Strahd needs Greenflame blade for sword-fighting revenants. Otherwise they regenerate unless he pulls out the big guns.
Well, but the revenants don't fight him anymore. And he can just attack them with a
fire bolt or
fireball instead, if need be.
Anyway, I just got back from my session. The PCs went upstairs and searched around the ground floor of Wachterhaus. As they were barging into the servants' quarters, I had Ernst sneak up behind them and put his sword to Ezmerelda's throat. This got everyone talking and eventually they convinced Ernst to go get Lady Wachter. Everyone they spoke to claimed to know nothing about the skeletons and cultists in the basement. Lady Wachter asked them to help her overthrow the burgomaster. The PCs said they'd think about it and left. So I didn't have Strahd show up at that point.
They went back to the inn and got another room and decided just to rest. I interrupted their rest with the attack on the church. They chose to put their armor on first, and it's almost half a mile from the inn to the church, so it was all over by the time they got there. They could do little but burn the bodies. I did have the old lady survive long enough to tell them to save her son (Udo the shoemaker).
Then they went back to bed, thinking they could sleep late, but I interrupted them again with angry shouts as a mob formed outside to go take on the burgomaster. The PCs managed to talk the mob down with some amazing rolls and RP. They suggested that they approach the burgomaster with four members of the mob to talk. They convinced the guards to let them in. Then the mystic used
thought spear on the baron and he died, with everyone thinking he'd had a heart attack or something. While the baroness was sobbing over her husband, the PCs wandered around the mansion. They found the wedding dress and took it. They found Udo in the closet and freed him. And they found Victor in the attic and killed him and his skeletal cats.
Then they decided to go back to the inn and have another short rest (since I hadn't let them have a long rest overnight). When they emerged an hour later, Lady Wachter had asserted her control, and her black-robed, devil-masked followers were patrolling the streets. They went to pay their respects at her house, and just as they were about to attack her, a raven fluttered at the window, drawing their attention to the familiar black carriage pulling up outside. They asked the new baroness if they could come back tomorrow and beat a hasty retreat. Strahd greeted them outside and chastised them for the fact that they still hadn't accepted his invitation. He also warned them about the revenants and told them that they might find they need to seek shelter in the castle, since the revenants refuse to go there now.
And that's where we ended things.
So they still haven't actually fought Strahd. They pretty much run away from him every time he appears.
But they achieved a few things tonight. They got the wedding dress, for instance!