Act II, Ill Fortunes (the third day)

"Assuming you killed our mates, I'm the last one. As for the door, I do not know what is behind it. We noticed it was warm a long time ago, and further inspection of the door revealed that the lock had melted somewhat. We simply ended up using the door as a source of warmth to get us through the winters. Whatever is behind that door was of more use to us this way...

"When we arrived here, she appeared and begged us to free her. We tried attacking her, but she quickly escaped. She seems unable to step outside of that circle over there though she seems to be able to disappear. I was surprised to see her appear during the fight, we hadn't seen her in a long while, probably because it was clear we had no intentions of freeing her... Aside from her desire for freedom, and her ability to appear in this circle, I know nothing of her."

"Strahd, he's the leader of this accursed land right? We've heard the name when we came here three years ago. We've never met him, but people seem to fear him in these parts. I assume he must live in that big castle which dominates the land."

"We were like you before, adventurers looking for gold and fame. We came here to hunt werewolves. How foolish we were... unbeknownst to us, it was us who were the hunted. We contracted lycanthropy during an ambush. We could no got back to civilization, so we searched for our own den and found this place. We've been here ever since, surviving as best we can, hunting, warring with the pack who infected us."

Perhaps overhearing the tale about the hot door, Veroth examines the purported melted lock and decides to see if it can be opened. If he can unlock it, he will not open the door however.

Veroth examines the door and notices it is actually made of stone and only look like wood. The ancient-looking lock does seem to have indeed melted a bit and seems to have originally been of very good quality, though Veroth is convinced the damage must've made the lock less complex now. He then manages to unlock the door on his first try.

The group decides on waiting to regain their strength, besides, Heather will have probably told them that she only needs to wait about an hour to pray for her spells at noon... As the party discusses, you can all make a Perception check.