# Tser Pool Encampment

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

> [!infobox]
> ![loc tser pool 1](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-tser-pool-1.webp)
> **Region:** [The Old Svalich Road](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/regions/the-old-svalich-road.md) · level 4
> **Resting:** Safe
> **Light:** dim, outdoors
> **Getting here:** the travel map (Tser Pool)
> **Quests:** [Called by Name](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/called-by-name.md), [Count Off](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/count-off.md), [The Dancing Bear](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-dancing-bear.md), [The Grey Mare](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-grey-mare.md) and 5 more

## Overview

A Vistani camp beside a dark pool fed by the Tser Falls: painted wagons around a fire, horses, music, wine, and the great patched tent where Madam Eva reads the Tarokka.

The Old Svalich Road runs past a clearing on the edge of the Svalich Woods. In it, painted wagons stand in a loose ring around a bonfire, horses doze in a rail pen by the water, and a tent the size of a small house glows from inside.

**Resting:** Safe: a Long Rest here isn't interrupted.

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

## Getting here

### Ways in

- **The travel map:** Tser Pool, in Barovia.

### Ways out

| # | Exit | Leads to | Only when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Old Svalich Road, west to Vallaki | the travel map |  |
| 2 | The Old Svalich Road, east to the crossroads | the travel map |  |
| 3 | Madam Eva's tent | [Madam Eva's Tent](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/madam-evas-tent.md) |  |
| 4 | Up the deer path beside the stream | [The Old Den](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-old-den.md) | bear path known |

## Map

![tser pool](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/maps/tser-pool.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 tser pool spot1](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-tser-pool-spot1.webp)
*a strongbox under a wagon*

![loc tser pool spot2](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-tser-pool-spot2.webp)
*Horses*

![loc tser pool spot3](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-tser-pool-spot3.webp)
*a tree hung with ribbons, a Vistani cache under the ribbon tree*

## People

> [!note]- Who turns up at points in the story (14)
> - **[Stanimir](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/stanimir.md)**, The Vistani camp (#5): when not tser pool brawl won
> - **[Luminita](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/luminita.md)**, The Vistani camp (#6): when not tser pool brawl won
> - **[Old Dorina](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/old-dorina.md)**, The Vistani camp (#7): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Radu](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/radu.md)**, The horse pen (#8): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Petru](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/petru.md)**, The Vistani camp (#9): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Big Tobar](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/big-tobar.md)**, The Vistani camp (#10): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Zora](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/zora.md)**, The Vistani camp (#11): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Lavinia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/lavinia.md)**, The Vistani camp (#12): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Iancu](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/iancu.md)**, The Vistani camp (#13): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Old Marin](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/old-marin.md)**, The Vistani camp (#14): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[A Camp Dog](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/a-camp-dog-of-the-vistani.md)**, The Vistani camp (#15): when not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Nelu](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/nelu.md)**, The Vistani camp (#16): when nelu home and not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile
> - **[Iosif the Tinker](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/iosif-the-tinker.md)**, The Vistani camp (#17): when quest the tinkers wagon at done
> - **[Bujor](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/bujor.md)**, The Vistani camp (#18): when bujor home and not tser pool brawl won and not vistani turned hostile

## What to find

| # | Where | What | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | a strongbox under a wagon | [Dagger](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#dagger), 40 gp | lock DC 15 |
| 25 | Something in the reeds (hidden) | [Elemental Gem (Yellow Diamond)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#elemental-gem-yellow-diamond) | Search: Perception DC 12 |
| 26 | Something trodden into the mud by the pen (hidden) | [Signal Whistle](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#signal-whistle) | Search: Perception DC 13 |
| 27 | a hollow stump (hidden) | [Potion of Fire Breath](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#potion-of-fire-breath) | Search: Perception DC 14 |
| 28 | Something under the wagon's step (hidden) | [Playing Card Set](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#playing-card-set) | Search: Perception DC 15 |
| 29 | a Vistani cache under the ribbon tree (hidden) | [Boots of Striding and Springing](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#boots-of-striding-and-springing) | Search: Investigation DC 14 |
| 30 | something dropped behind the stage (hidden) | [Bell](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#bell) | Search: Perception DC 12 |
| 32 | a false floor in the broken cart (hidden) | [Bag of Holding](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#bag-of-holding) | Search: Investigation DC 12 |

The containers here also get random magic items and potions, rolled for a party of level 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | the bonfire | Performance 12 | Dance at the bonfire | Heroic Inspiration |
| 21 | Horses | Animal Handling 12 | Calm the skittish horses | finds Elemental Gem (Yellow Diamond) |
| 22 | a tree hung with ribbons | Insight 13 | Read the knots on the ribbons | finds Boots of Striding and Springing |
| 23 | a cart with a cracked wheel | Athletics 13 | Lift the cart off its cracked wheel | finds Bag of Holding |
| 24 | a cairn by the water | History 13 | Read the cairn's oldest marks | lore: The cairn at Tser Pool |
| 31 | a stump stuck with knives | Sleight of Hand 13 | Play the knife game for coin | 12 gp; on a failure: 1d4 slashing damage |

## Fights

- *The fiddle stops mid-note. Every knife in the camp comes out at once.*, in [Tser Pool Encampment](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/tser-pool-encampment.md): [Bandit Captain](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/bandit-captain.md), [Bandit](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/bandit.md), [Scout](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/scout.md).

- *The camp is waiting for you outside the tent: no music, no fire-talk, only knives and drawn bows.*, in [Tser Pool Encampment](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/tser-pool-encampment.md): [Bandit Captain](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/bandit-captain.md), [Bandit](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/bandit.md), [Scout](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/scout.md).

## Quests and lore

- [Called by Name](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/called-by-name.md): Big Tobar's son went into the trees after his dead mother's voice. Every night since, a voice from the gorge under Tser Falls has called…
- [Count Off](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/count-off.md): Ilse Varga's mercenary company marched into the mists a year ago at the invitation of someone who signed himself S. She was meant to march…
- [The Dancing Bear](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-dancing-bear.md): Lavinia's bear Bujor, who has danced on the Tser Pool camp's stage for nine years, broke his chain in the night and went up into the woods.
- [The Grey Mare](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-grey-mare.md): The black carriage that drives itself stopped by Radu's horse pen, and left a purse on the gatepost. Now his best mare is tied at the…
- [The Hanged Man at the Crossroads](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-hanged-man-at-the-crossroads.md): A young Vistana hangs from the gallows where the Old Svalich Road crosses the Ivlis, and a girl at Tser Pool is waiting for her brother to…
- [The Last Muster](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-last-muster.md): Every night, riders made of bones go east along the Old Svalich Road to the Gates of Barovia, and none of them comes back.
- [The Seer at Tser Pool](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-seer-at-tser-pool.md): The Vistani say an old seer at Tser Pool reads the Tarokka for strangers, and that she has been expecting us.
- [The Spiders' Gully](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-spiders-gully.md): Iancu's cousin Tsura rode the falls path with a letter three days ago. Her horse came home with web on its saddle.
- [The Tinker's Wagon](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-tinkers-wagon.md): A Vistani tinker sells trinkets from a green wagon at the crossroads, and the travellers who buy from him don't come back down the road.