Session, 2026-04-25, Weber Hollows Arrival

The party converges on Weber-Hollows, finds the cattle mutilation site marked with the symbol of Amaresis in blood, meets town leadership, and discovers that something dark hangs over the settlement itself.

Cast

| Player | Character | Speaker (transcript) | | ------- | ------------------------------ | -------------------- | -------------- | | Dustin | Dorian Oric | E | | Jackson | Tharion Papadakis | (B/C/D, mixed) | | Matt | K’roaa’ka | F | | Nathan | Roland Hartbane | (B/C/D, mixed) | | Rachel | Lilith Rozanov | (B/C/D, mixed) | | Lexy | Azalea Fern | (B/C/D, mixed) | | (DM) | DM | A |

Diarization note: only 5 non-DM speaker labels were assigned for 5 PCs, but the labels are not clean. Dorian (E) and K’roaa’ka (F) are reliable. The other four PCs share labels B/C/D and lines must be attributed by context.

What Happened

Opening: Hobgoblin Camp and the Mimic Chest

• The party is in a hobgoblin camp at session open. Roland tries to slit a sleeping hobgoblin’s throat for the gold the hobgoblin claimed was “in the chest.” Initial sword work grazes him; the hobgoblin survives and rolls initiative.
• Roland later crits with Searing Smite (2d6 ongoing fire). The hobgoblin disengages and flees rather than fight; he is injured but not killed.
• The chest in camp is a mimic. Lilith short-sword hits for 6 (slices one eye). Tharion warhammers for 4. Roland’s two-handed longsword crit finishes it.
• Mimic loot: bag of holding.

Cattle Mutilation Site (the pasture above town)

• Party finds livestock killed in a circle, with the symbol of Amaresis drawn in cattle blood on the ground. Stomachs and entrails torn open.
• Dorian rolls Arcana 16, detects “faint devilish, almost demonic” magic at the scene.
• Echo senses dark magic on the corpses and refuses to stay nearby.
• Benai is the only person present at the site when the party arrives. Identity and role unclear.
• The party descends a 50 ft ladder to reach the site. G.L.U. cannot use the ladder, waits at the top with the cart.
• An owl-bear is heard along the cliff path. The party avoids engagement.
• Goblin corpses are spotted in cave pits along the same cliff path.
• During a prayer scene at the pasture, a sparrow circles the dead cow as if waiting for something to return. Read as a divine omen, tied to Tharion’s communion.

Arrival in Weber-Hollows

• The party reaches town. Echo refuses to enter and has to be loaded into the cart.
• They meet Aldrich-the-Lore-Master near the entrance. He grabs Tharion by the shoulder. A party member slaps him during the encounter; he runs off.
• Jamarius-the-Glorious, the town storekeeper, is introduced. Dorian is “not a big fan.”

At Flinter-Barrows’s Home

• Flinter-Barrows receives the party in his home, the first house visible coming into town. Offers food and history.
• He confirms Weber Hollows was founded about 50 years ago by his father Arador-Barrows alongside someone he was close with, Isar.
• His wife is Nora-Barrows. His daughter is Shiloh-Barrows (~9 years old).
• Family records are kept in the Barrows-Family-Crypt, just over a bridge from the settlement.
• The quiet party member (K’roaa’ka) gives Shiloh an ancient arrowhead.
• Flinter does not trigger Echo’s fear of the town, suggesting he is not the source of the dark pall.

The Mimic

• See Opening: Hobgoblin Camp and the Mimic Chest above for the combat. Key beat: Lilith’s 18-hit, 6-damage short sword cut to the mimic’s eye, then failed Cunning Action hide (rolled 10 total).
• Final loot recovered from the mimic: bag of holding.

The Legendary Card

• Lilith reveals she carries a card she paid for from The-Creepy-Jester on the road to Weber Hollows.
• Dorian casts Identify on it. The card reads as legendary, of divine nature, “an unsurmountable amount of money” valuable.
• The party suspects the jester may have more.

The Book and the Fat Jolly Man

• A PC reveals they obtained The-Book (a book of local lore) from a Fat-Jolly-Man standing outside town.
• Flinter-Barrows mentions a “professor character” came by earlier asking to retrieve “one of our books of lore” — likely the same volume.
• Party reaction: “isn’t he, like, a bad guy?” The party has already read the book and elects to keep it. Flinter offers to take it back; the party declines.
• Out-of-game, The-Book is the published Vitas Nova worldbuilding wiki — in-fiction, it gives the party access to broader world lore.
• The book references a tree the party identifies as Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Possible origin point for Azalea (“that is where elves come from”).
• The book records that Isar and Arador-Barrows did not get along, contradicting Flinter’s framing of the two founders as close.

The Detective Scene (Oiled-Up Fat Guy)

• While part of the party investigated the pasture, the rest spent the day in town helping a heavily-oiled-up fat man with an unspecified problem, roleplaying as detectives.
• Recapped to the other half as: “we had to help a fat guy, it was the worst, he was really fat, he was all oiled up too” / “we did nothing in town besides roleplay as a detective.”
• Identity of the oiled-up man and the nature of the case TBD.

Out of Combat

• Azalea Wild Shapes into a brown bear. Engages a captive bear/saber-tooth scene, negotiates non-aggression, frees the captive in exchange for information about local goblin territory.
• K’roaa’ka catches a huge fish outside town and harvests tough scales from it. Possible crafting material.
• Goblin encounter on the road is referenced in player recaps but the outcome is unclear (“saw some goblins, can’t quite remember if we killed them”). Distinct from the goblin corpses found in cliff-path cave pits.

Plot Threads Opened

• Cattle mutilations and the Amaresis symbol. Cult activity, demonic deception, or someone framing Amaresis. Party is considering camping at the pasture overnight.
• Dark magic over Weber Hollows itself. Echo senses it on the land. Party theorizes a blanket illusion. Flinter is not the source.
• Aldrich-the-Lore-Master’s mysterious behavior after being slapped. Possible compulsion, possible grudge.
• The Barrows-Family-Crypt holds the founding records of Weber Hollows.
• Goblins in the cliff path territory. Suspects, witnesses, or red herring.
• Dorian’s suspected demonic taint after touching something at the mutilation site. Hunger symptoms. Party debating trust.
• The-Creepy-Jester and his legendary cards. Unknown identity, unknown motive, unknown stock.
• The-Book and the Fat-Jolly-Man. Lore book obtained from a suspicious figure outside town. Possibly the same “professor” Flinter mentioned. Party suspects he’s a bad guy. They are keeping the book.
• The oiled-up fat man and the detective sub-plot. Half the party spent a day in town on a detective scene helping an oiled-up fat man. Unresolved.
• Isar / Arador rift. The book says the two founders did not get along, contradicting Flinter’s account. Either Flinter doesn’t know, is rewriting history, or the book is wrong.
• Sparrow omen at the pasture. Tied to Tharion’s prayer. Possible divine signal from Amaresis or a watcher.

Session End

Session ended on a cliffhanger heading to the crypt, which becomes the opener of Session 2026-05-01: Crypt of the Brothers.

New Wiki Pages from This Session

NPCs: Flinter-Barrows, Nora-Barrows, Shiloh-Barrows, Arador-Barrows, Isar, Jamarius-the-Glorious, Aldrich-the-Lore-Master, Benai, The-Creepy-Jester, Fat-Jolly-Man

Locations: Pasture-Above-Weber-Hollows, Barrows-Family-Crypt

Items: The-Book, Bag-of-Holding (looted from the mimic chest)

Updates: Weber-Hollows, Echo, GLU

Source

Voice recording, ~113 minutes, transcribed via AssemblyAI with speaker diarization.