Strahd von Zarovich

Who

Count Strahd von Zarovich, lord of Castle Ravenloft. Barovians call him the devil, and inside Vallaki's walls saying his name is a crime.

What he wants

Ireena, and to be entertained.

Where

His castle on its pillar of rock above the village of Barovia. Ismark put it on our map so that we would know where not to go.

Status

At large. Last seen leaving Vallaki's square on a burning horse, a townsman dead at his feet.

First met

Session 5, at Ismark's front door. His name had found us two sessions earlier.

He rules Barovia, and he may be Barovia: "I am this land, and this land is me." He is a vampire, courteous and amused, and he has met us twice. The first time he charmed the whole house and drank from Sirius. The second time he landed in the square where both of Vallaki's rulers had just died, congratulated us on the mess, drank a stranger dry and told us to get out there and be interesting. He wants Ireena and says he is prepared to wait. He had the last band of Mistwalkers put down for being boring. We are doing better, he says.

This page keeps everything we have seen of him and every word he has said to us, in the order it happened.

Every time he has reached us

Session 1: the letter in the chest

Before we knew his name, we had his handwriting. In the secret room behind the Durst study, in a trapped chest with a dead thief hanging out of it, there was a letter on his own stationery: a winged crest, Lord of Castle Ravenloft, Count of Barovia, and a motto at the foot of the page, "In darkness, I endure." It was written to the lady of the house.

My most pathetic servant,

I am not a messiah sent to you… I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the one who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but a worm writhing in my earth.

You say that you are cursed, your fortune spent. Your husband took solace in the bosom of another woman, sired a bastard son, and drove you to abandon love for madness. Cursed by darkness? Of that I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness? I think not. I much prefer you as you are.

Your dread lord and master, Strahd von Zarovich

Lily's verdict still stands: "Nobody who describes themselves as your dread lord is going to be a stand-up guy." The letter is on its own page as The Letter from Death House.

Session 3: the statue and the name

Under the house the cult had built him a shrine: a painted wooden statue of a gaunt, pale man in a great black cloak, one hand on a wolf's head, the other holding a smoky grey orb. Fëanor lifted the orb away with his spectral hand. Drew later found it would serve as a spell focus. Deeper down, thirteen faceless figures chanted "He is ancient. He is the land."

When the house was gone and we buried Rose, Thorn and the maid in the woods, the three of them came back to thank us, and to warn us: "May the Morning Lord protect you, and may you stay out of the sight of the devil, Strahd." It was the first time anyone said his name to us. Somebody said, "Strahd was the name on the letter," and it was.

Session 4: the gate and the coins

The stone gate into the valley reads "Welcome to Barovia, the crown jewel in the Strahd empire." Above the words is the crest from the letter. Osric unfurled the banner his Uncle Steven gave him, and it carries the same sigil. (Someone suggested we go and look up Great Uncle Strahd. Osric does not think they are related.) The castle came into view soon after, very spiky, on a pillar of cliff. The gold Bildrath paid us carries the statue's face in profile.

Session 5: the house call

After dark someone knocked at the burgomaster's house. Ismark told us to hide, opened the door, and a moment later called, "Everyone come out. It's fine." He sounded oddly dreamy. One by one we looked, and one by one we saw a man who was simply, obviously, our friend. Fëanor cast a spell, saw the enchantment on every one of us, and told us so. We found this unpersuasive. He readied a bolt of light for the man coming up the stairs and missed, and the man laughed:

"Ah, it is good to see some backbone in some fresh blood."

Then Fëanor was charmed too. "Come down. Join the others. We have some introductions to do." The whole house seemed to shake with each of his steps. Downstairs he made his speech:

"Greetings, guests to the land. I thought I would come and introduce myself. A little bird told me we had fresh visitors from the outside. One of my pups managed to grab you, it seems. You did it some small damage, but it will recover, and I have others. I bear you no ill will. I am Strahd von Zarovich, ruler of these lands, rightful lord. I am this land, and this land is me."

"Tomorrow, after my charismatic appearance wears off, you might feel differently about me, and I do not begrudge you that. I, in fact, relish the possibility of you bringing some spice. It has been decades since I had any fun with that. For tonight, as guests, I believe it is only appropriate you offer me, the lord, some token of fealty."

He pointed at Sirius. "Offer me your blood." Sirius said that sounded like an entirely reasonable idea. "Oh, believe me, I can take the lead." He took Sirius by the hair and bit his neck, not deeply. Then:

"Remember this when tomorrow you feel more like yourselves. I own this place. You may have your fun, but I get what I want. Feel free to try and stop me, to do what you outsiders usually do, but I shall just enjoy it. I shall take my leave now that I have introduced myself. Farewell."

We stood about agreeing that the biting had been a bit forward, but different land, different customs. Ireena came out of the back room and sent us to bed: "This happened to my father as well. This will wear off." It did. In the morning he no longer seemed friend-shaped at all, and one of us told Fëanor, "I thought you were just sad and drunk." Sirius woke wanting a bacon and egg roll. The black pudding test is still pending.

Session 6: a note by wolf

The Vistani at Tser Pool once tried to carry a passenger out through the mists. The wagon came out the other side without them. A wolf delivered a note soon after: "Naughty, naughty. Don't try that again."

Session 7: roses

On the road to Vallaki a dire wolf stood in broad daylight, straining against itself, with a bunch of roses in its mouth. It dropped them and left when we told it to. Around the stems was a note on very nice card, addressed to Ireena. She asked us to just tell her what it said, or maybe not.

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, get over yourself," said somebody, and was told not to say his name. Sirius proposed using her to summon him so that we could kill him, and Ireena asked, very reasonably, whether he had really just said that. Fëanor's comfort was that he was still in the sending-gifts phase rather than the kidnapping phase. Ireena's ruling: "Harebrained schemes, have fun, but wait until I'm safe." See Strahd's Letter to Ireena.

Session 8: Roger's story

We didn't see him, but Roger told us what he did forty-five years ago. When Roger's band had spent weeks getting nowhere, the devil appeared in a street in the village of Barovia, told them they were being boring and killed everyone else standing in it, as an incentive. The band died at the castle gates, killed by his emissary, and Roger was spared to carry a message to whoever came next: "Don't be boring." A dark figure passed overhead on a fiery flying horse. Then the devil went through Krezk and the village and killed hundreds, saying: "This is your punishment for the sins of the mist walkers."

That same night the bard called Death House "one of Strahd's fishing hooks."

Sessions 11 and 12: his spawn

The six things in Henrik's crates were vampire spawn, and they had a master. "You will not pluck us from the master's design," said the one that had hold of Lily. The one fighting Sirius, when he said he was going to end it: "The master cares not for us." Sirius told it that sounded like a miserable way to live. "It is what it is. It's a living." In the burning church, one of them told us plainly what it was there for: "The master wants the priest dead."

Session 13: the letter to Lady Wachter

In an iron chest in Lady Wachter's bedroom, under a poison needle that put Lily on the floor, we found his letter to her:

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 carefully, it is not a plot against the Baron. It is a licence that depends on keeping him. We showed it to Izek, who said "Oof. This will help," and took it to the Baron. The Baron brandished it at the festival and would not read it aloud. It was in his hand the last time any of us looked, and none of us picked it up. See Strahd's Letter to Lady Wachter.

Session 14: he came to Vallaki

The Baron was dead on his stage and Lady Wachter dead in the street when someone in the crowd screamed and pointed. A cloud darker than the rain turned out to be bats, and inside the bats was a horse on fire, flying. He landed in the square. Nearly everyone there, Ireena included, went glassy and still. We did not.

"Greetings, my friends. I see you've made a right mess of one of my favourite towns. Today you may speak freely. I'm having to make sure the rabble stays calm."

Sirius invited him up onto the stage. Someone asked him to let the people go home. He had other things on his mind.

"I want to see what's happened. I can feel it. You have reinstated those damn bones. It has meant this lovely soap opera."

"My usual methods of viewing have been curtailed since you've reinstated them, so I've had to come here and see for myself. And what a fine mess you've made. I feel it, though. Those are annoying. But I'm not going to take a victory from you. What has occurred? I see my good old baron there with his brains blown out on the stage."

We said we hadn't meant for this to happen. "Oh, come now. Embrace it." We said we had only wanted them to stop hurting people.

"It was a lovely den of misery they had going here. But it had stayed its course. It was getting boring, shall we say. And you may have heard how I hate boring."

Sirius, working his way through the titles, offered to give him something new and interesting, Baron. Count. Earl.

"I appreciate that. You see, whilst I am the land and the land is me, I am insufferably immortal. Nothing can harm me, and that gets dull after a while. I have to find my pleasure where I can."

Sirius asked if he was okay, and whether he needed someone to talk to.

"I get my entertainment from the likes of you. I must say, you're doing way better than the last lot. They were an embarrassment. Had to have them put down, you see."

(Roger was somewhere in that crowd. The devil had long since forgotten him. He had not forgotten the devil.)

"What solution to this fine mess do you have? Once I leave, these commoners are going to go wild, you see."

We told him we meant to put his current target in charge. "Ah, Ireena, my love." Sirius moved to stand between them.

"Don't you worry. I have always given Ireena her space. I will say, of course, whilst you're in this town now I can no longer watch over you as I have been doing, with the darn bones emanating out their horrible radiance."

"I do not like to force things. I have tried such things before, and they did not work particularly well. So I know she will come around eventually to my charms."

"So you mean to make my love burgomistress? I suppose that is not too untenable. She is of the right stock rather than this rattle, this cattle that surrounds us. Don't you agree?"

Sirius agreed that people born to rule are born to rule, and called him Earl again. What followed is the finest exchange of the campaign:

"I am not an earl." Sirius: "Marquis?" "Call me Strahd von Zarovich… I am the land, and the land is me." Sirius: "I'm used to calling people by their titles, Land, but for you I'll make an exception." "Count Strahd von Zarovich at your service." Sirius: "I had just assumed a slightly more senior title, but Count will do." "I could tell you the tale of how I gave up greater titles, but I will leave that till later." Sirius: "I feel like you would be better as an earl." "Count and earl are the same rank. Do not presume to tell me how to be." Sirius: "Back in Waterdeep, the people that had similar kinds of territories to you were marquis and so on." "Who cares what happens out in those barbarous lands out of the Mists? Barovia is the one true civilisation."

Sirius wondered aloud whether the whole thing could have been settled with a really excellent ball in Waterdeep or Neverwinter. "Oh, I throw the most excellent balls." And then the mood turned:

"Do not let my genial current mood confuse you. I care not for your petty arguments. My will is my own. Your words are but the wind. All I needed to come here and remind you all that whilst this town has had its pretence of safety, and whilst those darn bones are an annoyance, they do not stop me. They might stop my agents. They might mean that it's harder for me to enact my will here, but should I see fit, I may enter."

"As I was saying, you have a promising start. I have been enjoying watching you. But you are not yet ready to be invited into my fold. One day, one day you may be worthy, and I shall be watching that with pleasure. I shall leave you to clean up this mess. But first, a drink."

He reached into the crowd, took a man at random and drank until he was dead. Lily threw a knife and missed. Sirius cast a protective spell on the man, and it did nothing at all: the man was his, bound and willing. "Ah, that was lovely."

"You have spirit. I do not begrudge you this. It is fun. Nevertheless, I will let you clean up this mess. Don't stay too long in Vallaki. Like I said, I can't watch you whilst you're here anymore. So get out there and be interesting. Do not be boring."

And he was gone. The square came back to itself. Sirius sent everyone home and invited them to church in the morning.

What others have told us about him

• Granny, the pie-seller (Session 4): "The devil he is sometimes referred to as. Of course, he is wise and generous and all that good stuff." Mist walkers, she said, make him more active.
• Ismark (Sessions 4 and 5): "The mists are the bars of our cell, and our jailer is Strahd." "There isn't any dealing with Strahd. There is only surviving." The blood-drinking is "entirely literal." He wanted Ireena; their father said no, "and Strahd made it clear that no was not an appropriate answer," visiting every night and never letting him sleep until the strain killed him. He turns people only occasionally, "mostly people who are loved, just to torment us." And: "If he turns his eyes to you, you just kneel down and take it." One of us, Sirius we think, replied that we were going to kill him in a bit.
• Ireena (Session 4): "We have a devil who lives amongst us. He cannot be stopped. He is coming for me."
• Doru (Session 5): the devil drank from him and made him drink back, and every order he gave became "a fetter on my mind." One order was that he must never allow himself to be destroyed.
• The Vistani (Session 6): they come and go through the mists by an old agreement, and he leaves them alone. Barovians, to them, are "property of Strahd." He has been the same for about seven hundred years, and nobody at the fire knew whom he had ever envied.
• The bard (Session 8): "He isn't a god. He is a monster. There will be ways and means. Do not find yourselves bamboozled by his propaganda." He spoke of ancient powers tied to the land, and of that power being usurped.
• Father Lucian (Session 7): the stories said the devil had not set foot in Vallaki in over two hundred years. That story is now over.
• Lady Wachter (Session 9): her family was here "since before Strahd. Strahd is a Johnny-come-lately." Also "He is a rock slide. He is a force of nature. You have to bend to his whims." She confirmed the flying horse.
• The Baron (Session 10) wanted proof that Lady Wachter consorted with "the devil. You know of which one I speak." We asked if he meant the one in the castle who flies across the sky in a red thing. He did. "No more than that, please."
• Urwin (Session 10): "It's very hard to be against the devil in a land where he is almost literally the land. He has basically godlike powers here, but he is not omnipotent." There have been seven hundred years of adventurers, and he is yet to be toppled.

What we have learned the hard way

• His charm takes a whole room. Everyone who looked at him in Ismark's house fell, and nineteen in twenty of Vallaki's square. It lasts until morning.
• He drinks, and it is not always fatal. Sirius lost a little blood and some of his strength for a night. The man in the square lost everything.
• The name alone summons nothing. One of us said it five times over dinner at Wachterhaus, and the night stayed empty. His letter promised to come when Ireena says it three times. Our working theory is that it matters who speaks it.
• The bones blind him, but they don't keep him out. Since we put them back under St. Andral's altar he can't watch Vallaki or us inside it, and his agents are hindered. He can still walk in whenever he likes, and he showed us.
• He judges people by whether they bore him. Roger's band bored him and he had them put down. Vallaki's misery bored him. We, for now, do not.

What we promised, and what he promised

We have promised him nothing. We promised Ismark we would get Ireena to safety before any extracurriculars, and Ireena herself that nobody uses her as bait until she is safe.

His promises to us are all of a kind: "I own this place. You may have your fun, but I get what I want." And, from the square: "One day you may be worthy, and I shall be watching that with pleasure."

What we still don't know

• Who is the only man he ever envied, and where is his tomb? The last card of The Reading says that is where we will find him. The Vistani didn't know. Our guess is that it is written down somewhere.
• What is "his fold", and what would being invited into it mean?
• What does "I am this land, and this land is me" mean, exactly? The cult under Death House believed it literally, and he has said it to our faces more than once.
• What are his "pups"? One of them "managed to grab" us before we ever met him.
• What greater titles did he give up, and why?
• Did the bite leave anything in Sirius? The black pudding test remains pending.
• Where is his letter to Lady Wachter now? It was in the Baron's hand the last time we saw it.
• How long has he ruled? Answered, Session 6: the Vistani say he has been exactly the same for about seven hundred years.
• Why does he court Ireena rather than simply take her? Answered, Session 14, in his own words: "I do not like to force things. I have tried such things before, and they did not work particularly well."
• Why did he want the Baron kept? Answered, more or less, Session 14: Vallaki was "a lovely den of misery," and it had started to bore him.