Ismark looks down upon the flashes of light with an expression of respect and sadness. He mutters to himself, she's distant, "I should have helped her..."

 Ireena responds to Skip, sword still drawn, "She saved us about an hour or travel. We should reach Vallaki as the sun sets."

 Sergei, you look over Alev's wound.  You can tell that it isn't too bad, and you easily clean it. After you wrap it in a linen bandage Ireena provides, all you can do is hope that this was a normal wolf bite and not something worse.

For everyone else, you see a familiar orange flash from down below. The lights and sounds cut off, and the air is oddly still, almost as if the world was holding its breath. Suddenly, the sky lights up with as dozens of lightning bolts race from cloud to cloud while thunder bellows angrily in the dark sky. The light show above is intense and powerful, an you swear you see Strahd's  face made of roiling stormclouds appear in the sky for a moment just before the lightning comes to an end. Rain begins to fall from the sky in a drizzle that soon becomes a downpour heavier the before. Winds begin to whip your clothing around you.

Ireena says over the storm, shouting each word, "Whatever happened, it made Strahd mad!"

“Perhaps Madam Eva escaped, then. Now let us escape the weather and get to the town.”

“Is there a theives guild of sorts in this Vallaki? If there is, I might be able to bargain us some hidden safe spot to lay low while we rest”

"Thanks!" Alev chirps to Sergei, bobbing his head. At his comment, he nods. "...I hope so. I better no hear anything else against the Vistani, okay?" He adds, glancing at the siblings. "Shifty ruffians or not, that old crone saved our lives back there."

As Skip makes his question, he is very curious about the answer himself, fond and not-so-fond memories of his past 'guild' coming back to his mind.

"Let us hope she managed to get away." Leann says, eyes still trained back towards the camp, even though rain and darkness doesn't allow her to see it any longer. After a few moments she turns to the others. "Let us get to this town, so that our lead is not wasted."

 Rudick, for his part, merely grunted in agreement as well as gesture for Ismark to lead the way. And though it was likely to be futile with the increased intensity of the storm, the Orc flipped down the face plate and shielded himself as best he could from the rain with a literal shield; if only to keep vision clear. A silent prayer also goes out, wishing those escapee Vistani to be blessed by the Wondermaker in finding both shelter and protection from the aggravated lord.

You begin to move onwards, clinging to the mountain path. The rain and wind batter and buffet you, determined to knock you off the edge and to your deaths below. You trudge on for nearly an hour when you come to another pair of huge gates similar to the ones that you passed through when you first entered Barovia. Ahead, looking from the impenetrable woods on both sides of the road are high stone buttresses looming gray in the storm. Huge iron gates hang from the stone work. Rain clings to the rusted bars with a cold tenacity. Two headless statues of armed guardians flank the gate, their heads also lay among the damp weeds at their feet. They greet you only with silence. Around this time, the rain storm begins to die down, now a remnant of its former rage. You can see another road extending from the right side of the road you are on. Ismark says, pointing, "That road will take you to the castle." 

 Alev, the pain in your leg fades into a dull ache, but the pain begins to spread from the wound to the rest of your leg. You have a feeling that it isn't going to stop there. You feel the beginning of a fever forming in your body. Ireena says to you, her face concerned, "Are you feeling ok?"

"...Uh, yes." Alev says, wondering why the pain was spreading. "It's just that the damned bite keeps hurting! And..."

Feeling the fever, he takes a hand to his head. Couldn't be the result of an infection, the wound had been cleaned pretty well. Did he got a cold from walking under the rain, or...? "Hey, Ireena? There's no such a thing as poisonous wolves, right? Because I'm starting to feel a little sick."

Or maybe it is... Not, that can't be it. He thinks. There's no way for me to get lycanthropy. Only...Uh, the 'normal' people get it, and I'm a bird! How would such a thing even look like? He chuckles a little at the thought. "Forget that stupid question, it's probably nothing. I might have gotten a cold, must have been the rain..."

Ireena looks concerned at Alev's words. She takes a steadying breath before she says, "I don't want to alarm you, but I think you might have been bit by a werewolf." Ismark turns his attention from the roads to Alev with worry on his face. He adds, "We should know by tonight. If you have been cursed, you be in incredible pain all night long." He looks up into the sky and continues, "Full moon should be in, oh, eleven days or so." Ireena nods in agreement and says, "There is a plant that grows up in the mountains that can cure lycanthropy if eaten. The only problem is that a tribe of wild people guard the only grove of it." She looks you in the eye and says, " We will get some. I promise." 

Ismark huffs in annoyance and says, "Ireena, we need to keep you in Val-"

"No!" she interupts. "We will do this first." She turns and glares at her brother.

Under her steely gaze, you see Ismark wilt under it pressure before he says, "Fine, fine..."

"I have not dealt with werewolves before." Leann says with a frown. She glances to the siblings. "Will we need to restrain him during the night or is he not going to be a danger to himself or others?"

Alev listens in shock, before starting to babble. "No, that can't be it... It's not possible, I..."

He got into this whole mess by agreeing to hunt down werewolves in the first place, and now this happens to him of all things? "...It's not fair!"

"These wild people... How far are they?" He asks, feeling relieved at the idea of a quick solution. Just taking a healing herb and then forget this ever happened, easy peasy. "Why do they guard it so much? If werewolves are a problem, why not giving them all the cure and problem solved?"

Ireena says to Leann's question with, "Tonight, he'll be fine. On a night of a full moon, he will have to be restrained somehow." She looks around and tries to get her bearings. After a moment, she points to the southeast and says, "They should be that direction about a days travel from Vallaki." She looks back at Alev and says, "The only problem is that they are incredibly violent and bloodthirsty."

 Ismark adds, "They guard it so they can use it. They only have a small patch, and curing a werewolf requires a fair amount of the Wolfbane. Also, it only works on a werewolf before their first transformation." His face brightens as a idea comes to him. He says,"We could always go to the Abbey. The priest there could probably break the curse."

((In Barovia, there a three nights in a row where it is considered to be a "full moon." The first night someone is bit, they don't change, but get really sick. They change the next full moon. Once Barovians learn that someone has been cursed, they either try to kill them or banish them from the village. Anyway, since they change the next full moon, they don't really have the proper time to seek a cure. Once they change, Wolfbane doesn't work.))

"If the priest can cure it, I say we go there..." Alev sighs. "Whatever solves the problem, I'd take it. The faster, the better."

Terrified and angry at the news, he searches in his backpack for anything he could use to distract himself. Pulling the Jacinth he always carried there, he focuses on the transparent stone's red colors and its beauty to distract himself of the pain and sickness he was feeling and of the current situation in general. I wish I never came here...

"...I think you never answered my friend's question." He suddenly says, desperately wanting to change the subject. "Is it there a thieves' guild at Vallaki or not?"

Apart from the occasional grumbling, Rudick is quiet and contemplative throughout much of the exchange. After the events of the House of Death, he didn't dare speak of the obvious solution, and even flinched when it so much as came to mind. At that point disgusted as well with himself, he finally breaks into the conversation with a gruff, "Can we reach either these locations prior to Vallaki. By the sounds of it, one is a day away from Vallaki. But would it be possible, to go from this Abbey to these wilder folk in the event the former cannot be of help?"

Ireena gives you a reassuring smile. "I don't think so, but I have never been there. And I agree, the priest at the Abbey would probably be our best bet."

 Ismark turns to Sergei with a curious expression and asks, "Didn't you say something about  windmill a while back?"

Ireena says over her shoulder to Rudick, "Yes, the Abbey is about half a day's journey from Vallaki."

"I could try lay on hands in the morning as well." Leann suggests. "If it is a normal disease that should work, though I know not how becoming a werewolf works." She shrugs. "If that does not work, then I agree finding this abby should be our next destination."

Sergei says,

“We found some papers with the deed to a house in your village, and also the deed to a windmill. I wanted to know if you knew anything about it, but there always seems to be something more dramatic going on.”

“As for Alev’s plight, I’m not thrilled to potentially come in conflict with other people. Monsters is one things, but folks killing folks doesn’t sound great. On the other hand, if searching the wolfsbane is the more efficient path then we should consider it after all.”

Alev glances at Leann. "...You are a good person." He says, more to himself than to her, like he just confirmed a theory.

"I wish that bard, Lucan was still alive, he seemed to know about werewolves. Maybe he could have told us how to fix this mess much faster." Alev says before adding. "If the abby is the closer of the two, then the abby. I just want this over with."

Then he turns to Sergei. "As soon as this whole thing is over with, I'm sure we will be able to look into that windmill if it happens to be important. Don't worry about it!" He says, trying to sound chipper. "If the guy at the abby doesn't solve it, the wolfsbane will, even if I have to steal it from those wild folk first. Everything will be okay."

Grasping the red stone tightly in his clawed hands, as if it could bring him luck, he repeats those words again to himself in a whisper. "...Everything will be okay."

Looking thoughtful while the others discuss Alev’s plight, Skip eventually leans in

”Jow much of this ‘erb is needed? I ‘as been working on something, summonin a creature, that would do my bidding. An owl could fly in and grab some of this ‘erb right? Without disturbing these wild folks”

“I’m just thinking, this priest sounds the safer bet, but the herb is the surer bet. I don’t wanna see my friend come to no harm, if an owl wouldn’t work, I can use my invisible hand if I can sneak close enough”

Sergei adds

“I could make Alev invisible and he could fly in and grab it himself”