"Ugh, yeah, I'd rather avoid that." Kess remarks to Garrick with a grimace.

Kess will cast dancing lights in the form of a medium humanoid shape and have it move around the rope room to see how big it is. Meanwhile she and Amelia will look for enemies, traps, and such.

Perception: 18 + 4 guidance

"It may be a good way to escape in a pinch if we need to. Add the shaft to your map later"

The room appears to be 10ft by 10ft, with the back wall having an additional 5ft semi-circle at the end.

Amelia spots a secret door in the right wall. 

((Is the rope connected to anything?))

By sending the lights up you can see that the rope is connected to a bell.

"Huh, a bell. This could be a good distraction if we need one later." Kess dismisses the lights and takes out the cartographer's tools to add this section of the castle to it, including the new secret door in the bell room.

Tools roll: 9 + 2 proficiency + 3 guidance= 14

"There's another hidden door in here, but I'm kind of worn out from the party. I'll just check if it's locked." She walks over to check, leaving it locked for now if it is. If it isn't she'll open it slightly to take a peek.

It's locked.

"Locked. It can stay that way for now. We'll hear it if anyone tries to come through the torch passage anyway." She and Amelia will head back into the main room, moving one torch out of its sconce to the skeleton's hand if everyone is done looking around the passage for now, and sit in a couple of the comfortable chairs. The rogue yawns as she feels the warmth from the fire.

"We each only need four hours to rest, so we'll take turns watching while you all sleep." Amelia will keep watch first.

You may all take a long rest. The rest is uneventful, besides faint screams Kessintra and Amelia hear throughout the night.

On long rest Garrick replaces his enhanced defense infusion (+1 AC) with a bag of holding infusion.

Throughout the night, faint screams echoed in the distance, stirring unease in Kessintra. Though the sounds were unsettling, no immediate danger came, and she eventually returned to her trance. Her mind was filled with vivid visions of melodies she had never heard before.

Kessintra awoke feeling different. Her fingers tingled with a newfound energy, and without thinking, she reached for the old lute. As her hands danced across the strings, a soft, melancholic melody emerged. The music felt natural, as if it had always been a part of her. Glancing at her companions, she murmured, “Seems the night has given me something new."

((+1 Bard level))

Kessintra gets up and stretches for a moment before recalling the remaining locked door in the bell room. "We should explore as much as possible while we're here." She will head to that door and lockpick it with Amelia at her side unless something interrupts them.

Sleight of hand: 17+3 guidance= 20

Chipper wakes up from his slumber. After a quick check of his neck to make sure it's still unpunctured he listens to what Kes says, "Aye, suppose so." He waves his fingers around feeling the magic potential within and smiles to himself after feeling a touch of feyness. "I suppose that hag gave me more than a scar." he muses to himself, reminiscing about old times.

He turns to Garrick with a smile, "I believe you'd said something about a library before?"

With a huge grin Garrick nods enthusiastically. Yes, I had time to make something special last night. I also thought back to our fights with the vampires and realized I can make my crossbow fire significantly faster, dealing a lot more damage, but it’s harder to aim it this way (-5 to hit, +10 damage). Could be useful, especially if we hit our enemies with faerie fire first.

Garrick makes his way back to the library and starts shoveling the books into his bag of holding.

"Oh, grab the harp too if it'll fit!" Kess calls from down the hall, giving a mischievous smirk.

Garrick stuffs about 100 books into the bag until it's full. You look at your progress and realize that you're only 1/10 of the way through Strahd's collection.

Kess is able to unlock the door. This octagonal vault is free of dust and cobwebs. The domed ceiling forty feet above is painted black and sparkles with a display of stars in unfamiliar constellations. Barely contained within this vault is a square tower, twenty feet on a side and thirty feet high, with arrow slits on all sides and a battlemented roof.

Kess looks at the ceiling with interest but doesn't step into the room yet, wondering if the tower is some kind of trap. She studies the room more closely for any mechanisms that might activate it.

Perception: 19 with help from Amelia 

You can't see a trap of any kind.

Kessintra is still a bit wary as she enters the room and approaches the tower, walking around the outside of it and looking for any way to get inside.

Perception: 22 with help

You find a door, but it's sealed. There's no lock, and it won't open to force.The entire tower seems to be made out of adamantine.