Recovery#

With most everyone retreating inside the city walls to recover, Thaddeus stays back with a few inhabitants to repair the damage to the wall done by the tree-like creature. While doing that, he eventually is approached by Izek, asking if he knew anything about the magic used during the festival. Expecting to be on the good side of the Baron, he tries to barter with Izek for an audience with the Baron himself, in exchange for information about what transpired during the festival.

After everyone has gathered back at the inn, Reese, Ilizeiros, and Thaddeus carefully make acquaintance with the mysterious Yaroslav. He appears to also be here because of some Vistani prophecy. Yaroslav also wants to reach out to the local church’s priest to inquire about some relics.

When the party enters the church, Thaddeus and Ilizeiros go on to inform Ireena about the fate of Barovia, while Yaroslav and Reese approach Father Petrovich to find out about the state of the holy relics of Barovia.

Refugees#

Ireena, shaken by the news of Barovia being leveled and her adopted family being dead, is driven by the need to talk to and help the refugees. As she, accompanied by Ilizeiros and Thaddeus, engages with the refugees camping outside the city walls, the refugees tell stories of being overrun by zombies (some of them even crawling out of wells). They had no chance of survival except fleeing towards the next best safe haven, which they thought would be Vallaki. As it turns out, no refugees are allowed inside the city at this time…

Another group of refugees keeps a little further from the city walls around a cart, operated by an older lady called Boninka. She gives away pies to help the refugees, as she herself comes from Barovia. Apparently, she does not want to be close to Vallaki because she was thrown out of the city by Claudia Blasko and the Baron after she protested the abuse of children in Vallaki’s orphanage.

Ireena promises to make the Baron change his mind regarding the refugees not being allowed in Vallaki; Thaddeus and Ilizeiros promise to help her and intend to find out what is going on in the local orphanage.

Hallowed Bones#

Father Petrovich is visibly surprised about someone asking about the whereabouts of the church’s holy relics; he insists that nobody knows about them except him and the altar boy Ieska who periodically cleans the basement; it appears the Vistani prophecies are not part of his ideology.

As he shows Yaroslav and Reese the way to the relics storage place, he realizes with shock that they have been stolen! After mumbling for a minute, he explains the gravity of the situation: the holy bones of Saint Andrew were exerting an effect on the church and the surrounding Vallaki that kept it safe from evil influences. Yaroslav barely manages to convince him that telling the populace immediately about the disappearance of the only things they thought kept the place safe would be a bad idea. Father Petrovich promises to wait, but he forewarns that the truth will surface sooner rather than later.

Immediately, Yaroslav and Reese suspect the altar boy Ieska, who is easily found outside the crypt scrubbing the church’s floors. Pressing information out of him turns out to be unconventional - he is both deaf and mute. After a little gesticulation, Reese takes over and engages his telepathic mind-probing abilities. He finally concludes that while Ieska himself appears innocent, he has shown the basement (for some unknown reason) to another boy working at the church: Milivoš. According to Father Petrovich, he usually tends the church’s garden and lives in the orphanage.

A Common Peculiarity#

With Yaroslav and Reese rushing towards the orphanage, they encounter Ireena, Ilizeiros and Thaddeus on their way to the Baron. Convinced by the urgency of Yaroslav wanting to investigate the orphanage, Thaddeus and Ilizeiros delay Ireena on her way to the Baron - while she will wait for the party’s support to convince the Baron, she warns she will confront him before the day is over so the refugees can stay the night inside the city walls.

As they knock on the front doors of the orphanage, an older woman opens the door and introduces herself as Claudia Blasko.