Aerois - Episode 125: Curse of the Feywild

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Curse of the Feywild** is the 125th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 3rd October 2021 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Thalia receives Seyana's(sic) blessing but something more sinister arises with the Curse of the Feywild...*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Sponsors this week are D&D Beyond and Mag of Holding: Gothic Horror (from Penny Dragon Games). Wild Beyond the Witchlight is now available in D&D Beyond.
* Merch: latest drop of Clear Skies, Stormchasers and tye die t-shirts and Clear Skies cropped hoodie are still available. Jiǔtóu pins are sold out, but there are still Reynard pins available. Starbane coffee mugs are still available. Please buy a Reynard pin! All this merch is limited. There will be special merch coming at Christmas and there is some exciting stuff coming up soon.
* Mark, Kim and Rhi were a part of the D&D Celebrations last week. Thanks to the Oxventure and 3 Black Halflings crews for having the High Rollers. The 3 Black Halflings will be filming a follow-up with Kim to finish off the story because the one-shot on the day was a little rushed.
* Subscribe to the High Rollers Twitch channel. Use your Prime sub if you have it for emotes.
* YouTube subscriptions: HR is less than 1000 subs away from getting a plaque from YouTube. If you have not already done so, please subscribe!

### **Recap**

*"Hello and welcome back to Aerois. As the Valkyrian Empire, as well as the divided nations and factions of Aerois prepare for war, the party must also contend with the errant Titans, once worshipped as gods of Aerois. Now mad with grief or anger, they refuse to give up their divine essence to return the true goddess, Siaska, back to life. Siaska is Aerois’ only hope of standing against the full might of the Valkyrian Empire, and so the party must face down each Titan in their own demiplane and force them to surrender their power. After Valla, daughter of Siaska and Emperor Kalus Valkyrian, used her demigod powers to locate the demiplane of one such titan, Zephyr, the party managed to breach the barriers enough to enter and face off against the mistress of adventure, storms and sea. The battle was fierce, but eventually the party forced Zephyr into submission, and her essence returned to Siaska’s body held in the divine sanctuary called the Halls of Infinite Resplendence.* *Nova V’ger brings Thalia, a medusa astral space pirate, with her to the Halls with her hoping that the titan, Sayanna, who still retains her mind, can remove the curse upon her, and after a little teasing, Sayanna performs a magical ritual to do just that. And that is pretty much where we left off two weeks ago."*
### **Part 1**

*Thalia receives Seyana's(sic) blessing but something more sinister arises with the Curse of the Feywild!*

The party stands in a central chamber made of white, quartz-like stone: behind them sits a large crystal sarcophagus on a raised central dais, and in all other directions around them are halls that seem to stretch on forever. The sarcophagus sits under a focused beam of bright white light, and in it lies the re-forming body of the goddess Siaska.  They have watched in wonder as Sayanna has begun to sing a pitch perfect song of creation, surrounding Thalia’s body in vines, leaves and flowers – through the light that has begun to emanate from between the fronds, they have seen Thalia’s green, scaly skin gradually begin to change to a dark caramel brown. As they watch and listen, Sayanna begins to strain as she sings, and the vines surrounding Thalia begin to grow thick thorns, and the flowers turn either bloody crimson or black: there is a gasp of pain from within.

They notice that Sayanna is starting to struggle, almost sweat, trying to keep the spell of transformation going: another voice is suddenly layered on top of hers, seemingly coming from the crimson and black flowers, and barely able to be heard, “No! You don’t deserve a happy ending!” There is another gasp of pain from Thalia before Sayanna lets forth with a blast of energy and a rising note that becomes so high pitched that it ceases to be heard. The flowers and vines that surround Thalia burst into motes of light that drift away from her, leaving an elven figure with caramel brown skin, and long, straight dark green glowing hair. She opens her eyes which are a vibrant, almost glowing green. Draped around her shoulders, arms and curling around her ankles are a dozen or so snakes, happily hissing. Thalia’s left arm is bleeding as though she has been pricked by many needles and Quill notices that she has a black tattoo of a thorny briar around her wrist and forearm that has never been there before.

Thalia gasps for air as she emerges from the light: Lucius is transfixed and speechless, and Nova rushes to catch and steady Thalia as she stumbles forwards. Thalia slowly opens her eyes, not trusting that her medusa’s gaze is not still present and looks up slowly from Nova’s coat to her face: her irises are a brilliant, almost glowing green. As her eyes meet Nova’s, she almost looks nervous or scared – she looks down to see her new skin and sheds a quiet tear, but this soon becomes a torrent as she buries her face in Nova’s shoulder and collapses to her knees, her body wracked by sobs. Nova hugs and tries to console her, then realises that between the sobs, Thalia is laughing in joy.

From what Quill has seen and understands, while Sayanna has removed the curse of the medusa, doing so has unlocked a secondary curse that may be worse, and it may have made things worse for Thalia. He turns to look at Sayanna, and she looks suddenly old and exhausted: she now looks middle-aged with grey starting to form in her golden hair, wrinkles have started to show around her mouth and eyes, and she stumbles and falls to sit on the dais with sweat dripping from her face and breathing heavily.

While Sentry provides first aid for Thalia and cleans the wounds on her arm, Aila takes some water to Sayanna and marvels that this titan, once seeming so powerful and worshipped as a god on Aerois, now seems so frail and mortal. Quill quietly mentions the mark on Thalia’s arm to Aila and Sayanna, telling them about his concerns that there is some residual curse at work on her. Aila is not sure, but Sayanna breathlessly tells them that Quill is correct – that there is something far more powerful at work, and that she cannot be of any further help.

Lucius, meanwhile, has been inching towards Thalia, Nova and Sentry, holding his arms out, and waiting for them to join him in a group hug. Nova is now holding Thalia’s face and wiping away her tears, giving her small kisses on the forehead and reassuring her: Thalia lifts her hands to cover Nova’s, and with a sense of disbelief, tells Nova that she thought that she would suffer the curse and pay for her past behaviour for eternity. Nova notices that the sibilance in Thalia’s speech is gone and one of the snakes (now garter snakes) that is wrapped around her wrist moves over to Nova and flicks her with its tongue. Thalia notices the snakes, some around her ankles and leg, others on her arms, and addresses one on her shoulder with great relief, “I was worried I’d lose you as well” as she pats it tenderly.

Thalia looks at her arm which is painful and itchy: Nova asks her about the voice, which Thalia did not hear over Sayanna’s song. Nova tells Thalia how beautiful her eyes are, which Thalia puts down to her connection to Lunaria and the fey; she has not seen them for some time. Lucius cannot wait any longer, and at Nova’s prompt, swiftly envelops Thalia, Nova and Sentry in a big hug – Thalia mouths a ‘thank you’ to Sentry, who has finished cleaning and binding her bloody arm. She thanks them all for bringing her to the Halls, and to Aerois, and for what they have done for her today; Sayanna gives Quill and Aila a telling look.

Quill starts to break in on the celebrations, but Aila pulls him back telling him that they need to know more about the new curse: Sayanna suspects that Thalia may know the most about this new curse that was not just placed by an archfey, but also reeks of demonic influence. They call Thalia over to Sayanna, and she walks over, still grasping Nova’s hand. As they see her clearly now, she looks lithe and stands with a regal bearing, displaying her long green hair, bright green eyes and long, swept back ears.

Quill notices that the tattoo of the briar that was originally so small on Thalia’s wrist has grown a very small amount up her arm. Quill asks to see the tattoo on Thalia’s arm – she has been oblivious about it until it is mentioned, but when she sees it, her eye widen, “It’s not over, is it. She’s done something else. I didn’t realise that she would hate me this much”. Thalia is asked to explain: she tells them that she used not to be a very nice person a long time ago on her home world of Lunaria, also known as the Feywild, where she was royalty. Thalia looks haunted and absolutely ashamed as she says that she was spoiled, vain and cruel: she bullied and was malicious against a good-hearted sorceress called Mesmera. She did things to the sorceress for which she will never forgive herself, and over time this twisted her good heart and nature into something so dark and driven by revenge that it drove her to take action against Thalia and her family.

Mesmera was a good witch, blessed with gifts of unicorns, of fairies, of satyr; Thalia tormented her, bewitched and stole her lover then tossed him aside, and burned her home. Thalia’s motivation was jealousy – she was jealous of Mesmera’s beauty, the love that people gave her and many other things. One day, Mesmera snapped: she went to Heartspire, Thalia’s home and kingdom, bringing with her a dark artifact that paralysed their guards and had a magic that Thalia had never seen before. With this artifact, she cast a curse upon Thalia, saying that she did not deserve her beauty, to be looked upon with love, and that everything that Thalia looked upon should turn to stone – this was when Thalia transformed. Mesmera used magic to control Thalia’s family to turn them against her and Thalia, not being able to control her new powers, petrified them in their own palace.

Mesmera let her live, knowing that this would cause her to suffer, being hated as a monster wherever she went. Thalia fled, causing untold suffering in her escape from Lunaria into Astral Space where she became Thalia the Astral Space pirate. For many centuries, Thalia says, she was a cruel person driven by hatred and bitterness, cruelty and maliciousness; she wanted desperately to strike back at Mesmera but knew that she was more powerful than Thalia could handle, so she gave up. After some time, she met Bym, and Kyrie and her life began to change… slowly. Eventually all the bitterness and hatred began to dissipate, leaving only shame and regret.

It was then that the Stormchasers and Nova entered her life, convincing Thalia that she might have made amends and deserved a little bit of happiness, but from the looks of her arm this appears not to be the case. Thalia does not know much magic, so is not aware of what this new tattoo represents: back on Lunaria, she has access to powers, but does not have them now. Mesmera is clever, powerful and has motivation to see Thalia suffer. While she has told them all of this, Thalia has appeared to be deeply ashamed, and has not been able to meet the gaze of Lucius or Sentry.

Sentry tries to comfort and reassure Thalia that this sort of behaviour is natural in one’s youth, but Thalia admits that she was a grown woman and knew what she was doing being petty, vain, cruel, greedy and selfish – she cannot excuse herself, owning up to her shameful behaviour. Lucius says that Thalia has changed, that admitting fault, confronting Mesmera and asking for forgiveness may be the only way to break this new curse. Thalia thinks that forgiveness is unlikely but seems more concerned about what she has made Mesmera become because she used to be a good person, and she hopes that the good person may still be there.

Getting to Lunaria will be the real difficulty, however, because it is hidden within the twilight nebula and since her connection to it has been severed, Thalia does not think she can help them get there. Thalia worries that they won’t have time to save Aerois and to attempt to remove this new curse: it would take them days to reach the Twilight Nebula in the Twinstar Longbow even if they could make it past the Cradle and Kalus Valkyrian’s warships. In addition, because she is not connected to Lunaria anymore, Thalia says that she may not be able to traverse the Twilight Nebula, and she will not be a fey creature again until she gets back to Lunaria. Nova reassures her and says that they will do what they can, even if it is not in the next week or so. Thalia is moved, saying that she does not know what she has done to deserve Nova.

Quill casts Legend Lore, using five charges of the Wayfinders Guide to ask about the curse on Thalia Whisperwind. He opens the Wayfinders Guide as he asks the question, and the pages flip rapidly of their own volition: it flips through more pages than actually exist in the book until the book falls open on an illustrated children’s fairy tale, The Tale of the Cruel Princess. It tells the tale, much as Thalia had, of a princess who was cruel to a good witch but goes on to tell that if the curse placed on her was ever removed, a secret curse (hidden by the first) would be unleashed. The good witch was helped to create the curse by her shadow which is depicted by a tall black shadowy figure that stands behind her, whispering secret magic to her. “As her cruelty was a poison unto others, so it would be a poison unto her,” reads the book, “and it would slowly make its way to the princess’s heart, at which point she would die, never able to return”. The illustrations show the curling briar pattern which Quill thinks is an indicator on Thalia of how far the poison has travelled. In the story, the cruel princess dies, the good witch takes over the kingdom, becomes a wonderful ruler, and the people live happily ever after. Quill estimates that with the rate of growth of the tattoo that he has seen, Thalia has at most 1-2 weeks before the poison reaches her heart.

Quill shows Nova the story but tries to cover the end of the tale with his talon – she makes him ove it so that she can read the fatal conclusion. Nova’s body goes still, but her mind whirls with all the options she can think of, including contacting Mesmera, researching the shadow in a library, any useful spells that she might cast, reading her book on Lunarian royalty… Quill, speaking into the stillness, advises them of the limited time that they have left to help Thalia given the rate of growth of the tattoo and asks if anyone has any ideas of how to contact or connect with the Feywild. Max clears his throat and says that while he cannot help Quill, he informs him that Lunaria is sovereignty of the Valkyrian Empire, meaning that it is unlikely that they will encounter Valkyrian troops if they travel there (although they may encounter governors, guards, and so on). He tells them that even if they can get past the blockade around Aerois, that there will be warships above Lunaria that monitor ingoing and outgoing spaceships.

He tells them that the Twilight Nebula has caused the Empire some problems (hence the reason for Lunaria being a sovereignty rather than a territory) because magitek is unreliable and will often not work in the Twilight Nebula: magic is fickle and unstable within its boundaries, and only the fey have learned to control it there.

Quill says that taking a ship to Lunaria will take weeks, and because they do not have that sort of time, they should look for a portal, such as the one that they found near Porta Sovrano (the others quickly shout this idea down). Thalia tells them that if they do not travel by spaceship, they will need to be a fey creature or to have a creature native to the feywild as a guide to get past the Twilight Nebula, even if they try to teleport in. Aila suggests Rosemeadow, but Thalia does not know who that is.

Thalia tells them that Lucius and Aila are partially fey creatures (which comes as a surprise to them), advising them that they are extremely similar to the elves of Lunaria and other worlds, though that will not be enough to get them through to Lunaria. Thalia thinks that Siaska may have based the elves of Aerois on other elves elsewhere in the multiverse. Thalia recalls guardians coming to Lunaria before the Valkyrian Empire or Hadar became a problem – Lucius suggests that she ask Root if he has a suggestion. Aila recommends to Nova that she spend some time researching things in a library or that they ask Dannica. Thalia, resigned to her fate, says that while she does not welcome her death, she recognises that they are busy with bigger things, like saving their world from Kalus and the mad titans: she is prepared to travel back to Lunaria on her own if Palador will let her through.

Valla says that it will take her a month to locate the next titan, and Aila and Quill insist that her problem can be solved in the time they have available. Nova wonders if they can sequester Thalia; Lucius demands that Thalia does not give up, and she says that she will keep fighting until the end but hates that they are taking time away from more important things. Lucius points out that she never asked them for help, that it is their decision to do so, and Quill adds that the whole reason they are fighting is to save not just Aerois, but their allies, without which the whole mission is pointless. Thalia is moved almost to tears, saying that she is glad that they never won the ring of wishes from Graz’zt because she now thinks they have a better chance of solving this problem.

Nova is suddenly full of energy and plans and wants to get moving. Sayanna coughs and stands weakly, still looking weak and visibly older – she agrees that they should move along; she needs to rest in the Halls for a time because removing the curse took a lot more out of her than she was expecting.

Sayanna tells Quill that she thinks that the Wayfinders Guide should be of some help to them, and that H’esper probably knew what was behind the curse since he was with them when they met Thalia. Furthermore, she says, with all that they have seen and done on their travels, she has no doubt that they will find a way to solve this problem. Nova sees Sayanna for the first time since the transformation and feels terrible because of the toll that it has taken on her; Sayanna knew that performing the spell would drain her power, but not as much as it eventually did. The more she uses the divine magic, the more power is drawn from her, and as Siaska regenerates, she continues to get weaker, and will do so unless she retreats to her own domain. Sayanna argues that Siaska put her there for a reason, and that if she cannot help a woman who has clearly seen the error of her past ways, there is no point in her keeping the power she has left unless she is prepared to use it. “Do not be sad for me,” she says, “I want to join H’esper and Zephyr”.

Nova flicks through the book that she found about the lineage of the minor noble family from Lunaria: it is not about Thalia or her family but covers a lot of the societal rules of the Feywild. It is clear from this that Thalia must have done something very cruel to the good witch to make her react in the way that she did. Nova is also considering casting Contact Other Plane to see if she can ask questions of Mesmera – there is a small chance that she will go insane.

They decide to go to Horizon to speak to Dannica and Rosemeadow, to use the library and maybe buy a Sequester scroll. Nova uses her helm of teleportation to take the party back (and the snakes) to Horizon, startling the guards on duty who then welcome them back: they look cautiously at Max who studiously ignores them.

### **Part 2**

*The team try to find their way into the Feywild but a natural 1 changes the course of the story dramatically!*

When they return to their quarters, Sentry retreats to her room and communes with Root. Her consciousness retreats into the Prime Matrix with its golden river of guardian souls and the larger presence of Root at its centre like a large rock or tree. Sentry notes a lot of new souls inside the Matrix, and Root tells her that she has likewise sent a lot of new souls out into new bodies from the City of Glass. She asks Root why the guardians were in the Feywild – he tells her that, “*The guardians spread across all planes in our existence. We were the peacekeepers of the multiverse, there to provide aid to those in need, and to smite evil where it was found. We were numerous, we were many: many found homes across the planes. But when Hadar became a great threat to all, all guardians were summoned to serve in one final army. I was the last*”.

Sentry then asks if they wanted to travel to the Feywild, whether there was a gateway or connection they could use to get there. “*Aerois is protected by the Cradle,*” he says, “*that prevents many normal forms of planar travel. Your ally, Qillek, carries one such method to bypass this barrier, a gift from the god H’esper. But there are others, the Archways, created long ago, once connected many worlds including Aerois. But Lunaria, the feywild as it is sometimes called, is a realm hidden within the Twilight Nebula. Reaching there without a fey guide is nearly impossible. Even the guardians forged alliances with centaurs, satyr and unicorns – they acted as our guides when we needed to travel to their realm”.*

Sentry asks whether they should be on the lookout for anything that would trouble them if they do go to Lunaria, given that Valkyrian has been there. “*This is troubling to me,*” says Root. “*I was not aware that Valkyrian’s Empire stretched so far, but the feywild is a fickle place. Lunaria is a plane ruled by many kings and queens, lords and ladies, dukes and duchesses. All have their own ambitions, and their temperaments are as fickle as the winds themselves. Many can be cruel and malicious. Others kind but naïve. Be cautious: not everything you meet there will be as it seems”.*

Nova retreats to her room with Thalia and prepares to cast Contact Other Plane, asking for assistance from Quill and Sentry to make it easier for her to do so. Quill knows that this spell is used to contact other powerful beings like demigods, archfey or even perhaps Hadar, and is incredibly dangerous because it can lead to madness. Quill also knows that should there be any lingering effects from the spell, he can remove them with his powerful magic. Quill casts Bless (and summons Elder Quill to cast Resistance) on Nova and Sentry stands nearby to allow her aura to assist.

Nova holds Tiangong in her hands and starts to utter the spell: runes glow and lift from Tiangong, merging into a point of silver light at its tip and shoots a beam of light through the ceiling into space and across the Astral Sea trying to find Mesmera. Immediately she casts the spell, the silver light passes through Astral Space and disappears into a shifting purple nebula of magic: it passes through the nebula and goes through to a beautiful world. There is verdant greenery, there are mountains that seem mystically tall, almost seeming to extend up into Astral Space at the peaks, and there are forests that are so large that they would cover entire continents. Everything about this world seems magical – there are entire cities made of one giant, hollowed-out fallen tree, and plains with herds of unicorns travelling across it.

The beam makes its way into a kingdom surrounded by a hedgerow labyrinth and a large spire stretching up from the beautiful palatial grounds. The beam enters the kingdom: Nova feels it connect with a mind, but there is a sense of invasion of a mind and there is an immediate “Get out!” and reverberation through her mind – it senses the questions that she was going to ask (What can I do as an offering to break the curse? What can I do to prove to you that Thalia has changed? What can Thalia do to atone? Can you come to Aerois now? If she dies, it strikes me that you are doing to me what she did to you, forcing someone to lose someone she loves – doesn’t that make you no better than her old self?). Sensing these questions and their purpose, Nova feels intense hatred through the link – the person on the other end is so hurt and ravaged by bitterness and the need for revenge, and she hears a simple, “No”. Nova’s mind is filled with images:

> *Nova sees Thalia as she knows her now, long green haired, dark-skinned woman standing over her (from her perspective) holding a jagged piece of glass dripping with blood, and she is laughing and pointing at her. She sees her flying over a beautiful, thatched cottage watching it burn and laughing. She pulls away a homely looking man as Nova calls out to him and reaches for him. Nova is witnessing all the pain and torment that Mesmera went through.*
>
>

As Nova comes out of the spell and vision and looks on Thalia, there is a lingering revulsion (equivalent to the Antipathy spell): Nova cannot even look at Thalia without seeing the twisted version of the woman she has come to know, and almost wants to be physically sick when looking at her. When Nova opens her eyes and sees Thalia, she immediately feels what Mesmera felt, pushes herself away from Thalia into a corner of the room and screams at her to “Get out, get out, get OUT! I saw what you did, I saw what you did! Get away from me! Get away from me!” The rest can only watch as Thalia’s heart breaks: she steps away from Nova, tears streaming down her face and holding her hands up to show that she means no harm. “I’m so sorry,” she whispers as she runs out of the room.

Nova is still huddled in the corner of the room, screaming, “I’m burning, I’m burning. My skin, it was burning! Why did you have to do that, WHY did you have to do that?” She turns into the corner with her arms up in a defensive posture, shaking and shivering and howling with tears. Sentry runs over and tries to soothe Nova who is inconsolable, “She took everything she loved! Everything!”. Nova says that she cannot look at Thalia or be anywhere near her. Sentry does her best to hold Nova and calm her as best she can.

Quill does not know what to do: he understands that the effect on Nova was caused, whether maliciously or not, by the creature on the other end of the spell that Nova cast. Aila likewise does not know what to do but tries to give Nova what she needs in terms of water, a bucket (in case she is sick), and guards the door in case Thalia comes back. Lucius is paralysed with secondhand hysteria and feels helpless – he looks to Quill for advice. Quill says that he can remove the magical effect from Nova’s mind – he walks over to Nova and places a talon onto the centre of her forehead: a golden light glows from the tip of Quill’s talon and a sense washes over Nova. She knows that the feelings of revulsion towards Thalia were imposed upon her magically, but she retains the memories of what she saw – it is now up to Nova to decide how she feels about these visions.

As Nova’s mind clears of the foreign influence, she opens her eyes and sees her friends surrounding her, noticing the absence of Thalia – she remembers exactly what she said, dissolves into tears and throws herself onto Quill and Sentry, knowing what pain she has caused to Thalia.

Lucius and Aila go to find Thalia – they ask passing guards and find the most likely place for her to go: a balcony overlooking the dock district. They find Thalia leaning against the railing rubbing the tears from her eyes and taking deep steadying breaths. Aila walks casually up and leans on the railing next to Thalia, and after a while asks if she knows that Nova’s reaction was caused by magic. Thalia understood what Nova was trying to do and what the ultimate effect was, but she also knows what Mesmera would have shown Nova in her visions. Thalia had hoped never to see that side of herself again but seeing the expression on Nova’s face had brought it all back for her. Thalia also knows that Nova will always remember what she saw: the actions of a malicious, vain, and cruel woman, and thinks that Nova will not even want to look at her anymore. Thalia is prepared to let Nova go for her own good.

Aila, on the other hand, tells Thalia to wait it out saying that Nova needs her to be happy, and furthermore, Mesmera has crossed another bridge by attacking her friend. Aila reiterates that with everything happening in the world right now, that Nova needs this: Aila is not giving up on it, and Thalia had better not either – Thalia admits that she does not want to give up on Nova. Thalia does not think that what Mesmera did was deliberate but more reactionary to feeling someone in her mind. She thinks that if they can find their way back to Heartspire, they may have to look for a diplomatic solution to the problem.

Lucius reminds Thalia that Nova is smart enough to see the difference between who Thalia was then and who she is now, also that she knows Thalia completely and honestly. Thalia is not so sure, saying that even though she had told Nova what she had done, it was just words and those are easy to forgive, but to experience and see how she acted might change Nova’s mind. Thalia promises not to go anywhere but says that Nova will need to come to her when she is ready and decides to stay on board the Twinstar. She thanks Aila and Lucius and heads off to her ship.

Nova explains thanks Quill and Sentry for looking after her and explains what she experienced in her madness: she is exhausted and needs to sleep. There is a discrete cough from the corner of the suite where Arval and Petal are standing quietly. Arval tells Nova that they have prepared a room that she can sleep in and Sentry offers her a cup of tea. Arval tries to break the mood a little by expounding on some of the problems with his love life over the years: he tells her about one of his ex-wives and ex-husbands. Nova asks him is one of his ex-partners was called Evangeline – he says that he carries Evangeline in his heart but doesn’t speak of her. Petal has laid out some plants and a small music box to make a relaxing area for Nova.

Aila and Lucius return, telling Quill about their encounter with Thalia. Quill is not sure how they are going to get to the feywild – Sentry tells them about Root’s comment regarding archways but says that she does not know where they would be on Aerois. Lucius tells Quill that he is fey and tells Quill about the crown that he had found that brought out his fey side.

It is early evening when they go to find Rosemeadow, and she is closing her shop for the night. She is delighted to see Quill, picks him up and gives him a big hug. They ask Rosemeadow if she is from the feywild, but she says that she does not know where she is from – they found her on Aerois as a child and she does not know how she got to Aerois, nor has she ever seen another centaur. Sentry asks if the name Lunaria is familiar, and she agrees that it is, but cannot recall why. Sentry tells her that it is where her people are from, but Rosemeadow thinks it is on Aerois and wants to visit it.

Quill thinks that if they attach a crystal to the front of the Wayfinders Guide that has feywild energy in it, they may be able to use the book to teleport directly there. They realise that eladrin are fey creatures, and they recently took a summer eladrin prisoner.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00 WE'RE BACK BABY!!!
 0:34 Just Tom measuring his head
 2:11 Mag of Holding Gothic Horror kickstarter
 4:46 D&D Beyond
 6:04 The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
 7:11 Merch
 8:33 The shade on Reynard's pin begins
 9:27 New merch coming up!
 9:59 High Rollin' Oxventure: Worlds Collide
 10:30 Outlaws & Obelisks: Slowdown Showdown
 11:26 Favorite pin: Not Reynard
 11:38 Tom is the saltiest
 12:15 HR is desperate for 100K subs on YouTube
 13:22 DUN DUNS
 14:22 Recap starts
 15:43 Recap ends
 16:54 Thalia's ritual
 18:55 Second voice from within the vines
 19:46 Thalia's original appearance
 20:32 Snake children
 21:07 Quill sees a briar tattoo
 25:11 Medusa curse gone, worse curse appears
 29:36 Aila is an elf princess
 37:41 Briar tattoo is growing
 40:04 Feywild Lore time
 41:13 Mesmera, the Good Witch
 44:39 Tom looks for Legend Lore
 51:30 The Tale of the Cruel Princess
 53:28 Thalia only has 1-2 weeks to live
 57:34 Max shares information about Lunaria
 59:54 A Feywild Native is necessary
 1:06:41 Broken people help broken people
 1:11:04 Sayanna is my favorite titan
 1:12:44 Nova's hitlist
 1:17:30 Tom doesn't edit it
 1:19:54 Teleport to Horizon
 1:25:08 Tom wants Reynard pins bought
 1:27:48 Tom donated himself
 1:32:47 Break ends
 1:33:50 Commune with Root Prime
 1:41:31 Contact Other Plane
 1:45:58 NOVA'S NATURAL ONE
 1:48:47 Lore for the audience
 1:51:47 Mesmera's memories of Thalia
 1:53:58 Nova is revolted by Thalia
 2:00:22 Greater Restoration
 2:05:17 Aila, great with words
 2:15:52 Awkward Arval and Petal
 2:19:38 The cursed Flower Crown
 2:23:15 Don't blame Rhi
 2:25:39 Rosemeadow + Quillek ship
 2:26:42 Rosemeadow doesn't know the Feywild
 2:29:30 Rose"metal"
 2:29:04 Rosemeadow's intelligence of 8
 2:36:33 Eladrin are fey. Summer Eladrin POW
 2:38:00 Rhiannon's AMAZING idea
 2:40:09 Archway below Kalie's Rest is gone
 2:40:50 Nova's possible betrayal
 2:41:55 Episode ends
 2:45:34 Outro donations
 2:50:57 Bye bye bye bye bye

thanks to Nick Ahn for doing the timestamps!

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Sayanna
* Maximillion Taldros
* Valla
* Thalia Whisperwind
* Arval
* Petal
* Rosemeadow

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Kalus Valkyrian
* Siaska
* Bym
* Kyrie

## **Featured Locations**

* The Hall of Infinite Resplendence
* Horizon

## **Trivia**

* Tom’s head is 24 in or 62 cm in circumference.
* Thalia in her elven form is described as being Indian features in skin tone.
* Aila tells Quill that every elf that she has met so far seems to be a Prince or Princess, “and I ain’t one of them”. Mark’s rejoinder is “That you know of”.
* **Continuity error:** Sentry has bound Thalia’s wounded and tattooed right arm, but Quill can see the extension of the tattoo some moments later, despite the bandage.
* Tom refers to the portal that they located at Porta Sovrano as an “Hadar hole”.
* Mark says that Nova has inherited 12 snake children in the relationship. Kim says that is fine and that they all have names. Tom says that Thalia has inherited a lot of warcrimes.
* In #livestream-chat on the HR Discord after the episode, Mark started to name the snakes: Slippy, Simon, Sanjay, Simone, Sherlock, Seiko… then gave up on the last 6.
* Kim said in the HR Discord that she “came up with 12 names 🤣 better let Mark know”. (#fan-art channel, 9/10/21)
* Mark also said in Discord that he has plans for a change of outfit for Thalia.
* Tom rolled a 38 on the insanity table for Nova’s consequences from Contact Other Plane.
* Mark modifies the insanity outcome so that Nova is still able to take actions, understand what people say and can still talk in common. Instead, she is affected by the revulsion.
* Arval tells Nova about two of his ex-partners, an ex-wife and an ex-husband. Mark refers to him as “super bisexual dad Arval”.
* The party has never seen another centaur on Aerois.
* In the recent one-shot where Mark played Rosemeadow, he gave her an Int of 8.
* There is some suggestion that they may try to shrink themselves and enter Rosemeadow’s mind: Mark says that he has the My Little Pony RPG and that this is how he would run the adventure if that is to occur. There was general delight on the faces of all players at this mention.
* Nova had asked at some point that the Archway at Kalie’s Rest be investigated, but when the investigators got there, the Archway was gone. It is suggested that this (and maybe more) is now in the hands of Kalus Valkyrian.
* Nova considered getting in touch with Kalus and asking what it would take to get safe passage to Lunaria (behind the party’s back).
* There was a retcon to this episode that was added at the start of episode 126: in addition to all of the other things that Thalia had done to Mesmera, she had been responsible for burning off her fairy wings when she had burned Mesmera's house down.