A plume of smoke billowed into the grey Barovian skies over the Northwestern farmlands of Vallaki during the twilight hours of the early morning. The Romulich estate and orchard bore the hideous scars of the either tragedy or a malicious act. A grouping of trees within the copse had been savagely burned, charred husks of barren branches and trunks jutting up into the sky, a blight upon the previously pristine beauty of the grove. The Romulich’s pride, their distillery in its entirety, was singed and blackened. What could have been an utter calamitous event was only narrowly mitigated by the fervor and expeditious reaction of the Romulich’s trusted laborers and staff. Bucket brigades from the nearby family well extinguished the flames and prevented the entirety of the compound from begin consumed by the catastrophic blaze as they labored against the heat throughout the morning.
Meanwhile, rumors swirled within the local Vallaki populace gossiping about the exodus of patrons, staff, and Ylenia Romulich herself from their gambling establishment in the slum districts, The Prancing Nymph. The throng left with haste, turning to the east towards the smoldering Romulich lands. In their wake, in the early morning hours, commotion and activity was abound around and within the Nymph, culminating in a broad, posted proclamation and barring of the doors: “The Prancing Nymph is temporarily closed.”
The truth of all that occurred this fateful evening and morning revolving around the influential Barovian family is mired in speculation, unknown to nearly all.