Received in Session 13 · from Strahd von Zarovich
Strahd's Letter to Lady Wachter
Found in a poison-needled strongbox in Lady Wachter's bedroom. We gave it to Izek, the Baron waved it at the festival, and it was in his hand when he died.
It was in a small iron chest on a high shelf in the closet of Lady Wachter's bedroom: the room with "No admittance. Lady Wachter only" on the door and her husband, ten years dead and still fresh, in the bed. Lily opened the chest and found its poison needle the hard way; Sirius laid hands on her until she woke. Inside were 180 electrum pieces, 110 gold, a book called the Druid Priestess' Tome, and this. It was passed round rather than read aloud. The minutes record "Wow.", "I don't like this." and "Smells of crime."
It went into the bag of holding as our proof. Drew told Ireena about it. On the steps of the burned church we showed it to Father Lucian ("This must be true. I, she—"), and then Izek came up the steps, asked if we had evidence, read it, said "Oof. This will help," and walked off with it. We were too spent to argue.
What we made of it, that night: the devil wants the Baron left where he is. Do it quietly, keep the blood off your hands, don't upset the order he likes his town kept in. "Lawfully evil," one of us called it, "rather than 'I like the Baron'." Someone added that the Baron could spin it either way, and at the festival he did. He held it up in the rain: "Proof, my people. The devil names Lady Wachter as Vallaki's next Burgomistress. Look at his seal. Look at her name." Under Sirius's Zone of Truth he admitted the letter mentioned him too, and refused to read it out: "Words from the devil. It should not be read out loud." It was still in his hand when Fëanor's lance killed him. None of us picked it up.
Lady Wachter,
It is fortunate that you considered Barovian law before enacting your plan. If you had tried to take what is not yours by right, whether from the Vallakovich heir or the guard captain, I would have had no choice but to punish the Wachter family.
Your foresight and submission have bought you my favor, Lady Wachter. In the event that the Vallakovich family finds itself without an appropriate successor, you have my personal endorsement as Vallaki's next burgomistress. However, if such a tragic fate should befall the Vallakovichs, I would hate to find your hands bloodied and your good name no longer worthy of the title.
Your Dread Lord and Master,
Strahd von Zarovich
From Strahd von Zarovich.