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Notes
We resume the story with the party standing in the square where the festival had just started. As The Burgomaster makes his speech one of the town guards suddenly breaks into laughter, drawing everyone’s attention. The Burgomaster did not like this and with a sharp command, he orders the laughing man arrested and tied to a horse. Before anyone can react, the horse is driven forward, galloping through the square and dragging the unfortunate man behind it. Anton rushes forward and cuts the rope, freeing the man. Enraged, The Burgomaster immediately orders our arrest. The guards, clearly uneasy, hesitate to strike us directly. Instead, they linger torn between their duty and their fear of what’s unfolding. Our party also holds back in order to not hurt any of the guards.
Despite the tension, we manage to disengage and walk away without hurting anyone. The Burgomaster leans in close to Anton and whispers to him "You're a dead man walking". He then proceeds to declare that there is no reason to fight and turn this day into something unpleasant. He loudly declares that the festival has merely been postponed until tomorrow, attempting to calm the crowd.
Suddenly, a deep, thunderous roar echoes through the air. The square falls silent. Moments later, a panicked man coming from the east of the city, announces that a tiger is coming. We rush toward the source of the sound, tracking it down through the streets, moving as stealthily as possible. However, it doesn't take long before the creature notices us and we begin to fight. In the middle of the battle, a voice whispers and asks us to stop attacking the tiger and not kill it. It is Rictavio. He even tries to throw a piece of meat towards the tiger but it lands in front of his feet, away from the tiger. However, not everyone from the party heard Rictavio asking us not to kill the beast and we end up killing it.
After the fight we speak with Rictavio. He looks sad but also worried that the people from the town are looking for him because the tiger escaped from his caravan. He is in a hurry to leave and hide. He asks us to meet him in a tower West, where he will be waiting, and before leaving he gives us a scroll. As he departs, another man arrives with a group of guards. He congratulates us on killing the beast and thanks us for what we’ve done. His name is Izek and asks us if we have seen Rictavio and then heads back east to investigate where the massive footprints first appeared. When he leaves we open the scroll to see that it is a scroll to raise the dead.
We drag the tiger’s corpse through the streets to the butcher’s shop. The butcher inspects the body and after some tense bargaining, pays us 155 coins for it. He will also give us some meat and the fangs of the tiger, when he has finished skinning it. Each coin bears Strahd’s face. We stop by the blacksmith. His name is Nimir. For 40 coins, he provides us with 20 silver arrows.
After that we go back to the inn to find Irena and warn her about The Burgomaster. We tell her that we have decided to go to the winary the next morning to complete the debt we owe the innkeeper. She decides to not come with us. We get some more information about the winary from the innkeeper: it lies west and we need to follow the signs "Wizards of Wine". The owner is Elvir Martikov. The innkeeper also mentions that the guards traced the tiger’s massive footprints back to Rictavio’s wagon and allegedly, the Wachter brothers had been seen near the wagon during the festival.
The party heads upstairs to take a rest. Calenya takes the first watch. Suddenly, she hears noise from the outside and peers through the window. She sees bats circling the church and the noise coming from there. She hesitates to wake the party and waits. However, 3 minutes later the innkeeper bursts in the room and informs us that something is happening in the church. The party interrupts their rest and heads to the church.
When we arrive at some distance from the church we see a dozen people dead in front of it and a few vampires sucking blood from the corpses. From the church we see Strahd emerging and he starts talking to us. He looks at Sanira and he moves his hand (like casting a spell). She feels something different inside of her. He tells us that he wants Tatiana (Irena) and after we refuse to give up her location, he throws a scroll to the ground and disappears with the rest of the vampires. The scroll is a formal invitation to his castle.
We go to the church. The family that we have rescued and brought with us is dead. Father Lucian Petrovich is horrifically torn apart (most probably by Strahd). Yeska hides in a closet scared and Anton Novak takes him outside while covering the boy's face.
We then begin to dig graves for the bodies. We continue for hours. At some point Sanira exhausted, goes to sleep in one of the church's benches. Calenya also leaves to go sleep in the inn when she gets exhausted. Anton, also very tired, begins to slow down until he sees Lua, in the brink of passing out. He helps her to go to rest in the church. He tries to stay guard but he eventually falls asleep.
In the morning, we resume the burying of the dead as more people show up to help. In the inn people are disappointed and angry at the mayor and even discuss about rioting.