--My thanks to friend Nim for picking up quill and paper to add to this journal whilst I slept. He is right, this place has laid a weight upon our souls and it is a constant assertion of will to push ourselves up from despair. I worry for my friends as they all endure this in their own way. I fear most for Janlynn, our sweet beloved priestess, whose pure heart and love for life struck me with such joy when first I met her. Now I can see the darkening of her eyes and the new hardness I see within. We must keep strong and escape this place before it ruins all that is light and beautiful within us. I will pick up from where Nim had finished.--
We mentioned to the man, Ernst, that we might see him later at the Blue Water Inn, and bade him farewell. We made haste to the church to see what aid we could give to Ireena. The muddy streets of the village showed signs of readying for the upcoming holiday, but few people looked up from what they were doing to watch us as we passed. Upon arrival at the church we were informed that Ireena had been escorted to the Baron's mansion by guardsmen. We put the care of the children over into the dedicated arms of Father Lucien.
Nim took this opportunity to interrogate Millivoj once again about the location of the stolen bones of Saint Andril. Nim and Janlynn finished curing the last of Millivoj's sick family and I think that this contributed to him revealing to us the identity of the man who had hired him to steal the bones. He said it was the coffin-maker, Henrik Van Der Voort. Finally we were getting some truth out of this boy. While this interrogation was going on Janlynn, Uphir and I were in another room doing a Tarokka reading. We asked about the location of the Saint's bones....
1: She drew the Four of Stars. "The Abjurer". This card shows the past. It shows young, dirty hands reaching for the floor of the church.
2: She drew the Eight of Coins. "The Tax Collector". This card shows one man paying another man. The man paying is well dressed and affluent looking, while the other man wore a dirty neck scarf. This relates to crates or crated goods of some sort.
3: She drew "The Raven". A high card. Nothing was revealed.
4: She then drew another high card "The Artifact". This card shows that the bones are in a sack in a dark place.
5: The final card was "The Marionette". It showed the man with the scarf looking out through a black painted wooden door with a look of terror on his face.
The young, dirty hands were confirmed to be Millivoj's and it was learned that Henrik wore a scarf about his neck, which seemed to confirm at least some parts of Janlynn's Tarokka reading. Our new course was set and we assembled and headed to the coffin-maker's shop. Once there, we could see right away that Janlynn's powers of clairvoyance were spot on as the door to the shop was indeed painted black as in her visions.
Once inside, we quickly met the jittery Henrik Van Der Voort, whose eyes seemed to dart quickly between us. Once we enquired about the stolen bones an obvious fearful relief fell upon him. He stated that he was glad we were here and glad to be rid of the bones. He led us up stairs and said that he had done just what he was told and wondered if we were also here to deal with the crates. He seemed to think that we were affiliated with whoever had him steal the bones and this had something to do with the crates in his storage room.
He led us to his chambers and in a false bottom of an armoire he pulled out a sack and hurriedly passed it on to our group. Checking the sack - we had finally found the bones of Saint Andril! Once again he mentioned something about the crates and we decided we would play along as servants of his employer for the time being. He showed us to a room filled with crates marked as junk. Near the far side of the room were several large crates that he was referring to. These crates terrified Henrik.
Investigating showed them to be filled with dirt, which confirmed at least in our minds that vampires slumbered in each. Henrik revealed this to be his belief as well. Much discussion was had about what we should do about this frightening discovery. Initial thoughts were about somehow opening each crate one at a time and quickly killing the vampire before it could react - but what if the others awoke and they all attacked? Could we take one crate at a time and bring it to another location to destroy it? We decided that we should at the very least return the bones to Father Lucien before we add another impossible task to our list.
Based on the questions we were hammering him with, he soon learned our ruse and that we were not who he thought we were. He tried to make a run for it and Akkiir quickly subdued him, knocking him out. He was tied up and placed inside one of his coffins until we could return and deal with him and the vampires properly.
Father Lucien was overjoyed at the return of the bones of Saint Andril and wanted them interred again as fast and as properly as possible. He asked those of his flock who were present to leave the church nave and we helped him dig up the proper spot and bury them once again. Nim could confirm that the church grounds were once again sanctified to the might of the Morninglord.
It was a great feeling, even amongst all of the chaos and darkness all around us, to know that we could actually achieve a goal in this cursed land - we might just be able to make a difference after all. We have been trying so hard and it felt as if we were unable to fully achieve any of our goals before our time would eventually ran out and the devil Strahd finally came for us. We took just a moment or two, took a deep breath, and were out the door once again to try and make a difference. There was a Weasley coffin-maker to deal with, not to mention half a dozen vampires to vanquish.
Our feelings of success were short-lived. When we got to the coffin-maker's shop we found that he had escaped from his bindings! My mind ran amok with what this could mean for us. Would he escape to his employer and give us away? Would he report us to the Baron? We needed to find him immediately. Tetsuo used his knowledge of tracking and soon the trail was picked up and he found it led right back into the village. Janlynn used her power and divined his location after a quick walk through the town. Soon we found ourselves trekking through the mud of the streets of Vallaki directly to the Blue Water Inn, and Janlynn stated he was inside.
The Inn was actually somewhat homey inside. An older, grey haired man with a fancy moustache and spectacles sat at the corner of the bar reading a book; just inside the door at a table along the wall sat two men in wolf fur cloaks talking amongst themselves; two boisterous men sat laughing at a table near the center of the room; and hiding in the far corner of the room was Henrik the coffin-maker.
His eyes widened in fear as he tried to run past to escape the confines of the inn, but was stopped by my fellows. A minor struggle ensued as Henrik started shouting for help and saying that we had attacked him. The attention of the room was quickly being drawn towards the commotion near the door when Janlynn cast some sort of spell upon the scene which seemed to calm everyone down, and the people in the Inn just sort of went back to what they were doing. Henrik was calm enough now for Akkiir to start a dialogue. Akkiir then cast a mesmerizing command upon Henrik so that he would cooperate with us.
We took him back to the church with us to see what information we could glean. He let us know that the one who paid him to acquire the bones was a merchant named Visilli Van Holts, from Krezk and we had some speculation as to whether this was an actual person or actually the devil Strahd in disguise. Henrik himself was not sure, but he knew he was terribly afraid of the man and did not want to displease him, even when suspecting that he was housing vampires.
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