Vallaki

Overview

A walled town on the shore of Lake Zarovich, kept cheerful by order of its Baron: a sharpened palisade, a church whose saint has gone missing, an inn of ravens, and a square where a great wicker sun waits to be burned.

A palisade of sharpened logs rings the town. The Old Svalich Road comes in at the east gate and leaves by the west, past a Vistani camp outside the walls. The burgomaster's mansion, Wachterhaus and St. Andral's Church face the square from the north; the Blue Water Inn, the coffin maker and the lockup stand to the south.

Resting: Risky: a rest here can be interrupted.

Getting here

Ways in

• The travel map: Vallaki, in Barovia.

Ways out

#	Exit	Leads to	Only when
1	East gate: the Old Svalich Road	the travel map
2	West gate: the Vistani camp	The Vistani Camp
3	The burgomaster's mansion	The Burgomaster's Mansion
4	St. Andral's Church	St. Andral's Church
5	Wachterhaus	Wachterhaus
6	Blinsky Toys	Blinsky Toys	not night
7	The coffin maker's	The Coffin Maker's Shop	not night
8	The Blue Water Inn	The Blue Water Inn
9	Haralamb's door	Haralamb's Studio	painter studio open

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

Festival Herald, the festival dais, a ring trodden into the mud by the stocks

Town Guard

A Big Dog

People

• Festival Herald, Crier of the Baron's Festivals: Town square (#16)
• Town Guard, Watchman of Vallaki: East gate (#24)
• Lockup Warden, Keeper of the Baron's Lockup: Stockade and lockup (#28)
• A Big Dog, Of the Town Square: Town square (#42)
• Old Sabin, Lantern-Maker of Vallaki: Market row, 08:00–18:00 (#45)

What to find

The containers here also get random magic items and potions, rolled for a party of level 5 the first time you come (Random Treasure). Hidden finds need a Search (F) nearby; the party's best roll counts.

Skill checks

Fights

• Knives come out of sleeves all over the square. Lady Wachter's people were never here to watch the sun., in Vallaki: Tough, Cultist, Warrior Veteran, Bandit Captain, Bandit. Scales with your level. Part of Lady Wachter's Book Club.

• Izek vaults off the dais with his strange arm already smoking. The Baron's watch closes ranks behind him., in Vallaki: Izek Strazni, Warrior Veteran, Town Guard, Bandit Captain. Scales with your level. Part of Lady Wachter's Book Club.

• Izek's arm bursts into flame to the elbow. Most of the watch backs away from the priest; the ones who don't…, in Vallaki: Izek Strazni, Warrior Veteran, Bandit Captain, Town Guard. Scales with your level.

• Izek steps down off the dais, flexing the arm that isn't his. A few of the watch step down with him., in Vallaki: Izek Strazni, Warrior Veteran. Scales with your level. Part of The Doll Collector.

• The watch closes in, spears levelled., in Vallaki: Town Guard.
• Two more girls come over the rooftops at Catalina's call, barefoot, in nightgowns, their arms full of black…, in Vallaki: Vampire Spawn, Swarm of Bats. Scales with your level. Part of Black Roses.

• The lids come up slowly. The three of them climb out into the grey daylight blinking and slow, like children…, in Vallaki: Vampire Spawn, Swarm of Bats. Scales with your level. Part of Black Roses.

• Two of Dobre's lads come round the corner at a run, and two more out of the guardhouse, and none of them are…, in Vallaki: Warrior Veteran. Scales with your level.

• The rider wheels his black horse in the gateway and comes back in, drawing a sabre, while Dobre's lads come…, in Vallaki: Warrior Veteran, Bandit Captain, Scout. Scales with your level.

Quests and lore

• Black Roses: Last winter Ignat the lamplighter's daughter Catalina was found smiling and white at the lake gate, and black roses came with a card. This…
• Count Off: 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…
• Ireena's Escort: Strahd has fed on Ireena Kolyana twice. Her brother Ismark believes she'll be safer behind the walls of Vallaki, to the west.
• Lady Wachter's Book Club: Lady Fiona Wachter wants the Baron's chair, and she is not shy about who she would rule for.
• One Lantern Too Many: Every festival week the children of Vallaki carry paper lanterns round the square for the Baron. Thirty-one children. Thirty-two lanterns.
• Ribbons: Daciana gives out yellow festival ribbons in Vallaki's square and writes down everyone who won't wear one. It isn't her who wants to know.
• Sanctuary: Ismark wanted Ireena behind walls. Vallaki has walls. Whether it has anywhere safe inside them is another question.
• The Attic Circle: The Baron's son Victor is trying to leave Barovia by magic, and it is not going well for the servants.
• The Bones of St. Andral: Someone has stolen the bones of St. Andral from the crypt of Vallaki's church, and with them the only thing that kept the dead out of it.
• The Cat in the Window: Lady Wachter keeps her daughter Stella locked in a bedroom at Wachterhaus. Stella believes she is a cat. Nobody in Vallaki believes she's…
• The Count's Portraitist: Haralamb, who paints the Baron's wicker sun, was fetched to the castle and kept eleven nights painting a woman from the count's memory. He…
• The Destined Ally: Madam Eva's fourth card named the one who will stand with us against the devil.
• The Doll Collector: Izek Strazni, the Baron's enforcer, has dreamed of a red-haired woman all his life, and has had her face carved over and over.
• The Festival of the Blazing Sun: Baron Vallakovich holds a festival every week to prove Vallaki is happy. This one, with its great wicker sun, will decide who rules the…
• The Missing Girl: Arabelle, the young daughter of the Vistani headman Luvash, vanished from the camp outside Vallaki in the night.
• The Toymaker's Masterpiece: Gadof Blinsky, Vallaki's toymaker, has wanted all his life to see the clockwork jester his master's master made for the count's children.