Heard of, never visited
Krezk
Rumoured
A walled village far to the west, with an abbey above it and a glowing pool behind its walls. Every road we care about seems to lead there, if they'll let us in.
- Where
- West beyond Vallaki, "far to the west". The last name on the left of Ismark's Map.
- Status
- Heard of, never visited. Everything below is secondhand: treat it as rumour until we walk it.
What we have heard
All Ismark could tell us, the afternoon we met him, was that beyond Vallaki lies Krezk, "which has an abbey." Everyone we have met since has added a piece.
The glowing pool
Our reading at Tser Pool sent us here before we knew it. The Healer card, drawn by Lily: "Look to the west, far to the west. Marvel at high water aglow with the light of the sun, hidden behind the walls of man." Then Roger told us his band's reading, forty-five years ago, turned up the same card, and they tracked it to Krezk: "a big-ol' gods forsaken blood glowing pool over there, and some big old powerful priest." Lady Wachter says the people of Krezk "pride themselves on their glowing pool." We think it is the same water that Fëanor's own card spoke of: "In water it glows still. Stand there at dawn and choose." See The Reading.
The abbot
Headmistress Claudia told us the Morninglord has given the abbot far more power than he gave Father Lucian. "He can heal people, body and mind. There's stories he can raise the dead." She also called him "a much less nice guy" who broods behind his walls and helps nobody. Danika said much the same: a really powerful priest who "could be helping us, but he's not." Father Lucian, after the festival, offered the abbey as the only hope for the Baroness's mind: "someone of great priestly might who can do great healings of both the body and minds." And the Wachter brothers told us their mother once wrote to the abbey about raising their dead father.
Getting in
Danika: "a bit of an insular lot… You might struggle to get in… you might have to prove yourself or provide some service." Lady Wachter's famous rumour mill does not reach it. Roger's band never got inside at all. The village had been "forewarned" about them and turned them away.
What the last Mistwalkers cost it
After Roger's band failed, the devil came to Krezk and to the village of Barovia and said, "This is your punishment for the sins of the mist walkers," and killed hundreds.
On the way to other things
Danika's route to her family's winery runs through Krezk, "if they let you in," then south. The road between Vallaki and Krezk is where Roger's band met a half-raven man who greeted them in peace, and killed him. The werewolves that take children hunt, Lady Wachter says, "closer towards Krezk than us."
What we're carrying there
- The locket. The demon from the orphanage is sealed in it, and Claudia says that if anyone in Barovia can deal with "a proper demon, it'll be the abbot." See Carry the Locket to the Abbot.
- Two broken minds. Stella Wachter, whose memories Victor wiped over and over, and the Baroness Lydia, who can only smile. See A Cure for Stella and Lydia. A lead, not a promise.
- A question for Fëanor. Whatever he has to choose at dawn by the glowing water.
Open questions
- Will Krezk open its gates to a new set of Mistwalkers, after what the last lot cost it?
- What service will they ask of us?
- What will the abbot want in return, and what is he?
Business here
-
A Cure for Stella and Lydia
Victor broke Stella's mind, and the Baroness only smiles. We told Stella's brothers we would look after her.
Stella Wachter has lain barely awake for three years. Victor's own book says why: he wiped her memory once by accident, was horrified, noticed nothing bad came of it, and kept going, "round and round and round until it eventually broke her". When their mother died in the square, Karl and Nikolai asked us what would happen to their sister. We said Ireena is her friend and we would look after her, while somebody muttered "When are we good at taking care of people?"
The Baroness, Lydia, failed Sirius's Zone of Truth without seeming to notice it, sang a hymn to the crowd in a voice like clockwork, and smiled at nothing with her husband's blood on her. Father Lucian has taken her into the burned church. He gave us the only lead we have for either of them: "there's an abbey near Krezk, which has someone of great priestly might who can do great healings of both the body and minds." Headmistress Claudia told us the same about the abbot, and added that he helps nobody. A lead, not a promise, on the road we were taking anyway.
-
Carry the Locket to the Abbot
A demon in a rusted locket, bound for the one priest Claudia thinks could deal with it. Nobody opens the lid.
The shadow demon that rode Felix, and then Drew, is shut inside Felix's old locket: rusted, oval, an X scratched into the lid, and an inscription inside in Celestial that none of us can read. Sirius worked out the rules. The locket holds the demon to this world. Breaking it would only set the demon free somewhere else. It cannot get out on its own; someone has to open it and look. Claudia has opened it, Drew opened it "for the lols", and Sirius opened it on purpose to pull the demon back in. It has lived in Drew's bag of holding ever since she made the bag.
Claudia named the only person she thinks could handle it: "If there's someone in this Morning Lord forsaken place who can do something about a demon, a proper demon, it'll be the abbot, which it pains me to say." Father Lucian offered to keep it for us; we decided it was safer where it was. The abbey is above Krezk, and Krezk is on the road west. Until then, nobody opens the lid.