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Session 15: A Happy Birthday

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“Can I borrow him for a minute? Lady.” - Gabrielle

Bows drunkenly

“Respectfully.” - Gabrielle

Key Developments and Revelations

  • The party returns to Highkeep and get a few days to recover from the battle

  • Everyone prepares for Thena’s birthday party two days later

  • Soren challenges us to a fight/lesson before the party

  • We celebrate, when the time for speeches came the Adairn family is attacked

  • The party flees with Thena and Lionel, the only survivors with them

  • Honey leaves

Full Session Notes

We arrive back in the main camp and recover while we wait for news from the battle. Two days later Soren returns with the remaining forces, their number indicating that the surprise attack has been succesful.

Soren still armored immediately approaches the group, the twins standing outside of the tent are the first to face his anger as he accuses them of allowing Thena to join a dangerous mission without his knowledge. He proceeds to storm inside, makes sure that Thena is alright before wrapping his arms around her. They stay like that for a while, the rest of the party slowly unwinding from the tension.

Soren releases Thena and tells everyone to pack up for their return to Highkeep.

Back there, he invites the party to talk, offering his thanks and payment for our help and invites us to stay until Thena’s birthday party. Gabrielle apologizes for his initial behaviour towards Soren before they are dismissed to celebrate their victory.

Everyone gets drunk, Gabrielle in that state goes to find Soren for a talk, thanks him for being a good man. Soren tells him that he’s proud of him (TT__TT).

The next morning, all preparations for Thena’s birthday are done and Soren finds the group to offer a lesson, or better, challenge them to a friendly fight.

The party is unexpectedly able to get Soren to surrender, even though he obviously was holding back.

Everyone gathers in the dinner hall, the celebrations go well, Thena is presented with the gifts the party prepared for her but when the time for speeches came, Alesander, Thena’s uncle steps up to salute her and gets shot with an arrow.

More people descend from the rafters as all hell breaks loose. The party siding with Soren stands their ground for a bit but soon enough the first members of the Adairn family are killed.

Soren screams at the group to take his family and run. They try. Morric is the first to get Lionel out into the courtyard where more attackers are fighting against the Adairn guards, among them the traitor Ramiro. The rest try to get the other children out of the hall, but Soren’s wife and mother are among the first to die, Erina dies in Gabrielle’s arms as he tries to get her to the courtyard. Thena jumps into the portable hole with Honey and is dragged out by Lavender.

Alesander, the first to be attacked remained on the ground during the whole battle, suddenly stands up, walks up to Soren when he was close to defeat and stabs him. Soren’s brother dies, Soren goes to his knees and is killed by his brother in law.

The party makes it to the courtyard, Morric defends Lionel against the traitor Ramiro, Soren’s Griffin dies and the remaining attackers are killed. We only have a few minutes to gather our things together and flee as we hear the sounds of battle coming from the nearby village. The coup was also happening outside of Highkeep.

Lavender takes Lionel and Thena and is the first to leave the grounds, while Morric and Gabrielle sneak back to get their things. They decide to try and get to Soren one last time but when they look into the dinner hall they see Alesander and his men have put Soren’s body and the bodies of his family on the throne, shooting them with arrows and laughing at their deaths.

The twins leave resigned, Morric finds the corpse of a guard with Soren’s armor on him and takes it with them.

The party regroups outside of Highkeep in safety, Gabrielle and Morric paralyzed in shock, Resona trying to comfort Thena and Lionel and Honey in tears as she says her goodbyes to her sister. She leaves to return home. Lavender decides to stay with the group.

DATE:

In-game Date Start:

In-game Date Finish:

Players Present

  • Jeremy (Lavender)

  • Oskar (Resona)

  • Rasmus (Morric)

  • Sari (Gabrielle)

  • Sydney (Honey)

Subbed Characters

  • X played X / Everyone was present.

Completed Quests

  • Link to completed quests

Obtained Quests

  • Link to quests picked up this session

Locations Visited

  • List of Locations

Important NPCs Interacted With

  • Lots of bitches/traitors whatever you wanna call them

  • Soren Adairn

  • Lucious Adairn

  • Lady Respectfully

  • Lionel Adairn

  • Thena Adairn

  • Erina Adairn

  • Mother Adairn

  • Alesander Valdam (Traitor)

  • Asim (Traitor)

  • Ramiro (Traitor)

Wall of Shame

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Example

“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!”

Key Developments and Revelations

  • After resting with the caravan, woke up in a strange land, full of eerieness, malice and fog.

  • On finding a path and following it, they come to the Gates of Barovia.

  • Here the party meets Strahd Von Zarovich for the first time. He insinuates that he knows everyone in the party except for Sunny.

  • They follow the path, see a group of buildings, then beyond that a larger village overlooked by cliffs and a castle on it.

  • Making their way to the group of buildings, the fog seems to follow them, and Kronkus & Sunny get lost in it momentarily, with their being some time dilation happening whilst in there.

  • Making it to the hamlet, they find all but one of the buildings empty and dark. Two children rush to them, saying there’s a monster in their house, and that their parents are keeping it at bay in the basement, and their baby brother is upstairs.

  • The party move into the house, finding that this seems to belong to the Durst family. Moving into a main room, they hear the sounds of a party from beyond a nearby door.

  • Opening the door, all lights in the house go out, no people are in the room beyond. The front door and gate close and lock on their own. A wolf growls from somewhere in the dark.

Last Time, in Barovia…

Arrival in Barovia

  • The party joined the caravan heading out of Daggerford. Each one joined for a different reason, and none knew the others.

  • On the first night, the caravan rested early, having been delayed from its set off by a latecomer to the caravan.
    The latecomer, Marko, had setup a campfire with food and drink, and one by one offered, convinced or cajoled the party to join him at his fire.

  • The night was spent with everyone learning little bits about the other, drinking, eating, and being merry. Late, Marko crawled under his wagon for sleep, and invited the party to rest by his warm fire, which they did.

  • When they awoke, they were not in the same place. The wagon, Marko, even the caravan itself was gone. No tracks or signs of movement in the immediate surroundings. It was if they had been picked up and placed here.

  • All of their possessions were gone as well, bar a few items that were kept close to them while they rested.

  • Taking stock of this new land, they found it eerie, almost dripping with maliciousness. There is a thick fog, swirling as if with a life of its own. The trees seem different, twisted, gnarled and unnatural. The sun, while present, seems to have trouble penetrating cloud and fog, and does not give much light or warmth.

  • While the party is taking stock of their situation, Kronkus finds that the long-silent voices have started whispering to him again.

  • Sunny reached out to the Triple-Fish God, and found his connection was muted, but there was a new, strong core in that feeling that’s never been there before, almost certainly connected to the Triple-Fish God.

  • Moving around, they find a rutted path leading east/west. Westward leads into a thick wall of shifting fog, east has the fog thinning. They head east for a few hours.

Meeting Strahd

  • Ahead, the forest slightly parts, and they come to a huge stone wall, with a large metal gate in the middle. Out of the front of it, a pack of wolves are tearing strips off a very dead body.

  • Sunny casts Thunderwave above the wolves, in an effort to scare them. They reel back for an instant before they turn to face the party, almost undaunted by the noise. A larger wolf then snarls and pads towards the party, teeth bared.

  • As the large wolf lunges to attack, his is called to heel by a voice. A man appears at the top of the wall, who effortlessly walks down the side of the wall as if were normal, flat ground. As he gets to the ground and walks through the wolves, they let him pass. He also passes the large wolf, ruffling its fur.

  • Walking up to the party, he introduces himself as Strahd Von Zarovich, ruler of Barovia, and welcomes them to his land. He acknowledges them as the latest batch of adventurers to be brought here, more pawns in the game.

  • He looks at each member of the party, including the still hidden Wilfyr, attempting to meet their gaze. Those that do, feel drawn into that gaze, with the world around them starting to spin away. There is only Strahd. Strahd doesn’t hold them in this gaze for long.

  • He speaks briefly to each member of the party. His speech infers that he knows each of the party members to some degree, or about their past. Except Sunny. Sunny seems to be the enigma to Strahd.

  • He warns the party that they will find no rest or success in his lands, that it obeys his command. He also warns them to not meddle in his affairs, and that if they do not, then their stay won’t be unpleasant.

  • With that, he turns and strides away towards the gates, swirling his cloak around him and turns into a cloud of bats that then flies through the bars and off into the air beyond. As Strahd leaves, the wolf pack dissipates,into the forest.

  • Inspecting the dead body in the road, they find it horrifically mauled. On closer inspection, they find a crumpled, partially torn Kolyan Indirovich’s Letter that Wilfyr takes.

  • The party then pushes open the gates, and walk through. The gates closes and locks behind them. Beyond is more forest.

Finding Shelter

  • After a little while, the path comes to the top a rise, giving the party a clear view of a Barovian Basin of sorts. In the far distance can be seen a town. Next to that are some cliffs, with an ominous castle at its heights, overlooking the town. About halfway to this town, there seems to be a small group of houses. Seeing signs of civilisation, the party heads down the path into the valley beyond.

  • As they’re walking, they notice that the wall of fog is forming up thicker and thicker behind them. Its almost like its keeping pace with them, slowing down and speeding up when they do. Kronkus & Sunny attempt to interact with the fog and walk back into it.

  • They lose all visibility, and cannot hear, touch or see each other. They try to leave the way they came, but cannot get out, only walk into more fog. After 10 minutes, both of them exit the fog from exactly the same place that they entered into it. To the rest of the party, they have been waiting for them for an hour.

  • Continuing on, the rutted road finally gives way to gravel and stone, as they draw closer to the hamlet of houses. The houses are dark, boarded up, and there are no signs of life. Except one.

  • As the party moves between the buildings, the sound of a child sobbing draws their eyes, and they see a small boy and a slightly older girl walk towards them.

  • They are wailing, and after being frightened by Kronkus’ approach (due to his unnatural visage) cry that there is a monster in the house, pointing to the lit up house.

  • Most of the party dash into the house, while the kids say that their parents are in there, keeping the monster trapped in the basement. They also say their baby brother is still stuck up in his nursery. Sunny tries to convince the kids to come with the party into the house, but they refuse, growing more and more scared of going back inside the house.

  • All but Kronkus move into the foyer finding family portraits across the walls, labelled as the Dursts. Kronkus remains outside to try and convince the children to come with them, but they run off. He turns and joins the party in the house.

  • As they all step into a large main room, the sounds of a party can be heard coming from another room, from beyond a nearby door. Arkemon retrieves the longsword from above the mantlepiece, and goes back and retrieves the heraldic shield from the foyer.

  • Wilfyr finds a door on the opposite side of the room to where the party noises were coming from, and as he approached, heard the growls of wolves coming from beyond it.

  • Arkemon warns against opening that door, and instead opens the door that should lead to the party they can hear. As he opens the door, the sounds stop. There is no people in the room beyond. All the torches, fireplaces and candles in the house go out as the party is plunged into darkness.

  • Behind them, the gate and door into the entrance to the house close on their own, and lock. And another wolf growls in the distance.

DATE: 13/04/2021

In-game Date Start:

In-game Date Finish:

Players Present

  • Adam (Milo)

  • Alex (Arkemon)

  • Ben (Elgin)

  • Chad (Sunny)

  • Russ (Delta)

  • Stephen (Wilfyr)

Subbed Characters

  • Everyone was present for this session.

Completed Quests

  • No completed quests

Obtained Quests

  • Leave This Land

Places Experienced

  • Gates of Barovia

  • Barovian Basin

  • Durst Manor

Important NPCs Interacted With

  • Strahd Von Zarovich

  • Rose Durst

  • Thorn Durst

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Memorable Quotes

The best quotes of the Session:

“Soren.” - Morric

“Yeah?” - Soren

“You’re a good dad.” - Morric

“I thought you would be the same as our father, and not seeing the leadership at a battle that was so important to the safety of your people, I cast judgement. And I was wrong. For that I am sorry.” - Gabrielle

“Can I borrow him for a minute? Lady.” - Gabrielle

Bows drunkenly

“Respectfully.” - Gabrielle

“I never really knew what the love of a father did to a person. But seeing you and Thena, it reminded me what that felt like. I forgot my point, but… Thank you.” - Gabrielle

“You fucking piece of shit, Ramiro!” - Morric

“Traitors are the lowest form of fucking existence.” - Resona, pummeling a traitor’s face in

“I can’t do this again. You need to stay here and protect them, but I wanna go home.” - Honey

“You’re still sick. I’ll find a way to fix it, I promise.” - Lavender

“I know there is nothing I can say to make this better, but know that your parents and your siblings are glad beyond belief that you two are still alive.” - Resona

“Get my family out of here!” - Soren’s last words