At Soren's challenge about the evilness of hiding up here, Victor's face hardens.  His eyes narrow as he struggles to maintain his composure.  He crosses his arms, defensive, and his voice takes on a sharp edge.

"You think I don’t care?  I’ve lived my entire life in this cursed town.  This is my family, useless though they may be, and I probably know some of those common folk as well."  He takes a breath, trying to steady himself, though his anger is still evident.  "Perhaps Izek and that... thing, whatever it is, will kill each other, and if they do, Vallaki might just be a little safer for it.  But if we rush out there, blindly throwing ourselves into a battle we can’t win, then we’re just as good as dead.  This isn’t about being a hero.  It’s about surviving.  I know what it feels like to be powerless, to be at the mercy of forces far beyond your control.  I’m not going to waste my life on a futile gesture.  If you want to call it evil, fine.  But I call it staying alive."

When Giles steers the conversation back toward a potential alliance, Victor’s eyes follow the motion of the coin as it rolls along his knuckles, his mind clearly working through the implications of what’s been said.  He exhales slowly, as if trying to let go of some of his earlier frustration with Soren.

"The Devil's interest in Miss Ireena is... concerning.  If the Dark Lord wants her, that’s a problem.  And if Izek’s fixated on her too, well... that’s just another complication in an already impossible situation."  He glances at Ireena, then back at the party, weighing his words carefully.  At last, he seems to abandon whatever he was thinking and moves on.

"You want allies.  I want out.  Our goals might align, but words and intentions don’t carry water.  Actions do."  He gestures vaguely, his hand moving through the air as he continues, "If you really want to work together, then we need to be clear about what we’re willing to do.  You want to protect her," he nods towards Ireena, "and you need information, resources, ways to survive in this nightmare."

Victor shifts slightly, leaning against a nearby table.  "I can give you that.  But I’ll be blunt—if you’re serious about going up against the Devil himself, that’s not something you can just stumble into.  And if you’re relying on some vague hope of forcing him to release you, I fear you’re underestimating how deeply his power runs through this land."  He looks at each of you in turn, his expression hardening again.  " If we’re going to work together, we need to be smart.  We need to plan, and we need to be ruthless.  I don’t want to die here, and I certainly don’t want to face Strahd without knowing the odds are in my favor... or at least that I have a real chance of surviving.  So, if we’re in agreement, then let’s stop talking in circles and start figuring out how we can help each other—practically."

Victor looks at Giles, the coin still rolling across his knuckles.  "You said you haven’t made up your plan yet.  So let’s start with that.  What do you need from me, and what are you offering in return?  Because vague promises won’t get us anywhere.  I need something concrete.  We need a place to start."

Meanwhile, Burr moves to the other small window beside Ireena.  The attic window offers a bat's eye view of the chaos below, where the night has descended into pure carnage.  The flickering light from dropped torches illuminates the scene.  The crowd of town folk, once an organized mob, has devolved into utter panic.  People scream and shove each other, trying desperately to flee the creatures that have descended upon them.  Rent bodies are strewn across the cobblestones, lifeless forms lying in pools of blood.  One corpse is wearing a sandwich board, the message painted in it reading, "Give us the devil-woman!"  A mastiff lies dead near the gates, its once fearsome jaws slack and lifeless.  There is no sign of Izek or any guards, who may have fled back inside the manor.  Those town folk still outside are either fleeing away into the night, or are caught between the terror of the monsters and the locked manor doors.  Directly below, you can see a desperate group pound on the wood, their cries for sanctuary turning to shrieks of despair.  One man throws a heavy rock, and you can hear the sound of more glass breaking below you.

The creatures themselves are humanoid in shape, though they are pale of skin with red eyes.  They bear claws in place of fingernails, and their canine teeth are obscenely long, visible even from up here.  Burr can spot three... no, four of them, darting among the crowd, moving like beasts.  Ireena, her face pale, whispers, "These... these are the same monsters I saw at the church. The same ones we fought...".  Her voice trembles, but if Burr thought it was fear, one glance at her face shows her eyebrows furrowed in righteous anger.

Amidst the carnage, one of the creatures, blood dripping from its fanged mouth, pauses in its slaughter.  Slowly, almost deliberately, it lifts its head and turns, as if sensing something beyond the chaos.  Its eyes, red and glinting, turn ever upward, toward the window, and lock onto Ireena's.  For a heartbeat, it feels as though the world has stopped, the sounds of the massacre below fading into nothingness as Burr finds himself watching this unfold.  The vampire spawn tilts its head slightly, a grotesque parody of curiosity, before its lips curl into a bloodstained, predatory smile. 

[Burr can also make a perception check to potentially notice something else outside...]

"Ruthless?" Zefla smirks, "I don't have any problem with that.  Our immediate plan was to get our Lady Bauer free from your dad.  We've kind of got that finished.." she side-eyes the tielfing at this. 

"But our plan now?  Yeah, I don't know.  But talking in circles?  Seems to me that is what you're doing.  We do have some riddles to solve from the Vistani that we had met with earlier.  I do believe finding these items will help us in our battle.  Funny thing is?  She foretold of us meeting you.  So yes, in order for us to find freedom, to find your freedom, I believe we must work together.  I think our first step, is getting the hell out of here."

Burr glanced at Ireena but stared down at the dead thing with glimmering hatred....

Perception- 3

Burr couldn't make anything else out, " Feral Dead at the gates....they know we're here.", he called back to the others.

Giles sees them lock eyes with something through the window, he moves over and says to all of them “Back, stand back away from that window!”  He turns to VIctor saying, “You have wards and protections on the doors here, how about on the windows?  Those … things .. can climb, crawl through windows, get almost anywhere.  Are we safe here?  We do need to talk, to plan, pool our resources and discuss weapons that would have an effect, to improve our chances against the dark one.  As Zefla said, we need to tell you of what has transpired thus far and maybe you can make sense of some clues that we have been given..”

Victor huffs.  "As I warned your friend, yes, the windows are warded.  It would hardly be a secure saferoom, otherwise.  Now, all the more reason for them to step back from - "

Victor's next words are cut short by a hard scrabbling sound coming from the side of the house.  Burr and Ireena are met with a face peering in from the other side of the glass.  It looks like a pale-skinned young woman, though her eyes shimmer with red light and her face, from her nose down to her chin, is drenched in blood and gore.  The creature cocks its head slightly, like a pigeon looking at a reflection, and then reaches out to touch the window.

There’s a terrible screech of nails on glass.  Then, in an instant, the ward triggers.  A flash of brilliant blue light bursts from the frame, followed by a deafening thunderclap as lightning arcs through the creature.  The force of the spell sends it flying from the wall, its body tumbling through the air before crashing to the ground below in a heap.  The force of the spell shatters the window, shards of glass pelting Ireena and Burr.

[Ireena and Burr:  DEX save DC 12 or take 3 slashing damage.  Ireena save:  16 ]

The entire party's ears ring from the deafening noise, as Ireena gasps, clutching her chest as Burr steadies himself, the stench of ozone and singed vampire flesh still lingering in the air.

Victor’s skeletal cats go wild, hissing and scrambling, their bony limbs skittering across the floor and up the walls in a frenzy.  They dart to and fro, as if driven mad by the crackling energy and the presence of the monster outside.

Below, the vampire spawn slowly rises, its body hunched and smoldering but still intact.  It shakes off the smoke as its wounds begin to knit together.  Red eyes turn once more to the attic window.

"Balderdash..." Victor gasps with mix of anger and confusion.  "That spell was supposed to have been enough to kill a dozen men...".

(That was real creepy - I loved it)

A short scream erupts from Zefla as the young woman's face appears on the other side of the window.  Her eyes go wide as the ward triggers and the vampire spawn falls.  The stench in the air doesn't really seem to bother her as she moves forward to the window to see what happened to her.  Her hand goes to her mouth as the spawn rises slowly and she looks back up at them.

Turning to Victor, "Are we no longer safe now?  Can she just get through this window?  We need to move..." She unsheathes her rapier and readies an attack if the woman bursts through the window.

[As Zefla looks outside to observe what happened to the monster, make a Perception check, please.]

"I... I'm not sure...".  The arrogant bravado of Victor wavers, and for a moment you see frightened teenage boy, uncertain and vulnerable.  Then he wheels and moves to his desk, pushing a hissing cat skeleton aside and searching furiously through scrolls and papers.  "There must be something...".

Ireena also draws her longsword and takes a deep breath, standing beside Zefla.

Zefla perception: 23 

Burr Dex Save- 3

Burr snarled and moved up to the window, " Behind me."

He raised the Blood Spear in readiness...

Soren does not truly understand the reason for the degree to which Viktor takes offense at his words and chalks it up to city-folk ways.  When the talk turns to making a plan, he is about to bring up the short term idea of taking Ireena and Lady Bauer to another town where they (and everyone) may be safer.  And also the necessity of dealing with the witches at the windmill at some point.  Perhaps finding the den of wolves.

But when the vampire spawn appears beside, then is blasted from the window, Soren seems eerily calm, though his half-elven ears flattening against his scalp belie his serenity.  He grimly steps forward to stand just behind Burr, Ireena and Zefla.  Gazing down at the undead creature below.

"You ask what we offer you, Viktor Vallakovich?  I answer you, the safety of the pack, first and foremost.  You are not safe here.  None of us is.  Alone, each of us would likely perish tonight, even you despite your warding magic.  For when the cold winds blow, the lone wolf dies, yet the pack survives."

Soren doffs his shield and holds his longbow in one hand while leaving the other free.

"I do not fear the abomination below because of Burr's strong spear, Zefla's quick blade and bow, and the not-Father's resourceful trickery.  Ireena's sword, my bow and the primal grace granted to me by Silvanus.  Your own arcane magic as well as Lady Bauer's, even what little she may have left.  Together, we are formidable.  Most of us have already fought and survived horrors in this land.  That thing will not defeat us on its own.  Now if all of them attack at once, pack against pack, then it will be a desperate fight, and we may die.  As we certainly would, were we fools enough to challenge Strahd in his castle-den now without far more strength, allies and tools.  Yet come what may, we are pack, and we face enemies together."

Zefla:

The harsh scrabbling sound returns as the Vampire Spawn swiftly scales the exterior of the home again.  It stops just outside the window, somehow holding the building with its feet while it leers over the opening, peering inside alike a monstrous human spider.  

It looks at Ireena and cocks it head, slightly.  When it speaks, it is not the savage call of a monster, but the soft, plaintive voice of a young woman.  "Please... let me inside, Ireena."

CHA Save:  14

Ireena shakes her head as if a fly were buzzing in her ear.  "No... No!  Don't listen to it.  Don't let it inside!"  She steps back, dropping her sword and moving away from the window.

"Aw..." the voice says, then a strange, bat-like chirp emerges from the creature's throat.  It turns its eyes to Burr.  "Please, sir.  I'm so scared.  Please let me inside."

[Burr, please make a DC 12 WIS save, or be charmed by the vampire spawn. The charmed target regards the vampire spawn as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected.]

((After that, Giles plans to call down sacred flame on the vampire spawn…))

[Might as well roll up initiative while we wait on Burr's save...

• Zefla  19
• Giles  6
• Burr  15
• Soren  18
• Ireena  15
• Tourmaline  8
• Victor  22
• Cats  9
• Vampire Spawn  21  ]

Burr Wisdom Save- 18

( Should have raged....)

Will Burr invite the poor, frightened young woman inside?

( I'm conflicted.......she's certainly safer outside....Burr thinks of the young woman as a friend but, unless I've misread the entry, he doesn't forget that everyone in the room with him is also his friend and wants to destroy her...and very capable of doing so.)

" It's not safe here, I will come out and protect you!", Burr said uncertainly slightly confused as to why his friends were in conflict....

Victor pulls a scroll from the pile of papers on his desk.  Glancing at it briefly, he mutters, "This will do...".  The he holds the scroll aloft, tracing what looks like a circle in the air with his other hand.  "Get off of my house, monster!"  The spell scroll disintegrates into a shimmer of purple fragments which zip through the air, through the window and encircle the Vampire Spawn.

WIS save:  17

The Vampire Spawn recoils.  For a moment, it looks like black feathers begin to sprout from its arms, but then the creatures undead, static nature overrides the magic and the spell fizzles without effect.

"... Shit," whispers a devastated Victor.

Outside the window, the Vampire Spawn scowls.  It crouches low and then steps around the window.  It disappears from view.  From the sound of its scrabbling claws on the wall, it sounds like it is above the window, out of sight.  

Everyone is up!

[Vampire Spawn currently has full cover.  Someone inside would need to lean out the window to see it for a spell/ranged/melee attack.  The 'smaller' tokens outside are commoners and vampire spawn 15' down on the ground outside.]