The party slowly walked up to the Blue Water Inn. Before they entered, Dymos sent his familiar back to the church to watch over Iryna and report back if there is any trouble.

Gray smoke issues from the chimney of this large, two-story wooden building with a stone foundation and sagging tile roof, upon which several ravens have perched. A painted wooden sign hangs above the main entrance depicting a blue waterfall.

Damp cloaks hang from pegs in the entrance portico. The tavern is packed with tables and chairs, with narrow paths meandering between them. A bar stretches along one wall, under a balcony that can be reached by a wooden staircase that hugs the north wall. Another balcony overhangs an entrance to the east. All the windows are fitted with thick shutters and crossbars. Lanterns hanging above the bar and resting on the tables bathe the room in dull orange light and cast shadows upon the walls, most of which are adorned with wolf heads mounted on wooden plaques.

The owner, Urwin Martikov, welcomes the party in and introduces them to his wife Danika Dorakova. He encourages the party to take a seat and his wife will bring some food and ale to them. Urwin shares that there are two wolf hunters at one table – Szoldar Szoldarovich and Yevgeni Krushkin and the sons of Lady Fiona Wachter at another table – Nikolai and Karl Wachter.

They hear from Urwin that he also tired of the weekly festivals and calls the Baron mad.

The party also notices three commoner women in the corner talking amongst themselves.

The party talks first to the wolf hunters and hears about how the wolves and werewolves attacks have been increasing lately. They also learn that the wolf hunters have also met the mage on the road to Vallaki. The party hears that:

• They refer to him as the mad mage of Baratok and mentioned that he is a crazy old man.
• They share that he was a fool for taking on Strahd and got what he deserved.
• They say that he has forgotten that his castle is on the north shore of Lake Zarovich – he just needs to speak his command word
• They also share that they don’t know what the command word is. They share that they have searched and studied long and hard to find the command word because there are stories of riches and treasures beyond the imagination.

The party thanks them and buys a round for the table before moving one.

The party then moved on to talk to the sons of Fiona Wachter. The party hears that:

• They hate the Baron and the festivals and share that our mother should be the Baron. Lady Fiona would do a better job at keeping the town safe and getting rid of the Vistani encampments.
• The Baron is going to cause our town to become another Berez. This festival is a celebration of the sun deity, the morninglord. His name was Andral and the church is named after him. Creating a festival named after him will surely invite Strahd’s wrath.
• I’m fearful of what Strahd will do if he attends the festival and the parade.
• I don’t want to attend the parade, but I don’t want to end up in chains.
• They also learn that their sister is excused from the festivals as she is a recluse.

The party also buys the sons a round and return to talk to Urwin. They hear that Urwin has also seen the purple flashes from the burgomeister’s mansion.

Urwin mentions that he is running short of wine as the shipment has been overdue for over a week. Urwin asks the party for their help if they encounter the shipment on the road. The party said they will keep their eyes open and Urwin offers to give the party a tour of the Inn before showing them to their rooms. The party agrees and begins to follow Urwin.

Aldric sees that they are going to walk in front of the women and decides to fake a fall right in front of the women to see if there is any reaction. Aldric dusts himself off and notices that there is no show of emotion on any of the women’s faces.

In an impulsive moment Dymos then guzzles any drink left unattended and yells “Free Strahd!”. Urwin looks at Dymos with a look of grave concern.

They start the tour and soon discover it is a beautiful old inn with character and charm. Urwin mentions that they have another guest Rictavio also staying here at the Inn but he is currently at the stockyard tending to his wagon. Urwin shows the party the room that Rictavio is staying in but does not take them inside.

The only unusual thing they saw was a flock of ravens on the upper floor that flew down to Urwin and seemed to be talking to him. The ravens soon flew away and the tour continued.

Aldric decides to show the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind to Urwin. Urwin inquires on what that object is, but doesn’t have an immediate reaction.

At the end of the tour, Danika showed the party to their two rooms.

---

The party is awoken in the middle of the night by Dymos’s familiar and they rush to the church. They find that a pack of werewolves have attacked the church and killed most of the villagers.

The party starts to attack the werewolves and see that the werewolves have Iryna, the minister, Milivoj cornered behind the altar.

Tess is able to eventually cross the church, grab Iryna’s hand, and make Iryna invisible and tell her to go to the Blue Water Inn. The werewolves continue to attack ferociously and are able to fell Dymos and Doc before they are helped by Tess and Aldric.

The battle continues and the party slowly gains the upper hand by casting Wall of Thorns and Forest of the Lost. There are only a few werewolves left and one werewolf charges up to Dymos, sniffs him, leaves him alone, and continues past Dymos to attack Aldric. The party deals with the remaining werewolves swiftly.

Unfortunately, the party are too late to save the minister and the werewolves kill him and disembowel him in front of their very eyes. They are finally able to overwhelm the rest of the werewolves and find that Milivoj is still alive.

Millivoj shares that this attack is all his fault as he dug up the saint’s bones from under the church to sell mto the coffin maker for 100 gold pieces. Millivoj says that it was rumoured that those bones protected the church but he didn’t believe that legend – he does now.

Dymos asks Milivoj for the 100 gold pieces and he reluctantly turns them over. Aldric casts Mass Cure Wounds to heal the party.

Aldric then proceeds to give the minister last rites and bury him before they return to the Blue Water Inn.