As Jarmo and Ireena got "comfy," Shakti and Ghalwin decided not to rest, still intrigued by Rictavio's carnival wagon. They snuck through the rainy streets of Vallaki at midnight and stayed hidden just outside Arasek Stockyard. The siblings kept watch over the course of hours, eventually observing Rictavio at the locked gate; Shakti used a Crow familiar to see what the he was up to. She saw that he was far more mobile than he let on, jumping up to the roof of his wagon and dropping in piles of raw meat along with dolls stitched to look like Vistani. Inside the wagon, a Saber-Toothed Tiger adorned in plate armor ravenously ripped apart both the meat and the dolls.
They headed back to the Blue Water Inn, and decided to confront Rictavio next morning. He maintained joviality while feeding his horse Drusilla, but after Ghalwin started asking more pointed questions, Rictavio became serious. He indicated that the child wereraven Bray was listening in from the rafters above, so had the party meet him in his room; there, he dropped his disguise. He was not a half-elf bard named Rictavio, but rather the famed monster hunter Rudolph van Richten, and he had purposefully come to Barovia to kill Strahd.
With his identity revealed, he was even more uncooperative; the old slayer had been collecting information for months, and was clearly worried about Strahd finding him. Nonetheless, when The Pack told him that Madam Eva's Tarokka reading indicated that he was their Fated Ally, he changed his tune. van Richten took the prophecy at face value, and mulled over potential locations of the three artifacts with the party. From what he knew of Barovia, possible places of interest could include the grounds of the Wizard of Wines, a ruined fort related to Silver Dragons called Argynvostholt, and a mysterious temple high in Mount Ghakis.
Dr. van Richten struck a deal with the Pack: if they could prove their reliability by finding one of the three treasures, he would join them on their quest. In the meantime, he refused to leave Vallaki or give up his hiding spot, but when told of Saint Andral's missing bones, he agreed to help the party re-consecrate the church. He donned his disguise and they all went back to the Coffin Maker's shop, accidentally breaking the door's lock while attempting to pick it. Inside, they snuck up on Henrik van der Voort, who finally acquiesced and told the party that six vampires had been hiding upstairs for months.
The gravedigger was visited by "Vasili von Holtz," a rich nobleman who offered Henrik gold in exchange for the bones; the vampire spawn entered soon after. He had not left the house since obtaining the bones, under threat of death. Ghalwin told Henrik to go to the Blue Water Inn as the Pack failed to quietly creep upstairs. There, they found a door inscribed with a Glyph of Warding, set to trigger a signal if opened. They rummaged around Henrik's kitchen and bedroom, and Ghalwin took back the gold that had been promised to the gravedigger Milivoj. They then entered the warded room, expecting an ambush.
An attack did come, as six vampire spawn of various races burst out of crates and barrels. These former adventurers did not all go in for an ambush, however, but rather burst through a window and onto the streets of Vallaki, taking the bag of bones with them. Ghalwin recognized a half-orc vampire spawn as Brokk, the owner of the platemail at Arasek Stockyard. Brokk held the party up for several rounds, trading blows with the paladin. Though overwhelmingly outnumbered, he proved slippery to hit, and Jarmo was forced to continually pull him down from the wall every time he tried to spider-climb away.
Eventually, Ghalwin made the call to chase the bag-carrier, and jumped out after the vampires. He opened the side door for Lancelot and Shakti to join him as Jarmo, Ireena, and van Richten struggled to kill Brokk. Finally, they got a few hits in, but the nearly-dead half-orc bolted through the same window as Ghalwin. Though the upstairs crew failed to kill him before he escaped, Shakti bounded to the ground level as a Wildshaped Dire Wolf and ripped the vampire apart. Everyone else descended to the streets as well, just in time to hear the screams of townsfolk ring across the square.