10/26/21 Session 34 - "The One Where Fred Disappears Forever"

While searching the dilapidated town of Berez, Fredriech Carlston hears familiar voices call out to him. He runs off from the rest of the party in search of their origin. Visions of his mother and father fade in and out. He recognizes this place as somehow being his home.
He sees many disturbing visions in including the deaths of his mother, father, and sister at the hands of what he once thought was a family friend and mentor. Trapped in his delusions, he finds himself unconscious and then waking upon a horse drawn cart cart, hands bound, vision slowly becoming clearer... "Hey, you.. You're finally awake...", a voice speaks out to him. Unbeknownst to the rest of the party, Fredriech Carlston (Who is now assumed to be The Dragonborn) has entered the land of Skyrim, perhaps never to be seen again.
Once the rest of the adventurers realize their search efforts are useless, they begrudgingly return to their search for answers about the town of Berez. They return to the Church and speak to the Burgermasters also deceased brother. He's chanting but takes time out of his day to rant and rave about saving the town from pure evil coming from its amber tomb.
Eventually the party retreats from Berez to Vallaki to speak with the toymaker Blinksy regarding the numerous broken toys found strewn about the city. Reaching Vallaki they find no guards posted at the entrance and new flags hung to represent a change in leadership. They hurry to the toy shop and begin asking Blinsky about his potential dealings with "Baba". He seems ignorant to any of what the party is speaking of and eventually becomes irritated as they continue to being up Strahd von Zarovich. He asks them to leave.
Feeling without direction, the party decides to take a break and speak to Irwin and his family at the Blue Water Inn. They head there and find the Inn mostly empty. Irwin and his ilk have been doing alright but things have been a little slower since the town has changed hands in terms of it's leadership. A man comes in while they are speaking and askes for food and drink. Adrid uses his divine sense to suss out that something is off about the man, he appears to be undead. Feeling the loss of Fredriech Carlston, Adrid approaches the man kindly at first and then cuts straight to the point by asking how long he's been dead. Eventually, the man reveals his true identity to be none other than Strahd von Zarovich.
The dreadlord applauds the group’s efforts to sniff him out and assures them he was simply, "Checking in". The Martikov family see this happen from the kitchen and immediately flee the residence. The party takes a moment to inform Strahd von Zarovich they have visited his "Mother" in the swamps of Berez. He informs them that this is not his mother but just a caretaker of sorts. He also seems unphased and unsurprised that she has a "child". He does not seem to care for her in the slightest. He takes his leave shortly after their conversation and the party goes about trying to find Irwin and his family but are unable to do so. They immediately leave for the winery to see if they can find them.
Upon arriving at the Wizards of Wine Winery, no one seems to be around. After approaching the main building Davian appears but does not know where anyone is. After going inside to talk, he chastises them bringing up the family secrets when askes about Muriel. The party informs him about his sons encounter with Strahd von Zarovich, but he has not seen him and would not expect that he would go to the winery if that was the case. He does not know where Irwin and his family are. In fact, he does not seem to know where anyone is.
Davian and the party continue to fight about the details of Berez and Baba, but eventually they settle on spending the night to rest and then heading back to the swamp to confront Baba and retrieve the stone in the morning.