Vallaki and a Carnival Wagon

I haven’t written anything in the past few days… so here is the short version of what happened. I don’t have time to go into too many details because I want to get down to the tavern, but I want to write enough at least to jog my memory for when I pen a book later, or write some amazingly famous ballads…

 
That noise that I was hearing when I cut my last entry short turned out to be a huge cloud of crows and ravens. They slammed into the Old Bonegrinder over and over, until it started to collapse. I’m glad I was still awake – I was watching Brynden, to make sure he didn’t try to do anything stupid in his grief.

 
The sound of wings beating was like thunder rumbling through the beams of the windmill before the first impact. The whole building shook and trembled before it started to crumble. Brynden and I yelled for the others and we ran. When I turned back to look, Trevor and Ireena were behind us, but Errki and Oswald were both still inside… then the entire structure collapsed in a cloud of beams and stone.

 
Most of the birds had died as they threw themselves into the windmill, but the few that remained flew off in every direction as soon as it collapsed. A group of zombies was waiting for us outside the wreckage… fortunately, the group of us were able to dispatch the zombies, although to be fair, the others put in most of the swordwork. I’m good with a sword, don’t get me wrong, but I’m far better at making sure the others fight well and don’t die… well… except for Elaine. I tried, and failed… I couldn’t heal her enough.
 
 
It took the better part of the night and into the morning to dig Errki and Oswald out of the rubble. Fortunately, they had suffered only minor injuries in the collapse… Errki’s leg is another story though, for it was fried by wendigo blood when he had to fight his way to the children in the depths of the windmill.

 
We moved out on the road as quickly as we could… anxious to get to the gates of Vallaki. We found blood and wolf tracks all over the road as we went, but we didn’t find any bodies of children… I hoped that they hadn’t been dragged off by Strahd’s wolves… We found ourselves following deep cut wagon tracks, as though something extremely heavy had been moving along the road very quickly.

 
As we drew closer to Vallaki, we came upon the mangled corpses of wolves, and the ruins of a coach. As we drew closer, we were able to see the same black coach that carried Rahadin… pulverized and broken. Neither myself nor the others had any idea of what would have caused such damage, but we weren’t going to stick around long enough to investigate further.

 
Finally, we approached the gates of Vallaki. We decided to make camp and wait until dawn before we approached the guards, as we didn’t want to cause any potential issues.

 
We entered the city gates without too much fuss, at least, none after we allowed the guard to press sanctified silver on our forehead to make sure that we didn’t burn.

 
We made our way directly to the Cathedral of Saint Andral. As we entered the gates, Oswald’s conjured horse disappeared, and I could feel the thrum of some kind of magical force protecting the area… the bishop said that it is the bones of St. Andral that keep the city safe from Strahd and his forces of the night, as they do not allow anything undead to pass into the city. A nice sentiment, surely… but what about Rahadin and his other spies? What is to stop them from just infiltrating the city. But, I was not about to ask those questions… I was getting enough suspicious looks from the monks who moved about the grounds… I guess I look too much like the Vistani for their taste, racist bastards.

 
The nice thing about the cathedral though, is that the bishop recognized Oswald as a fellow champion of a good faith and cured his blindness. The bishop then took us down to see the bones themselves. I’ll admit, it was pretty creepy… in a nicely religious sort of way… the bones all laid out in state, dressed in opulent robes, much like those of the bishop.

 
A short while later, we made our way to the Blue Water Inn, a locale that made me feel far more comfortable in its familiarity. I’ve never been here before, but it’s ultimately a tavern, and all taverns have a common thread running through them that provides a great deal of comfort to one such as I…

 
There were notices posted throughout the town square, advertising the Wolf’s Head Festival, and demanding that every citizen of Vallaki remain happy. The festival explained the scores of wolf heads that were displayed on spikes across the entire square… apparently, from what I was able to gather from the few whispered conversations that I overheard, it was but one of the many festivals that were held every 10 days, to celebrate Vallaki’s freedom from the control and influence of Strahd… I cannot fathom why anyone would want to openly provoke him like this… it is the height of arrogance and stupidity to think that they will be able to stand against him in such a brazen manner.

 
It is nice to be in a populated area again… I’ve never been to Vallaki, I only saw the outskirts when I was travelling with the Vistani caravan… but I’ve never seen a city this vast! It’s quite amazing, actually.

 
That night we all claimed a table in the tavern of the Blue Water Inn… the innkeeper, Danika Martikov came over to talk to us, along with her two sons. She said that there is something threatening the wellbeing of the Wizard of Wines, which is also run by the Martikovs. She said that if we agreed to go help with the vineyard’s problems, she would give us free rooms while we are in the city.

 
A crowd was beginning to form around the stage
area, and seeing as I wanted to make some extra coin while we were here, I wanted to check out the competition. So, I excused myself and made my way over to the performance.

 
A fancily dressed half-elf was regaling the crowd with stories and juggling. He was good… like, really good. He kept on looking over at Ireena as he performed (she’d walked up to watch along with me), and it was obvious that he was going to want to get her in private afterwards. I could see Trevor and Brynden shooting him murderous looks out of the corner of their eyes, and Oswald sat there with them looking confused.
 
 
The juggler approached us when his performance ended and tried to talk us, and by us, I really mean Ireena, into going outside to see his carnival wagon. It was unlike anything we’d ever seen, he insisted, and housed his tiger. Yeah… right… a tiger in a wagon right outside the inn? Come on… I’ve heard my share of pickup lines before, but that was a new one.
 
 
About that time, the guys walked over. I was a little confused when he invited all of us to see his carnival wagon. What kind of trick was this? Then, Madam Eva’s words came back to me… something about a stranger in a carnival wagon who was not as he seemed would aid us, or something like that… I will have to reread exactly what she said. I think everyone remembered at the same time, for we all agreed to accompany him.
 
 
Outside and around the corner was the very wagon he’d bragged of. It was a very expensive wagon, but I failed to see what made it so spectacular… until we got inside… inside the wagon was festooned with weaponry of various types. An actual tiger was laying down on the far side, and a Vistani looking woman was lounging up against him, sharpening a silver-edged battleaxe.
 
 
As soon as the door closed behind us, our host pulled off his ears and removed his makeup, revealing not the half-elf we’d been introduced to, but an aging human man.
 
 
He apologized for the deception and introduced himself as Rudolph Van Richten… a hunter and pursuer of knowledge who had made it his life’s work to destroy Strahd. The woman with the battleaxe was Esmerelda d’Avenir, his apprentice and associate.
 
 
Van Richten went on to say that he had been hunting Strahd for years and had worked with many other groups of adventurers… of course, they are all dead… why am I not surprised?
 
 
He gave Ireena some artifact, the Relic of the Ravenkind, or something like that... and told her that she is in grave danger. Other than that, the man is a racist jerk who hates the Vistani so much that he trained his tiger to specifically target and kill Vistani. I know, a lot of them have their issues, just like everyone else, I might add… but what the fuck? Seriously? I can’t believe that this is supposed to be a “good guy.” …racist prick…
 
 
I'll try to write more later, but right now the inn is picking up a bit and I want to see what I can find out this night...