(I hadn’t realized you were investigating the other bedroom... My bad.)

Olin will try and comfort the woman, "Please, tell us your name. We are new to these lands but perhaps we could help to find your Gertruda. We have with us one of Faerun's foremost finders of lost things."

Persuasion, 19 with guidance from before.

The woman leans back against the bed, "My name is Mary.  The world outside, is full of evil. I've tried to keep her safe, at home, all these years. I warned her of the evil, of the world outside, but...some of it must have seeped through these walls to poison her thoughts. She ran away...escaped our world of safety here in these walls." 

Looking around, Meepo and Kane see hints that "shut-in", is an understatement for how this woman and her daughter must have been living.  They have everything they needed to live fairly self sufficiently within the house, with the exception of food and water which looks like it was purchased perhaps once every two weeks, based on the boxes and waste.  They find a brush tangled with dark brown hair, clearly not the greying brown of Mary's, so Kane deduces Gertruda is a brunette. 

It's difficult for each of you to imagine what Mary is telling you, that she kept her daughter living in this house, isolated, her entire life until she ran away. The girl must be...naive, to say the least. She turns to Olin, "What more can I tell you? When she went missing, I went around town, asking, but...the people here are soulless...they had no answers, and did not care. No one had seen her...she couldn't have just vanished!"

"if this place is so evil, why did you not leave? Take her away, start life afresh elsewhere? Also, did you not think there would come a day when she might want, even need, to leave this house?"

Mordekai is trying his best not to sound accusing as he says this, assuming for sounding compassionate despite his private thoughts about how this woman had been treating her daughter. He asks again, "How old is she?"

She looks up at Mordekai, here face verging on insanity in response to his question.  She, for the first moment seems to really see the group, looking at them, glancing up and down at their clothing. "You do not know?"  A frantic insane laugh bursts from her mouth.  With suddenness it is gone. "You do not know. You are not from here. There is no where to go.  No where to hide. We all survive at his whim! HIS WHIM!!!"  She throws the doll across the room at Mordekai. She begins laughing...and then stops, and begins sobbing...  "19...she was only 19....now she's gone...19 beautiful years keeping her safe, now gone....GONE...." 

She seems to curl in on herself, clutching her own body and she sobs and rocks back and forth. She seems to have gone a bit unresponsive, ignoring your next few questions.

Mordekai looks down at the doll. The doll appears to be malformed. It has a strange leer on it's face and wears a sackcloth dress. Stitched into the hem of the dress are the words, "Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!".  

Aga sighs, leaning a bit on the door frame. "Well, and I'm shooting in the dark here, but I'm betting 'he' is the person who sent a minion to our exact location. Whoever he is, he's responsible for everything we have seen so far." Aga looks down at the woman. "Do you know where he is?"

Olin sighs and says to the group, "There is nothing to do for her here. We can search for Gertruda, but if the people of this village would not help her own mother then why would they help us?" Nodding at Aga's words Olin adds, "All roads seem to lead to this dark man, but if Stanamir is to be believed the information we need in order to seek him comes only from Madam Eva."

"Big no lost."  Meepo says with a sigh.  "Meepo feel bad Big is sad, but daughter big no lost."  He turns to head to the door.  "Bigs always know where bigs are..." he says out lout, but sounding as if he is working to reaffirm something he has recently come to believe and is not 100% confident about.

"In this particular circumstance, Meepo, I don't think that is a good thing." 

“If only that were so, Meepo.” Kane says sadly. “I have been lost for twenty years.” 

He looks at the woman, indecision written on his face.  “My conscience and my investigator’s curiosity will not let me leave this unresolved.”

The woman does not respond to Aga's question, and just rocks back and forth. She seems to have forgotten, or no longer cares that you are in her house. 

Meepo has picked up a small bone comb, a brush with some tangled dark brown hair in it, a flat stone used as a soap tray with a sliver of cracked dried soap on it, and a mouse trap with neither bait nor mouse. 

After a moment of not getting a response, Aga addresses the group. "We're not making her feel any better, let's go." She will make her way out of the house.

"It is not a lack of conscious, Mr. Kane, that drove me to suggest we return to Madame Eva, but a surfeit of pragmatism." Olin says, face blank, "As someone with both personal and professional obligations that none could persuade me against, I will not try to persuade you or any of us against this investigation." Sighing tiredly, "Aga, Mordekai, I believe your wish has been granted. Lead us to the Inn. That seems the most likely place to gather information about the missing woman, no?"

“You have not been forgotten.” Kane says, regardless of whether or not the woman responds. “Me and my companions have other business to attend to, but you have my word that I will investigate this matter thoroughly. Good day.”

Without another word he follows his companions outside.

As they get outside, Mordekai asks the others, "If we go to Madam Eva now, will we be able to come back and investigate this matter soon, or would it be best to spend some time here in Barovia to investigate the matter before returning to Stanimir to go see her?  How long do you think Stanimir and the wagons would wait?  What do we need to do first?"

"Meepo say wagons..." Meepo says with a glance up at his Big companions.  "No need find daughter big..." he says with a shrug.  "Town bigs no help mother big..."  he shrugs again and waits to see what others want, since he knows he is suppose to stay together.

Mordekai looks to Olin, who shrugs non-committed. Mordekai looks at Meepo, who furtively glances at Aga.  Mordekai looks to Kane and Aga.  "Wagons? Or investigate here?"

Mordekai waits just long enough for it to get slightly awkward, then nods to Meepo. "Wagons it is" he says, and strides off in the direction of Stanimir and the wagons, without looking back to check the others are following. 

"Wagons..." Meepo says, heading that way as well, glancing back to make sure the others are following.

Olin shrugs, following Meepo. The rest of the group trudges out of Barovia in the late morning like, the thin fog hanging in pockets.  They depart the town seeing only a few pale people scurrying to their own destinations, steering clear of the party.  Out across the grass land the party reaches the wagon circle.  The Vistani are sitting about, washing laundry, cooking lunch, carving, or otherwise entertaining themselves in quiet ways inside their wagon circle.  Stanimir emerges from a wagon as you enter the camp.  "Ahhh. They have returned."  He sees Aga's black smeared face, and splatters of blood or ichor across various people's clothing. "It would seem Barovia has welcomed you with its first test.  We will break camp and head to Tser Pool where we can find Madam Eva.  With luck we will reach it by early evening."

The Vistani begin breaking camp, taking down clotheslines, and packing up stools and chairs, hooking up horses to wagons. A little over a half hour later the wagons roll out, passing around the outside of Barovia village and continuing across the grasslands west. The thin light weakly illuminates the grey land through the overcast sky as the wagons trundle along the muddy road. Lunch is eaten on the road as you walk along side the wagons. Around 2pm the wagons make it to a narrow river. Only fifty feet wide, but deep enough to cover a wagon, the crystal clear water flows down from the mountains and cuts across the country. A stone bridge spans the river here. 

One across the river, the grasslands give way to forests, their grasping branches reaching for the sky, entangled with each other, the muddy road a sad winding path through the high trees. The road winds north and south as it continues west, through the forest, eventually reaching a branch in the road.  An old wooden gallows creaks in a chill wind that blows down from the high ground to the west. A frayed length of rope dances from its beam. The well-worn road splits here, and a signpost opposite the gallows points off in three directions. "Barovia Village" to the east, "Tser Pool" to the northwest, and "Ravenloft / Vallaki" to the southwest. The northwest fork slants down an disappears into the trees, while the southwest fork clings to an upwards slope. Across from the gallows, a low wall, crumbling in places, partially encloses a small plot of graves shrouded in thin fog.  The wagons turn right, winding their way down the path through the trees occasionally catching glimpses of the river flowing along through the thick forest as you descend the hillside, the light starting to fail near the end of the day. 

The road gradually disappears and is replaced by a twisted muddy path through the trees. Deep ruts in the earth are evidence of the comings and goings of wagons. The canopy of mist and branches suddenly gives way to black clouds boiling far above. There is a clearing here, next to the river that widens to form a small lake several hundred feet across. Five colorful round tents, each ten feet in diameter, are pitched outside a ring of four barrel-topped wagons. A much larger tent stands near the shore of the lake, its sagging form lit from within. Near this tent, eight unbridled horses drink from the river.

The mournful strains of an accordion clash with the singing of several brightly clad figures around a bonfire. A footpath continues beyond this encampment, meandering north between the river and the forests edge.  As the Vistani you are with roll up, the people here at this camp shout at them.  People jump up and approach, giving big hugs and kisses on rosy cheeks. The wagons are pulled into an outer line outside the circle of tents.  The Vistani all get together, leaving a few to unbridle horses, while the rest move to the bonfire.  Stanimir, "Come, come..."  Wine skins are handed out around the fire and you are warmly welcomed by several who grasp your forearms in a firm handshake.  A pretty Vistani woman smiles warmly but pays special attention to Kane as she walks up, putting her arm on his shoulder and giving him a light kiss on the cheek.  The Vistani have quiet side conversations with each other as they welcome each other.  Several children come and greet each other as well. Several laugh and squeal with delight at Meepo's presence as the kids share their stories as well.