On the Road to Argynvolstolt

That night in Ravenloft was actually the best night of sleep I've had since my night with Szoldozar in the Blue Water Inn. I can barely believe I'm saying this, but it is what it is...
 
Ireena and I set out immediately upon waking up. Neither of us were inclined to spend more time in Ravenloft than was absolutely necessary. We met up with the rest of the party in the courtyard where the coach had dropped us off the previous day.
 
Once again, the carriage was there waiting for us. I looked around at the party... something was going on... I didn't know what it was, but something happened last night... something that Ireena and myself were not privy to. Erkki looked like he'd seen a ghost, and Trevor and Brynden were obviously hiding something.
 
Erkki asked what dreams mean, and if there is a way to keep other people from invading yours. That immediately piqued my interest... especially since Erkki's sleep disturbances seemed to have ended since shortly after we killed Mother Morgantha and her daughters. He told us that he dreamed of a shirtless vampire coming into his room, pulling his beating heart from his chest before licking it and putting it back...
 
Weird.... I wondered if it was a dream brought on by stress and alcohol, or if it was a vampire who actually came into his room. Trevor asked if Erkki drank too much the previous night and was seeing things. Erkki insisted that he hadn't, and I'm inclined to believe him.
 
Shrugging it off, I climbed into the carriage with the others. We were not alone.
Ezmerelda d’Avenir was curled up in the corner. It doesn’t take a wizard to find out that she was probably the presence that I thought I felt in the hallway last night. What she was doing here, I had no idea… I thought that she would have been up by Lake Zarovich dealing with the black medallion that we had given Van Richten to dispose of…
 
We heard a noise outside the carriage. Trevor threw his cloak over Ezmerelda’s form a split second before I did the same with my skirt… I’m very glad that my skirt is so full, for, between the two of us, we were able to fully cover her.
 
A vampire appeared in front of Erkki, directly between him and the door to the carriage. It was a large, shirtless vampire, who was more muscular than I ever thought a vampire would be. He exchanged words with Erkki, I wasn’t able to catch exactly what was said, and then Erkki pushed past him and climbed into the carriage. The vampire peered in one of the windows, at which point, Trevor called out to the spectral driver to please get a move-on already.
 
The coach lifted off into the air, much as it had the last time. Erkki and Brynden began trying to start a conversation about what our plans should be. I interrupted them, vehemently insisting that we not talk about it right now… we were in Strahd’s personally constructed magical flying coach after all. If there was anywhere less safe to carry on a private conversation than Ravenloft itself, it would be in the black coach.
 
We passed the rest of the journey in relative silence. It was late afternoon when the carriage touched down at the crossroads near the Wizard of Wines. As soon as we disembarked, the coach and its spectral mounts all dissolved into a grey mist.
 
We agreed to buypass the Wizard of Wines for now… Brynden wants to go seeking a temple that he heard tell of, but when we were “discussing” what to do, Oswald chimed in, saying that he has been thinking about the coin that the undead paladin gave him on the road a couple of weeks ago. The coin that summons his undead warhorse who, according to Oswald, talks to him in his mind. Telepathic bond, perhaps?
 
As soon as he said that, and mentioned the name Argynvolstolt, I thought back to what Madam Eva had said in her reading, she mentioned a “skeleton of a deadly warrior lying on a bed of stone, surrounded by gargoyles”... the only place that I can think of that would apply to her words is Argynvolstolt. It seemed as though Ezmerelda agreed with me, even though she didn’t say anything in particular.
 
Brynden still wanted to seek out the temple of the dark powers, for if they were working against Strahd, he thinks that we should hear what they have to say. I think that’s crazy. Legend says that it was conversing and dealing with the dark powers that made Strahd into what he is in the first place. And, based on the way my companions talk, I really think that this might be as much a hellish prison for Strahd as it is depressing and filled with horror for those who find themselves here…
 
Oswald managed to talk some sense into Brynden though, or at least postpone his stupidity for a while by pointing out that we will probably be able to find more knowledge on every topic in the book that appears to be in Argynvolstolt. Either way, that is our best bet for acquiring the knowledge for what we should do next…
 
And so, we set off on the road towards Argynvolstolt. On the way, Erkki started handing out “rape whistles” to the rest of us. I don’t know what the point of a “rape whistle” is, it must be a dwarf thing from Faerun or something… Trevor got all annoyed and said that he could whistle on his own, putting his fingers to his mouth and letting fly an ear-piercing whistle that probably woke the dead within a mile radius… but I sincerely hope it didn’t…
 
An hour or so later, we heard a wagon or carriage barreling down the road towards us. With the mists to either side of the road, we didn’t really have much room to hide, so we just stepped out of the way, hoping that whoever was coming wasn’t looking for a fight. A familiar wagon greeted us, and I heard Ezmerelda’s barely restrained sigh of relief as Van Richten charged into view. He was coming from the direction of Vallaki, obviously running from whatever was happening there and causing the city to burn. He pulled the wagon up short when he saw our party, and proceeded to berate everyone for going to Castle Ravenloft.
 
Finally, he shut up long enough to offer us a ride to Argynvolstolt in the wagon… which I get the suspicion isn’t his at all but, like most Vistani wagons, is the property of a woman, so it would be Ezmerelda’s wagon… not particularly important, but an interesting distinction that it seems the rest of the party didn’t even consider…
 
The first part of the journey was uneventful. I felt a jolting thump thump thump when the wagon ran over something in the road. I poked my head out of the window just in time to see a body smushed into the ground behind us. I really hope it was already dead before Van Richten ran it over…
 
We decided to ride through the night, taking alternate watches. I was on second watch with Trevor, so I fell asleep as soon as I was able, as far away from the tiger as I could reasonably get. Erkki was all up in its space though, and began fiddling with a name tag on its collar. “You named your cat Blinsky?” He called up to Van Richten. “Irony.” The old man replied. “I decided to name a predator after a predator.” That was the last thing I remember before I fell asleep… After what felt like only a few scant minutes of rest, I was jolted awake by the howling of werewolves and Trevor shaking me awake.
 
Oswald and “Blinsky” the tiger immediately jumped out the back of the wagon to join the impending fray. Trevor dashed to one of the mounted crossbows on the side, before apparently deciding that he wasn’t able to see well enough into the mist, so he climbed out on top of the wagon with Ireena, Ezmerelda and Van Richten. I stayed in the wagon, figuring that it would be the best vantage point for me to best be able to influence the fight.
 
I could see a group of four werewolves partially concealed by the mist. I didn’t have much hope of actually hitting any of them with the mounted silver crossbow quarrels, so I took out my violin and cast a shatter spell on their area. It damaged a few of them, I think I might have missed one, but the others took damage and, more importantly, it seemed to mess up whatever strategy they had in mind.
 
Then, everything turned into the chaos of melee. Van RIchten jumped down beside Brynden and the two of them were fighting off two werewolves while Oswald fought another on the other side of the wagon. Brynden went down (again), but I couldn’t reach him for my healing spell… Van Richten did something that I’ve never seen before though, and Brynden jumped back up as though most of his wounds were healed. That was useful.
 
Another wolf was heading for Trevor, so I outlined it in the dancing flames of faerie fire. At least everyone could see it clearly now. There was no chance of it sneaking up on anyone or being missed in the darkness and mist.
 
The tiger, Blinsky, was insane! A werewolf was on top of Erkki, and the cat leapt on it, sinking its jaws into the werewolf’s neck, snapping it and throwing it back into the mist as if it were nothing more than a child’s Blinsky doll. I really hope it never decides to turn on any of us… well, especially me. It seems to really like the dwarf… he’s been sitting beside it for most of the journey, giving it “pets and scritches.” There must be something to that, because Blinsky sure did leapt to Erkki’s aid at the first opportunity.
 
It was a short, harrowing fight, but the werewolves were soundly beaten. For a second, I felt as though I should have gotten out of the wagon and joined the others on the ground, but this worked out far better in the long run, for I was able to cast spells the whole time, and then when the opportunity arose, fire one of the mounted crossbows that lined the sides of Van Richten’s wagon.
 
All of the bodies were thrown back into the woods and mist, and we continued on our way. I was able to catch a few more hours of sleep before it was my turn to take the watch. It took me a while to fall back asleep, as my mind was occupied with images of our recent fight, as well as Van Richten’s descriptions of fleeing the burning Vallaki.
 
Dawn just broke, and the sky is lightening to a pleasant light grey. Van Richten just called down that we can see the ruins of Argynvolstolt in the distance if we look. We should be there within a couple of hours… I hope this goes well and we find the information that we seek...