Strahd's Letter to Ireena

Our third day on the road to Vallaki, in broad daylight. A wolf "of direst size" stood stock-still in the road ahead of us, facing the way we had come, with a bunch of roses in its mouth. It was plainly straining against itself. It dropped the roses and, when we told it to, padded off into the woods. Wrapped round the stems was a piece of paper with Ireena written on the side.

Ireena would not open it. "Just tell me what it says. Or maybe not." We read it, and then someone had to tell her: "I mean, basically he's... he likes you." The table's verdict was "Oh, the ick." We noted that he has his own stationery and that the card stock is very nice.

The third paragraph is the one we keep coming back to. Speak his name three times and he comes. We spent the rest of the walk designing traps around it (a tiny rock in a volcano, a room full of spikes, one of us dressed as Ireena) and agreed that nothing would be tried until Ireena was safe. At the Wachter dinner one of us said the name five times and nothing happened, so it seems to matter who says it.

My love, why do you tease me so?

Your flight out of Barovia village with these ruffians caught me unawares. If you wished to travel these lands, you need only have asked me, and with my personal attention and accompaniment, I would have let you visit wherever you willed.

It appears you still need some time to wrestle with your feelings for me. But once you are willing to show me the love you feel you need, merely speak my name thrice, and I shall be with you in the moment to whisk you to our castle, Ravenloft.

Your destined future lover,
Strahd von Zarovich.