Aerois - Episode 35: Riddle of the Forge

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Oriya Marius

 Tom Hazell as Pyri Adhara

**Riddle of the Forge** is the 35th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 2nd June 2019 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*We're on the road to the Midwife's Forge; but only if we can solve the riddle of the Raised Claw and the Crystal Forest.*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* The sponsors this week are D&D Beyond and Displate. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is now available.
* There are some scandalous allegations that have been made about Mark by the Crit Role D&D Beyond Presidential Race – there is "doctored footage" out there of Mark.
* Merch: the Barbarian and Aila “I’m a Delight” shirt are limited edition and available until tomorrow (Monday 3rd of June 2019). There may be more exciting merch coming soon.
* Thank you to Greg Tito and the Dungeons and Dragons team – the crew had great fun at D&D Live.
* HR will be doing a new mini-series, Lightfall the Descent, based on Baldur’s Gate – Descent into Avernus. It will be a quest to save Trellimar from hell.
* Mark did a My Little Pony: Tales of Equestria one shot for the team at Critical Role.
* Happy pride month.
* Tomorrow is the final day to unlock Quill in Idle Champions. If you have both Quill and Aila, there is synergy, and there will be more characters coming soon.

### **Recap**

"*The land of Myrskyr is plagued by magical storms: thick dark clouds of ominous black and grey swirling with eldritch lightning and power. The party travel along the worn and beaten roads, rain and wind hammering them, as they carry bodies of fallen friends in the back of an old merchant's wagon. New companions have joined them, but their trust is yet to be proven: a Fire Genasi from a strange portal with a suspicious background, as well as a sailor from the sea, and for a brief time, a Human man with the power of the storms. They came across them alongside the roads, near a shrine of H'esper and Zephyr. He tells them of strange dreams following a one-eyed, one-winged hawk into the mountains, where he hopes to learn more of his mysterious powers. They are ambushed by crazy Goblins and learn clues of the location of The Midwife's Forge, an ancient temple to the goddess Valena, where they hope to restore their friends to life. In crossing the Langstrom river, they nearly meet disaster and ruin, but eventually make it across, with only Pyri and Johan still on one shore.*"

### **Part 1**

*Across the river the team continues the riddle of the Forge!*

Johan and Pyri are on one side of the river while the rest of the party and the cart are on the opposite bank(see Trivia). Johan tells Pyri that his path lies in another direction to the party’s, that he must head for the Valley of Storms, but that he is prepared to help Pyri get across the river with his *Gust of Wind*, which he attempts, but Pyri is not a strong swimmer, so he starts to struggle. Lucius flies over and picks Pyri out of the water and carries him to the far shore with the rest of the party.

Aila asks if Lucius has any more of the berries that he ate that have made him disoriented, and he hands her the berries that he still has in his pocket. She immediately throws them in the river, and they disappear downstream. Johan waves at them from the other side of the river and says that he will see them in The Valley of Storms. Skaldi does not know where the Forge is, only that they will need to follow the clues once they get back up to the other side of the bridge, but that it will be night before they get there.

The Stormwall Mountains are dark grey with blue tinges to the stone, it is humid and there is the smell of an oncoming storm. Dark clouds gather overhead, there is thunder and the flash of lightning that is oddly tinged with black through its middle. The wind is howling, the rain is heavy, and they are drenched as they make their night-time camp. Nova believes that the source of the storms is the valley behind the mountains and notes that they come and go suddenly and inconsistently.

During Oriya’s first watch, the heavy rain is consistent, the lightning grows closer, and the thunder causes small rocks to skitter across the ground. She sees a lightning strike a few hundred feet away – a blast of black energy hits a rocky outcropping, and it disintegrates the rocks to powder. The lightning strike leaves an odour of rot and death that lingers. The storm appears to be keeping any wildlife away. Oriya notices Aila during her trance, half wake and cough a thick mucus onto the ground that has a black ichor in it that has tiny mushrooms growing in it. During the night, she has been feverish, but by the time she awakes, she is fine.

Oriya tells Aila about the peculiarities of the storms nearby and Aila can also pick up on the fact that these storms are corrupted somehow. Aila, observing the storms rolling over, senses a presence much like she did when she was fighting the cleric of Zephyr back in Kalie’s Rest, and she hears a soft, feminine Orc voice in the air saying, “Not my world. Not my creation.”

The storms have passed by the time they wake in the morning but within a few hours, they notice a new storm is forming and beginning to fill the valley on the other side of the mountains. Pyri notices that the valley is full of craters and half trees that have been destroyed by lightning. Nova collects a specimen of the dust left by destruction of the rocks. Johan has already told them that the source of the storms is neither Zephyr nor H’esper and Lucius wonders if the storms have a mind of their own and may target them.

They leave the mystery of the storms for now and decide to try to find the first marker: the raised claw. Skaldi does not know the area, so Aila looks for a well-worn path and finds many Goblin tracks throughout the mountains including a track leading deeper into the mountains that appears to be where the Goblin patrols go. Lucius flies up and spots an open area at the centre of which is a tall rocky outcropping in the shape of a grasping claw, he notices that the main path that Aila is following will lead them to that claw-shaped rock, he flutters back down and lets them know what he has discovered – it is less than an hour away.

Skaldi calls Nova over to talk to her quietly – she is worried about Lucius and the effect that the Flower Crown is having on him. Nova asks if she can borrow his crown, but he tells her that he cannot remove it, and that she thinks that the item may be cursed. Skaldi tells Nova that a powerful spellcaster may be able to remove the item and to keep an eye on Lucius just in case.

After about an hour, they emerge from twisting paths surrounded by gentle rocky mountains into an open space with the column of stone, shaped like a large hand, reaching towards the sky. Leading from the space are dozens of paths leading further into the mountains and Aila decides to keep an eye out for any marauding Goblins. Based on the information they got from the Goblin parchment, they decide to try to work out where the shadow of the highest finger of the stone claw would be at midday: Pyri strikes a pose, trying to help, which Nova encourages him to hold, even though it is of no help at all, and she and Oriya work out which pass they need to take. Nova looks at the stone claw and notices that while it has been made to look natural, that it has actually been sculpted by some sort of powerful and perfect blade – it is not magical and there is no writing on it, and she believes that it is just a created marker but does not know who created it or why.

They follow the path that they had chosen and travel for a while deeper into the mountain. After about 90 minutes, Oriya sees ahead of them, discarded weapons and bits of Goblin-sized armour strewn about the deep valley in which they find themselves. She warns the rest about the possibility of an ambush. Around them, both on the ridges above and in front of them, are rock formations like stalagmites and boulders. Lucius decides to fly ahead and do some reconnaissance and as he gets close to the scattered equipment, one of the rocky formations seems to split in half and a large, unblinking eye emerges from it, a huge mouth opens and many tendrils emerge, one of which wraps around Lucius, constricting his wings, weakening him, and bringing him down to the ground. It begins to drag him back towards its mouth and bites him.

Nova blasts it with two bolts of *Eldritch Blast* which destroys two of its tendrils including the one restraining Lucius. Lucius then casts *Polymorph* on the Roper (the creature that had grabbed him), turning it into a squirrel – he flies away, avoiding the vicious squirrel bite but it follows him and bites him anyway. Skaldi hands Skorb’s reins to Oriya and runs over to heal Lucius while Pyri runs to the violent squirrel and kicks it 100 feet away – halfway through its arc it transforms back into a Roper, and they see thousands of tiny legs wiggling as it falls to the ground. When it hits, it rights itself with a tentacle and starts to scurry towards them again.

Oriya misses with a *Guiding Bolt,* so Aila throws her *Javelin of Lightning* at it, piercing its stony hide, but the javelin is now stuck in the creature and dulled since it has expended its charge for the day. Nova grazes it with a small amount of *Eldritch* power.

### **Part 2**

*Very little in the way of the team and the Forge... except, well, everything.*

Lucius moves forward and throws a *Melf’s Acid Arrow* at the Roper but misses, splashing it with minor acid damage, and Skaldi heals Lucius. The Roper, having been hurt, starts to move away from them as fast as it can with Aila’s javelin still in it. Pyri does not believe that there are any other of the creatures around so runs as fast as he can after the creature while Oriya shoots at it with her crossbow. Aila, wanting her javelin, also runs after the Roper. Nova tries to blast it but misses, Lucius misses again with another acid arrow but splashes it with acid.

The Roper, sensing that it is not going to escape, wraps tendrils around both Aila and Pyri then bites Pyri who fails to escape its grasp before trying to punch it again and again but missing each time. Aila rages and tears the tendril off her then smacks it with a blow of her hammer and a blast of lightning, and Lucius hits it with a *Firebolt*, scorching its eye. The Roper tries to grab Aila again, but she avoids its grasp before it bites hard into Pyri knocking him unconscious but leaving him with cuts and bruises. Skaldi moves up rapidly with Skorb before Aila uses a healing slav on Pyri, bringing him around again.

Oriya shoots the Roper in the eye, exploding it in juices, before the creature dies and slumps to the ground. Aila uses the remaining slav on Pyri.

They take some time to rest and recover before continuing their journey. They begin to notice that along one of the passes that leads off the path they have been following, the rocks change to a golden colour and there are veins of crystal ingrained through it: this glitters and sparkles as it catches the midday sun. The pass seems to lead off into a narrow and tightly packed pass that winds through the mountains, and as they follow that, they see that it opens into a large open area of the mountain that is full of light, prisms of colour, apparently coming from ten tall pillars of translucent crystal that rise from the ground in a grid-like pattern. Around them are rocks encrusted with large quartz-like crystals and crystals that appear to be carved in humanoid shapes – some holding up weapons, others turning to flee, some appear to be Humans, others are Goblins.

Nova reminds them that the Goblin parchment told them to “search the crystal forest for the anvil and follow its root.” Oriya and Lucius notice that one of the boulders covered in crystals shifts and notice that it is a lizard-like creature that is camouflaged with the surrounding area and trying to stay still as if waiting. Oriya tells them not to look at it because its gaze will turn them into crystal, and that the creature is a basilisk. Lucius asks what happens if a basilisk sees its own reflection, and she knows that they are not immune to their own gaze, she also knows that they are territorial and eat the crystal that they produce. They do not see an anvil per se, they see rocks, veins of ore, and the large pillars that look like tree trunks. Nova suggests that “following its root” might indicate that the anvil looks like a tree in some way.

They decide to blindfold Skorb to avoid him being turned to crystal, so Skaldi uses two leather pouches that she ties over his eyestalks. Skorb does not like being blindfolded, however, and it takes both Lucius and Aila to calm him down. The rest make their way down into the crystal forest but ensure that they are averting their gaze from the basilisk. Oriya notices engravings on the pillars that appear to be the symbols of the gods, a pillar for each god. The columns are about ten feet apart and there is space behind them that forms a natural open area around the valley.

Nova creates a *Major Image* to try to create a diversion for the basilisk and suddenly an image of Torman appears walking around and making a lot of noise. They see a flurry of movement as the basilisk runs up to the image and starts to claw and bite at it, trying to stare at it, but eventually realises its mistake and turns to face the rest of them as they avert their gazes. It returns to thrashing at the illusion as Oriya raises her shield (that is somewhat reflective) to her face and faces the basilisk. Lucius, averting his gaze, hurls a *Firebolt* at the creature, trying to get its attention and make it look at the shield. Nova recognises Siaska and Kellara’s symbols, and knows that Valena’s symbol is an anvil, but she cannot yet find that.

Oriya casts *Light* on her shield, trying again to draw the basilisk’s gaze and then hears shuffling coming in their direction – they hear a hiss. Skaldi investigates the columns and points at a column four down from them, indicating that it is Valena’s symbol of an anvil. They can now see that each column has at its base, a vein of crystal that looks like a tree’s root, and that each root leads to a different carved access or valley. Lucius uses his crown to cast *Entangle* on the basilisk, Aila angles Oriya’s shield towards the basilisk, and Pyri attacks the creature without looking at it. They hear the creature break free of the vines, then another hiss that seems to break off and is replaced by the noise of cracking, followed by a snarling and growling noise. Skaldi guides Skorb and the wagon off in the direction of the valley they are going to follow.

Lucius casts *Armor of Agathys* on himself then, looking at the floor, he runs towards where the beast is. Aila takes a blinded swing and a miss and Pyri tries to hit it with flames but misses. Nova moves her image to in front of Skaldi and the wagon then begins to follow it, Oriya backs up and begins to follow. The snarling and growling comes to an end as there is the sound of cracking. Aila pokes her foot out and feels rock, so Lucius takes a peek and sees that the basilisk has crystallised itself.

They follow the small vein of crystal to the valley indicated and realise that the reason that The Midwife’s Forge has probably been lost for so long is that there are dozens of these valleys and passes criss-crossing through The Stormwall Mountains, and without some directions, they would not have a clue where to go because the mountains and plateaus of rocks mask smaller valleys from sight. They soon find themselves in a long, deep-cut recessed valley with a huge plateau of stone above casting shade over the whole valley. At the far end they see the vague outline of the statue of a Dwarven woman with a hammer in one hand and a baby nestled in the other. There was once a great stone door beneath it, but the stone around it has collapsed and completely filled it in. Carved into the mountainside, however, is a rough and shoddy-looking mine shaft, and in front of it are five small tents and a small shanty built from scavenged stone and animal hides with a strong smell of waste blowing towards them.

Standing in front of the mine shaft, squabbling and wrestling with each other, are four Goblins. They discuss how to pass the Goblins, whether there are only four of them or more, whether they should try to lure them away or kill them, but Skaldi is not comfortable with unnecessary killing. While they are talking, three of the Goblins sit down, two begin playing a game with bones{{Trivia}} while the other picks its nose, and the last one stands and stares at the statue of the Dwarven woman while he scratches his bum.

Eventually they decide to have Skaldi charge at them (slowly) with Skorb while they plan to follow, or jump out of the wagon, screaming. The three Goblins that were playing the game drop everything and run into the mine shaft, screaming, but the one that was scratching his bum throws his stick to the ground, and falls to his knees with his hands in the air in an attitude of worship. Skaldi pulls Skorb up so that he does not run over the remaining Goblin, and they hear a dozen Goblin voices from inside the mine. They also hear another voice, speaking common, and suddenly see, appearing at the mouth of the mine, a Goblin holding an alien-looking device (a long-barrelled cannon attached to a backpack with storm and fire swirling in a big glass cannister). This Goblin is dressed in badly broken Starbane armour that has been bolted back together, he wears a pair of soot-filled goggles, one of his ears has been blown off and the other has huge chunks of it missing, and he has big piercings down the left side of his mandible. He looks at all of the party assembled in front of him and cries, “Fucking shit! Kill them, quick!”

The Goblin begins cranking something on his weapon and raises the cannon while ten or so Goblins crawl from the mine shaft weilding pick axes.

Nova holds aloft the Goblin parchment but the Goblin leader seems irritated that they have killed Glek because he was one of the smart ones.

They begin a short parley where Nova asks the Goblin if he is part of The Remnant – the Goblin denies being affiliated with them but Nova senses that he is hiding something. The Goblin sends his followers back to work to try to break through some sort of barrier, gets the party’s names and gives his own: Vezzek. He says that he is a descendent from the ancient armies of Kalus himself but that the Goblins have largely been left to rot in the mountains. The original Goblinoid forces of Starbane fled after the Sundering and have let their minds become somewhat dimwitted and primitive, now they are being plagued by the nightmares created by the Valley, however he has managed to keep both his sanity and his intelligence.

Vezzek asks why they are at The Forge and they tell him of their fallen Guardian companion – he agrees that The Forge, powerful magic and ancient technology brought from worlds beyond their understanding, should be able to bring her back. He does tell them, however, that there are two problems: they can’t get to it, and it needs a power source.

Vezzek tells them that he wishes to access The Forge in order to create weapons and devices to help him build up a small force of Goblins that would allow him to rule over a small area of his own. The latest problem that they have encountered is a room (a temple that may have been part of The Forge at one time, and has taken them a year to dig through to) that is full of weapons that become animated with corrupted magic of the storms. He tells them that The Forge is protected by a particularly powerful sentry or defender that his Goblins have not yet been able to deal with for the last six months.

Pyri asks if this is the main entrance to The Forge but Vezzek indicates the blocked main doors and tells them that the entrance was blocked off hundreds of years ago when the Sundering happened. Nova asks Vezzek how he feels about Kalus Starbane – Vezzek calls him a powerful and incredible Emperor whom his ancestors would have worshipped as a tyrant and a god-like being, but Vezzek has never seen him, having grown up in the mountains, and counts him no more than an old myth and no longer part of Aerois.

Lucius suggests that they work together to reach The Forge and Vezzek suggests that they make a deal: the party helps him reach The Forge and takes care of its guardians and defenders and he will tell them how they can reactivate it. Pyri puts a condition on it: if they are to agree to the deal proposed, they will get to use The Forge first; Vezzek eventually agrees. He says that they will need a power source, which they say that they have but they will not show him just yet. He tells them that they will need to defeat a number of guardians, and will need to repower The Forge while holding off the last guardian (which cannot be defeated). Vezzek is familiar enough with the technology: his ancestors kept their weapons and equipment from their days working for Starbane and he has managed to reverse-engineer much of it to the point that he understands how it works. The Forge, he says, is of very similar construction – the gods of Aerois used very similar technology to Starbane.

Nova asks about the cannon that Vezzek carries, and he tells her that it is not his own creation: he salvaged it, made some tweaks, and has kept it in good repair. He tells her that it is called a Blast Cannon, and that it is from Kalus’ old armouries and is quite powerful. Nova asks whether it talks to him, and Vezzek says that it does not, but knows of the things that powered Kalus’ war machines and ships, the Eterna, remembering that the old Goblins feared them as powerful beings.

He asks them to come with him so that he can show them the first chamber and they enter the mine shaft, seeing 14 Goblins with pick axes widening the mine shaft that leads into The Forge. They can feel how ancient the place is and while there would have been pulses of power running through the place, it is now dead with no sense of energy left in it, just looming darkness.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:03 – Stream starts
0:08 – Tiny Marku
1:56 – New DnD module
2:19 – The Critical Role scandal
3:07 – Rhi hates frames
4:37 – The players kill Mark
9:16 – She brings the chaos
9:53 – Aerois intro video
11:01 – WTF is even happening
11:33 – Mark is surrounded by children
12:10 – Recap
13:26 – When Tom’s glasses come off, we know
13:44 – Professional emotion bottling
14:33 – Episode starts
15:19 – Here we go again
22:11 – Lucius reverts through puberty
25:25 – Lucius has squishy-head
27:01 – Nat 20 twins
29:03 – Aila’s sickness
30:52 – Aila and the storm
33:51 – Reflecting on Quill and the storm
36:39 – If only there was a way
37:41 – Nat 20 vision
40:55 – Nova is not a morning person
41:09 – Glitter hay-fever
41:57 – A changed man
42:14 – Lucius is a bit erratic today
42:37 – Skaldi’s concerns
46:11 – English summer
46:57 – Tom will never move again
47:57 – Apparently Pyri has some intense ADHD
48:56 – Unintentional pun
52:54 – There are four lights
53:15 – It was inside us all along
53:28 – All Star is a sea shanty. Canon.
57:51 – The strongest, greatest minds
1:01:20 – Lucius refuses to be calm
1:04:24 – Sorry, what?
1:04:58 – Tentacles!
1:06:13 – Lucius has 5 HP left
1:06:28 – Battle begins
1:06:29 – Tom’s ideal death
1:07:16 – Lucius sound effect
1:10:29 – Polymorph
1:12:43 – Ruthless squirrel attack
1:14:00 – Yeeting the squirrel
1:16:07 – The Great Squirrel Debate begins
1:17:28 – Ask Siri
1:17:58 – Rhi begins the chant
1:24:56 – Break begins
1:33:20 – Break ends
1:34:15 – Fancy roll from Trott
1:34:31 – Always read your spells kids
1:35:46 – Trott made the teacher mad
1:37:05 – It’s too fast
1:39:03 – Aila is Captain America
1:44:11 – Rage
1:47:10 – Pyri goes down
1:47:54 – Evil DM laugh
1:49:01 – Injury check for Pyri
1:50:23 – The healing Slav
1:51:00 – Katie ruined the dream
1:52:04 – Oriya’s kill/Battle ends
1:55:00 – Tom has a crisis
1:57:55 – Scary whispers
1:58:22 – The basilisk
2:04:14 – Mark has given up on his five indecisive children
2:08:33 – Battle begins with a storm of ones
2:11:35 – Torman returns
2:25:09 – Basilisk subdued
2:27:51 – The goblins
2:29:01 – Goblin poop
2:30:00 – Goblin bitch fight
2:30:37 – Skaldi’s not impressed
2:32:07 – Let’s out-crazy the goblins
2:35:01 – Bonerino
2:36:05 – Scaring the goblins
2:37:47 – An unexpected appearance
2:43:02 – Parley!
2:43:41 – Lucius Virion Elluin El-
2:46:18 – Forge lore
2:52:37 – Episode ends
2:52:53 – Donations
2:53:36 – FranktheNPC’s episode predictions
2:56:15 – Fantasy All Star
2:57:10 – High expectations
2:57:50 – Stream ends
2:57:51 – Fan art video
*feel free to add extra timestamps of significant events!*

## **Featured Characters**

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

* Aila
* Nova V'ger
* Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto
* Pyri Adhara
* Oriya Marius

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Skaldi Ravenscar
* Skorb

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Siaska
* Kellara
* Valena
* Kalus Starbane

## **Featured Locations**

* Voksar
	+ Myrskyr
		- The Stormwall Mountains

## **Trivia**

* Mark was involved in making *The Marishala Report: the Biggest Presidential Scandal Since Waterdeep! (Critical Role)* which was uploaded to YouTube on 8 June 2019. You can watch it here.
* The opening of this episode was a mess – Mark bravely soldiered on with the recap despite most of the cast having the giggles. Tom had them so badly that his glasses had to come off!

* **Continuity error:** This episode starts with Johan and Pyri on the opposite bank to the other party members. The last episode left Johan and Oriya on the same bank and the rest of the party on the other side of the river.
* Lucius starts the episode quite disoriented – he does not know where he is, and thinks they are heading to “The Anvil of Dreams”.
* The infection from the mushroom portal that affects Aila ends in this episode when she coughs out the residual spores. She will no longer be staring off into the distance catatonically.
* At the early part of the episode, the party is not in The Valley of Storms, but in The Stormwall Mountains that surround it: it is a huge chain of mountains that cuts Voksar into two halves then spreads out and surrounds the valley like a wall and hedges the valley in.
* There is a comment made, “There are four lights!”. This is reference to a Star Trek: The Next Generation double episode, Chain of Command. The quote is said by Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
* Oriya suggests that there is an old sea shanty that sings about “all that glitters is gold” – I’m not sure that Smashmouth had the idea of Allstar being a sea shanty when they first performed it!
* The Roper has an AC of 20.
* A break was taken early because Mark’s camera went down.
* The Roper makes a critical attack against Pyri, and for a short time it looks as if the damage will be lethal until Mark realises that he doubled *all* damage, including its +4. Once that was removed, Pyri was just unconscious, not actually dead. Close thing, though! Kim did a Tom and reminded him to make an injury roll then asked if she could have inspiration – Mark said that he was going to stop rewarding his players like that.
* Tom had said earlier in the fight that if he was going to die, it would be from being eaten by a mountain.
* They refer to a healing salve as a “healing slav” which is a call back to episode 19 where they first met Rosemeadow, the maker of said slav.
* Oriya is a specialist in monstrosities. Mark whispers to her information about the crystal lizard, to which her reaction was, “Oh, shit.”
* Tom does a classic Tom and misses half of the information that Mark gives out – this time it’s to do with the human crystal statues.
* As they move into the crystal forest, they are asked to roll initiative: Rhi, Katie, Tom, and Kim all roll natural 1s. Trott rolls an 8. Katie has advantage but rolled 1 for both of her rolls.
* The basilisk rolled a 4 on its first saving throw against its own gaze – on its second save, it also rolled a 4.
* The Goblins’ bone game consists of throwing bones on the ground, staring at each other, then trying to grab the bones while also slapping each other. Pyri recognises this as the game, “Bonerino”.
* In the outro, Tom said that he threw Mark off on the intro by saying “girthy”.