Elven Tower presents

Curse of Strahd
DMs Guide
Author
Derek Ruiz
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Jack Holliday

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Strahd CR17 Stat Block - James Plunkett (dave2008@enworld)
Derek Ruiz – All the other illustrations, maps and pictures

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Page 2
Table of Contents

-All About Strahd

I Bio and personality 5
II Dinner Invitation 9
III Fighting Tactics and Strategy 12

Chapter 1 – Introduction to Ravenloft 19

Chapter 2 – Lands of Barovia 22
Chapter 3 – Village of Barovia 25
Chapter 4 – Castle Ravenloft 28
Chapter 5 – Town of Vallaki 32
Chapter 6 – Old Bonegrinder 35
Chapter 7 – Argynvostholt 37
Chapter 8 – Village of Krezk 40
Chapter 9 – Tsolenka Pass 43
Chapter 10 – Ruins of Berez 45
Chapter 11 – Van Richten’s Tower 47
Chapter 12 – The Wizard of Wines 50
Chapter 13 – The Amber Temple 53
Chapter 14 – Yester Hill 58
Chapter 15 – Werewolf Den 61
Epilogue 63

Appendices
Running the Death House 66
Traveling in Barovia 69
Extra Encounters 71
Dark Gifts Dialogue Compendium 74

Thank You Page 78

Page 3
Foreword
avenloft was originally published
R
by TSR in 1983. It was released as a
stand alone booklet for Advanced
Dungeons and Dragons. Written by
Tracy and Laura Hickman, it was a
success back then. The result was
that it got remade and readapted to different forms.
There’s a campaign setting of the same name, lots
of small adventure modules. In 2006 WotC released
“Expedition to Castle Ravenloft” which is a small
campaign with the castle and some added material
from the setting for 3.5 edition. There is also the
board game released in 2010, “Castle Ravenloft”.
And the reason I’m writing this and you’re reading
this, is 2016 Curse of Strahd, an adaptation to the
original module released by WotC for 5th edition.
The important thing about Curse of Strahd is that
we have to understand that we’re practically playing
a different game, it’s not the hack and slash game
you play every Friday. It’s not a roleplaying heavy
game with lots of politics and city factions and what
not. It’s a different thing, it’s a horror game. Or it
should be, but more on that later.
One of the most important and almost occult details
is hidden in page 2, in the credits section, right
where it says Creative Consultants. We see the
familiar names of Tracy and Laura Hickman. Bravo
! to WotC.
Time after time we see in movies, book, series and
RPG games that a new adaptation is launched.
The new product pretends to be better than the
original or they give it enough spin while retaining
the original’s most important qualities but the
result is not what everybody expects. It usually
happens when the original creators or directors
are not included in the new products. But this is
the art business. And art depends on artists, be
it writers, creators, directors or graphic artists.
The fact that they consulted Tracy and Laura
Hickman for the making of this book can be seen
in the modules general vibe and assumptions.
I’ve had awesome experiences running CoS in
5th edition. Also the editing and layout of the book
is far superior to previous published adventures.
Compared to previous modules like OoTA or PotA
the book is a better resource in helping DMs do
their job correctly in setting the scene and finding
information when needed.
On horror themed gaming
Something that is not said often is that Curse of
Strahd is not for everyone. It sadly is not. The
game peaks when the elements that make it good
are actually used in the game. Factors like fear,
creepiness, insurmountable odds and horror are the
staples of the Ravenloft setting.
If you play with your friends, my personal
recommendation is that there has to be a session
zero where this information is laid down. Fear
and horror must be an important part of the
game. Maybe your players (and unavoidably the
adventurers) will feel this real fear of the vampire
Strahd. Or maybe they won’t, as it is a fictional
game, but they will be experienced enough role-
players and they will role play their PC’s fear.
I’ve seen it happen, nothing sours a game like
this as bad as telling a lewd joke to Strahd. Or
making inappropriate remarks directly to Strahd
only to make everyone in the table laugh. If this
happens, and there is no feeling of dread. The
main element of this module is lost. I’ve seen
some groups abandoning the game before level 5
because they didn’t find it appealing. It was just
not their game. But I believe anyone can play it and
enjoy it if it is talked through with the players in
advance. There has to be a general consensus of
the type of experience that is wanted and how to
achieve it. Don’t take my words as if to say humor
is not a thing, the book suggests humorous breaks
from time to time are good (page 7). But there are
moments of dread that should be respected for the
integrity of the table’s experience.
Page 4
All about Strahd - I
Strahd Von Zarovich
he module Curse of Strahd
T
naturally revolves around Count
Strahd von Zarovich. The spot light
is on him during the entire time,
everything in the Valley of Barovia
is as it is due to him. There are
many ways to roleplay Strahd. Much has been said
about his motivations and personality. This long
chapter of the guide will deal with how to approach
everything that has to do with the Lord of Barovia.
The chapter includes different alternatives for most
stuff and general advice on how to run the game
and Strahd himself (Some of this advice disregards
the guidelines for running Strahd in page 10, there
he is portrayed as more of a senseless monster and
not so “alive”). The aim of this guide is to make
Strahd a memorable persona, a hated enemy, a
ruthless overlord, a sad stricken lover and the
darkest figure in the setting.
Strahd von Zarovich is a very complex individual,
it’s easy to think that this BBEG is just an evil
overlord, that is to say, the quintessential
representation of evil. If it were like this, then
Strahd would be predictable. But Strahd like a real
person, comes in layers of history and moments of
success and failure. He should never be portrayed
as an always evil, always ruthless, always savage
individual. Yes, he can be all that, but he is also
many other things.
Exploring what makes Strahd what he is, the DM
and players should learn how he is not so different
from them, he’s evil. But just in a way that anybody
else could be. It is this similarity which causes
fear, because in all the malignant being that he is,
maybe you’re not so far from him as you though at
the beginning. The adventure even poses situations
that let the PCs get closer to where Strahd is. When
a PC accepts a dark gift in the Amber Temple he is
accepting the same things that Strahd sought so
many years before. If a player accepts the Vampyr’s
Gift he’s even taking the same path. Strahd is not
so far off, what he has is reachable. And even after
centuries of vampire existence. He is still prone
to human feelings. He can still feel anger, success,
regret, pride and love. His perception of love is
distorted by the dark powers. His love for Tatyana
Federovna has evolved after long years, now it is just
wild desire and anger. Maybe it is just a wish to win
against the dark powers that curse him. Maybe it
is just madness. But from Strahd’s perspective, it is
still love.
It is the same for his brother Sergei von Zarovich,
he hates him for stealing Tatyana’s attention from
him, but he loves him dearly and regrets killing him,
even if these feelings only surface from time to time,
this is shown in the adventure in two parts in the
book. If the card reading for Strahd’s location in the
castle will occur in area K85 (Sergei’s Tomb). In the
card’s description (King of Diamonds page 17) it says
Strahd is “haunting the tomb of the man he envied
above all”. But if we visit the room description (page
93) It says that Strahd is found lying across Sergei’s
Coffin weeping. This is something the players can
see, and they should see it. Another example is
found on page 200, in Yester Hill. There’s a wall
of mist that not even Strahd can cross, but this
one shows a mirage through the mist. A far realm
can be seen through the mist, it is the Zarovich’s
family ancestral realm. Strahd comes to the hill
on occasion to see it, tantalized. Strahd, in all his
undead existence, is as alive as the PCs, he’s a living
being full of failures and regrets. He is evil, but
not plain evil, there is a depth that probably no PC
would imagine at first.
A note on Barovian history
The story of Strahd is explained in page 9, but it
omits an important detail, the calendar. This is
explained later on, on page 26. Barovia has its own
calendar. Strahd was born in 306 and he became a
vampire in 351. The current year is 731. That means
Strahd von Zarovich has been a vampire for 380
years, a fact never mentioned in the module, but
good to know.
Page 5

What about alignment?
Alignment is a social-personality construct that has
existed in D&D for a very long time. In my personal
opinion alignment is just a guideline of a person’s
predisposition towards things and situations that
happens around him. However it’s NOT an indicator
of the person’s actions. This distinction is seldom
made and it makes all the difference in correctly
or successfully roleplaying the different alignment
roles. I’ll state two different extreme examples
before jumping on to Count Strahd.
1.- Let’s imagine a town librarian. Because of his
upbringing and background, he is evil. It doesn’t
matter if chaotic, neutral or legal. But he is evil. He
wishes the worst to his self-proclaimed enemies
and enjoys gladly when bad things occur to other
people. He particularly finds interesting to see
someone feeling pain. He’s rude and despicable.
However, he has never committed a crime or
personally harmed another living being. He knows
he’s no adventurer with a sword, or an influential
noble. And he won’t go to jail for falling to his
desires. He will be remembered as a rude person
who all his life worked at the library. Not quite what
you expect from a “chaotic evil” person, right? More
to his case, probably no one would ever know his
true personality.
2.- Now let’s talk about a priest or acolyte who has
dreams of power and influence. Through constant
work in the church hierarchy he starts climbing
ever higher. He doesn’t wish to become the head of
the church to spread its influence or attract more
followers, his only desire is to be above everyone
else. And he does anything in his power to attain it.
He might act secretively, poison someone in his way
or order a hit on another. Eventually he’d be at the
top, and he would rule this church so it becomes
more powerful. Attract more people, help the poor,
open orphanages, abbeys and schools. All for the
power, while doing good deeds. The head of this
church is an evil person who only keeps it in good
shape to enjoy the advantages of such an influential
position.
Just two extreme but perfectly possible examples
of alignment versus acting. Now Strahd Von
Zarovich is Legal Evil. What that means is that he
is predisposed to act under a code or law and that
he cares not for the welfare or benefit of others.
However this is just a predisposition and may act
All about Strahd - I
otherwise to achieve his own goals.
I want to explore the “legal” part of his alignment.
Strahd comes from a fine line of nobles. He grew
up in castle where he had all kinds of instruction
and education. He learned to fight in a castle and
he learned about war from his father. It’s safe
to assume he was very well educated in science,
arts and literature since he places high value on
written material, else he wouldn’t have such an
amazing library (K37, page 66). His father was a
king and Strahd was his first born. He probably
received the best education on law, state keeping
and accounting. I believe it is Strahd’s upbringing as
a noble and future heir of King Barov that accounts
for Strahd’s “legal” alignment. Strahd is a man of his
word and places great importance in family ties (his
parents), alliances and personal debts (Vistani).
In game it will probably be difficult for players
to trust Strahd, being that he is a vampire. But
they will, over time. Strahd is true to his word and
promises (usually). If he invites them to dinner and
offers safe passage in writing (invitation letter),
this is for him a binding contract since he is “legal”.
He’s bound to the law, he is the lord of Barovia so
he makes the law. If Strahd offers safe exit from
Barovia in exchange of Ireena, he will keep his word
and let the PCs exit. That was his own deal. This is
not to say that Strahd is trapped by his own words.
As I said earlier, Alignment is just a predisposition.
An honest person might under the right
circumstances commit a felony, but that doesn’t
make the person dishonest from that moment on.
Same with Strahd, specially if the PCs do not follow
the expected arrangement. For example: In the
dinner situation. Strahd will not harm them. But
if the PCs insult him by attacking him openly or
decide to go around the rest of the castle uninvited,
then the deal is over.
Vampires Forbidance
An important factor in roleplaying and defending
from vampires is the Forbiddance flaw in Strahd’s
stat block (page 240). It states he cannot enter
a residence uninvited. While this feature of
vampires is iconic and fun to run. I advice to make
a modification to it, only for Strahd. He knows
this law/limitation, however he is not bound to it,
because he is the lord of the land, he IS the land.
Page 6

But ! he respects it. He will not enter a residence
uninvited and will try to get an invitation, honestly
or dishonestly (charm). Why? Because of his “legal”
predisposition. It will give PCs a sense of safety
from vampires in general. And it will be a scary and
powerful reveal when Strahd decides he will show
the PCs how he is not bound by this. Imagine Strahd
passing through the door, your PCs (and players)
start to shout in disagreement and then you say,
in your best Strahd’s Barovian accent: “What? You
believe I cannot enter this place without invitation?
This house is mine. In fact, everything you lay
your eyes upon belongs to me, even your miserable
souls”.
What does Strahd want?
1.- Tatyana Federovna – Ireena Kolyana.- The
most important thing in Strahd’s agenda is to get
Tatyana. She’s been dead for almost 400 years, but
every now and then a girl is born in Barovia with
her soul. He is ever watching for when this happens,
because it is a new opportunity to achieve his goal.
It is unclear how many times this has happened,
but it shouldn’t be more than 5. One of the past
reincarnations of Tatyana is mentioned in page 161
(wording is vague but implies it was Tatyana’s soul).
Her name was Marina and she lived in Berez. It
didn’t work. And that is a repetitive theme in Curse
of Strahd. Tatyana is what Strahd wants the most
“I am the ancient, I am
the land. My beginnings
are lost in the darkness
of the past. I am not
dead. Nor am I alive. I
am undead, forever.” –
Tome of Strahd
All about Strahd - I
and it is the only thing he will never have. That
is the “curse of Strahd”, it doesn’t matter what he
does, he never seems to get any closer to his goal,
he knows he has all the time in the world to wait
for the next “Tatyana” and try again, but Strahd has
started to put the pieces together. He suspects that
the dark powers’ curse is what prevents him from
attaining his goal. He’s paranoid now, and the result
is that he is even more obsessed than ever with the
new chance to make it: Ireena Kolyana. Strahd is
willing to do anything to keep Ireena for himself.
The sad thing is that it never works out for Strahd
in the end. The way the adventure works, the most
likely outcomes will get Ireena killed, or reunited
with Sergei in Krezk (page 156). Even if Strahd
wins and kidnaps Ireena, or if Ireena decides to
sacrifice herself and marry Strahd voluntarily to
protect others, like Ismark, Strahd will turn her
and seal her in a crypt. But the victory will be short
lived since she will never love him. An alternative
outcome would be to have Ireena never turn into a
vampire, and just lie dead in Strahd’s arms. Either
way, that is the nature of the curse of Strahd.
Tatyana’s soul and love is the one thing he can never
get.
2.- A successor.- Strahd has grown convinced that
one way to get rid of the curse and finally be able
to abandon Barovia, is to find someone to take his
place. The book implies that this is just a hunch but
you may decide that it is indeed true. Regardless,
Strahd believes it and is looking for an heir. No one
in his realm is up to his standards so he examines
adventurers when they arrive or are seduced into
his realm. Ironically, Strahd is so egotistical that
he will never accept that someone is good enough.
But he may still look for a successor, he might even
mention it to the PCs, even if just to sow discord
among them.
3.- Adventurers getting to powerful.- Strahd is
not an idiot and even if he is powerful and above
most, he is extremely intelligent (INT 20 ). When
characters approach the higher levels (7+) he will
see that they are not so helpless anymore. He might
even fear them, but he knows that he is the lord of
the land. He is more resourceful than them.
When PCs get too powerful and acquire the
artifacts, Strahd can change his strategy. There is
one thing Strahd can offer the party that can cause
a big argument. Passage out of Barovia. This is a
card Strahd will only offer when things get tough,
he might do it in a dinner invitation or similar
Page 7

situation. By offering a way out, a big party concern
is solved immediately. Some PCs would prefer
a clean way out while others will want to take
revenge on Strahd himself.
Strahd can offer an arrangement too, Ireena in
exchange of safe passage out of Barovia. He can also
offer LOTS of gold and magical items in exchange
of leaving him and his realm alone. Strahd can
also offer a party member to become a full-fledged
vampire like himself and be his advisor or his new
Rahadin (In the end Strahd might betray him and
turn him into just a spawn). It must bet clear that
Count Strahd has the heaviest leverage in this deal.
He is after all the rightful lord of the valley.
A deal can break the adventure, but if it doesn’t,
Strahd can still judge his best way to fight this team
of brigands. He is ever resourceful. And in his castle
he is most powerful.
General Personality
How to roleplay Strahd is a very difficult matter
where different DMs will have different opinions
and approaches. Page 10 gives us some cues on how
to roleplay Strahd. However I find these paragraphs
too bland. They describe Strahd as more of a mon-
ster and less of a man. A creature whose feelings
are long forgotten after centuries of vampirism. The
very first paragraph states the he believes himself
lost to evil, unable to feel pity, remorse, love and
hate.
This approach turns Strahd into a predictable,
although extremely intelligent foe. However you
only have to ask how different DMs played Strahd
and you will find out that most didn’t take this
approach. And it is because Strahd has so much
potential. Here’s my take, take or leave what you
like.
Strahd is extremely proud, however he is very
difficult to offend if insulted. He thinks he is the
most important and powerful man in the realm.
No one ever comes close to his qualities. If a PC
insults or contradicts Strahd, he just considers
them inferior beings with no taste for conversation,
unrefined, rough, peasants after all.
As a man of stature and power, he has no qualms
about using other people for his own ends and
cares not for the welfare of his subjects. He enjoys
All about Strahd - I
breaking the spirits of good people, it is a labor
that takes a lot of time and effort, you need to be
patient and intelligent. But Strahd has all the time
in the world, take the example of the Abbot. This
is Strahd’s pet project, he’s been corrupting the
Abbot for more than a hundred years. He can take
his time, this is the reason why Strahd seldom
kills adventurers in a single showdown. He wants
to test them, crush their spirits, see how much
they can withstand. He is just playing because
being immortal is really boring. After killing an
adventurer, Strahd might even have him revived
by the dark powers just for fun (if you decide that
Strahd can control this).
Of course Strahd can turn into a savage beast once
he is angered, this is difficult but possible. Things
that would anger Strahd is stuff related to Ireena.
Her being taken away from Barovia to Vallaki or
Krezk, that angers him. Ireena reuniting with Sergei
in Krezk, this is automatic frenzy mode for Strahd.
In a battle, if he gets close to losing he gets angrier
as it is revealed he is not as powerful as he pretends
to be.
On the other hand some things make Strahd feel
sadness and regret, he regrets killing his brother. He
is frustrated that King Barov and Queen Ravenovia
could never witness the success and stature of their
first born. Thus he named the valley and castle after
them. He gets nostalgic when he visits Yester Hill
and gazes through the mist. Admiring the mirage of
his ancestral home. The times he remembers full of
happiness, a feeling he doesn’t have anymore. But
the remembrance is enough.
Page 8
All about Strahd - II
Dinner Invitation
here is very interesting moment in
T
the Curse of Strahd module that is
not given enough attention in the
module, and this is the invitation
to Ravenloft. A fine dinner with the
lord of the land.
Strahd writes the letter himself and has one of his
minions deliver it to the adventurers, expecting
them to come. This is one of the module’s peaks.
Depending on the case this could be the first time
the adventurers encounter Strahd, or it could come
after a few encounters with him also. It is a great
opportunity to build upon this villain’s charisma
and personality. The moment to start building a
pact of enmity between the PCs and your BBEG.
Let’s discuss some particularities about this part of
the adventure.
What’s a good timing?
Curse of Strahd is a very sandbox-style campaign
and the course of events will vary from table to
table, depending on the DM and players alike. For
one group you might judge to introduce Strahd
earlier while you could choose otherwise with
different people. Strahd can come in and out of the
spotlight at any time, it is his land, and he is the
land.
There’s nothing wrong with having him show up
and throw some acid remarks to the PCs after they
exit the Death House. Or you could also wait and
have everybody talking about this Count Strahd;
the PCs will be so curious about him, but he might
not bother showing himself until the PCs prove
themselves worth the time. And talking about that,
the book includes four moments when the Dinner
invitation can be delivered.
1. Page 108.- If a PC comes up with the idea of
saying Strahd’s name to the magic mirror,
he can appear and invite them through the
mirror.
2. Page 124.- If the PCs prevent or stop the St.
Andral’s Feast event in Vallaki (page 124),
Strahd visits Lady Wachter and writes
the letter. The letter is delivered by Ernst
Larnak or one of the Wachter brothers. By
the way, if this event is not stopped, Strahd
kills Father Lucian, the town revolts and the
Vallakovich family is stoned to death in the
main square.
3. Page 156.- If Ireena gets as far as Krezk and
she is reunited with Sergei Von Zarovich,
Strahd blames them for his failure to get
Ireena and vows to kill them. He sends the
letter then.
4. Page 172.- If Ezmeralda is introduced into
the module at Van Richten’s tower, it is
assumed she just tried to confront Strahd
unsuccessfully. After this, Strahd sends the
invitation to the party expecting Ezmeralda
to show up.
That’s it, the book only gives these options. However
they are just guidelines of what you can do. The
invitation can come in many forms and you get
to choose when it arrives. It’s appropriate that the
invitation event is triggered by the players doing
something that calls for Strahd’ attention, otherwise
there would be no need for him to waste his time.
Possible events worth Strahd’s attention:
• Killing the hags at Bonegrinder.
• Getting rid of Vargas Vallakovich.
• Hiding Ireena’s Location.
• Killing Lady Wachter.
• Killing the Abbot.
• Causing a revolt in Vallaki.
• Killing Baba Lysaga.
• Acquiring one of the artifacts.
The invitation is a prop you have to show to the
players, it’s at the end of the book. As written, it
Page 9

includes some important information. It says that
Strahd is the one who brought the party to Barovia
and that he is the only one who can let them out.
That should be motivating enough to make the
party visit Castle Ravenloft. The letter also states
that it is a dinner invitation and that Count Strahd
wishes to talk in a “civilized manner” and that safe
passage is part of the deal.
This is important because Strahd is legal evil.
Because of the “legal” part, he will be inclined to
follow this arrangement and that is good, this is
a great roleplay opportunity. A fireball after a few
words would only work against the conversation
encounter we are trying to create. As long as
Strahd’s conditions are respected, he will respect
the letter; offering a dinner, a civilized conversation
and safe passage after finishing. It will probably
not be that safe, or civilized; because of the PCs, not
Strahd himself.
 The meeting
It is clearly stated that Strahd is aware of the
adventurer’s presence in his realm, and in some
cases (depending on the adventure hook) he is guilty
of bringing them to Barovia. Strahd does this all
the time because he likes breaking people and he is
looking for a successor. However it can be assumed
that most people brought to Barovia don’t even
stand a chance against Strahd, so he is easily bored
with all these visitors. Unless of course they do
something out of the ordinary, that’s the moment
when Strahd goes out of his way and invites them to
dinner.
When the adventurers decide to go to Castle
Ravenloft, they will not be bothered by any of
Strahd’s creatures. The black carriage will even be
waiting for them to bring them to the castle’s doors.
Rahadin, Strahd’s second in command will receive
them in area K8 (page 55) and lead them to the
dinning room.
As written, the dinning room is set for a fine dinner
and Strahd is playing the organ when they come
in, but this is just an illusion that plays the part of
the gracious host. After 20 seconds it vanishes and
the adventurers are left alone. This is very bland
and anticlimactic. My suggestions is to change all
this descriptive text. The real Strahd will be the one
playing the organ, he will then sit in the main chair
All about Strahd - II
“Why, it is nothing to
become an animal, for
that is the true nature of
every man. We are not
meant to wear crowns
and drink from goblets .”
–Strahd Von Zarovich
and invite the adventurers to sit and dine with him.
Adventurers might feel inclined to not listen
to Strahd, depending on the previous events in
your campaign, PCs could start attacking almost
immediately. To prevent this and have the roleplay
encounter Strahd might take the first hit (which
will do nothing because of the Heart of Sorrow) and
then beg the adventurers not to rush and have a
civilized conversation. Alternatively you could have
a wall of force in place since the beginning, between
Strahd and the party. A PC might call Strahd a
coward buy he wouldn’t take offense, he would
explain that the wall is there to ensure the dinner
actually takes place. Or he could smile and say “This
wall is here for your protection, not mine”
Here are some interesting subjects that Strahd
might want to talk about or mention during the
dinner:
• First of all comes introductions . Strahd will
formally introduce himself as Count Strahd
Von Zarovich, son of Barov and Ravenovia,
rightful lord of Barovia. He might even tell a
brief history of how he conquered the valley
hundreds of years ago, fighting a war against
his family’s enemies. Strahd will expect the
party to also do the same. He already knows
a lot of things from his spies and divination
magic.
• If the party has already worked alongside
Ismark and Ireena he will warn them
Page 10
 All about Strahd - II

that they are meddling in very dangerous
affairs. Strahd will explain that Ireena’s
soul belongs to him alone and he will suffer
their intromissions no longer. Strahd can
tell them a story; He explains how a long
time ago there was a beautiful maiden in
a riverside town named Berez, her name
was Marina and she was to be his bride.
Unfortunately the burgomaster and the
priest killed her to avoid this ceremony.
Enraged, Strahd killed them both and then
made the river overflow and flood the place
turning it into a marsh, killing scores of
people and destroying a town.
• If the party was invited after Ireena was
reunited with Sergei, Strahd will peacefully
and formally make a vow of vengeance
against the party, he will promise to kill each
one of them and turn them into vampire
spawn under his eternal command.
These are just ideas to get you started. The purpose
of the meeting is to sow fear and discomfort in
the party, and to get more acquainted with their
gracious host. Strahd is just having fun, after all,
he’s been alive so long that this small moments of
novelty are very interesting to him. It’s important to
portray that while Strahd is strong and will test the
party in battle.
He also enjoys breaking people with words, maybe
even more that fighting. He doesn’t wish this
invitation to become a skirmish and will try to keep
things civil. But if the PCs put to much pressure he
will attack and kill one or two of them, leaving the
rest alive to escape with their fallen comrades (they
might later come back with the help of the dark
powers, or maybe as vampire spawn).

• If St. Andral’s Feast was prevented, Strahd

will tell the party that he is tired of the
Vallakovich family controlling his town. He
will ask them to go and “liberate” Vallaki
from such a toxic family (yes, this is a
quest given by Strahd, testing for worthy
successors).

• If there is an elf or half-elf in the party,

specially if it is a woman, Strahd will tell
them a story. When Strahd conquered the
valley, there was a community of elves
whose lives were spared, they went on and
lived among the Vistani. Patrina Velikovna
was a beautiful elf maiden who Strahd
seduced. When the community learned
of this, they stoned her to death. Her
brother Kasimir lead this act. When Strahd
discovered what had happened he visited
them, butchered all the female elves, and
then mutilated Kasimir’s ears for standing in
his way. Since then there are only male elves
in the valley, they will slowly die helpless.
After the story Strahd can offer a female
elf to be his bride, or else suffer the same
consequence as the other elves.

• Depending on the conversation, or if Strahd

suspects lack of cohesion in the party, he can
reveal that he is looking for a successor; that
he is gauging and evaluating them to see if
one of them, if any, is worthy of this honor.

Page 11
All about Strahd - III
Fighting Strahd - Tactics
ount Strahd Von Zarovich is a
C
tough opponent. Fighting Strahd
should always feel dangerous,
like the conflict will go sour
from one moment to the next.
He is described in the book in
page 240. You would do well by scanning it, taking
a picture or taking good notes of all the info in that
page for fast reference in game. It’s a big stat block.
Strahd is strong in all areas, his lowest score being
Wis (15). However the score of most importance is
Intelligence, which is often neglected when deciding
what to do or how to roleplay Strahd. He has a score
of 20 Intelligence, which is higher than the average
mind flayer if you want to compare it with a race
that is considered highly intelligent. Strahd became
more powerful after becoming a vampire but let’s
remember that before that he was a soldier, and
expert in strategy and resource management and a
conqueror.
While Strahd is really strong and an accomplished
spellcaster, he is NOT stupid and understands that
if he gets mobbed up by 5 PCs he won’t stand for
a long time. We also have to take into account the
way action economy works in 5th edition (and other
editions as well), 4-5 player characters with an
action and possibly a bonus action will always have
a lot more to do in a round than Strahd, even with
legendary actions.
This is why you should never present Strahd
alone (in a fight), there is a table in page 239 titled
“Strahd’s Minions”, it serves as a fast encounter
builder for Strahd. Just roll or make a choice and
that’s what accompanies Strahd at any given time.
They serve as meat shields for Strahd, they protect
him and if there are enough of them, Strahd can
simply disengage from the fight and watch from
afar, gauging the PCs abilities. These are some extra
suggestions for Strahd’s minions:
1. Rahadin, Strahd’s Chamberlain
2. 2d4 Vistani minions
3. 1d4 ghasts
4. 2d6 charmed villagers from Vallaki
5. 2d6 evil druids
Alternatively, if Strahd is alone, he can always
use his Children of the Night ability to call
forth swarms of bats, rats, or a pack of wolves.
The ability is supposed to work in 1d4 rounds
but I suggest having the effect happen almost
immediately, or after 1 turn, or else Strahd will be
unguarded for possibly 3 or 4 turns which is too
much.
Strahd’s Spell List
 Strahd’s spell list is described in his stat block, but
it has some spell choices that are not suited for a
battle against a party of PCs. I understand why it
is like that, it’s trying to convey what spells he has
prepared at any given day, but just like any wizard,
if he expects to go fighting then he will prepare the
spells more likely to be used. Spells like comprehend
languages, nondetection and scrying are good
examples of the ones you can change.
Also, unless you’re playing an Adventurer’s League
legal game, this is the main boss of the adventure,
the creature which was imbued by darkness by the
elder death gods in the Amber Temple. Plus he’s had
access to Exethanter’s tutelage and the spell library
in the temple which by the way includes ALL spells
in the PHB. So there is no reason to respect the rules
here, I’ll write a suggested (legal) spell list below but
my real advice is, forget spell lists, forget spell slots
and ignore Strahd’s supposed spellcaster level.
I kept my players on their toes because all the time
they were trying to guess whether Strahd had
access to some spells or not. I went as high as level
6 spells, and if I wanted to cast more than one,
Strahd always brought some spell scrolls with him.
Page 12

Anytime Strahd was in need of a certain spell, he
just used it. Obviously I restricted it to the Wizard’s
spell list, but any spell was fair game. The game
was more dramatic this way, my players really
bought the idea of Strahd being a really powerful
spellcaster and expected anything from him.
Suggested Spell List (A.L. Legal):
Cantrips (at will): Mage hand, Prestidigitation, Ray of
Frost
1st level (4 slots): Shield, Fog Cloud, Sleep
2nd level (3 slots): Hold Person, gust of wind, Mirror
Image
3rd level (3 slots): Haste, Fireball, Counterspell
4th level (3 slots): Blight, Greater Invisibility,
Polymorph
5th level (1 slot): Telekinesis, Conjure Elemental
Getting Strahd out of Danger
Strahd is always protected by the Heart of Sorrow
which equates to 50 extra HP. After that is dealt
with, or the connection with the heart stopped
(Strahd can do this voluntarily as a bonus action)
then Strahd really starts taking damage. He is
resistant to necrotic and non-magical weapons.
And he also regenerates 20 HP per round, unless he
takes radiant damage or holy water that turn. He
appears invulnerable, but PCs will burn through
these layers of protections fast, specially at higher
levels, hence my advice of always having Strahd
with some monster companions.
Strahd also has 144 HP, which you could bump to
the maximum of 204 and still be legal. I’ve seen that
when PCs first fight Strahd they’re low level and
scared so they make mistakes, but as fights keep
occurring, they get the hang of it and they will take
advantage of Strahd’s vulnerabilities. Particularly if
they focus their attention on him in order to really
fight against Strahd’s regeneration ability. You’ll see
clerics and paladins bring holy water and radiant
spells to battle. Other spellcasters like warlocks
and wizards will use the spell Ray of Frost, which
actually negates the regeneration too, and it is a
cantrip so they can do it all the time. Add to this
the possibility of surrounding Strahd and action
economy and Strahd will not last long against a
level 5-6 party. And that’s why you hear some stories
All about Strahd III
of battles with Strahd that were too easy. That’s the
DM not playing Strahd to his full capacity and also
forgetting how intelligent he is. These are some
things to keep in mind in order to keep Strahd
ahead of the PCs as much as he can.
Legendary Move action: This is golden. As a
legendary action NOT on his turn he can move up
to 30 ft. without provoking opportunity attacks. My
players cried of anger because of this. The thing is,
you can combine this with Strahd’s Spider Climb
ability and move upward and out of the melee PCs
reach. For example, Strahd appears and attacks a
PC, unarmed strike and hopefully a bite too. After
him goes another PC, let him do what he wants.
Next Strahd uses his legendary action to move out
of both PC’s way and up a wall or a tree, probably
20 ft. above ground. He can stay there the rest of
the round if he wants while the melee combatants
spend their turn doing nothing and/or preparing
action to attack when he returns. Next turn Strahd
goes down and attacks again, and then uses the next
legendary action to go back up, or to bite a grappled
PC. You really have to metagame the initiative order
and decide who you want to avoid hitting Strahd,
probably a paladin or cleric. In a game we had, the
female paladin hated Strahd’s guts because never
in the whole campaign could she hit him and do
a smite evil. He never let her get close to her, or
manipulated the round with the legendary move so
that he was always out of her way. This can also be
combined with the Lair Action that let’s Strahd walk
through walls in the castle. He can just move away
into a wall, even stay there for a full minute and
return with full HP.
Defensive Spells: This is possible if you ignore the
spell rules like I explained above and give Strahd
complete command of the magic repertoire of
spells, if not, just modify the spell list accordingly,
picking the ones you like the most. Some really
simple and sometimes low-level spells can really
make things difficult for the PCs.
• Shield (level 1) gives Strahd 21 AC for the
whole round. Really useful as a reaction
when his legendary move was not enough to
keep him out of melee range.
• Mirror Image (level 2) is a nice buffer that
also works against spell attacks. Since it
requires no concentration you can combine
it with other defensive spells.
• Expeditious Retreat (level 1) it makes Strahd
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 All about Strahd III

mobility explode allowing Dash as a bonus with Darkness or Fog Cloud. True Seeing

action.
• Misty Step (level 2) simple way to get out
of a group of enemies as a bonus action.
Remember that since you can’t cast two
spells in a round, it’s best to attack, and then
Misty Step away.
does not require concentration and thus is
possible. With this Strahd will be immune
to sunlight and continue to attack normally
while the party decides what to do. Pretty
lethal combo.

• Counterspell/Dispel Magic (level 3) it explains

itself, just remember not to abuse this one
Strahd’s Charm
because if becomes boring and unrewarding
for the PC spellcasters.
This is a very powerful ability, and it has plenty
• Fog Cloud (level 1) this spell is really of uses outside of combat that are great from
important because it’s Strahd’s perfect a roleplaying standpoint. But if you use this in
defense against sun light generated by spells, combat things can get hard for the PCs really fast.
the Sunsword or the Symbol of Ravenkind. I tend not to overuse this ability in combat because
It’s radius is 20 ft. same as a fireball of it works like a super Charm Person that needs no
heavily obscured terrain. Strahd can use it concentration and lasts 24 hours. I used it more
and keep fighting inside or just escape while when the party was low level and as they progressed
the PCs find out what happened. I stopped using it. Specially if the party includes
elves or half-elves due to their innate resistance
• Fly (level 3) just like the spider climb ability, to charm effects. And also if the party includes a
it’s a way to keep Strahd away from melee paladin because after level 7 the whole party gets
range attackers. a buff to all saves as long as they are close to the
paladin.
• Confusion (level 4) nothing in D&D is better
than a full party under the confusion spell, a The reason I didn’t like to use it was because it
moment to remember. tended to turn battles into role playing parts. There
nothing wrong with it and I sometimes did it on
• Greater Invisibility (level 4) this spell turns purpose, but other times you just want a battle. The
Strahd into the PCs worst nightmare. tricky part is how it is worded: as other charms, it
• Telekinesis (level 5) this is golden too. With
this spell Strahd can take away a weapon
or one of the magical relics from a PC. The
look on the player’s face when you take
“Same voice, same face,
the Sunsword from them and throw it out
the castle’s window is worth Van Richten’s same graceful body. She
trousers. Of course you can throw a PC too if
you want. was Tatyana Federovna
Wall of Force (level 5) this spell can be used
come back to life again.
•
to divide the battlefield. Either to isolate
Strahd from the PCs and regenerate in plain
sight, or to trap a PC or two with him while
the others can only watch. The only way to
destroy the wall is with a Disintegrate spell,
I was absolutely witless
which the party will probably not have. Only
by breaking Strahd’ concentration can the from astonishment.”
wall disappear.

• True Seeing (level 6) if you allow –Strahd Von Zarovich

Strahd to have level 6 spells this one is
particularly awesome when combined

Page 14

states that the target is not in Strahd’s control, but
regards him as a good friend, takes his requests
in the most favorable way and let’s Strahd bite it.
You’re supposed to explain this to the player and let
the player act as he wishes as long as it meets the
criteria. It can be really fun too, if that’s what you’re
looking for, it can break the party.
Strahd can use the charm on a PC and say: “Listen,
it’s in your best interest to protect me, what would the
Barovians do without their lord?”   What’s the PC to
do? He won’t attack his friends to protect Strahd,
that’s for sure, but he might cover Strahd’s retreat,
or grapple a friend to avoid him from attacking
Strahd.
Another example: “Is that my brother Sergei’s sword,
you must know that is a family heirloom that belongs
to my family. Give it to me so I can put it to rest with
its rightful owner in the crypts”. What’s the PC to
do? He might agree to give the Sunsword away, but
his companions will rush and try to stop him or
convince him not to. Through roleplay, the affected
PC might actually choose not to give the sword to
Strahd. It’s like being asked by two best friends to
do something, you have to choose one, but you don’t
want to let any of them down. The way I explained
it in really simple words is “Strahd is now a good
friend, you’d even let him bite you, but other than
that, do as you want.”
As I said, though it is powerful, I tended not to abuse
it in battle to avoid spamming it and to keep battles
martial.
Fighting Strahd Anywhere
except Castle Ravenloft
Fight encounters with Strahd Von Zarovich outside
of Ravenloft is possible and highly recommended
to keep Strahd an active and moving part of the
adventure. Many question why Strahd would bother
to fight lowly adventurers being a man of his range
and stature. Or why he would let them live, when he
can easily throw three fireballs in a row and be done
with it.
I’d say there are two main reasons not to kill
visitors outright, the first one is his motivation
All about Strahd III
to find a successor. Obviously he would never
achieve this goal by killing everyone. The second
is more of a background reason. Strahd used to be
a human being, he was already an adult when he
became a vampire. By now, he’s been an immortal
vampire for almost 400 years. A human was never
meant to have such a long lifespan. After the
regularly allotted time, the human race falls into
boredom and madness if the lifespan is unnaturally
increased. Humans do not have the patience of
elves. What did Strahd do? His realm is very small
and there are very few subjects and towns. He
refuged in magic which takes a long time to master.
Over time he became an accomplished spellcaster,
but what use does it have if there’s no chance to cast
it.
So after centuries of magic learning, boredom,
thinking and talking to Rahadin, a group of
adventurers arriving to Barovia is a welcome sight.
It means Strahd gets to play his overlord game one
more time. It means he can now try those new spells
he learned. And he’s eager to see if the foreigners
are tough because the stronger they are, the more
entertainment there is.
Fighting Strahd in the wild or in town should be
a tough encounter but Strahd has no need to stay
until the end and might even wish to retreat at
some point, leaving the party fighting with some
minions or companions. It’s guerilla style when
encountering Strahd in the wilds.
At any given point, Strahd might wish to attack
more thoroughly, and see how far he can take them.
Strahd can be reckless and be less evasive than he
should. Even to the point of start losing a battle.
In fact he can even lose a battle and eventually be
turned to mist. It doesn’t matter, he can just return
to his coffin and reform. There are several uses for
this: First, you get a good fight. Second, you give
the PCs false hope that Strahd is not so difficult
to defeat, when in reality you’re just not using
him to his full capacity. This is the important part
about encounters with Strahd before the main
confrontation in the castle. To build up rapport
between Strahd and the party so that each side gets
to gauge the other.
 
Page 15

Fighting Strahd in Ravenloft
There are two alternatives. Either it’s a regular fight
with Strahd in the castle, in which case most of the
above still applies. Or this is the final confrontation
with Strahd Von Zarovich, the climax of the
adventure.
For the final confrontation, the party is probably
level 10. They’re not to be underestimated, level 10
parties in D&D 5e are pretty strong and resourceful.
If you’re not careful, Strahd will fall very fast. It is
my opinion that the trip is more important than
the destination, if the party has gotten this far then
you and your friends have had awesome hours
of fun and nothing can take that away. I say this
because some DMs hesitate before a TPK in a final
battle. Other game themes might not be suitable for
this, but Ravenloft certainly is the perfect place for
something like this to happen.
You’d be doing a dishonor to the module and your
players if you didn’t use any and all resources in
order to defeat the PCs. This is the final battle and
Strahd will use every nasty trick up his sleeve
to kill the PCs. This is the moment when Strahd
stops being the honorable opponent and becomes
reckless, shady and cruel. The card reading defines
the place where the party will find Strahd for the
battle, but it doesn’t mean that the battle should
take place only there. And it totally should not, this
is not a battle against Strahd, it’s a series of battles
against Strahd and friends all over the castle.
Strahd should move all around, from walls to
ceilings, crossing closed doors and disappear down
the floor. He should be always in company of
whatever monster or minion you wish. The castle
has virtually endless creatures to come and aid
Strahd.
If the party uses sunlight from a spell, the Sunsword
or the Symbol of Ravenkind; Strahd responds
immediately with a Fog Cloud or Telekinesis spell.
And you should do everything in your hands to
keep Strahd away from any paladin or other melee
attackers. Strahd is not strong in melee. And by this
time he’s well aware of who are the dangerous ones.
Nothing cowardly about staying most of the fight
behind walls and or the ceiling, while other minions
attack and Strahd only pops out to throw potent
spells.
This is an all-in, and do not underestimate your
party. A group of capable gamers can come up with
All about Strahd III
the best strategies and you should do the same.
Remember that Strahd is probably more intelligent
than any in the party. He knows that being out of
their reach, he can win. He knows that dividing the
party with a Wall of Fire or Wall of Force will thwart
most plans. Area spells like Cloudkill or Darkness will
be enough to distract the party and escape. Nothing
wrong with Strahd leaving for three rounds and
coming back with 60 HP regenerated, this is war.
Vampire Spawn will not be very effective
against the party anymore, specially with the
Symbol of Ravenkind with its sunlight and Hold
Vampires ability. There is a group of Barovian
Witches in the castle, they can appear in group
and all cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter at the
same time. The spell DC is low (12) but if that
works it can wreck the party. Additionally they
can cast Invisibility on other stronger minions.
Rahadin is also a great ally for Strahd in this last
battle, but my suggestion is not to include him, so
that he can appear in the epilogue as described in
page 207.
There is a sneaky strategy I used with a group, it
involves the elevator trap in area K61 (page 75). If
the PCs have not encountered this trap, or even if
they have, because they might have forgotten it, or
could be distracted by the current battle, Strahd
will lead them there to divide the party. Strahd can
cross walls and go there directly, but he doesn’t
do that because there’s no way to follow him that
way. So for this to happen Strahd has to be moving
from room to room. The battle follows him, other
minions can come into the PCs way but they will
follow Strahd on whatever route he takes. The
purpose is to lead the PCs directly to the trap and
have one or two of them activate it and fly all the
way up to area K47. I did this in a game and since
the two targets of the trap were already hurt by the
ongoing battle they were unconscious and dying
from the trap. Strahd knows his castle and it should
be used as a weapon.
Other location for Strahd to take advantage of is the
top of the tower in K20, where the Heart of Sorrow
is. If the heart is still there, then the stairs move
every round to make the PCs fall. Strahd can bring
the battle here and cast a level 5 Hold Person. Any
PC who fails the save will also automatically fail
the stairs save and will fall to the bottom of the
tower. Even if the heart was destroyed, Strahd
can bring the battle to any of the tall towers and
then try to throw the PCs down to certain death
with Telekinesis or Gust of Wind. Or you can have
Page 16
 All about Strahd III

some vampire spawn kamikaze grapple a PC and

then jump with him from the highest place possible.
The last weapon in Strahd’s arsenal are the four red
dragons in area K7. Strahd can purposefully
take the battle there. Use a lair action to close
and lock the doors and then climb to the ceiling
throw Fireballs. His fire spells will not affect the
dragons. As it is, this option in particular can pretty
much kill the party outright. Not locking the doors
makes it less lethal. Or perhaps this is best used
against a level 12 party or so, in case you extended
the campaign after 10th level.
Finally, Strahd is aware the party is coming for a
real fight and he knows they are very strong by now.
There’s no reason why he would not equip for such
an event. He was a soldier and conqueror, and he
has a vault full of valuable stuff and magic items.
In my games he was equipped with a +2 half-plate to
raise his AC to 18 and he also wielded a Vorpal
Sword.

If you really want to go all-in, next page is a buffed

up version of Strahd created by James Plunkett
(dave2008@enworld). It’s CR17 and will hold his
own against a level 10 party more easily. Other stuff
by James Plunkett can be referenced here:

The most important part is to have a good time and

to have the players believe you role played Strahd to
his maximum. After the final confrontation, what’s
next to do is to solve the epilogue, depending on the
PCs actions and whether they won or lost he fight.

Page 17
All about Strahd III

Page 18
Chapter 1
Introduction to Ravenloft
Adventure Structure
urse of Strahd is more sandbox-y
C
than other publications. After
exiting the Village of Barovia,
the players can go anywhere
if they want to, and quite fast,
since the Valley of Barovia is
quite small. However, if PC’s decide to visit certain
areas early on they will get killed in a matter of
rounds.
That’s something to love about the setting, it’s not
min-maxed for the commodity of players, the world
has its own way and it won’t adapt to visitors.
About levels, the adventure per se starts at level 3.
Using one of the possible adventure hooks (page 18)
the PCs arrive to Barovia and can start investigating
and role playing with the different NPCs.
If the adventure begins at level 1, like most, there
are two options. Either you can run your own mini
adventure prior to CoS, or you can drop the party
into Barovia anyway and run the
Death House; a mini adventure
designed to level up the party to
level 3, set the tone of the setting
and introducing the bleak Village
elv
enc
of Barovia. This mini adventure is
found in Appendix B (page 211). I
believe this is a must-play as it is
really good and molds with Barovia
pretty well.
art
After level 3, leveling up is bound to
certain circumstances and not to
XP points. The book provides three
ogr
alternatives; find the artifacts (the
Sunsword, the Tome of Strahd and
the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind),
defeating important villains like
the witches in the windmill or
the werewolves. And finally when
accomplishing story oriented
goals like lighting the beacon of
apy
Argynvostholt, stopping the druid’s ritual or visiting
the Amber Temple.   The problem is that you have to
choose, you might want to visit all these places and
finish all quests, and if your party can do it that’s
awesome. However there are more goals than there
are levels since the campaign is supposed to get the
party to level 10 only. And you have to remember
that not every place has to be visited, that’s what’s
good about sandbox campaigns. There’s more
freedom. Some places might be ignored or just
glanced at. Some might not even be relevant to
the game as it develops. So here’s my take and
suggestion on how to handle leveling in Curse of
Strahd. They are not supposed to be in exact order,
specially since the artifacts might be found at
unpredictable times.
• Level 1 Start of the campaign
• Level 2 Death House
• Level 3 Finish Death House
• Level 4 Find the Sunsword
• Level 5 Find the Tome of Strahd
• Level 6 Find the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind
So the campaign starts at level 3, plus three levels
from the three artifacts equals 6. That only leaves
us with 4 options for the remaining levels. In no
particular order, I believe these are the important
actions that can lead to leveling up.
• Level 7 Defeating the hags at the windmill
• Level 8 Lighting the beacon of Argynvostholt
(very important)
• Level 9 Stopping the druid’s ritual and
•
destroying the tree blight
Level 10 Exploring and surviving the Amber
Temple (maybe optional)
Page 19

There are other quests, which you may exchange.
Depending on your party and how it develops the
story around them. For example the werewolves den
makes way more sense if you used the adventure
hook in page 21. If it comes to that, you might
consider overthrowing Baron Vargas Vallakovich a
story goal and award a level. A non-good party with
no druid, ranger or barbarian might find little to
no interest in saving the orchard from destruction
while at the same time have the urge to find more
about the Abbot. The campaign is very open in
“The gleam in her eyes
was like warm sunlight
on a still pond. That
light is gone forever.
When I try to imagine
those eyes, all I see is a
mad abyss.”
–Strahd Von Zarovich
how you can handle leveling. Not even the “finding
artifact” part of my list (4-6) is set in stone. As long
as the goal feels rewarding the level can be awarded.
My only advice is to keep the Argynvostholt mission
because it’s really good and it means another visit
into the castle; And avoiding any leveling after 10,
unless you’re ready to heavily buff Strahd.
It’s handy to look at the “Areas by Level” table in
page 6. It explains how tough each area is according
to party level. This information is not to be shared
to players, even if they decide to go inside a place
they shouldn’t. They have to be able to go anywhere,
confront whatever they find and then decide to run
to live another day. The adventure is harsher on the
lower end of the levels. As the party grows in power,
they will become step by step a force capable of
Chapter - 1
taking on Strahd, and they can role play that. It’s
awesome to see the party’s confidence grow like
that.
Into the Mists
The first part of this chapter deals with Strahd’s
history, goals and motivations and how to roleplay
him. This is the most important part of the module.
I talk about this in depth in the first part of this
guide.
Fortunes of Ravenloft
Ah, the fortunes of Ravenloft are insidious
and veiled in mystery. This section is meant to
determine the location of the three important
artifacts, the location of Strahd inside his castle and
the identity of a powerful ally versus Strahd. You
can use a regular deck of cards or you can get the
official vistani Deck which I totally recommend,
even though you won’t use it much, it’s got collector
value and great quality. (no endorsement btw)
You’re supposed to do this in private before the
campaign but I advice the opposite. Don’t even do it.
Don’t do it until the party visits either Madam Eva
or requests a card reading from Ezmeralda d’Avenir.
Nothing more unrewarding than the party finding
the Sunsword in the Village of Barovia by mistake
and getting a level for free. Do the reading when
the time comes, not even you will know where the
objects are placed. And after the reading, the party
still has to find out or figure out the meaning of
Madam Eva’s words.
Or better yet ! Don’t leave the reading to chance.
Decide before hand which are the locations that
more ring true to you for a great story. You might
deem convenient to place the Tome of Strahd in Van
Richten’s Tower (page 167) since he’s been in Barovia
for a longer time investigating the Count. Sergei’s
Sword could be well hidden in the Amber Temple,
placed there by Strahd himself for safekeeping.
After deciding you only have to choose what’s going
to happen when the players arrive to Madam Eva’s
camp. You can either do the reading and re-shuffle
everything. Or you could try a little sleight of hand
and arrange the reading to “predict” what you had
intended in the first place. If you do it right, the
Page 20
 Chapter - 1

players will buy that this crucial locations were
defined by chance.
Adventure Hooks
The book provides three ways to introduce the
adventure, they work equally well for level 1
or level 3 adventurers. Here are some notes or
recommendations about them:
Hook 1 – Plea for Help
This one is easy to implement. It works in any
tavern in any place or setting. Since Barovia is
in different plane, it doesn’t matter where the
adventurers are coming from. Here you see the
assassin Arrigal delivering a forged letter to the
party. He pretends to be obeying orders from Kolyan
Indirovich, who is Ismark Kolyanovich’s father and
Ireena’s adoptive father.
Hook 3 – Werewolves in the Mist
The PCs are sent on a goose hunt to kill some
werewolves who recently did their werewolvish
things around Daggerford, or anywhere else really.
No wait, not really. Since there’s info, goals and gifts
for party members who belong to one of the five
Adventurer’s League factions. Excellent for games
in the Forgotten Realms or any game featuring
members of these factions.
It can be modded to other settings if the factions are
replaced by their equivalents, or the factions could
be ignored and you could just let the party chase
after the werewolves unaided, it’s the dread domain
anyway.
Hook 4 – Creeping Fog
If all else fails and the bait is not good enough, we
have this jewel. After all, my grandfather used to
say: “If you don’t go to Barovia, Barovia goes to you”.

Arrigal is actually a vistani and Strahd’s ally. He can

normally be found near Vallaki in the Vistani Camp
(page 119, his portrait is in page 122)

Hook 2 – Mysterious Visitors

This is set in Daggerford, near the Sword Coast.

Although it could really be anywhere. A group of
vistani visitors try convince the party to follow
them and help their Lord. The leader, and old man
named Stanimir (page 20) claims that the leader of
their people, Madam Eva, can explain more.

This hook is as good as your persuasive abilities

when role playing Stanimir, however it says that
the vistani lead the party all the way to the Tser
Pool Encampment (page 36) bypassing all the stuff
that comes before. That’s why I don’t think this is a
good hook as written.   However we can fix it, if the
vistani abandon the party in the woods during the
night, leaving them for the Creeping Fog then it is
sound. It’s even better if they turn out to be the “bad
vistani”, the ones allied to Strahd. So players might
want to find Stanimir to confront him, only now he
will be found in the Vistani Camp in Vallaki (page
122).

Page 21
Chapter 2
Lands of Barovia here were two important
T
things in the original Advanced
Dungeons and Dragons modules
back in the day that are missing
in the 5e book.
The Dark Powers Checks
Barovia responds to evil acts, it encourages it,
nurtures it. When a PC performs an evil act
willingly, on the DMs judgment, this could cause
a dark powers check. It was an opportunity for
Barovia’s malignant energies to suffuse their power
into the PC. The PC had a chance to resist this
influence. If he failed he could be granted an evil
feature or punishment. Overtime, as PCs continued
committing evil acts, they would slowly turn into
dark beings. Which is in a way what happened
to Strahd Von Zarovich. I have no opinion really
about this option, I believe there are supplements
out there to replicate this effect, but my real
recommendation is to use the next Dark Gifts.
The Dark Gifts
The Dark Gifts were so popular that they were
brought back by Adventurer’s League admins on
public demand.
They way they work is that anytime a character of
level 5 or lower dies in Barovia. You can ask them
if they would rather die, or continue living. If they
choose to continue, they are brought back by the
Dark Powers. It says it happens in a moment but I
advice to change the time frame to whatever works
more for the story. Maybe it’s a few hours later or
next morning. The PC who comes back to life this
way is transformed randomly. Most of the time they
get an evil or monstrous feature such as: burnt eyes,
broken/deformed spine, long fangs and so on.
Coming back in these circumstances alone is
enough to erupt a party fight as trust among PCs
can easily be broken in Barovia. This is exactly
the aim of the setting. On a related note, it is not
clear whether Strahd Von Zarovich causes this
or even knows about it or not. You can handle it
however you want, maybe Strahd knows about
this phenomena but has no control over it. Or
just maybe, he can control it and is reviving party
members only for fun. That’s ok too.
I strongly recommend using the Dark Gifts because
if you do, then you can afford to be extremely
rough on the party in the earlier levels. Crush them
! Barovia is supposed to be deadly and the realm of
dread. Don’t fear to crush them, players will have
to opportunity to come back to life with a few set
backs and continue the adventure. They will even
want to do it despite the disadvantages just to have
a chance to defeat Strahd with THAT character.
The official AL supplement can be downloaded free
here:
This supplement expands on that list and I strongly
recommend it
Features of Barovia
The most important feature of the valley for the
PCs is that it is surrounded by a thick fog that never
recedes. It is toxic in nature and no one can cross it
and get out of Barovia (except the Vistani). Not even
Strahd can get out, that is his curse. On a related
note, there is only one confirmed character to have
ever escaped Barovia. It was Vecna, in a time before
he became a god. This is old D&D history and is not
mentioned in the module.
Vampires are traditionally vulnerable to sun light,
however the sun in Barovia is always partially
obscured fog and clouds. It doesn’t count as sun
light for overcoming vampires resistances. It says
on page 24 that vampires tend to stay indoors
during the day though. But PCs will be so surprised
when vampires attack them openly during the day.
Which will probably happen in Vallaki in the Coffin
Page 22

Maker’s Shop (page 116).
A nice touch is the information on alterations to
magic on page 24. What it really means is that
magic is transformed into whatever you want
that is a creepier version of itself. Those are just
suggestions.
Barovians
Barovians are some somber folk. Just take a look at
Barovian characters art throughout the book and
you’ll see. After centuries under the reign of Count
Strahd you would not expect any less. But there is
a fact that few know, every time a person dies in
Barovia, the soul has no way to escape the realm.
After a time the soul is cycled again and a new boy
or girl is born with that soul.
This means that all the original Barovians in the
realm from 384 years ago
(when Strahd became
a vampire and Barovia “Dreams are for the
became a closed demiplane)
are still there. They have
been born again each
living”
–Tome of Strahd
several times during that
time frame. The same is
true for every visitor that
has entered the Valley
of Barovia. Adventurers who have tried to defeat
Strahd unsuccessfully have been born time and
again as common folk. However all these souls do
not account for the present population of Barovia.
A high percentage of Barovians do not have souls.
They are projections of Strahd’s consciousness.
There is no feasible way to know for sure who has
a soul or not, only Strahd knows instantly who is
soulless. Count Strahd only feeds on people with
soul, he draws no nourishment from soulless shells.
It can be safely assumed that most of the “main
characters” in the different Barovian locations have
souls. But it is never confirmed and you can treat
this as you like.
Vistani
They look like Spanish gypsies, all of them have
souls, they are the only ones who can exit Barovia
Chapter - 2
as they please (reason explained in page 27). It’s
important to know they are divided in two factions;
the ones loyal to Strahd, and the ones loyal to
Madam Eva.
Vistani also have a Curse ability that is really
interesting (page 28), there are some interesting
options for this curse’s effects. Vistani use this as
repayment for injustice, as dying words or simply
as a vow of enmity against any who wrongs them.
These are the powerful ones:
• Target is unable to cast spells with somatic
components.
• A non-magical item disappears.
• Vulnerability to a damage type.
• Attunement to a magical item is broken
until curse ends.
• Blindness, deafness or BOTH !
It says that the curse ends only
under the effects of Remove
Curse or Greater Restoration. If
the Vistana dies the curse doesn’t
end. That’s really aggressive
against low level parties. The
spells needed to stop the curse
are high level and scrolls are difficult to come by.
Also the only people in Barovia who could perform
these spells are Madam Eva, Rudolf Van Richten and
the Abbot.
But these curses are just suggestions. Apparently
Vistani curses are really powerful. Researching
Rudolf Van Richten’s past (page 238 and his diary),
we find that he is in fact subject to a Vistani curse
placed on him a long time ago after he killed a
bunch of Vistani who kidnapped his son Erasmus.
The curse is that a dark fate awaits anyone
befriended by him. That’s why he works alone.
Because of this curse his son and his wife died. And
to protect Ezmeralda he abandoned her.
So the advice here is: if a Vistani is wronged and
a curse is used, It has to be something foul that
portrays the powerful gypsy powers in Vistani
blood.
Page 23

Random Encounters
Page 29 introduces two encounter tables for day and
night encounters. The encounters are really good,
there are combat encounters and others that are
just creepy, to convey how fucked up Barovia is.
My advice with “random encounters” is always
the same. Roll them before the game as part of
your prepping, or don’t even roll, choose from the
table the ones that will work best for your game or
players. While these options are good, there aren’t
enough for a full campaign, you’ll run out of options
soon enough. There is an appendix with extra
encounters at the end of this supplement.
Areas of Barovia
This section of the book has all the locations that
are not content-rich enough to have their own
chapters. However there are important areas still.
Page 35 has the map of Barovia and you will be
going back to this page A LOT. It’s easy to not pay
attention to places in this chapter because they’re
all crammed together in a single place and do not
appear in the index. These are some important
details and advice to pay attention to in this part of
the book:
C – Svalich woods (page 34)
This is one of the most important encounters in the
book. After PCs enter Barovia this is how they find
Kolyan Indirovich’s letter (or real letter if you used
the letter hook). Also they are attacked by a savage
pack of Strahd controlled wolves who will probably
cause the party to run for their lives to the Village of
Barovia.
G – Tser Pool Encampment (page 36)
This should have been a chapter. This is the place
where the PCs will encounter Madam Eva. There’s
a Vistani who will tell them a tale of the mighty
wizard who stood up against Strahd about a
year ago (that’s actually Mordenkainen). And of
course the official card reading for the artifact’s
locations. You will have to go back to the first
chapter to reference the section about the reading.
L – Lake Zarovich ( page 38)
Chapter - 2
In this encounter a guy named Bluto is fishing
using seven year old girl as bait. The girl’s name is
Arabelle and if she’s returned to her father in the
Vistani Camp near Vallaki the party will befriend
the “evil Vistani”.
M – Mad Mage of Mount Baratok (page 39)
A demented wizard has been sighted near Lake
Zarovich.  This is no one less than Mordenkainen
himself! Unfortunately he is in a state of madness.
The party will have to seize him and then cure him.
Any knowledgeable players in your game are going
to flip out when he reveals his identity. He could be
the secret ally against Strahd. If he isn’t then there is
no clear development for this, except that he leaves
the party in search of his staff and spell book. By the
way, a Remove Curse or Greater Restoration spell is
needed to help him, if the party does not have access
to these spells, Rictavio is in possession of a Greater
Restoration spell scroll, other than him, the party
might choose to ask The Abbot for help. It is implied
that this is a younger version of Mordenkainen
though.
Mordenkainen shouldn’t actually be here. In case
you are not aware, he is an important character
in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. Once
his memories are restored, it will be clear to the
party if they spend time chatting with him that he
comes from places that they have never heard of.
Mordenkainen will also be oblivious of any local
references about Ravenloft or the Forgotten Realms
the party could mention. Since Mordenkainen is in
the wrong universe and he is renowned as one of
the greatest wizards in his world, I see no reason
why he couldn’t behave like Rick from the Rick
and Morty TV show. This is just a suggestion and
obviously it only works if you and/or your players
are familiar with the show. This is a paragraph
example of Mordenkainen’s monologues provided
by Evan Barton from the homologous Facebook
group:
“Y-you know why I came here? The wine! The wine
in Barovia is-is the best in whole *urp* multiverse”
“Ya-ya know why? Because it has be! Life here is
miser*urp*able, it’s just just awful, and the Wine is the
only release! It comes from a magic gem! It’s magic gem
misery release wine! You can’t find it any*URP*where
else! Only here! Ya wanna know the messed up part?
The people here, they-they’ve never had wine from
anywhere else, they j-just think “this is how wine
tastes”. It’s the best in the multiverse and they’ll never
*urp* they’ll never know it. Pretty %$#!ed up, right?”
Page 24
Chapter 3
Village of Barovia
he Village of Barovia is easily the
T
grimmest place in Barovia. Castle
Ravenloft is ever looking down
upon them. The mists are thicker
here. The village is isolated from the
other places in the valley by either
forest or mountains. And just recently, Count Strahd
has been paying visits to the town; trying to seduce
Ireena Kolyana and eventually take her away to the
castle.
Other than his personal visits, wolves, bats and
other creatures of the night have come to attack the
village more often than usual. There is no wall or
protection for the townsfolk here. The last weeks
these creatures of the night have assaulted the
Burgomaster’s Mansion (page 44) at night. Kolyan
Indirovich’s heart couldn’t stand the constant
pressure, meeting his demise three days ago. People
in town know that Ireena is Strahd’s pray and no
one will step in his way. She and her brother Ismark
are alone in this situation.
How to Start
If you didn’t use the Death House intro adventure,
the first thing the adventurers will encounter is the
Mad Mary hook (page 44).
If your group finished the Death House, they will be
pretty low on resources and weak. After the mists
recede they will be in the middle of the Village
of Barovia. It’s important to note that the town’s
population has severely dwindled over the years.
Having most people move to Vallaki. As a result,
many homes are abandoned. If the PCs try to look
for an empty house to hide and rest, they might
get into further trouble, since some houses are
inhabited by swarms of rats or Strahd zombies. As
seen in the table in page 41.
You can drop the Mad Mary encounter here,
the woman is looking for her teenage daughter
Gertruda, who escaped a week ago. No one has
seen her. This is a quest that will take a LONG time
to be completed. Gertruda is a charmed guest of
Strahd, she can be found in area k42 (page 68),
she is actually in Strahd’s bed. Mary is holding a
malformed creepy doll this is the first encounter
with a Blinsky toy and his slogan “Is no fun, is no
Blinsky”.
Since adventurers might be weak, there’s a
possibility they will dismiss this hook and continue
looking for a place to rest, in that case. You can let
them reach the Blood of the Vine Tavern (page 43)
and have Ismark tell the tale of poor Mary.
Bildrath’s Mercantile
This particularly abusive character will charge 10
times the regular price of items in his store. If he
has trouble with pesky adventurers, he can call
on his nephew Parriwimple who is ripped like a
bodybuilder but dumb as he comes. I have seen
parties go in very different ways here. Your party
might comply and pay the high prices. Other players
might choose the sneaky way into the store at night
and take what they need. Or others might pick a
fight and end up killing someone or burning the
store. Don’t fear characters destroying the place up,
this module lends itself to this stuff a lot. In the end,
even Strahd himself can arrive and intervene if a
group of murder-hobos are killing off his subjects.
He is after all the rightful lord of this land.
Blood of the Vine Tavern
The tavern owners, three Vistani are there to make
sure people pay their tabs. There’s also a barkeep
who keeps his mouth shut. Other than that the
only important person in the room is Ismark
Kolyanovich, he’s the son of the burgomaster and
in theory the new Burgomaster because his father
is dead. However he has not done anything about
Page 25
 Chapter - 3

that. His only priority is his sister’s welfare. He’s

an able swordsman and wants to take Ireena to “I looked outside the
Vallaki. He’s heard that they have a wall and that
the burgomaster of Vallaki keeps the town safe (not
really true).
unbarred window in
He will approach travelers and pay for their food
and drinks. He has to, no one in town will help him
my quarters. It was
a moonless night, ev-
bury his father or move Ireena out of the village.

There are two important things that he doesn’t

know: He doesn’t know why Strahd is obsessed with
Ireena. And he doesn’t know that Ireena is not his
sister. She was adopted by Kolyan when she was
erything was dark. I
really young. The only way to know this in Curse of
Strahd is if the adventurers found the letter in the gazed into the black
Svalich Woods (page 32). Kolyan explains this fact
in his letter. The only other person who knows is
Father Donavich (page 46). void, a pair of red eyes
Also if you used the “Plea for help” hook to start the
module. Ismark can confirm that the letter is false.
gazed back at me. I lost
my senses after that.”
It’s not his father’s handwriting.

Burgomaster’s Mansion –Ireena Kolyana

Ismark and Ireena have reinforced the house after
the repeated attacks by monsters. It’s a soft bunker
of sorts. Ireena will not open the door unless PCs
gain her trust or they come accompanied by Ismark.
The body of Kolyan the burgomaster is in the
house. Ireena will not willingly abandon the village
until the burgomaster is laid to rest in the village’s
graveyard, next to the church.
Roleplaying Ireena
Ireena is one of the key elements in Curse of Strahd.
She was actually born in Vallaki. Her brother is
Izek Strazni, a fiendish thug under Burgomaster
Vallakovich’s wing. Neither of them know this. She
was also born with the soul of Tatyana Federovna,
who Strahd has tried to wed and keep for himself
for centuries unsuccessfully. She reincarnates
again every so many years and Strahd has failed to
achieve his goal so far. This is his new opportunity
and he will do all in his power not to fail again.
Ireena ignores all this, the only way for her to
awaken her lost memories is by visiting the Pool
and Shrine in Krezk (page 146).
However she does have Tatyana’s spirit and resolve.
That’s what the book says but this is a great
opportunity for you to decide what will Ireena’s
role be. Is she going to be a scared woman, fighting
for her life. Or will she be a strong woman doing
what she must to survive. Will she be a damsel in
distress or a strong feminine icon opposing Strahd.
Ireena has many different possibilities. You’d do
well in considering your group’s inclinations and
intent in Barovia to choose the best role model for
Ireena to be. It’s easier for Ismark, he’s the ever loyal
bodyguard.
Barovia’s Church
This section of town is another spoonful of
how grim Barovia is. A recurring story told
around is what happened a year ago. A powerful
wizard whose name is forgotten (it’s actually
Mordenkainen) led a group of people to fight Strahd

Page 26
 Chapter - 3

Conclusion
and failed miserably. One of these people was Doru,
the priest’s son in the Village of Barovia, who came
back a vampire. Father Donavich trapped the poor
lad in the church’s basement. He’s been there for
After these events. The PCs will probably be
a year, unfed. He is screaming all the time and
accompanied by Ismark and Ireena, and will start
he’s the reason why no one ever visits the church
their way to Vallaki. If the PCS decide to visit
anymore.
Madam Eva in the Tser Pool Camp it will take them
Father Donavich prays every day so the gods give 2 hours to get there and another 4 to reach Vallaki.
him a way to reverse his son’s transformation. So
far he has nothing to offer. He will try to protect
his son, even as he is undead. If the adventurer’s
destroy Doru, his father will crumble weeping,
overcome with despair.

Warning.- this vampire spawn can prove a mighty

foe for a level 3 party. Even alone, as he can bite
and regain HP and most attacks will only do half
damage to him. Also this will be the first vampire
the PCs face. Fast forward to Vallaki, they will fight
6 at the same time in the Coffin Maker’s Shop (page
116).

After the burgomaster’s burial. Father Donavich

suggests that they move Ireena as far away from
Castle Ravenloft. If possible to the Abbey of Saint
Markovia in Krezk, where the abbot can shelter her.

Dream Pastries

Morgantha is a night hag and a coven member. She

lives in the windmill, Old Bonegrinder (page 125).
She can be seen selling dream pastries for 1 gp and
taking a little child as payment.

Adventurers will probably confront her, she

releases the child and can offer some information
in exchange for her life. The two important bits here
are that Strahd has undead enemies, the knights of
the Order of the Silver Dragon who live in a ruined
mansion west of Vallaki. And also that there is
a hidden temple, which is the source of Strahd’s
powers. She reveals that this temple can be reached
by following the Tsolenka Pass. This is very valuable
information, not many know this. If the PCs insist
on attacking Morgantha, my advice is to Fireball
them (not possible according to coven rules) to show
them a bit of the hags power. It’s important they
fear them when they approach Old Bonegrinder.
If you wish to go by the rules, she can always Plane
Shift out of reach.

Page 27
Chapter 4
Castle Ravenloft
astle Ravenloft is the biggest
C
chapter in the book. With
over 40 pages describing the
different 88 areas inside, it is a
daunting task to get ready for.
It’s important to have in mind
that it is unlikely that the castle will be explored
completely. A party might have some exploration in
mind or a feeling of curiosity, but in reality, Castle
Ravenloft is a place where the party will run out of
resources sooner or later, and they most probably
won’t long rest inside the castle.
Additionally, Castle Ravenloft is not a dungeon
crawl to visit all in one go. The party will have to
come and go several times during the course of the
module.
The better approach to Castle Ravenloft comes
from the player’s intentions for visiting it. It is
improbable that players will come on their own
just to explore, or that someone wishes to explore
most of it. Normally, the party will get in a situation
where they have to visit the castle with a clear
objective in mind. Depending on where you are in
the campaign, the party will have clear objectives
when visiting the castle and thus, the exploration
will not be so overwhelming since it will be focused
to a certain area inside the castle. These are the
most common reasons for visiting the castle:
1. Attend to Strahd’s Dinner Invitation.
2. Try to find an artifact.
3. Recover Argynvost’s skull.
4. Sack Strahd’s treasure room.
5. Fight Strahd.
Of course this is not an exhaustive list, but these are
the main objectives in the module that would have
a party visit Castle Ravenloft. Let’s explore them one
by one:
Attending to Strahd’s Dinner
Invitation
Odds are that the party visits the castle for the first
time to comply with Strahd’s invitation. The main
floor is of importance here. The party sees the main
entrance, are received by Rahadin and then led to
the dinning room. After the meeting with the count,
if they respected Strahd’s hospitality and had a
civilized dinner, they could be free to go they same
way they came.
However if they end up fighting Strahd, they will
have to escape the castle. I recommend to have
the main entrance closed up and guarded by the
4 red dragons, so the party will have to look for a
different way a out. Depending on the party level
they will be half confident or scared, but will try to
get out.  They probably won’t look for a way out in
the basements. Unfortunately the only other way
out of the castle from the first level is in area K23,
but it’s only accessible from the first basement or
from the second floor if they find the secret door in
area K20. They could also break their way out from
the chapel windows in K15 or go up to the third level
and climb down the inner wall of the castle. Since it
is the first visit, Strahd only wants to play and scare
them, ultimately he’s letting them escape, albeit not
easily.
Try to Find an Artifact
If the tarokka reading revealed the location of an
artifact inside Ravenloft, and the party has already
deciphered the meaning of the cryptic message,
then they are visiting the castle with a clear
purpose. If this is at level 9 and that’s the only thing
before leveling up to 10, then the objective might be
“getting the object and then fight Strahd”, but if that
isn’t the case, then the party will retrieve the object
and get out.
Page 28
 Chapter - 4

These artifacts are not unknown to Strahd, however location is hidden. It’d be ok to assume the treasury
if they are in the castle, he placed them there a is in the basements but this one is on the third floor,
long time ago and has forgotten they even exist. plus it lies behind two secret doors. Strahd will
Preparing for this situation depends entirely in the not easily let them reach it. One possibility is that
location of the artifact and how the party decides the party finds the Ravenloft model in the Amber
to access the castle (more on ways to enter the Temple (Area X20, page 187). They will have a visual
castle later). After recovering the artifact, if it is the representation of the whole castle and know where
Tome of Strahd, and Strahd learns about this, he is the treasury is.
supposed to present a serious opposition to the
party’s escape. If the recovered item is the Sergei’s
Sword or the Symbol of Ravenkind, both of them
can produce real sunlight, which will make
“Burgomaster Lazlo and
Brother Grigor took her
Strahd reel and rethink his approach, letting the
party escape, for now.

 Recover Argynvost’s Skull

life to keep her from me,
I took their hearts and
Unless you choose to reveal the information or
the party has already visited area K67, they will
have no way of knowing the whereabouts of the
then commanded the
river to drown every-
dragon’s skull. If the party has access to Locate
Object they will detect the location of the skull as
soon as they enter the castle, though. The party
can enter by the main entrance and then go down
to the first basement through the stairs in area
K21, and you want this, because then they would
thing in sight.”
pass through area K61 where the elevator trap is,
this trap will break the party and depending on –Strahd Von Zarovich
party level, it has the potential to kill one or two
PCs. It will derail the mission for sure.

Alternatively, they can enter through the servant’s
rooms in area K23 and descend to area K62 where
they could find Cyrus Belview, who will also try to
lead them to the elevator trap. If they survive or
circumvent the trap and reach the Hall of Bones
(K67), make sure you have an appropriate boss fight
to prevent them from stealing the skull. Rahadin’s
office is two rooms away so that’s a good option.
After retrieving the skull, they need to get out fast,
the skull weights 250 pounds so it won’t be an easy
task.
A good place for a tough fight before reaching the
treasury is area K40 or K37. If the party is unaware
of the true location, they will find the false treasury
in K38 and probably assume that the true one is in
a different location, probably the catacombs. Thus
they would never find the treasure.
 
Fight Strahd

Final showdown’s location is dependent of the

Sack Strahd’s Treasure Room
Adventurers might assume that there is a place
where Strahd keeps his treasure, and they would
be right, area K41 is Strahd’s Treasury. However its
tarokka reading. This objective assumes that the
party is level 10 and has visited the castle a few
times before. The party might also try to destroy
the Heart of Sorrow in area K20 (top of the tower
actually).
Note that the location of Strahd’s Location is not
the place where the battle will take place; it’s just

Page 29

the place where the battle will begin. Strahd is ever
resourceful and he’s more powerful when using
his castle and terrain as a weapon, thus he will be
moving from place to place. The battle is also a race
to catch up with Strahd, who will be leading the
party through dangerous places and sending tons
of minions and vampire spawn to kill them. If your
players haven’t gone through the elevator trap then
Strahd might lead them there just for gags, and even
if they have, the second ride is always better.
 
What about the NPCs?
Ravenloft looks lonely but it really isn’t, there are a
couple of NPC’s currently living in the castle, most
of them indifferent or aggressive towards the party.
They are buried in the 40+ pages of this chapter but
here’s a list of them and their locations.
1. Rahadin, Strahd’s second in command
receives the party for the dinner invitation.
His office is in area K72 but he can be found
in any part of the castle.
2. Lief Lipsiege, Strahd’s accountant, he’s
chained to the desk and has been here for a
long time (Area K30). He can be convinced
to divulge the location of the Symbol of
Ravenkind.
3. Helga Ruvak, this vampire spawn pretends
to be a damsel in distress and begs for the
party’s assistance to escape the castle in area
K32. When a good opportunity to betray
them comes (probably while attacked by
other creatures) she attacks.
4. Pidlwick’s Ghost, if a player performs well
with the harp in area K36, the ghost of a
short man dressed as a fool appears and
talks about a valuable treasure in his crypt.
If Pidlwick II is around, he blames him for
his demise.
5. Gertruda, this young woman is Strahd’s
guest and plaything but not yet a vampire
spawn, she’s in the King’s Room (Area K52).
She is unaware of any danger and naïve to
the point where she is dangerous to others.
The party might feel inclined to extract her
from the castle to appease her mother “Mad
Mary” from chapter 3.
Chapter - 4
6. Varushka, the harmless ghost of a maid who
took her life to avoid a life of servitude as a
vampire spawn haunts area K43.
7. Escher, a male vampire spawn in Strahd’s
favor. He fears Strahd is growing bored of
him, however he will try to lead the party to
him if possible. He can be found in area K49.
8. Pidlwick II, it was created to entertain
but fails miserably to do so. He can be a
silent guide however since he understands
common and knows the castle really well.
He also killed the real Pidlwick. Found in
area K59
9. Cyrus Belview, Strahd’s faithful servant
who lurks in area K62, he’s crazy and
devoted to Strahd. If possible he will offer
the PCs to lead them to their sleeping rooms
in the tower, if they comply he will lead
them to area K62 and kamizake himself up
with the party in the elevator trap. Pure gold
here.
10. Emil Toranescu, a werewolf trapped in area
K75a, he will promptly betray the party
unless they reveal their friendship with
his wife Zuleika. More on this plot line in
chapter 15.
11. Patrina Velikovna, the sister of Kasimir. She
is now a banshee trapped in crypt 21 (page
89). If restored to life by Kasimir she returns
as an Archmage with her own agenda as
priority.
 
How to Enter and Exit
The castle is built in such a way that it’s difficult to
move around if you are not familiar with it. Stairs
going up or down don’t lead where you want to and
entrances or exits are not easily found. Once you’re
deep inside the castle you might well be lost. These
are the ways in and out of Ravenloft:
1. Main Entrance (Area K7) This is the most
obvious one, however you can only pass
through here if Strahd wants it. If not, there
are four red dragons here to stop anyone.
2. Servant’s Entrance (Area K23) If the party
takes their time when exploring Ravenloft
Page 30
 Chapter - 4

and circles around the inner walls, they will

find the servant’s entrance. However even
though it is in the main floor, it connects
with the first basement and the second
floor through the stairs in area K24. It is a
plausible way in or out of the castle.

3. Chapel (Area K15) The party could break

their way out of the blocked stained glass
windows here. The noise will attract
attention though.

4. Parapets (Area K46) From many places in the

third level the party can access the parapets
on top of the inner castle walls. They can
climb up or down from here but it’s a 90 feet
climb. Not for the faint of heart. Or they can
simply brave the jump and take up to 8d6
(24) damage.

5. Tomb of King Barov and Queen Ravenovia

(Area K88) This one is tricky, because the
window looking out of the tomb is 110 feet
below of the Overlook (Area K6). The party
can try to climb up or down, but any mistake
could have them fall 900 feet to certain
death. Parties with some teleportation magic
like Dimension Door can make this possible
for an express entry to the catacombs area.

6. Brazier Room (Area K78 – exit only) This

place has a magical brazier that can be used
the teleport to some locations outside of the
castle.

Ravenloft is not supposed to turn into a simple

dungeon crawl. Even high level parties should be
careful when visiting, since resource management
becomes a must. Strahd has unlimited minions to
throw at them to wear them down. Even important
NPC’s like Rahadin can be revived by the Abbot on
Strahd’s request. Escaping the castle when resources
are low or when a goal has been accomplished
should always be a matter of life and death.
This is a very long chapter full of information,
hopefully these guidelines will help put the castle in
perspective for an easier planning on an expedition
to Ravenloft. I also recommend to read carefully all
the different crypt’s entries and treasure whenever
you anticipate the party exploring that section of
the castle.

Page 31
Chapter 5
Town of Vallaki his is pivotal point in the Curse of
T
Strahd Module. After the Village of
Barovia, this is the first settlement
the party will visit. They might have
heard that the town is secured and
walled. That people can prosper
there and that the Burgomaster is in a constant fight
against Strahd’s evil. However nothing is farthest
from the truth. In reality, Vallaki is a bomb about to
explode, and the adventurers cannot stop it. How
and when it blows are the only factors that could be
managed to work differently, but the conflict will
burn down the city to its core.
This is real because of the current political situation
in Vallaki, and the different powers at play. No
DM should feel constrained to blow the fuse, this
settlement was written in this way so everything
goes down for the players, ultimately it will serve to
send the players in search for a safer haven, Krezk.
The Powers at Play
The town is led by Baron Vargas Vallakovich, the
Burgomaster of Vallaki, a ruthless cruel man who
believes that if he can make everyone in town
happy, then Strahd will lose his power inside
Vallaki’s walls. He organizes festivals every few
days to promote this idea, however the people of
Vallaki don’t really share his view and aren’t happy.
They fake compliance with the festivities. If anyone
is sighted unhappy or talking against the current
way of things, the person is arrested for “malicious
unhappiness”.
Regardless of Vargas Vallakovich’s methods, this
is a battle he cannot win. Unknown to most, a
big percentage of people in Barovia do not have
souls and are unable to feel the happiness the
burgomaster is trying to elicit. They still comply
with the celebrations, but these are grim events
anyway. The Burgomaster’s wife, Lydia Petrovna
is always helping with festival preparations and
has an awkward laugh. It’s important to note that
she is the sister of Father Lucian, but due to their
conflicting stations (government vs church) they do
not talk much.
They have a son, Viktor Vallakovich, which is
Vargas’ successor. He doesn’t care about that
though, he’s always in the Mansion’s attic trying to
perfect a Teleport spell to escape Barovia.
You can assume a lot of people hate the
Vallakovich family, but no one more so than Lady
Fiona Wachter. She is a wealthy noble and very
influential. She heads a cultist group and is allied
with Strahd. These facts are not public knowledge.
Things are brewing in Vallaki in such a way that she
is ready for open confrontation, she’s just waiting
for the exact moment to do so, or an instruction
from Count Strahd.
The next important power group are the Keepers
of the Feather, a faction of wereravens who oppose
Strahd. The Martikov Family in the Blue Water Inn
(page 98) are the main members of this group. They
will not initially reveal their intentions to the party.
In a way they wish to make sure that they can be
trusted. The Martikov Family also owns the Wizard
of Wines Vineyard and thus the supply of wine of
the entire Valley.
The Bomb in Vallaki
The initial conflict in Vallaki is already in motion
when the party arrives. Strahd has a plan: to attack
the Church of St. Andral and kill Father Lucian, and
prove that he is not stopped by ridiculous festivals.
To do this, he coerced Henrik van der Voort into
helping. Henrik then paid Milijov (page 98) to
steal the bones of St. Andral from the church. This
deactivates the protective charm that the church
normally has. Strahd then used his teleportation
room in Castle Ravenloft to bring 6 vampire spawn,
which are then hidden in boxes in the coffin
maker’s shop (page 116).
When the party arrives to Vallaki it’s only normal
that they will visit the Church of St. Andral. Either
Page 32

because Ismark wants to bring Ireena there or
simply because it sounds like a safe place (which
it was before the bones were stolen). There they
will get the hook of St. Andral’s bones. This is an
important moment for the adventure because hell
rains whether the party helps or not, so don’t push
the hook to much, it’s actually better if they don’t
help.
“Our town Is safe from
the demon. I shall keep
our townsfolk clean
and smiling so we can
better fight the dark-
ness. All will be well!“
–Burgomaster Vargas
Vallakovich
If the party decides to help, they will eventually end
up investigating the coffin shop and releasing the
6 vampire spawn. This is a TOUGH fight, especially
since the party is probably level 4 or 5 at this point.
Expect some deaths here. If the party is smart
they will separate the vampires with Turn Undead
or similar. And run to the church. Once outside,
while the vampires are not affected by sun light,
they could be also targeted by Vallaki’s guards. This
could either end up as a big fight in the church or
a big fight in the main square. A great moment to
introduce Rictavio or Ezmeralda and help. Maybe
even Kasimir Velikov (page 121) or the Vistani
Arrigal and Luvash (page 122) can show up to help.
If the party doesn’t follow this path. Then three
days later Strahd leads his vampires and swarms of
bats into the church to kill Father Lucian. The PCs
could hear about this attack when it is going on,
and go there to intervene. I believe this is a thing
that Strahd would not let be stopped. So they are
Chapter - 5
in for disappointment when Strahd kills the father
anyway and kicks their butts. If Father Lucian dies,
the town demoralizes to the point where a few days
later they set the Vallakovich mansion ablaze, arrest
the Vallakovich family, and then stone them to
death in the main square. This is only followed by
Lady Wachter taking control of the town.
If the church is saved however, Vallaki is still in
a very precarious position. The 6 vampire fight is
probably common knowledge, specially if the fight
turned to the streets. The town will be in fear of
further attacks and the usefulness of the festivals
will be doubted even more. Which brings us to
Baron Vargas and his way to handle things.
Depending on the party’s disposition, alignment
and style, it is probable that they will blow the
fuse against the Vallakovich family. If they have an
audience with the Baron it could only end in bad
words and angry faces, since he is oh! so charming.
But a few days later there is a festival, the Festival
of the Blazing Sun. It is a grim event and it might
probably go unnoticed if not by the fact that the
Baron decides to punish a laughing guard by tying
him by the ankles to his horse and then drag him all
around the square.
If the party opposes the Baron there, he will order
their arrest and banishment from the town. It’s
really important to note that this is a very small
town and the “guard” consists of Izek and 24 guards,
and that’s it. A level 5 party with a Fireball can
dispatch all but Izek in a single round. Even regular
fighting against the guards will bode bad for them
in the end. If the PCs win such a confrontation the
Vallakovich family flees to their mansion and the
townsfolk lock themselves in their homes in fear
of being killed by the PCs. This is also a winning
situation for Lady Wachter, with no guard and the
power of the Vallakovich tested, even if they are still
alive, she can take over the town with her cultist
group.
If she doesn’t do this right then, and the PCs don’t
attack the townsfolk directly, then after a few days
the people would burn the mansion and kill the
baron and his family anyway. All in all, Vallki is in
for a rude awakening.
Page 33
 Chapter - 5

Ireena’s Brother Kasimir Velikov

Hidden in the book’s appendix is the fact that Izek This is the mutilated elf whose sister almost
Strazni is Ireena’s brother. She was adopted which married Strahd a long time ago, he is the leader
is probably common knowledge now. The thing is of the remaining dusk elves in Barovia. Kasimir
that not Izek nor Ireena are aware of their bond and lives with the Vistani group north of Vallaki. He is
there is no way to know it. And there is no one alive important because it’s one of the few people who
who can supply this information so it’s just weird. know the location of the Amber Temple and its
He is evil and tainted by the Dark Powers. He feels connection with Strahd’s power. He seeks to visit
this unnatural attraction and fixation with a girl the temple to find a way to restore Patrina to life.
from his dreams. He has Gadof Blinsky (page 118) He’s the safest bet to visiting the Amber Temple, he
make him a new and better doll each month. When could also be an ally vs Strahd.
he sees Ireena for the first time, he will do his best to
abduct her. I guess one could think that this is just
misguided protectiveness. He cannot explain why
he feels like this but he will try to take Ireena and Conclusion
lock her away. His fixation and obsessive behavior
towards Ireena can only be explained by their blood
bond, but this will never be revealed. Also, Izek is So at the end, Vallaki will suffer a transformation.
very likely to end up dead by the party’s actions and Possibly the power of House Vallakovich is
Ireena will never know they just killed her brother. destroyed and taken by a militia or Lady Wachter.
Maybe the PCs start a police state. Maybe they PCs
are banished from town and are banned to return. If
the PCs are not good aligned, due to the situation in
Rictavio aka Rudolf Van town, anything could happen. The PCs may start an
Richten alliance with Lady Wachter, they could take control
of the city and dispatch any other competitor
(Strahd wouldn’t like this much…).
However it ends, it should be a bang. This is not a
Rictavio is a half-elf bard currently living in the
safe place and more likely than not, the adventurers
Blue Water Inn, he has no musical talent and
will continue traveling west towards Krezk. Either
entertains guests by telling unbelievable stories.
to help Ireena and Ismark, or just to find a safe
He is so bad at his job because it really isn’t. He is
haven themselves. By the way, unless they force
legendary vampire slayer Rudolf Van Richten, he’s
their entry, they can’t enter Krezk unless they help
been hiding in Barovia with false identities for a
first with fetching a shipment from the Wizard of
while, gathering info on Strahd to better confront
Wines.
him. He poses as a carnival ringmaster looking
for local personalities for his circus. He even has a
carnival cart with a tiger inside. It’s important to
note this is a racist tiger, trained only to hunt and
kill Vistani. Why? Well Van Richten has a long sad
story behind him regarding Vistani but in short
words. The Vistani stole his son Erasmus and sold
him to a vampire. When he got there Erasmus was
a vampire already and Van Richten had to kill his
own son. This is in his diary which can be found
in Ezmeralda’s wagon outside of the abandoned
tower (page 169). Rudolf is a powerful character
and he has some good spells, he can join and/or
help the party in many ways, however he will try to
remain incognito as long as possible, just like the
wereravens.

Page 34
Chapter 6
Old Bonegrinder
his old mill is located near the
T
main road that leads to the Town
of Vallaki. Adventurers will see the
mill from the road and might wish
to explore it, especially since they
might have found the deed to the
mill in the Death House a while back.
The deed leaves the mill in possession of Thornboldt
and Rosavalda Durst. Who are dead and probably
resting in peace. The players might infer that, since
they hold the deed to the mill, they are the owners
now. Regardless of their interpretation of this fact,
the mill is now home to three witches, Morgantha,
Bella and Offalia. Morgantha is the mother of the
other two. Together they form a Coven, which gives
the three of them more magical power.
These witches are in the business of making pies
from children bones. They snatch children from the
towns of Barovia and/or Vallaki, eat them, and then
use the remains to bake pies. The pies are addictive
and have psychoactive properties. They sell the pies
to other people in exchange for gold, when people
don’t have any gold left (as is the case of many
addicts), they can take children as payment. The
party witnessed this in Barovia, when Morgantha
took a young boy as payment (page 48).
The theme here is a very dark one. It is in my
opinion the grimmest section of the setting, since
it takes on human trafficking, children and drugs.
Depending on your group you can let them see the
dark tone in its fullest, or maybe dial down the evil/
sad stuff a bit. You might even want to ask people
before playing if certain subjects are cool to tackle
on.
The encounter
This encounter includes the three night hags with
the Coven abilities, and up to nine dretches. The
party will be level 4 or maybe 5 when they first
approach the mill. In this case, they are going to lose
the battle if this is an open confrontation. This is
one of the toughest encounters in the setting. That is
why, Ismark and some other NPC’s advice not to get
near it since everybody says it’s cursed. Also, there is
a member of the wereraven faction on patrol there,
he will try to warn the party to stay away without
revealing his true form (page 127).
Hag’s Covens are explained in page 177 of the
Monster Manual. What’s important is to note that
the spells listed there can be cast by any of the hags,
but the slots are shared. It’s a common pool. It’s still
really dangerous since the three of them could shoot
a Lightning Bolt at the same time and fry the party.
Other powerful spells they have are Sleep, Hold
Person, Counterspell, and Polymorph. If the party is
level 6, or a strong level 5 party, let them clash. But if
they party is level 4 and decides to explore the mill,
there are ways to run the encounter successfully.
Take into account that the mill is very reduced in
space, if the PCs are inside the building the fight will
be a cramped one. The dretches can come out and
restrain characters simply by being around, move
them as a protection for the hags, they can also
keep members from the party from going inside the
mill or covering the staircase access. If the battle is
outside or half outside, a hag can shoot her magic
from the second floor window. Reduced space and
maneuverability are a big thing in D&D tactical
game, how the PCs position themselves in the mill
in relation with the hags and dretches can win or
lose them the encounter.
Roleplaying the hags
Encounter alternatives 
Morgantha and the other hags have it easy in
Barovia, no one stands in their way and Strahd does
not care for them. They even have an unknowing
spy inside Ravenloft, Cyrus Belview is in possession
Page 35

“Oh it’s only the simplest
ingredients I need. You
can’t put a price on peo-
ple’s dreams, it’s all worth
the effort and the cost.”
–Morgantha
of the Coven Eye. The hags have information on the
castle, what they are planning to do or why they
gifted the eye to Cyrus is anyone’s guess.
If the hags see a possible confrontation, they will
first try to talk their way out of the spot. In the end,
they lose if any of the hags is killed because the
Coven is broken, so they will avoid unnecessary
confrontations. In face of danger they can go
ethereal and call it a day, not before shooting some
bolts of lightning or other damaging spells. Or they
can also soften the party up and then shoot massive
sleep spells and imprison the party to become pies
later.
An alternate scenario is that the Coven is not
present when the adventurers arrive, one of the
hags might be out snatching children or selling pies.
Without the three hags together, they can’t cast any
of the Coven spells and this greatly reduces their
deadliness. Still two regular night hags and the 9
dretches are a good challenge.
A different alternative is to have the battle come in
waves, the dretches can come out of the barrel one
by one or in pairs. And a hag might be out but arrive
shortly. Or she could be in the top floor finishing
something before coming down and helping the
other hags fight the intruders.
There are two children in the bedroom of the mill
(page 128). Freek and Myrtle were taken from the
Village of Barovia. They do not want to return
to their homes because little as they are, they
understand that they were traded for drugs. They
Chapter - 6
prefer to be taken in by Ismark or Ireena. This
will mean they party will escort the kids and
Ireena to Vallaki. It would be appropriate to
have Father Lucian Petrovich welcome the
children at the church in Vallaki.
End Consequences
If the party is defeated, it doesn’t necessarily
mean that they’re all dead. A few of them
should, the hags will leave the bodies away from
the mill to be eaten by crows. Only then can
they be brought back by the dark powers. If any
or some PCs are still alive but defeated, the hags
will imprison them to be killed or eaten later.
How to exit this quandary? There’s two ways.
The surviving and revived PCs can try to break
their friends out from the mill when two hags
are out. Alternatively the Keepers of the Feather
could help the prisoners escape. After all they have
been keeping an eye on the mill for a time.
On the other hand, if the party wins, it doesn’t
mean the hags are dead. At least not all of them. The
hags can Plane Shift as an action and go ethereal
at any time. With the battle all but lost, it will be
an awesome plot device to have at least one hag
escape and plot revenge. The surviving hag can
then follow the party from the ethereal plane and
target whoever won its enmity the most with its
Nightmare Haunting ability. For a level 4 party this
is really powerful and could really affect the party.
It’s specially important when using this ability, that
you don’t reveal to the party what is causing the
nightmares and the HP reduction. Just describe the
visions and the effects. Hopefully the party will take
a while in finding out who the real culprit is. It’s a
really powerful ability that goes with the theme of
Barovia. In one of my games, the players traveled
to Vallaki, then Krezk and the Wizard of Wines
with the hag in tail causing havoc. It took them a
long time to try the spells they needed to protect
the barbarian who was the target. By the time they
could stop the attacks, the Barbarians max HP was
9. Even when they inferred that the hag was causing
this, they had no way to stop her or confront her. It
ended up with the PCs begging the Abbot for help to
“exorcise” the hag.
Page 36
Chapter 7
Argynvostholt
consider this chapter a gem in the
I
Curse of Strahd module. It is well
presented, with some interesting
characters, and if the adventurers
wish to complete this chapter,
they will have to infiltrate Castle
Ravenloft to steal from under Strahd’s nose and
escape to tell the tale.
Background info
Argynvost was a silver dragon who moved into the
Valley of Barovia disguised as a wealthy man. He
was incredible wealthy, had his mansion built and
used his resources to attract valorous champions of
good to start a knight’s order. It’s explained (page
129) that Argynvost was aware of the Amber Temple,
a place of great evil. He made one of his order’s
quests, to make sure whatever was in that temple
would never be allowed to escape.
Years later Strahd’s army came to the valley and the
Order of the Silver Dragon defended the valley (the
name wasn’t Barovia yet), not because of allegiance
or loyalty, but to protect the Amber Temple from
outsiders. Unfortunately, Strahd’s army was much
too powerful and they overcame the order. Even
with the help of Argynvost in dragon form, they
simply had no chance. After killing Argynvost,
Strahd had his corpse stripped to the bone and the
enormous skull transported to his camp. Years
later, after the construction of Castle Ravenloft, the
skull was set as a trophy in a dinning room for the
barracks under the castle.
Since then the spirit of Argynvost has lost its
power and what remains is just his will to rest for
eternity, thus requiring his skull to be placed in the
mausoleum in his back yard, area Q16 (page 134).
In the meanwhile, such was Vladimir Horngaard’s
hate, that he came back as a revenant and brought
back with him a small number of other knights as
revenants, he is their master and they obey him.
Vladimir is only around to ensure that Strahd
suffers as most as possible. Their main activities
consist in killing Strahd’s lackeys, creatures and
adventurers from time to time (Vladimir is aware
that more often than not, adventurers are brought
as Strahd’s playthings or pet projects, so killing
them is another way to torment Strahd.
The Hook
Several NPC throughout the module have a mention
for Argynvostholt in their information boxes.
The first such info-dump comes actually from
the hag Morgana in the Town of Barovia (page
48). If stopped from stealing a child, she offers
information in exchange of her escape. She tells a
story of a group of revenants in a ruined mansion
west of Vallaki. She also mentions they are enemies
of Strahd.
It works as an info hook, specially if the adventurers
get it from different sources. A closer approach
is to have a lone revenant “random” encounter
(page 31). Although it can be mistaken for a zombie
and end up as a regular battle. If the adventurers
present themselves as enemies of Strahd, the
revenant will not attack, and recommend they go to
Argynvostholt and speak with the current leader of
their order Vladimir. It even says the revenant can
lead them to the ruined mansion.
The Mansion
Argynvostholt is a ruin of its once glorious state. In
its time it was the must luxurious place in the valley,
thanks to Argynvost’s gold. Some rooms are caved
in with only rocks and ruined furniture inside,
exposed to the elements. Some have become the
lairs of monsters like the colony of giant spiders in
area Q4.
Page 37
 Chapter - 7

Throughout the mansion,

the adventurers will see
portraits and images of
Argynvost as he looked
in human form. It is for
“I do not fear death. Vladimir is a very
interesting character, he
shares the PCs enemy
Though my body will (Strahd). But his course
of action is the opposite

die, my spirit will live

the players to infer that of what the PCs probably
this person is actually the want. He explains this in his
dragon himself. kick ass speech in page 138.

There is a particular scene

in the mansion with TPK
potential, it’s area Q13, the
chapel (page 134) Three
revenants roam inside and
will attack any who enters
the room, no questions.
Revenants are very tough
as they are but these come
armed with swords that
deal (2d10+4) damage.
Serious business here.
on. Let it serve as a He knows Strahd is dead
and forever cursed. No one
has ever been able to kill
beacon of light against Strahd, but it is assumed
that if he’s ever killed, his
spirit will be finally at rest.
the darkness. Let it Vladimir would hate such
an ending. For Vladimir
bring hope to a land that is too cheap an exit
for Strahd’s sins. He knows
that his current state,
wrought with despair. trapped and cursed to wish
for Tatyana’s spirit but
never achieving his goal,
Now, to battle!” is the worst hell possible.
Killing Strahd is contrary to
Vladimir’s goals as stated in
his bio (page 242).

–Lord Argynvost
Vladimir Horngaard
He was the second in command when Argynvost
was still alive and the most faithful knight of the
order. After the death of Argynvost he came back
to life as a revenant, vowing to end Strahd’s life.
He and the other revenants marched to Ravenloft
to fight Strahd but were confronted by Madam
Eva, who told them that Strahd had died already,
becoming powerful but forever trapped inside his
small realm. Vladimir was in love with a fellow
knight, Sir Godfrey Gwylim (also dead). However,
in his current state, Vladimir no longer remembers
him and can only think about Strahd. The order has
been diminished to a shadow of what it once was.
No other knight can do anything because Vladimir
is in charge. Vladimir won’t change his mind
voluntarily, only the lit beacon of Argynvost can
make them see the real picture.
This makes for excellent
roleplaying opportunities.
When the adventurers
come across Vladimir in
area Q36 (page 138) they can exchange ideas. If the
PCs declare themselves enemies of Strahd, Vladimir
shares their goal and will commend them to hunt
his allies and creatures. If the PCs ever mention
their intention to slay the vampire, Vladimir warns
them to stay out of the order’s mission to ensure the
vampire’s eternal damnation. The PCs will probably
sabotage themselves here and turn Vladimir against
them. With a 20 damage sword swing he could
really scare them off in a second. Specially if they
come hurt from the fight in the chapel. Vladimir’s
got one of the few magical weapons in the module,
a +2 greatsword. If the PCs decide to fight Vladimir,
it is a tough fight, he’s damage output is dangerous.
Plus, a group of phantom warriors will aid him.
Vladimir can afford to fight to the death because
he knows he will rise again in a matter of days.
Momentarily however, he would lose his powerful
sword.

Page 38
 Chapter - 7

The Other Knights

weights 250 pounds. After that, they need to travel
back to Argynvostholt and place the skull in the
mausoleum.

In area Q37 (page 139) there’s a room where 5 other
revenants wait for Vladimir’s orders. There’s not a
given number for the revenants in Barovia, but it
is implied there are more roaming around killing
monsters. They mostly ignore the PCs because
they won’t attack without an express order from
Vladimir. Although the PCs may have just fought
Vladimir in the room across the hall, the revenants
wouldn’t move to help Vladimir unless a direct
order was issued. Just like Vladimir they don’t
care if Vladimir is killed. One of the knights is Sir
Godfrey, Vladimir’s late lover. He is lawful evil like
the rest of them and can’t remember his love for
Vladimir, but he can sense the unrest of Argynvost’s
spirit. He can tell them about the dragon’s demise
and how that affected Vladimir to the point of
returning from the grave. He can’t help the party in
any way because he is bound to his allegiance and
must follow orders.
The Real Quest
The real nature of Argynvost’s quest is revealed in
area Q40 (page 140). This is Argynvost’s study and
the access room to his vault. The vault was full with
great treasures and his study included thousands of
gold coins worth of books. All this was taken a long
time ago, part of the treasure and library are now in
Strahd’s castle.
Doing that will light the beacon, this has two
benefits: +1 to AC and saving throws. And it will also
lay the revenants’ spirits to eternal rest (Except Sir
Godfrey if he is the appointed ally against Strahd).
Conclusion
As soon as the beacon is lit, the spirits of the
knights abandon their revenant bodies and enter
the afterlife. Not a great ending. My advice is
that, when the adventurers exit the mausoleum
after placing the skull there, the host of knight
ghosts are waiting for them in the cemetery Q15,
in incorporeal form. Vladimir, now free of hatred,
his memories restored, can thank the adventurers
for bringing light and hope to their hearts and to
Barovia. The PCs are free to exchange a few words
before Vladimir and Sir Godfrey embrace, hold
hands and float away to the after life, with the rest
of the revenants’ spirits (unless Sir Godfrey is the
Ally, in that case he remains as a revenant until the
campaign ends).
This quest is dangerous and should be awarded
with a level-up for the party. As suggested at the
beginning of the book, it’s a great milestone.

The PCs will find the last page of Argynvost’s

Journal here (handout, page 256). It’s a small letter
where the dragon states he is ready to die fighting
for the ideals of the order. The PCs also get to see
a picture of the mansion in its better days, where
the beacon on top of the chapel tower glows bright.
Now the book states that a spell-like effect causes
an illusion of Argynvost to tell the adventurers
about his skull in the basements of Ravenloft. My
advice is to change it a little and have the real ghost
of Argynvost tell them this, in this way the PCs can
exchange words with Argynvost himself and the
quest becomes more important.

The party level may vary here, but the odds are
the same. They have to infiltrate the castle, go to
the basement, find the skull, and carry it back
out. The skull lies in area K67 (page 78) and it

Page 39
Chapter 8
Village of Krezk
he Village of Krezk is the third
T
settlement in the Valley of Barovia.
It is located in the westernmost
part of the valley, really close to the
mist wall. Krezk is a secluded place,
the people that live here seldom
go beyond the walls. It’s the only settlement in the
valley with a stone wall and a proper gatehouse.
The place is defensible, except that they do not have
enough men to guard the place effectively. It is still
better than having no protection (Village of Barovia)
or a palisade (Town of Vallaki).
Krezk has most of what it needs inside the
walls. There are trees, a water source, they raise
chickens, hares and pigs, and there are also small
crop gardens for beets and turnips. Krezk is self-
sufficient except for wine. Which is actually the
main quest when PCs first arrive. On top of a hill,
the Abbey of St. Markovia quietly watches over
the town. St. Markovia was a saint who rallied
the peoples of the valley in a battle against Count
Strahd a few centuries ago. She failed and her
remains rest in the crypts under Castle Ravenloft
(her thighbone is actually a magic mace). After the
death of St. Markovia, the clergy in the abbey fell
into disarray and eventually died out. The place was
shunned for a long time afterwards.
Then came the Abbot. He is a Deva in disguise, he
reopened the abbey and his intentions were good.
The Abbot has changed in the last 100 years. A
section on him is later discussed.
First Approach
Baron Dimitri Krezkov is the Burgomaster of Krezk.
He is a lord and very proud of his family line. He
is committed to protecting Krezk from Strahd and
outside forces, his people demand this from him,
thus he is bound to do what is best for Krezk.
When the adventurers first approach Krezk, they
are probably looking for shelter or refuge for
Ireena. Depending on how things turned out in
Vallaki, they may not be able to go back there, at
least for the moment. Father Donavich or Father
Lucian could have mentioned the fact that Krezk
has a proper wall, or that the Abbey of St. Markovia
is a good place to shelter Ireena.
Regardless of the reason, they will find the
burgomaster reluctant to let them in. It is implied
by the text in page 146, that hospitality rights are
a thing for Barovian nobles. If the adventurers
do something beneficial for the Village of Krezk,
then Baron Krezkov is bound by his position to let
them in offer a place to stay. Otherwise he won’t
voluntarily let them in. Fortunately, for the party,
the Wizard of Wines winery stopped delivering a
few weeks back and there’s no more wine to lighten
up the spirits of poor Krezk people. Once the party
secures a shipment from the winery, Lord Krezkov
will gladly let them in.
If the party tries to force their way in, a battle with
the town guards will begin, however it is stopped
by the burgomaster himself, who does not want
any bloodshed. After all, any dead guard is hard to
replace in such a small village. This apparent lack
of nerve is actually caused by the burgomaster’s
grievance over the death of his youngest son Ilya,
aged 14. He was the last of four children, all of them
dead due to weak health and sickly disposition. He
is distraught because with Ilya dead, the Krezkov
bloodline is surely finished. He and his wife are
unlikely to have another child.
Inside Krezk
Once inside, whatever the form of entry. The
adventurers can be offered a place to stay in a barn
or similar accommodations. The village has some
awesome events that occur when adventurers
arrive, they are in the last part of the chapter:
Special Events.
The Something Old event is a great introduction
Page 40

to the Abbot, whose dark nature is not yet revealed.
With the party as guests of the Krezkov household,
The Abbot arrives to restore Ilya back to life. It is not
said (vaguely implied) but the author behind this
action is probably Strahd himself. As evil as he is, he
is still the lord of this land and the people appointed
to rule the villages where at some point chosen by
him. It is probably more convenient for him to have
the Krezkov bloodline continue in power than to
name a different burgomaster. Don’t forget to let
the cleric or paladin in the party notice how the
Abbot raises Ilya without the use of any material
components (a big hint to his real power).
Something New, this encounter is just exposition.
By this point the party may have heard that some
portion of Barovians are just empty shells with
no souls, projections of Strahd’s consciousness.
The Baroness Anna Krezkova is called on to help
delivering a baby. A good way to involve the PCs is
for the Baroness to command the cleric or paladin
in the party to help in the delivery too. At the end of
the ordeal, the baby is born healthy but does not cry.
The midwife explains that sadly the kid has no soul.
So she believes, but it confirms a bitter truth about
Barovians.
“I tried to fix the
Belviews, I tried.
They were twisted
lepers and I cured
them but they still
felt incomplete.
Now they are…
different.”
–The Abbot
Chapter - 8
Something Borrowed, this is the equivalent of
the Bones of St. Andral, but set in Krezk. If the
PCs actively help in this quest, they can prevent a
terrible outcome. In short, The Abbot requests a
bridal gown from the Krezkovs. He can threaten
with death or just mention that this is the cost for
raising Ilya. The Krezkovz will comply.
The Baroness Anna Krezkova decides to go to
Vallaki with some company. In Vallaki the only way
to secure the dress is to get it from Lydia Petrovna.
The bridal gown is in the Vallakovich Mansion in
area P (page 109) next to the Spirit Mirror. Lydia
wants to help but Vargas Vallakovich will have none
of it. This quest assumes the Vallakovich are still in
power, but in reality, anything might have happened
in Vallaki already. Maybe the mansion was burnt to
the ground and there is no gown. In case you want
to adjust this in the party’s favor, another feasible
person to own such a gown is Lady Fiona Wachter.
The party will have to help her secure this gown to
later return to Krezk. If the gown is delivered to The
Abbot, the danger is prevented.
However if PCs don’t help, Baroness Anna and
her entourage die on the road to Vallaki, then
more people are sent to find them, they don’t
return either. Baron Dimitri then asks mercy from
The Abbot, who doesn’t care. Next evening the
mongrelfolk rain down on Vallaki and steal food
and resources. A few days later Dimitri Krezkov is
found dead, after hanging himself.
Something Blue. This encounter is special. This
encounter between Ireena and Sergei Von Zarovich
helps her remember her past and true self, Tatyana
Federovna. If the party let’s her join Sergei in the
waters, she vanishes from Barovia and is forever
lost to Strahd. This earns Strahd’s committed
enmity as he controls the land to shoot lightning
into the pool. A while after, (unless this already
happened), a servant of Strahd delivers a letter of
invitation to dine with the Count.
If the party prevents Ireena from jumping into
the waters the opportunity is lost., but Ireena is
forever changed. She can now remember her past
incarnations. This alternative is not discussed in the
module but it is a great source of motivation for her
and it makes her character grow in the setting. This
is particularly useful if Ireena is the appointed ally
against Strahd. You might even decide that she will
not go with Sergei, and stay and fight.
Page 41
 Chapter - 8

The Abbey and the Abbot

Abbot can also offer a 3 times Raise Dead if they help
him secure the bridal gown, you can combine this
with the “Something Borrowed” event.

The most noticeable feature in Krezk is the Abbey,

and the most mysterious person is without doubts
The Abbot. Fighting the Abbot
A Deva in disguise, he came to Krezk and tried
to help the Belviews, an inbred family afflicted If thing go down this way, it’s bad news for the PCs.
with leprosy. He healed them but they strived for The battle does not appear to be all that difficult but
regeneration of inborn defects and some more I tell you it is really dangerous. The Abbot is a Deva,
questionable modifications to their bodies. The so that’s that. The apparently small Vasilka is a fully
Abbot slowly and over the years complied with their fledged flesh golem. There is another flesh golem in
demands. The first tries resulted in death. Shortly the next building, it can come aid The Abbot. Plus,
afterward Vasili Von Holtz a local Barovian Lord there is any number of mongrelfolk to aid. This
and Strahd in disguise appeared before the Abbot. battle is easily hard for a level 8 party.
The deva knew he was evil, but Vasili offered the
needed knowledge to really help the Belviews. It
was probably the extended stay in Barovia and the
influence of the Dark Powers that made The Abbot
accept Vasili’s help, which was in fact forbidden
knowledge from the Amber Temple. The Abbot
changed the Belviews into what they desired, that
turned them into the mongrelfolk. The became
insane in the process, many of them are in fact
behind bars most of the time. Strahd revealed
his true form and the deva decided Strahd was
not killable. Being as he was, cursed forever and
trapped in his own land. After scores of years, The
Abbot has slipped into insanity, step by step. He is
always tortured for what he did to the Belviews,
thus he stays in the abbey, taking care of them.
He cannot help them any more. His knowledge in
flesh molding led him to experiment with recently
dead bodies, he built a flesh golem. He was trying
to create a bride for Strahd. He is convinced that
once Strahd achieves happiness reuniting with his
lost love, the curse will be lifted. Helping everyone
in the valley in return. The flesh golem was just a
crude experiment that now just guards the cells. His
second attempt is better and shows promise. Built
from women bodies, he created Vasilka (page 151).

The Abbot is a really interesting figure. After all

he is done and the atrocities he committed, he is
considered to be lawful evil. But he is insane, in
his delusion, he still believes his actions to be of
noble intentions. He regrets what happened to
the Belviews but finds solace in knowing that they
are taken care of. If you roleplay this character
correctly, the characters might not even detect the
evil behind the mask. The Abbot does not reveal
his angelic origin unless threatened. This show of
force might be enough to make the PCs hesitate. The

Page 42
Chapter 9

Tsolenka Pass aiting in the southernmost The point of the Tsolenka Pass is to serve as an intro

W
part of the Valley of Barovia
is a mountain range. There is
a serpentine dangerous path
that meanders through the
mountains, this is the Tsolenka
Pass. The place is dangerous in and by itself because
of the crude weather, it is so cold that exploration
without proper clothes will be impossible.
The adventurers will not come this far south
without a clear reason to do so. There are only two
reasons why the PCs would go down this way:
1. They know or suspect the location of the
Amber Temple and are looking for it.
2. They come in search of a magic relic and
suspect that it is located in the Tsolenka
guard tower.
This place is highly dangerous for low-ish level
parties. If the PCs are looking for the Amber Temple,
they are probably level 8+. Any lower will result in
a probable total party kill unless the DM is doing
some serious fudging. Still, there is little risk of
the PCs traveling this way since the location of the
Amber Temple is not in the open. There are three
info sources of the location of the Amber Temple in
the book:
1. The first one happens so early in the
campaign that the PCs will most probably
forget it. Morgantha the hag discloses this
info if confronted by adventurers in the
Village of Barovia (page 48).
to the Amber Temple. A note about this part of the
adventure. Unless one of the three relics is hidden
in the pass or in the temple (which would award
a level) then this part of the adventure is strictly
optional, because the party is able to achieve level
10 without visiting it. That’s important to know in
case you are in a situation where you want to speed
up the end of the adventure for real life reasons. If
the party is boiling to visit the castle and ignore the
hooks for the Amber Temple, there is no problem (if
they have the relics).
That doesn’t mean you aren’t going to throw
those hooks at their faces anyway. The best hook
is the argument that Strahd’s power and secrets
are hidden in the temple, PCs are going to go to
get an edge on Strahd. The two possible guides/
companions, Kasimir and Rudolf, have never visited
the temple before so everything you tell the players
is just hearsay and rumors. That should be enough
to make them feel that there is a secret there that
they need to find. If a relic is there then the rumor is
solid. Otherwise, they’ll just go and find some magic
“Night and day I hear
the cries of all who died
by my sword. Nothing
pleases me more than

knowing how much

2. Second option is Rudolf Van Richten who
has already pinned down the location of the
temple. He is a great traveling companion
for this part of the adventure, if Rudolf
is going and the party has already met
Ezmeralda, she’s can also tag along.
power my lord has.”
3. Third option is Kasimir Velikov, who tries to
conscript the party to accompany him to the
temple in search for a way to bring his sister
Patrina back to life (page 121). He’s a good
–Rahadin
option for a guide too.

Page 43

items maybe, and most probably have a few dead
companions because the pass and the temple are
really harsh.
By this point, the adventure is in killing-mode.
The Dark Powers will not revive them anymore.
Hopefully they’ll have a cleric with ways to raise the
dead. Else, if The Abbot is still around maybe he can
raise a fallen companion.
Remember that the Tsolenka Pass is not just the
guard tower and bridge; the Tsolenka Pass is a
winding road that hugs the mountains and it starts
in Area R in the Barovia map, just south to Lake
Baratok. If PCs are not wearing appropriate clothes
for cold weather, they suffer the effects of extreme
cold. Since we all know no DM wants to do that, the
easy way out is have one of the guides instruct the
party to get the necessary items to avoid this.
The first obstacle is a gatehouse in a wall that block
further advance. This road was probably a way in
and out of Barovia and thus served as a border wall.
Now it just blocks access to the Amber Temple. The
portcullis opens automatically as PCs approach,
however there is a curtain of green fire behind it.
PCs can either cross it or dispel it. If they choose
to climb or go over the wall, two petrified Vrocks
come to life and attack. Note: Depending on the
party’s composition, level and number of players,
two Vrocks is too low a challenge, you might want
to add one or even two more for a decent fight.
It’s important to soften the party before the roc
encounter.
Behind the gatehouse is a white tower with golden
knight statues on top of it. There is little of value
inside except maybe one of the relics, if that was
the card reading location. This place also serves as
a teleportation location from the hourglass room in
Castle Ravenloft (Area K78, page 83).
Roc of Mount Ghakis
The tallest mountain in the range, Mount Ghakis, is
home to a roc. This enormous creature has survived
in the mountain range for thousands of years.
This is the oldest living thing in the valley. The roc
attacks as the party is crossing the bridge; you’re
free to have this encounter happen as the party is
on its way to the temple, or on the way back.
Chapter - 9
The roc is a gargantuan monster that will probably
stay flying during this encounter. Or it could land
on the bridge too. This encounter is not meant to
end with the roc killed. There’s low odds of that
happening anyway. If the party proves too hard to
chew, the roc simply goes away flying. If it can steal
a horse or something like that the better. The party
will probably look for safety inside the bridge’s
guard posts.
Things can go haywire here because of the grapple
ability of the roc’s talons attack. In one of my games
the roc attacked Kasimir and grappled him. Next
turn a PC threw a Fireball and damaged the roc and
almost killed Kasimir. Right after that the warlock
used Hold Monster on the roc, who was at the time
flying. It fell down to the bottom of the cliff near
the Luna River. The fall didn’t kill the monster, who
just stood up and flew away behind the mountains.
It was moments later that Rudolf Van Richten said
“Hey, where’s Kasimir?”   So that’s that, he was never
seen or heard of again.
Bloodhorn’s Charge
This is a fun encounter, and just like the roc’s
encounter. It is not meant to last long, think of it
as a way to scare a player or two. You can chant
and dance in victory if Sangzor the giant goat runs
down the mountain side, rams a PC and makes it
fall 100 ft down the cliff, only to run and disappear
in the mists. If you fail, it probably won’t work
again since the party will swarm Sangzor. The book
actually says it will flee if it takes 10 damage or
more.
More than just having the giant goat attack the
party at the appropriate moment, the best thing you
can do is have the beast stalk the party for a few
hours before actually attacking. Way before they
reach the gatehouse in the Tsolenka Pass, the party
has a feeling of being watched. They also hear the
bleating coming from the cliffsides, sometimes from
above, or from below. When the time comes, your
description of the goat attacking will bring closure
to the foreshadowing.
If things went well, the party has had their
resources reduced by these few encounters and are
ready to continue their way in search of the Amber
Temple.
Page 44
Chapter 10
The Ruins of Berez
t is not specified in a timeline, but
I
some time ago, probably a century or
more, there was a fourth settlement
in the Valley of Barovia. This was the
town of Berez. The Burgomaster’s
name was Lazlo Ulrich (weird uh? I was expecting
Berezovich, following the name conventions of
Barovia).
Not much is said about the town and its people.
Berez is located right on the Luna River shore, in a
place that became a swamp due to Strahd’s anger,
around 4.5 miles south of lake Zarovich.
Berez became a place of importance for Strahd
Von Zarovich when he became aware that an
incarnation of Tatyana Federovna lived there. The
peasant girl was named Marina; her countenance
and personality reminded Strahd of Tatyana. He
lured her and feasted on her blood one night. His
plan was to fully turn her into a vampire. Strahd
failed miserably.
Lazlo Ulrich and the town’s priest Brother Grigor
took Marina’s life to save her from eternal
damnation. After the event, Strahd used his control
of the land to swell the Luna River, consuming half
the town and turning the place into a swamp.
It is said that whoever survived the event simply
ran away, so it is possible that the adventurers
encounter people in Vallaki, Barovia or Krezk who
are grandchildren or even great grandchildren of
people who originally lived in Berez. These second
generation townspeople might tell tales of Berez
and/or reveal some of the town’s past history. It
doesn’t have to be accurate, it’s even better if it’s not,
since they didn’t ever live there and no one visits the
place now. It is considered haunted.
The Objective
This is one of the optional chapters in Curse of
Strahd. Unless there is a magical relic or you decide
that dealing with Baba Lysaga is worth a level,
then there is no reason to visit Berez, except the
adventurer’s will to help other Barovians.
Most often than not, the motivation for PCs to visit
Berez is a chain of quests that happened before. The
two Inns in Barovia and Vallaki set a quest to visit
the Wizard of Wines to retrieve more wine. Also
when visiting Krezk for the first time, Burgomaster
Dimitri Krezkov will not let them in unless the
party does a service to the town by retrieving wine
too. When the party visits and helps the wereravens
in the Wizard of Wines, the plot hook of the magic
gemstones in the fields is shown.
Two magic gemstones have been stolen in the last
month. One of them was taken by the druids at
Yester Hill. The other one was taken 7 days before
by Baba Lysaga’s scarecrows and taken to Berez. It’s
a long quest-line but the PC’s might come this far
and decide to visit Berez with only one objective,
retrieving the gemstone.
Baba Lysaga
She is the grand personality in Berez. Baba Lysaga is
the most powerful hag/witch in Barovia, and she’s
been around since forever. Her origin is something
that is only known to her, there is no one else alive
that knows the story of where she came from. She
was originally the midwife who delivered baby
Strahd. She spent the first years of Strahd’s life
as his nanny and protector. Already versed in the
dark arts of magic, and always a follower of Mother
Night. Lysaga crept inside Strahd’s room during the
night to cast protective charms and to ignite the
magic spark in Strahd.
After worrisome reports, Queen Ravenovia
banished the midwife from the household and she
was never seen again. But she never left either. Baba
Lysaga is deranged and considers herself the true
mother of Strahd Von Zarovich. She has become a
shadow that has traveled two steps behind Strahd
wherever he has gone. Always casting spells to help
him, always attacking Strahd’s enemies from the
Page 45

shadows. She never abandoned her faith for Mother
Night, as reward after centuries of continued faith,
she was given eternal life, magic resistances and
skin as tough as rock. She knows Strahd will not
remember her, nor accept her claim of motherhood.
She meanders in eternal denial, satisfied to help her
blessed child laying hell on his enemies. She’s so
insane in her delusion that she has an illusion of a
crib and beautiful baby Strahd in her hut in Berez.
Baba Lysaga has agents inside Castle Ravenloft. A
group of witches who report to Lysaga. Through
them, she discovered that there is a faction of
wereravens in Barovia who oppose Strahd and have
a base in Vallaki and the Wizard of Wines. Suddenly
she had a purpose and an enemy again, and this
is why she has kept her personal war with the
wereravens and the Winery. Up to the point when
7 days prior, her scarecrows managed to find and
retrieve the magic gemstone. To her surprise, the
gemstone is really powerful and served to animate
her hut.
Exploring the Town
The order in which stuff is written for this chapter
is odd. It appears that the first place to visit is U6
(page 165). It’s from the other side of the river, and
someone has a light which is referred to in the
introductory paragraph for Berez. The PCs will
encounter a peasant woman Muriel Vinshaw, a
wereraven herself who is risking her life by keeping
Berez under surveillance. She’s got some important
info to give to the party and some warnings. She
doesn’t help explore the town.
Burgomaster Lazlo Ulrich’s ghost still lingers
around. He can be found in his ruined mansion
(page 162). He can never rest unless he sees Ireena
and understands that Marina was really saved from
evil by him and Brother Grigor. Before vanishing he
pinpoints the PCs to Marina’s Monument (page 164).
The Battle
If the PCs already visited the winery and Krezk.
They could be level 6 or 7. It really depends because
of the sandbox nature of Curse of Strahd. I hope
they are because this battle is guilty of many TPKs
Chapter - 10
in the module.
This encounter will really reward adventurers
who are cautious and take things slowly. A stealthy
character can gather a lot of intel about the place
due to the fact that the ravens caged near the
hut won’t stop making noise. Hopefully they can
get close hut and discover the greenish light that
radiates through the hut’s floor.
This battle consists of Baba Lysaga, the Animated
Hut and seven scarecrows. It will be too much for
an unprepared party. The hut is the toughest enemy,
with HP 263 and AC16. It’s average damage will be
the hardest the party members will be hit in a while.
The hut has two main weak spots. If a PC manages
to get inside of it and snatch the gem from the
cavity, the hut is done for. The other alternative is
for a spellcaster to cast Dispel Magic on the hut itself
to render it unconscious for one minute. Probably
enough to focus on the next biggest threat.
Baba Lysaga is a powerful spellcaster. There is no
reason why she should not start the battle with a
deadly spell. Finger of death, Blight, Power Word Stun
or a level 7 Fireball are on the table for a first action.
You can also go full Sith and cast a level 6 Witchbolt
for 6d12 damage. It’s got to look dangerous. In case
you decide she’s not fighting to death and will try
to escape, Polymorph and her shapechanger ability
might give her the ability to do so.
Roleplay Maybe?
Combat aside, this is a great opportunity for
adventurers to roleplay with a big enemy figure in
the Curse of Strahd module. Baba Lysaga is crazy
but just like the hags in the mill, might wish to
speak to the adventurers to find out their origin
and any other information about the lands in
Barovia. Just remember to portray her obsession
with Strahd. If she mentions that Strahd is her son,
there is no one else to say that is not so. Even if the
adventurers have good information on Strahd, they
will know that Strahd’s mother is Queen Ravenovia,
who is dead.
They might connect the dots and assume Baba
Lysaga is Queen Ravenovia. This is a fact that
Lysaga would dismiss in a split second, while still
reassuring herself and whoever listens to her, that
she is the real mother of Strahd.
Page 46
Chapter 11

Van Richten’s Tower

fter the Valley of Barovia was surrounds the tower if anyone touches the door

A
conquered by Strahd’s armies
and the construction of Castle
Ravenloft began, an archwizard
named Khazan was hired to aid
on the project. After the castle was
complete he retired to the Barovian countryside.
He built a tower in an island in Lake Baratok and
a bridge to get to it. It is also explained in the
chapter’s intro (page 167), that Khazan eventually
visited the Amber Temple and acquired lichdom.
He later became an advisor for Strahd. Long after
that, Khazan tried to achieve demilichdom in order
to project his life-force outside of Barovia. He was
trying to escape and failed. His body was destroyed
and Khazan was no more. Khazan’s bodily remains
are buried in crypt number 15 (page 88), his
without solving the riddle first. The lightning
surrounds the tower and deals 22 (4d10) damage to
the PC who touched the door and any other who is
10 ft. from the tower. This protective shield lasts for
10 minutes. If the adventurers activate this field 3
times the tower collapses on itself and only a pile
of ruble remains. If that happens and the PCs were
looking for an artifact, they will have to dig for
hours if they want a chance to find it. Don’t forget
the clay golems will attack if unearthed (10% chance
per hour).
However, even “solving” the riddle and doing the
arm positions from the picture can result in harm.
If done wrong, a young blue dragon appears and
attacks. This part would require that the actual arm

“Hero, I am named in some

Staff of Power can be retrieved there.

It was only recently that the tower became

circles; “sage” and “master

the base of Rudolf Van Richten. It is from here
that he has led his explorations of the valley.
Van Richten (Rictavio) is currently relocated
in Vallaki. (Unless something happened there
that made him escape, many of the outcomes
in the Vallaki chapter would result in just that)
hunter” I am called in oth-
Wherever Van Richten is found, he is not at
the tower when the adventurers arrive, nor is ers. That I have survived
Ezmeralda.
countless supernatural as-
Accessing the Tower saults is seen as a marvel
The tower has two protective charms. The first among my peers; my name
one is a Spell Drain ability. The tower has a
built-in antimagic field. I extends 5 ft. from it.
Magical stuff put there by Khazan inside the
is spoken with fear and
tower works as normal, that’s the exception.
This is important due to the trap in the front
door. Spells like Detect Traps or Knock are
loathing among my foes.”
useless in this place, players will have to solve
the riddle if they want to use that door, no
magic.

The second protection is a lightning trap that –Rudolph Van Richten

Page 47

positions thing is done by someone, so that there
is a chance of failing. Do not permit a player to say
“ok, my PC does all this in order”. Either the player
has to do it in real life, or keep it in game and let
them roll a performance check. An appropriate DC
would be 14. No automatic success for stating the
solution only with words.
There is a back entrance. On the northwest side
of the tower, rotting scaffolding hug the wall. This
path goes up to a hole in the third floor. It was either
put here by Van Richten to access the place, or some
years before, by a person who intended to repair the
tower unsuccessfully.
Inside the Tower
There is a lift in the first floor operated by four clay
statues. They only obey commands related to the
operation of the lift, such as: go up, go down, stop,
lift this, wait. Any other command is disregarded,
and they all defend themselves if attacked.
You can build a fun encounter here, if the PCs
accessed through the front door they are probably
a bit paranoid about the trap and the antimagic
field. When they see the statues, you can count on
their paranoid theories and come to the conclusion
that this is in fact another trap. When you describe
the room, make sure you describe in detail how the
statues look and that they are holding the chains.
They do not move. If a PC gets closer, describe how
the statues get tense for a second holding the chains
with more strength, as if they were to pull them all
Chapter - 11
at the same time. This is the statues getting ready to
operate the lift, not a menacing gesture in itself. But
the PCs will probably flip out and make a mistake
(attacking).
Second and third level hold nothing of importance,
except the secret access in the third floor.
Van Richten’s room is in the fourth floor. This place
is cleaner and shows signs of recent use. There is an
animated armor that could be really useful to the
PCs if they discover the command word “Khazan”.
Other than that, there is a chest with the severed
head of a Vistani man. Van Richten has used it with
the Speak with Dead spell to get information about
the Vistani.
Ezmeralda’s Wagon
This is in my opinion the most fun part of this
chapter. The wagon is rigged. If the backdoor (the
only visible one) is used to access the wagon, 101
alchemist’s fire flasks explode at the same time !
This causes a blast radius of 30ft with 55 (10d10)
damage (there is a save for half, however anyone
within 5 ft. gets disadvantage on it). If this happens
the wagon is completely destroyed. All this sounds
overkill but the party is probably level 5-7 so there
is a chance of survival, at least for the toughest or
most dexterous characters.
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 Chapter - 11

By the way, if it is destroyed, don’t forget to change

the location of Van Richten’s journal page to the
tower or to Ezmeralda’s possession so the PCs get to
read that.

This is what I call the Curse of Strahd Chekhov’s

Gun. If you don’t know what Chekhov’s Gun is, it is
a dramatic principle that states that every element
in a story must be necessary to the story and must
ultimately be used. In short words, it means that if a
loaded gun is introduced to the story, it is bound to
be shot before the story ends.

The wagon is Chekhov’s Gun, it is just too sweet to

not be used. It is my advice that this wagon has to
blow up sooner or later. If the PCs make it explode
then that’s it, and it is possible. If they PCs bypass
the trap it’s ok, it can still blow up later. There is an
encounter with werewolves that is triggered by the
tower protection being activated or destroyed (page
171). If this battle happens outside Van Richten’s
tower, this is a perfect chance to have it explode.

It could happen because the PCs use it as a bomb,

throwing a Firebolt into it while the werewolves are
close, effectively wrecking them. Or a wounded
cowardly werewolf might choose to use his turn
to hide inside the wagon and regenerate, only to
activate the explosion mid-battle.

If Ezmeralda has not met the PCs yet, you can use
the other set encounter in page 172. Ezmeralda
comes back to hide after fighting with Strahd alone.
She is wounded and will be angry if her wagon
exploded (as it was bound to). A nice extra is to have
Ezmeralda tailed by some other werewolves, undead
or vistani assassins, and have a fight where the PCs
assist her.
Notice that this event ties Ezmeralda to the
adventurers and triggers Strahd to send the dinner
invitation letter to the party (only if this has not
happened yet).

Page 49
Chapter 12
The Wizard of Wines
his is a very interesting chapter.
T
For starters it’s optional, but
this one has strong hooks that
connect it to other areas in Barovia
and other quests. Due to these
interconnections it is probable that
the party will wind up at the winery and try to help
the Martikovs.
This winery is the best in the multiverse because
it is the only one that supplies it’s products free of
cost to all towns in the Valley of Barovia and Castle
Ravenloft. That’s right ! Free alcoholic drinks for all
Barovians. And it is also implied that they ship it
for free too. Even Strahd Von Zarovich has profited
from this since his wine cellar features the Wizard
of Wines products, plus wines imported by the
Vistani.
If your party has been following the clues all over
the place then they are well aware that there is now
a wine crisis since the winery is several weeks late
in deliveries. By the time the party arrives to Vallaki,
the problem is so bad that Urwin Martikov masters
his pride and asks the adventurers to go there and
investigate. I mention this because Urwin is the son
of Davian Martikov, the current person in charge
of the winery. Father and son have had a terrible
relationship for ten years because Urwin allegedly
lost one of the winery’s magic gems.
Second to that, the situation is serious enough that
when the party arrives to Krezk, Baron Dimitri
Krezkov is willing to get out of their reclusive way
and allow the party inside the town walls if they go
and secure ONE wagon of wine.
What happened to the wine?
Well that is the million gold coins question. And
once again, following the sour grey tone of Curse of
Strahd, this is another sob story.
As mentioned in page 173 in the chapter’s intro.
There were originally three magic gems helping the
orchard resist the curse of Strahd’s land. Ten years
ago, one gem was lost and since then, Urwin and
Davian Martikov have hated each other’s guts. With
the loss of that gem, the Champagne du le Stomp
production stopped and now only the most wealthy
or powerful still have access to whatever little is left.
Count Strahd, Lady Wachter and Baron Vargas are
good suggestions for people who still have a barrel
or two of Champagne du le Stomp.
There is no information in the book about
the location or thief. My suggestion is that
Strahd himself had it stolen and brought to
Castle Ravenloft. After some modifications and
experiments, he built the Heart of Sorrow with it.
The second tragedy occurred three weeks before
the adventurers visit the winery. Another gem was
stolen by Baba Lysaga’s scarecrows. It is stated in
the book that she had been fighting the wereravens
for a time, trying to help Strahd by doing so. The
scarecrows found the gem by accident and she
stored it in her hut, which gave it a semblance
of life. As if that was not bad enough, 5 days ago,
the evil druids from Yester Hill stole the third
gem and took it to Yester Hill. Davian and the
other wereravens went there immediately with
the intention of retrieving the gem. They failed
miserably and were chased back to the winery.
The druids had gathered a small army of blight
creatures and assaulted the winery. Davian and
his kin had no choice but to leave the place. They
are now hiding in the nearby woods. The worst
part is that the druids have begun poisoning the
fermentation vats.
The situation cannot be any worse. There only
remains enough wine for one shipment and that’s
the end of it (three barrels in W2 and another three
barrels and several bottles of wine in W14). With
no magic gems, the wine production is eventually
going to stop altogether. This quest is closely tied to
Yester Hill, and Berez, because two of the missing
gems are in each of these places. Both destinations
are also optional chapters. The strongest motivation
to go either way is to help the Martikovs restore the
winery to it’s previous status. The chapter is also
tied to Krezk, Vallaki and the Town of Barovia. In
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 Chapter - 12

these three places there is an NPC who requests a to area-damage spells like Fireball, Burning Hands,
shipment of wine. Krezk has a meaningful reward Thunderwave or similar, then they can dispatch the
for doing so, however (getting inside). If wine is blights in larger groups. Notice that only the twig
delivered to the Blue Water Inn, Urwin Martikov blights are vulnerable to fire damage.
will be willing to part with one of the magic relics, if
he happens to be in possession of one. The only two vine blights can cause havoc. They
arrive in the last wave, but as soon as they do. They
can use their Entangling Plants ability to restrain
the party. This ability will not affect their brethren
The Big Battle blights. Their Constrict ability has reach 10ft. and
inflicts the restrained condition. Since this ability
has reach, they can restrain a creature 10 ft. away
Once the adventurers decide to approach the and the victim will not be able to move any closer to
winery to fight the druids and the blights, they attack.
find the place seemingly deserted. That’s just a The druids are not particularly dangerous but they
ruse, the druids and some blights are inside the can sure do some damage to the party. They have
building poisoning the wine. And the rest of the Barkskin. Entangle is a great spell to restrain their
blights are outside in perfect camouflage with the targets while the needle blights attack from afar
environment. with their spikes. Finally, if the druid is surrounded,
When the party reaches the building, a group of 30 he can cast Thunderwave to get some space and
needle blights emerges from the vineyard. This is a possibly flee.
crucial moment for this chapter because page 174
has a list of the number of enemies who are in the
winery at the moment. It’s a total of 64 creatures. “I must confess I under-
Total numbers: 3 druids, 35 needle blights, 24 twig
blights and 2 vine blights.
estimated the power of
If the party enters the Martikov’s house then they
can barricade themselves in any room and take the
enemies slowly. In reality that’s the better option,
the vampire lord. Pride is
an expensive trait, trust
the PCs will get the upper hand in the encounter
and they will solve it more or less without much
problem. But entering the house to barricade
themselves kind of sounds like running, and most
D&D parties do never run from a battle. me I know. My defeat to
That’s only the more fun for you, if they stay
outside to fight, the party ends up fighting all the the one you call demon
foes in the place at the same time. They arrive in
waves however, as noted in page 175. None of these
creatures or the druids are terribly powerful by consumed me, it robbed
themselves, but strength is in the numbers here.
Needle blights are really dangerous in such big
groups. They can easily surround a PC and attack.
me of my sanity. I lost
That’s 8 attacks against one PC. Assuming half
of them are successful attacks. That would be 24
damage (8d8+4) average per round. Additionally, if
myself”
the fight is short in space (like inside the house) and
not all blights are able to attack, needle blights have
ranged spikes attacks. The vine blights also have a
melee attack with a reach of 10ft.
–Mordenkainen of Oerth
This encounter is no joke if the party decides to
handle it outside. That said, if the party has access

Page 51
 Chapter - 12

A note on Playtesting Content

One of the druids, the one in area W16, carries
the Gulthias Staff. The druid can use the staff
while attacking to recover some hit points with its
Vampiric Strike ability. The staff also has the ability
Since the main battle includes up to 64 creatures.
to destroy all blight creatures within 300 feet if it
This is a great opportunity to try and playtest
is broken or burned. This sounds all nice and all
the Mass Combat rules released by WotC in the
but it is unlikely to happen. To begin, the party will
Unearthed Arcana updates. I have not tried them
probably pick it up as loot, once the whole battle
myself, so take this advice with a grain of salt. They
is finished, the ability not useful anymore. And
are designed to make the handling of large scale
then, even if they get it in time to be used, there is
battle easier so maybe it’s worth the shot. The play-
no way the PCs will know about that. And no PC
testing free PDF can be found here.
will destroy a recently acquired magic staff in an
adventure that’s so stingy about loot.
Extra thing. There are community content
However, you can always rule that a Religion or illustrations for the Wizard of Wines different
Arcana check, or attuning with the item will be product labels. I think it’d a great prop for the table,
enough to acquire that information. If the party gets to have a bottle of wine or any other drink labeled
the staff there is still another chance to use it. There with a Barovian label. The labels are a Pay What You
are more blight creatures in Yester Hill, if they wish Want article at DM’s Guild. They can be found here.
to help the Martikovs.

The only problem with using the Gulthias staff like

that in Yester Hill is that as written, it affects all
blight creatures. So it should make the big tree
blight die too. I don’t think that was the intention
since the tree blight is a kind of boss fight. I
suppose you can rule either way. Maybe it doesn’t
work because this tree blight is the product of
using the magic gem to give it life.

Conclusion

After dealing with the blight infestation, Davian

will be grateful and will explain the sad situation
of the winery and how it will all be lost if they
don’t retrieve the two gems from Yester Hill and
the Ruins of Berez. If the party complies, then you
have two extra quests in line, all good.

If the party decides that this is not their problem

and that they have helped more than enough,
Davian Martikov bids them farewell. When and
if the party returns at a later date, they find the
place completely destroyed. The tree blight has
trampled everything to the ground. The enormous
tree can easily be tracked as it is making its
way back south to Yester Hill. There will also
be scarecrows from Berez taking guard in the
winery’s ruins. This is the worst that can happen.
The wine production is over. Even if the gems are
recovered, it will take years of labor to rebuild the
winery and start producing more wine.

Page 52
Chapter 13
The Amber Temple
he Amber Temple, better known
T
as the TPK (Total Party Kill)
temple. This place is as mysterious
and dangerous as it gets. The real
danger here is that nothing stops
a party of level 5 PCs from coming
here in search of Strahd’s information or one of
the magic relics needed to fight him. The adventure
suggests this place is an appropriate challenge
for a level 9 party. Even that can prove dangerous
depending on how things unwind inside the temple.
The place was built by good wizards to guard evil
entities’ remains. Over time they were corrupted
by the darkness inside and killed each other (as if
these things never ended up like that). Exethanter is
an evil Archmage that arrived soon after and took
on the task of guarding the temple. He eventually
achieved lichdom and turned the other mages’
remains into flame skulls. This is a large dungeon
whose only purpose is to either find a magical relic,
or find out how Strahd came by his powers, maybe
even striking a deal or two with one of the evil
vestiges.
Cold Weather
The temple is carved out of Mount Ghakis and it’s in
a permafrost state. Unless the PCs have heat sources
and weather gear, they will suffer the effects of
Extreme Temperatures as stated in the DMG (page
110). If the players came via the Tsolenka Pass, then
they probably did not get this far without turning
back to buy appropriate gear. The real problem
arises if the party got here by accident while
teleporting from Castle Ravenloft in the hourglass
room. If that is the case then the party are in real
danger from freezing to death. Unless they get killed
in the temple anyway.
Kasimir Velikov
If Kasimir has survived this far. It’s a good
opportunity to use him. There’s a good chance he is
accompanying the party since he’s one of the few
who know the temple’s location. If he didn’t come
with the PCs, you can have him show up here. He
probably would not be aggressive towards the party
since they have a better chance of surviving by
working together.
Kasimir’s objective as previously stated, is to bring
his sister back to life. Patrina Velikovna currently
lies in Ravenloft’s crypts and has become a banshee.
He is not familiar with the temple in any way.
His goal is to reach area X42 and use the east
sarcophagus which confers the dark gift of Zhudun,
the Corpse Star. If Kasimir is successful in returning
to Ravenloft and restoring her to life, she comes
back as an archmage. However she has her own
agenda.
This development is all around the book, some of
it is explained in Kasimir’s entry (page 232), some
more in Patrina’s crypt 21 entry (page 89), and the
rest of it is stated at the end of the Amber Temple
chapter in “Kasimir’s Dark Gift” (page 196).
Rudolf and Ezmeralda
The famous vampire slayers. It is highly possible
they are present during this chapter. Either they
came with the party or can arrive soon after. As a
personal suggestion that worked really well in my
games. Either one of them can show up with the
goal of finding out the origin of Strahd’s powers so
that they also can take advantage of it. Fight fire
with fire so to speak. When the party finds the first
batch of Amber Vaults, and a member of the party
speaks and makes a deal with an evil entity, that
will be enough to break Rudolf’s or Ezmeralda’s
resolve. They will understand that by accepting, one
Page 53

is becoming more of a monster and less of a man.
This is particularly dramatic if the party member
acquires a visible sign of his evil transformation.
Any of them will not take any gifts and will try to
convince the party not to, for their sake.
“Please don’t do it. There’s no way we could have
anticipated this, even I did not imagine this was part
of the deal. Let’s remain human and fight Strahd as we
are”
TPK Potential
After the first hallway in the temple, the PCs find
themselves in some kind of balcony overseeing
area X5. Over 100 ft. in front of them, there is a
statue where and arcanaloth is hiding in magical
darkness. And up behind arrow slits in area X17,
there are three flame skulls ready to fire as soon as
the arcanaloth does.
Unless any party member has superior darkvision,
there is no way for them to see the statue due to
the temple being in darkness. And going down
those stairs in area X4 seems like the logical way to
go. The arcanaloth attacks on sight and since he’s
hiding in darkness he’s got the upper hand and a
surprise round. Next turn the party acts, but also
the flame skulls. The party will have no way to see
the arcanaloth through the magical darkness, for
all they know it is the statue that attacked them and
they might shoot at it, wasting their turn.
There’s no way to foolproof this or lower its
difficulty for the sake of game. This is how the
temple is guarded, it’s not supposed to be a
cakewalk. The appropriate course of action is to
have the arcanaloth open up with Chain Lightning,
and then use Finger of Death in the next round. That
round the flame skulls will fire a Fireball each.
Depending on the level of the party, this can be
the end of it, an instant TPK. At higher levels this
might bring down a party member or two and
let the party try to escape. A high level party as
suggested by the module can choose to hold their
ground and try to fight. However, if they are down
in X5, the arcanaloth is still hiding and the flame
skulls are behind superior cover. It’s NOT an easy
fight.
If the party goes left instead of down in area X4 or
if they enter the temple through the back door in
X1a, they arrive to area X15. There’s a mid-level fight
waiting for them here with 1 gladiator, 5 berserkers
Chapter - 13
and 1 dire wolf. If the party goes north from here
to area X17, they stumble across the three flame
skulls. Again, depending on the party level, if the
party just fought the barbarians then taking three
simultaneous Fireballs can prove too much. As a
reward for their courage, they find a Staff of Frost,
which is a cool enough magic item, except for on
thing. It comes with a personality flaw “I crave
power above all else, and will do anything to obtain
more of it.”
This flaw and the fact that the party will be offered
numerous dark gifts will become a problem in
itself. The spellcaster who uses this staff is almost
bound to take the gifts, since they offer so much
power. This starts to build a scenario where, after
the temple, the PCs might try to kill each other. The
three flame skulls scenario repeats itself in area
X33a, where they also attack on sight.
Another TPK opportunity lies in area X24. A
seemingly safe room that features a faceless
obsidian statue. Any creature who enters the room
is subject to an Antipathy/Sympathy spell designed
to make any who fails approach and worship the
statue. If by any chance all of the party members
fail the save (DC 16 Wisdom), then they will have no
way to abandon the room thereafter. This magical
effect is continual and has no expiration. The
party will starve to death eventually. Particularly
dangerous for low level parties.
“Yes, it is a dark place.
The worst of all. But I’ll
go there if I must. My
sister Patrina is long
gone, but I trust there is
a way to bring her back.”
–Kasimir Vellikov
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There are also two Amber Golems (stone golems)
going around patrolling. They’re tough enough and
attack any PC on sight.
Exethanter, the Failing Lich
As explained in the Lich and Demilich entry in the
Monster Manual, a lich must feed mortal souls to
his phylactery. If he fails to do so long enough, his
body starts decaying and over time the only thing
remaining is the skull, a demilich.
Exethanter is going through this process, but he’s
right in the middle. His body is starting to fail and
his memory is lost. Due to regular D&D paranoia or
murder hobo-ing, the party might attack Exethanter
on sight and it won’t stand much of a chance since
he only has cantrips and 99 HP. There’s still a fair
chance the party will give it time to speak since it is
in no way aggressive nor does it look dangerous.
If the party casts a Greater Restoration spell then
Exethanter’s memories are restored. Since he has
always been of a knowledge giving attitude, he will
explain how the temple and the vaults work. If the
party offer a second restoration spell then his body
goes back to normal. Out of gratitude, the lich will
guide them through the temple personally. Doing
this pretty much ends the danger in the temple, as
no creature in the temple will attack them then. If
they got this far, that is.
Exethanter is a very interesting figure, while he is
evil. He is not aggressive and can even be helpful.
He holds no friendship or enmity towards Strahd
or any of the amber vault’s entities. That’s not to
say he is not looking forward to see good natured
beings corrupted by the evil entities in the temple.
If the party comes back to him after receiving some
dark gifts, or if the lich himself is present when
this happens. Don’t forget to describe how the red
glint of his eyes intensifies for a few seconds as he is
entertained.
The Amber Treasures
Contrary to the module’s stingy attitude towards
magic items. This place is full of them. Here’s a list
of the stuff included and where it can be found:
Chapter - 13
• Wand of secrets, Area X2b, page 183.
• Arcanaloth’s spellbook and Robe of Useful
Items, Area X5a, page 184.
• Staff of Frost, Area X17, page 187.
• Accurate model of Ravenloft and Tome of
Understanding, Area X20, page 187.
• Ewer of Wine, Area X22, page 188.
• The Incants of Exethanter, Area X27, page
189.
• Shield Guardian, Area X35, page 194.
(Control Amulet in area X9)
• Wall of Fire spell scroll, Area X38, page 194.
Treasure number 4, the model of Ravenloft is a
very interesting find. It’s an accurate model and the
party can take the time to copy it or get from it any
info about the castle’s areas they want.
Another very interesting treasure is in area X30.
The spell books in the library hold ALL spells in the
PHB. That’s an awesome treasure that I don’t believe
was ever presented in any D&D game, I might be
wrong though. The only caveat is that the books
cannot leave the room. But a wizard can stay there
for a while copying any spell he wants.
The Dark Gifts
This is the bee’s knees in the Amber Temple. Slivers
of sheer darkness are buried in huge blocks of
amber that serve as their eternal prisons. They are
however very much “alive”. They are the source of
Strahd’s powers and they are the forces that tore the
Valley of Barovia from the material plane and into a
pocket demiplane.
The vaults are protected by passwords and some
of them by guardians. Exethanter can be of great
help because he knows all the passwords. Be
careful because this part of the module can break
the adventure. It did in some games of mine. Each
time a PC accepts a Dark Gift, he will also acquire
a sinister visible scar of the deal. Each is described
individually for each sarcophagus. The alternative
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is a dark personality trait. Regardless of which, if
the PC is not evil, there is a Charisma saving throw
(DC 12), if it is failed, the PC becomes evil. The book
states in page 191 that a character becoming evil this
way becomes an NPC under the DM’s control.
Of course you can still let the player keep control of
the PC, just as long as he’s willing to really role play
the evil alignment and any other sinister traits he
got.
A mid-ground alternative is to let the player keep
control of the PC but warn him that given particular
circumstances, you might enact control over the PC,
according to the Dark Powers’ will. Some players
will consider DM taking control a ridiculous thing
and would prefer to give the PC up and roll a new
one. Or roleplay it in such an evil way that the PC
practically kills himself. No matter the decision you
take, it’s important to remember that while this is a
dread module, the intention is for everyone to have
fun.
In the end, half the party becoming evil, with dark
personality traits will probably destroy the party’s
cohesion. I’ll give some tips on how to handle this at
the end of the chapter.
The Amber Vaults hold dark entities which will
offer a gift through a telepathic link. The book
relays information for each entity. They give
you the name of the gift and a name for the evil
shard. From this you’re supposed to come up
with an evil voice from beyond and offer the gift
paraphrasing the intended result. Do not, under
any circumstance explain in game terms what the
gift’s abilities are. Nor should you describe in any
way the consequences for taking said gift. Here are
three examples of such dialogue but you will find a
complete list in the appendices of this guide.
Examples:
1.- The dark gift of Tarakamedes, the Grave Wyrm,
gives the beneficiary a set of skeletal wings and a
flight speed of 50 ft. However the beneficiary will
have to eat bones and grave dirt to survive.
I am Tarakamedes, the Grave Wyrm, I offer you a gift
of dark power. With it, the sky will be yours and you
will find no limit.
2.- The dark gift of Yrrga, the Eye of Shadows gives
truesight 60 ft. to the beneficiary. However the
Chapter - 13
wearer’s eyes become starry voids and he gets this
trait. “I believe that all life is pointless and look
forward to death when it finally comes.” Which
pretty much dooms the PC.
I am known as Yrrga, the Eye of Shadows. You would
do well by accepting the gift I offer. No secret will ever
escape you. All knowledge will be in your grasp. Life is
pointless so there’s no time to waste searching for its
secrets.
3.- The dark gift of Norganas, the finger of Oblivion
gives the beneficiary the ability to cast Finger of
Death as an action three times. His blood also turns
pitch black like tar. This is permanent.
A curious fluid blood is, don’t you think? It flows red
but it can easily bring death, I say it ought to be black.
My gifts confers you the power to make this judgment.
All you have to do is accept it, and you will have the
power to judge anyone in your way.
The main Amber Vault
Area X42 is the real place of interest. It holds the
three more powerful dark gifts. The power to
become a lich, the power to become a vampire
and the power to bring back from the death any
creature, regardless of how far past it died.
The lichdom gift is a no brainer since it requires a
spellcaster able to cast 9th level spells. However it
is my advice that any spellcasting PC could get it.
It’ll be of no use to the player since 9th level spells
are not available. However he gets this personality
trait “All I care about is acquiring new magic and
arcane knowledge.” Which is a fun trait to break
the party’s cohesion somewhat further. And who
knows, maybe you’ll continue this game past level
10 and someday this player will actually become a
lich. Something most players will never experience.
The vampire’s gift is the real deal-breaker. There
will be at least one player willing to get it. The
benefits of this gift do not apply until one of the two
conditions are met. The first one would happen if
said PC kills a party member, betraying him and
drinking his blood. Similar to Strahd betraying and
Page 56

killing his own brother.
The second condition requires the PC to be killed
violently by creatures that hate him, such as Strahd
or other murderous party members. This is similar
to Strahd being killed by the guards after Sergei’s
murder. The player will also receive this trait: “I am
surrounded by hidden enemies that seek to destroy
me. I can’t trust anyone.”
The last gifts can restore life to any creature.
Kasimir wants this and he would be the first to take
it if he gets here, to revive Patrina. If a PC gets this
gift he will be able to bring back to life any party
member or NPC that died already. There’s no time
limit and therein lies its danger. As written, a clever
PC might immediately go back to Argynvostholt
and revive Argynvost. Other strong options to revive
are the Abbot, Rudolf Van Richten and Vladimir
Horngaard.
What happens now?
As stated before, many of these dark gifts and their
related traits can easily break party’s cohesion.
In one of my games, a player took the vampyr’s
gift and two sessions later he and another player
fought and killed each other. The first became a
“Something inside me
snapped. I released the
zombies, and the entire
tribe was eaten alive.”
–Rudolph Van Richten
Chapter - 13
vampire and abandoned the game. I must say this
was planned by that player and me. He wanted to
become a vampire but I explained that in doing
so he would no longer be a playable character. He
accepted and brought the course of action to its end.
It’s all about having fun, so remember to be clear
with your players. It’s all about building the best
story possible, and if it’s got to end by the party
butchering each other then so be it.
In case this happens, if the party level is still low-ish,
then rolling up new players is the best way to go. If
this happens at level 9 and the party loses a member
or two. They might now be able to revive each other,
or might not want to, since the dead PC might be
evil now. What I did, since Rudolf and Ezmeralda
were still alive, was just to buff them up a little and
give them to my two players as PCs. So the party
that went then to face Strahd was two original PCs
plus Rudolf and Ezmeralda.
Page 57
Chapter 14

Yester Hill
This is a short chapter. You will have noticed there a big area, Yester Hill truly is a very big place. Only
are some encounters with druids in the random the top of the hill where the statue is, is 250 ft. feet
encounter tables. These folks wear ragged clothes across. That’s a 50 squares circle, it probably doesn’t
and their demeanor and appearance is savage. It’s fit in your dinner table so you will have to either
never stated in the book specifically, but rather change the size, or just use the very parts you’ll
implied, that all these druids are part of the same need.
druidic circle. Centuries ago they became trapped
in Barovia like everyone else. Since they are druids The main event in Yester Hill is the creation of
and their duty and labor is with the land itself the Blight Tree which is the ultimate weapon the
they probably were not so preoccupied with being druids have devised to utterly destroy the winery.
permanently inside. The druids are waiting for Strahd when the party
arrives, they can do the ritual anytime but would
Overtime the original druids died off and were rather have Strahd’s blessing.
replaced by the younger generations. After some
two or three generations, their values and ideals Many things can happen here, depending on how
shifted, these druids were now part of a closed your party reacts with situations like this. The place
system were there was a big difference regarding is so big that the party can probably see the event
their original ideologies. The difference was Count from afar. It happened like that in my games. The
Strahd Von Zarovich. Their druidic teachings party saw the group of druids and barbarians and
showed them how to manipulate nature and decided to wait to see what really was going on.
weather but none inside the Valley of Barovia Strahd arrived in Beucephalus and my party felt
surpassed the power Strahd had over the land. tempted to go all-in, but the bard convinced them
to wait and see. After all it was the first time they
Strahd is ancient, he is the land. A term probably encountered Strahd and he was unaware of their
coined by the druids themselves as they saw, time presence. The druids started singing the ritual. It is
and again how there was never a chance they could important to simply describe this part as “singing
control the weather and land like the
count did. The obvious result is that
Strahd became a figure of respect, then
of worship. The druids in Barovia are
“I called for my family, long
unseated from their ancient
devoted to Strahd, they are not civil
folks and are as savage as animals. I
would go so far as to suggest they do
not even speak the common tongue, or
maybe just a few of them do. Strahd can
communicate in his animal forms or
thrones, and brought them
with the use of magic.

Remember that this chapter has one

here to settle in the Castle
purpose only, help the Martikov family
after saving the winery. That is the only Ravenloft.”
adventure hook that leads there. And
the only reason to go, unless there is a
magical relic hidden in the area.

The map for this area has a scale of 50 ft.

per square. It is difficult to visualize such
–Tome of Strahd
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ritually” and not flat out say that the druids “are
performing a ritual”. They speak only in druidic;
unless there’s a druid in the party, the contents of
the song are inscrutable. After a minute of singing
the tree blight came to life and started walking
north. The party still waited, they figured the tree
was slow enough they could catch up with it later if
needed.
The druids and tribe folk left the place and only
Strahd remained, apparently gazing directly into
the wall of mist. The party then approached Strahd
from behind. When they were close enough Strahd
said “Why do you come here and bother me? Can a
man not find peace and solace?” he turned around
and the PCs saw there were tears rolling down his
pale cheeks. Strahd turned into a swarm of bats and
left the place.
The party then gazed through the mists and saw
the mirage of Strahd’s ancient land. Only there was
no way to know the meaning of that vision. But it
served to convey a weak side of Strahd, the regret
Chapter - 14
and sourness of being trapped in Barovia, with no
ability to ever return to his place of birth.
The Gulthias Tree
In one of my games, the party didn’t even bother to
explore the other side of the hill and they never saw
the three. The place is so big they did not even think
there was something to be found, plus they were in
a hurry to catch up with the tree blight.
As described in the MM (page 31) a Gulthias Tree is a
very interesting thing. It grows from a wooden stake
used to kill a vampire. The stake grows tendrils and
eventually becomes a sapling. Then a druid has to
plant it and care for it and it becomes a Gulthias
Tree. A vampiric tree of sorts and the source of
blight monsters.
All the blight creatures in Barovia come from this
Page 59
 Chapter - 14

Gulthias Tree. The evil druids of Yester Hill care for

the tree and see that it sprouts more blight creatures
all the time. If they are around when the tree is
discovered, they will give their lives to save it.

The Tree Blight

This is a tough critter and it can easily down the

party if they are not well prepared. The tree can
make 4 attacks each round, plus a bite if it has
any grappled target. Depending on how early in
the module the party visits Yester Hill, this could
be a very dangerous fight. Fortunately it is only
one monster so action economy is on the PCs side.
It is also a dangerous game if the party is low on
resources after the conflicts in Yester Hill if there
were any.
In the end, this is an optional chapter that only
occurs if the party wishes to help the Martikovs.
Notice that even if the party chooses not to help,
the events described in this chapter occur. If at a
later date the PCs visit The wizard of Wines, they
will see that it was destroyed by the trampling tree.
Even if they do not visit the winery again. Rumors
and hearsay in all towns will be known. Every
Barovian will be gloomier than usual due to the now
confirmed scarcity of wine.

Page 60
Chapter 15
Werewolf Den
he last numbered chapter in
T
Curse of Strahd. This is about the
werewolf pack that lives in Barovia.
They are sometimes allowed by
Strahd Von Zarovich to go cross
the mists so that they can kidnap
people and children from the neighboring lands of
the Sword Coast.
Werewolves are cool and all but this is the most
optional part of the module. You can skip it
entirely and nothing happens. You can even use the
werewolves and skip the den and nothing happens.
So, if you plan on using werewolves as a moving
part of the adventure and you used the adventure
hook “Werewolves in the Mist” that’s the only good
reason to visit this chapter. That adventure hook
serves as the only purpose to playing the chapter
since the PCs would have come to Barovia since
the beginning with the intention or rescuing the
children and/or any other living person from the
lycanthropes.
Once you decide you’re using the info in this
chapter, now we can see what it’s about. The wolves
of Barovia are all allies of Strahd and they hang
out with the werewolves as long as they are loyal to
Strahd. The werewolves are on Strahd’s side because
Kiril, the pack leader, is in good standing with him.
There is another werewolf with great influence in
the pack and this is Emil Toranescu.
The book states that the pack is divided. The current
modus operandi of the pack goes as follows: A pack
of werewolves are allowed through the mists to
scour the Sword Coast. They terrorize towns and
kidnap children mainly. They go back to their den
with the children and arrange a fight club with the
hostage children, they give them crude weapons and
have them kill each other while they watch. Last
kid standing is turned into a werewolf and thus the
pack grows. The remaining dead children are then
eaten for lunch.
Same old same old in Barovia. This is Kiril’s way
of keeping the blood of the pack pure and strong.
Emil would rather make all children werewolves
and make the pack a lot bigger each time they go
hunting for children. They squabbled for a time
before Kiril told Strahd about it and he sent his
minions to capture Emil. Emil Toranescu is now
sitting in Ravenloft’s dungeons in area K75a (page
81).
Now, there’s a bit of a plot-hole here regarding Emil
and his wife Zuleika. In Emil’s entry in page 81.
It states that Emil will pretend to be from Vallaki
and will betray the PCs as soon as he gets a chance.
Unless they claim to be Zuleika’s friends in which
case he escapes with or without them to reunite
with her.
However, in chapter 15. It is mentioned that Kiril
has Zuleika confined to the den guarding the
children prisoners.
This means there’s two options: The players
encounter Emil first in Castle Ravenloft, he will
betray them and this plotline doesn’t matter
much. Or the PCs go to the werewolf den first. The
werewolves inside will fight them and eventually
the PCs will come across Zuleika in area Z7 (page
204). At this point, she will try to offer to release the
children if they help her deal with Kiril. But why
would they? Most PC parties I know would just kill
her too, release the kids and then wait for Kiril.
There’s not much leverage here for Zuleika, even
less because she won’t threaten to harm the
children to get the upper hand. The only alternative
is that Emil was previously released by the PCs
and has already reunited with Zuleika. But if this
happened, it’d because he betrayed them and the
party might go berserk as soon as they see him.
Of course this can go a million ways due to the
party’s actions and disposition. But we’re analyzing
how it’s written and the options we have. I have an
alternative that more or less solves this issue.
Page 61

Alternate Plot Hook
Kiril is in charge of the pack and still has Zuleika
confined to the den. However she’s actively trying to
find ways to release her beloved. She’s even risking
to strike a truce with outsiders if that can get her
what she wants. If the adventure hook “Werewolves
in the Mists” was used and the PCs have the added
goal of getting rid of the werewolves and rescuing
the missing children, then by this point the party
has fought the werewolves a few times and the
whole pack knows about them. Maybe Kiril has
been vocal about concocting a plan to beat them.
The party is getting stronger as time goes and this is
a problem for both Strahd and the pack.
Zuleika decides to storm away from the werewolf
den to find this group of outlanders. This is even
more dramatic if the party already fought her
in a battle and she fled. She will approach them
cautiously and try to establish a conversation about
the werewolves in Barovia. She has nothing to lose
by saying all she knows or aiding the party since
she’s doomed if she goes back to the den anyway.
For all she knows a hunting party is already behind
her.
Zuleika can explain the situation in the den and
offer her aid in fighting the werewolves back. She
explains there are still eight children alive and will
Chapter - 15
offer to release them, but only if they go with her to
Ravenloft’s dungeons to rescue Emil. If you want,
you can add a deadline here, which also serves to
explain why the kids are still alive. The children
fights can only be held in the full moon, the party
could have up to a moon cycle to free Emil.
If you don’t want Zuleika hanging around with the
PCs for a long time, or if the PCs are not currently
heading to the castle, Zuleika can arrange a meeting
point close to the castle. Then they can meet her
there whenever they want to pursue this quest.
She can explain that Emil going back to the den in
full rebellion can turn half the werewolves to his
side. The only loose end would be Kiril. Now we
have a quest !   Go to the dungeons with a werewolf
ally and rescue Emil. After this is done, Emil
Toranescu will honor his wife’s promise and release
the children. They will also stop attacking the
people’s of the Sword Coast.
If the party rescues the children successfully, they
can bring them to either Vallaki or Krezk. The
better place would be Krezk because of their aging
population and sore need for young strong lads in
the coming years. This is only assuming the kids
actually stay indefinitely in Barovia. During the
epilogue of Curse of Strahd it’s plausible for the PCs
to come and retrieve the children in order to return
them to their real homes outside of Barovia.
Page 62
Epilogue
fter countless adventures, Curse
A
of Strahd must finally come to an
end. The module spans level 1-10
although it can also end sooner, or
if the DM chooses it, expand it to
higher levels.
By definition, en epilogue is the section of a book
that explains whatever happened after the story
concluded, it’s an afterthought. The goal of this part
of the story is to bring closure to it. There are many
ways in which this adventure may finish, however
it does, you should be ready with an epilogue; a
recount of things that happen in the story and any
known characters after the adventure ends.
The final confrontation with Strahd should be a
deadly affair, a difficult challenge impossible to
circumvent. It only has two possible outcomes,
either Strahd prevails or he is defeated. Let’s explore
both alternatives.
Strahd Prevails
This is the “sad” ending for the module, either
Strahd wins in a final fight, or the fight never takes
place. If the party is defeated in the high range of
levels 8-10 by Strahd or any other threat, it really
makes no sense to create a new party of adventurers
to continue an adventure that was almost over. In
this case, the group should accept the TPK and move
on.
Another alternative is Strahd’s Negotiation. The
count senses the adventurers have grown too
strong so he offers them a way out, unharmed.
This is under the threat of laying waste to the poor
Barovians in the villages. We’re again talking about
a higher level party. If they comply with Strahd, he
will let them through the mists and the adventure is
over.
If you, as the DM consider that a PC has proven
himself worthy of being Strahd’s successor, you
should follow this plotline. It’s important to
understand that only a PC that has demonstrated to
be ruthless, cruel, strong, and classy (or high born)
would be considered. A good option would also be
a PC who took any or several dark gifts from the
Amber Temple. Now here’s the thing, Strahd is only
looking for a successor because he believes that
might be the way to end his curse. That is not true.
If either Strahd wins the last confrontation, or the
party is allowed to leave Barovia, said party member
will be asked to stay and claim his place as the
future Count of Barovia. Strahd will turn him into a
vampire spawn and take him into his mantle. Later
on, probably months, it will be clear to Strahd that
it did not work. He would then have the PC vampire
spawn brought to the crypts to stay indefinitely.
Be sure to include in the epilogue whatever
happened to any important NPC’s in Barovia after
the party is defeated or gone. Particularly Ireena
since she might end up turned into a vampire
spawn.
Strahd is Defeated
Defeating Strahd means killing him in battle and
then rushing down to his crypt to stab him with
a wooden stake. This can be a great task in itself.
After turning to mists and fleeing to his coffin, all of
Strahd’s minions will try to step in the party’s way
to help their lord. A party might well end up dead in
this race against the clock.
The epilogue chapter in the book includes a bit
about Rahadin going bananas after Strahd is
destroyed in his coffin. I loved that and you should
totally use it. They way I see it, after Strahd is
destroyed, everything said or done is part of the
epilogue. I see no need to run this fight. You can just
ask the players what they would do with Rahadin
and describe accordingly. In my games they always
chose to kill Rahadin. There is no need to roll
initiative, Rahadin is in a state of utter terror. The
paladin can step in and in a swift movement end the
old elf’s life.
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There is also a big read-aloud description in
page 207 about what happens with Sergei and
Tatyana(Ireena). It’s got a major flaw. It assumes
Ireena Kolyana survived the adventure and was not
reunited already with Sergei in Krezk’s pool.
In my experience with my games and others, Ireena
seldom survives this adventure, either she is killed,
turned into a vampire spawn or reunited with
Sergei in Krezk.
You can read it as is, if those conditions are met. If
Ireena was killed or reunited with Sergei it really
makes no difference since souls stay in Barovia.
If that is the case, they can show up as ghosts and
explain Ireena’s past lives. The only case where
this does not happen is if Ireena was turned into a
vampire spawn and never destroyed.
After this is dealt with, you can now be really
creative with the epilogue descriptions. After Strahd
is defeated, the mists that surround the valley
thin and recede. People are now free to go back
to the realms. The first to go, right after Strahd’s
destruction are the Vistani. Afraid of Barovian
punishment for being accomplices with the demon
for centuries, they are gone through the mists
at first light. There is light now, by the way, real
sunlight at last.
There’s the dilemma of the soulless Barovians who
populate the towns. As described in the book, there’s
“l had nothing left to give
but my own life’s blood,
but it was hers to take.
She would at last be my
bride.”
–Strahd Von Zarovich
Epilogue
no real head count but they could be as many as 80
out of 100. No one vanishes with Strahd’s defeat,
which is odd enough since they are supposed to be
projections of Strahd’s consciousness (this is a clue
that Strahd is not really gone). Barovians really have
not much outside of Barovia to go back to, since
the last generation that knew the outside world
died centuries ago. Still, some of the bravest gather
their belongings and join the long exodus back to
the realms. Only not many make it. As the soulless
depart and cross the mist border, they evaporate
and fade into nothingness. Remember there is no
real way to differentiate soulless and soul-bearing
humans. Any NPC known to the party might turn
out to have been a soulless projection all along.
Vistani, the PCs, and any outsider of course have
souls.
Extra option
Dark Gifts Hidden Cost
If the party visited the Amber Temple then they had
the chance to deal with the evil vestiges trapped in
the Amber Vaults. They offered them dark gifts and
they came with a price. The vestiges never explained
the price only the benefit and vaguely. This is how
Strahd came to be what he is. He’s immortal and
powerful but it had a cost and he’s been
trapped in his realm for centuries trying to
achieve Tatyana’s love with no success. His
power was his curse, so I decided that if any
PC accepted a dark gift, it did not matter
which, there would be a dear price to pay.
Once the mists recede and the party exits the
valley, any who accepted a dark gift fades into
a non-existing state. They become a type of
ghost that is completely invisible to others,
unable to physically interact or communicate
with anything. They won’t ever see a living
thing again. They can go, but will be forever
doomed to be invisible observers. Or they
can return and live the rest of their days in
Barovia in a normal way. This was inspired
by the ending of the movie Silent Hill, where
the main character returns home, only home
is now empty and grey and there is no way
to interact with her husband who is actually
sitting in the same room. But they can never
see each other.
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In one of my games we had a 5 PC party. After the
Amber Temple, 4 of them took dark gifts, only
the female paladin refused, and she did not like
their companions anymore, but she needed them
to defeat Strahd. During the way back to Castle
Ravenloft, two of them got into a fight due to their
new personality traits and alignments and one
killed the other. He had the Vampyr’s Gift, so he
drank his former friend’s blood and became a
Vampire. The PC abandoned the game after this,
under his new villain agenda. I handed modified
stronger versions of Rudolf Van Richten and
Ezmeralda d’Avenir to those two players so they
could participate in the final confrontation, because
that was all that remained of the adventure.
After a long fight they finally defeated Strahd,
Rudolph and Ezmeralda lost their lives but were
revived by the female paladin. The other two PCs
who had taken dark gifts survived the fight too.
(After this it’s all epilogue description) The PC who
had taken the Vampyr’s Gift took Strahd’s place
as the Lord of Ravenloft. He took over the castle,
however his ties to the dark powers were not as
strong as Strahd’s. The mists receded and he had
no control over the beasts, vermin or weather in
Barovia, they just ignored him. So did the rest of the
party.
Weeks later, after tying some loose ends (like
picking up the children rescued from the
werewolves, which were in Krezk; or helping Ismark
and/or any NPC deal with any missing thing) they
finally joined the people leaving the valley.
The mists were thick but traversable, none could see
half a meter in front of themselves. After stepping
out from the mist curtain, the female paladin looked
around and saw herself surrounded by Rudolf,
Ezmeralda and her two companion’s empty horses.
She had known all along she had no need to soil her
sword with her companion’s blood. Their actions
had such evil connotations the cost had already
been paid. They were never seen again.
From the affected PCs’ points of view, as they
crossed the mists they lost sense of their horses
and found themselves walking. They eventually
got out of the mists only to find the realms under a
grey veil. They saw their companions and horses a
few hundred feet from them. As they approached
the paladin and her companions, they couldn’t
believe their eyes. The closer they got, the fainter
Epilogue
she became until she actually disappeared as they
got close enough, along with her companions. They
tagged along their unreachable friends and got
back to Daggerford. The situation did not change,
they could only see people from afar, getting closer
only made them fade away. There was no way to
communicate or touch anyone, they were trapped
in the land of no one. One of the PCs decided to stay
in Daggerford as an invisible observer. The other
one was a warlock and had received the Gift of
Lichdom, only he didn’t have the power to make it
happen (level 17). He decided to go back to Barovia
where it was still possible to interact with the world.
He returned to the Amber Temple and was taken by
Exethanter as his pupil. Maybe one day he’d find a
spell the would let him go back to the realms as a
free man.
The last description in my epilogue was the throne
room in Castle Ravenloft, 10 months after the
paladin left:
The new and younger lord of Barovia sat in the
throne (the other PC). His body leaned to the side as
if looking through the stained glass window in the
room, he was now wearing fine clothing and jewels
stolen from Strahd’s rooms. His neck was broken
and his dried blood bathed the throne and the floor.
Wooden stakes impaled him to the chair, one in
his chest, one in his right hand and one protruding
from his eye cavity.
Outside in the castle grounds a lonely man walked
east. He reached the balcony that looked down on
the eastern part of the valley, directly down to the
meager Village of Barovia. For all his surprise he
found himself returning to this castle, the castle
was named after his mother, long dead. The valley
was named after his father, long dead. He traded his
humanity and place in the world, doomed himself
to eternal suffering, all for the love of Tatyana
Federovna, long gone.
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Appendix 1
Running the Death House
he main Curse of Strahd module
T
encompasses levels 3-10. If you
already have level 3 players you
can jump right into the action of
Barovia’s encounters. However if
you wish to start from level 1, the
attached dungeon crawl Death House is a great tool
to level the party up, set the tone of the campaign
and introduce a few clues and facts about the realm.
After using one of the adventure hooks (page 18),
you have successfully steered the party to Barovia.
The mists will dictate the places the party can visit.
They will close up on them leading them to the
Village of Barovia. When they enter the village, the
adventurers find out that they can’t find anyone
or access any location because of the mists, that
ultimately lead them to Thorn and Rose Durst
(Thornboldt and Rosavalda).
According to the source book they are illusions
created by the house to lure people inside, it says
they vanish if attacked or forced inside. I find this
last bit of information a potential let down for the
setting’s tone. If your players find out that the kids
are illusions then they won’t be trying to help and
will believe it is a trap (I mean it’s obviously a trap
but still…)
I advise to treat these children like a simulacrum-
like spell. Yes, they are still illusions but appear to
be real children and won’t vanish. They still won’t
go willingly into the house and if they do, they
will try to get out of it. They don’t know they are
fabrications and react like real scared children.
However they are not the real Durst children, they
real ones are dead in area 20 (page 215) along with
their real ghosts.
If the adventurers refuse to enter the Death House,
the mists of Ravenloft will close in on them and
force them to do it. They will have no other choice
(Hop on the railroad car).
Leveling Up
The way this adventure works. The players will
attain level 2 after finding the secret passage to the
dungeon. And then level 3 after escaping the house.
Depending on your group, and how roleplay heavy
they are. All this can be achieved in 6-10 hours of
playing. Which makes for a really fast way to level
up from level 1 to 3.
Important Locations
There are 38 locations in the Death House. Not all of
them need to be visited, your group might skip some
parts of the house or the dungeon. It’s important to
note that after exiting this place, it’s unlikely that
the adventurers will visit it ever again.
This is a list of important bits of information,
important locations and specific advice to run the
different locations in the Death House.
3. Den of Wolves.- There are two cabinets that
can be lock picked, one of them contains a heavy
crossbow, a light crossbow and 20 bolts. (by the way,
good practice for the Curse of Strahd module is to
keep track of ammunition). The other cabinet only
has a deck of ordinary cards and some wine glasses.
4. Kitchen and Pantry.- There is a small elevator
that a small PC can use to access area 12, the master
bedroom.
6.Upper Hall.- There’s a portrait of the Durst family.
PCs will recognize the children. There’s a third baby
in the picture in the father’s arms, Mrs. Durst looks
at the baby with scorn. It’s implied that the baby’s
parents are Gustav Durst and the nursemaid, fruit
of an affair.
9. Secret Room.- There’s a letter by Strahd here. Also
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 Appendix 1

PCs will find the house’s deed and a deed to the mill
near Vallaki. Also there’s a will bequeathing these
properties to the Durst children.
11. Balcony.- The animated armor can be
challenging if PCs don’t react properly. Be careful.
12. Master Suite.- There’s a jewelry box with jewels
worth 900 gp. A sizable treasure for a level 1 party.
And they won’t find something quite like that
anytime soon.
15-18. Nursemaid’s Suite and Storage Room.- The
nursemaid’s specter can be found in either of these
locations. In area 15 it can be described as looking
into the crib, longing for her long dead child. Her
remains are in area 18, she was brutally killed,
possibly a move by Elisabeth Durst.
20. Children’s Room .- The remains of Rose and
Thorn are here. They starved to death after their
parents locked them in their room. Their ghosts
are here. Two ghosts can easily kill a level 1 party,
however they are not aggressive and even if a fight
starts, the two children are more likely to flee than
casting spells like Shield of Faith or Bless right before
the fight.
31. Darklord’s Shrine.- Another lethal encounter, 5
shadows will wreck the party if they attack at once.
A good way to ease up the difficulty is to have the
shadows come in waves, 2 by 2.
34. Cult Leaders’ Quarters.- Gustav and Elisabeth
Durst are here, they are ghasts. This is a difficult
fight too. PCs can find a Cloak of Protection as
treasure, plus a spellbook.
38. Ritual Chambers.- Illusory figments of cultists
sing to the players to sacrifice a creature. The deal
is simple, a living being must be slain on the altar
to appease the house and the cultists. Results will
vary depending on your group’s disposition and
alignment. In reality it doesn’t matter what or who
dies on the altar. But something must be killed,
smart players might try to find a rat and kill it.
According to the book that works, but you might
rule otherwise. Alternatively a severely hurt PC

“What? You believe I

to attack. Plus they do not have the Horrifying
Visage ability.

cannot enter this place

This is not a fight encounter. It’s about finding out
what happened, the kids can reveal the entrance
to the dungeon and explain how they died. If/
when the PCs try to leave, the children will try
to possess them, not out of aggression but out of
fear of abandonment. There is a save to avoid it
without permission?
but it’s more interesting if they can possess a PC
automatically. The book says that players retain This house is mine. In
control but have to take a temporal flaw and role
play accordingly (page 217).
fact, everything you lay
The only way to put the children’s spirits to rest is
by moving their remains to their tombs in areas
23E and 23F. You can have Rosavalda point that out,
your eyes upon belongs to
that they want to be where their parents are.

25. Well and Cultist Quarters.- In these rooms

me, even your miserable
there’s some treasure to be found. The most
important is the silvered shortsword in 25E (page
218). Very useful against some Barovian creatures.
souls.”
29. Ghoulish Encounter.- Depending on the party’s
reaction to this, it can be a very lethal encounter.
The PCs have the hallways’ width to their favor, as
it’s a natural funnel. A way to warn the party is the –Strahd Von Zarovich
smell. You can let them know something is coming
with smell and sounds. They can then prepare for
it by placing the tank in the front and maybe even

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 Appendix 1

Ending
might choose to volunteer himself for the sacrifice.
Or an evil PC could finish off a severely hurt ally.

If the PCs comply and a living being is killed off on

the altar, the house is appeased and they will be able After exiting the house, the mists of Ravenloft
to leave peacefully and level up. recede and will let them explore the Village of
Barovia. You can start with Mad Mary’s encounter
Most likely there will be no sacrifice, which will
(page 44). The PCs might be in possession of some
anger the illusory cultists. They will sing to wake up
treasure, money and the deeds for two properties.
Lorghoth the Decayer, a Shambling Mound hiding
in the southernmost alcove. Strahd is aware of these events. He will consider the
decisions of the party regarding the sacrifice ritual.
Be very careful with this encounter, narrative Either way Count Strahd is satisfied, since playing
description of the monster is really important. with good or evil aligned subjects is entertaining for
You can’t just go ahead and say “It’s a Shambling him all the same.
Mound”. For starters, that kind of monster is
completely out of place here. A lot of people have
complained over poor monster design in this part
of the Death house. Monster design is good, but we
have to re-skin the description a bit. It is better to
describe this monster like this:

“Before you, coming out of the southernmost alcove is

a rolling mass of decay and rot. Thick tendrils of waste
wriggle from it, reaching for nearby surfaces. You can
see the tendrils’ grip on the walls tighten with crushing
force. As the enormous thing crawls towards you, you
see bodily remains of humans buried in its putrid body.”

This is better because you never say the monster

name, avoiding metagame knowledge. You are also
setting the scene for a probably unwinnable fight.
It is designed like this. A level 2 party which has
had no long rests and several tough fights will not
win this fight without losing some PCs. Your group
might choose to fight it and risk death.

The usual response to this encounter is retreat.

Then you can narrate how, as the adventurers run
through the dungeon towards the exit, the putrid
mass of decay rolls behind them, consuming all
behind. As adventurers reach the top of the attic,
they will find themselves in an aggressive place,
they house is trying to kill them (page 220). It is a
very fun encounter against an enemy who cannot
be beaten. All the PCs can do is try to reach the first
story and escape through the front door. Or jump
from a balcony.

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Appendix 2
Traveling in Barovia
he Valley of Barovia is a secluded
T
place. A part of the world that was
torn apart and set inside small
demiplane when Strahd Von
Zarovich killed his brother Sergei,
thus sealing the blood pact with the
Dark Powers. With Strahd’s permission a person
can enter or exit Barovia. As you know, the borders
of the valley are marked by a thick mist that no one
can cross to exit, unless Strahd wills it. He cannot
leave either, that’s his curse. The only ones who
can travel in or out of Barovia are the Vistani, since
Strahd owes them that liberty due to a centuries old
pact.
Though Strahd is evil and apparently has no care
for his subjects. He is still the lord of the land. If
he was an evil psycho everyone would be dead
already. After centuries of being trapped inside
Barovia, Strahd and his allies could have eradicated
everyone already. However, this is not so. The
villages of Barovia have appointed Burgomasters
who are part of Barovian noble families. The
Indirovich, Vallakovich and Krezkov families have
been in power since forever, Strahd appointed
their ancestors to rule over those villages and has
let them do so until the present. Even when the
last remaining son of Baron Dimitri Krezkov died
of sickness, it is vaguely implied that Strahd sent
The Abbot to raise him so that the bloodline was
not lost. I infer that there are two reasons for these
occurrences.
The first one is: Strahd is from noble birth and the
lord of the land, and although he is not a protector
of Barovia, he does enjoy his position of power.
There would be no power in a land with no subjects
to rule. The second reason is his “lawful” alignment
predisposition. Just as he respects the old pact with
the Vistani, he respects the appointments of the
different Burgomasters and their families’ nobility.
Going back to what I just mentioned, Strahd is NOT
a protector of this land. It is his land. He is the land.
And as a direct projection of his own disposition
and personality, the land is dangerous. It’s hard to
judge by just looking at the map, but Barovia is not
a big place. Each hex in the map equals 1/4 mile.
According to the DMG (page 242), the standard
travel speed is 24 miles a day in normal conditions.
Then an adventuring party can move up to 12 hexes
in an hour (3 miles). Trying to count more than
that doesn’t seem practical, there’s over 80 hexes
from the Village of Barovia to Vallaki, still that trip
takes 5.8 hours (17.4 miles). Travel is still extremely
dangerous; the book sets the bar at rolling for
outdoors random encounters every hour. Not all
encounters are battles, some of them are just things
that can happen or thing to be found.
The Village of Barovia is unprotected from outside
forces and that’s why the population is so small, and
has been decreasing over the years. Vallaki has a
palisade that helps keep some of Strahd’s creatures
like wolves and minor undead at bay. Krezk
has a stone wall and the Abbey. This is the most
defensible town, but they lack fighting people. A
common theme for Barovians is that they do not go
outside of the villages if they can help it. Only a few
individuals dare travel the open lands of Barovia.
Most people are born and die in the same place. An
example of this is Ismark and Ireena who are both
nobles, have souls and probably a better education
than most, yet none of them have ever gone out of
the Village of Barovia when the adventure begins.
Vistani are the exception.
The Martikovs are probably the only ones who
travel often the roads of Barovia. After all they are
the only source of wine in the region and it is stated
that they deliver to the three villages free of cost.
This is a table of travel times between the most
important places in he valley. Some places were
left out for space and convenience. What’s most
important here are the distances between the
villages, the castle and a few other points of interest.
It is assumed the party is traveling at normal pace
and the figures are expressed in hours of travel.
If you need to calculate the distance in miles, just
multiply the number by 3 (which is how many miles
the party moves in an hour).
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 Appendix 2

“The darkness had torn him from

my loving arms forever, and I
foolishly believed that the curse
had exacted its deadly toll. I
wept until an insatiate desire for
vengeance filled the bottomless
rift in my heart.”

–Rudolph Van Richten

Page 70
Appendix 3
Extra Encounters
hat’s next is a list of extra
W
encounters the party can come
across while they go from place
to place. Some of them are
battle encounters, others are
just strange finding and a few
of them include Count Strahd.
1.- Lost child: The party finds a young child sleeping
in the open next to a tree. The child is sickly from
being in the open and starved. The child comes
from Vallaki and tells the story of an old lady that
came and took him and his sister from their house
in Vallaki. He escaped and tried to go home and ask
for help, but got lost. His sister is captive of the three
hags in Old Bonegrinder.
2.- Crippled Lumberjack: Deneth, a lumberjack
from Vallaki was attacked by wolves during the
night. He managed to scare them off. They bit off his
foot and ran away at dawn. He can’t walk without
aid and asks for help in returning to the village.
Optional: Deneth can also be a werewolf posing as
an innocent person, he’s just baiting the party. He
waits for the best moment, when they are at their
weakest to howl at the moon and attack. His pack is
nearby.
3.- Are you dead?: This encounter assumes that a
party member was charmed by Strahd during the
night, then impersonated by him. The next day,
the party comes across a small stone mausoleum.
Inside, they find an old stone sarcophagus. There
are signs of recent activity here. If the sarcophagus
is opened, the charmed party members lays inside,
apparently dead (Feign Dead spell). This alone
should become a full party argument. When you
judge appropriate, Strahd reveals himself and fights
them for a few rounds before turning to mist with
an evil laugh. It’s all a ruse, since the “dead” PC is
just a pawn in this joke.
4.- What did this?: The party finds odd foot prints.
They appear to be those of a goat, except they are
too big. There’s also evidence of a long tail being
dragged. After following the trail, they find the
carcasses of two deer. Both have a puncture injury
similar to that of a spear. What’s disturbing is that
both carcasses are dried out, as if all liquid and
hydration had been sucked from them through the
puncture point. After a few meters the monster’s
trail simple disappears. Does it fly?
5.- Quake !!! During a rest outdoors, the ground
vibrates for a minute. Then suddenly a powerful
force breaks the ground open. A scar marks the land
as it tears open. Have any PC close to the opening
roll a Dexterity save (DC 13). A fail means the PC
falls through the opening 30 ft. (3d6 damage). They
fall in a cavern chamber that has one or more
openings leading out from it (your choice). This
is good to introduce a small dungeon or undead
encounter.
6.- Cursed Barovians: While traveling near the
sunset, the party catches up with a group of 3
Barovians traveling in the same direction. They
explain they are merchants and may show them
their wares. The hold a secret, they visited the
Amber Temple and accepted a Dark Gift. They
appear human but they are now a form of ghoul
and can only find nourishment from eating man
flesh. When sun sets, their true form is revealed and
they attack.
7.- Save the horse: The party hears the anguished
neighs of a horse nearby and wolves howling. After
investigating they find a poor horse trying to scare
of a pack of wolves. While dealing with the wolves,
the horse suddenly transforms into a giant spider,
dire wolf or similar creature and attacks. This is
Strahd himself assessing the PCs strengths.
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8.- Insurrection: The party is approached by a
mob of Barovians on the road. These are villagers
from Vallaki armed with sickles and torches. They
ventured out in search of two villagers who were
expelled from Vallaki by the Burgomaster Vargas
Vallakovich for “Malicious Unhappiness”. Only one
of the villagers was found, the other was probably
eaten by wolves. They are now going back to Vallaki
in full-insurrection mode. Izek Strazni and the
guard are ready to repel any rebels from returning
to town. If the party defuses the mood, then the
villagers are let back inside with no trouble.
9.- Old man: Near the road there is an old man
eating something close to the fire. He invites the
adventurers to have a bite with him. He’s an old
Vistana traveling west alone. His intention is to
reach Krezk and then exit Barovia there. He can tell
a good story: he was there one year ago when the
foreign wizard (Mordenkainen) rallied the peoples
of Barovia against Strahd. After the wizard was
defeated and thrown down the cliffs of Ravenloft,
he was the first to climb down there with a friend,
to find the man’s possessions. They did not find
Mordenkainen but they found his spell book. As
they couldn’t read it they decided to sell it, however
they were attacked that night by living scarecrows.
His friend died during the conflict before he decided
to hand out the book. An old ugly lady came out
from the darkness and took the book (This is Baba
Lysaga).
10.- Burial: The party comes across a scene of
battle on the road between settlements. There’s
an upturned cart, two dead horses and some
Barovians killed by some type of big beast. No
treasure is found. Important for this encounter is
to have a relevant NPC that the party knows dead
here. It could be Rictavio, Ezmeralda, a Martikov, a
priest, Blinsky. The party will mourn the loss of the
acquaintance an maybe bury them. When they next
return to the appropriate village, said NPC is alive.
Whether the battle scene was an illusion or the NPC
is Strahd impersonating him is your choice.
11.- Sick Elf: Sitting by a tree is a dusk elf. He’s alone
and sick. He can barely speak and is delirious.
Whatever happened to him, he cannot be helped
and will die soon. He carries a traveling bag, it is full
of bones, and body parts from humans. If dissected,
Appendix 3
there’s human bones and flesh in his belly.
12.- Save us: A group of scared Barovians from
Vallaki are running towards the party. They ask
for protection, as they are being followed and their
pursuers won’t stop until they are caught. A few
minutes later, unless the party does something
to avoid it, arrives Izek Strazni with 5 guards on
horseback. They wish to arrest the fugitives to be
put on the stocks in Vallaki for not following the
Burgomaster’s orders.
13.- The dark lord’s hand: Going in the opposite
direction as the party is Rahadin on horseback.
He is traveling to the Amber Temple or one of the
villages. If the party have not encountered him
before, he introduces himself as Strahd’s right hand
and welcomes them to Barovia. He will warn them
against trying to visit the castle unless invited. If the
party have already met Rahadin then what happens
will depend on that first encounter. A battle may
very well ensue.
14.- Knight’s unrest: The ghost of a man in scale
armor approaches the PCs during the night. It is
not aggressive and asks for help. He explains that
he belonged to the Order of the Silver Dragon a
very long time ago. One day he was ambushed
while night traveling by a group of undead. He died
that day. If his remains are recovered and taken to
Argynvostholt he will be able to rest. He remained
a ghost because he was traveling to the mansion
after the main rally to oppose Strahd’s forces. Not
being able to join his brothers in arms is a torment
that never let him rest. He is unaware that the order
doesn’t exist anymore. He can also tell stories about
the order but will not reveal Argynvost’s true nature
because that was a secret only known by anointed
knights.
15.- Vallaki’s heir: The party hears a voice and
strange sounds in the wild. From afar they can
see a young man in heavy coat. He appears to be
training cats, when approached, it is clear the cats
are undead. Victor Vallakovich is trying to see if his
undead cats still possess their hunting abilities. He’s
also searching for rare herbs and ingredients for his
experiments.
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 Appendix 3

16.- Get out of the way: Coming from behind the parties, specially meaningful if the unicorn can
party is a black carriage pulled by 2 great black heal a party member from the effects of poison or
horses. The carriage comes at full speed. The party disease. It offers his teleportation ability within the
will have to get out of the way or be trampled by valley. Radael knows he cannot help them get out.
Strahd’s carriage. If stopped or attacked, Strahd
attacks with full force for a few rounds before
disappearing. Alternatively, he fights full force until
possibly being defeated by a higher level party. It
doesn’t matter to him to lose like this, he can reform
later on. It’s also important to him to assess the full
strength of the party.

17.- Lost travelers: A group of travelers from

Daggerford (or any settlement outside Barovia
really) stumbled upon the mists the previous day.
They have no knowledge of Barovia and are looking
for the nearest settlement. This is a good way to
introduce a merchant with wares from outside the
valley or to introduce an NPC related to someone’s
background (cheesy I know).

18.- The Circle: Strahd is watching from a tree. He

casts a Wall of Fire spell in circle form and encloses
the PCs in it. The ground erupts as Strahd Zombies,
Ghouls, Skeletons or any other creatures of
appropriate CR for the party come out and attack.
For added difficulty, Strahd shoots spells from the
tree or charms a PC.

19.- Lost shipment: Recent cart tracks on the road

suddenly go off it and into the woods. There are
also wolf tracks. After following the trail, the party
finds an abandoned horse cart loaded with several
caskets and barrels of wine. Horses are gone.
The cart appears to have been here for a week.
Alternatively one or more of the wine barrels were
poisoned by the twig blights.

20.- Unicorn: From the trees emerges a beautiful

white horse. A warm light emanates from it’s body.
A golden horn protruding from its white forehead.
Radael is an unicorn passing through Barovia. It is
one of the few creatures that can’t be bound by the
mists. Unicorns are free to exit the valley. It can’t
however help other people exit Barovia, either by
riding him or by teleporting with him, it just doesn’t
work. The unicorn can bring news from the outside
world. This is a great encounter for good aligned

Page 73
Appendix 4

Dark Gifts Dialogue

Compendium
his is a special article which serves (permanent)

T
as an expansion for the Amber
Temple. As described in page 191,
each of the amber vaults contains 1
or more amber sarcophagi. Inside
each sarcophagus a sliver of pure
evil is trapped. This is the vestige of a dead god;
what remains of an entity of pure evil. They are
still somewhat sentient and will interact with PCs
telepathically if they touch the sarcophagi. The
intention of this part of the module is to seduce
players with promises of power that can come with
a high cost.
Worst case scenario, the player might lose control
of his PC or set him in a way to death while
roleplaying any acquired personality traits. The
book specifies the name of the entity and gift it
offers. As a DM you’re supposed to roleplay these
entities; however it is really important not to reveal
the important information. You have to describe the
gift and its benefits and maybe foreshadow the cost,
but never in game terms. You should not use any
game terms when doing this, so the player will not
know what he’s getting into.
I added three examples in the Amber Temple
chapter. But this will be my definitive game aid for
the Amber Vaults / Dark Gifts section of the module.
Each entry specifies the name of the entity and gift,
the page and temple location in the CoS book and
a read-aloud text which is the dark shard talking
to the PC. Each of these entries will describe the
gift’s abilities and some will also foreshadow the
consequence of accepting the gift.
 
Dark gift of Fekre, Queen of Poxes
Location X33a
Page 191
Benefit.- Contagion spell three times.
Consequence.- Beneficiary reeks of filth.
“My name is Fekre, Queen of Poxes. I bid you to accept
my gift. It is one of great power. You will be known as
one who controls health and disease at your command.
Your name will reek of power.”
 
Dark gift of Zrin-Hala, the Howling Storm
Location X33a
Page 192
Benefit.- Lightning Bolt spell 3 times.
Consequence.- One side of the beneficiary’s face
sags and loses all feeling. (permanent)
“My name is Zrin-Hala, the Howling Storm. Do you
think you can withstand the true power of storms?
Because that’s what I can offer you. A name for yourself
as a storm, at least while you can survive.”
Dark gift of Sykane, the Soul Hungerer
Location X33a
Page 192
Benefit.- Raise Dead spell three times.
Consequence.- As soon as this dark gift is received,
the beneficiary’s eyes glow a sickly yellow until the
dark gift vanishes. Also this trait “If I help someone,
I expect payment in return.” (permanent)
“Hello traveller, you stand before Sykane, the Soul
Hungerer. I offer you complete control over death. A
great power it is, but it has a price. And whenever you
use it you’ll also collect the price to be paid.”
 
Dark gift of Savnok the Inscrutible
Location X33b
Page 192
Benefit.- Mind Blank spell for one year.
Consequence.- The beneficiary’s eyes melt away
upon receiving this dark gift, leaving empty sockets
that can still see. (permanent)

Page 74

“I am Savnok the Inscrutible. You can hear me only
because I’m letting you, no one can ever read or disrupt
my mind. And this power can be yours too, if you accept
it.”
 
Dark gift of Tarakamedes, the Grave Wyrm
Location X33b
Page 192
Benefit.- The beneficiary of this dark gift grows
skeletal wings and gains a flying speed of 50 feet.
Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift must
eat bones or grave dirt to survive. At dawn, if the
creature has not eaten at least 1 pound of bones or
grave dirt in the past 24 hours, it dies. (permanent)
“I am Tarakamedes, the Grave Wyrm, I offer you a gift
of dark power. With it, the sky will be yours and you
will find no limit.”
 
Dark gift of Shami-Amourae the Lady of Delights
Location X33b
Page 192
Benefit.- Suggestion spell three times.
Consequence.- Extra finger in each hand and this
trait: “I can’t get enough pleasure. I desire others to
create beauty for me at all times.” (permanent)
“Ah, a pretty traveller from far lands. When I roamed
the world like you, all desires were within my reach. My
very word was enough to collect anything or anyone I
wished. Do you wish to be as persuasive as I used to be?”
 
Dark gift of Drizlash, the Nine-Eyed Spider
Location X33c
Page 192
Benefit.- This dark gift allows its beneficiary to
climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on
ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift
grows an extra eye somewhere on its body. The eye
is blind and ever open. (permanent)
“A mortal like you is always limited to the ground, do
you wish to expend your horizons to walls and ceilings.
Spiders can do that, why can’t you then? Their power is
here to take. You just have to reach for it.”
 
Dark gift of Dahlver-Nar, He of the Many Teeth
Location X33c
Page 192
Benefit.- Auto-Reincarnate spell three times.
Appendix 4
Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift loses
all of its teeth until it reincarnates for the third and
final time.
“How many lives have you lived? Oh, I see… I can feel
your lifeline. It’s the only one, and there will be no more
for you. Unless you accept this gift, that is. I can offer
you a sample of immortality.”
 
Dark gift of Zantras, the Kingmaker
Location X33c
Page 192
Benefit.- This dark gift increases the beneficiary’s
Charisma by.4, up to a maximum of 22.
Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift gains
the following flaw: “I won’t take no for an answer.”
(permanent)
“I am known as Zantras, the Kingmaker. They named
me such because I hold the power to give you the
influence and aura of a king. I can feel it’d do you
well. But if you accept, never again will you surrender
yourself to others. Your will shall supersede anyone
else’s.”
 
Dark gift of Delban, the Star of Ice and Hate
Location X33d
Page 193
Benefit.- Cone of Cold spell 7 times and benefits
of Ring of Warmth.
Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift gains
the following flaw: “Fire terrifies me.” (permanent)
“Is that torchlight? Get that away from me and we can
talk… Don’t you dare again approach Delban, the Star
of Ice and Hate with fire in your hands, disrespectful
mortal. Now how does the power to freeze your enemies
sound? It’s yours if you want it.”
 
Dark gift of Khirad, the Star of Secrets
Location X33d
Page 192
Benefit.- Scrying spell 3 times
Consequence.- The beneficiary’s voice becomes a
low whisper, and its smile becomes cruel and evil.
(permanent)
“I am the Star of Secrets and no information shall be
hidden from me. Or from you if you accept this deal.
Do you crave to know all that which lies beyond your
mortal perspectives. It’s all here.”
 
Page 75

Dark gift of Yrrga, the Eye of Shadows
Location X33e
Page 193
Benefit.- Truesight 60 ft. for 30 days.
Consequence.- The eyes of the beneficiary
become starry voids until the dark gift vanishes.
The beneficiary of this dark gift also gains the
following flaw: “I believe that all life is pointless
and look forward to death when it finally comes.”
(permanent)
“I am known as Yrrga, the Eye of Shadows. You would
do well by accepting the gift I offer. No secret will ever
escape you. All knowledge will be in your grasp. Life is
pointless so there’s no time to waste searching for its
secrets.”
 
Dark gift of Great Taar Haak, the Five-Headed
Destroyer
Location X33e
Page 193
Benefit.- This dark gift grants its beneficiary the
benefit of a Belt Of Fire Giant Strength. (10 days)
Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift the
following flaw: “I like to bully others and make them
feel weak and inferior.” (permanent)
“You want to be strong, huh? I am the Great Taar Haak,
the Five-Headed Destroyer. Weak as you are you’ll never
scare an insect. I offer you the strength of fire. FIRE !
You will then show your friends how stronger you are!”
 
Dark gift of Yog the Invincible
Location X33e
Page 193
Benefit.- This dark gift increases the beneficiary’s
hit point maximum by 30. (10 days)
Consequence.- Oily black fur covers the
beneficiary’s face and body. (permanent)
“Interesting… hmmm… your face looks so clean and
shaven. You appear healthy but I offer you the resilience
of Yog the invisible. Without it you’re just a swine. You
sure need this blessing if you are to succeed.”
 
Dark gift of Norganas, the Finger of Oblivion
Location X33f
Page 193
Benefit.- Finger of Death spell 3 times.
Consequence.- This dark gift turns the beneficiary’s
blood pitch black and viscid, like tar. (permanent)
Appendix 4
“A curious fluid blood is, don’t you think? It flows red
but it can easily bring death, I say it ought to be black.
My gifts confers you the power to make this judgment.
All you have to do is accept it, and you will have to
power the judge anyone in your way. That’s how I got
to be known as Norganas, the Finger of Oblivion.”
 
Dark gift of Vaund the Evasive
Location X33f
Page 193
Benefit.- This dark gift grants its beneficiary the
benefits of an Amulet Of Proof Against Detection And
Location and a Ring Of Evasion. (10 days)
Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift
becomes twitchy and nervous, and also gains the
following flaw: “I can’t give a straight answer to any
question put to me.” (permanent)
“I can’t believe you found me, Vaund the Evasive. I must
swiftly return to my amber cell, but first, would you
like to take my gift? None shall ever find you thereafter.
Or I could answer a question for you, I promise not to
answer truthfully….”
 
Dark gift of Seriach, the Hell Hound Whisperer
Location X33f
Page 193
Benefit.- Summon two hellhounds.
Consequence.- Sulfurous smoke issues from the
beneficiary’s pores whenever he or she speaks
Infernal.
“I am Seriach, the Hell Hound Whisperer. I have a
special affinity for those foul beasts. See, they come to
me when I so wish it. If you accept this gift I can share
them with you, for as long as you take care of them”
The Main Amber Vaults
The Amber Vault features the three main
sarcophagi. These hold the most sought of powers.
This is actually where Strahd himself got his powers
from. It’s the same case with Exethanter. While the
vampire and lichdom gifts do not have immediate
benefits, until the conditions are met, I advice you
to let any PC make the deal with the dark god. The
PC would immediately get the personality trait
that comes with it. Which actually suffices for
roleplaying purposes. A PC will never be a lich in
this game since it requires a level 17th spellcaster, but
a PC might be able to meet the vampire conditions
Page 76
 Appendix 4

and become a vampire. If that is the case, you Dark gift of Zhudun, the Corpse Star
should plan this situation with the player before Location X42
hand, since his PC will abandon game when this Page 196
happens. Benefit.- Resurrection spell once. No limitation with
time dead.
Dark gift of the Vampyr Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift takes
Location X42 on a corpselike appearance and is easily mistaken
Page 196 for an undead.
Benefit.- Beneficiary becomes a vampire under the
DM’s control. “You’re searching for power, I know. Just like many
Consequence.- After receiving the dark gift, others you come seeking the power over life and death. I
the beneficiary gains the following flaw: “I am am Zhudun, the Corpse Star. I am the master of death.
surrounded by hidden enemies that seek to destroy However very few know there is a price. Death is a veil
me. I can’t trust anyone.” which surrounds the soul, if you want to take it away,
you have to wear it yourself. That’s how I ended up here,
“So you come here seeking the ancient power source but I can still share a little of that power with you. Just
which brought Count Strahd Von Zarovich to where he enough for you to make one very important decision.”
stands. It is curious you are that interested in acquiring
what he has. Are you trying to fight fire with fire? You
must know this gift is not free to take, like so many
others in this place. No, there is a price. The price is
blood, flowing red and fresh from a recent kill.
But not just any blood. It must be the blood of one who
loves or reveres you, slain by your hand. If you drink
that blood the deal is sealed. Or else…   your own blood
shall suffice, as long as you’re slain by hateful enemies.
Only then shall you achieve the glory of immortality.”
 

Dark gift of Tenebrous

Location X42
Page 196
Benefit.- Become a lich under the DM’s control.
Consequence.- The beneficiary of this dark gift gains
the following flaw: “All I care about is acquiring new
magic and arcane knowledge.”
“I will exclusively converse with sentient beings
educated in the arts of magic. Nothing else interests me
more, and you should feel the same. There’s not enough
time in a lifetime to unravel all the secrets hiding in the
weave… What’s that? I can hear your thoughts, did you
know? I can hear your lament, you’ll never be able to
know and learn everything. You are mortal and shall
never know all arcane secrets. But there is a way to
abandon mortaldom and advance. A way to achieve
immortality. A secret way to hide one’s soul away from
the body in order to protect it.
I can feel your knowledge of magic is very far from
achieving this goal, you are not useful to me. But I feel
potential. I’ll give you the secret, the arcane recipe. The
rest is all on you, maybe some day you’ll come back and
thank me, just like Exethanter did. Do you accept?”
 

Page 77
 Thank You
This DM guide was created as a labor of love after playing the module several times.
After the experience of playing all the way through a few times, I realized some infor-
mation was either missing or elaboration was needed in order to enrich the game.

Additionally, there are lots of small details that are easy to miss or forget. The links be-
tween chapters and plotlines become obvious after going through hem a few times. This
document aims to make other DMs’ lives easier.

My name is Derek Ruiz, I am the author of Elven Tower. I am a one-man-company and

I create illustration and written content for DM’s. I thank you wholeheartedly for pur-
chasing this product, it is because of you that I continue to create more RPG stuff.

Ok, it’s the last page so let me engage you in some shameless plug here. I wrote another
DM guide very similar to this one for the Out of the Abyss module. I also sell some awe-
some Forgotten Realms maps.

Finally, If you wish to contribute to my cause, I have a crowd funding Patreon website
dedicated to the creation of adventures and map illustrations. My followers there get
access to high resolution map images for tabletop RPG games. All links are here below.

Patreon Website
Page 78