Aerois - Episode 110: Prison Break

Katie Morrison as Aila

 Kim Richards as Nova V'ger
and Sentry (with Mark)

Mark Hulmes as Sentry (with Kim)

 Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**Prison Break** is the 110th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on both the Yogscast Twitch channel and highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 25th April 2021 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*The prison break continues: can the party rescue Quill from Xarkira's flagship?*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players.
* Rhiannon is away this week.
* Today's sponsor is D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond has now rolled their two apps into one. Mark reminded people that with content sharing, if the DM has a subscription, everyone in the campaign can see and use all of the sourcebooks and the options in the character builder.
* Kim, Tom, and Rhi will be joining Mellie Doucette, Aliza Pearl, and Vanessa Guerrero of Role & Keep to team up with Tabletop Fandom on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 4 Tales of Xadia (The Dragon Prince roleplaying game) streams. Tuesday streams: highrollersdnd on Twitch, from 8 - 10pm BST, Thursday streams over at: https://www.twitch.tv/fandomtabletop, from 9 - 11pm BST. HR fans are encouraged to watch and support these streams.
* Keep an eye on Twitter this week - there may be a new t-shirt in the merch store!
* Maps used in this week's episode in Roll20 are made by a company called Heroic Maps. Mark got these ones from DriveThruRPG.com, and the same company did the maps for Mark's adventure in Candlekeep Mysteries. Mark will also be using maps in future from a Patreon for Maphammer.

### **Recap**

*"After battling Xarkira's simulacrum and her strange creations in the city of Gusthaven, Quill was taken captive by a Retriever and brought to Xarkira's personal ship, The Serpent's Coil, in Astral Space. Stripped of his magical items and restrained by dimensional shackles, Quill has found himself unable to escape. On Aerois, the rest of the party try to come up with a plan to rescue Quill, poring over spells and allies they have available to them to try and find a way to contact him or find his location. Nova checks the information she'd gathered from their journey into the Astral Sea before and learns of The Serpent's Coil, but not its location. Hoping for divine guidance, they travel to the Cathedral of Gusthaven and speak with a priestess who resurrected Quill previously, hoping she can commune with H'esper and gain some information. To the shock of the party, H'esper himself appears before them, revealing his fears of Xarkira obtaining the power of Quill's foresight or the Spear of Oracles he carries. He transports them all the the Halls of Infinite Resplendence, an extra-dimensional space of concentrated divine energy. Here, H'esper sends out millions of copies of himself to track down The Serpent's Coil and Quill, with the party having to assist him in controlling the vast amounts of magical power required. The effort succeeds, but with a great cost as all the divine power given to him by the true goddess, Siaska, is spent: H'esper fades from the world, leaving behind a magical grimoire capable of transporting individuals to other planes through the barrier that protects Aerois. With H'esper's final gift, the party infiltrate The Serpent's Coil and locate Quill, though not before Quill is interrogated by a mind flayer who learns of Quill's secrets and memories, including his vision of Kalus Valkyrian's failed plan to defeat Hadar. The mind flayer leaves Quill to report to Xarkira, and the party use this as a chance to free him."*
### **Part 1**

*The team (and Quill) are safely returned to Aerois and must face the events of the last few hours.*

Quill is running for the open door of his prison, not realising that an invisible Sentry is holding the door open. Lucius tells Quill to get out, and that the party is here, Aila angrily tells Quill to shut the hell up. The guard has a long-bladed weapon out and is looking towards the door that Quill is using to escape - Nova casts blight on him and does significant damage to him - he screams in pain and Nova becomes visible. Rana sees Nova appear and presses herself up against the glass but she cannot currently help the party. Aila hits the guard, becoming visible, and does moderate damage, but the guard is now looking quite injured. Nova blasts the guard with three bolts of Eldritch Blast, and his is on his last legs; Quill, who still bears the dimensional shackles, walks beak-first into an invisible Sentry - he tells her about the mind flayer who knows about Starbane's plan and that he is going to tell Xarkira - Quill casts Beacon of Hope, and is still uncertain about how the party happens to be there.

Nova notices two duergar, wearing overalls and tool belts, looking perplexedly around the corner into the room the party is in. Suddenly, from the door to the north, a confused-looking mind flayer comes running in and sees an escaping Quill and part of Nova: Lucius asks Quill if that is the same one that interrogated him, but Quill isn't sure - all mind flayers look exactly the same as every other mind flayer - this one, however, does seem panicked and surprised. Lucius casts Dominate Monster on the mind flayer, sending spiraled ribbons of blue and orange from himself to enter its mind and changing its eyes from pearlescent white to blue and orange, matching his own - Lucius now has full mental control over the creature and has a telepathic link with it. Lucius asks if he was the mind flayer who interrogated Quill, and the creature admits that he is. A draegloth, a 9-foot tall, grey-skinned creature with four arms appears from the far side of the room: this is the creature that dragged Quill to the cell block.

Sentry casts Shield of Faith on Quill and expends 50 points of healing through Lay on Hands. The guard attempts to attack Aila, hitting once for magical and radiant damage, hoping that by blinding her that he could escape. Rana asks the party to release her so that she can help them. Aila hits the guard twice and he collapses to the floor - she sees the panel that controls the entrance to Rana's prison, and not knowing which buttons to push or knobs to turn, she punches it until it breaks, lowering the wall of force that kept Rana in the cell. Rana stumbles forward as the wall of force drops, grabbing onto Aila's shoulder to steady herself: she is blind with a metal plate welded over where her eyes would have been, and has had her wings surgically removed. Rana asks for a weapon so that she can help them fight, and Aila passes her the dead guard's glaive. It is apparent that while Rana is blind, and cannot see her surroundings, she can apparently 'see' or is aware of people and where they are in relation to her. Nova loots a keystone from the dead guard's remains.

Rana reminds them of the other prisoner and the two duergar in the area - Nova goes to the other prison cell and sees a purple-skinned kobold sitting cross-legged and hovering in a meditative state above the ground: around him is a swirl of purple magic. Nova bombards him with questions on his feelings about Xarkira and escape, and when he opens his eyes, they appear as storms of stars and magic without pupils - they condense down into purple irises as he blinks and asks to be released. Nova deactivates the wall of force that restrains him, he introduces himself as Vessek and Nova introduces herself - he grabs Nova's hand and starts tugging and dragging her into the corridor while tripping over and treading on his ridiculously long robes.

Quill asks Lucius to see if the mind flayer knows where his gear is, then casts Sacred Flame on the oncoming draegloth to do moderate damage. Lucius frisks the mind flayer through its thin robes to feel a skeletal, bony frame covered by a slimy and rubbery skin - he finds only a keystone, he then orders it to go and fetch Quill's belonging, it turns and heads north. Lucius then throws a chromatic orb of acid (and dichromancy) at the draegloth doing significant damage and causing the creature to let out a horrible, howling scream of rage and pain. In response, the creature heads to attack Lucius - the kobold claps his hands together causing a condensed wave of intense gravity to slam into the lumbering beast doing moderate force damage and pushing it into the nearby wall. The draegloth continues lumbering towards Lucius and attacks him, missing with its bite but hitting with its claws and hitting twice - Lucius manages to maintain his concentration on the Dominate Monster spell. Sentry attacks the creature, hits and destroys it as its body flops to the ground.

The duergar are huddling under a nearby console. Rana heals Quill, Quill wants to know how the party is here, but they say that this is a tale for later. Vessek is concerned that the screams of the dying guard and draegloth will attract more guards, and says they must get out of there; Quill says they can't go anywhere if they plan to teleport because of the dimensional shackles - Aila and Sentry try to "grip them and rip them" but the harder they pull, the stronger they seem to become. Vessek says that they cannot be easily removed, that only those designated when the creature was incapacitated can remove them, like Xarkira's simulacra; he posits that their effect could be undone temporarily by magic and then they could be removed, but if someone tries to physically remove them and fails, they become almost unbreakable.

The party decide to deal with the duergar hiding under the consoles - they have been considering pressing some buttons to call more guards, but now come face-to-face with Aila and Nova. Aila tries to talk them into sending any soldiers who turn up away, then to blocking off the room to stop anyone from entering, then to leaving and getting off the ship: the duergar are concerned that they will be branded as traitors and killed. Nova asks Tiangong if they sense any other Eterna on the ship - they do not, believing that Xarkira uses other sources of power on her ship. The duergar are eyeing up the console trying to work out if they have time to call guards and potentially get rewarded for capturing them, and Aila tries to persuade them to join the party - they back away before Nova threatens them if they call anyone, then flee.

Quill casts Dispel Magic at 8th level (the shackles were created by Xarkira at the same level) to disrupt the magical abilities and Aila and Sentry manage to rip the shackles off Quill: Quill notices when casting his spell that while the magic flows through him as it always has done, it feels hollow as if his connection is gone. Lucius suggests that they hide the bodies in the cells to hide them from casual inspection (there would still be evidence of blood and acid damage should anyone take a good look), and that they hide in the interrogation room while they wait for the mind flayer to return with Quill's gear. After a couple of minutes, the mind flayer re-appears with a crate and the staff sitting on top of it: the crate contains all of Quill's equipment. Lucius asks the mind flayer its name, "Xarex" it responds. Xarex says that he has not had time to pass on the information that it had learned from Quill - the Elder Brain had not been activated, and therefore his telepathic connection to the other officers was disabled - he was going to inform Xarkira herself of his discovery. Lucius suggests killing the mind flayer, but Quill thinks that if Xarkira finds out about Kalus' plan not working, she will leave him and it will fracture the Valkyrian Empire; Aila thinks they may create another powerful enemy and Nova is worried that Xarkira will join with Hadar. They all agree that the person who needs to know the information is Starbane; Aila reminds them that H'esper was wary of Xarkira having power over the Staff or the Eye, and that information coming from the Eye could be just as dangerous. Lucius is concerned that this will empower Xarkira and cause more complications for them. As they are having this conversation, they get chills and the sensation that they are being follower, listened to or watched, and shortly after the lights in the room start flashing red. They continue to debate what to do with the mind flayer since it cannot be teleported since it is not a willing creature: Quill wants to leave it alive, Aila now thinks it is too late to do anything about it. Two figures teleport into the room, Lucius orders the mind flayer to "fight anything that comes into this room that is working with you" and Nova uses the Tome to plane shift the party, the angel and the kobold. The two figures that have just entered the room are copies of Xarkira - one is dressed in a revealing and alluring gold shimmering robe with an elaborate headdress around her long, dark black hair; the other is dressed as a researcher with a high-collared and long elegant black dress, she wears a magical pair of crystal spectacles - they have brought with them six elite guards. As Nova slams down on the gemstone to activate the plane shift, they last thing they see is the mind flayer launching itself at one of the guards.

### **Part 2**

*The team (and Quill) are safely returned to Aerois and must face the events of the last few hours.*

The other members of the party have teleported this way before, but this is a new sensation for Quill as he is engulfed in prismatic colour and everything seems to rush and blur around him - the party and the two escapees arrive in the Halls of Infinite Resplendence: and endless cathedral of white stone walls and floors with a crystal sarcophagus at its centre, within which something glows with brilliant starlight, and a large column of light reaches down onto it from the Cradle. Unlike before, where the Halls were empty, this time when the party appears, there is a young, red-headed halfling girl present: she wears the simple clothes of an entertainer and lying beside her on the floor is a harp. She sits in tears beneath the crystal sarcophagus, "so, he is gone then," she says to the party. Quill is in disbelief as to where he is and who he is with, he still thinks that this is a trick of Xarkira's - Nova grabs his claw and explains that when he was taken, they managed to commune with H'esper who appeared the minute he understood that Quill had been kidnapped by Xarkira. She explains that H'esper used every last bit of his strength to find Quill and enable the party to get to and rescue him; she also explains that this last effort on H'esper's part was his great sacrifice for his champion, and that H'esper has now joined Siaska.

Quill does not want to believe it, believing that H'esper would have spoken to him or sent him a message or a vision, not left him without saying goodbye. Aila and Lucius explain that there simply was not time, that once Quill was in Xarkira's grasp, it was imperative that they get Quill, the Eye and the Staff out of her sphere of influence, that H'esper did not want Xarkira to hurt Quill. Quill finds it hard to believe that a Titan, the god of magic, would use all of his remaining power to save him, even if he was H'esper's champion: he wants to know where H'esper is and is told again that he has joined with Siaska, and Aila points to the sarcophagus indicating that it started to glow brighter when H'esper left the world. Quill is lost for words. A small hand reaches up to take his, and the halfling girl looks to him saying, "he had a final message for you - he said that he was very proud. He was a teacher - always was - teaching, learning. It's not finished until the student grows beyond. He couldn't always be here as much as he wanted to be. It was his time, and as a god of answers, he knew that long ago". She insists that Quill will see him again, 'one day when he has finished teaching'. Nova gives Quill The Wayfinders Guide, a beautiful golden book with six gemstones inlaid on the cover, two of which glow with an inner light. The spine is engraved with the faint detailing of feathers, light to the touch. As Quill takes it, something becomes apparent that was not there when Nova held it - an engraving, "To Quill: Never stop asking questions".

When Quill sees the engraving, in grief and disbelief, he throws the book to the ground and runs over to the sarcophagus: he defiantly beats the crystal with his hands and wings, shouting "you're not *in* there! Get out! I have *so* many more questions for you. This is ridiculous, you can't *leave* me! You cannot leave me, because what *am* I without you? Come out of there!" Quill looks inside the sarcophagus and sees ***her*** - a figure that has been present throughout Aerois' history, but the art, the writing and the songs don't do her justice: her skin is like a dark night sky, her hair spills around her shoulders like the great nebulae in Astral Space with a hint of purple to it. She is dressed in a long white shift and looks like she is sleeping, but as Quill cries out in frustration and anger, he sees tears streaming down her face - Quill realises that H'esper has joined his mother and is exactly where he wanted to be. He notices that there is a familiar light shining from Siaska, with a touch of gold, that of an open blue sky and a hint of white clouds, like a aura around her. Quill quietly extends his wings around the sarcophagus, almost hugging it, and lies against it for a short while before a small arm reaches up to wrap around Quill's leg - the halfling girl leans against Quill and the sarcophagus and he feels his emotions increase significantly, yet there is a feeling of comfort coming from her, almost a reminder of home, of family and friends. Quill notices that they young girl is crying, too, "Aye, he's in there," she says, "he's where we should all be, but none of us were as strong as he was. The smartest and the strongest of all of us, and he loved mother so much!" Quill believes that H'esper will return when all the Titans rejoin with Siaska, "I hope so," says the girl, "but even if he doesn't, he's a part of mother, a part of Aerois and a part of you".

Quill recalls all of the visions he got from H'esper, then turns to the party and thanks them for coming to save him. The party downplay their role in the rescue, saying it was all H'esper's doing, but that they would have gone to the ends of the world to save him. Quill really just wishes that he could have seen H'esper face-to-face, and Aila tells him that H'esper felt the same: Nova offers to re-create the experience for him, but Quill declines believing that he will one day meet H'esper.

The young girl, realising that H'esper did not get a chance to welcome the party last time they were there, welcomes them to the Halls of Infinite Resplendence, the heart of the Titans' power on Aerois; she says that they are lonely these days because it was only she and H'esper who ever came back, and that the others have abandoned it. Quill mentions his vision of the Halls, with Atelicus and H'esper fighting each other: the halfling responds with, "Atelicus... I am afraid for my big brother - he has become ill, very unstable. He's up to something and I don't know what. H'esper was on the cusp of...he was going to reach out to you, champions, to ask you to help, but now I feel that - I'm not sure that there are many who still understand what is happening with Atelicus. Kellara has become so overwhelmed by grief and sorrow that she's...vanished, and I don't know what has happened to her. Zaphyr is content to see this as the final battle - she thinks this is it - that she's going to fight Kalus and Xarkira and that will be the end of all things. Valena has travelled to one of her forges and thrown herself into some mad dash at making *something*, I don't know what. I'm the only one attending to the prayers and thoughts of the people of Aerois, now I'm alone". It becomes apparent that this is the Titan, Sayanna, also known as The Songheart.

Sayanna acknowledges Rana and Vessek: Rana is standing quietly, but Vessek is peering around inquisitively trying to take everything in. Sayanna makes her way down to Rana who senses something and falls to her knees: Sayanna takes Rana's face in her hands, acknowledging the suffering that she has been through and says that it should be fixed. She takes the metal plate from Rana's face - immediately, they see the once scarred face and white, blinded eyes start to heal until Rana's face is without blemish and her eyes shine blue as she sees once more: large feathered wings erupt from her back undoing the physical damage that had been done to her as she falls forward onto her hands. Sayanna, herself stumbles back as if catching her own breath, "what she did to you - if I could get my hands on that serpent...I'd make sure she never does this to anyone again. I've never hated, never wished death upon any living thing in this world, but that witch! She doesn't deserve the life she has". She turns to Vessek, "as for you, my little friend, I don't think I've ever seen anything like you before". The kobold says that the Halls 'see everything, like him'.

Quill explains to them that they are on Aerois, and asks them where their allegiance lies: Rana had previously said that she had fought for Starbane and that she never regretted what she did for him. Rana says that she served in the Valkyrian army as many celestials do and that she comes from Elysium and says that Kalus has given much to her world, and that at the time, the celestials thought it an honour to serve him. After she left Elysium, Rana saw more of the wider Empire: she says that it was what led to her incarceration that she does not regret - she betrayed her orders and her oaths to help people and leaked secret information to a group called the Wings of Ishtar. Rana was caught and incarcerated by Valkyrian forces, punished but treated with respect; then Xarkira faked an attack on the prison to make it look like the Wings of Ishtar wished to silence their co-conspirators, but it was a ruse so that Xarkira could acquire celestial test subjects. She made it look like the celestials had died in the attack, then took them and used them for research to try to break through their natural resistance to mind control - she wanted a way to control them and their celestial magic in the same way she has done to many devils and fiends. Rana says that while Valkyrian may not be kind, he is at least a just man, seeking to protect the universe from a threat she has seen - the Red Star - but Xarkira is the dark heart of that Empire.

Quill tells Rana about their travel to Elysium and their interactions with the Wings of Ishtar, and Nova mentions meeting Zellion. They explain their plans to assault the Tassadar with the assistance of The Wings of Ishtar, and Rana offers to assist them with that mission and anything else, even if it means betraying the Empire - she owes the party her life and freedom. She warns them that Kalus' might is greater than they know, and that if they are enemies of his, they should understand that Kalus is very familiar with magic and magitek, and has ways of tracking his enemies and spying on them from great distances: they need to be cautious with the information they have discussed and places like the Halls.

Quill turns to the kobold, realising that they have not been introduced, "I am Vessek. Once I was simple-minded, a creature of earth and stone, something happened...Xarkira, experiments, magic beyond her control, test subjects...my clutch died, many of them slain, but I survived. I was born anew, my mind awakened, now...", dark orbs begin to manifest in his hands, almost pulling the party in, "magic! Never before, and so much!" He reaches a small scaly hand out to Quill, "I see ***two*** of you!" Quill asks if one is older than the other. "Yes! You carry a great spear...older, wiser". Quill is intrigued by Vessek's powers. "Time, space," says the kobold, "one day I see that, yes! A goddess, and I will serve her. I shall accompany you, all of you! Bound we are by destiny! It matters not [that we are on Aerois] but I can see that my goddess has placed me with you! It is my duty! I must protect you, I must serve you to serve my goddess, yes! I see this now". Nova asks who is the goddess that Vessek serves: he does not know, but says that one day he will, just not yet. Vessek does not know what world he is from, only that he lived in caves in a mountain and that they may have served a dragon.

They decide to leave the Halls and Sayanna offers to transport them anywhere they would like to go. Quill recovers The Wayfinders Guide; they decide to head to Lucius' secret basement and to send a message to the Stormchaser to advise that they are safe, that the ship should dock at Gusthaven and that they will rendezvous with the ship once they have had some rest. Sayanna says that she is glad that they were with H'esper at the end and that she fears that her own time will soon come to an end; while she is not a warrior or a fighter, if they need her they can pray to her and she will hear it. Sayanna tells them that for her to teleport them, they have to hug and opens her little arms up: she asks them to speak to Dannica for her and to tell her that Sayanna thinks of her often - Dannica is Sayanna's champion, much as Quill was H'esper's champion. They all kneel or bend down to join the teleporting embrace and feel a moment of warmth blossom out of Sayanna, they smell fresh-cut flowers on a summer's day, feel the hearth of a warm fire, a warm plate, the feeling of a cozy blanket around them, the smell of someone familiar...and then suddenly they feel the familiar rushing sensation of the teleport spell before arriving, hugging, in Lucius' secret basement.

They discuss their next moves, and consider going to Horizon - they still need to meet with people, Nova needs to finish the business with her parents, and Sentry needs to decide what to do with the guardians in the City of Glass. Quill still believes that if Xarkira knows that Starbane's plan won't work, it will fracture their alliance and may cause the Grand Strategist to rejoin the side of Aerois, Aila believes that it just creates more enemies. Quill sends a message to Oriya saying that the Stormchaser should dock in Gusthaven to take on repairs while the party will head to Horizon, Oriya replies that they are docked as repairs had not been completed, and that she is glad that Quill is back. They head towards the docks, noting the damage and repairs occurring in Gusthaven after the attack; given that they are now accompanied by a seven-foot tall blue woman with wings and a tiny kobold in a human-sized robe that flies everywhere, they do get a few looks from passers by. Vessek constantly goes up to people, interested in everything saying things like, "What are you? What are you doing? What is this place? What is this? Do I eat this?" Nova begins to answer his questions as best she can, and he directs his questions to Nova. There are a couple of creepy moments when he looks at an old woman and says "It will be a shame when she dies tomorrow", or looking at a couple saying "their son will grow up strong!" They are not sure if he is mad or a real seer.

Rana is clearly affected by seeing people and blue skies - the weariness of the prison seems to melt away as she stretches her wings and flies around joining some of the aarakocra and wizards - they notice her eyes, moist with tears as she seems truly relieved to be free. As they get to the Stormchaser, the wolf pack are busy on the ship, solemn because they are mourning two fallen members who have been laid out on the deck. Lucius and Quill salute Kamarra who welcomes them back, and Lucius enquires after the crew: Kamarra says that they are as well as they can be considering the situation they faced. She is concerned because even the new weapons were of no use against Xarkira, "that snake bitch", and is worried that they will be of little use now that the situations they are starting to find themselves in are becoming more dangerous; she wonders if the wolf pack should move on and Lucius should get Sentry to replace them with guardians to crew the ship. Lucius says that they can have that conversation another time, then turns to address Rana and enquire as to what she is doing with their fallen pack mates. Rana is looking over the two dead members of the wolf pack and offers to bring them both back over the next two days - Kamarra is unsure, but agrees to the procedure. Rana kneels down and touches one of the fallen wolf pack crew, her eyes and skin glow brightly and the wolf pack member's cuts and scrapes heal, and the discolouration from the poison vanishes, then he gasps a breath and coughs. Jeff has returned from the dead.

They continue around the ship updating Rana and Vessek on their current situation, but Vessek does not seem to be worried or even care about Starbane, saying "all is as the goddess wills it, everything will be fine. You need not fear".

Lucius goes to inform Skyprince Aridan that the party will head back to Horizon: he is in conference with General Faelissa who appears to be watching over Aridan and Gusthaven until everything is secure. Aridan says that he needs to stay at Gusthaven given the attack, but asks Lucius to go back and speak to Dannica; he asks Lucius to act as Gusthaven's Ambassador to Horizon, and Lucius promises to do his best as a servant of the Skyprince. Aridan takes Lucius' hand in his, saying that Lucius is not a servant, but a friend. Faelissa says that the General may still be in Horizon and may want to discuss several matters; she says it has been an honour fighting alongside them and that Kalus doesn't know what he has gotten himself into. Lucius bows respectfully to Aridan who is embarrassed and exasperated: he does not want Lucius to treat him like royalty, Aila ignores all protocol and treats Aridan like one of the party, which he very much enjoys.

Nova asks Rana if she can remove Thalia's curse, but Rana does not think that she or many others could do it - she says that an empyrean or a solar may be able to, or even a Titan. She then goes to find Thalia back at the warehouse: Azaria Perel is back investigating the Twinstar Longbow - now she has both airship plans and schematics of the Twinstar's internal systems - it seems that she is looking to make an Astral Skyship. Nova asks Thalia if she would like to go with them to Horizon, but with Azaria still needing information on the Twinstar, Thalia thinks she will be of more use at Gusthaven, not to mention that the Twinstar still does not fly well in the Aerosian atmosphere. She says she will keep an eye on Azaria because she isn't sure if she can be trusted - she's on her own side and no one else's. Thalia does not think that Azaria would work for Xarkira because she does not appear to be the type to work as an underling, but she does worry that she might find Valkyrian to be an easier person to deal with. Thalia asks if Nova has to be going or if she would like to spend the night on the Twinstar with her: Nova agrees to stay, and Thalia's snake heads hiss happily appearing to be enjoying the idea of their date.

They take a long rest before teleporting back to Horizon. The party is given a couple of military rooms in which to stay, Nova's family is in a temporary townhouse under guard (as much for their own protection as anything else). Arval has organised his own accommodation, and Petal has gone back to her shop. Quill has attuned The Wayfinders Guide to Gusthaven, the Stormchaser and their new rooms in Horizon - they can use each gem once per day. The only leaders who are still in Horizon are the leaders of the Beastfolk, and they want to speak to the Stormchasers about something personal to them.

## **YouTube Timestamps**

00:00 - Intro
07:30 - Part 1
1:25:16 - Break time/Donations
1:30:55 - Part 2
2:47:54 - Outro/Donations

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **New NPCs**

* Sayanna, The Songheart
* Vessek Bestek, the kobold seer
* Xarex (the mind flayer Interrogator)

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Rana'iel
* Xarkira clone #2
* Xarkira clone #3

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Hadar
* Kalus Valkyrian
* Xarkira (Prime)

## **Featured Locations**

* Gusthaven
* Horizon
* The Serpent's Coil
* The Halls of Resplendence

## **Trivia**

* The Wayfinders Guide can be attuned to moving objects (such as the Sky City of Horizon or the Stormchaser) because they can only move within the one plane of Aerois. The Serpent's Coil does not have one anchored planar destination because it can move from one plane to another (e.g. Elysium to the Astral Sea to Aerois).
* Destinations can be erased from The Wayfinders Guide to free up a slot.
* The team are asked to think about what mission they want to do (if any) before next week.
* During the episode, Mark references the engraving on The Wayfinders Guide as saying "To Quill: Never stop asking questions", but when Tom asks what it said at the end of the episode (Mark and Tom were speaking over each other during the episode), Mark says it was "To Quill: (Always) Ask the right questions".
* The Wayfinders Guide was written by A Plumbus.
* People made fan art (presumably of Vessek) during the episode and Mark said that they "picked up on the references and the things that [he] wanted them to pick up on and that makes [him] very happy".
* Fan art on the Discord is probably going to be used in a fan art video unless people tell Trott that they do not want their art used.
* Mark checked with Tom that Quill didn't have any charges currently available on the Eye. It is due to recharge in 1 day. Mark makes a face that hints that the Eye may not recharge...?
* SnakeRat asked via a donation what the "A" stands for in "A Plumbus" - Mark suggested that the whole name was an anagram which Tom suggested might be "Buspaul" (where is the M?) - "That's right," says Mark, dripping with sarcasm," It's Buspaul, Tom, the ancient god of magic from 2nd edition D&D. Wow, how'd you know???"