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Your first impression of Vallaki is that it's far more lively than the village of Barovia. The walls provide a feeling of safety from the woods outside, and people seem quite... festive? There are decorations - banners, ribbons flowers, clearly fresh but damaged and trampled, as though there was a celebration here just yesterday.
Peasants in patchwork clothes eye you suspiciously as they use cups and vases to draw water from a crumbling stone fountain in the town square. Standing tall at the center of the fountain is a gray statue of an impressive man facing west. All around the square are posted proclamations:
>Come one, come all,
>to the greatest celebration of the year:
>THE WOLF'S HEAD JAMBOREE!
>Attendance and children required.
>Pikes will be provided.
>ALL WILL BE WELL!
>-The Baron
You and Ireena stand and watch while, with perfect timing, as if by divine intervention, a guard appears, tears the proclamation down, and replaces it with a new one:
>COME ONE, COME ALL,
>to the greatest celebration of the year:
>THE FESTIVAL OF THE BLAZING SUN!
>Attendance and children required.
>Rain or shine.
>ALL WILL BE WELL!
>-The Baron
They just finished a celebration, and now they about to do it again, not even after the decorations from the old one have been taken down.
"No loitering" - a guard ushers you along, and you pick up your pace, walking down the main road.
"Let's look for an inn," you say to Ireena.
You note the buildings you see. A set of cramped-looking shops with low roofs and display windows advertising trinkets and toys. A row of residential houses that stretch toward the northern gate. A stockyard full of sheds. And far to the west, a church up on a hill, visible to the whole town from a distance.
Finally, after much exploring, you come to what appears to be an inn. Gray smoke issues from the chimney, and several ravens are perched on the roof next to it. A painted wooden sign hanging above the main entrance depicts a blue waterfall.
(cont.)
