At first light, the party moves out towards Barovia and the mad writer seeking saviors.
Jack Morrow, Skorl Darkskull, Nikolai, Rick Swordhand, Cedric, and Willow are walking.
Dareios, Alessandra Exaultiacien, and Lia Nailo are riding on horseback at a casual pace.
Sikilar, Lia's hawk companion, soars in the sky above the party. On the ground, Strider, Dareios' friendly canine companion, barks and races around the party, eager to be off.
Approximately one and a half hours after the party leaves the inn, they enter the Svalich Woods on the Old Road that leads to Barovia.
Strider growls at the woods and does not appear to be eager to enter. The other animals are also apprehensive about entering the woods.
Jack Morrow and Lia Nailo find tracks that indicate that three riders on horseback entered the woods approximately two hours ago.
Jack and Lia also find wolf sign, indications that a large pack of wolves has hunted and prowled over this area for years. But they don't find any recent signs of wolves from the last day or two. Willow thinks the wolf sign came from natural wolves, not the supernatural. Willow thinks that the wolf packs in this area are probably nocturnal hunters.
As the party enters the woods, the Svalich woods begin to lose some of their imposing aspect and the various animal companions begin to act less frightened although they stay close to the humans. The ancient forest consists of aspens, firs, and pines. The tree tops are hidden by mists.
Wildlife thrives in the woods -- deer and rabbits especially. Rats, which replace the usual peeping rodents, are strangely abundant. Jack and Lia continue to find tracks of wolves and also black bears. Ravens and hawks cross the skies by day. Songbirds also flit through the forests.
The light mist in the forest has a variable impact on visibility, limiting visibility to 100' to 200' during the day.
The Old Svalich Road climbs a pass, switchbacking to slow the ascent. From the vantage of the pass, the travelers can observe the Svalich Road as it leads into the fog-shrouded Village of Barovia. The road crosses the River Ivlis, then follows the river's course towards Barovia. A Castle is perched on a 1,000-foot precipice north of the road, brooding over the village.
Toward evening, as the party descends from the pass, they lose sight of the village as they find the mist turning into a fog with much more limited visibility.
Black pools of water stand like dark mirrors about the muddy roadway. A pall of thick, cold mist spreads over the ground. Giant tree trunks stand guard on both sides of the road, their branches clawing at the mists. In every direction, the fog grows thicker and the forest seems more oppressive.
As dusk falls upon the party, they come upon a pair of open gates across the road. Gray in the fog, high stone pillars loom up from the imposing woods on both sides of the road. Huge iron gates hang from the stonework, dew clinging to their rusting bars. Standing before the pillars are two stone statues of armed guardians with wicked polearms. Their carved heads lie among the weeds at their feet, neatly broken from the stone shoulders.
Strider howls at the sight of the open gates.
After a moment, you hear other howls from far off and deeper in the Svalich woods. The howls of a wolf pack. Willow believes that the wolves who responded to Strider's howl are several miles away.
The village of Barovia is hidden by the fog and the forest, but it must be very close now. Perhaps it lies just beyond these ancient gates.
