📜 Session Overview

The party started the day scattered across the horseshoe ring over Vysteerie, staring down at the impossible city below like it was daring them to blink first. Everyone was up there—except Xerocomath and Warwick—and that fact didn't last long. Xerocomath realmstrided in fast from Theros… and immediately learned the hard way that appearing off the platform means you don't get a second to steady yourself. He fell, caught the attention of a young jabberwock wyrmling, and the creature answered with cruelty—slamming him down until he lay unconscious and bloodied on the stone far below.

Tyel'Koron didn't hesitate. He leapt after him, calling a gold wyrmling to aid the rescue, and when he hit the ground he found Xerocomath still alive—barely, hovering on the edge of slipping away. The others followed soon after, each calling to the wyrmlings they'd tried to bond with before. The ring became a ritual circle, and the air between the ring and the city became a long, screaming lesson.

Sorina hit the ground hard, went limp, and then—before anyone could even draw a breath around it—she succumbed to her wounds and left the plane. The shock wasn't that she died. The shock was that the silver wyrmling realmstrided with her. Tyel'Koron followed, landing with them in Theros just long enough to hear the dragon speak and command him to leave her be. He returned with the only mercy he could offer: Sorina wasn't lost, and she wasn't alone.

Up on the ring, the meaning of the test still felt wrong. How does falling to your death prove you can bond with a dragon—especially a child? But the wyrmlings didn't care about the question. They cared about the act. One by one, the party members threw themselves from the platform, died, and returned—each time tightening the bond between realmstrider and wyrmling. Death was the mechanism. The stride in death was the hook. And the wyrmlings were learning to follow.

By the end, the party sat in a grove on Theros with a new purpose carved into them the hard way. Not with victories, not with speeches—just the truth. They had fallen. They had died. And now, each of them had a small dragon standing behind them, tethered to the same strange path through the planes.

⚔️ Key Events

• The First Fall: Xerocomath realmstrides to Vysteerie off-platform and plummets, drawing the ire of a jabberwock wyrmling that slams him unconscious. Tyel'Koron leaps after him with a gold wyrmling in tow, finding him barely alive.
• Sorina's Shocking Death: Sorina hits the ground and dies, but the silver wyrmling realmstrides with her—the first confirmation that the dragons can follow their chosen through death. Tyel'Koron follows to Theros and is commanded by the dragon to leave her be.
• The Wrong Name: Sinora calls her black wyrmling by the wrong name and it violently throws her from the platform. She dies, realmstrides, and the dragon follows—solidifying the strange bond.
• Warwick's Strange Stride: Warwick performs an enhanced stride and sees visions of water and blue before attempting to Misty Step. He finds himself floating in saltwater before reality snaps back and the ground claims him anyway.
• Deliberate Deaths: The party realizes dying is the key—Tyel'Koron, Broj, and Xerocomath all deliberately end their lives by jumping from the ring, each time bringing their wyrmling with them through the realmstride.
• The Grove Gathering: The party regroups at a grove on Theros, each with their wyrmling standing vigil. They mentally connect and begin communicating with their new dragon companions, learning their names and personalities.
• The Pact Sealed: Through repeated deaths and resurrections, the party forges pacts with their wyrmlings—not as mounts like the Githyanki, but as companions bound to the leylines of realmstriding itself.

⚔️ Combat Encounters

🐉 Wyrmlings Bonded

🔍 Important Discoveries

💰 Loot & Rewards

• Wyrmling Bonds: Each party member forged a pact with a wyrmling companion, bound to their realmstriding ability. These dragons will follow them through death and across the planes.
• Knowledge of the Bonding Ritual: Understanding how to bind creatures to the leylines of realmstriding—knowledge that could prove invaluable or dangerous.
• Experience: The party gained experience through the trials, though the true reward was the companionship of the wyrmlings.
• Reset Death Timers: All Realmstrider death protection timers were reset through the bonding process.

✨ Character Moments

🖼️ Session Images

📝 DM Notes

This session was one of the most unique and memorable bonding experiences I've run. The concept of requiring death to forge the wyrmling pact created genuine tension and moments of dark humor. The players embraced the surreal horror of repeatedly throwing themselves to their deaths with a mix of determination and gallows humor.

Highlights from behind the screen:

• The moment when Sorina's wyrmling realmstrided with her was completely unexpected by the players and created a perfect "aha!" moment
• Sinora's deadpan delivery of "To Die!" became an instant classic quote
• Each dragon's personality emerged organically during the bonding process
• The transformation of the black wyrmling into a shadow dragon was improvised based on Sinora's character arc and worked beautifully
• Warwick's salt water vision foreshadows future events
• The jabberwock bonding with Xerocomath feels perfectly chaotic for both characters

For next session: The party now has wyrmling companions that will grow with them. Need to establish how the dragons interact with combat, exploration, and social situations. Also, the party needs to decide their next move now that the bonding is complete.

🎭 Looking Ahead