Werewolves Will Kill You

The day begins with breakfast at the Vistani camp. Marillion and Xuza seem more tired than usual, mostly because of nightmares.

After breakfast, Darren expresses a strong interest in finding the werewolf camp north of Krezk, as requested by the mysterious figure Darren had encountered in the forest north of Vallaki the night he got bitten. Cinna, on the other hand, wants to go back and have Xuza–whom she thinks is still a healer–take a look at Illya. The group agrees on a compromise in which Cinna and Xuza first visit Illya and then catch up to the rest of the group north of Krezk using Cinna’s ability to shapeshift into a giant eagle.

Unfortunately, Ilya’s parents are still hesitant to let in Cinna and Xuza, so they settle with looking at Illya through the window. Seeing the poor girl, Xuza gets worried that she might have been bitten by a vampire. The potential of Strahd having anything to do with Illya’s current condition upsets Cinna to the point of swearing vengeance on Strahd himself. Seeing as there is very little they can do for Illya at the moment, Cinna turns into a giant eagle and sets off with Xuza on her back to find the others.

Very quickly after once again entering the wilderness, Marillion hears a familiar voice urging him not to go further. Ignoring the request, Marillion, Bart, and Darren push further; fairly soon, they also notice a familiar giant eagle approaching with a drow on its back. Before the group can regroup, the eagle suddenly dives toward a platform slightly higher up from where her companions currently are. Hurrying after her, the lost travelers find themselves having interrupted an inaugural ritual in which two children were put to fight each other to death to be adopted into the werewolf pack. Even worse, the werewolves also have Geoff, who waits for his turn in a cage. Aggression quickly breaks out, and the travelers manage to rescue the three children and rid the werewolf pack of its current leader, Kiril, and his mate, Bianca. During some post-battle discussions with another werewolf, Zuleika, the mate of the supposedly deposed leader Emil (who Darren had met earlier), the party learns of the werewolf connection to Mother Night, who grants them their power, the same power that Emil had granted Darren as well. Zuleika also mentions that Rictavio (or Van Richten) also received the same power several years ago and urged Darren to meet him and continue his training.

Trusting in Zuleikas competence and confidence, the party decides to leave before the wolf pack members that they had not murdered come back. On the track back, Geoff apologizes for disobeying Darren’s orders and leaving the church in order to try to find the mage on his own. He also describes being followed by a group of strange Barovian youth. During that adventure, Geoff encountered a peculiar spellbook that Marillion, in particular, is interested in.

Approaching Krezk, Cinna decides to make one last trip to see Illya. This time, with the help of Illya’s mother, Cinna got into Illyas room and found her turning into a mongrefolk, supposedly due to some kind of influence from the abbot. This turned Cinnas’s earlier anger toward Strahd toward the abbot instead. Cinna declares she will kill the abbot the next day but also realizes she might need the help of the others to do so, so the lost travelers regroup at Bart’s camp. During the evening, Bart convinces Ana to take on one of the rescued children, the orphan Boris, into the camp. The other one had been returned to his family in Krezk. The party spent the evening in a wine-induced, soul-searching argument over what to do next. While their loyalties to each other remain strong, their views on whether killing the abbot or even Strahd, is a good course of action differ strongly. After an intensive discussion, resulting in some hurt feelings the party laid down for the night. Surprisingly, the debate in the tents of Xuzas and Marillions went on longer than the others.