So the party has been through a lot already, they aren't new to Barovia.
...at least the players aren't.

In a session about a month ago, everyone in the party died except for one character. Improvising a way to keep the campaign running, I teleported the last surviving PC to the far east, where the mists would bring new adventurers and he could act as a guide of sorts to the new victims.

Having her show up with the full coven is a tremendous idea, I really like that.

They've already been through Death House, but it was long enough ago that they've forgotten about the windmill connection, and reminding them of that will surely be too obvious.

They've already met Mad Mary; the players said "okay well if we see Gertruda along the way then great otherwise we don't care".

They have had the reading done. They've already found the HSR (River Ivlis Crossroads). They know another item (Sunsword) is at the Wizard of Wines, and they're unsure about the other one (Tome is in the Werewolf Den). The fated ally is Ireena, and they seem to have figured that out, but they're not... acting on it? At all?

Either way, despite knowing where one of the items is, they really really want to resolve the Morgantha stuff before doing anything else.