Arrested by Guards, Bitten by Werewolves

In the middle of the night, and far earlier than Darren had hoped, his sleep gets interrupted by Urwin telling him to meet someone north of town. A tired Darren met a robed figure in the forest just outside town. The robed figure offers Darren the power to resist the fiends and vampires of Barovia as long as he shows his strength in withstanding insurmountable odds in combat and his willingness to bring justice to the supporters of Strahd by carrying out a death sentence against the druid Bob whom the party had met in their adventure at yester hill. Darren (with his friends, who may or may not have been there for real) prevailed in his trial and was offered some of the werewolves’ forbidden knowledge. He also suffered a nasty bite.

While Darren is out offering his humanity in exchange for the power to stand against Morgantha, the other’s rest is cut short by Izek Strazni and the guards of Vallaki bursting in, demanding to seize Ireena (who they call Tatyana) in order to send her back to the castle and Strahd. With some clever spell casting and quick thinking, especially from Cinna and Bart, the group manages to get Ireena out of harm’s way before getting arrested and sent to jail, all except for Geoff, who punches a guard and runs away.

Cinna, Marillion, Xuza, and Bart are taken to jail and stripped of their weapons. Cinna and Xuza are thrown into one cell, and Bart and Marillion (whom the guards had seen casting spells) wearing a gag and a blindfold in another. The guards and Izek also reveal that rumors of Cinna falling from Strahd’s graces had reached far, explaining the far bolder attitude of the guards toward her.

After burying Bob, Darren returns from the forest and is met by a slightly panicked Goeff, who informs him of what has happened. Since Darren is still somewhat exhausted and hurt from the werewolf ritual, he decides to have breakfast in Blue Water Inn before mounting a rescue mission. There, he learns some more information from Urwin and is able to bandage up the bite wound he has sustained.

After regaining his strength via breakfast, Darren and Goeff head toward the jail to free their friends. Somewhat surprisingly, they are met by Cinna, Marillion, Xuza, and Bart, who had been let out unexpectedly. The reunited lost travelers are then approached by Erns, Fiona Watcher’s spy. Ernst reminds them of an offer made by Fiona during the last time they were in town, in which the group was to receive significant benefits in exchange for aiding Fiona in usurping the current ruler of Valaki. The group decides not to seek out Fiona at this stage and instead heads to the Inn in order to gather their strength. The far better-rested Darren and Goeff instead look for Ireena.

On the way to the Inn, the party is met by Milosh, Bart’s nephew. Milosh had heard about Bart’s incarceration and was heading to the jail to help. He also tells Bart that the shipment of fancy glassware that his brother Arthjuhin was in charge of had recently been robbed by an imp riding some kind of demon.

At the Inn, the travelers are again met by Karl and Nikolai, spending their day as usual. Happy to have seen Cinna for the first time in a while, the brothers finally confess the secret of their dad, that he had, in fact, died, and that his corpse was currently sharing a bed with their mother. Disgruntled by this news, Cinna, Bart, and Marillion decide to visit the Watcherhaus. The much more exhausted Xuza instead chooses to help Darren hunt for Irena.

At the Watcherhaus, Cinna, Marillion, and Bart are met by the maid Hilda, who brings them to visit Lady Fiona Watcher. Since Fiona seems unwilling to part with any actual information, the group sets up an elaborate plan in which Cinna excuses herself to go to the bathroom and then sneaks off to investigate the rest of the house in her insect form. Meanwhile, Bart and Marillion continue the discussion with Fiona, who repeats her offer; if the lost travelers could deal with Izek, Fiona could use the rest of her network to seize control from the Valakoviches. The meeting ends with Cinna confirming the rumors of Nikolaj Sr. and confronting Fiona about her husband, after which she asks them to leave.

Meanwhile, Darren, Geoff, and Xuza trail Irena to the church, where Lucian Petrovich tells them that Irena had been there in the early morning, but soon left. They agree to once again leave Geoff in the care of Lucian and Freek and continue to use Sophaxis to track Irena’s scent. Sophaxis brings Darren and Xuza to the burgomaster’s, and they fairly quickly realize that Ireena is kept under a heavy guard in the house. At this point, the rest of the lost travelers catch up with them. Marillion, seemingly still upset about his incarceration, starts arguing with the guards at the house’s doors, allowing Cinna to sneak in and find Irena in Izeks room, together with a bunch of dolls that look surprisingly much like her. When confronted by Cinna, Irena seems to have accepted her faith and asks Cinna to leave, which she does. Armed with new information, the lost travelers decide to pay the toy (and doll) maker, Blinsky, for a visit. They learn that Izek had commissioned many of those dolls over the years, under the threat of burning down Blinskys shop if the—slightly tragic—toy maker did not comply.

After half a day of information gathering, the (still exhausted) lost travelers regroup in the Blue Water Inn. They decide that something has to be done about Izek. The group devises a plan involving tricking Izek into coming to Jenys under the guise of the latest of Blinsky’s dolls being there. As an additional bonus, they were able to have Jeny identify items for them.

The traveler’s plan works, so they soon confront Izek in the forest between Vallaki and Jenys. During the encounter, they learn of the somewhat fiendish, amber-colored powers that Izek’s arm grants him. The 3 guards Izek took with him quickly gave up on the fight but stayed to watch what would happen to Izek. Once Izek’s defeat was apparent, the guards quickly ran toward the town, urgently contacting someone by sending stones.

The travelers regroup, take Izeks skull with them in the hopes of talking to it later, and sit down at Jenys for a cup of tea. Little did they know that, meanwhile, Fiona Watcher was moving fast and seizing control of the town, brutally murdering Vargas Vallakovich and his family in the square. The group learns of the coup when arriving back in town, and they are met by guards who initially refuse them entry. After tricking the guards with a major image, the travelers enter Vallaki to find it under martial law; the streets are filled with guards tasked with keeping people off of them, and the situation seems very tense. Via some stealth, the party learns that Fiona Watcher stayed true to her word and seized control of the whole town. Luckily (for the party), it also turns out that the only casualties of this coup were the Vargas family.

In an attempt to regain some good graces at her former family, Cinna sneaks off to the burgomaster’s house and frees Ireena. When parting ways, Cinna asked Ireena to tell Strahd about her involvement in Ireena’s escape and that she would like to meet and talk to him.

After a very long day, the lost travelers finally regroup at the Blue Water Inn to get some sleep.