In the hallway, a forlorn Ireena kneels over Ismark’s body as Elgian examines the area. The rightmost door leads to a dilapidated bedroom and we drag Ismark’s body into it. The leftmost room is similar. There is no obvious way out besides the windows and Corrina, feeling claustrophobic, opens one. The room we are in is 25-30 feet off the ground. We decide to spend the night in this room and climb down in the morning. We close the door to the rightmost room and lock ourselves in the leftmost. While we rest we find a small coffer with four bottles each filled with a metallic smelling liquid the color of melted iron. Ireena talks a bit about Ismark but is otherwise quiet. Corrina and Elgian read. We piece together some old wood to tie our rope to in the morning.
The next morning finds Olana riding from the Vistani camp on a stolen horse heading to Argynvosholt. She is chased by a Vistani man on horseback and two Vistani women each riding a dire wolf.
From the tower the group hears a horse approaching fast. We look out the window to see Olana being chased. We recognize Arrigal. Corrina opens the window and drops the rope down.
Ollana reaches the front of the mansion, positions the stolen horse in front of the abandoned cart, and enters the front door. She quickly ducks into the sarcophagus room as the Vistani follow her inside.
Elgian flies down the rope and notices something watching him from the tower to the left, its eyes burning red before it disappears. Corrina climbs down as we hear a loud crash at our door. She jumps the last few feet, her featherfall ability weak but still effective. Ada begins to climb down followed by Ireena as there is another crashing sound, the door bursting open. Ismark’s reanimated corpse (henceforth Wasmark) stands in the doorway. Mondross climbs down the rope with some difficulty as Wasmark strikes Elmer twice. Elmer begins to climb down but the wood supporting the rope breaks as he is partway down and he falls to the ground landing hard on something in his backpack. Ada collects the rope as Wasmark looks out the window. Corrina and Mondross shoot at Wasmark before running toward the front of the mansion. Wasmark leaps out the window. As he lands his leg breaks but it immediately heals. He tries to attack Elmer but misses. Elgian plows into Wasmark, stabbing wildly and tripping him. Around the front of Argynvostholt Corrina sees the dire wolves and turns back to the group. Elmer brings a flaming sphere down upon Wasmark as Ireena, enraged, draws her sword. She attacks Wasmark but misses.
Olana makes her way through the mansion to the side gate leading outward and sees the ongoing fight.
Mondros casts Bane on the wolves and Wasmark. Ada stikes Wasmark with the short sword as he stands and attacks Elmer who falls unconscious.
The wolves begin to trot over to the group, but a whistle cuts them off as the Vistani exit the front of the mansion and approach the fight. Corrina greets Arrigal, but is ignored. Ollana shoots a firebolt at Wasmark but misses and immediately hides as she sees the Vistani. Elgian tries to engage Arrigal as he stabs Wasmark but is also ignored. Corrina continues trying to engage the Vistani and this time Arrigal smirks. The other two look concerned but do not move to aid us.
Mondross heals Elmer and Ada strikes Wasmark twice, once with the Sun Sword, tearing away part of his armor in the process. Wasmark overswings in an attempt to hit Ada and she manages to strike him again before he successfully attacks her. Elgian continues to stab Wasmark as Elmer casts Sacred Flame. Corrina runs through Wasmark with her rapier and a misty form with red eyes leaves his body and disappears.
Arrigal slow claps sarcastically and asks if we’ve seen an elf. Elmer immediately tells him about Savid and notices that Arrigal looks oddly pleased with himself. Arrigal calls for Savid to join the Vistani on their ride home. Elmer thoroughly antagonizes Arrigal who them attempts to curse him. Elmer resists the curse and launches into a sermon as the other two Vistani try to curse him. The Vistani turn and begin to ride off. As they do we hear Arrigal say “That’s a fine sword you have there. I’m sure Strahd will be very interested.”
Once they have gone a sufficient distance away Olana approaches Elmer and reveals her own holy symbol of the Morning Lord. They flirt a bit by way of religion as Corrina hazes Olana via mage hand, untying her shoe and generally poking at her. Olana and Ada look over Ismark’s body but find nothing of value and Olana reveals that she was a prisoner brought to Barovia as Corrina uses mage and the pick her pocket, finding a quill and using it to write cursive in the air. Olana asks the air if it enjoys wasting time.
We build a pyre for Ismark. Ireena says it is not their custom, but it seems to be a wise choice. We heal as Ismark burns and wonder aloud what happened to Ismark’s resources. Ireena reveals that she took them. Olana asks if we have a base of operations and we all burst into laughter. Olana explains that she heard Argynvostholt was haunted and contained something that could be used to defeat Strahd. We decide to head to the chapel.
From the chapel Olana misty steps through a window looking in on a stairwell heading up through the backmost tower and the rest of us head to the roof. From inside the tower Olana lifts the bar keeping the door to the tower shut and we all enter onto a landing. we take a set of rickety stairs up to a second landing. Here there are two doors and stairs leading up. Corrina opens one of the doors revealing a spectral. The spectral shoots at Corrina as another spectral comes through the other door. Corrina strikes her spectral as Elgian stabs wildly at the other, bits of mist leaking out of their wounds. Mondross dodges several blows, but slips and falls to the ground. Elmer unleashes holy light, partially melting the spectral by Elgian. Ada slashes at the melted spectral with the Sun Sword and it vanishes. Mondross stands and strikes the remaining spectral but is hit in the process. Elgian stabs at the remaining spectral as Elmer casts sacred flame. Olana looks at Elmer and flirts a bit before hitting herself with a firebolt. Ada slashes at the spectral and it dissipates.
Mondross heals himself and we head upstairs, one stair collapsing under us as we do. On the top level of the tower there are windows facing every direction and ravens on the crossbeams. through the windows we can see a windmill, an abbey, Villaki, and the marshes we came from. Speaking to the ravens, Corrina discovers that bones have been rising from the graveyard since the raven was small, but not always. The ravens say there are elves in the forest to the east, we think they mean the dusk elves around the Vistani camp.