Session, 2026-05-01, Crypt of the Brothers

The party rests above Weber-Hollows through a fog-haunted night, learns the founding-brothers’ true story inside the Barrows-Family-Crypt, fights two animated stone Verdant Lord guards, opens both sarcophagi (one full, one empty), recovers a Speak-with-Dead ring from a grieving owl bear’s lair, and splits up to investigate the next leg.

Cast

Player	Character
Dustin	Dorian Oric
Jackson	Tharion Papadakis
Matt	K’roaa’ka
Nathan	Roland Hartbane
Rachel	Lilith Rozanov
Lexy	Azalea Fern
(DM)	Brandon

Reveals & Canon So Far

• The Creepy Jester is named Achilles. Update The-Creepy-Jester with the name.
• Achilles has no nuts. Canon. Per Dustin.
• Flinter-Barrows is one of the 13 Verdant Lords. Major reveal. The Weber Hollows petty lord is also a seat on the Verdant Realm’s ruling council.
• Roland Hartbane’s three Knight-background retainers are named:
  • Carrot — squire
  • Analese — spy
  • Alaric — loremaster (distinct from Aldrich-the-Lore-Master of Weber Hollows)
• Ramelia — a town (location TBD on continent map).
• Val (Valzorme) — a college, in or near Ramelia.
• The party traded for a book containing the world’s lore. Out-of-character, this maps to Brandon’s Quartz wiki at https://vitas-nova.pages.dev/.

What Happened

Long Rest at the Crop Circle (cattle mutilation site)

• Party decided to take a long rest at the crop circle / pasture above Weber Hollows instead of pushing to the Barrows-Family-Crypt. Originally Brandon was railroading them toward the crypt; the table pushed back since they had already set up camp.
• Roland’s tent setup, canonical:
  • Roland’s tent is described as a parade-style canvas tent with flags, four corner posts, one central pole, big enough for ~4 people.
  • Carrot (squire) sleeps under the wagon. “That’s where the squire always sleeps.”
  • Alaric (Roland’s loremaster retainer, sleeps in the tent, snores loudly. Bit gag with a wood + rubber band / clothespin on his nose.
  • Analese (the spy) is not present at camp — she’s away on spy duties. Retainers cannot do active combat tasks per ruling.
• The party explicitly worked through “Aldrich vs Alaric” and confirmed Alaric is Roland’s loremaster retainer (separate person from Aldrich-the-Lore-Master of Weber Hollows).
• Watch order: Dorian first watch (with G.L.U. on the high ground, tinkering on G.L.U. through the night). Azalea (4hr trance) wakes early, joins watch. Roland up next. Tharion meditates 4hrs.

The Fog and the Voices

• Around midnight a thick supernatural fog rolls in over the lowest level of Weber Hollows. Doesn’t penetrate dark vision the same way — still fog, not darkness.
• Three of the party (Dorian, Azalea, Roland) hear a voice in the woods imitating a young child crying for help. Sounded like the name “Braun” / “Brandon.”
• Animals around Azalea (chipmunks, squirrels, frogs, cardinals) go savage during the fog. A chipmunk bit her. When Azalea cast Speak with Animals, all it would say was “feed.”
• Tharion does a 10-minute ritual cast staring into the fire to commune with spirits/ancestors. Wood cracks into the shape of a skull. Confirms negative spirits in the area.
• Roland goes to higher ground, sees that the fog is sitting only on the lower levels of Weber Hollows — the upper ridge is clear. Spots glowing red eyes in the distance, far off, indistinct shape.
• Roland fails his perception (rolled 4, then a 3 with -1) so the shape stays unidentifiable.
• An owl bear roar is heard from the nearby caverns. By morning, the party can see an owl bear in its den in the cave by the watch position.

The Lifting Mechanism (worldbuilding reveal)

• During the night, Weber Hollows itself appears to descend and then re-ascend — “like a interlocking thing, like docking, like a plate that opens up the staircase.” Roland, who was on the high ground, feels the levels shift down. By morning it’s restored.
• Implication: Weber Hollows or part of it sits on a mechanical / magical platform that moves up and down on a cycle. Possibly tied to the dark pall, possibly the founders’ construction.

Morning at the Crop Circle

• Aldrich the Lore Master (Weber Hollows NPC, snoring all night) wakes up grumpy. Calls Tharion an inexperienced healer (“young man has lots to learn”). Tharion didn’t heal him in the prior battle.
• Shiloh Barrows and Nora Barrows come down from the upper levels to tend the grain fields (basket in hand). They were on a walk through the lower fields.
• Shiloh notices Azalea’s chipmunk bite. Conversation about Azalea’s gift to speak with animals and her wild shape. Nora explains: “Some of those gifted in our culture and that of Amaresis, they can speak to some of the animals, depending on where they’re from, what type of people they are, and whether they’re blessed.”
• Shiloh asks if she can ride Azalea’s bear. Azalea begins to transform into a bear in front of them.
• In-fiction confirmation overheard: Flinter is referred to as “the Verdant Lord” by Nora in passing, locking in the reveal.

G.L.U. + Echo Watch Beat

• G.L.U. (300 lbs of plate steel per Dorian’s offhand) is left on the high ground when Roland goes back down. G.L.U. watches the party from above with longing.
• Dorian’s offhand thought: needs to upgrade G.L.U.’s frame to a lighter alloy (mithril or adamantite floated by the table). “Aluminum doesn’t exist yet” was a fun aside.

Morning Briefing With Aldrich and Nora

After the Azalea-bear-ride scene, the party sits down with Aldrich-the-Lore-Master (who slept at camp, separate from Roland’s retainer Alaric) and debriefs:

• Aldrich on owl bears: “A majestic monstrosity, but also a beast. Half owl, half bear, as the name portrays. They hunt in the dead of the night. Fierce creatures, though they usually mate for life. Undisturbed and unprovoked, they shall not attack.” Azalea pushes back, claims to know an aggressive owl bear who leads her hometown — transcript joke, but sets up that her town has Wild Shape-tier oddities at the top of its hierarchy.
• Nora reveals worldbuilding during the morning grain-tending visit:
  • Her father-in-law Arador-Barrows “would speak of fog from time to time.”
  • Aradorn lost his mind several years before he passed away.
  • The Barrows family pays respects in the crypt.
• The party connects: Aradorn was likely the first victim of the Weber Hollows dark pall, decades ago. The fog has been recurring for years.

Misc Morning Beats

• The owl bear egg. Roland brought one from town in his cart — canonically a delicacy worth ~1000 gp. Roland and Azalea cook and eat it for breakfast at the camp. Concern raised: the local owl bear (in the cliff cave) might smell its young being cooked from miles off.
• Bowfin caught. K’roaa’ka uses his fishing rig at the well/pond and pulls a bowfin — an armored fish, inedible but the scales/armor could be used as crafting material. Filed for Dorian’s eventual G.L.U. plate-upgrade project.
• Speak with Animals follow-up. Azalea asks the chipmunk that bit her why — it just keeps repeating “feed” and runs off. The fog-affected animals are starving. The dark force may be draining the land’s life.
• Dorian’s pocket watch is canonically established: a small gear-driven gadget he invented, “one of my first inventions.” Half-joke “Apple Sundial” / “Pineapple Sundial” but logged.

The Barrows Family Crypt — Entry and the Three-Phase Puzzle

• Party enters the Barrows-Family-Crypt (it’s a building, not a cave — the prior “cave” imagery was the cliff path; the crypt is a mausoleum-style structure overgrown with vines). Stone door entrance. Sunlight bleeds through gaps in the roof.
• Two stone Verdant Lord statues stand at the ready inside — one with a scythe, one with a great sword. Pre-emptive “swords to plowshares” theme.
• Tomb names carved on the walls:
  • Aradorn Barrows (the Unifier / Uniter)
  • Isar Recmir (full name reveal — Isar’s surname is Recmir, not Barrows)
• Three picture etchings, each top half visible, bottom half overgrown by vines:
  1. Two figures forming a brotherly bond.
  2. The two brothers in arms leading an expedition away from a large fire, clad in Verdant Lord armor.
  3. Arrival at a series of caves.
• Five animal sigil totems mounted on the walls, removable: vulture, stag, wolf, boar, bear. Three slots at the bottom for them.

Solving the puzzle

• Dorian uses Mage Hand to test a vine — the vine violently knocks the spectral hand away. Confirmed reactive defenses.
• The party inspects each sigil:
  • Vulture — feeding on rotting flesh / carrion in its mouth.
  • Stag — regal, looking over the realm.
  • Boar — charging headfirst, snout down.
  • Bear — looking up at a moon.
  • Wolf — pack of other wolves visible on close inspection.
• Solving order locked:
  1. Stag in slot 1 (matches “brotherly bond” picture). Locks.
  2. Wolf in slot 2 (matches “expedition” — pack). Locks.
  3. Bear tried in slot 3, rejected (vine attempt, evaded with DC save).
  4. Vulture in slot 3 (matches caves / decay). Locks.

The bottom-half reveal (after all three sigils placed)

The vines recede. The pictures change:

1. The brothers were not bonding — they were arguing.
2. One brother sets fire to allow the other to venture into the cave depths. Metallic features in the background — “metal augmentations to people’s homes, something nature would reject.” Possible Mightstone / Weakstone reference (Brandon hinted “nothing, never mind” but the table caught it).
3. Within the cave structure, the cave collapses, separating the brothers forever.

The slender figure (revealed under the bottom panel)

A slender humanoid creature with white fur and antlers like a stag, long thin arms, posing ominously. Likely Amareses (canon: stag-headed mortal-bodied figure with branching antlers) — but the ominous depiction here suggests either an early Amareses, a corrupted aspect, or that whoever built this crypt held a darker version of the goddess.

After this revelation, the stone statues animate.

Combat: The Stone Verdant Lord Guards

After the tablets reveal, two stone constructs animate to defend the crypt. The party calls them “stone Verdant Lord” guards (Brandon’s flavor: ancient verdant warriors, stone bodies with vines acting as blood vessels running through them, wielding stone blade + scythe / plowshare-themed weapons — “swords to plowshares” theme, war turned to harvest, an Amaresis echo).

Mechanics observed

• Constructs revive via vine-knit reformation if not killed close together. Killing one without killing the second triggers re-animation. Fire is ineffective on stone.
• AC roughly mid-teens (Lilith’s 14 missed, 18+ hit). They cleave: at least one used a reaping AOE, DC 12 DEX save, 9 damage in a 10 ft line.

Combat highlights

• Tharion crit nat-20 with longsword (two-handed for the d10), dumped 3 spell slots into stacked Divine Smites. Crit math: 24 base + 16 second-smite-2d8 = 66 total damage, instantly dropping the first guard. Spent his entire spell slot pool on this one swing.
• The first guard rose again via vine reformation — moral: kill them on the same turn or burn the vines.
• Dorian fired the crossbow first round. Missed; the arrow ricocheted and hit Tharion in the knee for 1d4+1 (table joke, “now he can say he takes an arrow to the knee”).
• Dorian later cast Catapult on a 5-pound stone, target failed DC 13 DEX save, 11 damage (low 3d8 roll). Bonus action: ordered G.L.U. to attack the same target. G.L.U. Force-Empowered Rend +4, hit, 7 damage.
• Roland swapped shield for two-handed longsword (AC 17 unshielded, 19 with shield). Used Searing Smite (ineffective on stone), then Divine Smite. Took 10 damage from a stone blade swing. Hellish Rebuke was attempted but flagged as not on his sheet — DM allowed half-damage version.
• Azalea stayed as a brown bear, claw + bite. Missed once with a nat-2-tier roll, then connected for 4+4d8 damage on the second guard, knocking its leg off. Took the leg in her bear mouth as a trophy.
• Lilith hidden, popped out from cover with the shortbow / hand crossbow for sneak attack. Final kill on the second guard: shot through the eye. Catchphrase: “Try and take my acorns again.”
• K’roaa’ka Hunter’s Marked the first guard, did bow damage. After it revived, the mark transferred to the second.
• Echo (K’roaa’ka’s hound) finally engaged. Pack tactics with Azalea-bear. Missed first attack, hit on the follow-up.
• Total in-fiction time: ~12 seconds. Total IRL time: a long while.
• Final tally: both stone Verdant Lord guards down. Lore Master Aldrich (still snoring earlier, now elsewhere) shouts encouragement: “Sir Roland! Good job. Praise be to Amareses! In the name of the White Stag!” — ties the encounter explicitly to Roland’s quest.

After the Crypt

• Party perplexed by why the constructs animated — defending the brother-story tablets? Punishing tampering? Bound by Verdant Lord oath?
• Party plans to short rest in the crypt and roll hit dice. Tharion is most hurt (smited himself dry of slots, took the cleave reaping).
• Next destination floated: the cave — where one of the founding brothers got stuck per the tablet story. Possibly the same cliff-path cave with the owl bear from the morning.

The Sarcophagi

After the constructs fall, Dorian (and party) inspect the corpses of the stone Verdant Lords. The vines are dormant. Dorian senses a faint protective magical presence — “as if they were there to protect something.”

Investigation reveals a hidden latch (Dorian’s investigation roll 12 with +5 = 17). The lever opens the chamber and exposes two sarcophagi, one for each name carved on the wall: Aradorn and Isar.

• Aradorn the Unifier (former Verdant Lord, father of Flinter) — body present, rotted. Something has been ripped off his hand — a piece of jewelry / a ring is missing.
• Isar — EMPTY casket. No body.

Theories formed at the table

• Dorian’s coined theory: there’s a “Crypt Lord” out there with Isar’s body / soul, wearing the missing jewelry from Aradorn, animating the dark pall over Weber Hollows.
• Isar may be an undead Amaresis-aligned figure framing the nature goddess (the Amaresis blood symbol on the cattle = misdirection).
• The “fat guy” / Flinter handing the party the founding-book may have been a misdirect — though his innocence is also debated. The party leans toward Isar (or whoever has Isar’s body) being the antagonist.

The Cave — The Owl Bear and Bubbles the Goblin

Heading to the cliff cave (where the founding-brother tablet showed one of the brothers got stuck), the party encounters a fleeing one-armed goblin ~20 ft from them.

• Dorian uses Catapult as a warning shot — 5 lb stick, rolled 18, scares the goblin.
• The goblin pleads for his life. Talked down by Tharion. Spoke broken Common, was eventually named “Bubbles” by the party (his canonical in-fiction name, courtesy Tharion).
• Bubbles’ info:
  • His clan was based at a stronghold the party visited “not a day back.”
  • The goblin boss had a magical ring stolen from the crypt.
  • The boss was killed and dismembered by the owl bear — his arm with the ring is in the owl bear’s lair right now.
  • Boss’s name not given, but his death and missing jewelry connects directly to Aradorn’s missing ring.
• Tharion adopts Bubbles as a follower / convert to Elythrael (also referenced as “Alathriel” / “Elafriel” — spelling variant from transcription noise). Bubbles fails his Wis save against Lilith’s hand-shake test (scared, runs from her), but stays friendly with Tharion.
• An NPC “Tiger” (probably the saber-tooth Azalea negotiated with last session) reportedly told someone about a death in the fog. The owl bear may have lost a mate to the fog.

Inside the lair

• Owl bear is asleep, muttering indistinctly. Goblin parts strewn around. Nest big enough for two — mate is missing or dead.
• Bubbles (with the party hidden) creeps to the dead boss’s arm to take the ring. Owl bear awakens.
• Azalea (still in bear form) speaks to it via Speak with Animals — “Take the ring and leave me be.” Owl bear cryptic line: “to slumber, or to suffer.”
• Owl bear is a male, mourning. Likely lost his mate to the fog / dark pall. Confirms his suffering tied to the same source the party is hunting.

The Ring

• Recovered from the dead goblin boss’s severed arm.
• Gold band, green gemstone.
• Identified (via Dorian / earlier Identify): wearing it lets the wearer cast Speak with Dead.
• Almost certainly Aradorn’s ring (matching the “ripped off hand” detail in his sarcophagus).
• The party didn’t put it on in scene — saving it to use on Aradorn back at the crypt to interrogate the dead Verdant Lord.

End of Session: Splitting the Party

Decision at session end:

• Lilith + Tharion — stay near the cave to tail the owl bear when it leaves at night. The fog leaves around midnight, owl bear suspected to follow. Bubbles the goblin stays with Tharion.
• Roland + Dorian + K’roaa’ka + Azalea — go back to Weber Hollows with Echo and G.L.U. for the night. Plan to return to the crypt and use the Speak with Dead ring on Aradorn at the next opportunity.
• Joke aside about staying at “Caesar’s Palace” hotel in Weber Hollows.
• Roland’s retainers had already broken camp and returned to town earlier — they are not on-site.
• Dorian hands his coin to Roland for safekeeping. Lilith has a unique coin marked “Deceptra” — referenced as a Kezmet tie / her father’s coin-flip omen.

Session Closeout

• Next session: ~2 weeks out (one player has an event, Nathan is out next week).
• Final beat: Dustin “going back into the owl bear’s cave” as a half-joke parting line. (Not in-fiction.)

Open Questions Raised This Session

• What was the voice in the fog imitating a child? Mimic, fey-touched, demonic, the source of the dark pall?
• What are the red eyes in the distance? Same creature as the voice, or a watcher?
• What is the lifting mechanism under Weber Hollows, and who built it?
• Why did the chipmunk only say “feed”? Hunger of the land itself, or compulsion from above?
• Did the owl bear’s presence overlap with the fog event, or are they unrelated?
• The skull shape in Tharion’s fire ritual — whose skull, what message?

Plot Threads Opened / Advanced

• The dark pall over Weber Hollows is decades old. Aradorn Barrows spoke of fog before he died and “lost his mind several years before he passed.” The cycle predates the current generation.
• The lifting mechanism under Weber Hollows. The town descends and re-ascends nightly. Mechanism, builder, and purpose unknown. Possibly tied to the founders’ “metallic features” hinted at in the crypt panels.
• Isar Recmir is missing from his casket. Likely undead / animate, possibly the source of the dark pall, possibly wearing Aradorn’s missing ring.
• Aradorn the Unifier awaits Speak with Dead. The party recovered the ring needed to question him.
• The slender white-furred antlered humanoid in the crypt’s bottom panel may be a corrupted Amareses — or an early/dark aspect of the goddess. Cattle blood symbol now reads more layered.
• The Verdant Lord seats — five sigils now revealed (vulture, stag, wolf, boar, bear). Stag is canonically Roland’s father. The brothers Aradorn and Isar likely held two of the others.
• The owl bear’s mate died in the fog. He suffers, doesn’t attack the party. Possible side quest if the party returns.
• Bubbles the goblin has joined the party as Tharion’s adopted convert. Possible double agent, possible genuine follower.

New Wiki Pages from This Session

NPCs: Achilles (real name of The-Creepy-Jester), Carrot, Analese, Alaric, Bubbles

Locations: Ramelia, Val-College (Valzorme)

Updates: Flinter-Barrows (now confirmed Verdant Lord), Aradorn-Barrows (full title “the Unifier”, Verdant Lord status, missing ring, body present), Isar (full name Isar Recmir, casket empty), Roland-Hartbane (retainers named), Thirteen-Verdant-Lords (Aradorn added; Flinter holds his father’s seat), The-Creepy-Jester (named Achilles), Weber-Hollows (lifting mechanism, fog history), Echo (refused crypt, sensed decay)

Source

Voice recording captured live via ~/Desktop/session3-listener/, AssemblyAI nano speech model. Full transcript at session3_transcript_20260501_182503.md.