Session 18: Shadows at the Stockyard

General Summary

After a ferocious battle against the savage werewolves Zsolt and Matilda, the party returned victorious to the familiar walls of Vallaki. Though battered, they were greeted warmly at the Blue Water Inn, where the ever-watchful Urwin Martikov shared word: the mysterious Rictavio had left his room and was tending to his wagon at the Arasek Stockyard.

Determined to unearth the truth behind Rictavio’s secretive nature—and the strange evidence discovered in the tower at Lake Baratok—the party set out across the dark streets. Shadows flickered at the edge of their sight (some sharp-eyed souls might have caught the silhouette of a hidden figure, ever-watching…), but the group pressed on.

At the stockyard, they confronted Rictavio at last. Under the moon’s pale glow, the flamboyant ringmaster shed his disguise to reveal his true identity: Dr. Rudolph van Richten, legendary vampire hunter. With suspicion and steel in his voice, Van Richten demanded proof that the party were no servants of Strahd von Zarovich.

With tensions running high, a small, brave voice called out from the wagon’s interior: Arabelle, the young Vistana girl the party had been tracking, revealed herself and calmed the storm between the adventurers and the old monster slayer. Arabelle shared that she had foreseen the party’s arrival, leaving clues along the way to guide them here.

But not all was settled. From the shadows emerged Arrigal, Arabelle’s uncle and a cunning Vistani tracker. A tense standoff ensued: Van Richten insisted Arabelle remain hidden from Strahd’s spies, while Arrigal demanded she return to her family. Only the party’s careful diplomacy brokered a fragile agreement to satisfy both men’s aims.

As peace settled, young Arabelle’s eyes rolled back, her voice taking on the timbre of an ancient seer. She delivered a chilling prophecy:

In darkest night, the light shall flee,
No dawn to break, with no reprieve.
From the grave, the dead shall climb,
Their restless march a baleful sign.
At castle’s peak, a heart beats red,
Its hunger deep and ever-fed.
Should silence fall, the skies shall crack,
A thousand souls in torment black.

With the echo of her words lingering in the cold night air, Arabelle collapsed into a deep, exhausted sleep. Van Richten, troubled by the omen’s meaning, gifted the party his talisman of echoes, a rare magical item capable of communing with the dead. Arrigal, meanwhile, offered a dangerous boon: a single act of misdirection, false information he would carry to Castle Ravenloft—but only once, and no more.

The night ended with new alliances forged, old grudges simmering, and a dark prophecy now weighing heavily upon the hearts of all.