Burr shakes his head, " Who cares. The crazy man is dead and we need to get you home."

" And I'm not taking no for an answer, Young Lady."

Zefla's curiosity was peaked, that was for sure.  And this little brat wasn't giving them any answers, she really was concerned as to what took that man in the lake.

But now her friends were talking about escorting the child back to her father?  The halfling rolls her eyes.  

It did feel good to be back on solid ground, boats were definitely not her thing.  While the others take over the questioning, her focus heads back to the lake and the surroundings and she tries to see if there is anything of note.. if anything has changed since their excitement on the lake.

Perception  19

She shakes her head at Giles.  "No.  The man... he hardly said a word.  I tried speaking to him at first; warning him of my father's wrath, and later questioning him as to his intentions.  After hours with no response, I resigned myself to sit in silence."  She raises an eyebrow at Giles' next comment.  "And how should I take all this?  I was in grave danger, but I live on.  Should I quake and sob at the danger and the uncertainty of fortune?  I hardly think that would improve my lot."

She looks at Soren with interest as he transforms back from foxhood.  "That is a fascinating trick, sir."  Her interest turns to apparent confusion at his questions.  "No... no.  I'm sure he will be quite pleased at my safe return.  It is the careless manner in which I was captured that will disappoint him, I fear.  He does not like when I leave the camp, and constantly reminds me to be careful."

At Burr and Soren's words of accompaniment, she sighs.  "I will not stop you, nor could I, if I wished.  If you will travel with me, so be it.  I only wanted you to understand that I am capable of taking care of myself... recent circumstances notwithstanding."

Soren:

 Zefla, you take a short walk and surveil your surroundings.  It seems a little brighter now, as though the clouds and mists have thinned just a hair, but you still do not see any sign of danger, or of any persons here but for your group and the girl.  It seems quite safe, for now.

" You are truly formidable.", Burr said seriously.

" That is a daughter I'd be proud to have.", he said quietly to Soren. " Don't suppose theres much chance of living long enough for that to happen now..."

Giles regards to girl, tilting his nose up and stops breathing briefly, an intake of air.  He silently nods, in approval.  “You’re made of tough stuff, that’s clear.”  He turns to Burr, saying “Right.  I don’t know that we need to accompany her ALL of the way, but enough to make sure she arrives safe.”  He turns back to her and says “We couldn’t let that happen.  Remember us well, my lady.  Perhaps you or your people can return a favor to us sometime.  After we make sure you arrive safe, we must be on our way, we have other matters to attend to..”

Soren shakes his head wearily.

"On one point I disagree, not-Father.  Let us accompany her all the way.  I wish to meet the youngling's father.  A daughter such as Arabelle may have a sire worth speaking to.  We have seen how the Vistani, though their loyalties are not to us, may have wisdom or lore they are willing to share."

Giles waits until Arabelle is not near them, but says to Soren in a low voice “Aye that may be true, but not are all as they seem, and many are servants of Strahd, yes?  And I believe that your good “Father Giles” bless his soul has a wanted face now among the Vistani, perhaps, I don’t know.  I’m just urging caution.  Maybe if you are all anxious to speak with them, I should wait and not approach with you?  But I do not feel right about going it alone either…”  Giles is troubled about openly walking into another Vistani camp, his face is furrowed.  He brings the coin out of his pouch and flips it into the air, catching it and looks at the result, keeping it to himself.  He closes his eyes, then opens them and smiles, saying “Right.  Let’s go.”  He’s been brought out of many tighter spots by his Lady, he must trust her now.  

You set off then, at first following the lakeshore and then turning south, keeping a wide distance from the walls of Vallaki.  She seems to have an idea of where she is going.  Do you allow Arabelle to lead the way?

Zefla grumbles audibly about this new change of course, still wanting to know about wolves and dens and solving whatever the puzzle was that Madame Eva had set before them.  She trudges along with the group, lagging behind and constantly looking behind them as they go.

Perception  9

Burr lets Arabella set the pace.

In his exhaustion, Soren had completely forgotten about the possible trouble Giles might be in with the Vistani.  He ventures (privately):

"Perhaps returning with a missing youngling and, we hope, hearing her testimony of how we prevented her drowning might balance out the bad blood?  The Vistani seem to value hospitality and family greatly, from what I have seen of their pack, despite their... other loyalties."

He walks alongside Arabelle as she leads the way, feeling himself relax amidst the wilderness.  Seeing Zefla already keeping a sharp eye out, he instead attempts to focus his tired mind and instincts on learning the trail and getting his bearings in the woods around Vallaki, seeking Silvanus' guidance.

Soren's Survival at disadvantage due to exhaustion plus Guidance:  12 + 1 = 13

To Zefla, sensing her dissatisfaction and wish to search for the wolf den Madame Eva had prophesied, he muses:
"Nettle did not sense much wildlife near the visible shores of the lake during her circuit.  Something about that lake seems to deter beasts, perhaps the spirits below the surface, though there were a few ducks and one or two otters.  Perhaps we can return to look for the wolf den, but to do that, we should cross to the northern shore and head north toward the mountains, since the wolf den was said to be in the foothills."

"Yeah, so we should be heading North, not following this obviously capable girl home to the Vistani camp where we are very most likely not welcome." Zefla states irritably.  

Burr tromps on unaware of any grumbling.

Arabelle leads on with a steady, surefooted pace through the thin woods between the walls of Vallaki and the shores of Lake Zarovich.

Zefla, you can't seem to shake wolves from your mind.  As you watch the trail behind you, on more than one occasion you nearly call an alarm as low, dark shapes seems to materialize within the grey mists that permeate this land.  But just as quickly, they evaporate away, nothing more than fog and shadows.  The more alert you try to be, the more false alarms you experience.  It begins to feel as if the mists are toying with your senses... showing you hints of what you are trying to see, what you are looking for.  But that has to be just paranoia, right?

Soren, you relax your senses and try to commune with the nature of Barovia, with what life exists here in this grey, shadowy world.  What you sense most is stress.  There is life here - worms in the earth; a few birds here and there; a lean-looking jackrabbit.  Everything that survives here, however, is just surviving.  The light is so weak that the plants are starving.  The soils are thin and barren.  What plants do grow are sallow and mishappen.  All that lives here does so under constant and unyielding stress.

It is not long before you see the end of the western end of Vallaki's walls, and the small cluster of buildings that lie beyond.  Once, this may have been a thriving 'outer' village or perhaps a slum for those too poor to own a home in town.  Now it is little more than a collection of abandoned buildings.  There is at least one occupied area, it seems.  There is a cluster of buildings surrounded by a low wall.  It is almost comical next to the tall palisade walls of Vallaki... this is little more than a chest high fence.  It seems to offer some protection, however, as you see smoke rising from a chimney and the distant form of someone hanging laundry.  All this is still 500' ahead.

As Arabelle turns south around Vallaki's walls and in the direction of this smaller settlement, Soren is the first to notice something has changed in your surroundings.  The already thin forest has fallen away to a clearing.  Within, there are numerous deep depressions in the earth, deep enough to almost swallow a person if they fell in.  A moment later, the rest of you see it as well, and you recognize it for what it is... you are walking through an old graveyard.  Many resting places are unmarked, and others have only blank stones, any inscription long ago worn away.  While a graveyard can be a sobering place under the best of circumstances, you notice something else, even more unsettling.  Many of these graves have been opened. 

One, two, four, ten... you'd guess perhaps half of these graves are dug up, empty cavities in the earth gaping up toward the sky.  The mist pools in some of the open graves, creating the illusion of bottomless clouds in the ground.  Some seem to have been disinterred long ago, with grass and plants poking up from the open hole.  Others were dug open more recently, with the moved earth still dark and fresh.

If anyone stops to examine the graveyard, Giles takes the opportunity to open his pack and take out his disguise kit.  He uses it to alter his appearance slightly, not so much that Arabelle would not recognize him, but enough to make it appear that he is someone different, slightly altered.  He acts like he is “freshening up”, even bending down to use any water that is pooled, but he does so to subtly alter his appearance, just enough to appear different… to any who may have seen him before.  At the end, he’ll say to no one in particular, “There.  Cleaned up.”  He packs up his bag again and then he’ll look to follow the others in, staying in the rear.

Soren tries to recall the mist at Saint Andral's Cathedral which seemed to probe around  the graves but be held back:

(Post 641:  "A thin mist creeps among the graves, but seems to hang back, as if in reverence of the church, not approaching within reach of the walls.")

Quietly, he observes, "my mind itself is foggy from lack of proper rest, but from what I can recall, the mist seems to be behaving quite differently from the mist near the cathedral which seemed to be held back.  Perhaps by the Morninglord.  Father Lucian would not say."

He pauses somberly.  "This land is near death.  And Death itself lurks near the land always, in many forms, this mist perhaps being one of them."

Burr slings his maul off his shoulder and into his hands, watching the disturbed graves for any sign of movement or other weirdness.....

Zefla gets more and more agitated as they walk, seeing things but not and always on the edge.  She starts questioning herself and not knowing where she is and why they were heading in this direction anyways.  It takes some concentration to get herself centered again once they reach the wall of Vallaki.

As they traipse through the disturbing cemetery, she watches in disbelief as her companions go through like it is nothing!  Finally with an audible, "Hmph!" she marches up to the girl, she didn't put forth any effort to remember her name, "What is the deal with these graves?  Why are so many empty?  and recently?"

Giles finishes with the last touches to alter his appearance slightly, trying to hide this as “freshening up” and keeping to himself, but he gets an eerie sense of foreboding from the graveyard, a sense that all is not well with this scene.  He packs things away and halfway kneels to the ground, listening, looking, trying to sense anything moving, anything… undead frankly.  He grasps his coin in his hand as he listens, saying a silent prayer to himself.  

Perception : 12 + guidance of 1 = 13

The girl looks levelly at Zefla.  "My people are not responsible for this graveyard.  Why has it been disturbed?  No good reason, I am sure.  Let us not dawdle."

Giles, you don't see or sense anything lurking nearby.  If there were any undead here, now, they would likely have been upon you already.  There is just the quiet, despoiled cemetery, covered in mists with the looming walls of Vallaki in the distance.

Arabelle urges you onward.  You see she is not heading for the fortified hovel outside Vallaki either, steering west and going around it, instead. 

You soon come to a wide road.  It leads back east toward Vallaki, and further west into the forested gap that makes the far end of the valley.  She heads in neither direction, cutting straight across the road.  Very quickly she picks up a path, large enough for a wagon but much less worn then the main road.  It continues to the south.  "It won't be much longer.  We are almost home."  She inhales.  "My home, I mean."