Aerois - Episode 157: The Mourning Garden

Katie Morrison as Aila

Kim Richards as Nova V'ger

Rhiannon Frost as Sentry

Tom Hazell as Qillek Ad Khollar

**The Mourning Garden** is the 157th episode of the Aerois Campaign. It was broadcast live on the highrollersdnd Twitch channel on 21st August 2022 from 5PM to 8PM BST.

*Valla opens a tear into Kellara's Domain allowing the Stormchasers to battle with the Titan of Death!*

## **Summary**

### **Announcements**

* Mark welcomes everyone and introduces the players. The crew is back in the studio now that Kim is no longer infectious.
* Merch – recently released t-shirt, High Rollers Club, based on Stranger Things (or is it?), is still available. Kim, Trott, Rhi, and Katie were wearing them this week. The shirts are available on the Fresh Merch store and will be available only until stocks are gone, and they are selling fast. There will be more exciting merch things available in future.
* Due to various things going on, the next couple of episodes (2-4) of High Rollers will be pre-recorded, so donations will be read out at the first live game back. These may be shorter episodes, too. Mark will be at D&D in a Castle and some of the others may be doing their own thing.

### **Recap**

*"The Champions of Aerois have travelled to the continent of Jakkesh to seek out the breach point that would allow them access to the demi-plane of Kellara, the titan of Aerois given divine power over death. However, reaching the breach point was already a challenge: in jungles swarming with hive-minded, plant-like undead, a tragic company of Guardian scouts on the edge of breaking, and pursued by a shadowy stalker, the party have faced hardship after hardship. Eventually, they reach Nightbloom Hold, once monastery and training grounds for Kellara’s heroic knights, the Order of the Blackened Rose, who once protected against undead and those who defiled death, now sadly turned into the antithesis of their origins: undead, living soldiers, forced to swiftly kill the living for some unknown purpose. And leading them, the four most powerful Champions of Kellara, the Knight Commanders: having already dispatched Serrise Fairwind, Knight, archer, and scout, transformed into a being of pestilence and poisons, the Plague Knight, the party charged forth into the keep, destroying waves of undead and troops, and came up against Lady Elwyn and Sir Lammalles, the War Knight and Famine Knight.*

*As she fought, Nova V’ger conducted her own mission and teleported away from the party providing a guiding light for the Champions’ airship, the Stormchaser, to rain down arcane blasts upon a colossal, corrupted tree within the hold that seemed to be a key part of their undead power. With the tree destroyed and the knights defeated, the party rushed on, fearing that the strongest Knight Commander would be able to resurrect the tree and return the other champions to life, and in the Grand Temple itself, they fought Sir Godric Graves, the Death Knight. In one of their toughest battles yet, the Champions **narrowly** defeated Sir Godric, and after brief discussions were made, they believe they have finally had time to rest and recover before finally facing the titan of death, herself.*

*Kellara’s demi-plane awaits…"*
### **Part 1**

*Valla opens a tear into Kellara's Domain allowing the Stormchasers to battle with the Titan of Death!*

The party is in the spartan Temple of Kellara: there are no pews, only an altar surrounded by broken lanterns and hundreds of candles lining the walls. Also on the altar is an unbroken, ornate, sacred silver lantern that is inscribed with Celestial writings (prayers to Kellara to guide the dead to the light beyond) – it is non-magical, set into the altar/shaped from the altar itself, and cannot be removed: it has a thin, weak candle burning within it. Nova knows that this lantern is not meant to be functional, but purely symbolic, and is probably used as part of a prayer ceremony – she thinks that the only reason that it has not been broken like the others is that either the Knights were not told to destroy it, or they could not bring themselves to do it. The party is in the process of taking a long rest, as recommended by Valla, who has joined them from the Stormchaser. With confirmation from Valla, they realise that they have approximately 24 hours before another Rot Heart will emerge somewhere and Kellara’s Champions are reborn.

Nova takes a larger candle from elsewhere in the room, places it in the lantern on the altar and lights it. The flame barely illuminates the altar with a soft, golden yellow light, and seems weak and dim, even for a large candle – she sits, sombrely at the altar while the others rest. Quill asks Valla what she thinks is within Kellara’s demi-plane: she tells him that the demi-plane is a manifestation of Kellara’s will. Kellara sees herself as a caretaker, a goddess or life and growth, so her demi-plane is both a garden and a mausoleum which she calls The Mourning Garden. Valla tells Quill that they should expect a battle (since Kellara will not want to be stopped), but that because Kellara is more complicated, so will their encounter be. There may be weaknesses that they will need to discover, and it is likely that they will be challenging Kellara’s nature. Strength alone may not be enough, she tells him, but she does think that they will need to fight her. Valla also tells Quill that because she is now stronger, she believes that she will be able to both maintain her own domain to protect them but will also be able to offer them some assistance as she did before (if she is not distracted). Valla thinks that, seeing how far she had gone with the knights and the evil that she has done in the valley, Kellara is too far gone and will not be moved by logic or rational words alone. Lucius points out that Kellara dominated the minds of her Champions so that he could not sway them, even with his most potent magic.

Max points out that Sir Godric seems to be an exception to this, seemingly hesitating to kill Quill when he clearly could have. Max thinks that he may not have been fully under Kellara’s will, but he does not know why, since Godric seemed like a man of undying loyalty (much like Max sees himself with the Emperor). Max suspects that Sir Godric had tremendous strength of will and that it was possibly his honour or loyalty to his previous oath that made him refuse to kill Quill despite his ability to do so.

Quill points out that they are a little worse for wear, what with The Howling Tempest, Starbreaker, and Sentry’s armour all being damaged. Max tells them that while he was scouting, he found a forge connected to the barracks, and believes that he can repair the damage done to both weapons and armour – Max’s father was a blacksmith and taught him what he knew. He tells them that each of the weapons will take two hours to fix, and Sentry’s armour another hour, so five hours in total. Max also reveals to them that he is Half-Fire Giant. He takes Starbreaker and heads to the forge to repair it.

Sentry asks Quill to send a message to Skaldi: she wants to let the priestess know what has happened so far and to prepare her for what is coming and sends the following through Quill:

“Skaldi, it’s Sentry. We’re about to see Kellara. I don’t know what awaits. Stay strong. There will be light again.”

After a few moments, there is a weak response, and if they did not know better, they would think Skaldi ill:

“Thank you for letting me know. I hope you can bring her peace.”

Lucius gives the party a motivational speech but confuses them with talk of eating his own eye dust, and there is a flashback to the restaurant in Gusthaven where Lucius made “the gesture” (put a ring on it) to Nova in front of Prince Aridan. Lucius talks about taking on Kellara, returning the light to her, and returning her to Siaska. Nova points at the struggling lantern, illustrating that her hope is fading like the light from the candle.

In a light-hearted moment, the party discusses Maximillion Taldros and contemplates whether they should fight for his affections: Nova says that she is already taken, Lucius says that while he is hot, Max is not his type, Aila seems more bemused than anything, but Quill and Sentry don’t say no to the idea. Nova asks Valla if she knows what “the gesture” means – Valla tells them that she knows about sex, and that the time magic that she has undergone has not just aged her physically, but also mentally, and that she now has the mind of a twenty-something year old woman. Aila wants to get Valla a sword now that she’s a grown woman (as opposed to the dagger that they gave her when she was a child), and although she is not much of a melee fighter, Valla is not opposed to that plan.

Sentry heads out to find Max, shirtless with hair loose and flowing behind him, hammering at something. He tells Sentry that he is ready to repair the damage to her armour, either by replacing cracked metal plates, or by flowing metal into the cracks (kintsugi style). He has also found various bits of armour that he can cobble together to fit him out and found a great axe that he can use. Max reveals to Sentry that he has also repaired Starbreaker and The Howling Tempest. He asks Aila if she is intending to use the magical mace, or whether he might be able to use it for the upcoming battle – Aila is happy to loan him the mace for the time.

Nova considers taking the lantern from the altar but realises that doing so will either partially destroy the lantern or the altar, and she feels that this would be a desecration of the temple. They advise Valla that they are ready to go, and she makes her usual gesture to open a purple triangular door to Kellara’s demi-plane.

Then enter into an empty void and feel a sudden but brief intense pain as hostile planar energy attempts to repel them. As soon as Valla steps through, however, she thrusts her hands forward and widens them as a burst of purple magic creates an expanding purple dome to fill the space. They start to see an overgrown garden with flowers, vines, bushes, and some scattered trees, but they also see stone mausoleums in the background, gravestones hidden amongst the flowers and under the trees, and iron fences dividing the space with a small plaza at the centre. The statue of a woman, with worn features stands at the heart of the plaza, and a large, plain-looking iron lantern lies on its side at her feet, with a silvery light inside. Valla’s magical barrier sits like a glass dome over the mortuary garden, with the gently glimmering void on the outer like black velvet, scattered with tiny diamonds. The party senses movement in the garden, and they see ghostly female figures, their faces hidden by draped hoods and veils, dressed in long white funerary robes. They drift between the graves and mausoleums, keeping their distance, they vanish then reappear in other places, their heads bowed in prayer. A voice calls out to and echoes them, softly spoken as if the speaker is holding back tears, “Oh lost children – my brothers and sisters. My mother has led you astray.”

The air ahead of them shimmers and they see a floating throne of black onyx, inlaid with motifs of death fade into existence: it hovers ten feet off the ground. Sitting on the throne is a woman with bone white skin and long straight black hair, she is painfully thin and wearing a long tattered black dress that trails off the edge of the floating throne. A veil covers her eyes with a mantle of black roses around her neck and behind her head. Vines seem to grow from her shoulders and fall down the throne to the ground below.

“You have come to end me,” she says softly, “my heart aches to allow it, to end this hateful task and my suffering, but I promised I would do my duty. Your efforts are pointless. Valena’s great work is too late and I know my sister too well to believe it is not without risk of failure. You cannot beat Hadar - Siaska could not, Valkyrian could not. You will just be more poor souls to consume its gluttony. Come, dear children, let me take you somewhere you will know bliss and peace before such an end.” She raises a hand to them as if to take them somewhere.

Quill recognises Kellara from when he died and was taken beyond the Cradle, but Kellara now looks as if she were dying – she is thin, rasping, weakened, and less able-bodied. He questions her plan, which she reiterates as an attempt to give them a moment of pure peace and bliss before the end, before “it consumes everything”. Lucius protests, knowing that Kellara will not be able to offer the same to the Guardians, whom he argues she has just “tossed aside” – she agrees that because they do not have souls and are not Aerosian creations, she has no power to affect their afterlife.

Quill accuses Kellara of cowardice, saying that if she really cared, she would aid them, but instead has given up. Kellara says that as mortals, they do not understand, and that she carries Siaska’s memories of Hadar, telling them that they have been led astray if they think they can stand against it. She implores them to stand aside and not to fight her in her aim to give joy to all souls on Aerois before the end. She implores Quill, who remembers the moment of peace and joy when he died, to allow her to give this gift to all on Aerois. He admits that it was peaceful, but rebuffs Kellara by telling her that there was no joy, no passion, and nothing to live for – it was empty. Sentry stands firm, telling Kellara that they have seen Hadar, and yet they are still willing to fight him – she calls on Kellara, the eldest, to find her courage, act like the eldest, and to help them. Kellara realises that they believe what they say but cannot allow them to stop her mission.

The shadows around them are suddenly pulled up into a swirling mass around Kellara, and the ghostly woman suddenly rush towards them drawing small knives, shedding their robes, showing them to be impressions of skulls with no bodies, in the robes that they once had. The last vestiges of light disappear plunging the garden into darkness except for a dim glow from the Matrix and a faint glimmer from the small lantern at the feet of the statue. They feel the darkness beginning to claw at them, and only those with darkvision can see much beyond themselves.

Kellara reaches out a hand and causes *Creeping Shadows* to run along the ground and leap up towards Sentry and Lucius, hitting both, then floats backwards on her throne. Aila, standing in dim light, feels the darkness around her start to grip onto her and takes a stack of *Shadowbringer;* she rages, pulls out a torch and lights it, throwing bright light 20 feet around her. Kellara decides to *Scatter the Light* causing Quill and Aila to be teleported 40 feet away from the group. Sentry is now in dim light, so gains a stack of *Shadowbringer*; she looks to the lantern near the statue which looks like a common lantern (plainer than the one they had seen in the temple), except that it is contains some sort of silvery mote of light instead of oil. Sentry can see that the statue’s hand has been broken, otherwise it looks as if the statue once held this lantern that is now lying on the ground on its side. One of the handmaidens swipes at Aila and hits her for necrotic damage. Nova, standing in dim light, takes a stack of *Shadowbringer*, summons her echo and they both move to stand next to the lantern on the ground – Nova recognises the mote as a magical mote of silvery star light. She examines the statue in front of her and believes that it is a statue of Siaska, looking as though it was not just holding the lantern, but passing the lantern on – the lantern has now broken free and fallen to the ground. Nova picks up the lantern and notices that it is unnaturally heavy for its size but can be held in one hand, so she dismisses her sword, keeping her shield in one hand and the lantern in the other. Nova feels herself surge with light and the lantern begins to give off 10 feet of light around it: Kellara looks in her direction and whispers, “It won’t help you.”

One of the banshees tries to hit Quill but misses, but as it gets close, Kellara whispers something that causes the banshee to drain Quill of some of his life force. Some of them can see the shrines at the corners of the plaza and notice that a glowing piece of light breaks off them to form in front of them. Max stands guard over Valla with his Royal Ward and prepares to attack anything that comes near her while also taking a stack of *Shadowbringer.* Lucius gains a stack of *Shadowbringer,* quickens *Dancing Lights* to surround Kellara and then hits Kellara with a *Chromatic Orb –* it hits the swirling mass of shadows around her, but appears to do nothing other than bounce off harmlessly. Sentry protects Lucius from an attack by one of the banshees, Quill moves away and casts *Hoy Aura.* A banshee comes for him but misses its attack. Kellara then whispers and the banshee next to Lucius sucks some of the life force from him.

Kellara looks at Quill and Aila then attacks him with *Creeping Shadows*, further reducing his health with the first attack, but missing him with the second. She then casts *Wallow in Darkness*, attempting to extinguish the light from Quill’s spell but failing to do so, much to her chagrin.

### **Part 2**

*The Stormchasers race to collect motes of light to fight against Kellara's darkness!*

Aila runs over to one of the shrines and touches the floating mote of light which immediately coalesces around her arm and begins to float around her. Nova yells at Aila to bring the mote to her so she dashes across and focuses her will to infuse her mote of divine light into the lantern that Nova is holding – the mote vanishes and the light from the lantern grows a little stronger. Aila takes damage from *Shadowbringer* because she has moved so far, however. Kellara raises her hand, and a spectral image of a scale appears with the rune for the number 3 on it appears in her hand. Two 20-foot radius circles appear on the ground, one under Nova, Quill and Aila, the other some distance away. Sentry moves to another mote of light near one of the shrines, taking damage in the process, and one of the handmaidens attacks her – as it strikes her, it grabs the mote of light from Sentry and sucks it into its body. The number on the scales in Kellara’s hand drops to 2.

Nova moves to the nearest shrine, taking her echo with her, then shouts to the others to bring her the lights. The countdown on the scale drops to 1. Max offers to go and get another mote of light if they wish, but since Quill says that he will get the mote, Max instead hits the nearby banshee, almost killing it, then gives *Shield of Faith* to Lucius before returning to protect Valla. Another banshee attempts to attack Quill but misses. The countdown goes to 0.

Lucius calls on Valla to provide them with a *Spatial Rift* going from Nova to one of the shrines with a free mote of light, and she creates two diamond-shaped portals as requested. He then throws an *Acid Splash* at the banshee that Max had hit, and it dies causing him and Max to take injury from the radiant energy that is released. They also notice that when the banshee dies, it drops a mote of light – Lucius picks it up and moves towards the portal, taking damage from the mote he now carries.

The countdown disappears and a wave of necrotic energy sweeps through the entire demi-plane (excepting the insides of the two circled areas) – this causes necrotic damage and gives everyone stacks of *Shadowbringer.* One of the handmaidens hits Lucius and steals his mote, however, Lucius flashes when it hits him and the banshee is blinded. Quill dashes across to a free mote, grabs it, uses the portal and infuses it into the lantern. More motes appear at the shrines before Kellara tries to attack Aila but fails. She then his Quill with *Creeping Shadows* and tries to hit him a second time, but he shields the attack. Kellara then uses *Wallow in Darkness*, throwing Quill away from the lantern and pulling him closer to her. Aila moves to grab another mote and returns it to the lantern, then runs and grabs another. Kellara uses *Wallowing Darkness* to extinguish Aila’s torch.

A handmaiden swings at Sentry who returns the attack and destroys the banshee – it explodes in light and drops two motes (one of which was the one it stole from Sentry) – Sentry grabs both motes and *Misty Steps* towards Nova, picking up a third mote in the process. Kellara casts *Drain Life* on Lucius, siphoning his life force from him while Nova waits for someone to infuse a last mote into the lantern before she activates its main ability. A banshee attacks Sentry but she fends it off with Starbreaker as Kellara drains the life from Quill. Max, seeing that Lucius is heavily injured, restores him with *Healing Flames* from his glowing hands before returning to Valla. A handmaiden, although blinded, hits Lucius as its blade is seemingly pulled towards him through the shadows.

Lucius quaffs a potion of healing before running right up to the portal and casting lightning lure through it towards a handmaiden on the other side. Quill tries to work out how to remove stacks of *Shadowbringer* but cannot work out how to do it; he flies to Sentry, brings out Elder Quill and casts *Cure Wounds* on himself. More motes appear at the shrines. Kellara hits Quill again, attempting to remove the *Holy Aura* effect but fails after Quill shields her second blow: she attempts to end the light of the spell again but Quill portents to ensure that she fails. It is clear that Kellara has been watching the battle and been frustrated by Quill and his holy light – all attempts until now at removing the effects have failed, so she has focused on Quill exclusively. Aila puts a mote into the lantern at which point Nova lifts it and faces it towards Kellara: a brilliant beam of light, 90 feet long and 5 feet wide cuts across the gardens. The beam of light strikes Kellara and the swirling storm of shadows around her dissipates. “No!” she cries, as her head whips around to gaze angrily at Nova. Nova directs Aila to “smash”.

Aila, seeing that there is a fence between her and Kellara, uses the Hammer to fly straight to her and strikes the throne with her hammer twice before zapping it with lightning. Kellara uses *Life Drain* on Nova, but as the holder of the lantern, she takes less damage. Sentry dashes across the courtyard and tries to infuse all three motes into the lantern. A banshee swipes at and misses Lucius, then picks up two of the dropped motes. Nova picks up the last mote and infuses the lantern before Tiangong attacks the nearby banshee, destroying it and causing it to drop three motes: Nova picks one of them up. Kellara *Life Drains* Quill again and Nova calls him to her so that he can infuse the lantern. Max moves to pick up the two nearby motes while Aila, Quill, and Nova are all teleported away by Kellara’s *Scatter the Light.* As Nova disappears, the lantern drops to the ground and does not move.

Lucius attacks a nearby banshee and destroys it, causing it to drop two more motes – Lucius grabs those and another nearby, then moves through the portal and moves closer to the lantern, ready to infuse it. Quill moves towards Max and casts *Sunbeam* on Kellara, the light burns her badly and more motes appear at the shrines. Kellara hits Quill with *Creeping Shadows* and he loses concentration on both *Holy Aura* and *Sunbeam.* Sensing this, she turns her attention to Lucius and hits him then calls her handmaidens to her – Aila sees that the armour of shadows is beginning to return to Kellara. Aila hits Kellara twice with her hammer and a blast of lightning. When the second blow lands, the throne starts to show signs of cracking and breaking as are the plants that surround it; even Kellara begins wincing as the blows strike home. Kellara calls, “Enough!” before letting out an horrific shriek that causes everyone but Aila necrotic damage, after which, Kellara vanishes, leaving Lucius unconscious on the ground and his three motes scattered 5 feet around him.

Aila attacks a nearby banshee, hitting it with hammer and lightning and it reciprocates, slashing at her. Sentry heals Lucius then moves towards Quill, taking *Shadowbringer* damage and is chased by a banshee that hits her, causing necrotic damage. Nova collects the lantern and a nearby mote that was dropped by Lucius; she then infuses the lantern with one of the motes she is carrying. Max heals Quill before running towards Nova with three motes – a banshee attacks him and siphons off one of the motes he is carrying. Lucius picks up the two motes near him and collects another two that are nearby: he tries to work out where Kellara may have gone but is too distracted to work out where she is. Lucius then lunges towards Nova and successfully infuses three motes into the lantern. Quill flies to the centre of the plaza next to the statue of Siaska, uses *Harness Divine Power* and casts *Mass Cure Wounds,* healing everyone; he then calls to Valla to give Quill her haste ability, he feels himself speed up to the point that everyone else is still, and to them he appears to have vanished. He casts *Holy Aura* again and uses *Harness Divine Power* before moving between Sentry and Max.

Kellara suddenly reappears and her *Armour of Shadows* has returned around her. She looks over to Valla saying, “Protection ends now, little one!” Kellara swipes her hand and Valla vanishes: they notice that Kellara’s domain begins collapsing in on itself and hear a faint scream and Kellara says, “Rest now, we’ll deal with you later.”

## **YouTube Timestamps**

0:00:00 - Intro
0:04:58 - Dun Duns
0:06:00 - Part 1
1:29:53 - Part 2

## **Featured Characters**

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

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

#### **Returning NPCs**

* Maximillion Taldros
* Valla
* Kellara

#### **Mentioned NPCs**

* Sir Godric Graves
* Lammalles
* Skaldi Ravenscar
* Siaska

## **Featured Locations**

* Jakkesh
	+ Nightbloom Keep (Temple of Kellara)
* Kellara's demi-plane

## **Trivia**

* Kim's traditional pre-game Discord blessing of "butts" was today replaced with:
* There is a low-level noise of a background fan in this episode because it was fairly hot in the studio.
* Rhi spent much of this episode clutching and toying with a LARP foam dagger/shortsword.
* Tom suggested that Nova should have called her echo “V’ger”… until she pointed out that their name is Tiangong, and has been since episode 0. Katie pointed out that it has been 4 years. Tom’s response? “Yeah... I know”.
* Nova, having lost the Rod of Alertness, has now re-attuned to the Helm of Teleportation.
* Mark confirmed that when they defeat Kellara, they will level up to level 18.
* Valla can assist the party one of three ways as long as she is not incapacitated and is able to use her power (each of the abilities can be used once in the fight and can be called for by any of the players. Some of the abilities have to be used at a certain time, others are reactions, others still can be used at any time):
	+ Fate’s Reversal – Valla can reverse ill luck and allow the re-roll for an attack roll, a saving throw or an ability check or force an enemy to re-roll an attack roll made against them. The re-roll will ignore any advantage or disadvantage either target has (i.e., it will be a single roll).
	+ Time’s Echo – One player may immediately take an additional turn after their turn ends, however, any attacks and spells they cast or do deal half damage or restore half the amount of hit points (via any means: spell, lay on hands, potion, etc.) during the extra turn. The recipient can move, cast other spells and use other abilities and items as normal.
	+ Spatial Rift – Valla can create two portals within 90 feet of each other. Each portal has an active face as chosen by the player. Each portal is large enough for a medium creature to move through, and they act as connected points so ranged attacks and spells can be channelled through them (e.g., a lightning bolt could be fired into one portal, and it would come out the other portal as if they were connected space).
* **Continuity error:** Lucius talks about being unable to get through to Lammalles with his most potent dominion of mind because Kellara stopped it. Lucius actually tried to wrest control of Elwyn’s mind in episode 154.
* We finally know Max’s race (well half of it)! He’s a Half-Fire Giant.
* There was a discussion about the spell *Create Bonfire* and whether it casts actual light. Kim maintained that it does – Mark maintained that it did not because it is not written in the spell description. This was trolling at its finest and was reminiscent of Tom’s tree rant about the *Travel via Plants* spell (which he also referenced at the end of the discussion).
* The party fights over Max’s affections in this episode. Lucius threatens to ask Max “if he is a fan of matrices”. Lucius thinks that Sentry is interested in Max. Sentry thinks that Max would be perfect for Quill. Quill seems interested one minute but not interested the next… what a tease! Valla just pretends not to hear anything and threatens to drop a silence on them all. Mark is intrigued at Sentry’s turnaround on “a soldier of the Valkyrian Empire” being considered to be “good for Quill”.
* Kim is certain at one point that Valla told them that she remembered being discovered in a pod. Mark didn’t remember. Kim found the reference in her notes for episode 9 in 2018!! What a memory!
* **Continuity error:** Mark made a retcon from episode 53 where we were told that Max was about 6 feet tall. He is now “very high 7s, nearly 8 feet tall”.
* Sentry is 8 feet tall normally. She can get up to 16 feet tall when enlarged.
* Quill is extremely jealous of Max and Sentry, even though there is nothing going on. Pumpkan immortalised this moment with her art: find the wonderful artwork here!
* The War Knight’s mace is a 2-handed maul.
* Kellara’s abilities in phase 1:
	+ Her AC is 19. Being a titan, she is immune to a number of conditions (such as blinded) – if she is affected by a condition such as this, she instead takes an extra 20 points of damage.
	+ *Titanic Awareness* – this allows her to have the highest initiative automatically, so she goes first every round.
	+ *Creeping Shadows* – shadows run along the ground and leap up to attack 2 targets (roll to hit). Mark uses average damage on each hit of 12 necrotic damage and HP maximum is reduced by 12 as well.
	+ *Shadowbringer –* while not directly an effect of Kellara’s, it is related to the darkness she creates around her. Any character starting their turn in dim light gains one stack of *Shadowbringer*. The effect of *Shadowbringer* is that if a character moves more than 10 feet, for every stack of *Shadowbringer*, they take 2 necrotic damage. Stacks of *Shadowbringer* persist through death/unconsciousness.
	+ *Scatter the Light* (legendary action): 3 characters of Kellara’s choice must make a charisma saving throw. On a fail, the target is teleported 40 feet to an unoccupied space of Kellara’s choosing. A success negates this effect.
	+ *Wallow in Darkness* – Bonus Action – extinguishes a source of light created by a spell or effect. Kellara has to roll because Quill’s spell (*Holy Aura*) is above 6th level.
	+ (Lair action) – Kellara raises her hand and a spectral image of a scale appears with the rune for the number 3 on it appears in her hand. Two 20-foot radius circles appear on the ground (one under a number of players). The characters can choose to use a reaction or make a dexterity saving throw to get to the outer edge of the circle, or they can stay where they are inside one of the circles. Once the countdown reaches zero, a wave of necrotic energy moves through the entire demi-plane (excepting for the insides of the circles): every creature takes 35 necrotic damage and gains 3 extra stacks of *Shadowbringer* (excepting any person carrying Kellara’s lantern)*.*
	+ *Life Drain –* Kellara does 10 necrotic damage and reduces the target’s maximum HP by 10. (This appears to be similar to *Creeping Shadows,* but it is used under this name in the next episode, too). Per episode 158 the target must make a constitution saving throw, DC 24.
	+ Kellara’s banshee wail does 30 points of necrotic damage to those who do not succeed on a constitution saving throw (half damage on a save). The save is somewhere between 22 and 25 (see ep 158). Those who fail their saving throw receive 2 *Shadowbringer* stacks, those who succeed gain one stack. After she screams, Kellara disappears the first time. (In 158, Kellara screams when she returns).
	+ *Call Handmaidens* - domain power - summons four banshees to Kellara. (see next episode)
* Kellara's handmaidens/banshees abilities:
	+ If Kellara’s handmaidens hit, they do 10 necrotic damage and prevent a character from taking reactions until the start of their next turn.
	+ Kellara can empower her handmaidens as a legendary action. Being within a certain radius of the handmaidens (banshees) requires a constitution saving throw - 1d4 (1d4 is for being within 5 feet of a handmaiden) (noting that a 23 fails!) because of their low, droning wail. They throw off an aura that drains strength and emotions and does 10 necrotic damage that also reduces the HP maximum by the same amount.
	+ The Handmaidens of Kellara (banshees) are minions, so do not get attacks of opportunity.
* There is a discussion about Tiangong and how their darkvision affects Nova – the decision is made that now that the effect is on the echo, rather than just the weapon, the echo can see with darkvision, but Nova cannot. Nova is, however, aware of where Tiangong is, even in darkness, so can follow them like a guide without seeing much of anything around her.
* There is discussion about whether Tiangong is a creature. It is decided that Tiangong is not a creature.
* Kellara's Lantern and motes:
	+ It is an action to pick up the lantern, and it has zero charges when first picked up by Nova.
	+ Anyone holding the lantern takes 5 points of radiant damage at the end of their turn.
	+ Holding the lantern gives the holder the *Lightbringer* trait (removes all stacks of *Shadowbringer,* gives immunity to further *Shadowbringer* stacks because the wielder is in bright light, causes the wielder to do half damage on attacks, not sure about other effects)
	+ Someone must be holding the lantern in order for anyone to be able to infuse it with motes.
	+ The lantern light goes dim when it is not being carried, regardless of how many motes it contains.
	+ Using two charges will cast *Grace of Light* and will remove all stacks of *Shadowbringer* from any target within 5 feet of the lantern (details confirmed in next episode, although Kim uses 4 motes to affect 3 targets).
	+ Using five charges will cast *Mother's Light* which removes the shadow armour from Kellara.
	+ The players can touch a mote of light to collect it. It costs a Bonus Action to infuse the lantern with a mote of divine light. The lantern gains one charge per mote.
	+ Ending a turn where you are carrying a mote results in the player taking 2 radiant damage: this increases by 2 for every mote carried.
	+ The players can infuse more than one mote into the lantern at once but must make a wisdom or charisma ability check – failure results in all motes being scattered (roll d4: the motes will go in a random direction from 5-20 feet away (1=5 feet, 4=20 feet)). Mark hints that this mechanic is very similar to some element of the original Destiny game.
	+ Grabbing one mote makes a player shed 10 feet of dim light, grabbing two gives them 20 feet of dim light.
* Tom made a roll as the outro was fading out – it was a nat 20.

## **Quotes**

* Lucius (to Max): You need to get a top before you start hammering at the anvil.
* Mark (as Max); you say that, but you tend to get very sweaty at the forge.
* Quill (to Max): (lewdly) *Do you??* So you need Aila and Sentry there, right?
* Mark (as Max): (seriously) It will be very warm and boring, I imagine, for the rest of you. It will take me… looking at your hammer and lance…
* Quill: (quickly) Arcane eye!