The Letter from Death House

We found it on our first night in Death House, in the secret room behind the study. The chest it came from had already killed the last person to open it: a skeleton in leather armour lay half out of it with three poison darts in his chest. Fëanor's Mage Hand did the lifting. Inside were a smaller chest and this letter.

It is written to the lady of the house, and it is not kind. None of us had heard of Barovia ("Not the place I've ever heard of," said Lily), so we admired the stationery first. Then Drew read the line about the husband and the bastard son and said what we were all thinking: "Well, that'll be why they don't like the baby then." Lily's verdict on the author has aged well: "Nobody who describes themselves as your dread lord is going to be a stand-up guy."

The letter is sealed at the foot in red wax, stamped with the winged crest from the letterhead. When we walked out of the woods to the Gates of Barovia, the same crest was carved over the arch, and Osric unrolled his banner to find the same bird on it.

Strahd von Zarovich
Lord of Castle Ravenloft
Count of Barovia

My most pathetic servant,

I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers of this land. 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

IN DARKNESS, I ENDURE.