Nira's Return and Nicolae's Journal--Barovia
General Summary
You had absolutely no desire to hear anything Nira had to say, but she told you that she had information that would save Julien's life and that if you believed nothing else of her, you should believe that she wanted him to live. She said that if you took the Old Svalich Road to go through the village of Barovia, you'd have to go by an encampment of Vistani, and Madam Eva was likely to be there. Eva, according to Nira, saw it as her particular mission to prevent the rise of The Dukkar and wouldn't hesitate to kill Julien. He was invisible to her Sight, which was why she hadn't come after you yet--she doesn't know he exists--but if he were ever in her physical presence, she'd realize that she couldn't see the threads of fate around him and would know exactly what that meant.
Rose was all "okay, fine, you've said your piece, now get the hell out," but Nira held out a journal of Nicolae's and said that she wouldn't give it to you unless you told her whether Julien was well. You refused to play along, and Vanya said that if she really cared about him, she could have taught him and guided him through everything that was happening. Nira said that she'd offered to teach him and Rose had refused her, but Vanya said that she'd just wanted him for her own agenda just like everyone else, not to actually help him. He also said that for all you knew, she was lying and you should take the Old Svalich Road (at which she visibly panicked), so maybe she should just give you the journal as a sign of good faith. She threw it at you, cursing, and begged you to tell her that Julien was well; all she wanted was to hear that a boy with the Sight was well. You once again refused to play along, and Rose made it clear that she never wanted to see Nira's face again. Nira told her that it was a shame, because she very much wanted to see Rose again; Rose had passed Nira's test by not turning on Julien when it looked like he was subconsciously forcing people to hurt and kill themselves, even though everyone else did. Rose somehow resisted the urge to turn into a bear and rip Nira's head off.
As you left, Nira called after Rose that if she made a deal with the Gentleman Caller, he would free her father and "let him forget." Rose asked what kind of deal; Nira said that she didn't know, but that he'd told her Rose knew how to contact him (which might mean that he knows Vanya told her about the Tarnished coin, or might be a reference to "her desire calling him" in Ivana's Dinner Party--Borca). Rose said that the next time he wanted to send a messenger, he should send someone else, because she wasn't going to deal with Nira. Vanya asked Nira whether she'd made a deal with him, and Nira laughed and said she wasn't as foolish as that. Vanya said that the Caller didn't have allies, only servants, and she was a servant whether she'd made a deal or not; whatever she did for him wouldn't be to her benefit or to Julien's, and if she really cared about Julien she'd stop working with his father. With that, you shook the dust off your shoes and left.
When you were a good distance away from her, you read Nicolae's journal.
Rose was gutted. She asked Vanya if he knew of any way to get someone out of a witch pact; Vanya knew some stories about bargaining with the witch's patron, or about there being a loophole or escape clause written into the pact, or about the patron choosing to end the pact for some reason, but they were all scattered folktales. Rose said that everything she'd done was to try and heal her father, and she'd given her word that she'd do so, and now she didn't know whether that was possible. She felt like she had a stone tied to her neck, dragging her down. Vanya asked if she could just cut the rope, and Rose said she didn't think she could; he was her father, and the Gentleman Caller seemed to know her well enough to know that this was the best way to hurt her. Vanya said that she couldn't enter into a deal with the Gentleman Caller, to which Rose wholeheartedly agreed--look at how well that was going for her father, after all--and then he asked what she'd do if she had to put him out of his misery. Rose admitted that she didn't know, and that if she knew there was some way she could trade her life for his without making a deal then she would in a heartbeat, but there was no way to do that. You remembered that you were going to both Hazlan and Darkon, and those were the two greatest sources of arcane knowledge in the demiplane, so if there were answers anywhere, they'd be there.
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