Everything the table has actually been handed, gathered in one place.
Ismark’s map of Barovia
Drawn for us outside the church while we ended his village’s worst secret. Scale dubious, sincerity total. Note the castle.
The letter from Death House
Found in a hidden chest in the study, addressed to “My most pathetic servant.” The first time we ever saw the words Barovia — and the name at the bottom.
Strahd’s letter to Ireena
Delivered on the road to Vallaki by a dire wolf carrying roses (Session 7). Fine card stock, Irina written on the side. Transcribed exactly, because the third paragraph is a mechanism:
My love, why do you tease me so?
Your flight out of Barovia village with these ruffians caught me unawares. If you wished to travel these lands, you need only have asked me, and with my personal attention and accompaniment, I would have let you visit wherever you willed.
It appears you still need some time to wrestle with your feelings for me. But once you are willing to show me the love you feel you need, merely speak my name thrice, and I shall be with you in the moment to whisk you to our castle, Ravenloft.
Your destined future lover, Strahd von Zarovich.
Strahd’s letter to Lady Wachter
Found in an iron chest (poison-needle defended; ask Lily) on a high shelf in the Wachterhaus master bedroom’s closet — and confiscated by Izek the same evening, delivered to the Baron it happens to flatter (Session 13). Transcribed exactly, from the handout, because every clause of it is doing something:
Lady Wachter,
It is fortunate that you considered Barovian law before enacting your plan. If you had tried to take what is not yours by right, whether from the Vallakovich heir or the guard captain, I would have had no choice but to punish the Wachter family.
Your foresight and submission have bought you my favor, Lady Wachter. In the event that the Vallakovich family finds itself without an appropriate successor, you have my personal endorsement as Vallaki’s next burgomistress. However, if such a tragic fate should befall the Vallakovichs, I would hate to find your hands bloodied and your good name no longer worthy of the title.
Your Dread Lord and Master, Strahd von Zarovich
Read it twice. It is not a plot against the Baron — it is a license conditioned on keeping him. And note who else stands inside the devil’s fence: the Vallakovich heir — and the guard captain.
The festival flyer
Pressed into our hands at Vallaki’s east gate, fresh from the printers (Session 7):
THE FESTIVAL OF THE BLAZING SUN Seven days hence. Attendance is mandatory. Failure to attend this festival is punishable by punishment.
Children required. All will be well.
Elisabeth Durst’s letter
Her side of the correspondence — to a “Mrs. Petrovna,” about a ceremony, an absent husband, and a sacrifice she declines to call innocent. See The Durst Household.
Faces
Elisabeth Durst, mistress of Death House, from the portrait over the marble hearth:
The pale man’s statue — found in a hidden room beneath Death House, one hand on a wolf’s head. We know whose face this is now.
Doru, the priest’s son, as we found him:
Granny, as she seemed:
Lancelot, restored to fighting weight:
Scenes
The Gates of Barovia — “the crown jewel in the Strahd empire.”
Menus & price lists
Filed under the Traveller’s Almanac, where they’re actually useful.