# Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)

> From the Curse of Strahd game wiki (it covers the whole game, spoilers included): https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.html. Unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy, not approved or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.

> [!infobox]
> ![loc death house dungeon 1 1](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-death-house-dungeon-1-1.webp)
> **Region:** [Death House](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/regions/death-house.md) · level 2
> **Resting:** Risky
> **Light:** dark
> **Getting here:** [Death House, Attic](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-attic.md), [Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-lower-level.md)
> **Quests:** [Rest for Rose and Thorn](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/rest-for-rose-and-thorn.md), [The Nursemaid's Grave](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-nursemaids-grave.md)

## 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.

![loc death house dungeon 1 overview](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-death-house-dungeon-1-overview.webp)
*The whole place from above.*

## Getting here

### Ways in

- **From [Death House, Attic](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-attic.md):** The secret stair
- **From [Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-lower-level.md):** Stairs up

### Ways out

| # | Exit | Leads to | Only when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The hidden stair up | [Death House, Attic](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-attic.md) |  |
| 2 | Stairs down | [Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-lower-level.md) |  |
| 3 | The trapdoor | [Village of Barovia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/village-of-barovia.md) | death house sacrificed |

## Map

![death house dungeon 1](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/maps/death-house-dungeon-1.svg)

**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

![loc death house dungeon 1 spot1](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-death-house-dungeon-1-spot1.webp)
*the initiates' footlockers, a cultist's chest, something under a straw pallet*

![loc death house dungeon 1 spot2](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-death-house-dungeon-1-spot2.webp)
*a cultist's chest, the well, Scuffs in the dust*

![loc death house dungeon 1 spot3](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-death-house-dungeon-1-spot3.webp)
*a cultist's chest, a wardrobe carved with faces*

## People

> [!note]- Who turns up at points in the story (2)
> - **[Gustav Durst](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/gustav-durst.md)**, The Cult Leaders' Den (#4): when not death house dursts destroyed
> - **[Elisabeth Durst](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/elisabeth-durst.md)**, The Cult Leaders' Den (#5): when not death house dursts destroyed

## What to find

| # | Where | What | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | the initiates' footlockers | [Robe](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#robe) ×3, [Dagger](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#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](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#shortsword) | open it |
| 12 | a wardrobe carved with faces | [Robe](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#robe) ×2, [Candle](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#candle) ×10 | open it |
| 13 | a faded footlocker | [Cloak of Protection](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#cloak-of-protection), [Potion of Healing](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#potion-of-healing) ×4, [Chain Shirt](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#chain-shirt), [Alchemist's Fire](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#alchemists-fire), [Bullseye Lantern](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#bullseye-lantern), [Thieves' Tools](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#thieves-tools), [The Dursts' Spellbook](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#the-dursts-spellbook) | open it |
| 17 | a hollow in the statue's base (hidden) | [Dust of Disappearance](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#dust-of-disappearance) | Search: Perception DC 14 |
| 18 | something under a straw pallet (hidden) | [Elemental Gem (Red Corundum)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#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](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/random-treasure.md)). 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)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md): [Swarm of Insects](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/swarm-of-insects.md).

- *The bones in the passage stand up, and some of them still have meat on.*, in [Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md): [Ghoul](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghoul.md).

- *Part of the wall uncoils.*, in [Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md): [Grick](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/grick.md).

- *Five shadows peel off the walls, and none of them is yours.*, in [Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md): [Shadow](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/shadow.md).

- *The door has teeth.*, in [Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md): [Mimic](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/mimic.md).

- *Supper is served.*, in [Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md): [Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md).

- *For one moment they are only parents, and grieving.*, in [Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md): [Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md).

- *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)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md): [Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md), [Ghoul](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghoul.md). Scales with your level. Part of [The Nursemaid's Grave](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-nursemaids-grave.md).
> [!example]- By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get)
> - **[Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md)**, when not death house dursts destroyed and not death house dursts confessed: Gustav Durst ([Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md)), Elisabeth Durst ([Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md)), 2 × A Robed One ([Ghoul](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghoul.md)) (1300 XP)
> - **[Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/death-house-dungeon-upper-level.md)**: The Robed One Who Carried Him ([Ghast](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghast.md)), 4 × A Robed One ([Ghoul](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/ghoul.md)) (1250 XP)

## Quests and lore

- [Rest for Rose and Thorn](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/rest-for-rose-and-thorn.md): 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](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-nursemaids-grave.md): 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…

> [!quote]- 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.