After processing the trauma of having to beat up Shakti and Lancelot, they continued on the winding mountain path. Shakti found a trinket in the mud, a maroon spyglass with a lens that only displayed the world suffering a terrible storm. Seeing a colony of Vampire Bats flying overhead, they decided to camp deeper in the woods; the trees grew sparser as they ascended, and they did not want to be spotted from the road.
During the first shift, Jarmo apologized to Shakti, and the two acknowledged the gap in their relationship; both were close to Ghalwin in their own way, but not to each other. On the second shift, Ireena and Ghalwin reconciled over a stolen flask of the Vistani's wine. The two had fought during their travels, but Ireena admitted she felt safer with the party than anywhere else. Their bonding was cut short, however, when they sensed movement in the woods; a brother and sister wandered close, unaware of the party, and Ghalwin saw that both had been clearly wounded by silvered weapons. Ghalwin snuck up on the pair undetected, then attempted to reason with them, but the starved Lycanthropes overwhelmed him with feral speed!
As the sister's jaws closed around Ghalwin's neck, he felt a whisper in his mind as if through Telepathy. The voice of an otherworldly being requested that he would pray to her; staring down possible death and certain Lycanthropy, the paladin accepted. A familiar blast of cold air rocked the werewolf, causing her attack to miss. Shakti came to his aid with the first casting of her moonbeam spell, reducing the brother into dust and forcing the sister back into her humanoid form. Jarmo empowered his maul with hemocraft, swung, and popped off the she-wolf's head.
Once they realized they were safe, Ireena and Jarmo scavenged two silvered arrowheads in the ashes of the brother. As the daughter of a werewolf herself, Shakti needed a minute to reflect on the fact that she had killed her first-ever living person; Ghalwin took the moment to walk off alone, contemplating his second encounter with the otherwordly. He sought out the being, asking her name, and she replied: Yrrga, the Eye of Shadows, seemed to recognize the paladin's changed disposition as he too decided to adopt a title. She informed "Ghalwin of the Grove" that she could be reached in his dreams, and her presence disappeared, but granted him a split-second of powerful darkvision.
The next afternoon, after a half-day's journey, the party arrived at the Black Carriage Crossroads. The sign indicated that they were only halfway to the town of Vallaki, but less than two days travel to Castle Ravenloft and the Durst Windmill. At the fork leading to the castle, Strahd's black horses and carriage lay waiting, and its door swung open. Ghalwin looked into the carriage and noticed holes in its ceiling, clearly intended to release a gas or magical effect. Spooked, he retreated, and the party decided to delay their dinner with Strahd.
2 hours from the crossroads, they walked beyond the imposing western gates of Barovia and began to descend back into the valley. While camping deep in the woods, the mists grew dense and thick around them in the night. Shakti and Jarmo heard howls slowly approaching the campsite until a snarling wolf, the size of a Polar Bear, stepped out of the fog.