015_20260730
Notes
We head to the front doors. Before we reach them, 4 gargoyles jump down from their places in the main hallway and attack us. Sanira notices more statues have come to life guarding the door, so we decide to run away toward the chapel and climb out of the windows. We circle around the castle to the main gates, but we can't get the drawbridge to lower. Running the other way around the courtyard, we pass the stables and a small overlook out back but find no other way out (apart from jumping to our deaths into the chasm). So we decide to long rest in one of the gatehouses. We are woken by Strahd standing near us clapping and taunting us about trying to leave and sleeping outside. He asks again if we are losing hope before he disappears and the way out opens up. We take the road toward Vallaki and head to Old Bonegrinder. As we approach Old Bonegrinder, we see a raven perched above the door. Lua thinks the raven is trying to warn us away, so we decide to leave and go back to Vallaki. As we enter the town, the guards question us about Calenya's appearance, but we convince them to let us enter.
Vallaki seems very quiet. We decide to go talk to Urwin first to see what's going on. Ireena tells us Strahd has been in town while we were gone. Hendrik's house was raided by Strahd. He was also seen at the Wachter's house. Rictavio seems to have left toward the west 2 days after we headed out. We decide to head to the church and start clearing it out a little, starting with the chancery. We contact Rictavio, and we interpret from his message that he is in the tower at lake Baratok. In the evening Anton wants to connect a bit more to the morning lord and tries to meditate with Lua. The next morning we decide to break into the Wachter house to see what's up with the "cat". Calenya tries to get a meeting with lady Wachter by knocking on the front door and gets turned away. Anton climbs up into one of the windows and hears the scratching sound come from one of the doors.