PLAYER INFO: You walk down the road. You notice that through the mists and cloud the orb of the weak sun is now at an angle passed the mid point indicating the afternoon has come. As you walk the main road you notice there are more people about. They are all smiling but the smile does not reach their eyes. Many of them offer you the greeting Danika told you "All will be well" but little else in the way of dialogue. You ask for directions a couple of times from people. They provide short but accurate answers, one even says looking at Varric, looks like you need his services about a week ago and laughs and walks briskly off.

After passing the Town Square the directions bring you to a rather uninviting shop, two stories tall with a sign shaped like a coffin above the front door. All of the window shutters are closed up tight, and a deathly silence surrounds the establishment.

This slouching, centuries-old stone church has a bulging steeple in the back and walls lined with cracked, stained glass windows depicting pious saints. A fence of wrought iron encloses a garden of gravestones next to the church. A thin mist creeps among the graves. A crow sits and preens its feathers. A second joins it and they CAW at each other.

PLAYER INFO: Standing behind the chair, holding a sealed letter, is a bear of a man. His breastplate, rapier, silk tunic, and greasy beard glisten in the lamplight. Resting on small rugs to his left and right are a pair of black mastiffs.

He looks at the four of you with fear and trepidation and then at the letter again. He passes it to you and says "This was delivered, just yesterday by Rahadin on behalf Lord Strahd. As if he knew you would be arriving soon. His instruction was to give it to you. No reply is needed, Rahadin said he will know." Read the letter and show it in the game log.

PLAYER INFO: This mansion has walls of plastered stone that display many scars where the plaster has fallen away from age and neglect. Drapes cover every window, including a large, arched opening above the mansion’s double entrance doors. As you approach you notice two crows sitting on the roof line watching you intently. As you approach the door one flys off in the direction of the Blue water Inn.

PLAYER INFO: A blazing hearth fire fills this room with rolling waves of red and amber light. The walls are lined with ancient books and tomes, their leather covers well oiled and preserved through careful use. All is in order here. The stone floor is concealed beneath a thick, luxurious rug. In the center of the room is a large, low table, waxed and polished to a mirrored finish. Even the poker in its stand next to the blazing fireplace is polished. Large, overstuffed divans and couches are arranged about the room. Two chairs of burgundy-colored wood with padded leather seats and back cushions face the hearth. A huge painting hangs over the mantelpiece in a heavy, gilded frame. The rolling firelight illuminates the carefully rendered portrait. It is an exact likeness of Ireena Kolyana. A group of ghostly women are gathered around a mannequin sewing and re fitting a bridal gown. from the size and shape of it you conclude it would be a good fit for Ireena.

PC INFO: This river flows as clear as a blue winter sky through the valley. In the middle of the arching stone bridge, the river flows15 foot below.

DM INFO: Ismark gives Ireena a hug in the middle of the bridge.and says with a smile now you be a good little girl and do what these fine folk say. she pushes him back and playfuly draws her rapier. I can take care of myself if it comes to that! He backs off laughing but says "in all serious ness be careful your the only family I have now and you know the devil Straud want you and he will stop at nothing to have his way. He looks at all of you and says take care and safe travels."

**PC INFO: ** as you approach the tower via the causeway you see a person on their hands and knees between the wheels of the wagon parked at the base of the tower.

DM INFO: this is Ezmerelda - do Ezmerelda’s Retreat below in special events.

PC INFO: As you reach the village square and are about to cross to the tavern the mist seems to clear a little and you hear a soft whimpering draws your eye toward a pair of children standing in the middle of an otherwise lifeless street intersection.

PC INFO: Dust and cobwebs shroud an elegantly appointed bedroom and an adjoining nursery . Double doors set with panes of stained glass pull open to reveal a balcony overlooking the front of the house. Standing near the open door to the nursery is the gostly form of a woman. She raises a finger to her lips as if to shhh you.

DM INFO: Should the PC's decode to enter the nursery or speak in normal voices after being warned the Specter Attacks.

DM INFO: when the players get to the church have Father dorovich explain who they are if the PC's ask about them.

PLAYER INFO: As you approach the church you notice An eerie green light suffuses the graveyard. From this light emerges a ghostly procession. Wavering images of doughty women toting greatswords, woodwise men with slender bows, dwarves with glittering axes, and archaically dressed mages with beards and strange, pointed hats—all these and more march forth from the graveyard, their numbers growing by the second.

PC INFO:Sparse light comes to the street form the houses you pass on the way up to the Inn. Shutters appear closed and many,you suspect are bared. Occasional dour and pale faces pear out at you as you pass but disappear if you turn towards them. Ahead across the square a braizier burns weakly trying to light the heavy fog around it.<br /> Above the gaping doorway, a sign hangs precariously askew, proclaiming this to be the Blood on the Vine tavern.

**DM INFO: ** Both these are preped and tokens added to the map and hidden. I have a preference for Sangzor as a hit and run attack..

DM INFO: Modify as 2024 rules give them more HP than 5. does so send out four groups of 5

the druid and three needle blights were drawn outside. two remain be hind the wine racks

PC INFO: Something moves behind the eastern wine rack. Through the holes, you glimpse two humanoid figures.

PC INFO: As the Old Svalich road begins to travel in a northerly direction it transitions here from being a winding path through the Balinok Mountains to a lazy trail that hugs the mountainside as it descends into a fog filled valley. Vagley through the mists you can make out a walled town near the shores of a large mountian lake. A muddy branch road with many narrow wheel ruts from a light cart leads to a promontory atop of which is perched a dilapidated stone windmill, its warped wooden vanes stripped bare.

In our game refer to the old bone grinder as the old mill, old grain mill or the stone grinder.

the golem is allowed to do as it wishes, it pushes the prince’s sealed sarcophagus through the portal into Elysium. Three solars meet the golem on the other side, open the sarcophagus, welcome the prince into the afterlife, and take the Nether Scroll of Azumar into safekeeping. This leaves the party to fight it out with the dracolich and there is no reward.

Usethis bit. the three flameskulls are waiting at the gap between the buildings

Quicksand A quicksand pit covers the ground in roughly a 10-foot-square area and is usually 10 feet deep. When a creature enters the area, it sinks 1d4 + 1 feet into the quicksand and becomes restrained. At the start of each of the creature’s turns, it sinks another 1d4 feet. As long as the creature isn’t completely submerged in quicksand, it can escape by using its action and succeeding on a Strength check. The DC is 10 plus the number of feet the creature has sunk into the quicksand. A creature that is completely submerged in quicksand can’t breathe (see the suffocation rules in the Player’s Handbook).

A creature can pull another creature within its reach out of a quicksand pit by using its action and succeeding on a Strength check. The DC is 5 plus the number of feet the target creature has sunk into the quicksand.

PLAYER INFO: As the P Team and the two Bedine walk along the dunes, a cold wind howls across the desert. The shrieks of the wind soon turn to cries of anguish, as if coming from tortured souls. In a hushed and fearful tone Shamir says to you "We of the Bedine nomads believe that these are the voices on the wind are of evil wizards who are enduring an eternity of punishment for defying the gods and dooming the land to ruin. To the Bedine, this wind is an ill omen." He shakes his head and backs away.

When the PC's return to the hall at the end of the session the man in the pitchur has changed to be a portrate of Gustav Durst.

PLAYER INFO: As you leave the mansion you take one last look back at the great hall. You notice that the portrate has changed. It is another brooding, malevolent man, Gustav Durst, the owner of the house in days long past.

PC INFO: 1 You notice in the wall, behind the grand stair case a gold framed painting that dominates the hall. It is a full length portrate of a pale man with brooding features and a mocking smile, He is dressed all in black except with a red waistcoat, he holds a gold goblet nonchalontly in his right hand. His red eyes stare out at you, seeming to follow your every move.

DM INFO: 2 When the PCs return to the main hall at the end of the story, the figure in the painting is gone, replaced by a less inspireing but still malevolent man. This is Gustove Durst, - See endings

Players will go in to the death house at level 2 and if they come out they will level up to level 3

PC INFO: You catch that sent, cloying, sweet, death. you move to find its source, As you literally follow your nose you see in the distance, shrouded in mist a man, mounted on a very large and powerfully built black horse. A man in hunters garb stands be side him. The mounted man pats the hunter on the head, reminisent of how you would pat a dog. He turns to your party and with a smile on his face, bows and sweeps his hand across his body in a gesture of welcome, then turns his horse and disappears into the mists as though he became the very mist itself.

The foul scent leads you to the spot where the mounted man had been. A human corpse half-buried in the underbrush about fifteen feet from the road. The young man appears to be a commoner. His muddy clothes are torn and raked with claw marks. Crows have been at the body, which is surrounded by the paw prints. The man has obviously been dead for several days. He holds a crumpled envelope in one hand.

PC INFO: suddenly the forest ends. you step out onto a muddy road way. Black pools of water stand like dark mirrors in the road surface. Giant trees and thick inpenertrable undergrowth can just be made out through the fog on the opposite side of the road, their branches clawing at the mist. In the mud you see the inprint of a human foot heading to the left. To the right you can see nothing but thick fog. To the left, the way seems a little clearer.

You turn to the left and follow the road for about five hours.read Gates of Barovia (below)

Use this and the entry point. the PCs have each been called by their gods toa place to start the adventure.

PLAYER INFO: (1) On the appointed day at the appointed hour you meet with your four fellows at the small road side shrine on the Trade Way half way between The Way Inn and Dragonspear Castle just were the the Misty Forest comes closest to the road. This is a place where the mists sometimes come out to envelope the road. A falorn place where travelers do not linger lest they fall victim to the mists and what lurks within them. Each of you has answered the call from you god to deal with a ancient evil at is controlling the land of Barovia. This is the lord of Barovia Strahd von Zarovich. He rules a place that only the bravest dare enter and from which no one returns.

A wolf howls in the Misty Forest and yellow eyes stare out of the darkness at you

PLAYER INFO: (2) modified text block As you walk towards the glowing eyes, they withdraw, deeper into the wood and as you step in under the canopy of trees the woods darken as the trees seem to begin to close ranks, their needle-covered arms interlocking to blot out the sun. As you go deeper, following the tracks of a huge wolf, the tracks become a pair and then morph into human foor prints. The shroud of mist that covers the ground turns into creeping walls of gray fog that silently envelops you until you can’t see more than a few feet in any direction. Soon, even the werewolf tracks disappear.

welsh accent