High Rollers: Aerois Ep1, Welcome to Aerois

'Welcome to Aerois' is the first episode in HighRollers' second campaign, The Aerois Campaign, which aired on the 1st July 2018. This episode features Mark Hulmes as Dungeon Master, Katie Morrison as Aila, Tom Hazell as Qillek, Kim Richards as Nova, Chris Trott as Lucius and Rhiannon Gower as Sentry in a guest appearance.

Synopsis
The airship known as Sparrow Blade rocks and sways in the storm, the decks illuminated by flashes of lightning. The travellers awake to the rumbling of a storm, but the crackling thunder isn't the only thing to fear this night. Sounds of a fight above their heads and below their feet presents the unlucky passengers with a choice that could end in life or death.

Part 1
The Sparrow Blade travels through the sky, carrying its passengers to the floating city of Gust Haven. However, the journey is not as smooth as the travellers had hoped, their sleep disturbed by a wild thunderstorm that tests the limits of this unnatural bird. Below the top deck, Nova, Aila, Lucius, Qillek, Sentry and Arval awake in their bunks, the ship shuddering around them, tossing things around like rag-dolls. Their cabins are pitch-black, the darkness broken occasionally by flashes of light, booms of thunder chasing after it drowning out the fighting and screaming.

Opening the door to her cabin (and Qillek's) Sentry sees a woman standing in the doorway across the dark corridor, a glowing holy symbol of the Star Mother around her neck which casts her aged face in dim light. The woman watches as Echo (Sentry's construct) flies past, the small ball of metal and wood scouting the deck. Arval emerges from his cabin armed with a crossbow, Lucius cowering behind him, arcane focus shaking on his hand. Aila moves into the corridor without hesitation and the others follow her lead, some eager to learn what's happening and others too afraid to be left alone - Qillek and Lucius to be precise. The woman passenger goes with them, telling her companion to look after the young girl in their room.

Making their way down the corridor, their steps guided by the symbol's starlight, an explosion at the back end of the ship unsteadies their feet, the ship trembling around them. Aila keeps pushing forwards and approaches the stairs at the end of the corridor. Peering down she sees nothing but darkness, despite her darkvision, all seems still below until her sharp senses hear a faint sound - metal scraping against metal and heavy breathing. Then, out of the corner of her eye, the barbarian catches sight of two shadowy figures skulking in the dark, skull-like masks hiding their faces. They stare at each other in silence before the tension is broken when a fight erupts.

Lucius and the other passenger stumble forwards, unaware of what's happening while Qillek protects Aila with a shield of faith, his keen hearing giving him a sense of the danger looming before them. Seeing a spellcaster in the group one of the assailants runs along the side, bouncing off the wall and jumping past Aila. Landing in front of the rest of the group, he throws a dagger in a calculated direction, missing his intended target and striking Sentry instead, winding her as it thuds into her shield. Surprised, Arval hits the closest enemy with a well-placed shot between Lucius and the female passenger. Meanwhile, a dark blade forms in the hand of the skull-bearer closest to Aila, the sculpted energy passing through her as he swings it towards her, the blade inflicting her with an invisible wound that burns with immeasurable pain. In the chaos, Nova gazes upon the nightmarish face, flashes of the shuttle rising into her mind as a panicked recognition befalls her, causing her Eldritch blast to miss. Aila takes a swing at the figure who wounded her as he rushes past, hitting him in the back. More energy fills the corridor as the assailant before Sentry creates a similar blade to his companion and swipes it through her, making her matrix shake.

In retaliation, Aila brings her hammer down on the attacker but he spins to the side avoiding the crushing blow. Seeing that he's distracted, Sentry uses thunderous smite, her battle axe emanating a startling purple light as it hits its mark. The skull-bearer is flung through the air, his body disappearing down the stairs leaving Aila rather impressed with the guardian. Stunned by the attack, though still focused on the immediate danger, the priestess-like woman summons silver (sacred) flame to her fingertips but nerves get the better of her, shaking hands causing the flame to miss. The fear seems contagious as Lucius flings an ice knife from his arcane focus and bearly scratches the shadow-being before the shard explodes showering him and Arval in ice and just missing Qillek by sheer luck. Panicking over the proximity of the remaining attacker - and possibly of being in Lucius' firing range - Qillek uses his only wing to push him 5ft back before retreating behind Aila and Sentry, healing the former as he runs past. Fuming at Lucius' clumsiness, Arval's anger guides his club faithfully, smashing the masked man's leg. However, it does little to hinder his escape as he teleports to the end of the corridor, materialising beside Nova and ignoring the scholar as he launches a bolt of lightning at the high elf. Lucius' shaky knees prove of some assistance as he falls sideways, awkwardly dodging the attack. A charge still crackling in his palm, the skull-bearer taunts the travellers with a statement of certain death and tells the Air Genasi to stay out of his way and looks down at her when she screams 'Court of Shadows' in his ear before lashing out. Hexing his dexterity to slow him down, Nova goes to eldritch blast him but misses when he grabs her hand and pulls it to the wall. In that instance something strange echoes in her mind: 'wield'

Aila readies herself to strike, watching his movements closely while the guardian moves forward to protect the others, standing between Lucius and he injured Arval, covering the dwarf with a shield of faith. The female passenger assists her, using cure wounds to help the wood around her body grow and rebind. While Arval (who is reloading) shouts at him, Lucius tries another spell, casting a panicky firebolt which hits the wooden ceiling. His fellow spellcaster, Qillek, places a reassuring hand on Sentry's shoulder, his presence giving her new strength (guidance). As the group gathers around Sentry, the assailant fires another streak of lightning, aiming for the lone barbarian who stands stock still and laughs in his face as it goes wide. As he focuses on what he assumes to be the bigger threat, Nova takes out her otherworldly blade, holding it clumsily before expertly slashing the dark figure and cutting him in two, ending the fight.

As the woman goes to check on her charge, Nova searches the cleaved body in the hopes of learning more about these members of the Court, but finds nothing. While the battle is over for the passengers the danger has yet to pass, the storm still buffeting the Sparrow Blade and a battle still raging above. Yet it seems that neither of these two threats present the most danger when Qillek calls that the airship is falling. Aila runs to the steps as the others change and get their things, but they're destroyed beyond use, crushed by what looks like the ship's mask. Through several small holes, she spies some of the crew on the top deck, along with more masked assailants.

Nova approaches the sister as she tends to Arval. She asks if they're after her ward, but she cannot provide an answer, believing that there's no reason for the Court to want her. Breaking a porthole, Sentry sends Echo out into the storm. Through its eyes she sees the mayhem above, dead crew members scattered across the deck while those who remain (including the Captain and First Mate) are still fighting for their lives and battling to keep the ship from falling. Qillek advises everyone to strap themselves in, believing this situation to be a certain crash scenario. But not everyone is in agreement, Aila and Sentry unwilling to leave the Captain and other crew members to their doom arguing that they also need them to save the ship.

However, unable to get through the roof or use the stairs, they look to the bottom deck for a solution. Lucius sends his dancing lights into the darkness below, the group looking closely for signs of the monster Aila and Qillek can hear. Briefly, the bard catches a flash of movement and a metal tail before the beast seems to flee from the light. But the monster's name and nature has been revealed - a construct created by one of Star Bane's commanders known as a Stalker. Arval, Sentry and Aila are determined to fight the monster and eventually manage to convince Nova, Lucius and Qillek, who along with the priest (who we now know to be called Yousef) begin to move down the stairs.

Part 2
Coming Soon...

Players

 * Aila (Katie Morrison): Lvl 2 female wild-elf barbarian
 * Qillek Ad Khollar (Tom Hazell): Lvl 2 male arrakocra bard-cleric
 * Nova V'Ger (Kim Richards): Lvl 2 female air genasi warlock
 * Lucius Virion-Elluin Elenasto (Chris Trott): Lvl 2 male high-elf sorcerer
 * Sentry (Rhiannon Gower): Lvl 2 guardian paladin

NPCs

 * Arval: male dwarf merchant
 * Yousef: female priest
 * Corrin: male priest
 * Vanna: a young girl, Yousef and Corrin's ward

High-Quality Production

 * (snickering)


 * Mark: Well, next time we try that we'll try to make sure that everybody isn't laughing and talking over the top of it


 * Kim: Narrating!


 * Mark: (air quotations) Narrating... Welcome to the very high-quality production that is HighRollers.



Inspiration

 * Qillek: I'm sure you've got this one.


 * Aila: Thanks, bird boy!


 * Tom: And does that count as a (laughing)... ummmm


 * Mark: As Barbic inspiration?


 * Tom: As a Barbic inspiration


 * (Laughter)


 * Trott: 'I'm sure you've got this one'

Nice Ice
Mark: You throw out this bolt of nice

Kim: ...Nice

Katie: Nice!

Mark: This bolt of Ice-

Kim: Bolt of Nice! (High-pitched) (Gestures with hand) Nice!

Mark: This bolt of ice and it kinda of- You'll get used to that by the way new viewers-

Katie: Markisms

Mark: I do that a lot

Stats
Mark Mispronunciations: 1 Nat 20s: 0
 * bolt of nice / bolt of ice

Nat 1s: 3 Player Deaths: 0
 * Insight check by Kim/Nova
 * Damage Roll by Trott/Lucius
 * Damage Roll by Kim/Nova

Enemy Deaths: 2 Highest Damage: 15 psychic damage to Katie/Aila by Skull-Bearer/Mark
 * 2 members of the Court of Skulls

Lowest Damage: 1 damage to the ceiling from an eldritch blast by Kim/Nova

Highest Roll: 24 attack roll by Katie/Aila

Healing Done: 13
 * 5 to Katie/Aila by Tom/Qillek
 * 8 to Sentry/Rhiannon by Yousef/Mark