After Kiril Stoyanovich bounded away, the party of werewolf slayers began to clean up the mess left behind. The Pack dug graves for the werewolves, and Ghalwin spent hours taking pelts from the wolf bodies. Shakti inspected the carts and once again tried to make friends for Ezmerelda, confirming that her stories about her upbringing were true. She then asked if she could get a blood tranfusion to become a Vistani seer like her; Shakti proved, once again, completely unable to make female friends.
Meanwhile, van Richten confided further trust in Atlas as a cleric of his "sister goddess", and revealed that he had been cursed by a Vistani when he took revenge on them for kidnapping his son Erasmus. Supposedly, everyone he loved would die at the hands of monsters; while he did not fully know if the curse was true, he refused to risk Ezmerelda's life on the quest. He also spoke of a record he found from Orlev ben Khazan, who turned out to be the wizard architect of the tower and Castle Ravenloft. Khazan had left Castle Ravenloft after its completion, as the warlord had been growing increasingly unstable after his parent's death.
As night fell, van Richten and Ezmerelda spoke privately for the first time, which Shakti listened in on. The old monster hunter was extremely upset that she had followed him against his wishes, believing that his protege was throwing her life away. Ezmerelda expressed that she refused to let him die in an unwinnable fight, and the conversation grew heated. He eventually expelled her from the group, and pleaded with her to leave Barovia, as only she had the option. In tears, she stormed away, taking her carriage to explore Argynvostholt and learn about the Order of the Silver Dragon. She instructed Atlas to contact her every day to share information through his sending spells, then went into the night.
The party then grilled van Richten, and despite his stubbornness and bigotry, he eventually apologized. After losing his only companion, Drusilla, he had been shocked to see that Ezmerelda had followed him into Barovia after their last blow-up. The party tenuously forgave the priest and agreed to travel with him; once he got on better terms with them, he immediately reprimanded Ghalwin for marking the werewolf graves without protecting them from undeath first. "Oh, mannnnn!"
They slept that evening in the protected fourth floor, and Atlas helped Shakti formally pray to Mother Night. She found herself dreaming of a box of brambles with moonlight leaking in one side, as an unknown being communicated with her. She pulled apart the thorns, which caused her skin to tear in real life, and saw the Werewolf Den across Lake Baratok. When she asked the being's name, it gave no answer.
During Ghalwin's shift, he spoke with van Richten about justice and heroism. The old man was far pricklier than Ghalwin, which caused them to butt heads, but the two had the same sense of righteousness. They eventually developed an understanding with each other, both on their sense of self-sacrifice, as well as their own hypocrisy towards that concept. Their chat was interrupted when the Tome of Strahd again sprung open; Atlas had a vision of fighting Khazan on the bridge of Castle Ravenloft. Strahd defeated the archwizard, but before killing him, Khazan claimed he had found another way to cheat death. Strahd became interested, and took Khazan to the Amber Temple.
The Pack left the next morning and spent the day traveling heading down the muddy trail back to the Old Svalich Road. They camped overnight unaccosted, and continued again in the morning past the Luna River Crossroads. Atlas confirmed with Ezmerelda that she was safe on her way to Argynvostholt after fighting off a few dire wolves, and they made their way to the outskirts of Vallaki. As they dipped into the valley, van Richten told them of his original plan with his saber-toothed tiger. He had learned from bar patrons that there were elves in Barovia that lived in the Vistani camp, and to he had wanted to learn Barovia's history from them. He trained Shredder to fight Vistani as a back-up plan, in case things went south at the camp. He still did not trust the Vistani, so as the rest of the Pack went to the camp to deliver Arabelle's gift, he went to Vallaki. He took his cart, Bagel, and a letter from Ghalwin to Urwin Martikov, promising to buy them rooms at the Blue Water Inn.
Nearing dusk, the trio went to the Vistani camp with their wagon and Lox. It was built on a hill, with permanent houses guarded by grey-cloaked figures, and many wagons were at the top, surrounding a large tent. Atlas and Lance guarded the cart as the siblings entered, and found that the Captain Luvash was whipping a man named Alexei with absolute fury. Ghalwin misty stepped to them and blocked the whip, which incensed Luvash further, but his brother Arrigal vouched for the paladin. In anguish, Luvash explained that Arabelle was under Alexei's watch while learning to fish at Lake Zarovich, but the younger man had passed out after drinking too much. Arabelle had disappeared that morning, and none of the expert Vistani trackers had found her. Alexei begged to continue to be punished for his mistake, and the Pack decided to help, leaving the tent and the cries of the man behind.
Ghalwin immediately wanted to contact the Dark Powers for information, which Shakti was mad about. Time was of the essence, however, and she acknowledged they needed more information. With Atlas's help again, Shakti attempted to reach out to Mother Night, but could not concentrate on prayer given Ghalwin's rashness. She relented and let Ghalwin contact Yrrga, who had been laying the prospect of her sight on thick, flashing images of young Arabelle to the paladin. Ghalwin sought further info, but found himself also unable to concentrate: however, he did manage to get a bit of information. Their mark was the dismal dejected drunkard, Bluto Krogarov.