The party returns to Vallaki after their long siege of Argynvostholt. Xylil excuses themselves to head to the Church of St. Andral, while Rasper heads off on his own to try and piece Nail back together. The rest of the group decides to head to the new marketplace/secret circus in town for various reasons.
Altheon splits off from here, and finds Findex, the Dragonborn Strongman helping build a stone archway. Playing a song from the dragonborn’s childhood, Altheon successfully flirts with the musclebound man.
Meanwhile, Qwib Qwib heads to Rictavio’s tent and questions where Vielyn is. When Rictavio rubs his beard in a peculiar way, Esmeralda becomes tense. The man points Qwib Qwib in Vielyn’s direction, but Esmeralda elects to stay and talk with Rictavio.
In Vielyn’s tent there are many people working, while Vielyn himself is cutting wood to size for various projects. Qwib Qwib makes her intentions known by slamming her fist on the wood, and telling everyone else to leave. Vielyn seems unsurprised that Qwib Qwib knows the truth, merely teasing her as “the one who broke into my wagon.” She tries to have a conversation with him, but he refuses to engage, treating her as little more than a nuisance. When Qwib Qwib brings up her mother, it gives Vielyn a slight pause before he’s back to being his asshole self. Finally, when she demands he speak with her, he just says, “I don’t take orders from bastards,” and walks away.
Qwib Qwib and Azalea cast magic to restrain him in earth, though he’s still unwilling to say more about Qwib Qwib’s mother. So they leave him there to dig himself out.
Altheon heads back to the Tavern with Findex, but is waylaid to speak with Dannika. Altheon tells her about their misadventures in Argynvostholt, and the treasures they were able to find. Dannika is thankful they found something that might help, and gives the group 50gp for their troubles. She says she will find a way to procure horses for their travel but has been having trouble doing so lately. Also, there’s been more visits from Anastasya, the bride of Strahd, as the potential circus gets closer.
While all this is happening, unbeknownst to the rest of the party, Xylil is walking into the Church of St. Andral. Their experience in that last battle in Argynvostholt has changed their perspective. Father Lucien greets the Unicornborn, saying it was great timing, as he wishes to discuss the similarities between the light of the Morninglord and that of Selune.
However, Xylil’s eyes have been opened, and instead asks the father to embrace the shadows. That in darkness, there is truth. Maybe not the truth everyone wants to hear, but the truth nonetheless. As they speak, the candles and light from the windows all dim, and the shadows in the room grow, taking the form of a helmed woman. She seems to fill the entire church with her presence.
As Father Lucien prays to his god of light, Xylil realizes the old man is too set in his ways. Xylil’s own shadow grows and separates from him, and gores the preacher where he stands.
They take the time to clean up the area and use magic to bury the body. When all is said and done, the voice of Shar reaches out and congratulates Xylil. To show her appreciation, she removes from the unicornborn the memory of their mother giving them up to the church. And Xylil is all the happier.
As Qwib Qwib and Azalea are heading back to the tavern, they see Esmeralda ending her conversation with Rictavio, furiously storming away from his tent. Rictavio himself has his head in his hand, seeming unsure of the interaction they just had. They meet up with her at the Tavern, where she’s already at the bar having a drink in the corner. Altheon and Findex are there, drinking the afternoon away and having a good ol’ time. And finally Xylil joins them in the tavern.
Qwib Qwib tries to talk with Esmeralda, but she gets another drink and leaves the bar to sit at another table by herself. When Qwib Qwib presses further, the hunter asks if she knew, implying Qwib Qwib knew that Rictavio was her missing master, Van Richten. Qwib Qwib fesses up, but insists she was sworn to not tell Esmeralda about Rictavio, so she found another way, by bringing her directly to him.
Xylil and Azalea are listening in on all the drama, when Altheon and Findex excuse themselves upstairs to Altheon’s room. Altheon finally gets the monster lovin’ he’s been wishing for all game, that everyone in the bar is able to hear them going all night. As Esmeralda and Qwib Qwib’s argument looks like its about to spill into a fight, Esmeralda says she’s done talking, grabs Qwib Qwib’s hand, and leads her upstairs to Qwib Qwib’s room for something similar to what Altheon and Findex are doing, but a lot more angry.
With the rest of the group gone, Xylil and Azalea are joined by Rictavio and his cleric, a satyr names Senteq. They tell them group what they already secretly knew about the plan for a massive light spell. They hope Xylil’s power will be able to work with Senteq’s while Azalea might help with the ritual portion of the spell. While they agree to help, once the company is gone, Xylil tells Azalea that he isn’t sure he can help with the light.
Their conversation moves to Xylil’s new perspective. When they casts their aspersions on Selune, and starts talking about the shadows, Azalea realizes something is wrong. Unfortunately, she also starts hearing another voice assure her that the shadows could help her too. She’s already playing with shadow magic, why not see what the shadow weave could grant to her? And the painful memory of betrayal by her queen? She doesn’t have to live with that. Wouldn’t it be better if that memory went away?
It takes all her effort to not give in, and keep Xylil’s offer at arm’s length. The rest of the party eventually heads up to their rooms to sleep for the night.
Except for Xylil, no one has pleasant dreams that night.
Before he leaves, Findex mentions something about giving out information to villagers on orders from Rictavio. He doesn’t understand it, but he figures he’s just hired muscle anyway.
Esmeralda tells Qwib Qwib about how she came to be a student of Van Richten, and what led to their falling out. He’s a driven man, who sees anyone as a means to an end, so long as it also means ending monsters.
Finally, Azalea takes an early morning walk, trying to shake off the talk she had with Xylil the previous night. As she does, she comes across Izek and the town guards locking up a villager in the stocks, claiming he was caught sending information to Strahd. Azalea uses her magic to peer into the villagers mind and sees that the villager was indeed passing information about the upcoming circus to a pack of werewolves under the employ of Strahd, but he did so on orders from Rictavio/Van Richten himself. She quickly heads back to the Tavern where the party is getting ready to depart for the Amber Temple.
