Soren looks stunned for a long moment, and then very unhappy as he stands there holding the strange rod, shaking slightly.

"Enrst Larnak was just slain, not by me, but by the dead man who had been impaled by this rod inside the chest.  You can see, he is gone.  A... vampire, I think he must be?  When I pulled the rod free, he reanimated and tore the spy's throat out.  I do not think not-Father or I could have stopped him, even had we reacted quickly enough to try.  The... vampire, strengthened by feeding on Ernst's blood, flung himself out the window, into the fog."

The druid's fists clench and unclench  He looks sick.  "I am sorry for what I have done.  Not for my part in Lady Wachter's death, but for loosing yet another abomination, a truly fearsome one, into Barovia.  Truly, this land is cursed beyond comprehension.  It is too much  I am almost certain this rod is one of the treasure's described by Madame Eva.  Perhaps impaling a vampire with it and placing it inside a lead-bound chest such as this holds them in stasis.  Even the symbol at the tip fits, with the skull whose mouth is stopped with iron, like a vampire prevented from feeding further."

Soren sighs, his shoulders slumping with the futility of it all.  "Yet in claiming the rod, I have inadvertently liberated the vampire it had last been used on.  Per Madame Eva, an ancient enemy of Lady Wachter's.  Or of Strahd's, perhaps.  I have loosed great evil into the world, with the only possible future benefit being that if we just convince Strahd to hold still for us and lie down inside a leaded chest, we can impale him with the rod."

He shakes his head at the improbability of something like that ever happening.  "I think I have done enough.  I will follow your leads from here."

Nettle lets out a quiet hoot, mournful and frightened-sounding, from Soren's shoulder.

"" Sounds like you had no way of knowing that would happen, and honestly Ernst was a garbage person,  Giles how much longer are your two friends downstairs going to remain friendly?""

" Soren.....your good with animals....think you could try and talk the Wachter daughter into being more of a housecat than a wildcat.......I mean, she's not really a cat but I don't think she knows that..."

"I admit, Burr, Ernst Larnak's death troubles me scarcely more than Lady Wachter's did.  I suspect he would have betrayed us soon enough, just as he betrayed her.  What I am distraught about is loosing yet another powerful abomination on this harrowed land, like the one we may have prevented on Yester Hill.  Who knows how many that vampire will torment or slay.  At least I think it was a vampire..."

The more Soren considers it, the more he realizes that he is only guessing.  It does not stop him from feeling defeated, however.

"I have said I will follow your leads from here, and I intend to.  You should know that maladies of the mind can grip cats, humans and other beasts alike.  I can try to speak with the girl - Stella she must be, Lady Wachter's daughter, maddened by whatever the Baron's henchman Izek did to her.  Yet I do not think it will help.  Most of what she spoke was the incomprehensible gibberish of a feline lunatic."  Suddenly, Soren stops and thinks.

"In fact, lunatic is a good word, related as it is to the moon.  In the brief moment I understood her, she spoke of the moon calling to her, a beacon in an endless night.  She then demanded to be released from her torment, following that request immediately with typical cat-like threats."

The druid sighs and stows the evil-looking rod (vampire stake?) in his pack, then approaches the door which Zefla had slammed in Stella's yowling and hissing face.  Taking a a breath, he ventures, using Speech of the Woods to address the addled girl through the door in feline language:

(Once done, Soren attempts to whisper the meaning of what he said to his nearby companions, though the translation is hardly exact - see spoiler above).

Giles is floored as he sees this reanimation occur before his eyes, violently end the life of Ernst, and then flee out the window before he has time to act.  He turns to Soren and then Burr, Zefla who enter the room, recovering from shock at what he has seen.  He gazes down at the wand that Soren has, wondering about it but unable to understand what its power is.  The words start to come in from Soren and Burr having a conversation and then he comes back, able to focus once more.  

“My God, what the hell was that!  We need to hurry along.  Those ladies downstairs will be charmed for about an hour, give or take.  We should finish looking here and investigate downstairs.  When you go, you have to say “The dead should remain at rest.”  Sounds to me like something is waiting for us down there.  I don’t’ want any other skeletons or undead waking up or running at us tonight.  Perhaps we can have a better look at that wand when we get back to the inn.  I don’t know if the “cat-woman” can be helped, Soren.  Anything else up here, or should we head downstairs?”

Burr moves with Soren to give what assistance he can...

Zefla remains rooted to the spot for a moment as the information is fed to her.  She stares at the rod that is in Soren's hand and asks, "Do you feel anything from it?"

She wonders if they should try and chase whatever it was they just let loose on the town but figured the way Soren described it, it was long gone.  Feeling deflated with everything going on, she looks to Giles, "I suppose that's the next step.  Want me to scout it out?  Or just go together seeing with all the racket we've made, any chance in stealth is out the door."

“Let’s go together..” Giles says, worried like Soren about what has been released into this world.  However, this may be just one among many of such creatures, it seems.  “let’s head to the basement and see what awaits us there.  Remember that we have to say those words as we are going down there.  I wonder if we should drag ole Lady Wachter down there… probably better than just leaving her in the study.”  

(Assuming no intelligible or encouraging reply comes from Stella behind the door and Burr does not insist on Soren continuing to communicate).

"The rod, I only know it is magic," he answers Zefla, "yet my only clue as to what it does is that it kept the undead... thing.  Vampire?  Ancient enemy of the Wachters' I assume, per Madame Eva's clue.  It kept him incapacitated inside the leaden chest.  Once I pulled the rod out, he was free."

Still looking disturbed at the memory, Soren gives himself a shake.  "You are right, not-Father.  We cannot linger here.  We can study the rod later.  Let us go to the basement together.  If we can clear it out, then we can leave Lady Wachter's corpse there with the rest of her 'book club'."

Nettle emits a small, scared-sounding hoot from the druid's shoulder.

Soren:

 As the party regroups, they head back to the first floor, Burr leading them to the secret staircase he found in the back of the servant's closet.  Iron torch sconces cling to the wall of the stone staircase that cuts its way through the heart of the old house.  The steps lead to a stone landing with a wooden railing.  A longer staircase extends south from the landing, leading down to the cellar.

This large root cellar has a dirt floor. Two ascending flights of stone steps enclosed by wooden railings stand across from one another. Tracks in the earth lead from one staircase to the other, and other trails go from both staircases to the center of the bare west wall. Four neatly made cots are set in a row against the south wall.

[What do you do?]

Giles holds his arms out, stopping everyone and insists on going first.  The last few stairs he starts to call out, repeatedly, “The dead should remain at rest, the dead should remain at rest, the dead should remain at rest.…” as he makes his way onto the floor of the lower level, looking around, casting light as needed to illuminate their way..

" I thought this was a meeting place....why are there cots here?", Burr queried.

Giles intones the words provided to him and as the party descends into the cellar... nothing happens.  

Other than the cots and the footprints, there doesn't seem to be anything down here.  The footprints lead to a western wall, suggesting there is some sort of passage there.

Zefla nods to Burrs observation, "Yea.. very strange.  I bet it is some kind of cult."

And she heads over to the western wall, seeing if she can find anything.  Checking for traps and such as she checks out the wall.

Investigation  8

"Like an accursed den of Strahd's wolves, Lady Wachter's book club has been busy."  Soren looks carefully at all the footsteps in the dirt floor.

"I agree with Zefla.  If their tracks lead to the western wall, there must be some entry passage there.  Perhaps the wall slides open at a command word, but not-Father already spoke the pass-phrase, 'the dead should remain at rest.'  Or there is a entrance hidden to look like the rest of the wall.  Or something masked by some devilish illusion, just as Lady Wachter's flying fiend was invisible."

The druid reaches for Silvanus' guidance and looks for a clue to reveal where the footsteps to the west lead.  Taking his time and carefully running his fingers up and down and along the length of the western wall, but focusing on any spot where the tracks converge.

Soren Perception plus Guidance:  20 (dirty) + 3 = 23

Giles walks over with his light, examining the ground as well.  “Did you find something?  Is there a door, or a handle to open it?”

Burr stands ready to smash the wall if needed....

Locating the hidden door doesn't prove difficult.  The 'stone wall' is in fact just a carpenter's construct... a wooden wall painted to look like blocks of stone.  The outline of the door is readily apparent once you know to look for it.  A mechanism to open proves more difficult, until one of you tries just pushing on the door, which swings open on hinges.  There is a handle on the opposite side, permitting those on that side of the door to exit.

Flickering candles in iron holders fill this hidden room with light and shadows.  This room has a ten-foot-high ceiling and a large pentagram inscribed on the dirt floor.   A trough is dug and filled with black powder, creating the sigil.  At each point of the pentagram rests a wooden chair.  A tiny cauldron sits on the floor in the middle of the pentagram.  On each chair rests a book.

Burr pokes his head in, "  Cute little demon room.....does any of this work?"

He tried to get a look at the books without entering.

"A pentagram.  More cursed magic."  Soren is no longer surprised, but disgusted nonetheless.  "This is where Lady Wachter's 'book club' meets?"

He looks around the room and up at the ceiling for hidden people or fiends.  He follows the tracks on the floor to see if they lead anywhere except to the chairs.  Perhaps there are more secret entrances?  Nettle briefly flies up for an angle to glance slant-wise into the cauldron from several feet above.

"I wonder what the Baron of 'all will be well' would think of such things?  I agree with not-Father.  This is where Lady Wachter's corpse belongs."

Burr heads up to fetch the old ladies corpse, waving to the servants as he passes back and forth.....