2023 08 06

The party walks around Vallaki to the Vistani Camp in order to drop off Arabel. As they walked around the western gate, Thorn notices that there are more guards around than before, but the guards did not seem to respond as the party walked by.

The party approaches the main tent of the camp. After entering the tent, Lou Vaash is happy to see Arabel. The party is given the chance to choose from 6 chests: a plain wooden chest, a plain iron chest, an onyx jewelry box with gold filigree, a wooden box with gold trim, a small wooden box with silver trim, and a very tall cylinder wrapped in burlap. Frost over the Grass tested each of the containers.

The party chose the tall cylinder, which was a very well made rug with a fancy unicorn on it and a small satchel wrapped inside. The satchel was a bag of holding, and for now, the rug has been put in the bag.

Afterward, the party went back to Vallaki to meet back up with Irena and Lancelot, but the guards did not let them into the city by order of the Baron, so the party instead went back to the camp and rested so that Thorn could send a message to Irena.

The party used sending to send the following message to Irena: “We’re banned from town and at the Vistani Camp. Can you come to us? Where are you?”

Irena whispered back in a hushed tone “Izek stormed the inn, forced me to come to him. He’s keeping me in the reformation center behind the Baron’s house for ‘my own safety’“

Outside the tent, Thorn hears the sound of a raven calling. The cry seems to be coming from ¼ or a ⅓ of a mile from the group. The noise comes from outside the camp. Thorn led the group toward the call and when they got to the source, they found a blue tipped raven feather. After picking up the feather, she notices a female voice from above in the tree calling down. “I wasn’t sure you would hear my call. I’ve been out here a while.” The Muriel woman is in the tree and looking down. She is a human female, sort of tan skin, with shoulder-length blue tipped black hair. She’s wearing dark clothing.

She had been watching the group for a while. Her name is Muriel from the order of the feather.

Muriel thinks that a woman in Vallaki by the name of Fiona Wachter who is known as being against the Baron. She has a guy who works for her who had been following the group for a while when they were in town. He is currently on the outskirts of the city. He may be looking for the group. Fiona may be wanting to talk to the party. Her helper is a tall skinny dude with a sketchy vibe, and he seems to be on the way to the camp. Fiona may be pro-Strahd, however.

After getting back to the camp, the party found a human man matching the description Muriel gave in the main tent. He has slicked back black hair and is wearing a tailored suit. He perks up as the group walks in.

His name is Ernst Lardack, and he works for Fiona. Fiona would like to have us over for dinner. Ernst has a sketchy vibe, but he does not seem to be holding back anything sinister. When told that we were not allowed in town, he said that isn’t a problem as long as we don’t make it a problem. The party agreed to follow him.

He takes them to the southeastern part of the town to a two story mansion that rests against the wall. He leads the party to a section of the wall, raises his hand to it, and the wall splits open in a small 3-foot wide gap. They walk through a storeroom into a kitchen. There are two cooks preparing food in a well maintained, nice kitchen. Ernst takes the party to an upstairs room that looks like a library. Upon further inspection, this room seems to be a room for the cats to stay in. The desks are uncluttered. Thistle wants to pet the pats 3 tabby’s, a calico, and the two black cats are open to being petted. There are two other cats, but they only seem interested in Frost over the Grass. There are 12-15 books in here with various titles including “The Bible of the Lathander”, “Devils and Fiends”, “Beginner Spellcraft”, “A Mortician’s Guidebook”

The room is oddly shaped

Once Frost over the Grass tries to pull out the “Beginner Spellcraft”, she hears a click. AFter fussing with a hidden door, they found that the bookshelf pushes in. Inside is a singular room that looks to be for some kind of storage. There is a curtained window in the small room. There are miscellaneous sets of dark clothes and black robes. There is also an iron chest that sits off to the side.

Among the robes is a fancier set and three other sets that are identical. There is no embroidery on the robes. There are some horn symbols and wing motifs on the sleeves of the fancier one. On the back of the fancy robe is something that looks like it might be a spell circle of some kind.

Thorn casted detect magic and sensed that there is some kind of illusion magic coming from a lower floor, but the robes themselves do not have any magic on them.

An usher appears after some time, letting the group out of the library/cat room, down the stairs, and into a room across from the kitchen. It’s fairly large and L-shaped. Its dimly lit by a few candelabras on the table itself. A middle-aged woman in her 50s or so who is thin but not gaunt, looks pleasant. The pair seat you around the table. The woman at the head of the table speaks up and introduces herself as Fiona Wachter.

Fiona wants for Izek to no longer be alive. She would be able to “transition” the power of the Baron away to someone else. She also would like to have the Baron’s son, Victor. She wanted to marry her daughter off to his son. She is unsure what happened, but ever since, her daughter has been haunted by nightmares and does not speak.

Town square, inn, church, reformation center, marketplace (on the north side of town), housing district (east side), and the gates themselves are the common places that Izek will visit on a day. He doesn’t tend to walk the perimeter.

Roughly 50 guards. 8 of them are more highly trained. The regular guards do 3 shifts, and the elite ones do 2. There will generally be 2 guards at each gate, 3 at the Baron’s house, 6 sections of individual guards patrolling the walls. The elite guards generally guard the main street, one on each side, and 2 in the square.

After the discussion and offering her help, Fiona heads upstairs for the night.

Another message to Irena: “Working on a plan, but it may take time. Are you being hurt?”

Irena’s response: “Not being hurt. Workers down here are like zombies. I think I’m underground. People are being tortured. I hear screaming, but I think I am okay”