Ravenloft: Strahd's Condition

"What about children?" "No, not children. That would be messed up."

            

Chasing a burglar who stole a holy symbol, Somers the Paladin and Quill the Ranger have been transported to a strange alternate Transylvanish dimension, full of gloom and fog, ruled by a shadowy figure named Strahd von Zarovich. Strahd presides from his gothic castle over a land of thieves, werewolves, and gypsies. A thin remnant of humanity, putatively ruled by a Burgomaster, huddles in the half-abandoned town of Barovia. Although every player going into this game knows that Strahd is a vampire, the word has not yet been uttered in the game itself.

   

Last session, we accepted Strahd's invitation to visit his castle, where he intimated that he's as trapped in this realm as we are. He asked us to investigate rumors of a dimensional portal in a cavern. Along the way, we were joined by a cleric named Irmgarde (also looking for a way out) and a fighter named Vladislav, who looked suspiciously like Strahd himself. We found the portal, but while Irmgarde and Vladislav disappeared to parts unknown, Somers and Quill just ended up in the forest outside the cavern.

        

Somers expresses her own doubts about Vladislav.

        

Our last session ended with the party reuniting with the elf mage Glorianna and the half-elf fighter Tatian. We really want a cleric, but Irmgarde seems to be gone for good. Commenters warned me to create a cleric when I started the game, but I imagined that I'd be able to find a cleric NPC, not realizing that NPCs are sometimes temporary. I also think I mis-remembered AD&D rules and thought my paladin would have more cleric spells, and sooner.

   

This session begins with the party investigating another cave in the Wooded Area West of Barovia. It is small and dark. We find a werewolf huddling in a corner, but he's not hostile. We can speak to him. "Get away!" he warns. "By all the gods, leave this place!" (His voice acting is probably the worst in the game so far.) We have several dialogue options, two of which suggest things that I'm not aware of: that we've learned about lycanthropy, and that we know about a three-spell process for curing it.

       

Did I forget about a scroll or book somewhere?

       

The werewolf is grateful for our offers of assistance but warns that he's on the brink of not being able to control himself. He tells us that the "progenitor" of the werewolves in the area is a large albino, "a beast who lives in the unholy joy of the cruelty he causes." In contrast to the voice acting, the writing in the game is occasionally quite good.

     

I previously met werewolves in the Wooded Area at night. I explore a bit and find the albino werewolf in the southern part of the map, along with a couple of grey minions. They're not hard to kill, but after the albino werewolf is dead, the one in the cave has no new dialogue. I don't know what these "three spells" are that my characters are talking about, so I reluctantly leave him. 

     

Which other CRPGs feature albino werewolves? I feel like there have been a few.

        

Our next step is not entirely clear. We decide to return to Strahd and report on the cave. On the way, we fight darklings and bandits in Barovia, then zombies on the North Svalich Road. None of them pose much danger. Unfortunately, when we reach Castle Ravenloft, we find the doors locked.

   

Checking through my notes, I discover that we found a new key in the caverns. The only place I remember encountering locked doors is in the Old Church Grounds north of Barovia, and since the key is called the Church Vestibule Key, that seems promising. Sure enough, it opens the door. Encounters in the church:

    

• Beyond the locked door are three doors, all leading into the church's main chamber, which is occupied by half a dozen hellhounds. I have to reload twice as they repeatedly kill Somers before I can kill them.

     

Hellhounds in a church? They must love irony.

       

• A priest is kneeling in front of the altar, curiously unmauled from the hellhounds. He is unresponsive when I try to speak with him. He may be dead.

       

I didn't realize that D&D priests were called "Father."

       

• A mirror shows the visage of a man howling in horror. He begs us to free him, ranting about some book and the "secret to the mirror."

      

I love how insensitive the party is. Can you grant wishes? Can you tell me who is the fairest of them all?

       

• Somers notes a hidden button on the wall; without her dialogue, I never would have found it. It leads to a room with a bunch of cleric scrolls and potions. 

• Another barely-visible button opens the door to a large chamber with a cleric holy symbol and a Tome of Evil Artifacts and Cursed Items. It describes the Mirror of Life Trapping, which can only be shattered with "certain words of power," which the book says are on the next page, but I can't get the page to turn. Maybe it's gone.

 

The button is just to the left of my cursor. I'm glad my party members alerted me to it.

         

On the floor of a side-chamber is a scroll. It indicates that one way to travel between dimensions is by Trimia's Catalogue, but to use the tome, I will need to find five items:

1. A fiery red gem.
2. A "finely crafted elven piece" of gold, white gold, or platinum.
3. The feather of a wereraven.
4. "The Mists," a card from a Tarokka deck (the Vistani seer is missing one).
5. A symbol of truth, honor, and religious devotion, but stolen from its rightful owner. That of course is Lord Dhelt's holy symbol, the object that we've been seeking since the beginning.

            

Finding the scroll. Note the various decorations.

        

I have none of these items so far, so I guess the game has a ways to go.  

     

Stairs lead to a larger lower level. Continuing the encounter list:

   

• Lots of zombies. Almost every room disgorges at least a few.

• Several doors opened by pull chains. One room has a Gold Church Key, which opens many other rooms on this level. Another has—hallelujah—a key ring. My joy is soon tempered by the fact that it has only six slots.

       

Here, you can see both zombies and pull-chains. I love it when I can get some synergy going in my screenshots.

          

• On the floor of a room: Van Richten's Tale of Strahd. It describes how Strahd's brother, Sergei, was murdered by a Ba'al Verzi assassin on the day he was set to marry a woman named Tatyana. Although Strahd tried to "comfort" Tatyana, she threw herself from Castle Ravenloft. This event coincided with a failed revolution inside the castle, led by "agents of treachery." I can't wait to compare these events to the original module.

      

Are the "agents of treachery" the party members in the original module?

     

• In a library, we find Trimia's Catalogue! When we try to use it, Somers remarks that it's useless without the rest of the items. Still, that's progress.

• In the same library, in a side-chamber: A Special Scroll of Atonement and a Rod of Smiting. 

• A room with four potions of healing. 

• An old guards' chamber is occupied now by half a dozen skeletons. There are a lot of items of weapons and armor here, but only a suit of bronze platemail offers any advantage over what we already have.

• A pair of illusory walls (both noticed by my characters as I approach) leads to an ancient locked door. No key in my possession works on the keyhole, and Somers remarks that she wouldn't be surprised if the key were found outside the church.

        

That's what we call a "hint."

        

• There are a couple of doors I never find any way to open. I try "Knock" to no avail. I spent forever looking for buttons.

     

Is there any door in the game that responds to "Knock" or lockpicking?

         

• A corridor has four of those tiny buttons. Three of them cause a fireball to shoot at me, while the fourth opens a nearby door. Guess which one I pressed last.

• A pile of bones on the floor excites me until I realize this is not Eye of the Beholder, and I'm thus not likely to get a new NPC that way. (This turns out to be an incorrect assumption, although the mechanism is different.)

        

Most of the lower level of the old church.

        

We find three scraps of parchment on the floor which I suspect make up the missing words to break the Mirror of Life Trapping. I don't know how many there are to find, but when we can't seem to progress any farther, I head back up to the top level. It takes me a few minutes to figure out how to make it work. I first have to place the scraps of parchment on the book, which causes them to disappear into it. After that, using the book causes the mirror to crack.

     

Can we afford to just stay at the inn for the next seven years?

         

Nothing happens after that, but I suspect that the soul in the mirror belonged to the inert priest. Returning to the chapel, I find that I'm correct. The priest is hale and standing. He thanks me but does not, as I'm hoping, join the party—though he does say that the bones on the lower level belong to his apprentice, slain by Strahd. "If only the vigor of life could be returned to his loyal bones, I'm certain he would work to bring the count to justice." Unfortunately, he says that "no mere spell" can raise the bones: "A resurrection is necessary." I thought resurrection was a spell.  He also provides a key to the nearby cemetery.

           

Man, this game really makes you work for your cleric NPCs.

         

I can't think of any way to raise the bones except the "Raise Dead" scroll, which I can't use until I get a cleric. That's a Catch-22. The party heads for the cemetery hoping to find another option.

        

My characters frequently comment on what they see and experience, which I mostly enjoy, although I don't love the game putting words into my characters' mouths.

      

But before we head out, I decide to use the apse to store some excess equipment, of which I have plenty. In addition to what I'm wielding and wearing, my inventory is bursting with stuff, much of which I just need to use, much of which I don't need at all. A lot of it is quest stuff that I'm reluctant to get rid of. There are about 10 cleric scrolls waiting for a cleric. 

   

The Cemetery is swarming with ghouls, which can paralyze, so I take pains to kill them from a distance. This uses up some of my accumulated spells and wands, but the real workhorse here is the Dagger of Throwing, which I must have found in the caverns last session. It automatically returns to the hand of the wielder, and quickly enough that using it feels a bit like playing a first-person shooter. Later, I find an Axe of Hurling, which doubles this effect.

    

The dagger, axe, and Glorianna's spells also save the party when we start encountering vampires. The couple of times that we get level-drained or paralyzed, I reload.

         

One must move gingerly through this area, or this happens.

        

Cemetery encounters: 

       

• One tomb has a four-stanza verse on a stone slab by the entrance. Inside, a banshee wails and immediately kills Tatian and Glorianna. On a reload, I'm able to get up to the banshee, but all of my attacks do only 1 damage each. I experiment a bit and find that the Rod of Smiting does a decent amount of damage, but I still cannot defeat her before she kills all of us. I mark the location and move on.

      

Have I fought a banshee since Pool of Radiance? I don't remember.

         

• A tomb is occupied by a vampire, who attacks the moment I enter. It takes a couple of reloads to kill her without suffering level drain. An illusory wall behind her leads to a chamber with four cleric scrolls, including two "Negative Plane Protection" spells. Sure would be nice to have a cleric. 

• Among the tombs and mausoleums, I find a magical quarterstaff. Tatian has been wielding a regular two-handed sword, as I have not found any magic two-handed weapons capable of attacking from the rear rank. I give her the quarterstaff, one of the few times in any RPG that I've had a fighter using a quarterstaff. That only lasts a short time, however, as I soon find an Axe of Hurling.

• The Axe of Hurling is in a mausoleum alongside a suit of chainmail, a shield, and a pile of bones. 

• Another mausoleum has a second key ring. You cannot, I discover, put a key ring into a key ring.

• A locked mausoleum has a slab outside indicating that it's occupied by Victor Grymig.

• Amidst some gravestones, I find an NPC: a thief who freely admits that he's robbing graves. He's Vuko, a Level 7 chaotic neutral human male thief. I'm not even remotely tempted. Thieves don't seem to have much to do in this game, and this one is pretty vile.

      

Plus, he looks too much like Quill.

        

• A Ring of Wizardry in one tomb lets Glorianna memorize two additional Level 3 spells. 

• On the ground outside, we find a pouch of Unusual Golden Dust. 

       

The constantly-respawning ghouls and vampires are good for our experience levels. Glorianna levels up twice during this session, Tatian once. They're now both Level 6. Somers (paladin) and Quill (ranger) don't level, but they were already Level 7 at the beginning of the session. They're at least halfway to Level 8. 

     

I toss my Dagger of Throwing at a vampire caught behind a tree.

        

The trip hasn't gotten us any closer to the next quest step, whatever that is, nor do we have any idea how to resurrect the apprentice. But during my explorations, I remembered the jeweler's ghost who wanted me to destroy an undead bandit named . . . Victor Grymig, the owner of the locked tomb.

   

I zip back to Strobel the Jewler's house. As before, he demands we destroy Grymig (who murdered his family) and possesses Somers. He also leaves the key to Grymig's vault on the floor.

      

It's hard to believe that Barovia was ever populated enough to justify such a specialist position.

       

Inside Grymig's tomb, we find a "ghoul lord" and kill him in a few blows. There are lots of goodies in the tomb, including some mundane weapons, a suit of magic chainmail, a Ring of Fire Resistance, another pouch of Unusual Golden Dust, and a Rod of Rebirth, which sounds like the resurrection item we were looking for.

    

I was expecting more of a fight.

        

As we leave the tomb, the jeweler keeps his word and departs from Somers's body. He tells us of a secret treasure in his house and gives us a key.

    

Before heading back to the church, we go to the jeweler's house again, use a key to open a door, and find a fire ruby on the floor. I assume that this is the first item we need to use with Trimia's Catalogue.

     

Somers assumes it, too.

         

Back at the church, of course I can't remember where the damned bones are, so I have to loop the entire level twice (missing them the first time). When I finally find them, I wield and use the Rod of Rebirth, and the bones turn into a strong young man.

      

Before.

        

It is the young cleric, Mischa, who first tells us that Count Strahd von Zarovich is a vampire. The cleric suspected Strahd's nature and invaded his castle to confront him. Driven away by Strahd's minions, he returned to the church to find Strahd waiting for him. Moments later, he was a pile of bones in the corner. "This land will know peace only if he is destroyed, and I will gladly join any efforts in that regard." Even better, he has a key to Strahd's castle. Finally, we have a hopefully-permanent cleric. We bid a sad farewell to Tatian, who is unhappy with our decision.

          

After.

        

Mischa is a Level 4 neutral good human male cleric with solid statistics. He comes with a magic mace, regular chainmail, and some potions and scrolls. He weirdly has no trouble wielding the Axe of Hurling. He has some spells I don't remember in any previous D&D CRPG, including "Magical Stone," "Invisibility to Undead," "Draw Strength," and "Draw Dexterity." He also has "Light," which I didn't even realize existed in this game. I've just been exploring in the dark, I guess.

      

Our new companion. He must have somehow had 19 constitution in his previous life.

       

I rather wish I remembered Strobel the jeweler before entering the cemetery, did Grymig's tomb first, and got Mischa into the party before fighting all of the ghouls and vampires. A lot of experience was wasted on Tatian.

      

Some miscellaneous notes:

       

• The church had some good visual cues: furnishings, decorations, statutes (lots of them peacocks, for some reason), candles in pricket stands. I've said this before, but this is the first game that I can remember since Ultima Underworld that manages to instill a real sense of atmosphere.

       

Or maybe it's a turkey.

     

• I desperately need an "Improved Identify" spell scroll. I haven't had the spell available since I lost Velika.

• Somehow, a "Detect Magic" spell I cast in a previous session never wore off.

• The game really wanted me to find robes and cloaks. I must have run across eight separate sets, none of them magical, during this session. 

• Is there any purpose to holy symbols? In Eye of the Beholder, they were necessary for casting cleric spells, but in Ravenloft, the holy symbol is baked into the interface, above the character's head. Nonetheless, I've found two cleric holy symbols and one paladin holy symbol. 

• I wonder if the Rod of Rebirth can be used anywhere else in the game.   

     

The next thing that I know for sure I can do is visit Strahd's castle, but I'm not entirely happy with the locked doors I couldn't open in the church, nor the banshee I left alive in the cemetery, nor the werewolf that I haven't been able to cure. I'll take light hints on any of those things. Ah, wait—while preparing this entry for publication, I looked at the verse outside the banshee's tomb again and saw that its last stanza reads:

   

Dust to dust, our blessing gains

A magic to calm our sister's soul.

And then below, seek out the sign

That to Avernaith will release us all!

   

This suggests to me that the key to defeating the banshee is those two pouches of Unusual Gold Dust. So maybe I'll try that before moving on to Castle Ravenloft. Who is Avernaith, by the way? He or she is mentioned earlier in the poem: "In death, elves to Avernaith must go." I don't remember that name in the D&D pantheon.

      

The full text.

       

I'm really enjoying Ravenloft, though it suffers from the same problems as Pagan: excessive linearity, limited role-playing opportunities, and illusory dialogue options. Nonetheless, I look forward to my Ravenloft sessions while dreading my Pagan ones. I'll have to make sure to analyze this disparity before both games wrap up.

         

Time so far: 18 hours

    

****

    

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10/13/2026