Lady Wachter's Book Club

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

The rumour reaches you from all over Vallaki, and any of these puts the quest at Rumored:

• the Baron's "Who would wish your festival ill?" in his great hall;
• the gate watch's "Heard anything interesting?", while the book club still meets;
• Urwin Martikov's "Heard anything interesting?" at the Blue Water Inn;
• simply calling on Lady Wachter herself.

She receives in the parlour of Wachterhaus, up Wachter lane north-west of the square, at any hour, except while the festival is running.

Step by step

1. Take tea. She pours for everyone without asking how you take it. Ask about the book club or the Baron to hear her talk.
   • Insight DC 14, "What does she actually want?", shows you a patient, faithful woman who wants the Baron's chair. A failure tells you nothing, and you can't try it again.
   • Investigation DC 13, asking about the locked door upstairs and the scratching, makes her tell you about her daughter Stella. That starts The Cat in the Window. A failure only gets you "mice", and since it isn't a social check you can ask again.
2. Hear her offer. "You didn't invite us here for the tea" moves the quest to Offer. She means to step up when the Baron's festival fails, and she wants you standing behind her.
   • "You'd rule it for Strahd" names it plainly (Godrick +1, Liriel +1).
   • "We'll stand with you", now or later as "About your offer. We're with you", moves this quest to Joined and the festival to Wachter Side (Liriel -3, Godrick -3, Kip -2, Thistle, Wren and Ratatouille -1).
   • Once you've joined, she gives her orders: soak the wicker sun after midnight, keep Izek off her on the day, and don't kill Izek before the festival.
3. Find the cellar. Go through the hall into her study.
   • The desk drawer (lock DC 14) holds 45 gp and Perfume. It's hers, and she'll mention next time that she knows.
   • A Search near the desk can turn up a hidden drawer (Investigation DC 15): Eyes of Charming.
   • A Search beside the bookcase that reaches 13 finds a catch behind the third shelf, and the same roll finds the panel itself, a secret door with the same DC 13. Stella, once you've freed her, tells you the same trick.
   • The panel opens on a stair down to a cellar made into a chapel, with a black-draped shrine to the lord of Ravenloft. Read A letter on the shrine: Strahd's own letter, thanking her for her loyalty and signed "S." That letter is your evidence.
   • Religion DC 15 at the shrine reads its dedication and reveals the cult's tithe hidden underneath it: a Rod of Rulership. A Search beside the shrine (DC 15) finds the tithe too.
4. The book club, by night. By day the cellar is empty. If you go down after dark while you're not pledged to her (and before the festival's fight), the book club is waiting at the shrine. They're in plain view as you come down the stair, so you can strike first. Nikolai and Karl Wachter (Toughs) and the circle:
   • at level 5: four Cultists, three hired swords (Warrior Veterans) and "something from the shrine", a Shadow (2,500 XP, a little over a low fight for four level 5 characters);
   • at level 4: four cultists and one hired sword (1,000 XP, low).

   The shadow shrugs off most elements but radiant damage hurts it badly. The cultists have about 9 HP each.

   Winning moves the quest to Cult Broken. From then on Lady Wachter sits alone in black and won't take a pledge, and at the festival only her hired swords come for the Baron.

5. Decide who sees the letter.
   • The Baron: "We found this in Lady Wachter's cellar", offered unless you're pledged to her. The quest moves to Evidence Found, and he denounces her at the festival.
   • Father Lucian: "We found a letter in Lady Wachter's cellar", offered only while you're pledged to the town. The quest moves to Evidence Found, and he reads it to the square.
   • Nobody: if the town wins the festival, you can still read it out yourself.
   • Telling Lady Wachter you've read it changes nothing; she isn't ashamed of her correspondents.
6. The festival. Lady Wachter makes her move at The Festival of the Blazing Sun, and which side you stand on decides how this quest ends.

Choices and endings

• Coup Crushed (you stood with the Baron and won the coup fight). She goes into the stocks in the square.
  • There, Insight DC 12 shows she's calmly waiting for nightfall and a visitor.
  • In his great hall, the Baron will exile her instead for Persuasion DC 15 or 100 gp for a "Festival of Mercy" (Liriel +2, Wren +2, Godrick +1, Kip +1).
• Coup Won (you stood with her and won the loyalists fight). She rules from the Baron's great hall and pays you 150 gp. Ask her what Vallaki's future is: an open gate for black carriages, and bows for the castle's guests. Insight DC 13 shows what she promised the castle.
• Exposed (you stood with the town). After the fight she offers to take the Baron's place. If the Baron or Lucian has the letter, it's read to the crowd at once. Otherwise you can read it yourself, or make her betray herself with Persuasion DC 15. The council locks her in the lockup.
• Slipped Away (you stood with the town, but nobody read the letter out, and the Persuasion failed or you chose to let her talk). She walks home free to Wachterhaus, and the quest ends there as a success; she has only a sour word for you if you call on her.
• Reading the letter also gives you an argument for the Abbot at The Abbey of St. Markovia much later (Persuasion DC 12).

If you're stuck

• No panel behind the bookcase. Stand right by the bookcase and Search again: a Search finds things within 15 feet, and a total of 13 turns up both the catch and the panel.
• No book club at night. The cellar fight never happens while you're pledged to Lady Wachter, and the cellar is empty by day. If all you want is the letter, go by day.
• She isn't at home. She's in the square while the festival runs. Afterwards she's only at Wachterhaus if she slipped away.
• She won't take your pledge. She turns cold once her cellar circle is broken.

Rewards

What your companions think

• Thistle: +2 you told the Baron you don't work for men who jail people for frowning; -2 you stood with the Baron, who jails people for frowning; -1 you stood with Lady Wachter, who would rule Vallaki for Strahd
• Wren Featherfoot: +2 you told the Baron you don't work for men who jail people for frowning; -2 you stood with the Baron, who jails people for frowning; +2 you talked Lady Wachter out of the stocks and into exile; +2 you bought Lady Wachter's way out of the stocks; -1 you stood with Lady Wachter, who would rule Vallaki for Strahd
• Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you told the Baron you don't work for men who jail people for frowning; -1 you stood with the Baron, who jails people for frowning; +1 you talked Lady Wachter out of the stocks and into exile; +1 you bought Lady Wachter's way out of the stocks; +1 you named Lady Wachter's plan for what it is; -3 you stood with Lady Wachter, who would rule Vallaki for Strahd
• Liriel Dawnsong: -1 you stood with the Baron, who jails people for frowning; +2 you talked Lady Wachter out of the stocks and into exile; +2 you bought Lady Wachter's way out of the stocks; +1 you named Lady Wachter's plan for what it is; -3 you stood with Lady Wachter, who would rule Vallaki for Strahd
• Kip Smudgewick: +1 you talked Lady Wachter out of the stocks and into exile; +1 you bought Lady Wachter's way out of the stocks; -2 you stood with Lady Wachter, who would rule Vallaki for Strahd
• Ratatouille: -1 you stood with Lady Wachter, who would rule Vallaki for Strahd

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.

• 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.

• Seven heads turn from the shrine at once. 'You're early,' says Nikolai Wachter, drawing, 'and you weren't…, in Wachterhaus: Tough, Cultist, Warrior Veteran, Shadow. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: Baron Vargas Vallakovich, Lady Wachter, Father Lucian, Urwin Martikov, Town Guard
• Places: Vallaki, The Burgomaster's Mansion, Wachterhaus, St. Andral's Church, The Blue Water Inn
• More in Vallaki: Black Roses, One Lantern Too Many, Ribbons, The Attic Circle, The Bones of St. Andral, The Cat in the Window, The Count's Portraitist, The Doll Collector