My idiot players are actually geniuses.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

After they had screwed the meeting between Sergei and Tatyanna, they went to the Abbey. After deciding not to leave Ireena there, they accepted the Abbot's offer of rest. There, they met Ezmeralda, and she showed them the gravestone that needs Tasha Petrovnya's holy symbol. As she was doing this, the half-orc barbarian sneaked back into the abbey's courtyard to free the mongrelfolk tied to the post (the character has a history of freeing things he feels are trapped). When he did, it attacked him and all the mongrelfolk hidden around the courtyard attacked. The party ran back and as they did I had Ezmeralda take Ireena to safety and leave a message for them to go to her vardo at the tower.

They got there and Ezmeralda and Ireena were not there. After getting in and searching the place, Ezmeralda turned up and said the werewolves had taken Ireena.

Long story short, the party made a deal with Zuleika to rescue Emil from the castle in exchange for Ireena and some of the captive children.

The party manage to break Emil out, but as they are heading back to the courtyard of Ravenloft, Strahd, some skeletons they missed and two wights confronted them. In the fight, Strahd killed the werewolf Emil (ripped his head off after critting and doing 53 points of damage with his unarmed strike when the wolf had 5 hp left). Strahd gloated Zuleika won't get her mate back and any deal they had with the wolves would be void. He then took the rogue down to 0 hp with one hit using a legendary action, and using a second, he left the combat.

The party finished off the rest of the undead and realised that they could get one over on Strahd. The druid has the spell mending, mending effects an object. A corpse is an object. He is going to use mending to repair the corpse, then they will use the scroll of Raise Dead Van Richten gave them to bring the wolf back.

Honestly, I'm letting them do it. They need to feel like Strahd isn't infallible and getting one over on him is great for their morale and they are willing to use a precious resource in order to save Ireena. Also, it means I can have Emil explain they he felt his soul was trapped in Barovia and he couldn't have gone on to the afterlife. It will give them more of an understanding of what happened at the pool with Ireena/Tatyanna.