Pagan: Won!

 

The final screen. It doesn't feel much like a "victory" screen. Nothing does.

          

The subtitle is a complete surprise. I figured that once I finished the sorcerers' quests, I would be entering the final act, not immediately on the threshold to victory. 

       

I begin this session petulantly refusing to create any more sorcery spells. I march into the tests expecting that I can use running, jumping, glitches, and lots of reloading to get me past whatever tests the game wants to throw at me. It's a stupid attitude, and it doesn't get me very far.

     

All right, maybe the spells are necessary.

      

Sighing, I start over and patiently create items for almost every spell I've learned in the sorcery school—or, at least, every spell I didn't already mix in Bane's place. I didn't realize during the last session that when you mix spells, you automatically get multiple copies. I thought I'd have to put all new reagents down for additional copies.

       

Hopefully, I won't need any more of those.

        

Even so, it takes me a good hour of dragging things around, which as per last time often doesn't work. The game is finicky about where the reagents are placed, and it often decides not to register my double-clicks on the pentagram. If this weren't an Ultima game, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

I can only find one "talisman" (which looks like a horned skull), and I need these for "Summon Daemon" and "Banish Daemon." I decide that I can just kill any daemon that would otherwise need to be banished, and so I don't create that spell right now.

     

They were right, just one pixel off.

      

When I'm ready, I head north to a small room and I'm teleported to a platform in a much larger cavern. There are multiple exits from this central area, each leading to snaking tunnels with some kind of test in them, each preceded by a plaque telling me what spell I'll need. Ghouls come out of the ground and kith wander around the area, but I mostly ignore them unless I can't help it.

     

Starting from the north and working counter-clockwise, I encounter:

     

• A plaque that says: "Endure Heat." There are a lot of pillars and rocks in this area, difficult to navigate through. It leads to a river of lava, where I have to cast the indicated spell and make my way across by jumping to the semi-solid parts of the lava. Walking or jumping into the liquid lava, as I learn repeatedly, is still death. At the end, I find a demon guarding a chest. I kill him the regular way. The chest contains a blue pentagram symbol and a suit of magical armor that's worth 2 points more than what I already have. The passage on the way back is choked with enemies, including little girls. It takes me a while to get through them. The Recall Item doesn't work.

     

The Avatar endures.

        

• A room with a sorcerer and a pentagram on the floor. I kill the sorcerer with my sword. Some reagents and items are scattered about, including another talisman. Some of the items have spells already cast on them. The existence of the pentagram is good, because I'll need "Banish Daemon" before the end. A book in a chest teaches me "Conflagration."

      

I think I'm making "Banish Daemon" here.

       

• "Extinguish." I cross a bridge with fireballs shooting at me, pass a kith and a troll, and come to a pentagram surrounded by fire. The game won't let me get close until I put the fire out. This takes me a while, because what's not obvious is that you have to cast "Extinguish" on yourself, not the fires. In the middle is a magic helm that improves upon my existing (regular) helm by +2 and saves me a couple of pounds. There's also another blue symbol.

     

Would "Aerial Servant" have worked? I wish I had tried it then.

         

• "Armor of Flames." These corridors shoot fireballs at the Avatar constantly. This is annoying because even when they don't do damage, they stagger me and prevent me from effectively fighting, navigating, or picking things up. I run past kith to a final room with a Demon Shield in one area and a blue pentagram symbol in another. I ignore a daemon in this area, snatch up the items, and flee. The shield adds 5 to my armor. 

     

The Avatar's final kit.

         

• "Flash." This is an authentically useful spell that teleports the Avatar to any place within a line of sight, though not through walls. I use it to get past exploding mushrooms and rolling spiked balls. There's a magical weapon called Flame Sting that I reluctantly pick up, but I'm now carrying four magical weapons that all sound equally good. The blue symbol is on the other side of a large exploding mushroom patch, guarded by one of those flying eyestalks. I ignore him, grab the symbol, and "Flash" out of there.

        

Flashing across a mushroom patch.

        

I can't think of anything to do but return to the central platform, which teleports me back to Arcadion. He congratulates me on making Acolyte and tells me that the teleporter will now take me to Master Malchir.

  

Malchir greets me by another pentagram—man, do these people love pentagrams—and says he'll be administering the final test. He tells me to cast "Flame Bolt," "Explosion," and "Summon Daemon" at him. I already have all those spells prepared, so it's easy. He then summons his own daemon, which I have to "Banish," only I haven't prepared that spell. I try to kill it with my weapon, but I think he's immune to regular attacks. So I have to reload, prepare the spell, and do it again.

      

Good thing the game gave me so many places to prepare spells.

        

Malchir then teleports me to something called the "Ritual of Flame." We're at a huge pentagram, with all the other acolytes. He orders them all to light their candles. I refuse (just to see what happens). Malchir attacks me. I kill him and his summoned demon with my sword. After that, all the other acolytes call me "Master."

      

Malchir's last words.

       

This is satisfying, but it leaves me with no idea what to do from here, and still none of the sorcerers have anything to say about countering Hydros, so I reload and agree to put a candle down. Malchir then commands us to light them, and unlike every other candle in the game, I can't light it by double-clicking on it. I have to cast "Ignite," which I thought I prepared, but the game won't let me cast it. It will just let me tell Malchir that I don't have it. He calls me a "fool" and lights it himself.

   

He then demands that we kneel to Pyros, which of course I refuse, so he attacks again. On a reload, I follow his orders. The subsequent ceremony and cinematic are long, and I have to replay them a couple of times to get everything, particularly since the game doesn't caption spoken dialogue. 

        

I'm sure there's some canonical reason that Pyros looks a lot like the Guardian but none of the other titans do.

     

"For what pathetic reason have you summoned me, mortal?" Pyros grumbles. The gist of it seems to be that Malchir wants Pyros's knowledge of the great fire that used to hang in the sky—the sun, which Malchir has never seen. Pyros—who is appropriately terrifying, much more so than the Guardian—brushes off his request, alternately insulting and threatening him. Malchir then demands that Pyros give him some of his power.

     

Pyros tries to break the bonds that hold him. "I have found a weakness in your defenses!" I guess it's me, as Pyros then points at me and sends me sprawling to the ground. Malchir waves the artifact called the Tongue of Flame and banishes Pyros back to wherever he came from. 

        

Malchir looks for a scapegoat.

       

Afterwards, Malchir is pretty annoyed at my performance ('cause I didn't have "Ignite"?), so he blasts me with "Flame Bolt" and stalks off. 

   

Back in town, Bane has moved into Vardion's old house. The plaque on the door has changed to "Bane, First Acolyte." Vardion's dead and horrifically mangled body is still on the floor of his old house. Bane has nothing to say to me. Beren also has nothing to contribute, and Gorgrund won't talk to me because I was part of Vardion's demise.

      

Lady, you need some therapy.

        

I head back to the Obsidian Fortress. Arcadion is gone. Malchir isn't happy to see me; he says I need to die for entering his sanctum without an invitation. I kill both him and his summoned demon.

        

Consider that my version of the "Calling."

        

On his body, I find the Tongue of Flame (it was not on his body when I killed him earlier) as well as a book called The Tongue of Flame. It says that the Tongue has been the secret to binding and controlling Pyros since the time of the first Master Sorcerer. It warns that if it enters the Great Pentagram, Pyros will be freed and he will destroy the world. So I guess Stratos really is the only cool titan.

   

I assume this is what I was supposed to do, but I start using a different save slot just in case. Obviously, the first thing I do is wander into the Great Pentagram with the Tongue of Flame. I get knocked down; there are explosions; there are roars in the distance; the screen turns red and meteors fall from the sky.  Is this what I was supposed to do? I thought freeing Pyros would be bad. For the rest of this session, misty screens alternate with red screens with meteor showers as I go about my business. The meteors never damage me so I assume they're just cosmetic.

       

Given the way the rest of the game plays out, I'm not sure that this was even necessary.

       

I make sure I'm using yet another save slot as I continue. Everyone calls me "Master." Bane wants to be my First Acolyte. I would give it to Beren, but he doesn't offer. Gorgrund is contrite. I forget where the dumb guy's house is.

   

I can't think of anything to do but check in with Devon and Mythran. Devon has nothing new to say, so I guess releasing Pyros didn't counter Hydros's threat. Mythran, however, has some new dialogue. He thinks the Tongue of Flame is "part of the obelisk in the Ancient Temple." He tells me to read a book on the matter.

       

I head upstairs to look for the right book, and I see a book at the top of the stairs that wasn't there before. What a ham-handed way to ensure that the Avatar finds it. It's titled The Destruction of the Temple, by Nadayr of Tenebrae. It relates how the Guardian instructed the Zealans to construct a great temple on Mount Morgaelin. They expended "tremendous magical forces" to collect Blackrock and shape it into an obelisk. This obelisk focused their thoughts and apparently created the four elemental titans. Then the Destroyer came and blasted the temple with lightning bolts. The four titans appeared to "challenge the invader," their battle ruining the landscape.

         

The game puts the book directly into my path.

       

In the aftermath, rumors grew that pieces of the obelisk had survived, each aspected to one of the titans, each keeping the others in check. Lithos put the Heart of the Earth in the Pit of Death; Hydros set the Tear of  the Seas on the ocean floor; the Breath of Air is somewhere on Argentrock Isle; and the sorcerers came to possess the Tongue of Fire. There is speculation about a fifth fragment, but no one knows its location. The book ends by noting that if all five fragments were reunited near the site of the original temple, the obelisk could be recreated.

   

When I return to Mythran, I have a new dialogue option: "I want to recreate the obelisk." Apparently, I think I can use its power to leave Pagan. Mythran agrees and says that I'll need the "Ethereal Travel" spell, though he doesn't say precisely why. He intimates that it will allow me to visit the titans and perhaps fight them. He wants 250 obsidian pieces for the spell, which I don't have because I left all my money at Daemon's Crag. I teleport back there. I have this premonition that it won't be in the chest where I left it, that I'll have to spend some time in the late game grinding against skeletons for coins, but it's right where I left it. I retrieve it and return to Mythran for the spell.

    

I should mention that Mythran has given me several other Thaumaturgy spells, including "Confusion Blast," "Meteor Shower," and "Summon Creature." All are cast, I believe, by double-clicking the appropriate spellbook with the right reagents in my possession. For the most part, I haven't had the right reagents, and I'm not particularly interested in casting those spells anyway. 

       

Mythran sells me a spell that I will never use.

        

I clearly needed "Ethereal Gate," though. The spellbook is cagey about what reagents it requires, but I gather that it's probably five pieces of Blackrock, as represented by the five pieces of the obelisk. I don't know where the mysterious fifth one has gone, but I already possess one and have leads on the other three. I decide to start with the Breath of Wind. I teleport to Argentrock Isle. None of the theurgists are any help, so I take my case directly to Stratos. It takes me a while to remember how to reach her; I forgot about "Air Walk."

      

"I must have the Breath of Wind," I say. She refuses: "Many would pay the price for your quest for power." I can't say anything else but "Bye," so I leave for now.

    

For the Tear of the Seas, I can't imagine how I'm going to get to the bottom of the ocean. [Ed. Microsoft wants me to replace this with "understand the underlying cause of the ocean." That would be cool, too.] I figure Devon might have some idea as the chief Tempest, so I return to him. He's confused at first when I ask about Blackrock or the Tear of the Sea, but he says that he did once recover an unusually hard stone while casting his nets. It's in the locked room in the southwest corner of the palace. He gives me the key. He also says that if I need a place to stay, I can use Salkind's place. I can even loot it. If only it had a teleportation pad.

     

This offer costs him nothing given what happens next.

        

The Tear of the Seas, plus 400 obsidian coins, are in a chest where Devon said it would be. That one was easy. This game holds your hand so closely that if you managed to make it this far in the game without making any money, you can buy the "Ethereal Gate" spell anyway.

     

I have an idea where the Heart of the Earth must be: that large, locked room in the Pit of Death. I know I'll need my earth reagents, so I retrieve them from Daemon's Crag, then teleport to the Hall of the Mountain King, then make my way to the Pit via Stone Cove. In the Pit, I find that commenters were correct and I can cast "Create Golem" through the door on the little patch of mud visible if I walk right up to the door. I then order the golem to open the door. 

     

Unlike most spells, "Create Golem" turned out to be useful twice.

     

The mud patch has a gravestone in its center: "BURIED WITHIN THE VERY BREATH OF LITHOS IS THE HEART." It doesn't take me long to figure out that I need "Open Ground." The earth crumbles, and the Heart of the Earth is revealed.

     

Lithos, you really could have hidden this better.

       

This experience makes me wonder if the secret to finding the Breath of Wind isn't to cast some kind of air spell on Stratos. Maybe "Hear Truth"? Back I go to Argentrock Isle. Again, I "Air Walk" to Stratos. I cast "Hear Truth" before talking with her, but it doesn't offer any new options. Standing on the platform, I go through the rest of the air spells. "Divination" tells me where I am. "Aerial Servant" is useless; I have nothing to fetch. Maybe I need to do more "Air Walking"? There are other platforms in the area, after all. I try jumping to the platform to the southeast of where Stratos is, but I end up in the drink. I reload and try again, and again I fall into the water. After a couple more tries, I realize that this isn't just the usual interface problem; the Avatar is actually hitting an invisible barrier when he tries to jump to that platform. I try "Reveal," which I was going to try next anyway, and sure enough, a pedestal with the Breath of Wind appears on the platform. I cast "Aerial Servant" to bring it to me. For some reason, it's called the Breath of Air when actually in my inventory.

     

My servant snatches the artifact.

        

I'm hoping that now that I have four of the objects, Mythran will have something to say about where I can find the fifth. He has no new dialogue, so I decide to consult what the book has to say again. I don't learn anything new, but I soon note that the book is now glowing in my inventory. I go to open it again, and this time, I'm teleported elsewhere. Is that how thaumaturgy works? If you read the book with all the reagents in your possession, the book is empowered, and then after that, it actually casts the spell? Either way, what was the fifth piece of Blackrock? I have to search my own entries to remember that little Blackrock pyramid I got from the tomb of Khumash-Gor. 

    

Why is this place floating in a void instead of just on the side of the mountain?

      

So, great! No more searching. The place to which I've been teleported seems to be a platform floating in the void. There are lanterns decorated with large skulls in the corners. I find a giant stone pentagram in the center and paths leading off in the four cardinal directions. There are changelings wandering around.

   

I try the east path first. It leads to a doorway that brings me to a cave. "Yes, Avatar, seek a way home!" the Guardian says. The caverns wander about interminably, broken only by a note found on a skeleton that seems to give advice for overcoming obstacles, though I never use its advice. I run past ghouls, skeletons, and trolls. "Endure Heat" gets me across a lava patch.

     

"Endure Heat," Avatar. Not "Armor of Flame."

         

It takes me half an hour to get up onto a particular ledge. Unable to do it the first time, I explore the entire rest of the dungeon, backtracking across the lava fields. I try to "Flash" my way to the top, which doesn't work. The problem is that the Avatar is obscured by the ledge, so you can't see which way he's facing as you try to jump. Also, if the Avatar gets too close to the ledge, he can't make it. I have to watch a video online just to confirm that it can be done before redoubling my efforts and finally getting to the top.

     

The game nearly ended for me here.

         

The caverns rumble and shake violently as I near the final chamber. Lithos's face comes out of the rock. "You have betrayed me, live one," he growls. "And for that, you shall die." A couple of rock golems appear from the ground. I open my backpack, find the Heart of Earth, double click it, and point the cursor at Lithos. "No! I have been defeated! No mortal could have done this. I shall return for you, live one!" Then he's gone, and I'm teleported back to the original platform. The Heart of Lithos is now glowing. 

      

Lithos just after his defeat. I didn't get a shot while he was trying to menace me.

       

I move to the north exit and the portal at its end. This is clearly Hydros's domain: threads of earth surrounded by water. I thread my way through them, ignoring ghouls and changelings, jumping across rocks and stone bridges. I fall in the water and drown a couple of times, necessitating reloads.

      

The Avatar's jumping technique continues to suck.

        

Finally, a white stone bridge leads to a platform with a crest of a dolphin in the center, just like the one in Carthax Lake. Hyrdos's tentacle appears. "Do not be so foolish as to think you have the power to defeat me," her voice warns, seconds before I wield the Tear of the Seas and do exactly that. "You will regret this day," she threatens as she sinks beneath the waves. I reappear on the platform.

   

West exit next. "Perhaps I should destroy you now," the Guardian intones as I enter the portal to what turns out to be Pyros's domain. I cross strands of earth surrounded by lava before reaching a strange glyph on the floor: a 10-pointed star with blinking lights in the corners.

       

Why does this domain alone have some weird puzzle?

       

A nearby skeleton has a journal titled Journeys through Hell by Robin Dudley. It indicates that the key to crossing the lava lies in a bunch of spheres scattered about the level. The corpse has one of them. When I place it on one of the flashing lights, it disappears. Naturally, it occurs to me to try to cross the area by just casting "Endure Flames," and it works fine. 

   

There are a bunch of corpses splayed on the ground on the walkway leading up to a cauldron. Pyros emerges. "You have impressed me with your impudence," he says. "I shall reward you with eternal torment." Something like that. He activates two daemon statutes nearby, but I hit him with the Tongue of Flame before they can do much damage. "This is not possible!" he cries, sinking back into the lava. And once again, I'm back on the platform.

      

This should have been scarier than it was.

         

Finally, I head south towards Stratos's domain. Of the four titans, she's the only one that doesn't seem to be evil, so I'm not looking forward to killing her, or whatever it is I'm doing with these objects. 

   

Stratos's domain is small, just a bunch of rock platforms leading in a near-direct line to the titan. There's a full suit of magical equipment off to the side, on a platform that falls apart if I leap to it. I could cast "Aerial Servant" to fetch the items, but I already have all-magic gear. Instead, I keep going. There are similar collapsing platforms along the way, so I just have to save every couple of jumps. 

     

Any player who wastes a lot of time collecting these items is about to feel like an idiot.

         

"Oh, wicked, wicked child," Stratos says as I reach her. "You have tried my patience, and now I shall punish you." Some little whirlwinds appear to harass me. That makes me feel less bad about hitting her with the Breath of Air/Wind. 

     

You used to be my favorite, Stratos.

        

Back on the central platform, I'm not sure what to do. There isn't a fifth exit. I root in my backpack for a while until I find the Blackrock pyramid. I try double-clicking on it. A cursor appears, so I click on the pentagram. Nothing. I do it again and try clicking on myself. "You feel very powerful," the game says. Did that work because I'm the fifth titan? Did I somehow steal my own power?

  

But I still don't know what to do, so I start arranging the pieces of the obelisk around on the pentagram, fighting off a few changelings as I do. The Tongue of Flame sparkles when I place it on the western point, which gives me the clue I need. I place the other pieces at their appropriate points, with the Blackrock pyramid going in the one point that isn't oriented to a cardinal direction.

      

Looks like that one's in the right place.

        

Lightning strikes, claiming each of the objects. Then a tall black obelisk rises from the center of the pentagram. Ghosts, daemons, and other creatures are seen (and heard) howling inside its facets. I step forward and enter.

     

I would say that nothing about this screams "gate," but we do have the precedent of the Blackrock prism in Ultima Underworld II.

           

The endgame cutscene shows the Avatar walking for a while through a white landscape with tall, round columns.

      

Ah, yes, this familiar place, that in all the world-hopping I've done in this series has definitely appeared before.

          

Then the scene shifts to show the Avatar standing on top of a jutting piece of stone, the screen red and fiery, the area around him a wasteland of rubble. He is wearing a completely different outfit than the one he sported throughout the game, this one consisting of a plumed helmet and a brilliant white tunic on which the yellow (orange?) fringe and sash create an ankh shape. There are pterodactyls or something flying through the sky.

     

Oh, great. I'm in Morrowind.

        

Hearing a chuckle, the Avatar turns around to find himself confronted by an enormous stone head representing the Guardian. Roll credits.

    

This whole time, I've been holding out hope that the game would at least offer a compelling ending. That was certainly dispelled.

   

Let's ponder some questions and points as I put together the final entry:

   

• It's not that I would have wanted the developers to prolong the game, but the four confrontations with the titans were pathetic. The player just has to make his way to them and double-click. That's it. Why in the name of all that's holy would the authors not require the player to make extensive use of the spells he's just spent all that time learning, either in navigation or battle?

• Where the hell was I supposed to use "Withstand Death"!? I carried it for the entire game after learning that I'd only be able to use it once, and I'd know it when I saw it.

• Why is the obelisk a gateway, exactly? Was it a gateway back when the Zealans used it? Why does it go to an area with white columns? How did I get out of this area? Could this series at least offer some consistency when it comes to interplanar travel?

• What was the purpose of offering all that magical equipment at the end? To fight changelings? 

• Would it have been too much to get some denouement on the matter of Pagan? Were the titans imprisoned forever? (Are they imprisoned at all?) Did the Zealan gods return? Like, if I had written this game, I would have had the three Zealan gods appear when I created the obelisk and offer some explanations and assurances that with the titans gone, things would get better for the few remaining people, then maybe had them use their powers to send me home.

     

Why make this an image of a daemon instead of an image of Pyros?

      

• I particularly love how after disrupting each faction to master their particular approaches to magic, I simply abandoned them. Vividos must be wondering where the hell I am.

• A lot was made by the Zealans about the Avatar becoming the Titan of Ether. I guess thaumaturgy is supposed to be associated with ether given the name of one of its spells ("Ethereal Gate"). But I only ever cast one ethereal spell. I'm not sure I really qualify for "titan." The game might have made more sense if the Avatar had to use the Blackrock pyramid on Mythran.

• Where did the Avatar's change of clothing come from?

• Most important, is that final shot supposed to be Britannia? (I already know from online sources that it is.) I mean, it just looks like a generic ruined landscape on a red world. How is the final shot supposed to really hit the player if there's nothing visibly Britannian about it? [Ed. Apparently, online sources are wrong. The official cluebook says that the Avatar has appeared on "the Guardian's homeworld. Of course, the Guardian's homeworld was given as Pagan in an earlier game, so it's not like Origin deserves a lot of benefit of the doubt here.]

    

When I started this entry, I had no inkling that it would be the final one. I figured there would be a host of new quests after I became the master of the four elements. I thought there would be stuff going on in Tenebrae. I thought I'd meet the Zealan gods again. I thought there were more places to access from the Catacombs, even. So the only good thing I can say is that the ending came a lot faster than I expected. 

    

Final time: 51 hours 

    

*****

   

Previous entry in this series

   

Next entry in this series

11/11/2026 

 

Ravenloft: Strahd's Comparison

See below for the module's analogue.

        

I enjoyed Ravenloft, but I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if it had been my only exposure to the Ravenloft setting. In all Dungeons & Dragons computer games, there's a sense of being part of a larger, ongoing world, and the player's enjoyment of those games is heightened if he catches various allusions and references. I personally don't catch most of them, I hasten to add, but it happens a few times per game.

   

A player who comes to Ravenloft solely through the CRPG doesn't learn that much about Strahd or his world. It's mysterious, somehow disconnected from the rest of the universe by magic mists, inhabited by classic Slavic mythological archetypes. Strahd von Zarovich's origins, his title of Count, his position of lord of the land, and other elements are never explained. We learn that Strahd had a brother named Sergei. Though destined to be a priest, Sergei fell in love with a peasant woman named Tatyana. Strahd scoffed at the match, then fell in love with the woman himself when he met her. His transformation into a vampire may have had something to do with his love for the woman. He seems to have killed his brother, then made a move for Tatyana, who killed herself rather than submit to him.

        

This turns out to be the distillation of an entire novel.

      

We know that after these events, he ruled the land as a tyrant, opposed by a group of were-ravens and some cabal called the Ba'al Verzi. He was greatly reduced at least once, but not killed, by the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, which his subjects later sought so they could try to kill him again.

   

We know that Strahd wants to escape Ravenloft, that he has explored several methods of doing so. There are at least three: the portal in the western caves, although it disappeared after we tried to use it; Trimia's Catalogue, which we ultimately used; and some method that the burglar who started this whole quest learned from an ancient lich (probably Azalin, the Lord of Darkon, mentioned in a different letter). A mage's journal also refers to "lifting the curse of Alabain" and "finding the date of the Great Alignment of Southern Stars" as potential avenues out of here.

   

I think that about covers it, and so I go back to the original module looking for further answers.

        

Strahd's family?

      

Let's start with Barovia itself. My understanding is that it could be dropped into the fringes of any campaign, whether Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, or otherwise. Strahd's Possession does a decent job rendering what the module says about it. Principally, there are gates on the Old Svalich Road blocking the way out, and the entire land is surrounded by a fog. "Once it is breathed, it infuses itself around a character's vital organs as a neutralized poison." PCs who try to leave choke to death unless they re-enter Barovia within 24 hours. The fog is generated by Strahd himself and only dissipates if he dies. Strahd has given the gypsies an antidote to the fog's effects, but the PCs in the module can never discover or possess it. The same potion appears in the game, of course, but its uses are different owing to the changes in the nature of the fog between the 1983 module and the 1990 box set.

    

The module begins with the party outside Barovia, in a busy tavern. A gypsy arrives and hands them a letter, putatively from Burgomaster Kolyan Indrirovich, asking the party to come to Barovia and save the "love of his life," Ireena Kolyana, who has been "afflicted by an evil so deadly that even the good people of our town cannot protect her." A letter that the party can find on a dead villager on the road indicates that Ireena is Kolyan's adopted daughter and that she has been bitten by Strahd. The first letter turns out to be a forgery, written by Strahd to lure the PCs to Barovia, but the circumstances that it relates are accurate: Ireena is languishing from a vampire's bite. The PCs can meet the girl's adopted brother, Ismark, and both siblings can join the party. Ireena's origins are mysterious; her adoptive father found her in the woods.

          

The map is quite different. The Old Svalich Road goes east-west in the module; the church is to the northwest of town rather than the northeast; the cemetery is to the north of the church rather than the east, and it does not have explorable mausoleums; and while there are plenty of woods, none of them have caves. Castle Ravenloft is approached from the west rather than the south. There are rivers and bridges that the game doesn't have the graphics to depict. Barovia is the same dull, dispirited, half-abandoned place, with the same hapless subjects cowering in their homes. It is governed by a Burgomaster, although he's been dead for a week as the module begins. His estate is to the south of the village rather than the west.

     

If you rotate this map 90 degrees, you basically have the map used by the CRPG.

             

The Barovia of the module does have a store, called Bildrath's Mercantile, where everything costs 10 times its price outside of Barovia. The tavern is called Blood of the Vine, as it is in the CRPG, but the bartender's name is Arik rather than Bray. The church outside the town has not been rendered unholy by Strahd's invasion, and a priest named Donavich still tends it. There is no basement to explore.

 

One area in which the CRPG is faithful to the module is in the monsters the party encounters. Random encounters in the module deliver worg wolves, bats, zombies, ghouls, wights, wraiths, and vampires. But the party can also be attacked by villagers and gypsies, too. There is a gypsy camp on the way to the castle, where the PCs can meet Madam Eva and have their fortunes told.

   

Overall, the road, the church, the village of Barovia, and the gypsy camp have a few encounters, but their importance is minimized in the module. The party is meant to get to Castle Ravenloft as quickly as possible, and the majority of the game takes place there. They can find a carriage on the road, enter it, and automatically travel the rest of the way to the castle. Much as in the CRPG, they cross a bridge and travel through a portcullis. There is a small outdoor area that the players of the CRPG don't get to explore.

          

The module's depiction of a coach approaching Castle Ravenloft.

        

The castle layout is similar to the one in the game. Its levels are named the same (e.g., Larders of Ill Omen, Court of the Count). It has major and minor spires. Some of the specific rooms are recognizable, like the long Hall of Faith with its inert statues, the wine cellar with its casks, the chapel, and the dining hall—although they're not always in the same place. Some of its monsters are the same: wraiths, zombies, gargoyles, vampires, specters. The module castle also has mini red dragons, angry villagers, and rust monsters. There is no mention of doom guards or zombie golems.

    

The module of course has more interesting encounters than the CRPG, which was more limited by its engine and programming. Some things I would have loved to see in Strahd's Possession include an illusion of Strahd playing the pipe organ, traps that animate suits of armor (more to scare the party than actually attack), a coven of witches clustered around a cauldron, a torture room, and a couple of unique monsters and NPCs like Lief Lipsiege, Strahd's accountant, and a vampire named Helga who has chosen to be with Strahd but tries to convince the party otherwise.

     

The dungeon with its many crypts appears in the module, but the crypts are so much more interesting. Instead of just random treasures and zombie golems, they each have plaques with names and backstories for the various people interred there. One of them is Sergei's. Several of them are "wives" that Strahd has lured or kidnapped from Barovia over the centuries. One has a nightmare (the horse). The only thing I see from the list of interesting encounters and treasures that survived into the CRPG are a couple of crypts that teleport the PCs around the area.

         

The closest thing we get in the game to the many inscriptions in the module.

         

The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is given as one of the special treasures of the module—a powerful lawful good holy symbol once worn by the High Priest of Ravenloft. It doesn't shoot a beam of light as in the game; rather it generates the light of the sun for 1-10 rounds, damaging and potentially destroying any vampires in its radius. However, it can only be used once per week, not repeatedly amidst short cooldowns. Its origins are not mentioned; there are no were-ravens in the game; and it was not hidden in an oak. There is another artifact that can harm Strahd: an undead-killing Sunsword once owned by Sergei. Strahd had it destroyed, blade separated from hilt, but the blade disappeared and the hilt is in Castle Ravenloft. The PCs unknowingly have the blade and can reunite it with the hilt.

   

That leaves Strahd himself. His story in the module is told in his own diary. He  was once a holy warrior, but after years of war, he decided to settle down in the place his army happened to be at the time, the lands of Barovia. He sent for his family members, including his younger brother Sergei, though nothing is said of his brother being on the path to priesthood. He did fall into a love triangle with Sergei and Tatyana, but the diary does not say that Sergei was the one that introduced him to Tatyana. Strahd made a "pact with death" to become a vampire because he thought the reason Tatyana rejected him was that he was too old. Sergei's murder and Tatyana's dive from the castle walls are related as in the CRPG, but Tatyana's body was never found, and Strahd thinks she's somehow still alive: "I have even felt her within my grasp, but she escapes."

      

An image from the module was used for the portrait of Tatian in the CRPG. It is likely meant to be Tatyana in the portrait and Ireena standing next to it.

         

Strahd has four potential goals for luring the PCs to Ravenloft, chosen randomly by the dungeon master at the beginning of the module by dealing from a deck of cards.

   

• Strahd wants to leave Ravenloft and settle elsewhere by committing a little identity theft. He will try to polymorph one of the PCs into a vampire, then polymorph himself into the PC.

• Strahd is trying to make a magical "sphere of darkness" but lacks the final component. He believes incorrectly that the PCs have it.

• Strahd wants Ireena Kolyana to love him. He plans to charm the PCs into attacking her, then swoop in and save her.

• Strahd wants to destroy the Sunsword once and for all. He knows the PCs have the blade (which appears as a regular longsword while divorced from the hilt). The PCs don't know they have it. I don't know how this plays out if none of the PCs carries a regular longsword. Is the DM supposed to force them to take one? That's suspicious.

  

Strahd is supposed to attack the PCs repeatedly throughout the module, but he has several abilities that allow him to flee if necessary. He is always encountered in his own crypt, much like in the CRPG. He has a lot of spells at his disposal, not just "Fireball."

       

The module asks the DM to randomize Strahd's motivation and the locations of certain treasures by dealing cards.

        

The module ends when the PCs have destroyed Strahd. If Ireena Kolyana is with the party, they can get an ending in which the ghost of Sergei appears to beckon Ireena to join him in the afterlife. Ireena is revealed as Tatyana, or perhaps the reincarnation of Tatyana. She departs with Sergei, the mists disperse, and the sun comes beaming through.

   

If the module were the only Ravenloft property to exist other than the CRPG, we would probably have to conclude that the CRPG takes place before the module. The Burgomaster is still alive (although it could easily be a different Burgomaster). The party's recovery of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is a prelude to it being more accessible to the party in the module. Most importantly, the party does not kill Strahd in the CRPG, so he's still around for the module. The only things that I cannot reconcile are that a) the church has lost its sanctity in the CRPG but not the module, and b) there's a store open in Barovia in the module but not the CRPG.

     

The Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (1990) box turned Ravenloft from a module into an entire campaign setting.

       

But between the module and the CRPG, TSR released Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (1990) and published a novel called I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire (1993). These properties moved Ravenloft to the ethereal plane, in a special pocket dimension called the "Demiplane of Dread," of which Strahd is both ruler and prisoner. The geography is greatly expanded to include 34 lands and eight "islands of terror" separated from other parts of the land by mists; the Undead Forest in the CRPG is clearly one of these. These lands were slowly added to the Demiplane as additional prisons/domains for various dark powers, including Azalin the lich. There are gates from the various other campaign settings that can bring people here. The heroes of the original module canonically failed. There's an entry for 528 on the Barovian calendar: "Powerful heroes assault Castle Ravenloft and perish."

       

The maps of Barovia and Castle Ravenloft do not seem much changed from the original module, though. The book is over 200 pages, so I haven't read it all, but I don't see any mention of the Ba'al Verzi, Sasha, Pyoor Twohundredsummers, or any of the joinable NPCs in the game, although I understand there were additional books in the Realm of Terror box.

 

The game follows Realm of Terror in the different ways that people can leave Ravenloft. Portals open on particular calendar dates or phases of the moon or when particular quests are achieved. The DM is given some freedom here, and  it strikes me that Trimia's Catalogue aligns with the spirit of this flexibility.

         

The "mage's journal" in the game describes some of the ways to get out of the Demiplane.

         

Finally, I, Strahd explains why so many women keep appearing who look like Tatyana: it's part of the curse that the mysterious "dark powers" have inflicted upon Strahd as part of his imprisonment. He is doomed to keep meeting facsimiles of Tatyana over the centuries, all of them rejecting him or dying before he can possess them. Tatian is clearly meant to be one of these incarnations. I didn't keep her in the party, so I missed some unique dialogue. When the party (with Tatian) meets Vladislav (Strahd in disguise) in the caverns, he is momentarily taken aback, saying that he thought he recognized "an old flame." He keeps getting distracted by her throughout the rest of the dialogue. Then, from what I read online, if the party has Tatian when they go through the portal, she disappears along with Strahd. Then again, so does Irmgarde. Does every NPC who goes through the portal disappear?

      

Strahd is flustered by Tatian.

         

I, Strahd has a framing story in which a vampire hunter named Rudolph von Richten infiltrates Strahd's castle, finds his journal (which the party also finds), and reads it. Richten is also given as the author of the Strahd's Possession cluebook. Since Richten managed to make it all the way into Strahd's private study, it would make complete sense if he related his own adventures through each of the maps, but instead the hints and clues are given as a bunch of papers that Richten happened to find.

      

And that's what I can tell you about the relation between the CRPG and the existing Ravenloft media. Of course, there was a lot more to come for the setting, all the way into the current year, but none of that influenced Strahd's Possession, so we'll leave it here. When I come back in a few days, we'll wrap up this enjoyable title.

   

****

    

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Further reading:

• The original Ravenloft module (1983)  
• The Ravenloft: Realm of Terror box set (1990) 

11/06/2026