My party is all new to curse of strahd and they have fallen HARD for vasilli! I used an encounter where the party found a ruined caravan with vampire spawn feeding on it. I had vasilli just down the road "injured" and the party totally bought that he was just a cowardly merchant who ran for his life!using a bit of a silly voice He offered out a bit of gold for "safe passage" to Vallaki! When they arrived Vasilli used his influence to get them through the gate then treated them all to a dinner at the blue water inn of course waving some money around and offering to pay for their rooms! The next morning he brought ireena flowers and when the party travelled to the church (unhallowed) he donated some coins making sure ireena saw him ;) ;) and now the party is trying to set him and ireena up on dates and yalking about how vasilli will be able to look after her with his wealth! XD I CANT WAIT for them to start poking around and uncover the truth or remain totally oblivious until the reveal! >:)