Death House

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Rose and Thorn give it. They stand in the road at the village edge, the west end of The Old Svalich Road, at any hour, and you meet them at the end of Into the Mists (that page covers the conversation and the Insight and Arcana checks that see through them). Talking to them puts Death House in your journal at Plea. They are only there until you first set foot inside the house.

The house is in the Village of Barovia: come in on the east road and it's the tall house in the lot at the south-east corner, by the dead tree. Go in by the front door. You arrive at level 1; the house raises you to level 2 when you find its hidden stair and to level 3 when it lets you go.

Step by step

The house is six maps, and the way down starts at the top: ground floor, upper floor, third floor and attic, then a stair hidden inside the walls that runs all the way down to two dungeon levels. Nothing on the ground or upper floor attacks you on the way in.

A few things hold for the whole house. A Search rolls the leader's Perception (and Investigation, when a hidden compartment is near) against everything within 15 feet, so make your sharpest character the leader when you search. A hidden find that holds an item gives each character one look; whoever misses has missed it for good, but someone else can still try. Long rests are risky on every floor and impossible on the lowest level. Both dungeon levels are dark, so pick up a light on the way.

The ground floor (Death House, Ground Floor)

1. Search the ground floor. The front door clicks shut behind you. There is no cellar door anywhere.
   • Cloakroom, west of the entrance: a lantern behind the coats (Search, DC 12), a Hooded Lantern.
   • Main hall: a lamp that never burns down, a longsword over the hearth (scenery) and carved paneling where a Search (DC 12) shows serpents and skulls among the vines. The red stair up is in the north-east corner.
   • Den of Wolves, west of the hall: the glass hunting cabinet (lock DC 12) holds a Heavy Crossbow, a Light Crossbow and Crossbow Bolt (20); the card cabinet a Playing Card Set; a loose board under the card cabinet (Investigation DC 13) a Medallion of Thoughts.
   • Kitchen: squeeze into the dumbwaiter shaft (Acrobatics DC 13, nobody can help; 1d4 bludgeoning if you fail) to turn up something in the soot at its foot, or Search beside it (DC 13): a Driftglobe.
   • Pantry: shelves with Ration (3), Candle (4) and Oil. Judging the sealed jars (Medicine DC 12) finds sound ones that heal every hurt party member 1d4; pick wrong and you take 1d4 poison.
   • Dining room: the sideboard holds two candles and 30 gp. Note the tall window at the east end. You may need it later.

The upper floor (Death House, Upper Floor)

2. The family portrait. It hangs over the upper hall's hearth. If you heard the children's plea, you recognise them in it, decades old under brown varnish, holding the same stuffed wolf; that counts as one piece of lore if you hadn't already seen through them. History DC 12 dates it. The two suits of wolf-helmed armor by the library door and the stopped clock are only scenery. Mind the rotten floorboard in the hall (spot DC 11, disarm DC 11; Dexterity save DC 11 or 1d6 bludgeoning).
3. The library and the secret study. The library desk holds the Iron Attic Key (with Parchment, Ink and an Ink Pen). Take it: it opens the children's room in the attic. A hollow book among the histories (Investigation DC 14) hides a Wand of Magic Missiles. On the south wall one bookcase has no dust in front of it. Read the titles on its odd shelf (History DC 13) or Search near it (DC 13) and it swings open on a secret study:
   • A letter to Gustav signed with an S. It counts as lore, and having read it opens an easier Persuasion (DC 12 instead of 16) at the climax of The Abbot's Bride.
   • A bundle of deeds: this house, a vineyard plot and a windmill on the Old Svalich Road.
   • A black pamphlet with the cult's creed (a codex entry).
   • An iron-banded chest (lock DC 13): Book (3, blank) and a Spell Scroll, Spell Scroll and Spell Scroll.
   • The skeleton of an adventurer who found the room first, still wearing Leather Armor, with Dart (3).
4. The servants' quarters. A footlocker (Traveler's Clothes, two rations, 3 gp) and something under a servant's bed (Search, DC 14): Gloves of Missile Snaring.
5. The conservatory and the lullaby. The harpsichord has a lullaby on its rack, marked W. The party gets one try at it, whichever way you go: Performance DC 11 to play it or Investigation DC 13 to hear it from the notation. Success means you know the lullaby, which calms the nursemaid upstairs without a roll and lets you sing it at Walter's crypt later. Choose your best performer or reader before you click. The standing harp (Performance DC 13) gives Heroic Inspiration, and a lute case behind it (Investigation DC 13) holds an Instrument of the Bards (Doss Lute). The stair up is at the south end of the hall.

The third floor (Death House, Third Floor)

6. The black armor. You come up at the south end of a balcony. When you step onto its north end, the suit of black plate there steps off its stand: one Animated Armor (200 XP, Low for a level 1 party of four). Both ways to the attic start from that end, as does the door to the nursemaid's room, so you can't skip it. It has AC 18 but only 33 hit points and ignores poison and psychic damage; put everyone on it.
7. Find the attic stair. It's hidden in the walls behind two secret doors: a seam in the carved paneling on the landing beside the empty armor stand (Search, DC 12), or the frame of the tall mirror in the nursemaid's room (Search, DC 10; cold air breathes along one edge).
8. The family's rooms (optional).
   • Master suite, west off the balcony: a jewel box (lock DC 12) with jewelry worth 900 gp; two wardrobes (Fine Clothes twice, Perfume); a false bottom in the dressing-table drawer (Investigation DC 13) with a Circlet of Blasting. The bathroom's medicine cabinet has Antitoxin and a Healer's Kit.
   • Storage room, off the stairwell: the broom in the corner is a Broom of Animated Attack (50 XP) that attacks as you walk in. Nothing else is there.
   • Nursemaid's room, east off the landing: Gustav's letters to the nursemaid, tied in blue ribbon, tell you the baby Walter was hers and his (lore). Something under her mattress (Search, DC 14): a Cloak of Elvenkind.
9. The nursemaid. The Nursemaid hangs in the nursery doorway, beyond her room, asking if you've brought Walter back up. Choose:
   • Hum her the lullaby (only if you learned it at the harpsichord). She tells you Walter was hers and the master's, given to the robed ones the night he was born, and fades. No roll; Liriel +2, Wren +1, Godrick +1.
   • Persuasion DC 14 (tell her Walter is gone), or a Cleric's Religion DC 13 (pray her to rest). She fades (Liriel +2, Godrick +1). If the roll fails, she attacks; since she struck first, nobody holds the fight against you.
   • Insight DC 12 only tells you she would know his song anywhere.
   • Strike first (Liriel -2, Wren -1), or back away and come back later.

   Calming her also teaches you Walter's story (lore). The fight is one Specter (200 XP, Low at level 1). It resists weapon damage and most elements, is immune to necrotic and poison, flies through walls, and its Life Drain lowers your maximum hit points by the damage it deals, so radiant and force damage are the way to hurt it. The painted chest in the nursery holds a Blanket and a Potion of Healing.

The attic (Death House, Attic)

10. Look around the attic. Mind the sagging boards in the hall (spot DC 12, disarm DC 12; Dexterity save DC 11 or 1d6 bludgeoning). The two spare bedrooms have a Costume and a blanket in their wardrobes. The storage room has a travel trunk (Lamp, two oil, Tinderbox) and a big trunk under a dust sheet with the nursemaid's bones in it (Medicine DC 10 tells you how she died; if you later take on The Nursemaid's Grave, this is where you collect her). In the storage room's corner is a bare nook whose plaster is warm.
11. The children's room. It's padlocked from the outside. Open it with the Iron Attic Key, pick the lock (DC 12), force it (Athletics DC 14) or cast Knock. Rose and Thorn's ghosts are inside, waiting for their mother; talking to them starts Rest for Rose and Thorn, which has its own page. Their bones are in the toy chest, and a secret drawer in its base (Investigation DC 12) holds a Bag of Tricks (Gray).
12. Find the hidden stair. Any one of these does it:
    • Examine the dollhouse, a perfect copy of this house, and go over it room by room (Investigation DC 12). Pass or fail, you spot the tiny panel in the storage room's corner. A pass also shows you a stone table at the bottom of the stair with a lump of grey clay beside it, shaped like a sleeping heap (lore).
    • Ask Rose what the dollhouse shows (once you've met the ghosts, while they're still in the room).
    • Search the warm nook in the storage room (DC 14) for the seam in the plaster.

    The journal moves to Secret Stair, every party member reaches level 2, and the nook is now the top of a stair going down.

The dungeon, upper level (Death House, Dungeon (Upper Level))

13. The family crypts. The stair lets you out in a small rock room. The iron gate on its east side opens on a gallery of Durst crypts:
    • The oldest crypt (History DC 14): a codex entry about the patron the first Durst swore the house to.
    • Gustav's crypt: open, ready and empty.
    • Elisabeth's crypt ticks. Nature DC 12 tells you it's thousands of insects; sliding the slab aside lets out a Swarm of Insects (100 XP) for nothing but the experience. It resists weapon damage, so use spells.
    • Rosavalda and Thornboldt's two small crypts, open and waiting. This is where the children's bones go (see Rest for Rose and Thorn).
    • Walter's crypt, the smallest. If you know the lullaby, hum it (Wren +2, Liriel +1).
14. The initiates' quarters, through the low door on the stair room's south side: footlockers with Robe (3), Dagger (2) and 9 gp, and something under a straw pallet (Search, DC 13): an Elemental Gem (Red Corundum).
15. The well and the cultists' alcoves, south of the crypts: five chests holding 17 gp, a handkerchief of moss agates (30 gp), a carnelian eye-patch (50 gp), a silver-bristled hairbrush (25 gp) and a Shortsword. You can climb down the well (Athletics DC 13, ten minutes) for 22 gp of thrown coins; slip and it's 1d6 bludgeoning.
16. The narrow passage east. A covered spiked pit sits in the middle of it. Spot it at DC 15, or read the scuffs at the west end of the passage (Survival DC 13) to see every footprint step over one flagstone; disarm it at DC 15. Step on it and it's a Dexterity save (DC 12) or a ten-foot drop onto spikes for 2d6 piercing.
17. The dining hall. The cult's ledger lies open on the table: everyone they gave to the altar, and at the end a single name, Walter, marked "first". It's one piece of lore, and a second if you hadn't already learned Walter's story. The larder to the north holds a Grick (450 XP, Low at level 2) that uncoils from the wall when you walk in, and nothing else worth having. The door with a carved hand, in the hall's south wall, leads to the stair down. That is the whole route through this level.
18. Optional: the cult leaders' wing. South of the well room a passage runs west, and it's the deadliest part of the house:
    • The bone-strewn passage: four Ghoul get up out of the bones (800 XP, High at level 2). A claw can paralyze anyone who isn't an elf until the end of their next turn (Constitution DC 10), so keep your elves in front and get fallen friends up quickly.
    • The Darklord's shrine, through the black door at the passage's west end: a painted statue of Strahd holding out a smoky orb. Arcana DC 12 tells you the orb is plain crystal and the sooty shapes on the walls are waiting for someone to take it. Taking it gives you an Arcane Focus (Orb) and wakes five Shadow (500 XP). Shadows are vulnerable to radiant damage, hide in dim light, and every hit drains Strength. A hollow in the statue's base (Search, DC 14) holds Dust of Disappearance, and saying rites for the shackled skeletons (Religion DC 12) earns Heroic Inspiration. A secret door behind the statue's alcove (Search, DC 15) leads to a trapdoor stair that only opens after a sacrifice.
    • The heavy oak door in the shrine's east wall is a Mimic (450 XP) that attacks when you open it. Whatever touches it sticks (escape DC 13), and it bites harder at anyone stuck.
    • Beyond it, Gustav Durst and Elisabeth Durst sit at supper. Every conversation with them ends in a fight with both: two Ghast (900 XP, above High at level 2). First you can ask who they are, about their children, and about Walter (lore, if you hadn't learned it). Intimidation DC 13 or Persuasion DC 15 gets a confession out of them (lore) before they attack; a failure just starts the fight. If you've already laid the children to rest, "Your children are at rest" stops them cold and the fight begins with the Dursts surprised. Their stench poisons anyone who starts a turn next to them (Constitution DC 10), and their claws paralyze (Constitution DC 10).
    • Their quarters, through the bedroom door: a wardrobe carved with faces (two robes, ten candles) and a faded footlocker of guests' belongings: a Cloak of Protection, Potion of Healing (4), a Chain Shirt, Alchemist's Fire, a Bullseye Lantern, Thieves' Tools and The Dursts' Spellbook.

    

The dungeon, lower level (Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level))

19. Down to the chanting. You can't rest at all on this level.
    • The reliquary at the foot of the stair: Arcana DC 14 on the alcoves points out the one relic that still holds power, or Search for it (Investigation DC 14): Pipes of Haunting.
    • The prison, through the door on the south side: a chest with two robes, a dagger and six candles, and a robed skeleton with a gold ring (25 gp).
    • The flooded passage runs east, ankle-deep, to a rusted portcullis at its east end. A low door in its south wall opens on the winch room, which is walled off from the ritual chamber: the only thing in it is the winch. Pull it to raise the portcullis. That is the only way in, through the antechamber beyond the portcullis and the archway carved "one must die".
    • In the ritual chamber, the wall reliefs (Religion DC 14) give a codex entry on the rite.

    

20. The altar. Talk to The Shades standing beside the altar (examining the altar does the same). The journal moves to The Altar. They want one death. Before you answer you can:
    • Ask who they are, and what the heap in the corner is (it's breathing).
    • Religion DC 14: denounce their creed in the name of the dawn. One try for the party. Success gives you a head start (Liriel +2, Godrick +1).
    • "We know what you are, and what sleeps in that heap": offered once you've gathered four or more pieces of lore. It gives you the head start with no roll (Ratatouille +2, Wren +1).
    • If you have a Wizard, offer them a familiar instead. They won't take it, but the Wizard earns Heroic Inspiration (Ratatouille +1, Kip +1).
    • Back away from the altar. They'll wait, and you can come back.

    The lore, each counted once (seven in all): seeing through the children (the Insight, Arcana or crow on the road, the portrait if you'd heard their plea, or telling the ghosts "You asked us to save Walter"); Strahd's letter; Walter's story (the nursemaid's letters, calming the nursemaid, asking the Dursts about him, or the ledger); how the children died (Medicine on their bones, telling them the truth, or Thorn climbing into one of you); the dollhouse's altar (a pass on its Investigation check); the cult's ledger; and the Dursts' confession. The portrait, the letter, the nursemaid's letters, the bones, the dollhouse and the ledger are six without a single fight.

21. Refuse. Everyone approves (Godrick +3, Liriel +3, Thistle +3, Kip +3, Ratatouille +2, Wren +2), and Godrick earns Heroic Inspiration for holding the door. The heap is Lorghoth the Decayer, and it wakes. Choose:
    • Run for the stairs. With a head start you're simply away. Without one, the party's best makes a Dexterity DC 12 check. On a failure two Hooded Shades (Shadow, 200 XP) rise between you and the stairs and you must beat them first. Lorghoth never follows you up; it's too big for the narrow ways.
    • Stand and fight. Lorghoth is a Shambling Mound (1,800 XP), far beyond what a level 2 party should take on: 110 hit points, AC 15, three tendril strikes a turn, and an Engulf that swallows one of you (Strength DC 15). Lightning heals it, and it resists cold and fire. With a head start it begins four squares farther away. Killing it pays only the experience, though the house and some later banter remember it.
22. Get out. The house turns on you, and the only way up is the way you came: up the stair to the first dungeon level, back over the spiked pit, through the crypts and up the hidden stair to the attic, then down through every floor. On the way:
    • Attic: a loosened beam over the head of the attic stairs (spot DC 12, disarm DC 13; Dexterity DC 12 or 2d6 bludgeoning).
    • Third floor: the hearths breathe soot across the balcony by the stairs down (spot DC 12; Constitution DC 12 or 1d6 poison and Poisoned), and two Animated Flying Sword (100 XP) come at you on the balcony.
    • Upper floor: blades slide out of the wainscot across the hall between the two stairs (spot DC 13, disarm DC 13; Dexterity DC 12 or 2d6 slashing).
    • Ground floor: the chandelier over the main hall comes down (spot DC 12; Dexterity DC 12 or 2d6 bludgeoning), and a flying sword and the hall broom attack (100 XP).

    The front door is solid brick now. Go to the dining room's tall window, which is bricking itself up from the sill, and break through the gap at the top: Athletics DC 12 to smash it or Acrobatics DC 12 to scramble through. On a failure the Carving Knife and the Cake Knife (two Animated Flying Sword, 100 XP) attack first; beat them, examine the window again, and you're through. The journal ends at Escaped Refused and everyone reaches level 3.

23. Or sacrifice. Pick one living party member to lie on the altar. They die for good and leave the party. If you lose your nerve at the pick, "No one. Not this." takes you back to the altar. The rest of the party takes it hard (Godrick and Liriel -10, Thistle, Wren and Kip -8, Ratatouille -6). The shades unravel, Lorghoth sleeps on, every lock in the house turns over, the journal ends at Escaped Sacrificed and everyone reaches level 3. Nothing in the house will stop you now: walk out of the front door, or use the trapdoor stair behind the shrine's statue, which now opens into the village.

Choices and endings

Both endings count as success and both pay the same level. What differs is who walks out, and how the valley treats you afterwards.

• Escaped Refused. Everyone lives, and the house stays hungry: its front door is brick and the village can hear it mending itself. Ismark Kolyanovich heard the bricks and can tell you came out of a window; Father Donavich says his bell rang by itself when the house began to groan. If Strahd von Zarovich wins in the end, the epilogue says the house has learned to wait.
• Escaped Sacrificed. One of you is dead, permanently. Ismark looks at your hands and decides not to ask, Father Donavich smells it on you, Godrick brings it up at camp if his approval of the party falls to Strained, and one of the vestiges in The Amber Temple smells it too. If Strahd is destroyed, the epilogue says the altar keeps the name of the one you left there.
• Either way, the people who speak of the house afterwards know you came out of it: Ismark, Madam Eva, and Strahd in his first letter.
• Along the way: knowing the lullaby spares the nursemaid; reading Strahd's letter gives you the easier Persuasion at the end of The Abbot's Bride; promising Rose to find Walter makes the shades answer that the child was theirs first; laying the children to rest (their own quest) gives you a surprise round on the Dursts and changes what Ismark and Donavich say. The quest pays no gold of its own, but the house is full of it: the 900 gp jewel box alone pays for a lot.

If you're stuck

• No way down from the ground floor. There isn't one. Go up; the stair down starts in the attic.
• No way into the attic. The stair up is hidden on the third floor: Search beside the empty armor stand on the landing (DC 12), or at the tall mirror in the nursemaid's room (DC 10).
• The children's room is locked. The key is in the library desk on the upper floor.
• You can't find the hidden stair. The dollhouse always shows it, even if you fail its check.
• The harpsichord went dead. It's one try for the party. Without the lullaby you can still talk or pray the nursemaid to rest, or fight her.
• The portcullis on the lowest level won't open. Pull the winch in the room behind the low door on the flooded passage's south side; the winch room itself doesn't lead on to the ritual chamber.
• The front door is brick. That's what refusing does. Leave by the dining room's tall window.
• The trapdoor in the dungeon won't lift. It only opens after a sacrifice.
• The children are gone from the road. They leave as soon as you first enter the house. You can still start the house without them; finding the hidden stair puts it in your journal.

Rewards

• A level (milestone)

What your companions think

• Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you denounced the cult in the dawn's name; +3 you refused to give the house one of your own; -10 you gave the house one of your own; +2 you carried the Durst children's bones out of the attic
• Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you denounced the cult in the dawn's name; +3 you refused to give the house one of your own; -10 you gave the house one of your own; +2 you carried the Durst children's bones out of the attic
• Ratatouille: +2 you threw the house's own story back at its cult; +1 you tried to bargain the cult down from a life to a familiar; +2 you refused to give the house one of your own; -6 you gave the house one of your own
• Wren Featherfoot: +1 you threw the house's own story back at its cult; +2 you refused to give the house one of your own; -8 you gave the house one of your own
• Kip Smudgewick: +1 you tried to bargain the cult down from a life to a familiar; +3 you refused to give the house one of your own; -8 you gave the house one of your own; +1 you carried the Durst children's bones out of the attic
• Thistle: +3 you refused to give the house one of your own; -8 you gave the house one of your own

Fights

• The shades will not let you leave so easily., in Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level): Shadow.
• Lorghoth the Decayer wakes, slowly. You saw it coming., in Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level): Shambling Mound.
• Lorghoth the Decayer wakes., in Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level): Shambling Mound.
• The silverware wants a word., in Death House, Ground Floor: Animated Flying Sword.

Journal

Related

• People: The Shades, Rose, Thorn
• Places: Death House, Dungeon (Lower Level), Death House, Attic, Death House, Ground Floor, The Old Svalich Road
• Next in the story: The Burgomaster's Burial