Overview
Below the house, cut into the rock: the Durst family crypts, the cult's quarters around an old well, a dining hall and larder, a passage strewn with bones where the cult's dead still wait, a shrine to the lord in the castle, and Gustav and Elisabeth Durst, still keeping house behind a door that isn't one. Stairs lead further down toward the chanting.
Resting: Risky: a rest here can be interrupted.
Getting here
Ways in
- From Death House, Attic: The secret stair
- From Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level): Stairs up
Ways out
| # | Exit | Leads to | Only when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The hidden stair up |  Death House, Attic | |
| 2 | Stairs down |  Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level) | |
| 3 | The trapdoor |  Village of Barovia | death house sacrificed |
Map
Key: gold, people; red, containers; purple, hidden finds; teal, skill checks; white, exits; orange, traps. The numbers match the lists on this page.
Close up
the initiates' footlockers, a cultist's chest, something under a straw pallet
a cultist's chest, the well, Scuffs in the dust
a cultist's chest, a wardrobe carved with faces
People
Who turns up at points in the story (2)
- Gustav Durst, The Cult Leaders' Den (#4): when not death house dursts destroyed
- Elisabeth Durst, The Cult Leaders' Den (#5): when not death house dursts destroyed
What to find
| # | Where | What | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | the initiates' footlockers | Robe ×3, Dagger ×2, 9 gp | open it |
| 7 | a cultist's chest | 17 gp | open it |
| 8 | a cultist's chest | 30 gp | open it |
| 9 | a cultist's chest | 50 gp | open it |
| 10 | a cultist's chest | 25 gp | open it |
| 11 | a cultist's chest | Shortsword | open it |
| 12 | a wardrobe carved with faces | Robe ×2, Candle ×10 | open it |
| 13 | a faded footlocker | Cloak of Protection, Potion of Healing ×4, Chain Shirt, Alchemist's Fire, Bullseye Lantern, Thieves' Tools, The Dursts' Spellbook | open it |
| 17 | a hollow in the statue's base (hidden) | Dust of Disappearance | Search: Perception DC 14 |
| 18 | something under a straw pallet (hidden) | Elemental Gem (Red Corundum) | Search: Perception DC 13 |
The containers here also get random magic items and potions, rolled for a party of level 2 the first time you come (Random Treasure). Hidden finds need a Search (F) nearby; the party's best roll counts.
Skill checks
| # | Where | Check | Try | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | the oldest crypt | History 14 | Read the oldest crypt | lore: The first of the Dursts |
| 15 | the well | Athletics 13 | Climb down the well shaft | 22 gp; on a failure: 1d6 bludgeoning damage |
| 16 | skeletons in rusty shackles | Religion 12 | Give the shackled dead their rites | Heroic Inspiration |
| 19 | Scuffs in the dust | Survival 13 | Read the scuffs in the dust | reveals passage_pit |
Traps
| # | Trap | Find DC | Disarm DC | Save | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | a covered spiked pit | 15 | 15 | DEX 12 | 2d6 piercing |
Locked and secret doors
- a seam behind the statue's alcove: secret, found at DC 15
Fights
- The crypt was full of something, and now the passage is., in Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): Swarm of Insects.
- The bones in the passage stand up, and some of them still have meat on., in Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): Ghoul.
- Part of the wall uncoils., in Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): Grick.
- Five shadows peel off the walls, and none of them is yours., in Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): Shadow.
- The door has teeth., in Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): Mimic.
- Supper is served., in Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): Ghast.
- For one moment they are only parents, and grieving., in Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): Ghast.
- The lids along the row slide back, one after another, and what the house kept down here climbs out to take…, in Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): Ghast, Ghoul. Scales with your level. Part of The Nursemaid's Grave.
By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get)
- Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level), when not death house dursts destroyed and not death house dursts confessed: Gustav Durst (Ghast), Elisabeth Durst (Ghast), 2 × A Robed One (Ghoul) (1300 XP)
- Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level): The Robed One Who Carried Him (Ghast), 4 × A Robed One (Ghoul) (1250 XP)
Quests and lore
- Rest for Rose and Thorn: The Durst children died in their locked attic room, and their ghosts are still waiting there for someone to come back for them.
- The Nursemaid's Grave: Old Mihail the gravedigger says a girl in a nursemaid's cap stands at the churchyard wall by night and won't come in. Nobody ever brought…
the cult's ledger
A ledger kept in a neat merchant's hand, the hand of Gustav Durst. Each page lists a date, a name or a description, and the word given. Vagrants, a tinker, two pilgrims, a girl from Vallaki. Near the end the entries thin out and the handwriting changes, as if someone else took over the book. The last entry is a single name, Walter, and beside it, where the others say given, it says first.