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Session 3: Foresight & Fallout

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“I have found new prey.” - Novi

Key Developments and Revelations

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

Full Session Notes (Rasmus)

After riding for a while, Oran asks us if we’re fine to set up camp, and we agree as they’re the ones who’re more used to being in the desert, and prolly know if it’s a good spot. We talk a bit with Oran and Nahara, getting to know them more, and decide to start looking at the gems we got. One of them attracts undead, while buffing them, and the other makes undead docile, and makes you better at killing them. We give both to Novi before going to rest.

Nothing happens for the first two watches, but for Novi’s, two curious Harrow Hawk’s show up. Both of them carry small gems, and Novi wakes up Nohran to help take a look. He looks at the gems and realizes that the gems have fine lines of enchantment, and he recognizes that while limited, it is a form of scrying. Nohran also is the one to realize they’re Harrow Hawks, and undead. Novi spots that beneath the black feathers, there’s not much flesh, just skin and bones. Novi and Nohran test whether they follow the green gem, throwing it, causing one of the hawks to follow. As Novi goes to pick up the gem again, the hawk stays seated on the gem. The other hawk, which didn’t get lured by the gem, pops out, and Nohran recognizes the plane shift, which he knows they can do. He suggests Novi grab the other hawk, wanting to grab the scrying gem, but Novi doesn’t manage, and the other hawk plane shifts too.

After they leave, Nohran suggests the group wakes up and moves for an hour or so, before continuing their rest, hoping that it’d get them away from whoever was scrying through the hawks. The group decides to do so, deeming it safer. For light however, Nohran reluctantly has to use the gauntlet to cast light, so the glider doesn’t crash.

The group rests, and nothing else happens. In the morning, we keep traveling, and a bit later in the day, we come across a mountain range, where Oran calls out that we’ve arrived at Sundrift. We do get closer, but as we do, we see that one of the walls is getting assaulted by undead, and we decide to help. We move our way through the undead, and notice the skull gem makes the zombies and skeletons do no actions if they’re within 30 feet of it. The larger undead were immune however. After a bit of fighting and a few scary moments, we manage to take them down, having lost a few scouts on the wall. Nahara and Oran rush in, giving Eliora a small token, telling her to just drop the “Flintstride” name, and our tab will be covered on whatever inn we’re at.

As we enter the wall, we see a tunnel having been carved into the mountain, and we walk through for five or so minutes before coming out to open sky again. We enter into the city of Sundrift proper, and see buildings and such carved out of the actual cliffsides themselves. We ask a random civilian about where to find a Seer, who we can assume can get us to a haven node. He points us down, to a level down below us, and we head down, after Novi has a moment of feeling sad about people finding her scary.

As we get down, we come to a small doorway, just above a meter, with a sign above it saying “Corin’s Allseeing Eye”. Inside are various trinkets and oddities and carpets decorating the room. A door on the other side leads further in. We call out, and a halfling, Corin, comes out of the backroom. We ask for help finding a haven node, and he says yes, if our wish is truly to find a haven node - if we wanna find something else, it might interfere with his seeing abilities. Both Novi and Nohran back out for that reason, but Eliora gives a prick of her blood.

As Corin goes through the ritual, Eliora suddenly gets a vision, where she sees a birds eye view of the city, and feels herself gliding through the air, heading southeast, flying over the dunes, and after about a day’s travel, she sees the dunes cut off by ocean, and a few more hours out at sea later, she sees a rift. She feels herself fly through into a cave, where her perception of time disappears, and she finds herself flying through another rift. After the second rift, she feels a surge of magical power, as she finds herself in a wider and more open cave system, and after a bit of navigating, she finds a crack in the ground with magical energy swelling, and she feels sure that this is the haven node.

Afterwards, both Nohran and Novi take their turns with the Seer. Nohran, in his vision, feels himself flying out towards the same rift on the ocean as Eliora. He feels the same loss of time, finding himself before a rift that is almost sunken into the wall, flying through it. He feels his form go through, and it tears, as he loses his ability to move. He’s in a dark room, uncertain where he is and with no clue as to if anyone has been here. There’s no dust, but no sign of use. Everything new but not touched. His eyes shift to behind him, and he reads a note. Next to it he sees a blank mask, before being pulled out of the vision, retching, having experienced basically the death of the visions spirit. He went outside, stating to Novi that he just needs a moment to control himself.

Novi is looking for someone, not something. She too finds herself flying up, but she heads straight north for six or so days, finding a giant sinkhole of sand, pouring into a rift which she flies through. She comes to the other side, seeing the sand falling through is turning to glass, raining down into what looks like a magma cave system, feeling the heat around her. She follows the stream for about half a day, going through another rift, where she is surrounded by water. She sees nothing, and just feels crushing pressure, finding herself deep in an ocean before losing consciousness. Nohran goes to help her, coming back inside from calming himself down, as Corin runs off to get some water with his “Quickie Uppie” brew. He explains that it’s essentially a diluted health potion. It takes around five minutes before Novi comes back, but her vision is still gone. She feels herself falling, but now in a waterfall instead of ocean. As she hits the water below, she feels something giant scoop her up, and all she sees is one massive eye. She finally comes back, also retching. All she says about her vision is that she has found new prey. She then describes the path to Nohran, asking him to try and write it on his map. The two of them go outside, trying to map it out as Adelais tries as well. She sticks some fingers into a crack in her armor, gathering whatever comes out. Corin does whatever he can to make it workable in the ritual.

Adelais sees herself going straight down through the canyon, going into the ground. Surrounded by darkness, feeling nothing, losing all sense of time and place as she keeps going. She doesnt know if it’s hours, days, months, before she finds herself in a field of wheat, the night sky above her. She’s on a small path, just wide enough for a cart. In front of her, she sees a black cat, walking out with a noose from its neck, turning to her, and she feels the deep golden eyes burrowing into her, and it speaks. “You seem to have escaped me. Who are you? Where are you from?”. She recognizes it as the black cat of the goddess of death. It then says “You should be in the cycle,” and she feels herself get crushed. In the real world, her limbs suddenly snap unnaturally and contort, as an immense force twists her body, as she collapses, unconscious.

The people outside hear the crunching of bone and wrenching of metal from inside, and as they peek in, they see the unconscious Adelais and Corin, also having passed out. Eliora goes to find a potion while Laziel lectures the group on trying this, with consequences getting worse every time. As Eliora pours the potion to Adelais, nothing happens. Laziel goes to fetch the guard, but leaves before they arrive to go to a bar. The rest of the group get sent towards a clerical tower by the guards who come running. The group sprints there, and a cleric casts Raise Dead on her. Adelais, upon waking up, sees two golden cat eyes in her peripheral vision.

The cleric looks terrified and starts to leave, but Adelais catches him, asking him what he saw. He, scared, says he saw nothing, and Adelais caresses his face, saying good boy. Novi helps Nohran up, and the group goes to find Laziel so they can leave. As they do, they come across the siblings with an older man, clearly related. They introduce their father, Lord Kahruun Flintstride and ruler of this city.

DATE: 12/08/2025

In-game Date Start:

In-game Date Finish:

Players Present

  • Jeremy (Eliora)

  • Trym (Laziel)

  • Rasmus (Nohran)

  • Sari (Adelais)

  • Sydney (Novithea)

Subbed Characters

  • 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

  • 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:

“You one of those Seer’s?” - Oran

“Seer? I hardly know’er..! No, I don’t know what that is.” - Eliora

“That’s a fifty percent success rate - I find that acceptable.” - Laziel, about flirting

“Novi, how would you like a shot at killing this thing?” - Nohran

“Yes please!” - Novi, being launched 30 feet up into the air to fall down on the Anky Skelly

“I have found new prey.” - Novi

“It’s not yet her time. Just do something.” - Nohran