Ismark drew us this. The scale is all wrong. It is also the only map of Barovia we have, so mind the word by the castle.
What kind of place this is
- There is no leaving. The mists stand like a wall around the land; walk into them and you wander for hours — or forever. The mists are the bars of the cell, and Strahd is the jailer.
- The sun never properly rises. Grey days under cloud too thick to burn away. We have never seen the moon here either — worth remembering when a moon-stone starts glowing.
- The land is alien. No plant or mushroom we recognise (one exception, courtesy of Granny). You must eat and drink, and the land will not feed you — see the Traveller’s Almanac.
- Everyone bolts their door at twilight. Learn from them.
- Ravens are good luck. The one consistently cheerful thing anyone has told us.
Where we’ve been
- Death House — where the mists delivered us. Gone now.
- Village of Barovia — the sorrowful village below the castle.
- The Road West — gates, ghost-lights, a knowing menhir, wolves.
- Tser Pool Encampment — Vistani fires. We are here, one day out of four.
Places we’ve only heard named
Secondhand knowledge — treat as rumour until we walk it.
- Vallaki — the main hub of the land, a couple of days further west; high walls, and a church said to be one of the few places Strahd cannot enter. Our destination, for Ireena’s sake. They buy wolf pelts there.
- Krezk — a village beyond Vallaki, with an abbey.
- The winery — somewhere south of Krezk; wine is, apparently, the lifeblood of this land. Ismark marked it “WINE?” with real feeling.
- Castle Ravenloft — the vast, spiky castle on its pillar of cliff above the village. The lord’s seat. Marked on our map: AVOID!
- Berez — there was once another village, until it defied Strahd. There is no Berez anymore, only ruins — and, rumour says, a coven of witches who take in wayward young women. (Relevant to Gertruda.)
- The mill — Granny lives there with her “sisters,” somewhere outside the village.
- A lake — north of Vallaki on Ismark’s map, unnamed to us.
Open questions
- How big is Barovia, really? Ismark’s map ends where his knowledge does.
- What else lives out there that no one has thought to warn us about?