What: The one road through Barovia. East: the gates we entered by. West: four days to Vallaki, past Tser Pool Encampment.
Travelled: Day one of four (Session 5). Three days of it still ahead of us.
The Gates of Barovia
A stone gate between two high rocks, flanked by crumbling headless statues, long unguarded and standing open. The engraving: “Welcome to Barovia — the crown jewel in the Strahd empire.” Raised above it, the empire’s sigil — the same design as Osric’s family banner. That thread is pulled further in Quests & Threads.
Dangers of the road, learned the hard way
- The lights that cry for help. Voices from the trees — “Help! Help me!” — that prove to be floating, glowing lights. Ismark warned us of them. Do not follow. They trailed us a while and faded. (If someone real was ever behind that voice, may they forgive us. We said we’d look on the way back.)
- Wolves. Seven wolves and two dire wolves came out of the treeline at us in failing light. Ismark’s advice held: drop one and the rest run — especially if the one is burned to ash by a small cheerful machine (see CLOVER, on the party page). Wolf pelts sell in Vallaki; we have one.
- The land does not feed you. Nothing that grows here is anything we recognise. Carry rations. See the Traveller’s Almanac.
The menhir
A three-foot standing stone by the roadside, moss-grown and old, carved with a winged woman bearing three eyes — and around its base, ringed over and over, the exact symbol on Fëanor’s heirloom stone. He checked. Identical. Osric’s history is good enough to say it with confidence: that symbol and that winged figure are not from our world. They belong to Barovia. Fëanor took a rubbing for the records.
Open questions
- Who is the winged woman with three eyes?
- Why does a moon-stone glow in a land that has never once shown us a moon?