With the first rays of morning light, everyone stirred from their make-shift beds. The two small children in our care did their best to cling to Mire's skirts and hide from the world, but their eyes lit up at the idea of breakfast. Trail rations never tasted so good, as everyone took comfort in knowing exactly where the ingredients had come from. Over our simple but wonderful mean, Ragnar brought up a rather ingenious suggestion: since the hags had been using their barrel of gloop for scrying on people, could we attempt to use it to scry on Gertruda?

The idea was certainly an interesting one, worth exploring by someone besides myself. I have absolutely no magical talent, not like that anyway. Once again, we split the group: Ireena and Roderick took the children outside into what passes as sunlight in this realm to look at the brightly painted wagon and pet the horses; Doru and I made a final sweep of the mill to ensure we had not missed any remains in need of burial, and Ragnar and Mire worked together to get the barrel to tell them its secrets.

They did a good job of it, too! Using the misshapen doll as a source, Mire was able to hone her magic through the ... whatever it is the hags were using. She was able to see Gertruda, alive and well, walking through stone halls, passing suits of armor. After discussing what she saw with the others, it was pretty much determined that the girl must have made her way to Castle Ravenloft, as Roderick couldn't think of any other castles or large, stone fortresses in the area. It's encouraging to know that she's safe, although if she invaded the home of a vampire lord, she may not be safe indefinitely. It was agreed that once we had the children and Ireena safely settled in Vallaki, we would return to Barovia village for documentation from the new burgomaster officially requesting our assistance in the search for the missing girl so that we can petition an audience with whomever in the castle deals in the affairs of court.

We travelled on along the Old Svalich Road towards Vallaki. Something particularly interesting caught my attention that I would like to document here so that I don't forget about it. Perhaps at the church in Vallaki, or in some document in their city records, I could research the oddity that presented itself. There was a glowing red light coming from thirty or forty feet off the road. As we approached to investigate, there was a young woman laid out among the foliage, dressed neatly in green and white. The light was coming from a pair of rubies placed over her eyelids. As best as any of us could figure without disturbing what clearly seemed to be some sort of funeral rite, the young woman appeared to have died of some illness. Unfortunately, we could not tell more without disturbing her, and none of us wanted to do that. Neither Roderick nor Doru, with their knowledge of this land, nor my understanding of different religious practices from other realms was familiar with this. We did not want to interrupt this practice, but I would be very interested to know more about it if someone in Vallaki is able to tell me!

Further along, we met some truly bizarre men who said that they had come from the city of Krezk far in the west. They were unfortunate souls, bodies hunched over in what had to be painful contortions of muscle and misshaped limbs. One of the men said that they had come from the Abbey there; "had to get away" was the phrase he used before being silenced by the others. None would say more about what had caused them to travel so far, alone, on foot, through the horrors that lurk in the Svalich Woods at night. The Abbey at Krezk is now on my unofficial to-do list, after assuring the safety of Ms Gertruda. Regardless, we gave them some of our rations, and I gave them some coins from my purse. While most of my money is from Faerun, I have yet to find anyone in this land who will not accept gold in any form. We suggested they travel to Achelia, as the mayor had made a point of saying that they were hoping to attract more business to their inn. Perhaps with gold in their pockets, their peculiar countenance will be overlooked.

No matter how odd the days in Barovia, it is without a doubt at night that the most bizarre things happen! In the dead of night, Ragnar and Doru were keeping watch, the silence disturbed by the sound that Ragnar recognized as druids chanting. Quickly, they woke the rest of the group, as the sound was approaching through the underbrush. Ireena took the children to the relative safety of wagon, while the rest of us went to investigate.

Why a group of druids would have reanimated the body of a long-dead moose, I will never know. I tried asking Ragnar about it after the gruesome battle, but he had no answers, either. All I know is that four druids, guarded by four large (if someone intellectually vacant) men with axes were parading through the woods in the dead of night, commanding the decaying corpse of a moose to follow them, its entrails spilling from its body and dragging behind it along the ground.

In retrospect, perhaps we should have left one of the druids alive to tell us WHY they wanted this moose so badly. It was clearly worth their lives for whatever dark purpose they had in store for it, for not even one of them attempted to run to save their lives, standing with the moose until the bitter, bloody end.

Zombie. Moose. WHY DOES ANYONE WANT THAT??

Regardless. We vanquished the moose, stopped its disturbed originators, although we do no know if it was part of a large plot. Perhaps someone simply didn't want to carry dinner to some large carnivore, and they decided to have dinner walk itself? Why am I still thinking about this? The moose is dead, and we found among their remains a plush doll of an undead moose, yarn entrails hanging from its middle. "Is no fun, is no Blinsky" says the tag. Perhaps we should also find and have a talk with this Mr Blinsky, whose disturbing toys continue to show up again and again throughout our travels.

Morning dawned, as dimly as ever in Barovia, and with the new day, we travelled the final leg of our journey to the gates of Vallaki.

The city is not a particularly inviting one, and I was initially concerned that we would not be allowed entrance owing to Roderick and his (clearly) Vistani wagon. Because of ... reasons ..., Vistani are not allowed into town. The majority of trade between Vistani tasques takes place outside of town with venders willing to travel beyond the gates for trade. However, having Ireena with us, I was able to persuade the guard that we needed to be allowed entrance on official city business, as we were bringing the representative of the burgomaster of Barovia to meet with Baron Vallakovich.

Once inside, it was agreed that it might be safer to store the brightly painted wagon at Arasek's Stockyard. It's a rather conspicuous piece of craftsmanship. Beautiful but memorable and bound to draw attention that may not be desirable. There was already another brightly painted wagon at the Stockyard, this one with painted letters across the side, reading, "Rictavio's Carnival of Wonder". None of us had heard of him, and it didn't sound like a Vistani name that I was familiar with. Unfortunately, we had a rather lengthy to-do list in town and could not spare time to learn more about the carnival now.

It was agreed that we should first head for the Blue Water Inn to obtain lodgings and clean up from our long journey on the road. That accomplished, we would take Freek and Myrtle to the church to inquire about getting them safe lodgings, either within the church, a local orphanage, or a loving family willing to take in the children. Then Ireena needed to meet the burgomaster, we still needed to ask after Gertruda with the city guard (just in case, because scrying is not our specialty), then look in on this Blinsky fellow, assuming nothing else urgent arises. It's going to be a very full couple of days.

The Blue Water Inn seemed to be a fairly popular place of both the people of Vallaki as well as the city's birds. There was quite a gathering of large, black birds atop the building and filling the trees nearby. Ravens and crows are such interesting birds, at least in Faerun. They're disturbingly smart, able to solve puzzle tricks, and always remember when someone treats them unkindly. Hmm. What is a flock of ravens called? I'm not sure. Anyway, point is, with that many out there, best to treat them well, or all their friends will know in short order.

Inside the inn, there were several people milling about the tavern area, socializing. Some young men whispering and giggling amongst themselves at the bar as they drank, a couple of rough-looking hunters eating large hunks of cooked meat, a man seated in the far corner while writing in his journal who appeared to perhaps be an elf. The bartender proved to also be the owner, a gentleman by the name of Urwin Martikov. We paid in advance for lodgings and food for the next few days, and his demeaner brightened even further at being passed gold coins rather than a few silver. I would rather pay for all our needs upfront rather than need to worry about the details later, especially if the town guard decides rather suddenly to take exception to Roderick being inside the walls of the city.

Once we had a chance to freshen up, stomachs full and children's faces scrubbed clean, we took them across town to the Church of St Andral. Father Petrovich met us inside, well, most of us. Doru stated that he would prefer to wait outside, having had his fill of churches for a time. Mire waited with him, the pair sitting on a stone bench under a tree overlooking a small cluster of struggling flora that supposedly was supposed to flower but was having a rough go of it. Inside, the rest of us spoke with the priest of the Morninglord, who was agreeable to taking in the two children. He said that he had taken in a few children in the past, including a young alter boy in the church, Yeska, and a teenager who helps out around the property. While Myrtle might want for some female companionship, at least they will have a few others near their age to talk to and play with.

Father Petrovich wasn't able to provide us with much information or answers to the many questions that have been forming since we started out on this journey. He did mention that in a few days, the town would be having another festival: the Festival of the Blazing Sun.

I asked him if there were many other religious groups in Vallaki, was that why it seemed that the town celebrated a holiday nearly every week, but he said there was only the church to the Morninglord. The frequent celebrations were all the doing of Baron Vallakovich. Supposedly, he has regular festivals to help keep up the spirits of the people during these dark times.

Fiscally, this does not seem like a sustainable model. Perhaps we'll learn more as we take Ireena to meet the burgomaster.