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Session 5: Warped Elders

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“You’re a cowtitsucker.” - Arani, insulting Aelthar in celestial

“I like milk.” - Aelthar

Key Developments and Revelations

  • The party defeats the hag, and end the corruption of Darkwoods

  • They return to Palmyra where Thalia is contacted by her old teacher

  • After a night at Maxi’s hideout, the party leave to Eryx

  • In the church of Helm they fight against Doppelgangers and find a letter about the Tiefling Forsworn searching for the box in Thalias possesion

Full Session Notes (Written mainly by Sari with Sydneys help)

Entering the home of the blind hag, she surprisingly doesn’t attack us immediately but asks for the party to identify themselves. Mika walks up to her and engages in a conversation. She asks to touch the Hearth Stone to get healed from her curse, which the hag allows. In return for that favor, the hag asks Mika to get a flower from the corrupt tree so she can lay it on her sisters grave.

Mika gets the flowers for her and when the hag stands at the grave, Arani asks her if she’s aware of the evil that comes from the tree. The hag asks the party to leave, Arani tells Aelthar to fire on the tree. A fight starts.

The party defeats the hag, burn the tree to the ground and throw the remains of the sister in the grave and the ashes of the hag into the fire to burn together. Hifus “the Bluedot Kitty” (named by Mika) leads us out of the forest as the corruption slowly disappears. We head back to Alan’s bar in Palmyra and take a table to rest and talk about the next steps. Arani gets in contact with Qiran and asks how the search for the amulet is going. He said that he’ll get in contact with us as soon as he has them and will meet us back at Maxi’s hideout then.

Thalia is contacted by Uthel - the leader of the church of Helm back in Eryx, asking her to come to Erys asap. They have been attacked and interrogated about the box she carries with her. Thalia asks the rest of the party to accompany her.

They return to Maxi’s hideout to rest for the night. Rehael shares that the Order of Ambers still exists in the mountain of the Stormwatch Duchy. This has Aelthar ask more questions about the origin of the siblings.

The next morning we leave for Eryx, with Thalia leading us straight to the Church of Helm.

Her teacher, Uthel, tells her about the attack of a tiefling called Forsworn and his companion, which are the same we encountered back in Palmyra. He asks Thalia to help with some of the injured people and leads her, Mika and Arani into a basement where he locks the hatch behind them and leaves. Inside Thalia finds her real friends, unconscious and trapped in cages.

Arani breaks them free, yelling a warning to the others remaining in the hall. A fight against the Doppelgangers starts.

The party defeats them and while Thalia goes to help her friends, Arani and Mika go through the building and find a letter signed by Forsworn that says something about ‘Michaeli’s daughter having the box and that they need to break it and free ‘him’.

Back in the hall, Arani asks Thalia about the box and she reveals that at the time when she tried to open the box for the first time she almost ended up dead and had a vision about the horrifying sights of the Hells, but nothing stood out to her.

She asks her teachers about the box and if they know why they were asking about it, as well as if they mentioned her father, Michealis’ name. They said they did not and Thalia then said that her father was involved in something greater than she knew as they did not have a good relationship before Michaelis died. Thalia then asked them if any members of her previous group had contacted them, and they said thankfully they hadn’t been in contact with anybody from that group. Thalia then bid them goodbye and asked them to believe that she had grown as a person and wasn’t who she used to be no matter the news that may come out from the war front. She then followed Arani and Mika out into the city.

DATE: 19/09/23

In-game Date Start: 6th of Hallowtide, 959 A.D.

In-game Date Finish: 7th of Hallowtide, 959 A.D.

Players Present

  • Jeremy (Alexei)

  • Oskar (Mika)

  • Sari (Arani)

  • Sydney (Thalia)

  • Trym (Aelthar)

Subbed Characters

  • Trym played Alexei

Completed Quests

  • Cure Mika, Alexei and Thalia’s curses

  • Remove the corruption in the Darkwoods

  • Figure out what is going on in Eryx

Obtained Quests

  • Link to quests picked up this session

Locations Visited

  • Darkwoods

  • Palmyra

  • Eryx

Important NPCs Interacted With

  • List of NPCs

Wall of Shame

,

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:

“Did we just burn a person?” - Mika

“Do you really wanna pick a fight about religion with a holy person?” - Arani

“As of the first sentence, I believe I’m winning.” - Aelthar

“Next time news arrive from the warfront, try and keep in mind that not everything is as it seems.” - Arani

“You’re a cowtitsucker.” - Arani, insulting Aelthar in celestial

“I like milk.” - Aelthar

“At least I don’t need an emotional support dog!” - Arani

“I think you would benefit from it.” - Aelthar

“I guess you could say we saved you from yourselves!” - Mika