Act 2, Scene 1: Vallaki: The Festival of the Blazing Sun

The first scene of our second act begins with our heroes in a sorry state. Demoralized by their second run-in with Strahd, the loss of Ireena, Grghshnq, and the bones of St. Andral, and afraid of what might come for them next, they nonetheless took the time to mourn their fallen companion.

Ri-An led the ceremony honouring Grghshnq, singing a song in Grghshnq's honour. While others said a few words, Ayduin serenaded the group with a song on his lute. Afterwards, the party headed back in to the Blue Water Inn to continue their plan of laying low and regrouping.

Ri-An placed an order for a chain and a spear, while Osrin and Sylvain requested a silvering of their weapons, using some of the money Ireena had left behind for them. Not keen to make the trip themselves, they asked if Urwin could find someone trustworthy to handle the errand, and with his assurances that he'd do just that once Danica was up from her nap, the party waited, listening to the monotonous drone that is Rictavio's gift of song. Somehow, they tore themselves away from his performance and returned to their room.

Sylvain began to read *van Richten's Guide to Vampirism* in earnest, finding some uncomfortable parallels between the alleged origins of vampirism and some of his own recent actions. The party as a whole begins to suspect everyone has been having some strange dreams lately, but for some reason can't seem to openly talk about it. Weird. Anyway. Bodaway told the others about his visions from the Raven Queen, saying he'd seen some of those adventurers who'd previously been in Barovia through her gifts. Sylvain confessed to having died and been brought back, though not as fully as he meant to.

The party has their second encounter with Ispati, the mysterious, bookish man who they'd seen at the orphanage the day before. He is, it seems, the one deemed worthy of running errands on Danica's behalf. When asked to guard Sylvain's rapier with his life, he declined, but assured the party he would look after their belongings and money to the best of his ability.

With Ispati gone, the party discussed their next steps, agreeing that under no circumstances would they attend the Festival of the Blazing Sun, and that their next destinations ought to be the Wizard of Wines winery and/or the Vallaki Vistani camp and its dusk elf settlement. Before they had a chance to finalize their plans, a knock came at the door, revealing Izek Strazni. Izek, it seems, was worried after the party failed to show up as promised that afternoon, and was eager to get to know his brother a little better. Izek, Bodaway, and Sylvain headed downstairs, while Osrin hung out on the balcony above, casually eavesdropping.

According to Izek, he and Bodaway had 16 siblings, all of them connected via Bodaway's prolific knight of a father. Though Bodaway tried to assess whether or not Izek's monstrous arm was somehow connected to his own unusual physical features, as far as Izek knew, it had been present ever since his birth, which his mother died shortly after. Ever since, Vargas Vallakovich had seen to his upbringing, placing him with the Strazni family.

Upon discussing the characteristics of some of their many half-siblings, Bodaway suggested that one of them, a young girl Izek often saw travelling through sewers, likely lived in a large city such as Baldur's Gate or Waterdeep. He then proceeded to explain to Izek just how much larger than Vallaki cities can get, effectively blowing Izek's mind.

Eventually, with Bodaway's assurances that he would *definitely* be at the festival the following day and would come to have a closer look at Izek's dolls afterwards, the two said their goodbyes. With the rest of Bodaway's companions coming downstairs, the group ate, drank, and in the case of Ayduin, engaged in a lute duel with Rictavio. Ayduin won easily, making Rictavio the latest of Barovia's residents to realize just how many things Ayduin is good at. Dances were danced, Bodaway serenaded the Blue Water Inn, and half-elves were cut off sometime around the time that Osrin disclosed a few facts about her past with Corvus Nightfeather's Circus of Wonders.

That evening, two of our heroes dreamt. When offered the choice between the Raven Queen's city and a sky full of stars, this time Bodaway chose the sky, where he met Khirad, a cold and distant power who offered Bodaway power and answers beyond mortal reckoning in exchange for his fealty. Meanwhile, Ayduin finally met the being responsible for his recent Feywild dreams: Seriach, a power who claims to be in favour of balance above all else, drawn to Ayduin due to his history of protecting the balance between nature and civilization, between the Feywild and the Material Plane. The previous dreams had been a test, he said, and he was prepared to offer Ayduin great power and access to his hellhounds in exchange for Ayduin's fealty. When asked whether Ayduin could have some time to think the matter over, however, Seriach said that as this was the third dream, the choice would need to be made immediately.

Lured like so many before him by the promise of doggos, Ayduin agreed, becoming the third of our heroes to make such a pact. The following morning he unlocked a great gift: the ability to make the DM do ridiculous animal voices whenever he wants to.

The following morning dawned grey and gloomy, with our heroes fully ready to head out straightaway to avoid the impending festival. These plans were compromised, however, by their mentioning such plans to the Martikovs, who suggested that it would be difficult to leave the city the morning of a festival without a pressing, urgent reason to do so. With Danica noting that if there was any indication that the Martikovs had had prior knowledge of such inadvisable plans it could mean the loss of their inn or worse, it seemed skipping the festival would not be quite so easy as our heroes had originally thought.

Both Sylvain and Osrin set their sights on a morning bath, while Ri-An — discontent with the wear and tear on their fine new dress after the events of two nights before — elected to drop it off at the tailor's for some mending. However, keenly aware that some of the local authorities might be feeling less than friendly towards them, they donned the cunning disguise of masculinity. Though this disguise did fool the town guard, Anfisa clocked Ri-An when they dropped the dress off, but politely pretended she didn't.

Back at the Blue Water Inn, Osrin became a formative moment in Brom's puberty, and Sylvain decided to poke Zantras. Zantras poked Sylvain back in the brain.

With their newly silvered weapons, spear, and chain arriving that morning care of Ispati and a rush order by the blacksmith, our heroes begrudgingly made their way to the festival, with some leaving certain items behind to be picked up from the inn on their way out of town.

The festival did not go as planned — by any parties, arguably — though it did go about how you'd expect a festival to go in Barovia. While sleet pelted down on Vallaki, rendering Vargas's attempts to light the large wicker sun on fire to get the festival going comically futile, Vargas's smile did not dim. Even as a lone guard laughed, sending a thrill of tension through the crowd, he launched into a speech, revealing his grand master plan: blaming the party for everything wrong in Vallaki.

Sylvain immediately piped up, heckling the burgomaster and pointing out his many failures and notable absence while the town was being attacked by vampires, and hot on his heels came Lady Fiona Wachter, taking the opportunity to try to turn the crowd against Vargas instead. At this latest speech, Sylvain added in something along the lines of — and I'm paraphrasing here — "you can fuck off and die too, Fiona."

While Sylvain tried to redirect the crowd, Ayduin tried reasoning with some guards nearby, with mixed results, while around the party, Rictavio, the Martikovs, and their allies closed ranks, trying to stick together amidst the growing murmurs and tension. Despite these efforts, it didn't take long for violence to erupt, with part of the crowd making for the burgomaster and his family, part of the crowd going for Fiona and her sons, and part of the crowd going for the party and their allies.

A brutal battle ensued that saw both Sylvain and Osrin nearly go down, saved only by the deals they'd made, when fireballs rained down on the mob from an unseen source. Danica Dorakova, too, was nearly killed. Ayduin saw Brom and Bray disappear, leaving their clothing behind, and two small ravens flying away towards the Blue Water Inn — while Urwin ran to look after the boys and Rictavio ran for his wagon, a partly healed Danica and one of her allies led the party to the west gate to help them flee. However, one aspect of the riot was not prepared to let them go — the cultists who'd been trying to abduct Bodaway and Sylvain, one of whom Sylvain had knocked unconscious and was dragging behind him. A chase ensued, with the cultists eventually collapsing in exhaustion, and Danica bid the party farewell, promising to send along the belongings they'd left at the inn that morning.

A lone unconscious cultist in tow, they took a path into the woods, seeking out the Vistani, and a chance to recover from the trials they'd withstood in the town.

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