Die Kinder If the characters get the children away from the den while Kiril is alive, Kiril reassembles his hunting party and pursues the lost prisoners relentlessly. If Kiril is dead, the werewolf pack is too preoccupied with determining Kiril’s successor to organize a hunting party. If the characters aren’t sure where to take the children, a wereraven (see appendix D) that has been spying on the den in raven form assumes hybrid form and suggests that they take refuge in the nearby village of Krezk (chapter 8). If the characters head that way, the wereraven scouts from overhead until the characters reach the village, whereupon it flies south to the Wizard of Wines winery (chapter 12) and reports what has happened to Davian Martikov. The children are understandably traumatized by their imprisonment in the werewolf den. They cry and scream the whole time they’re with the characters. A calm emotions spell quells their anguish for the duration of the spell (no saving throws required). A character can try to silence the children for a longer period of time using intimidation, or by offering them hope (real or otherwise). The character must make a DC 15 Charisma (Intimidation, Persuasion, or Deception) check, as appropriate. If the check succeeds, the children remain silent until something happens to frighten them. If the characters take the children to Krezk, the villagers there look after the children and see that they are fed and properly clothed. If the characters take them to Vallaki instead, the Martikovs allow the children to stay at the Blue Water Inn until the characters return to collect them.

watch their young prisoners fight with spears in the stone ring. The last child standing is bitten and turned into a werewolf; then the bodies of the dead are devoured, their bones picked clean.

Each of the eight children imprisoned here has AC 10, 1 hit point, and no effective attacks. To determine a child’s age in years, roll 1d6 + 6. The rocks piled atop each occupied cage can be knocked or lifted off, allowing the cages to be opened. The children are in shock. Those who are set free don’t wander far from the characters for fear of being eaten by wolves and werewolves.

let the prisoners go

releases the children

and a bizarre sight: wide-eyed children stand behind wooden bars and stare at you in terrified silence. The cave holds six wooden cages, their lids held shut with heavy rocks. Two of the cages are empty, and each of the others holds a pair of frightened children.

Wensencia, a werewolf in wolf form, sleeps here with Kellen, a ten-year-old werewolf in wolf form. Kellen is a noncombatant with AC 10, 2 hit points, and a werewolf’s damage immunities. He hugs a wooden doll that eerily resembles one of the characters, but is painted and dressed to look like a zombie. A tiny slogan etched into the zombie doll reads, “Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!” When an alarm sounds, Wencensia takes Kellen to area Z7, locks him in one of the empty cages, and tells him to take human form, which he does. She then joins her fellow werewolves in the den’s defense. Kellen was kidnapped from his home in Liam’s Hold, a hamlet near the Misty Forest in the Forgotten Realms setting. He was afflicted with werewolf lycanthropy after winning one of Kiril’s despicable contests. Wencensia has been tasked with training this newest member of Kiril’s pack. Casting a greater restoration spell or a remove curse spell on Kellen ends his lycanthropy.

questioned the treatment of children kidnapped by the pack.

The two captured children (LG male and female noncombatants) were taken from the village of Barovia after being given to the hags by their parents in exchange for dream pastries. The boy, Freek, is seven years old. The girl, Myrtle, is barely five. Their crates are full of crumbs, as the hags are fattening them up. If freed, neither child wants to go home, because of what their parents did. They both speak kindly of Ismark and Ireena in Barovia, hoping to be taken to them.

children

pricking captured children with needles to make them cry. Any attempt to free the children incurs the hags’ wrath.

children’s

locks of hair

human

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.

children

seven-year-old daughter, Arabelle, has vanished. She’s been gone for a little more than a day

seven-year-old daughter, Arabelle, recently disappeared from the camp

The pentagram is a nonmagical decoration, though Lady Wachter would have her cultists believe otherwise.

This room has a ten-foot-high ceiling and a large black pentagram inscribed on the stone floor. At each point of the pentagram rests a wooden chair. Seated in four of the five chairs are men and women in black robes with hoods: a young man who has the face of an angel; a balding hulk of a man; a squat, middle-aged woman; and a taller, younger woman with an unsettling glare.

Lady Wachter’s husband, Nikolai, lies in his bed, impeccably dressed, quite deceased, and under the effect of the gentle repose spell. Nothing of value is on him.

Stretched out on one side of the bed is a man dressed in black, his eyes each covered with a copper piece. He bears a striking resemblance to the father in the painting.

Another secret of Fiona’s is that she sleeps with the corpse of her dead husband, Nikolai, who died of sickness nearly three years ago and whom Fiona cherished. Lady Wachter casts gentle repose spells on the corpse to keep it from deteriorating.

Lying amid the velvet and satin sheets and bedclothes is a young woman in a nightgown. One of her dainty slippers has fallen to the floor at the bed’s foot.

E3. Mad Mary’s Townhouse A moaning sob floats through the still, gray streets, coloring your thoughts with sadness. The sounds flow from a dark, two-story townhouse. The house, which is about 40 feet square, is boarded up and barricaded from the inside. Mad Mary (CN female human commoner) sits in the center of the floor in an upstairs bedroom, clutching a malformed doll. She is lost in her sorrow and despondency. She barely recognizes the presence of anyone in the room. She says nothing in the presence of anger, but she will talk, albeit haltingly, to someone who talks with her gently. Mary hid her beloved daughter, Gertruda, in this house for the girl’s entire life. Gertruda, now a teenager, broke out of the house a week ago and has not been seen since. Her mother fears the worst — and is justified in doing so. See area K42 in chapter 4 for more information on Gertruda’s fate. The malformed doll has a strange leer and wears a sackcloth dress. It belonged to Mary in her youth and was passed down to Gertruda. Gadof Blinsky, the toymaker of Vallaki (see chapter 5, area N7), made the doll. Stitched into the hem of its dress is a frayed tag bearing the words “Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!”

The sobbing comes from Mad Mary’s townhouse (area E3)

except for mournful sobbing that echoes through the streets from a distance.

Arabelle

Arabelle

Arabelle