have been upgraded to arcane cannons: there are long, slender, thick rod-like protrusions coming out of little bubble canopies and they have been moved to either side of the prow and have a vastly improved angle to shoot (with only the deck and directly below the ship being untargetable). Mouths agape, and astounded at the changes, they silently look at each other in disbelief. The Starbane armour and pulse rifles that they salvaged have been recoloured and given to all the crew (including Penny, Lancion, even Howard), and now makes up the crew’s uniform: they are all wearing the tight leather suits, and they notice the wolf pack testing something around their heads (a crystal headband that circles their head and drops down either side along the sides of their face) – when they tap something on their necks, a magic half helmet comes down and fills with a forcefield creating a pressurised suit. They do notice that Lookout is wearing the uniform but does not wear a helmet because he does not need one. Lucius is in awe but secretly relieved to see that there are no bones in sight.

The new uniform is sleek, skin-tight leather jumpsuit body armour. The base colour is mostly black with grey panels and side pieces to break up the monotony of the black, and there is a skin-tight collar that zips up a little higher than would be expected, to about halfway up the neck. Lucius was very keen to incorporate the whole party, so has had it reflect them all in some way on the uniform:

· starting at the arms/shoulders is silver and gold embroidery looking like feathers that goes down the back as if there were wings,
· in the centre of the chest a golden orb or sphere of energy to represent the matrix and the use of magical power on the ship,
· Aila’s tartan is used as an armband in the middle of the upper arm,
· on the collar to the right side of the chin, a vertical column of prismatic colours ending in Siaska’s symbol that splits off into a white triangle pointing downwards,
· on the left side of the collar is a sword that looks like Tiangong going horizontally along the side.

Azaria confirms that their eventual intention is to travel into Astral Space aboard the Stormchaser, but she says that the upgrades will not allow this… yet. Azaria says that she has incorporated an environmental system and magical shielding: she casts *Sending* to Oriya asking her to demonstrate the shielding and environmental system. They see Oriya on deck, no longer at a ship’s wheel, but at the new helm console: she taps some buttons, and they see a shimmering bubble of energy completely enclose the ship including its sails – Azaria tells them that the shield will not only provide some magical protection for the ship but will also contain atmosphere (breathable oxygen) and gravity, allowing them to traverse inhospitable environs (including places with extreme cold and heat, such as the caldera of a volcano or an ice field) while feeling like they are in a normal environment. While the shield is not yet ready for Astral Space (it would not withstand the pressure), it will allow them to go underwater or into extreme weather – Azaria also has plans to improve it to ready it for space travel. In addition, there are two other systems that she has designed – one is a weapons system that launches Perel missiles built into the sides of the Stormchaser, and they have been given a compliment of ten charges that can be mounted into the launcher – these can be launched as a barrage, and it is hoped that they will be particularly effective against smaller craft (although larger Valkyrian ships may be able to resist them). A Perel missile contains a barrage of magical projectiles similar to the *Magic Missile* spell – they will home in on their target, take some time to recharge and are limited in their compliment (currently 10 charges).

Finally, Azaria waves her hand over the window, and it shows an interior x-ray view of the Stormchaser – they see the Engine Room with the twin aetherium engine system that they originally designed, but it has now been overhauled. Previously, the engines were just laid out in the middle of the ship’s sailing hold with pipes and cables everywhere but now it has been tidied up and now there is a metal room with two magical reactors. Between the reactors is a person-sized pod. Azaria tells them that this is an experimental system and, while a Valkyrian ship can use an Eterna to power and control a ship’s systems, this pod does not imprison an Eterna or its symbiote but allows them to enter the pod and telepathically control, monitor and interact with the ship’s systems. It will give real time information on the individual ship’s systems, allow faster reaction time, allow for activation of systems, rerouting of power as required, and so on from a semi-dimensional magical space – either Nova or Tiangong can control this system. The only caveat is that once inside, it would be difficult to remove someone if there is a disaster or emergency aboard. Essentially, Nova or Tiangong become the AI of the ship, much in the same way that Tassadar controls The Tassadar.

Azaria tells them that this is all she can do with the Stormchaser at the moment, however, there is more she can do: she has found designs for an old Solwynn magical weapon, and she has considered how to replace the Stormchaser’s aetherium engines with more powerful fiendish, elemental or celestial engines that would allow it to enter the Infinite Staircase and the River Styx. In order to power this engine, they will need to capture two powerful fiend, elemental or celestial beings, which Azaria can then bind into the ship itself – without this, the Stormchaser will not have sufficient power to travel into Astral Space. The beings can be released at any time, and once the threat to Aerois is thwarted, if they chose to bind Celestials, they could be freed. Elementals and Fiends are not likely to be trapped willingly and would likely turn violent when released. It is possible that they might be able to make a bargain with Celestial beings for service with release upon completion of the task set. The weapon she can design is the most powerful weapon that Aerois is capable of producing – an energy cannon of such power that it will rival the greatest cannon in the Valkyrian Empire.

Azaria has taken inspiration from the unique twin engine design that the party came up with and thinks that it is possible to use one Fiend and one Celestial to create an intense power fluctuation (because of their opposing powers). If it is not possible, and two powerful planar creatures of the Fiend, Elemental or Celestial type will do. She pulls from her bag of holding a Binding Sphere – a brass orb with etchings and runes around it in bands, it looks like you can twist and rotate it on different axes. She gives the Binding Sphere to Lucius telling him that if they can fight and weaken an appropriate creature, they can activate the sphere and it will try to force the weakened creature into being captured within it – if they then return the creature to Azaria, she can release it and bind it into the engines.

Azaria waves her hand, and they get a view as if they were moving through the hallways of the Stormchaser all the way up to Oriya on deck at the control panels. Nova insists that she needs *all the manuals*, which Azaria is happy to provide to her. She tells Nova that the systems should run provided the ship has power, and she has tried to make everything as simple as possible. Azaria says that she has been very grateful for the opportunity to work on this project because it has given her a change to learn about worlds that she previously knew nothing about. Nova asks if, after this is all done, she can study under Azaria and she is happy to consider taking Nova on as an apprentice. Azaria says that the technology is not something that she is familiar with – she has worked with the Gnomes of Gusthaven to bring the magitek to life.

Quill mentions the idea of capturing Graz’zt and using him to power the engines – Azaria eyes twinkle as she says that a demon of his power would be very useful. She tells Lucius that they would have to weaken his will significantly to get him into the Binding Sphere, one of the greatest relics that she has ever created. She tells Lucius that a Fiend, Elemental or Celestial’s soul must obey certain rules, which is why you cannot use the sphere on any other creature. Azaria tells Lucius that their essences are tied to principles of the universe that are infallible, and if they can capture him, Graz’zt will not be able to escape – it will be hard to capture him because he is strong willed and powerful, and they would need to be in his presence to capture him.

Lucius considers that with all the changes to the Stormchaser, they may want to consider a name change: Azaria recommends Storm’s Requiem, Lucius considers Siaska’s Salvation or The Salvation. Another suggestion was the Starchaser, which Azaria had heard from the crew earlier on.

They make their way down onto the new Stormchaser and head to the engine room – it is a sleek, narrow are, a metal/crystal chamber with two powerful aetherium engines contained within metal canisters with pipes leading from them to the rest of the ship. In between them, almost coffin-like, is a pod chamber – a short set of stairs leads up to it and pipes feed into the dual reactors. Azaria directs Nova or her echo to enter the chamber – Nova steps up this time. The door closes slowly behind her, and everything turns dark:

> *Suddenly, it's almost as if Nova opens her eyes from a dream. Like being suspended in water that she can't feel, that has no temperature, almost sensory deprivation sort of style, she’s just floating in space – she can see a sort of blue translucent body version of herself just hovering there in nothing, and then the blackness gives way and becomes transparent stars and Astral Sea. She can see the outline of the ship around her, she can see the outline of her companions, her friends. She can see and now feel the powers and the systems of the ship as if they were her own body: the guns, the shields, the helm, the controls, and although she may not have control of all of these things, she can feel how much power is going into them.*
>
>

> *She can feel the status of the hull - every slight adjustment to it as it is being repaired and fixed feels as if it is a part of her own body. Her senses expand even further until she can not only feel the ship but she can sense the dock that it's built upon: she can sense Horizon as a city around her and the people going about their business. She cannot hear what they're saying or see what they're doing but she can feel their presence: she becomes aware of them, the nearby buildings and structures. She begins identifying threats and potential threats, as well as things that may need to be protected.*
>
>

> *At first it seems a little overwhelming but slowly her mind acclimatizes to it, and it is unlike anything that she has ever felt before. It is like being herself but on a whole other level of awareness and connectivity - she can feel raw magic and power flowing through her. But then there is also a sort of sad element of being trapped, of being unable to physically move – she knows that her body is there and that it is vulnerable in this chamber, but she cannot move it. Yet there is also this wonderful sensation of connectivity, of being able to tell exactly where Lucius is, and feeling like the air around Aila move as she paces back and forth in the chamber.*
>
>

> *If she speaks, anybody on the ship can hear her - she can have her voice project from any point of the ship to anybody. She now realises that she can also hear any conversation and she is aware of what anybody on the ship is saying at all times: she can hear the smallest conversations from the Wolfpack talking amongst themselves to Lancion and Howard discussing the next steps of the journey – she is aware of everything and has essentially become the ship’s AI.*
>
>

> *She realises how much information she is processing and knows Tiangong is sifting the information to her brain to ensure it is not overwhelmed. She can feel Tiangong's presence ahead of her and that it is quickly sifting information and only feeding back what subconsciously she needs to know or hear -*
>
>

After a moment, they hear from the ships consoles, “We are Nova V'ger, we are Tiangong, we are Stormchaser. Ship’s weapon systems functioning. Shields at maximum. Fuel at maximum. We are The Stormchaser.”

When the rest of them look in through a little reinforced crystal porthole into the pod, they can see Nova’s hair is floating as if it's in water, it disperses out and floats around. Her eyes are closed and she herself is floating it as if she was in an underwater chamber: she looks completely serene.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Intro
07:57 - Part 1
1:25:23 - Break time/Donations
N/A - Part 2
1:50:02 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Graz'zt
* Hadar
* Howard
* Lancion
* Penny
* Rana'iel
* Wolfpack
* Xarkira

## **Featured Locations**

* Horizon
	+ Docks
	+ Azaria's Magnificent Mansion (interior)
* The Stormchaser

## **Trivia**

* Mark opens the session with “Skully”, a resin skull that he purchased from Amazon, and an adapted soliloquy from Hamlet: “Alas poor Trottimus, I knew him well (sic)”.
* Mark describes Azaria’s general style as being “bones, skulls, tattered black fabric lace, dead flowers – it’s like the Morticia Addams of houses”. Kim described this look “as if Guillermo Del Toro and Tim Burton made their forever mansion”. It was inspired largely by the Locked Tomb (Gideon the Ninth) series of books by Tamsyn Muir, of which Mark is a big fan.
* Mark describes the party seeing the upgraded Stormchaser as “when Shepard sees the Normandy SR2 for the very first time”.
* Perel missiles launch anime *Magic Missiles* that do 8d4 + 8 force damage, takes a random amount of time to reload, and look like this when launched:
* Mark allows Kim to imagine that these are like Photon Torpedoes from Star Trek, saying that when launched, the missile breaks up into smaller projectiles, but Kim can imagine them as one big missile if she wishes.
* Mark says that the big Valkyrian ships probably have damage thresholds, and their shielding protects them from force damage, so they probably won’t take much damage. For smaller ships or creatures that may be unshielded, the Perel missiles area good weapon to use because they hit automatically.
* The Arcane Cannons now do 5d10 damage on a hit since their upgrade.
* The Binding Sphere is essentially a Pokémon Poke ball but is the equivalent of a summon in Final Fantasy (according to Mark).
* Tom was looking at *Summon Celestial* to bring one to him to bind for Azaria’s improved engines. Mark recommended *Planar Ally* would be a better spell because Summon Celestial actually creates a creature that lasts for one hour, whereas *Planar Ally* allows you to request a specific creature to answer the summon and assist or not as negotiated.
* Kim considered Rana as a possible Celestial to power the engines but felt a little bit queasy about asking her after she had been imprisoned and tortured by Xarkira. Mark’s emphatic nods and “Yup!” indicate that Rana may be reluctant to go ahead with the suggestion.
* Tom decided that he would like to capture Graz’zt to use in the engines, something that Twitch chat had been arguing about for some time prior. Kim had also been thinking that.
* When they are discussing trapping Graz’zt in the Binding Sphere, Tom considers using *Planar Binding* against him, but that takes an hour to cast so they would have to trap him for an hour. Mark also points out that they would have to burn through his legendary resistances so that he does not simply succeed. A weaker creature is easier to capture using the Binding Sphere (makes saving throws at disadvantage). Mark also points out that Graz’zt is not stupid and that he had considered that they might want to try to capture Graz’zt.
* Mark confirmed that the more powerful creatures they can capture, the more powerful the Stormchaser will be for the final battle. Azaria’s weapon will be more powerful depending on what creatures they manage to capture. “A shitty CR 12 bone devil” would work and would let the ship go into Astral Space, but it won’t be super strong; a Pit Fiend will be pretty strong; you capture Graz’zt… “Jesus Christ, that’s crazy powerful!” If they capture a powerful fire and water elemental, that would be very strong because of their conflicting nature (compared with two devils, which would be strong, but with no extra power); an angel and a devil would be really good. Tom asked what would happen if they got “a shitty little imp and Palador himself” – Mark advised that it would be imbalanced and on the lower side because that is restricting the power. The idea is to get two equally powerful things.
* When considering a name change for the ship, Tom suggested they “poll the crew” (referring to the Mods putting a poll in Twitch chat), while Lucius suggested they wait a week and “read what had been posted on the billboards” (Discord). Mark advised that “crew votes” were not legally binding and that they will have a chat about it and decide amongst the team what they will call the ship.
* The first to suggest the name “Starchaser” in Twitch chat (“the crew”) was thecreeperboy451.
* Suggested new ship names (from the players, or Twitch Chat): The Storm’s Requiem, Siaska’s Salvation, The Salvation, Starchaser, Stargazer, Star Trek, Star Wars, The Night Jar, The Tempest’s Call, Meteor Magnet, Star McStarface, and Stormcast Eternal.
* Mark said that Kim needs to get all her Star Trek references out now because campaign 3 will have “none of this sci fi bullshit in it”, “we’re going full Tolkien 3 months of trees and walking in the next campaign”.
* Kim said that while Star Trek: Discovery is not her favourite Star Trek franchise but pointed out that Nova’s entire uniform (including the breastplate) is directly from that show.
* The pod in the engine room was described as looking like Jenova in Final Fantasy VII.
* Tom asked if, with the uniforms being all black and dark grey, whether the ship had a new colour scheme – “hot pink” insisted Trott. He then said that with the new tech there would be LEDs, black crystals on the underneath would have a pearlescent oily shimmer if hit with the right light (prismatic), and the bubble shield looks like a soap/oily bubble with shifting colours. Mark described it as a sailing ship with black crystals and metal components – it still has sails, but they are prismatic/holographic, ropes are made of light and then there is a bubble that can go around it to create atmosphere.
* The plans for the powerful cannon that they would have seen in Azaria’s study would have the front (prow) of the ship extended and split in two – opening out sideways (“like the one in Sonic Adventure I??” said Tom). Mark described this as like the Yamato cannon (Starblazers) or Robotech Macross cannon.
* There are now 946 Patrons for High Rollers.
* During the donos, Chris Trott created this monstrosity:
* There was no Part 2 to this episode. At the “break”, Mark made a beeline for the studio and did a short presentation from there which Trott controlled remotely from his home setup. The stream finished after this and there was no part 2.
* Each person who was present got VERY excited about something at one point: