Aerois - Episode 178: The Fury of Hadar

Katie Morrison as Aila

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Fury of Hadar** is the 178th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 19th March 2023 from 5PM to 8PM GMT.

*The Fury of Hadar is unleashed as the party desperately try to stop Atelicus from reaching the Halls of Infinite Resplendence!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* HR wished all the UK mothers a happy Mother’s Day and reminded people that it is not necessarily Mother’s Day elsewhere in the world.
* There is new merch at freshstore.co – there are glittery dice sets available, the new core merch shirts and hoodies. Mark mentioned posters with the new art that were done for MCM ComicCon (it was noted later through the Discord that these have already sold out).
* Mark’s character from the Idle Champions D&D campaign, Fury of the Black Rose, has been released in-game and is now available. The experts have said that Miria works perfectly with the Champions of Aerois because her abilities sync up with all of their abilities. Miria can be unlocked during the Festival of Fools event. There are 2 more episodes left of the campaign which will finish on 27th of March 2023.
* High Rollers does a Warhammer Fantasy RPG stream on Wednesday evenings. The VoD is available on Twitch for 60 days, then is only available to members of Patreon or YouTube.

### **Recap**

*"Our Champions were in the midst of a battle with the titan, Atelicus, who charges towards the Halls of Infinite Resplendence to devour the essence of Siaska, Goddess of the stars. Using a Magitek giant construct called Vanguard Alpha, the heroes have managed to enrage Atelicus to the point of drawing out the Seed of Hadar that had infected his mind and body. The Seed used entropic magic to destroy Vanguard Alpha, forcing the party to fight on the back of Atelicus to defeat the seed and, hopefully, free the titan’s mind. During the battle, however, the Seed forces Atelicus to dive underwater, forcing a change in our battle’s situation. Alongside that, we have Sentry having been bitten, almost swallowed, it seemed like, by this creature, vanished entirely, and it has used strange powers to break the reality around individuals’ minds, one of which was Counterspelled by Lucius before it could afflict Quill."*
### **Part 1**

*The furious Seed of Hadar fights on atop(sic) the giant Atelicus!*

Sentry, having been bitten, is trapped in a fleshy cathedral dome made of muscle fibres, mouths, tentacles and teeth – there is a Mind Witness nearby (a Beholder-like creature made of tentacles, mouths and an eye) that is heavily injured. She smashes into the Mind Witness with Starbreaker, poking it through the central eye and ripping it apart. Sentry watches as the prison breaks away and she is thrown back into the material plane onto the back of Atelicus far under the ocean – she desperately grabs onto a piece of the carapace nearby before *Misty Stepping* behind a nearby spine.

Quill, holding his breath, pulls out his Wand of Magic Missiles and throws all available charges at it. Nine missiles shoot from the wand at the Seed before moving towards Lucius. The Seed hits Nova, Lucius and Quill with *Arms of Hadar* and all are hit with cold and acid (Lucius absorbs the acid and resists the cold). Nova manifests her echo – only Nova, Sentry and Aila can see this because of where it appears, but the echo appears differently to how it has always appeared. This time it manifests as a young Genasi person in formal robes, made of all four elements (earth, fire, wind, and water) – the echo looks behind it and nods at Nova in acknowledgement.

Aila strikes the Seed with her hammer and zaps it with lightning before it sinks into Atelicus’ body and re-appears next to Quill. It lashes out with its tentacles, hitting Lucius and Quill twice, it then bites Nova, injuring her, but she gets a spectral image of a stone shield, and it fails to transport her to the fleshy demiplane. Lucius realises that he is not attuned to the trident and, realising that he is close to drowning, desperately casts a *Wish*, choosing that the party appears above the water, safe. The party is suddenly pulled away from the Seed of Hadar and arrive in a blinding flash of prismatic light, standing in the great open plaza of an empty, ruined sky city – the plaza is at the edge of the city (it is the abandoned Kassatoris) with a small stone railing at its outermost rim. Behind them they can see Valla on her platform and the Halls of Infinite Resplendence – in front, they see Atelicus moving slowly and inexorably towards them. The echo of Harmony stands nearby, looking worriedly at the party before turning to watch Atelicus coming their way. Lucius falls to his knees and vomits up water, desperately trying to breathe, feeling within himself a loss of power and knowledge – he knows that he will never again be able to cast the *Wish* spell.

Sentry casts *Death Ward* on Lucius who uses the spell’s ability to survive when he casts *Fly* on Sentry, Aila, and Nova, allowing them to fly towards Atelicus. Before they leave, Quill casts both *Beacon of Hope* and *Mass Cure Wounds*. Nova casts *Fly* on Lucius so that he can join them in the fight, then uses the *Heavensward* ability on her blade, causing it to glitter with starlight. On the way back to Atelicus, Quill casts *Greater Restoration* on Lucius to remove his weakness then heals the party again.

Nova makes her way directly back to the Seed of Hadar and starts slashing at it, slicing through it three times with her glittering blade, making the Seed look angry – she uses action surge to try for another barrage of hits but only manages to hit with the last additional blow. The Seed retaliates by casting *Arms of Hadar* behind her, lashing her with a swirling mass of tentacles and causing Lucius to lose flight. Quill casts *Chromatic Orb*, hitting the Seed with a ball of lightning while it is distracted by Nova. The Seed creates another whirling mass of tentacles close to the group at the rear, hitting Sentry, Quill, and Lucius with cold and acid magic – the rest of them lose the ability to fly, and knocking them prone. The Seed attacks with a bite and its entropic maw hits Nova, sending her to the other realm where she is surrounded by muscle tissue, teeth, mouths, and eyes – it is the fleshy cathedral dome protected by a Mind Witness which gibbers at her in its language of madness.

Quill is hit with beams of force from the Seed – he *Shields* the first but is hit by the second. The Seed then makes a wall of magic shoot from the carapace of Atelicus, but from the head end first this time. Aila uses a charge on her hammer to fly forward towards the creature, hoping to avoid the next wall of spewing magic. Nova is attacked by the Mind Witness – it blasts her with three rays, two of which she manages to dodge and the third she barely get struck. Sentry moves towards the Seed, preparing to attack when she can, Lucius stands and casts *Chromatic Orb* at the creature but it swallows the magic before it can be harmed.

Another wall of primal magic bursts from Alelicus’ carapace, blasting both Aila and Sentry with cold magic.

Nova, inside the other dimension, manifests her echo – it appears as a female Eladrin performer swirling with butterflies and other fey-like creatures and singing a song. Nova unleashes a flurry of blows from herself and her echo, cutting it to ribbons and making it ooze highly saturated red blood – its brain melts, and Nova is returned to the battlefield. Quill launches a *Sacred Flame* at the Seed, burning it with white hot flames.

The Seed attacks Sentry and Aila with its tentacles, hitting Aila twice, and missing Sentry on the first but hitting her with a massive strike on the second. It attempts to invade Sentry’s mind to incapacitate her but Lucius *Counterspells* the effect to shield her from it – in doing so, he takes necrotic damage from the effect of his use of *Wish.* The Seed, unimpressed, snaps its eye on Lucius, telling him that it has had quite enough of him.

Aila moves to the Seed and cops a blow before striking it with her hammer once and blasting it with lightning – the creature holds its side as it looks heavily injured. The next wall appears, injuring the Seed that is within it. Sentry takes damage from the wall and casts *Spirit Shroud*, the spirits of the Guardians within her taking a humanoid spirit form of swirling souls around Starbreaker. The warrior spirits of the Guardians that now imbue Sentry’s lance know what they are facing – they fought this being eons ago. Sentry senses their courage and spirit and a warrior scream as Starbreaker, a weapon forged to slay creatures of Hadar’s magic, slams into the creature and drills a huge hole in the centre of the creature’s chest in the mouth that it has been spawning. The creature screams in frustration before sinking down into Atelicus’ form in some type of hard-shelled cocoon.

Instead of the Seed returning, elsewhere on Atelicus’ body, they see wounds appear, from which emerge pustules and growths of entropic magic. The pustules slowly begin to open, showing that they are full of the same red magic as the Seed…

### **Part 2**

*The Fury of Hadar gets unleashed as the party desperately try to stop Atelicus from reaching the Halls of Infinite Resplendence!*

The party is fighting against a Seed of Hadar – a portion of Hadar’s magic that has infected the titan, Atelicus and now has control of the gargantuan creature. The Seed has pulled away into Atelicus then reappeared in an egg-like cocoon – following this, four wounds have opened up on Atelicus’ back that have the same red hue as the Seed and look like they might be the next targets.

Lucius throws a *Firebolt* at the nearest wound, burning away at the magic within, although there appears to be some resistance and it pulses with entropic magic as a reaction to being hit. An insubstantial black tendril whips out and wraps itself around Lucius. Nova takes damage from the nearby wall of magic then *Misty Steps* away from the nearby wound before turning to *Eldritch Blast* it, striking it twice with blasts. Red lightning strikes from it, but since no one in withing range, nothing happens.

Another wall of vents erupts and does not affect the pustules. Quill is not sure whether healing the wounds or healing Atelicus would be of help – he heals Atelicus for a small amount but does not know if any of the wounds is affected. He then casts *Sacred Flame* on the wound in front to his left and it reels greatly from the radiant damage. The cocooned Seed of Hadar spawns a maw which bites at, attempts to grapple and restrain Nova, but her Ring of Free Action does not allow this and she wriggles free. The Seed then casts *Reality Break* on Lucius, who is disabled as his mind turns to madness, following up with an attack on Sentry and Aila with a tentacle that erupts from the carapace – both are hit, Aila once and Sentry twice, before the tentacle disappears again. All of the walls of entropic magic disappear again. Aila attacks and hits the wound nearest to her, hitting it and blasting it with lightning – the entropic magic bursts in an explosion of red that fades away, but before it goes, it lashes a dark, transparent tentacle around Aila.

The Seed spawns a tentacle and hits Sentry who *Misty Steps* to Lucius and casts *Cleansing Touch* on him to end the effect of *Reality Break*. The Seed spawns a tentacle near Sentry and Lucius, attempting to hit them both, but Sentry protects Lucius and knocks away the attack on her with he shield of Solwynn. Lucius casts *Armor of Agathys* on himself but it immediately breaks due to the after-effects of the *Wish* spell.

Nova *Misty Steps* away from the Maw, blasting at one of the untouched wounds and manages to hit it once of four beams. Quill casts *Heal* – a mouth opens briefly on the shell of the egg as the Seed attempts to consume Quill’s magic, but a conjured wind seems to blow the spell back towards the party, taking them all back to full health (except Aila whose healing was halved by the effects of the Entropic Wound that she slew). Quill has a small amount remaining to pump into Atelicus and he notices a faint flicker in the wounds.

The Seed shoots two entropic beams of force from the cocoon at Quill, injuring him and disrupting his concentration. The tentacle nearest Sentry and Lucius attacks them, whalloping them. The Seed is heard to mutter, “Very well, if you will not die under the ocean… Atelicus, JUMP!” As Atelicus jumps hundreds of feet into the air, they are all pressed under the increased gravity against his back with all but Sentry and Aila unable to move (Quill takes damage as he is hit mid air and then pressed into Atelicus’ back). Aila uses her prodigious strength to move to the nearest entropic wound and zaps it with her lightning. The Seed spawns a new Maw that bites into Quill, failing to restrain and grapple him. Sentry attacks the nearby tentacle, slamming Starbreaker into it and ripping it off Atelicus’ back, sending it flying off into the distance, she misses her attack on the Entropic Wound.

Lucius uses Prismatic Mastery, casts *Firebolt,* using chromatic control to change the bolt to a radiant one, destroying the nearby wound and causing it to wrap a nebulous black tentacle around Lucius. Nova, using her Ring of Free Action, manages to move towards the nearest wound and summons her echo (which manifests again as Shansara). Nova then slices into the wound twice, heavily weakening the wound but taking some psychic feedback from it as a consequence. Quill casts *Sacred Flame* on the wound closest to him, badly damaging it.

The Seed teleports next to Quill and the maw, making the maw its Entropic Maw – it bites into Quill but fails to send him to another plane. The Seed then sprouts a tentacle next to Sentry and Lucius, hitting Lucius but missing Sentry. At this point, Atelicus hits the apex of his jump and starts to fall -only Aila manages to cling to a nearby protuberance from Atelicus’ back and Quill is cushioned by the maw that holds him. The rest of them take significant falling damage as Atelicus hits the ground and they slam into him; Nova activates *Tomb of Levistus* to save her from the brunt of the damage. When they land, they all see Valla and her platform are suddenly extremely close with Valla attempting to create multiple purple portals to protect the entrance to the Halls of Infinite Resplendence. Maximillion has drawn his sword, prepared to do whatever he can even though it is probably hopeless at this point.

Aila moves to the maw, ripping it apart, and releasing Quill while also zapping the maw with lightning and breaking away part of its carapace. Sentry moves to the nearest wound using *Misty Step* and plows Starbreaker into it, destroying it. Lucius throws a *Firebolt* at the wound near Nova, destroying the last of them and forcing the Seed of Hadar to resume its normal form once more. They note that it still has a gaping wound in its chest from Starbreaker and looks thoroughly wounded.

“Very well,” it says to them, “if I cannot consume Siaska, if I cannot corrupt Atelicus, I’ll take you all with me to glorious demise.”

The Seed holds its arms up, its large mouth distends, and dark energy begins to accumulate and build up as a giant spell.

Nova moves over to attack the newly emerged seed, but her sword continually slashes wide of its target. Quill hits it with *Sacred Flame*, and it responds by hitting Quill, Aila, and Nova with a lashing tentacle – Nova takes one hit, and the others take two each, with Quill being knocked unconscious. Aila moves in for the kill, swinging her hammer recklessly at the Seed and zapping it with her lightning (which now seems to be doing full damage). Even though she does two massive hits on the creature, they watch as two large spheres of darkness in each hand, and another in its large mouth grow larger and darker. Sentry moves to the Seed and lashes out at it, but it avoids her deadly weapon.

Lucius, knowing that this is their last gasp, and that casting a spell will likely knock him unconscious, casts *Chromatic Orb*, making it radiant – the Seed is hit, and parts of its body begin to disintegrate and break away. It is heavily wounded but just hanging on out of spite. Lucius begins an epic speech before fainting.

Nova summons her echo – it is Shansara again – those who are conscious start to hear a soft, acoustic version of one of Shansara’s songs with which they are familiar. Nova swings her sword but fails to injure the creature. Quill miraculously comes to, surrounded by H’esper’s wind which lifts him up just enough, and he desperately blasts a *Guiding Bolt* at the back of the Seed’s head. Nova sees the red body of the Seed as it is enshrouded by a halo of golden energy that burns it away to nothing. Once it has dissipated, only Quill is left in the air with arms like an angel, his wings spread out as golden fire reaches out from him.

The Seed is destroyed, but Atelicus has now reached the Halls and the residuum of rage and madness has stayed with him. He lifts his arms and smashes against Valla’s shield, shattering it with his second mighty blow. As he reaches across with his massive arm, a vast column of light fills the horizon and severs Atelicus’ arm from its body, which then drops uselessly into the ocean. Flying towards them, at speed, is the Astoria, having just fired its giant energy cannon. Unfortunately, the cannon is recharging, and they know that it will not be able to take a second shot in time.

Atelicus reaches his second arm towards Valla, and there is another second large beam of energy, nowhere near as large, but this one severs off the hand. They look around to see where it has come from and only Quill can see a distant figure standing on the top of a tower in Kassatoris. The figure is looking down, holding a giant energy cannon in his hands, and wearing black armour and a black cape.

Atelicus screams and howls in pain and rage, but after a moment, they see some semblance of control returning. They begin to hear words through the sobbing, “Mother, why? I just wanted to be strong, mother. Mother!” The giant form collapses into the ocean and rests its gigantic head on the platform with Valla and Max, the fight having gone out of him.

Sentry heals Lucius to bring him around. They hear Valla calling to them and sending Max to determine if they still live – they hear him climbing up Atelicus’ head and he can finally confirm to Valla that they are ok. Quill tells Max that the second blast came from Starbane and Max is dumbfounded, looking around to find his Emperor.

Once it is established between them that everyone is alive, if a little battered and bruised, Valla tells them that Sayanna is already gone. Atelicus, still alive but breathing heavily, is beaten and crying giant tears from his white eyes, and they roll down his horned, mutated, bestial face. Nova puts out a plea to Siaska telling her that her son needs her.

They all hear a disembodied voice, *“I cannot force him to come. He must give up his power to come to me.”*

Sentry climbs down onto Valla’s platform and reaches out to put a gentle hand on his muzzle – Atelicus flinches, thinking that she is going to cause him more pain and begging her not to hurt him. Sentry reassures Atelicus that he is the strongest being that they have ever faced. Atelicus is unsure, saying that he could not protect Siaska before. Sentry tells Atelicus that by returning to Siaska, he can protect Aerois and use his strength against Hadar. Valla tells her brother that he should listen to Sentry.

Sentry reaches out again and this time, Atelicus does not pull away. She can feel the massive beat of his blood pumping in his body and then a long-held breath is released and flows over her.

“Very well,” says a resigned Atelicus. “I let our enemy weaken me. I was weak in seeking strength. I should have trusted her wishes. I will do so now. I entrust Aerois to you.”

They watch as Atelicus’ body turns to golden light, and there is the sudden smell of earth, grass, mountains, and rivers. A faint breeze causes the golden light to coalesce into a single point in the air behind Valla on the platform – they know that this is the space that connects to the Halls of Infinite Resplendence.

They hear another voice in their minds, this time a deeper, male voice:

“Champions, I believe that the terms of my assistance are to be called upon. Come, meet me here in this city, this once living, now dead place. We will talk, face-to-face.” They know it to be the voice of Kalus Valkyrian.

Valla tells them that while she does not have the power to help them like she did before, with a magical rest, she says that he is an honourable man, and if he says that he wants to talk to them, he is unlikely to do anything to them in their current state. She does offer to create a portal for them to travel to the city and says that they will join the party, but that she thinks that Kalus wants to speak to them alone first. Valla says that she will go and prepare her mother, who should be waking soon. She creates a portal that leads to the same amphitheatre where they found themselves recently. There is no sound, no colour, and no semblance of life… except for a man clad in thick, black Magitek armour, a two-handed sword slung on his back (the handle and guard of which looks very familiar to Nova). Beside Kalus is a discarded, smoking, enormous cannon.

They discuss the fact that Atelicus was influenced by a Seed of Hadar and Kalus says that he has seen it before – Hadar injects powerful creatures that he wishes to use with a sense of greed, hunger, and desperate ambition – anything that can be used to reinforce his ideals, then takes control of that creature. Kalus imagines that this is what has happened to Xarkira, his former friend and commander. Nova asks if Kalus has any news on her but he does not – last they had heard, she took her fleet and many of her loyal followers out to the edges of the Far Realm, to her new master. They know that an attack is coming, and they are preparing for it.

Kalus reminds them that Aila (which he did not expect) showed him certain truths using magic – Aila blurts out that she felt that she had to because he was not listening. Sentry can tell that Kalus is full of regret – he has accepted and acknowledged that he has made mistakes. Kalus tells them that he first thought that it was some trick or illusion meant to misdirect him, however, there was enough doubt that he decided to seek truth and answers. He sought out the Fate Weavers who revealed many things to him and he now believes that the future that they saw with the World Engine is one possible future and that using the World Engine in the way that Kalus had intended may doom their universe. He had spent so long believing that plan was the only way to protect what matters in the universe (and saying this, his eyes flick to the Halls of Infinite Resplendence). Kalus now finds that he has doubt and believes that the future of the universe may not rest in his hands, but in the party’s.

He makes them an offer: if they are to be the protectors of this universe and the ones whom Kalus loves most, then they must prove their strength. Kalus says that he will call off his forces and will give command of his forces to the party if they can defeat him. He does acknowledge that the battle with Atelicus has wearied them and that they are not at their full strength – he will allow them whatever time they require to rest and recuperate. Kalus tells them that if they cannot defeat him, then they have no hope against Hadar, and that he may as well try to see if the World Engine will work – he knows that Quill’s visions are not infallible, that they can be misunderstood, or only one of many possible futures. If Kalus is to trust Valla and Siaska to the party’s hands, he says that they must be the strongest hands of all.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:07:32 - Dun Duns
0:08:30 - Part 1
1:36:17 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Atelicus
* Valla
* Max
* Kalus
* Siaska

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Sayanna
* Hadar
* Xarkira

## **Featured Locations**

* Starfall Archipelago
	+ Open ocean
	+ Kassatoris

## **Trivia**

* Nova has a new feat, Echoes of Sacrifice, that allows her echo to appear as Tiangong, Harmony, or Shansara. This is determined by a roll on a d10 (2 results in Tiangong, 9 in Harmony, and an 8 in Shansara). Each echo has different features and abilities.
* Half movement speed affects Nova’s echo because it is still a creature.
* Mark confirmed that *Dominate Monster* would not work on a titan and will not work on Hadar.
* After casting his wish, Trott asked if he could change it to grant up to 10 creatures he could see immunity to a single spell or other magical effect for up to 8 hours – he would have asked that people were given the ability to breathe underwater.
* Trott loses the ability to cast Wish, has a strength of 3 for 5 days (which Quill removes with Greater Restoration), and takes necrotic damage every time he casts anything of level 1 or higher.
* Mark will allow Lucius to learn a new 9th level spell to replace Wish now that it is lost to him. He said that he “is not a cruel enough DM that he could not learn new 9th level spells”.
* Quill does a second mass heal on people because although he said that he “doesn’t want to be that DM”, Mark intimated that they would need it.
* Quill believes that this may be the first time that he has hit with Chromatic Orb – he may be right!
* The walls of magic are 60 feet high. Between 177 and 178, they changed from being 30 feet between them to only 15 feet between them. Tom was given a lot of shit for getting this wrong, but he did, in fact, get it right!
* There were a *lot* of natural 20s rolled in this episode.
* The Seed of Hadar takes damage from the walls of primordial magic. Any creature within 5 feet of a wall takes damage in this episode (it was 10 feet last episode).
* Whilst the Seed is in its cocooned form, it is immune to all forms of damage and cannot be targeted by spells or abilities.
* The wounds have an ability called Infection Response that is a reaction and is rolled on a d4 table.
	+ 1 – all creatures within 15 feet are struck by a blast of red lightning. Take psychic damage equivalent to half the damage dealt to the wound.
	+ 4 – until the start of the player’s next turn, any creatures within 30 feet of the wound that would regain hit points only regain half the amount of hit points instead. The wound gains the remaining hit points as temporary hit points.
* The Seed of Hadar has a mythic action to Spawn Maw – this spawns a ravenous maw anywhere on the battlefield that then make a maw attack.
* When Mark told them that he was going to attempt to counterspell Quill’s 700 hit point heal, Tom threatened to drive into him with his car. He later admitted that because he drives a Mini, he would probably take the damage rather than Mark. Katie later says that it’s a red car. Tom is then concerned that people might have too much information about his car.
* The last titan was returned to Siaska, their mother, on Mother's Day in the UK.

## **Quotes**

* Mark (announcing the next player to move): In that case, we come to Qillek ad Khollar… Tom (looking at his spells because they are underwater): Verbal, verbal, verbal, verbal, verbal, verbal, verbal, verb…

* Mark: Ooooo. Welcome back everybody. Tom: There it is, the pogHorn. Mark: Yeah, did you get your popcorn? You get your drink? Tom: Popcorn? No, pogHorn. That was the sound of the pogHorn,