We find our adventurers in the village of Barovia. They witness a strange scene. An old lady argues with a couple and ends with taking their baby and putting it in a sack. Kokmadonis quick to action and confronts the old lady. Meanwhile Grayson Blackquestions the parents about the strange scene. With some intimidation, Kokmadongets the baby back while the others learn that the old lady took the baby as payment. The parents were in debt because of their addiction to 'Moon Pastries'. Kevdormubuys and eats a piece of it, worrying the rest of the party.
They continue their march towards the manor of the Burgomaster. On the way, they meet Ismark Kolyanovich, talking to Bildrath. He tries to scam us again with his insanely high prices, but no one falls for it this time. At the manor, we are greeted by Ireena Kolyana, although she doesn't trust us first to let us enter. After some talking, we enter Burgomaster's Manor.
The manor is beautiful, but worn down from all the fighting. The party sees a lot of holy symbols on the walls. The coffin of the Burgomaster lies in a different room. Sierra Del Panadero makes the flowers bloom again to pay respect. Grayson Black adds his own holy symbol to the others to protect the house, and they all go to sleep.
The night was a difficult one. Most of the party have a bad dream with the same old lady as last time. Meanwhile Kevdormu has the best dream of all time. He runs through a meadow with Francesca, while his Lich patron watches. When he wakes up though, he feels empty and he craves the taste of Moon Pie again.
The next morning, they head out to the church, with the intention of burrying the Burgomaster. When they arrive at the church however, they find the priest praying inside. As they approach him, the party gets spooked by a terrible scream from below the church. They get the priest to talking, and learn that his son is screaming. He went to fight the Dread Lord but came back a mere ghost of himself. The priest locked him up as the son suddenly craved human blood to quench his thirst. The party agrees to check it out.
They go below and Grayson Black is able to pick the lock of a trapdoor. There they find a terrified creature in one of the crevices. Grayson Black gives him some of his blood to make him talk. They learn that a wizard lead some townsfolk to the gates of the castle to try and defeat the Dread Lord. But it went horribly. They were defeated fairly easy. Yet he was able to stand up and return home. But he needs blood to survive. As the party tries to talk further, the creature tries to escape. A battle springs forward, and the son is defeated.
Together they burry the burgomaster after telling the priest the terrible news. They all pay their respect and leave. But not short after, they hear a single bell ringing once. Curious about what that means, Kokmadon and Grayson Black return to find the priest hanging on the rope of the bell. The two adventurers pay their respect, burry the priest and continue on their way with the others.
After some time they find an old gallows. They see the wood is old and rotten and a few tombstones are nearby as well. They don't take much interest in it until suddenly a body swings on the rope of the gallows. Most of the party sees a random person, but are wondering how the body suddenly appeared. Narmo however is very spooked as she sees her own lifeless corpses hanging on the rope. She acts quickly and shoots at the rope, dropping the corpse on the old wooden floor. After explaining what she saw, Kevdormu leads the charge of investigating. However when he touches the body, it quickly decays and disappears. Very spooky. Before heading further, Kokmadon decides to burn the gallows, just in case.
In the evening they reach the Vistani camp at Tzer Pool. They are greeted by *Random Vistani*. While they talk to some of them, Sierra Del Panadero decides to make some pastry, similar to the moon pastries she has seen. He tells Kevdormu that he will receive a piece every day, but that they have to work on his addiction. Then the party visits Madame Eva, who gives them a Reading of Mme. Eva about how they are supposed to defeat the Devil Strahd. Not sure how to proceed, they leave the tent and join the other Vistani at the camp fire. It is there where *Random Vistani* tells the tale of a wizard who wished to battle Strahd and helped an army of citizens to get to the castle. Strahd was too powerful however. The army was beaten and the wizard slain by Strahd's magic, unless he can survive a fall of 1.000 meters? With that story, the party went to bed with a heavy heart.