NPCs

Ezmerelda d’Avenir

Ezmerelda d’Avenir, a Vistana, is the protégé of Rudolph van Richten—despite the fact that her first encounter with the vampire hunter was anything but pleasant.

Witness to Tragedy. When Ezmerelda was a little girl, her family kidnapped van Richten’s teenage son, Erasmus, and delivered him into the clutches of a vampire. Even today, years later, she can still hear Erasmus’s pleas for mercy. That event haunted her childhood.

Van Richten tracked down Ezmerelda’s family soon after the kidnapping, but not before the Vistani had sold the boy. Though van Richten could have done them harm, he instead interrogated Ezmerelda’s mother and father on the whereabouts of his missing son. Satisfied with their answers, he spared their lives before departing with the information they had given him. Ezmerelda witnessed van Richten’s act of mercy and was deeply moved by it.

Van Richten’s Tragic Tale. At the age of fifteen, Ezmerelda, still troubled by what her family had done to van Richten, ran away from home. After many harrowing adventures, she tracked down van Richten two years later. Thinking she was a Vistana assassin, he put a sword to her throat and threatened to spill her blood. Ezmerelda convinced him that she genuinely wanted to help him find his missing son, whereupon van Richten told her the saddest of tales. He had found his son, who had been transformed into a vampire spawn. When Erasmus pleaded to his father for salvation, van Richten granted his request by ending his existence.

Farewell. Ezmerelda remained by van Richten’s side for two years, helping him track down and slay many creatures of the night. But because van Richten could never bring himself to fully trust a Vistana, he kept secrets from her. The two vampire hunters got on each other’s nerves, and their arguments became more frequent. At last, Ezmerelda suggested that they part company with some shred of their friendship still intact, and van Richten agreed.

Ezmerelda’s Prosthetic. Since bidding farewell to van Richten, Ezmerelda has amassed a sizable personal fortune, some of which she used to buy a wagon to carry her vampire-slaying paraphernalia. On one of her less successful adventures, a werewolf bit off her right leg below the knee, and although she avoided being afflicted with lycanthropy, Ezmerelda was sidelined for months. She commissioned a master artisan to craft a prosthetic lower leg and foot. After several tries, he delivered a prosthesis that restored her mobility. She has since adapted well to the false appendage.

The Great Vampire Hunt. While in the company of a Vistani caravan, Ezmerelda heard a rumor that Rudolph van Richten had gone to Barovia to slay the most powerful vampire of them all. She decided that he might need help and traveled for months to reach Strahd’s domain. She rode her wagon to Vallaki and learned about an old tower that seemed the sort of place van Richten would use as a base. When she arrived there, she found some of van Richten’s belongings, but of the vampire hunter there was no sign. Although she is anxious to learn the whereabouts of her mentor, she is also eager to earn his trust and respect. To that end, she has been poring over van Richten’s research and learning about Strahd and Castle Ravenloft, with every intention of dispatching the vampire herself.

Tarokka Deck. Ezmerelda keeps a deck of tarokka cards in her wagon. Although the cards aren’t magical, Ezmerelda can use them to perform a card reading for the characters, like the one that can be performed by Madam Eva. Ezmerelda can take you to any of the places below.

The Lands of Barovia

The idyllic valley nestled in the Balinok Mountains was a slice of heaven to those who knew of its existence before Strahd’s arrival. The serenity of the place was forever shattered when Strahd led a bloody crusade against the enemies of his family that ended here with the slaughter of hundreds. Struck by the scenic beauty of his most recent conquest and eager to escape the shadow of his father’s legacy, Strahd made the valley his home and named it Barovia after the late King Barov, his father.

The land now called Barovia is no longer part of the world that Strahd once tried to conquer. It now exists within a demiplane formed by Strahd’s consciousness and surrounded by a deadly fog. No creature can leave without Strahd’s permission, and those that try become lost in the mist.

Strahd allows the Vistani to come and go as they please because he admires their lust for life and their willingness to serve him when he needs them. He also owes an ancient debt to the Vistani people. As a soldier centuries ago, he suffered a grievous injury in battle, and the Vistani tended his wounds and returned him safely to his family without making any demand for payment. The Vistani claim to possess potions that allow them to leave Strahd’s domain, but the potions are false concoctions with no magical power. Nevertheless, the Vistani are willing to sell them for a hefty price.

Native Barovians have been terrorized for centuries by the one they call “the devil Strahd.” Only a handful of them have the will to oppose him. Barovians congregate in the valley’s three main settlements—the villages of Barovia and Krezk and the town of Vallaki—for fear of falling prey to wolves and other beasts that prowl the woods. Among these people are the Keepers of the Feather, a secret society of wereravens. Not powerful enough to defeat Strahd on their own, the Keepers readily assist adventurers who find themselves drawn into Strahd’s domain.

The Village of Barovia

The village of Barovia is the saddest place in the land, its residents so terrified of Strahd that they rarely venture from their homes. The village lies in the shadow of Castle Ravenloft, buried under fog but still unable to hide from the vampire’s sight.

Until recently, Strahd had been paying nightly visits to Ireena Kolyana, the adopted daughter of the village burgomaster. Ireena carries the soul of Strahd’s beloved Tatyana and looks exactly like her. Strahd intends to make Ireena his bride, turn her into a vampire, and lock her away in the castle crypts for all time.

Castle Ravenloft

Castle Ravenloft was built atop the ruin of an older fortress by artisans, wizards, and workers loyal to Strahd’s family. Strahd rewarded the castle’s genius architect, Artimus, with a crypt in the castle’s catacombs. The castle was named after Strahd’s mother, Ravenovia, who also lies entombed below.

The Town of Vallaki

Located close to the shores of Lake Zarovich, the town of Vallaki (pronounced vah-lah-key) seems like a safe haven against the evils of the Svalich Woods, if not Strahd himself. The town lies beyond the sight of Castle Ravenloft and doesn’t, at first blush, seem as depressed (or oppressed) as the village of Barovia farther east. Characters who spend time in Vallaki, however, quickly realize that there is no happiness here, only false hope—which Strahd himself cultivates.

Vallaki was founded not long after Strahd’s armies conquered the valley by an ancestor of the town’s current burgomaster, Baron Vargas Vallakovich. The Vallakoviches have royal blood in their veins and have long believed themselves superior to the Zarovich line. Baron Vallakovich has deluded himself into believing that hope and happiness are the keys to Vallaki’s salvation. If he can make everyone in Vallaki happy, the burgomaster thinks that the town will somehow escape Strahd’s grasp and return to the forgotten world whence it came. He stages one festival after another to bolster the spirits of the townsfolk, but most Vallakians consider these festivals to be pointless, meaningless affairs more likely to incur Strahd’s wrath than to provide any hope for the future.

In the last festival, Baron Vallakovich had townsfolk parade through the streets with the severed heads of wolves on pikes. His next event, which the burgomaster has dubbed the Festival of the Blazing Sun, is soon to get under way. Weatherworn garlands from previous festivals still hang from the eaves of Vallaki’s buildings, and work has begun on a large wicker sun, to be set ablaze in the town square on the day of the festival. In the days leading up to the festival, Baron Vallakovich has begun arresting local malcontents and throwing them in the stocks so that his efforts aren’t ruined by “those of little hope or faith.”

Old Bonegrinder

Once a grain mill that served Vallaki, this slouching windmill is now home to three night hags: Morgantha and her wretched daughters, Bella Sunbane and Offalia Wormwiggle. The hags are trapped in Barovia, but they like it here. Using their Change Shape action to look like Barovian women — a frumpy mother and her two homely daughters — the hags snatch children, devour them, and use the windmill’s grindstone to crush their little bones into powder. This powder is a key ingredient in the hags’ dream pastries, which they offer to Barovian adults who are desperate to escape Strahd’s domain.

Made with the bones of the innocent, the hags’ dream pastries allow Barovians to enter a trance, wherein they can escape to heavenly places full of joy. When adults can no longer afford the hag’s dream pastries, the hags offer to trade their pastries for the Barovians’ children, thus preying on the adults’ selfishness while acquiring the ingredients they need to make more pastries. This is how the hags sow corruption in Strahd’s domain and why they don’t take the children by force. The hags are interested only in children who have souls. They prick each child with a needle; if the child cries, that’s a sign that the infant has a soul.

Argynvostholt

When Strahd drove his enemies into the valley long ago, determined to annihilate them, the last thing he expected to encounter was a silver dragon.

The dragon, who called himself Argynvost, had come to the valley years earlier in the guise of a nobleman named Lord Argynvost. The dragon didn’t lair in the valley solely because of its idyllic beauty. He knew of a place called the Amber Temple — a repository of evil power guarded by the forces of good. Argynvost wanted to make sure that whatever was trapped inside the Amber Temple wouldn’t be allowed to escape, so he built his fortified mansion, Argynvostholt, close by.

Like many silver dragons, Argynvost was extraordinarily wealthy, and he was comfortable living among humans while disguised as one of them. He used his resources to attract other champions of good, and valorous knights flocked to the valley to join Lord Argynvost’s prestigious Order of the Silver Dragon. Only those who were initiated into the order were told of Lord Argynvost’s true nature.

During the war between Strahd and his foes, the Order of the Silver Dragon drove away malefactors searching for the Amber Temple. It also sheltered Strahd’s enemies and proved more than a match for Strahd’s battle-weary soldiers. But the early victories of the order didn’t win the war. Even with Argynvost on their side, the knights were ultimately overwhelmed when Strahd’s reinforcements swept into the valley. Those forces slew the last of the knights and battled the dragon inside Argynvostholt. After the dragon was slain, Strahd had its corpse hacked to pieces, stripped to the bone, and transported to Castle Ravenloft as a trophy.

Since the dragon’s death, Argynvostholt has become a haunted ruin, a former bastion of nobility and light turned into a place of desolation and unrest.

The Village of Krezk

The fortified village of Krezk lies near the edge of Strahd’s domain, and the wall of mist that marks the border is clearly visible above the treeline. Yet even here there is no escaping the vampire. In fact, the villagers are so terrified of Strahd and his wolves that they never venture away from the village. Within their walls, they grow trees that provide ample wood to keep them warm on cold nights, and they draw water from a blessed pool. They have chickens, hares, and small pigs, as well as gardens of beets and turnips. The only thing they depend on from the outside world is wine. The burgomaster, Dmitri Krezkov, comes from a noble family and regularly has wine delivered from the nearby winery, the Wizard of Wines, to keep the locals’ bellies warm and their spirits up.

Looming high above Krezk is the Abbey of Saint Markovia, once a convent and hospital, now a madhouse overrun with wickedness. After Saint Markovia and her followers failed to overthrow Strahd, the abbey became a fortress closed off from the rest of the world. Strahd ruthlessly preyed on the fears of the clerics and nuns holed up inside, but ultimately it was their isolation and greed that doomed them. The clergy began fighting over food and wine. By the time their supplies ran out, they had either been killed by each other’s hands or driven hopelessly insane by Strahd’s acts of terror against them. For years afterward, the villagers of Krezk avoided the place, fearing that the abbey was cursed, haunted, or both.

Then, over a century ago, a pilgrim from a distant land came to Krezk and insisted that he be allowed to reopen the abbey. The nameless man was strikingly handsome and extremely persuasive, and the villagers couldn’t help but do as he commanded. Eternally young, he presides over the abbey to this day, and locals refer to him simply as the Abbot. Many villagers suspect that the Abbot is Strahd in disguise, for they’ve heard stories about Strahd appearing in other guises. The truth, however, is even more disturbing.

Areas of the Abbey

The mongrelfolk that infest the abbey are all descendants of one family—the Belviews—and all suffer from some form of madness Most of the mongrelfolk in the abbey are locked up because they can’t be trusted to wander about unsupervised. The only mongrelfolk who are free to move about are the Abbot’s gravediggers, Otto and Zygfrek, and his faithful, two-headed manservant, Clovin.

Clovin Belview rings the abbey’s bell when the Abbot decides it’s time for dinner. The toll of the bell causes all the other mongrelfolk in the abbey to hoot and holler with excitement as they wait to be fed.

Treasure.

The golden statuette depicts Saint Markovia and is worth 250 gp. It grants any good-aligned creature that carries it a +1 bonus to saving throws.

The golden sun disk hanging above the fireplace is worth 750 gp. Taking the disk off the wall reveals a niche that contains a potion of healing (superior) in a crystal and electrum flask (worth 250 gp). Four gold candelabras (worth 250 gp each) rest atop the table.

Among the wine bottles on the rack is one with no stopper and a label that reads “Champagne du le Stomp.” It contains a rolled-up spell scroll of heroes feast.

The ring is a ring of regeneration.

Tsolenka Pass

Tsolenka Pass is a gravel road that hugs Mount Ghakis, climbing to great heights. The road starts at the Raven River crossroads and travels seven miles to a gatehouse and a guard tower, as well as a stone bridge that spans the Luna River. Wind and snow make the journey treacherous. Without some way to keep warm, characters who aren’t dressed for cold weather suffer the effects of extreme cold at night.

The Ruins of Berez

Long before Ireena Kolyana, there was a peasant from Berez named Marina.

The vampire Strahd first met Marina in this small village on the shore of the Luna River. Marina bore a striking resemblance to Strahd’s beloved Tatyana, both in appearance and manner, and she became Strahd’s obsession. He seduced her in the dead of night and feasted on her blood, but before she could be turned into a vampire, the burgomaster of Berez, Lazlo Ulrich, with the aid of a local priest named Brother Grigor, killed Marina to save her soul from damnation. Enraged, Strahd slew the priest and the burgomaster, then used his power over the land to swell the river, flooding the village and forcing the residents to flee. Later the marsh crept in, preventing the villagers from returning. Berez has remained mostly abandoned since.

The ruins of Berez are now home to Baba Lysaga, an almost mythic figure tied to Strahd’s ancient past. A hermit, she spends most of her time crafting and animating scarecrows to hunt down and kill the ravens and the wereravens that infest Strahd’s domain. When she isn’t working evil magic, Baba Lysaga sacrifices beasts to Mother Night and collects their blood, then bathes in the blood on nights of the new moon in a ritual to stave off the effects of extreme old age.

Van Richten’s Tower

One of the men employed by Strahd to raise Castle Ravenloft was an archwizard named Khazan. After his work on the castle was complete, Khazan retired to the Barovian valley and built a tower for himself on a small island on Lake Baratok. With the help of some engineers and laborers, he also built an earth-and-gravel causeway connecting the island with the nearby shore.

In his waning years, Khazan visited the Amber Temple and discovered the secret to becoming a lich. He returned to his tower and was able to complete the transformation. Some years later, after Strahd became a vampire, Khazan paid a visit to Castle Ravenloft with the notion of challenging Strahd for rulership of Barovia. Instead, much to Khazan’s surprise, Strahd persuaded him to serve as an advisor in matters of magic. When not advising Strahd, the lich spent most of his time in the Amber Temple, trying to master the secret of demilichdom in the hope of finding a way to magically project his spirit beyond the confines of Strahd’s realm. His efforts failed, and Khazan destroyed himself. His remains lie entombed in the catacombs of Ravenloft.

Khazan’s tower stood empty for ages, it seemed, and would have collapsed under the weight of neglect were it not for the magic wards placed on it long ago. Recently, the tower was taken over by the legendary vampire hunter Rudolph van Richten, who used it as a base from which to explore Barovia. He has since relocated to the nearby town of Vallaki, where he hides in plain sight.

Following in the vampire hunter’s footsteps is his protégé, Ezmerelda d’Avenir, who has taken to living in the tower while she searches for her mentor. She isn’t present when the characters arrive, however.

The Wizard of Wines

Wine is the lifeblood of the Barovian people. It is one of the only indulgences left to them. Without it, many Barovians would lose their last shred of hope and succumb to utter despair.

Although the Vistani often bring wine from distant lands, they share it infrequently. Thus, most of Barovia’s wine comes from one source: the Wizard of Wines winery and vineyard.

The Wizard of Wines was founded by a mage whose name is buried in the annals of history. The wizard fashioned three magic gems, each one as big as a pinecone, and planted them in the rich valley soil. These “seeds” gave rise to healthy grapevines, which produced sweet, plump grapes. Even after Strahd’s curse settled over Barovia, the gems kept the vines and their grapes from succumbing to the darkness.

Strahd bequeathed the winery and vineyard to the noble Krezkov family as a reward for the family’s loyalty. Later, an arranged marriage between the Krezkovs and the Martikov family led to the land being taken over by a Martikov descendant. The winery and vineyard have been tended by the Martikovs ever since. At some point, the Martikov family became infected with widespread lycanthropy. The current patriarch, Davian Martikov, is a wereraven, as are his children and grandchildren.

The wereravens provide the wine to Barovian taverns for free, knowing the good it brings to the Barovian people.

Wintersplinter Attacks

If the characters leave the winery and return at a later time before dealing with Wintersplinter, the enormous tree blight is sent from Yester Hill to ravage the vineyard and destroy the winery.

The characters arrive to find the grapevines trampled and the winery in ruins. Wintersplinter’s tracks are clearly visible on the trail to the south. Characters who follow the tracks catch up with Wintersplinter as the blight slowly makes its way back to Yester Hill.

The Martikovs narrowly escape the carnage and flee to the Blue Water Inn in Vallaki. Davian Martikov is crushed by the loss of the winery, and morale in Vallaki sinks to an all-time low as word of the winery’s destruction spreads through town.

The Amber Temple

A secret society of good-aligned wizards built the Amber Temple in the Balinok Mountains more than two thousand years ago. They needed a vault in which to contain the evil vestiges (remnants of dead, malevolent entities) they had captured and the hoard of forbidden knowledge they had amassed. They dedicated the temple to a god of secrets, whom they trusted to keep it hidden from the rest of the world until the end of time. Unfortunately for the wizards, even the will of a god couldn’t prevent other evil creatures from learning the temple’s location. The wizards were forced to guard the temple themselves, to keep its secrets from falling into villainous hands. The evil forces that were imprisoned within the temple eventually corrupted the wizards, turning them against one another.

The wizards were dead and gone by the time an evil archmage named Exethanter arrived at the temple. He breached the temple’s wards, spoke to a vestige trapped in amber, and discovered the secret to becoming a lich. After his transformation, the lich Exethanter took over the temple and turned the skulls of it previous defenders into flameskulls under his command. Exethanter then took it upon himself to watch over the temple, not to hoard its evil secrets but to share them openly. Meanwhile, the evils within the temple fed on each other, growing in power.

Yester Hill

The druids who worship Strahd as lord of the land and master of the weather convene here, atop Yester Hill, on the very edge of Strahd’s domain. This hill is also where the evil blights that walk the Svalich Woods are born, and where Strahd comes on occasion to glimpse his ancestral home.

Werewolf Den

West of Lake Baratok is a cave complex that the werewolves of Barovia use as a den. Characters who interrogate captured werewolves can learn the den’s location. Most of the werewolf pack is out hunting when the characters first arrive, including the pack’s leader, Kiril Stoyanovich.

The werewolves call themselves the Children of Mother Night, because they all worship that deity. Recently, a schism formed within the pack as the result of a challenge to Kiril’s leadership. The rift began when another werewolf, Emil Toranescu, questioned the treatment of children kidnapped by the pack.

Kiril would arm the children with weapons and force them to fight each other to the death until only one child was left standing. The winner would then be turned into a werewolf, ensuring what Kiril called “the strength and purity of the pack.” Emil advocated keeping all the children alive and turning them into werewolves, thus increasing the pack’s size. Emil believed that a larger pack would ensure the werewolves’ survival, whereas Kiril saw a larger pack as too difficult to control and feed.

This ideological divide couldn’t be reconciled and led to many disagreements. The other werewolves were split between the two camps, and it seemed likely that either Kiril or Emil would die before the conflict could be resolved.

The Tome of Strahd is an ancient work penned by Strahd, a tragic tale of how he came to his fallen state. The book is bound in a thick leather cover with steel hinges and fastenings. The pages are of parchment and very brittle. Most of the book is written in the curious shorthand that only Strahd employs. Stains and age have made most of the work illegible, but several paragraphs remain intact and readable.

I am the Ancient. I am the Land. My beginnings are lost in the darkness of the past. I was the warrior, I was good and just. I thundered across the land like the wrath of a just god, but the war years and the killing years wore down my soul as the wind wears stone into sand.

All goodness slipped from my life. I found my youth and strength gone, and all I had left was death. My army settled in the valley of Barovia and took power over the people in the name of a just god, but with none of a god’s grace or justice.

I called for my family, long unseated from their ancient thrones, and brought them here to settle in the castle Ravenloft. They came with a younger brother of mine, Sergei. He was handsome and youthful. I hated him for both.

From the families of the valley, one spirit shone above all others. A rare beauty, who was called “perfection,” “joy,” and “treasure.” Her name was Tatyana, and I longed for her to be mine.

I loved her with all my heart. I loved her for her youth. I loved her for her joy. But she spurned me! “Old One” was my name to her—“elder” and “brother” also. Her heart went to Sergei. They were betrothed. The date was set.

With words she called me “brother,” but when I looked into her eyes they reflected another name: “death.” It was the death of the aged that she saw in me. She loved her youth and enjoyed it. But I had squandered mine. The death she saw in me turned her from me. And so I came to hate death—my death. My hate is very strong. I would not be called “death” so soon. I made a pact with death, a pact of blood. On the day of the wedding, I killed Sergei, my brother. My pact was sealed with his blood.

I found Tatyana weeping in the garden east of the chapel. She fled from me. She would not let me explain, and a great anger swelled within me. She had to understand the pact I made for her. I pursued her. Finally, in despair, she flung herself from the walls of Ravenloft, and I watched everything I ever wanted fall from my grasp forever.

It was a thousand feet through the mists. No trace of her was ever found. Not even I know her final fate. Arrows from the castle guards pierced me to my soul, but I did not die. Nor did I live. I became undead, forever.

I have studied much since then. “Vampyr” is my new name. I still lust for life and youth, and I curse the living that took them from me. Even the sun is against me. It is the sun and its light I fear the most, but little else can harm me now. Even a stake through my heart does not kill me, though it holds me from movement. But the sword, that cursed sword that Sergei brought! I must dispose of that awful tool! I fear and hate it as much as the sun.

I have often hunted for Tatyana. I have even felt her within my grasp, but she escapes. She taunts me! She taunts me! What will it take to bend her love to me? I now reside far below Ravenloft. I live among the dead and sleep beneath the very stones of this hollow castle of despair. I shall seal shut the walls of the stairs that none may disturb me.