07/15/21 Session 24 - "The one where the party finds a tower and nothing else"

Upon discovering seemingly empty glass jars with Balasar Norixius and Grinfiddeus Nobbles names on them, Adrid takes off with Mr. Hands to inform them of the discovery. The party reconvenes at the windmill and takes stock of what they've found and to try to determine their next moves.
Adrid would like to bury the found children before moving on. Scouting a spot out, the party re-encounters the stone obelisks previously found by Grinfiddeus Nobbles. Upon further investigation, a pile of children’s teeth and bones are buried between them all. Disgusted with the hags offering to whatever dark deity they were worshiping, Adrid removes the bones and teeth and has them berried with the other children a short distance from the area. Before doing so, Fredriech Carlston makes the case for potentially making another "offering" to the deity to see if they can discern who it is the hags are worshiping. Adrid wants no part of offering children to evil deities and shoots down the idea.
After the burial, the party decides to head toward Kresk to visit "The Abbot" to see if he could help with their Jar mystery. The party sets off and intentionally avoids Vallaki, as Fredriech Carlston is worried he may be spotted. On the road to Kresk, the party comes upon a man sitting at a crossroads.
Marc Alt informs the party he was traveling away from Vallaki after stealing some lobsters. He's from the Sword Coast just like they are and needs to find his way home. When pressed about his abilities, Marc Alt casts a fireball into some nearby woods. After informing him of their plight and inability to leave, Marc Alt offers information about a brightly colored cart and a tower to the North of the crossroad. The party takes Marc Alt in and decides to make a detour to visit the tower and investigate. Perhaps Ezmerelda is there?
Upon arrival at the tower they do indeed find a brightly colored cart. While Fredriech Carlston distracts Adrid, Grinfiddeus Nobbles manages to avoid a booby trap and break into the cart to do some snooping. He determines the cart likely belongs to Ezmerelda. Approaching the tower, the group needs to do some sort of patterned dance to unlock the door. Grinfiddeus Nobbles does the dance and unlocks the door for our heroes. Adrid heads in first and finds what appears to be an elevator. He speaks the word "up" and stone golems pull chains and begin to drag him upward. Upon reaching the 2nd floor, a living statue bust greets Adrid. He does not know his name, so he is now called Jimmy.
Jimmy informs Adrid that his master has not been back in some time, but another man has been there recently and comes and goes at odd times, he does not remember seeing a woman. A pleasant being, he only wants for the pages of the books he's been staring at to be turned before Adrid moves along. Adrid speaks the word "Up" again and the makeshift elevator rises eventually to the top floor where there appears to be a living quarters.
Grinfiddeus Nobbles, Marc Alt and Lilithus eventually join Adrid on the top floor to search while the rest of the part stands guard. Upon thorough investigation, the party finds an entry from none other than Van Richten's diary. In it he recounts the fate of his son, his rightful distrust of the Vistani and how he ended up in Barovia now hunting Strahd von Zarovich. Upon closer examination the adventurers also find what appears to be the head of a Vistani and a scroll of "Speak with dead". After finding nothing else of interest, the party returns to the ground level to inform the others of their findings and interrogate the severed head.
Lilithus uses the scroll and the Vistani head slowly comes to life. The party learns that previously, the head belonged to a man named "Yan" who had crossed Rictavio and ended up dead. He does not know why Rictavio has kept his head.
With this new information, the party begins to suspect that Rictavio is indeed Van Ricthen. They head off to Kresk with the cart being drawn by Mr. Hands. They stop and leave the cart and horse out of view and approach the gates of Kresk hoping to enter the town and head to the abbey to speak with The Abbot.