Spirits were grim after the Riots of the Blazing Sun. Lydia alternated from sobbing fits to complete dissociation, but The Pack simply did not have time to process grief. After deliberating on their most urgent task, they chose to head to Berez to rescue Muriel, again leaving Jarmo's statuesque body below consecrated ground. The Pack loaded their wagons as Gadof Blinsky weepingly thanked Shakti, promising to deliver their orders personally to the orphanage. Ghalwin headed to Arasek Stockyard to give his gold to Gunther, requesting that it be donated to charitable causes, and purchased a jet-black draft horse named Sesame. They stopped by Saint Andral's Church on their way out of town, healing the few burned or beaten Vallakians that had taken refuge there. Ghalwin gave a tearful goodbye to Jarmo, promising a quick return; The Pack then left, with Vallaki burning behind them.
van Richten and Atlas piloted their two-wagon caravan, with Verity acting as a fourth draft horse. During the trip, Ghalwin went over Viktor's spellbook, and determined that it had belonged to a Gnome adventurer named Xana Habblegabble Goldworthy; he loosely remembered a gnome being in the group of vampire spawn that had camped in the Coffin Maker's Shop. Viktor had likely stolen the book from that ill-fated adventurer, an outcome similar to the plate armor that Ghalwin himself now wore.
After a few hours journey, the group set up camp at the Luna River Crossroads. Knowing that they would likely be ambushed during the full moon, they elected to camp close to the river; this limited the areas they could be attacked from. Having called for the brutal burning of Vargas and Viktor, Atlas had a vision during his sleep provided by the Tome of Strahd. The Burgomaster's ancestor, Vyacheslav Vallakovich, had made a deal with Strahd hundreds of years prior: Vallaki would remain safe under Valalkovich rule, at the eventual cost of his family's sanity.
During the night of the full moon, two groups of three crazed werewolves attacked the carts, and one group managed to sneak up to attack the horses. Remarkably, Bagel survived multiple werewolf bites before Shakti and Lancelot came to the rescue, and Ghalwin was able to calm the horses mid-fight to not flee despite the vicious assault. Atlas and van Richten tag-teamed spirit guardians; the dark, silvery energy of Umori blended with the the light, gold-like Umyra, and the two clerics began shredding apart the other werewolves. Shakti wildshaped into a saber-tooth and began ripping heads as Ghalwin and van Richten finished off the last of them with silvered sword-strokes.
They easily dispatched their foes; however, during the ambush, both Atlas and Shakti were bitten, and were cursed with lycanthropy. Fearing for his sister's life, Ghalwin acted quickly, consulting Tasha Petrovna for advice on lycanthropy remedies. This turned out to be a stroke of genius, and Shakti managed to find necessary ingredients before applying them using a herbalism kit. Channeling their magic to remove curses while praying to their divinities, both Atlas and van Richten succeeded. The curses were removed, and disaster was avoided.
In the morning, Ghalwin realized that Lydia was too broken to go on despite her gratefulness to The Pack. Horribly traumatized from yesterday's riots, the night's assault, and the brutal life ahead of her, she was clearly in an at-risk mental state. They debated on splitting the party to escort Lydia to Krezk, but van Richten ultimately vetoed the idea; their mission was fraught and time-sensitive. Unfortunately, the heroes time was too crucial to spend it protecting someone from themselves.
They headed south, and as the roads grew muddy, Ghalwin was contacted by the Eye of Shadows. From their pact, Yrrga believed she had dominion over Ghalwin, and demanded that he leave Berez to climb Tsolenka Pass. She cited that the paladin's tarokka reading had changed: he was no longer meant to right the natural world's evils, but rather to free her from the Amber Temple. Ghalwin refused Yrrga's request, and in an act of fury, Yrrga revealed her true form to him. She tried to overtake his body, flooding him with dark energy. Faced with possession, internal damage, or an expulsion of the energy through the wagon, Ghalwin rejected her at a substantial cost; necrotic energy pulsed inside his veins and injured him permanently.
After this happened, The Star of Secrets reached out to Atlas, informing him of Baba Lysaga's powerful spellcasting and permanent bend to evil. Khirad requested that the cleric make a pact, and offered power they claimed necessary to protect himself by turning ethereal. Atlas rejected Khirad, seeing what had happened to Ghalwin, and the Dark Power promised he would receive no further aid.
As Atlas told the party what had happened, the Overgrowth reached out to Shakti. Zhivris explained his curiosity towards Baba Lysaga on a personal level, as she was a human who dealt in dark manipulation of plant life. He could not enter her mind, however, and while he was clearly respectful of Lysaga's danger, he wished to speak with her through Shakti. He requested a pact with her, promising to unlock her druidic abilities; Shakti eked out quite a few answers from the confused Dark power before rejecting Zhivris in a similar fashion to Atlas.
Shakti tried to hide what happened, but she was a terrible liar, and the party forced her to spill the beans. They debated that if Khirad was telling the truth, Berez may be too dangerous, but also knew that if they doubled back to Argynvosholt, they might be too late to save either of their friends. They agreed it best to move to Berez with alacrity, not overstaying if they felt it too threatening, and complete the mission as quickly as possible. To learn more info about what awaited them, Atlas contacted Muriel: the exsanguinated wereraven was trapped inside a "Creeping Hut", delirious from blood loss. She told him that she had previously always stayed safe in the standing stones across Berez's river, to be wary of the swamp's scarecrows, and that Lysaga was the head of a coven of witches who lived throughout the swamps.
He then contacted Ezmerelda d'Avenir. This time, Atlas received no answer at all.