Ireena's Escort

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

This quest starts alongside The Burgomaster's Burial. Ismark Kolyanovich, at the table by the hearth in Blood of the Vine, asks you to take his sister west to Vallaki once their father is buried. The quest goes into your journal at Asked whether you agree to help him or refuse. It also starts if you meet Ireena Kolyana first, in the parlor of the Burgomaster's Mansion, and promise to help bury her father.

Ireena won't leave until Kolyan is in the ground, so nothing moves until the burial is done. The real start is at the graveside.

Step by step

1. Bury the burgomaster. Follow The Burgomaster's Burial to the end. When the grave is filled the quest moves to Ready. Strahd's visit to the grave follows, and how you answer him matters to Ireena (see that page).
2. Hear Ireena out. If Strahd's visit ended in a fight, Ireena and Ismark wait by the grave afterwards. Talk to Ismark first if you want Kolyan's Weapon, +1, then to Ireena. If it ended without a fight, Ismark hands you the sword in the burial scene and it runs straight on into Ireena's question.

   Before she asks, Ireena reacts to the day:

   • The burial. After a hasty one she's angry but goes anyway, because staying is worse. Donavich's rites please her, a cleric's rites earn her thanks, and honest words from you are, she says, what her father would have chosen.
   • Your answer to Strahd. Defiance delights her, and she'd follow you anywhere to see it again. An attack she's wanted to make herself for a month. Courtesy makes her angry: you bowed to him over her father's grave. Silence felt to her like losing.
   • The rest. She remembers Strahd making her beg for Ismark's breath. If you freed Doru, she tells you you'll have to live with it. If you put down the churchyard dead, she notes the village's dead were buried twice.

   If the Vistani women in the tavern told you about their seer (ask Alenka "Who are you?"), she also wants to see Madam Eva at Tser Pool on the way. Then she asks whether you'll take her:

   • "Yes. We'll take you to Vallaki."
   • "Krezk is farther from the castle. We'll take you there." Ismark points out that Krezk is days past Vallaki, up in the hills; Ireena agrees to go through Vallaki and on.
   • "Not yet. We have business in the village first." She goes back to the mansion to wait by the window.
   • "No. We can't take you." The quest moves to Declined. Ireena turns cool toward you (Godrick -4, Liriel -2, Wren -2, Kip -1).
3. If you said yes. The quest moves to Accepted. Ireena joins you as a guest: she follows you, appears in the party frames and fights under your control. She also turns friendly (Godrick +4, Liriel +2, Wren +2, Thistle +1, Kip +1, Ratatouille +1). Ismark announces he's coming too:
   • "Glad to have you, Ismark." adds him as a second guest.
   • "Someone should stay and keep the house standing." leaves him at home. He'll see you off at the edge of the village.

   You can finish any other village business first. Ireena stays with you while you do.

4. Leave by the road west. Walk to the two leaning posts at the far west end of the village, on the west road past Grigore's woodpile, and examine "The road west". With Ireena in the party she stops at the last post and looks back at her home. Ismark either jokes about the adventure or, if he's staying, says goodbye. "Set out west." moves the quest to Departed and opens the road west onto the travel map; "Not yet." lets you turn back.

   

5. Follow the Old Svalich Road. On the travel map the road runs from the village to The River Ivlis Crossroads (1.5 hours), on to Tser Pool Encampment (1.5 hours) and then through the Svalich Woods to Vallaki (4 hours). Every leg can roll a random meeting. On the open road the chance is 15% by day and 40% at night (wolves by day; the dead, wolves and worse at night). In the woods it's 20% by day and 50% at night (wolves and hunters by day; werewolves and the dead at night). That's seven hours of walking, so set out early enough to be inside Vallaki's walls before 19:00. Optional stops on the way:
   • At the crossroads, a hanged Vistana on the gallows (The Hanged Man at the Crossroads). Ireena remembers her father cutting such men down. If you leave him hanging and walk into the gallows field at night, he and the old hanged dead rise: 5 × Strahd Zombie.
   • Tser Falls, a detour off the crossroads, where Ireena remembers a fall that wasn't hers. At night, a Werewolf, a dire wolf and two wolves wait on the ledge and catch you by surprise.
   • Madam Eva's Tarokka reading at Tser Pool (The Seer at Tser Pool).
   • Strahd may ride past you once on either road. It's never a fight. With Ireena along he speaks to her, and you get an extra answer: "Step between him and Ireena."
6. The gate of Vallaki. The first time you arrive, a Town Guard steps into the east gateway and asks your business.

   

   With Ireena in the party you can say "This is Ireena Kolyana, daughter of the late burgomaster of Barovia." The guard promises to tell the Baron, and Ireena tells him she's hiding, not visiting. The other answers work too: the plain truth (Godrick +1, Kip +1), [Deception DC 12] "We've come for the festival, naturally." (Wren +1 if it works) or [Intimidation DC 14] "We're coming in. Stand aside." (Godrick -1, Kip -1, Thistle +1 if it works; if it fails, the watch chalks your faces on the gatepost). Every answer gets you in. With Ireena beside you, the quest ends at Arrived and Sanctuary begins.

Choices and endings

• Arrived (success). Ireena is behind Vallaki's walls, for tonight. Her story goes on in Sanctuary. The milestone level listed for this quest is the one you get when Kolyan is buried; arriving in Vallaki gives none of its own. While Ireena travels with you, Strahd watches you a little more closely (+1).
• Vallaki or Krezk. If you promised Krezk, Ireena expects to go on past Vallaki, and when you reach Krezk's wall she has something to say about it. She can still end up heading for Krezk from Vallaki later in Sanctuary.
• Ismark along or at home. With him you have a second guest fighter, and he has lines of his own on the road and at the gates.
• Declined. Ireena stays in the mansion behind barred shutters with Ismark. You can go back at any time, talk to Ireena and say "We'll take you after all. Vallaki." or "We'll take you to Krezk." That puts you on the Accepted path; the approval you lost by refusing doesn't come back.
• Not yet. Ireena waits in the mansion. Talk to her there, or tell Ismark "About Ireena leaving.", to get the question again.

If you're stuck

• Been to Vallaki before without her? That's fine. When you first bring Ireena through the east gate, a Town Guard comes up to her ("Back again, and with a lady this time.") and the quest moves to Arrived. Sanctuary starts at the same moment.
• Leaving the village after the burial counts as refusing. If you set out west from the posts alone once Kolyan is buried and you've met Ismark, before you've given Ireena an answer, the game takes that as a no and the quest jumps to Declined. To undo it, go back to the mansion and talk to Ireena. Choosing "Not yet." first and then leaving is safe. Leaving before the burial is never a refusal, so parties heading out early for the High Pasture (The Goatherd's Count) lose nothing; the quest stays at Asked until the grave is filled.
• Ireena isn't at the grave. She only waits by the grave until you've answered her. After "Not yet" or "No" she's back in the mansion.
• No farewell at the posts. The farewell scene only plays the first time you leave by the west road. If you'd already left that way once, you just walk out with her, and the journal skips Departed. The gate of Vallaki still finishes the quest, as long as it's your first visit there.

Rewards

• A level (milestone)

What your companions think

• Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you told the gate the plain truth; -1 you shoved your way through Vallaki's gate; +1 you said a few honest words over a man you never met; -2 you filled in Kolyan's grave without a word; -2 you threatened your way through a frightened woman's door; +2 you promised Ireena a proper burial for her father
• Kip Smudgewick: +1 you told the gate the plain truth; -1 you shoved your way through Vallaki's gate; -1 you filled in Kolyan's grave without a word; -1 you threatened your way through a frightened woman's door; +1 you took Ireena out of the village, away from him; -1 you wouldn't take Ireena away from the village
• Wren Featherfoot: +1 you talked your way through Vallaki's gate; +1 you barred the door and held the house with Ireena; +2 you took Ireena out of the village, away from him; -2 you wouldn't take Ireena away from the village
• Thistle: +1 you shoved your way through Vallaki's gate; +1 you said a few honest words over a man you never met; +2 you barred the door and held the house with Ireena; +1 you took Ireena out of the village, away from him
• Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you gave Kolyan the rites of your own faith; -3 you filled in Kolyan's grave without a word; -2 you threatened your way through a frightened woman's door; +2 you promised Ireena a proper burial for her father; +1 you blessed Kolyan's coffin; +2 you took Ireena out of the village, away from him
• Ratatouille: +1 you took Ireena out of the village, away from him

Journal

Related

• People: Town Guard, Ismark Kolyanovich, Ireena Kolyana, Father Donavich, Parriwimple, Doru
• Places: Vallaki, Village of Barovia, Burgomaster's Mansion, Blood of the Vine
• Next in the story: The Seer at Tser Pool