Time: 6:20 PM
Weather: Foggy, overcast
Moon: Waxing Gibbous
Location: The Burgomaster’s House
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You make your preparations for the night. Tibbius, Iluq, and Robert, knowing that they will need to refresh their spells by the morrow, look for quiet spots where they can sleep. Ismark offers his room. Iluq sleeps there. The other two bunk in the guest room.
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Vokath offers to guard Ireena in the room of her choice. She offers to sit with the handsome but old paladin in the parlor for a while. She places her sword on a coffee table—the very table where her father's body had lain until this morning—and rests herself on a threadbare canapé that must have been quite fine in its day. Vorkath takes a seat across from her on a rose-patterned settee. He sits on the edge of the settee with his back ramrod straight, facing the boarded-up window, keeping his eyes peeled. Tumbler follows Vorkath into the room and stands behind him, blending into the shadows.
Vorkath tries to make small talk—where is Ireena from? What were her parents like? Her grandparents? When did she first encounter Strahd? What did he say and do? Why does she think he takes an interest in the family? Who would be motivated to fake a letter to the group? For what purpose?
“I only knew my father. You buried him this morning, remember? Papa was good. Strong, but kind. And a little silly sometimes. I miss him. I didn’t know my mother. Papa told me she died when I was very young. My grandparents died before I was born, I think.”
Strahd, she tells you, got into the house by disguise and charm. The first time, he made himself look like a villager. He arrived shortly after dark claiming to have urgent business with her Papa. Izzy was late returning from hunting and Papa was in town on business—she should have realized something was wrong because of that. Why wouldn’t a villager have known that Papa was in town?
Everyone knows not to invite strangers into your house after dark, but there was something in the man's eyes that was compelling. She asked the visitor to come inside and wait with her in the parlor. She sat about where she’s sitting now, and he sat right next to her.
He kept staring at her that night. Remembering it now, it was creepy, but she remembers feeling flattered at the time. They talked for hours. Funny, Strahd asked her a lot of the same questions Vorkath did. Who was her mother? What did she know of her family history? And he told her she was beautiful. She drank it all in. And then—and then when she woke hours later, still on the canapé, Izzy and Papa were standing over her with worried looks on their faces. Her neck itched.
The second time, about a month later, which would have been three weeks ago, he was more bold. He appeared as himself during one of his wolf attacks. Wolves managed to break into the house that night, just like last night. Papa and Izzy were home that night, but the wolves didn’t attack. They herded. Like they were the biggest, nastiest, damn dogs you’d ever seen. They backed Papa and Izzy into the pantry and just stood there, growling. Armed but heavily outnumbered, Papa and Izzy waited, wondering why the wolves didn’t attack.
That’s when he came to the door. He was really old—not like Vorkath, more like Agrippo. He had to be at least 45. He looked into her eyes again, and suddenly he was mature instead of old, distinguished and dashing, and enrapturing, not creepy. He could have taken her right there. She would have welcomed it. But he didn’t. He just kissed her on the neck. The kiss became a bite, and he drank.
She fainted again, and he laid her body down and left, calling the wolves with him.
“I don’t know why I told you all that. It’s all quite a lot to confess to a man I only just met,” she realizes. She grows more quiet. “I have no idea why he is obsessed with me,” she says, looking down. “I really don’t.”
Ismark wanders in as the conversation turns to your reason for being in the town. Who wrote that letter? And why?
“It must have been him who brought you here,” Ismark says. “Who else would? But it's strange. Adventurers have found their way into this town before. Some were drawn by the riches said to be held in Castle Ravenloft, some hoped to take Ravenloft for their own keep, some were on quests to defeat the great evil within. But none were invited. Why were you?”
Ireena yawns and curls up on her couch. “I need a nap,” she says, “before tonight’s attack.”
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The attack comes just before midnight. Robert, Iluq, and Tibbius awaken to the sounds of howling, scratching at the walls, and huge lupine bodies throwing themselves at the door and boarded-up windows. Ireena also awakes. She grabs her sword and stands at guard. Ismark takes a position in the dining room. The barricades hold for now.
Actions?
Status: Robert: 36/37, Iluq: 39/39, Vokath: 40/40, Repentance: 23/23, Tibbius: 22/22, Randolph: 4/4, Tumbler: 36/39, Agrippo: 52/52
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