Side quest Vallaki Level 5

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.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Daciana hands out yellow festival ribbons around the town square of Vallaki from 09:00 to 17:00, but not in storms. There are two ways to open the quest (Rumored):

  • Refuse her ribbon. Say "No, thank you." She apologises and says she has to write that down, because "it's not me who wants to know."
  • Ask Anton in the stocks. Every third morning from 08:00 until the evening bell at 20:00, the watch locks Anton the Cooper in the stocks for "insufficient cheer". Ask him "What happens now?" and then "Who told the Baron you weren't smiling?" He points you at the girl with the ribbons.

Either way you can now ask Daciana "Who wants to know, Daciana?". When the festival is over, Daciana only keeps working the square if you've already started the quest. She stays until it's settled, and if the journal still says Rumored she goes straight to who reads the lists. If you hadn't started it by then, the only way in is Anton, and he only goes back in the stocks if the Baron still rules.

Step by step

  1. Ask Daciana who reads her lists. She doesn't know. She leaves the paper under the lamp on Main Street at dusk, finds a coin in its place in the morning, and her brother stays out of the stocks. You have three answers:
    • Persuasion DC 13, "Then stop." If it works, she'll leave tonight's paper blank, which opens an extra scene at the west gate later. A failure can't be retried.
    • Insight DC 12 only tells you she's telling the truth.
    • "We'll see who comes for it."

    All three move the journal to Asked.

  2. Stake out the lamp. "A loose stone at the lamp post" is on Main Street, near the cooper's. Examine it and pick "Wait for whoever comes for it, after dusk". Time jumps to 20:00, and Watchman Dobre comes along and pockets the paper.
  3. Follow him or confront him.
    • Stealth DC 13, follow him. You watch him hand copies to the Baron's clerk at the mansion's kitchen door and to a gloved hand at Wachterhaus's back gate. Then he walks to the west gate, where a hooded rider on a black horse is waiting (journal Sold Three Times). Step out and you fight at the gate. If Daciana agreed to leave the page blank, you can let him hand it over first: the rider reads nothing, stares Dobre down and rides away for good. Dobre turns round, sees you, and you fight him and his lads in the street without the rider. If your Stealth fails, Dobre spots you and calls his lads, and you get the street fight.
    • Confront him: "Watchman. A word about that paper." Intimidation DC 14 makes him boast that he sells each list three times (Sold Three Times) before he calls his lads. If it fails, or you draw steel, it's the street fight without the confession.
  4. The fight. Every enemy here is a Warrior Veteran. In the street fight (ribbons_street) you face Dobre and two of his lads below level 5, three at level 5, and four at level 6 or higher. The gate fight (ribbons_gate) adds the Rider on the Black Horse (Bandit Captain) and his man (Scout). Following Dobre gets you the whole story, but also the harder fight, unless Daciana's page was blank and you let him hand it over. Veterans hit hard up close. Keep your spellcasters behind your front line, and catch the lads with area spells while they're bunched together in the street.
  5. Talk to Daciana afterwards. Once Dobre is beaten, Daciana is waiting on Main Street by the lamp and comes up to you herself. She hands you Dobre's satchel (journal Lists Taken), which holds 250 gp in old gold, an Arcane Grimoire, +2, and three months of names. If you hadn't already found out, the three marked copies inside show who he was selling to. Now you decide what happens to the lists.

Choices and endings

All three choices end the quest at Done. Beating Dobre also adds a mark to Strahd's attention, and Dobre is gone from his beat on Main Street for good.

  • Give them to Father Lucian and Urwin. Lucian reads the names at the church door, the stocks are emptied, and nobody wears a ribbon. The stocks stay empty after that: the watch stops locking people like Anton in them every third morning. Godrick Pendlebrook, Thistle and Liriel Dawnsong approve (+2), and so does Wren Featherfoot (+1). Daciana takes up selling bread.
  • Take them to the Baron. Dobre goes in his own stocks, and the Baron sends you 100 gp "for loyal citizens". Kip Smudgewick approves (+1); Godrick and Thistle disapprove (-1). Daciana keeps handing out ribbons but doesn't write anything down.
  • Burn them in front of Daciana. She drops her own ribbon in the fire. Wren Featherfoot approves (+2), and so do Liriel and Thistle (+1).

If you're stuck

  • No "Who wants to know" choice. You have to refuse a ribbon or talk to Anton first.
  • Daciana's gone after the festival. She only keeps working the square if you'd started the quest before the festival ended (see Getting the quest).
  • The lamp has nothing under it. The paper only appears once Daciana has told you about it (Asked).
  • You waited a whole day. The stake-out always waits for the next 20:00. Go to the lamp in the afternoon.
  • The journal still says "Deal with Watchman Dobre" after the fight. Look for Daciana on Main Street by the lamp. She walks up to you when you get close.

Rewards

What your companions think

  • Godrick Pendlebrook: +2 you gave Vallaki back the names that were sold out from under it; -1 you took the lists to the Baron
  • Thistle: +2 you gave Vallaki back the names that were sold out from under it; -1 you took the lists to the Baron; +1 you burned Vallaki's lists in front of the girl who wrote them
  • Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you gave Vallaki back the names that were sold out from under it; +1 you burned Vallaki's lists in front of the girl who wrote them
  • Wren Featherfoot: +1 you gave Vallaki back the names that were sold out from under it; +2 you burned Vallaki's lists in front of the girl who wrote them
  • Kip Smudgewick: +1 you took the lists to the Baron

Fights

  • 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.
By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get)
By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get)

Journal

Every journal entry and hint

Rumored: Daciana, who gives out the festival ribbons in Vallaki's square, writes down the name of everyone who won't take one. "It's not me who wants to know," she said. The stocks fill up with the same faces every week.
Hint: Talk to Daciana, the girl with the basket of yellow ribbons, in Vallaki's square by day (9 in the morning to 5).

Asked: Daciana writes the names of everyone who won't wear a ribbon and leaves the paper under the lamp on Main Street at dusk. In the morning it's gone and there's a coin in its place, and her brother stays out of the stocks.
Hint: Watch the lamp on Vallaki's Main Street after dusk and see who takes the list; check the loose stone at the lamp post.

Sold Three Times: Watchman Dobre collects the lists and sells each one three times: to the Baron's clerk, which fills the stocks; to the back door of Wachterhaus, whose ladies visit whoever is in the stocks and tell them who put them there; and to a rider on a black horse at the west gate, for the castle. The unhappy are the ones who open their doors.
Hint: Find Watchman Dobre in Vallaki and deal with him.

Lists Taken: Dobre is beaten and his satchel is ours: three months of Vallaki's unhappy, by name.
Hint: Talk to Daciana in the square and decide what becomes of the lists.

Done (the end: success): The lists are out of Dobre's hands and out of the castle's. Daciana doesn't write anything down any more.

Every skill check in its conversations
  • Persuasion DC 13: Then stop. We'll see your brother comes to no harm.
  • Insight DC 12: (Is she telling the whole of it?)
  • Stealth DC 13: (Follow him and see where it goes.)
  • Intimidation DC 14: Whose business, exactly? Say it, or the Baron hears you sell it twice.