Main

“Do this, and you’ll deal with the consequences on your own. I am not fucking around.” - Alexei

Key Developments and Revelations

• The main happenings the party want to keep tabs on or remember

Full Session Notes (Squid)

Arani and Mika join the rest of the group upstairs, where Aelthar tells Mika that Squalls End is under threat and has been for a few days. We had a discussion about what we should do and decided to teleport to a location south of Hidden Hope. Along the way we see a burned building and offer to help whoever it is we hear inside. However, before any of the group get too far in by ourselves, we learn that the people inside are dead and have been killed by Ravagers. As we take care of them one of them says, “He told us to burn the world, so we will”

In the building we find a scroll of teleport and convince Aelthar to try and get us to Squalls End, unfortunately, he is not as familiar with Squalls End as Mika is and so we end up being teleported to another small village within the same mountain range. We still have another few days to walk to Hidden Hope. On one of the days of walking Mika, Arani, and Alexei have a talk about coping and grief, and what they do to calm down. Arani and Alexei fight their way through grief but neither of them knows if it will help Mika. Mika wears herself out and has to be carried the rest of the way by Arani to camp for the night. During this Alexei and Arani talk about what to do when Mika breaks, nearing the end of their talk Alexei also says what she would do if Arani were to break.

While walking behind the rest of the group, Thalia brings up the letter she received from Uther to Aether and tells him about Agnese. Thalia tells him that Agnese had been sent on a mission and had not been heard from in some time. She asks if, at the end of this, Aelthar would consider joining her in looking for Agnese. He considers and asks to speak about it at a later time. They eventually meet with the rest of the group.

During the night Thalia prays to Helm and asks for reassurance that Mika’s friends and family are going to be ok. She receives back that “The people important to Mika’s fates are not yet sealed.” The next morning Aelthar calls for another summon and he battles the shadow dog that responds, He and Neve win the fight and Neve is retired so that Kull, the shadow dog, can join the party. We have less than a days worth of travel to get to Squalls Ends.

When we get to Hidden Hope nothing seems wrong, so we check and see different shopkeeps, and eventually, we find Meiavor in Minravints bakery. Once combat is initiated, Mika’s friends are fighting against us, Meiavor banishes Arani and Aelthar, Arani back to her home plane, and Aelthar to the Astral Sea. We eventually break Meiavor’s concentration, keeping the others banished and they come back to the material plane, Arani is deeply troubled and upset by this and begins to rage and pummel everything in her path. Meiavor has an ability that causes short-term madness and Aelthar is made to hallucinate and believe that everyone is attacking him, this causes him to kill Misdielle when she is already unconscious, and Thalia insults him due to this.

When Meiavor dies, his mask flies off still glowing and Mika’s friends are still fighting us. Thalia and Mika destroy the mask but not before Misdielle passes away. Arani in her state of rage doesn’t care that Divin is no longer hostile towards her, and kills him. Alexei knocks Arani unconscious, which causes a blast to emanate from the armor, while Mika knocks Aelthar unconscious. Mika rests in a catatonic state while Thalia revives Misdielle and asks if she can revive Divin. Alexei brings Arani over to Aelthar to lay them next to each other and begins to take off the armor, Thalia sees what Alexei is doing and helps her, when Serapheal tries to control the both of them Thalia shakes it off and paralyzes Alexei. Thalia gets the armor off and throws it near the woods when Alexei regains control of herself and Arani gets up and kneels to pray. The sky begins to storm heavily and Mother, Arani’s matronly celestial figure arrives.

DATE: 19/12/2023

In-game Date Start: 27th of Hallowtide, 959 A.D.

In-game Date Finish: 29th of Hallowtide, 959 A.D.

Players Present

• Jeremy (Alexei)

• Oskar (Mika)

• Sari (Arani)

• Sydney (Thalia)

• Trym (Aelthar)

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

• Hidden Hope

Important NPCs Interacted With

• Misdielle

• Minravints

• Divin

• Sails

• Meiavor

• Maxi

Wall of Shame

• Shrymp - 45 min

• Sari - 3 min

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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:

“Don’t! Waste! My! Time!” - Mika, hammering dead corpses

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“Send me back. Send me back!” - Arani

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“I don’t think your parents would be proud of this…” - Thalia

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“Do this, and you’ll deal with the consequences on your own. I am not fucking around.” - Alexei

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