Heard of, never visited
The Haunted Lake
Rumoured
The big lake north of Vallaki. Four years of a wailing woman, fishermen walking into the water, and no fishing industry left. Bluto went there. Lake's haunted.
- Where
- North of Vallaki. About three hours' walk each way, past the Vistani camp, or out by another gate if you'd rather not pass it. On Ismark's Map it is simply LAKE.
- Status
- Heard of, never visited. Always tomorrow.
What we have heard
Everybody in Vallaki knows two words about the lake, and they are always the same two: lake's haunted.
- Roger, on our first night in town: about four years back the lake got haunted. Vallaki used to have a fishing industry and now it doesn't. There is a wailing woman who scares the fish away, and she has killed some people.
- Danika knew the men it took. They went out and got "ensorcelled". "A couple of them drowned themselves in the lake right in front of them. They just walked right in." The others heard eerie yelling and wailing, and had to fight off some kind of mind magic to get home.
- Lady Wachter, at dinner, told us that the ghost of the lake, a lady, takes a particular interest in one local drinker. His name is Bluto.
Bluto
Bluto is a friend of Karl and Nikolai Wachter: an older Barovian man with a black beard, often dour, fond of a drink and usually to be found at the inn. The brothers told us he went north to the lake "a couple of days back", talking about "righting a wrong", and never came home. They asked us to find him, and reckoned they could get Mama to pay seventy or eighty gold for it. Mama is dead now, and Bluto is long overdue. As far as we're concerned the job still stands. See Look for Bluto.
Our record with the lake
We have meant to go at least four times. We told the Ravens in writing that we would go within a day or two. Then the orphanage happened, and the coffins, and the fire, and the festival, and a revolution. On the evening the bones went home, asked to carry a report to the Baron, even Muriel said she'd honestly thought we were going to leave the city and go to the lake.
Somewhere along the way the question stopped being "Is Bluto all right?" and became "Is Bluto inside the sea monster yet?" Nobody has told us there is a sea monster. It's a lake.
Open questions
- Who is the wailing woman, and what does she want with Bluto?
- What wrong was Bluto going to right?
- What happened four years ago to start it?
Business here
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Look for Bluto
The Wachter brothers' drinking friend walked north to the haunted lake to "right a wrong". Long overdue.
Bluto is an older, dour man with a black beard, like most men in Barovia, who drinks with Karl and Nikolai at the Blue Water. Lady Wachter told us over dinner that the ghost of the lake, a lady, "takes great interest in him in particular". That same night her sons asked us to find him. He had gone north to the lake a couple of days earlier, talking about righting a wrong, and had not come back. "Who amongst us doesn't have a bit of a problem with a drink?" Mama, they said, would pay "70 gold, 80 gold? Whatever you want, really." Danika's view of the lake is simpler: it is haunted, and lads from the town have walked straight into it and drowned.
It is three hours' walk each way. We said yes, told the Ravens in writing we'd be going "in the next day or two", and then Vallaki happened every single day. Mama is dead now. The brothers still want their friend back. We keep meaning to go by way of the lake when we leave. Is Bluto inside the sea monster yet?