Tobias magically mended Ezmerelda's wagon, and they forged ahead until darkness fell. Camping atop a cliffside ledge, the party was far enough away from the Werewolf Den to be troubled by the full moon. They started to workshop nicknames for their group, while Mormeros snuck back into the wagon to contact Ten-Zras again. The warlock would choose to make a deal with the Dark Power in the future, once matters had been settled with Dharus. Meanwhile, Ghalwin and Ezmerelda made up, and the paladin convinced her to put on the Ring of Mind Shielding and finally hash things out with van Richten.
The party traveled nearly two days through the forested mountains, passing by the offroad to Old Bonegrinder as well as the Gates of Barovia. As Ghalwin and Ez navigated and Mormeros slept, Ajuni and Tobias studied their respective religious texts. Tobias finally cracked the cipher of the mad journal, penned by a servant of Sykane, the "Soul Hungerer." Just by reading the name, Tobias was contacted by a voice of a thousand souls, and they requested that he be their next champion. He attempted to negotiate a powerful weapon from Sykane, but they could not provide one without being released from their sarcophogus, and the two were unable to come to terms.
Mid-day, they encountered the Black Carriage Crossroads, where Strahd's dark wagon waited. Mormeros, Tobias, and Ajuni piled in, and the latter was able to resist a sleep trap and found that the ground under them was shaking and turning inwards, swallowing the horizon. With the land itself propelling them to the castle, they passed the Gates of Ravenloft and crossed its drawbridge. Amidst peals of thunder and rain, they were finally on the stone spire of Castle Ravenloft, and Tobias used his scale mail to determine the location of Arvynvost's skull below it.
Not wanting to be bad guests, they left Verity with the wagon and entered Strahd's cobwebbed-filled fortress to the sound of organ music. They were greeted by the dusk elf chamberlain Rahadin, who Ghalwin recognized from Kasimir's stories. Accompanied by psychic screams of those he killed, Rahadin took the party to the dining hall, where Strahd finished playing his piece. Delicious food and wine awaited the group, and they were joined by his spouses: Escher Chernykh, Anastrasya Karelova, Ludmilla Villisevic, and Volenta Popofsky. The resulting dinner was tense, as the party each sussed out the motivations and predilections of Strahd's monstrous brides.
The Count had found most adventurers dull and weak, but was interested by his uninvited guest's entrance as well as their capabilities. Ghalwin behaved the least cautiously, and Strahd told the paladin of his complicated feelings towards him, wanting to destroy him for "poisoning Tatyana" but thanking him for killing Vargas Vallakovich, who he grown bored with. Strahd told Ajuni the story of Patrina Velikovna, and offered her to be his bride, as the legacy of elves in Barovia was ending. The sorceress politely declined, but the proposal clearly infuriated his spouses.
The group did not want to offend the Count by asking too many questions, so kept mum about Zandros, the Ladies Three, and the Dark Powers. At the end of their dinner, Strahd spoke of Atlas and his wish to find a worthy heir, but did not believe that one existed in their ranks. He bade them farewell, and the vampires left the group in the dining hall, promising to send a servant to escort them to their rooms. With precious few minutes to investigate, Ghalwin and Tobias found a hidden room behind the organ after pressing a few keys.
They decided to wait in the dining hall as Mormeros programmed an illusion of Tobias, while the gnome snuck past the hidden room containing the castle's mirrors. In a connecting wing, Tobias found stairs leading to a chamber emanating necrotic energy, as well as a hall filled with bone furniture and Argynvost's skull. Realizing he could steal it right now but was in way over his head without a plan of escape, he returned to the group in time for them to be greeted by Cyrus Belview, Strahd's mongrelfolk chef. After learning that they had supposedly just eaten a meal of people, they tried to convince Cyrus to lead them to the catacombs.
After much pushing and persuading, they followed the mongrelfolk downwards, past the kitchen and toward a spiral staircase. However, the group did not make it far before two steel portcullises dropped from the ceiling, trapping them inside the stone hallway; Cyrus had betrayed them and lead them to an elevator trap! The elevator propelled them upward as sleeping gas poured from the ceiling, but despite knowing it was coming, the only one affected by the gas was Cyrus. With their guide knocked out by his own trap, the party readied themselves as they hurtled hundreds up feet up the castle spire.