# The Cook's Guests

> From the Curse of Strahd game wiki (it covers the whole game, spoilers included): https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-cooks-guests.html. Unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy, not approved or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.

> [!infobox]
> ![quest the cooks guests](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/quest-the-cooks-guests.webp)
> **Type:** Side quest
> **Region:** [Castle Ravenloft](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/regions/castle-ravenloft.md) · level 10
> **Given by:** [Cyrus Belview](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/cyrus-belview.md)
> **Starts at:** [Castle Ravenloft, the Larders of Ill Omen](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-larders-of-ill-omen.md)
> **Rewards:** [Ration](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#ration) ×3, [Ioun Stone (Sustenance)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#ioun-stone-sustenance)

## Summary

Below Castle Ravenloft's kitchen, the cook keeps his Master's guests fresh in the cells.

## Walkthrough

### Getting the quest

Take the servants' stairs down from the servery behind the main floor's dining hall into [Castle Ravenloft, the Larders of Ill Omen](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-larders-of-ill-omen.md). [Cyrus Belview](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/cyrus-belview.md), the castle's mongrelfolk cook, is stirring his cauldron in the kitchen and speaks as soon as you come near, at any hour. He is making soup for the guests in the cells downstairs, who must be kept fresh for the Master's table. That starts the quest (Heard).

![loc castle ravenloft larders 1](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-castle-ravenloft-larders-1.webp)

### Step by step

1. **Talk to Cyrus first.** Nothing here costs you anything, and several answers help later:
   - **Who are the guests downstairs?** He tells you about the crying girl with soot on her hands, and the holy brother who never eats his soup. That second detail gives you an easy way to unmask the brother later.
   - **Where does your Master eat?** The table of bones below, and its green lamp. Turning the furnace's water wheel puts the lamp out.
   - **What's kept in the wine cellar?** The wine merchant he bricked up in the last rack at the back.
   - **We've met your family, at the abbey above Krezk** (if you met the Belviews or Clovin at the [The Abbey of St. Markovia](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-abbey-of-st-markovia.md)). He turns friendly and gives you 3 [Ration](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#ration)s and an [Ioun Stone (Sustenance)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#ioun-stone-sustenance). Saying Clovin sends his love earns Kip +1 and Wren +1.
2. **Go down to the cells.** Follow the guards' run east to the door studded with nails, the jailers' stair, and take the stairs down to [Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-dungeon.md). Walk east through the dungeon hall and down the passage to the cells. Or use the lift: in the winch room, set the brake on the winch (Investigation DC 13 first shows its catch has been filed half through, and you wedge it), and the cage drops you right beside the north cells.
   ![loc castle ravenloft larders dungeon 1](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-castle-ravenloft-larders-dungeon-1.webp)
3. **Find Nadia.** [Nadia Boteanu](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/nadia-boteanu.md), a lamplighter from Vallaki, is chained by the ankle in the first cell of the north row. The cell gates are barred from outside, not locked. Talking to her moves the quest to Found. Ask her about the hall at the end of the passage to hear about the table of bones.
4. **Get her chain off.** Three ways, and the two rolls can be tried again:
   - **The jailers' keys.** They hang on the key board in the jailers' guardroom, off the dungeon hall. Walking in wakes 3 [Helmed Horror](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/helmed-horror.md)s (3,300 XP).
   - **Sleight of Hand DC 13** to work the pin loose. A failure costs ten minutes.
   - **Athletics DC 15** to wrench the ring out of the wall. A failure costs ten minutes and makes something upstairs stop to listen.
   With the chain off the quest moves to Freed (Thistle +2, Godrick +1, Kip +1).
5. **Get Cyrus's help.** Nadia's only safe way out is Cyrus's scrap barrel, which goes down the cliff path at first light. Once you have met Nadia, go back to the kitchen and ask **The girl in the cells. Help us get her out.** He agrees if you:
   - remind him **Clovin would help her** (only after you gave him his family's news);
   - hold out **30 gp** (80 gp after a failed Persuasion);
   - pass **Persuasion DC 14** ("Nobody upstairs counts the guests"). A failure is spent and raises his price to 80 gp;
   - pass **Intimidation DC 13** ("you'll be in your own pot"; Godrick -1). A failure is a disaster: he screams for the watch. If you haven't already beaten the dead watch in the guardroom (2 [Wight](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/wight.md)s, 2 helmed horrors and 4 [Strahd Zombie](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/strahd-zombie.md)s, 4,400 XP), they fight you in the kitchen. Either way Cyrus turns hostile and will never help.
6. **Send her out.** Back in her cell, choose **The cook will smuggle you out at dawn in his scrap barrel.** She hugs you and goes up toward the kitchen: Escaped.

You can do steps 4 to 6 in a different order. If Cyrus isn't helping yet, tell Nadia to **shut yourself in here and hide** (Hidden), get his help, and come back for her.

**The other prisoners:**

- **[Brother Anatol](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/brother-anatol.md)**, in the first cell of the south row, says he is a monk from St. Andral's. He is a vampire spawn, and his shackle was never locked. Unmask him with any of these: ask how long he's been here and then point out that his breath doesn't fog; Insight DC 15 (spent if it fails); Religion DC 12 to pray the dawn prayer with him (one try; on a success he gets it wrong); mention [Father Lucian](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/father-lucian.md) if you have met him; mention the cook's soup; or have a cleric or paladin raise a holy symbol. Unmasked, he fights with two more spawn off the ceiling (5,400 XP), or you can leave him sitting in his cell. **Don't free him**: "We're getting you out" starts the same fight with your party surprised.
- **[Doru](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/doru.md)**, in the second cell of the north row, is only here if you let him out of the undercroft in the Village of Barovia. He begs for an end. **We could end this, Doru** gives him rest (Liriel +2, Thistle +1, Godrick +1). Striking his chains off makes the hunger win, and he attacks (a vampire spawn, 1,800 XP; Kip -2, Liriel -1).

**Worth grabbing:** a loose stone in the south cells (search DC 14, a potion of healing), the satchel in the open cell (a potion of healing and 12 gp, but it's bait over a 40-foot pit: spot DC 15, or let the dead prisoner next door warn you, below), and the jailers' chest (manacles, a hooded lantern, a holy symbol, 26 gp).

> [!tip] Speak with Dead: the prisoner in shackles
> In the third cell of the north row, next to the open cell, a skeleton in shackles sits under a tally scratched on the wall that stops partway through a group. A hero who knows Speak with Dead can ask the prisoner what the guards said down here. It costs the caster's lowest spell slot of 3rd level or higher (nothing if the spell is still running from a casting on the character sheet), and the prisoner answers once. The guards said the master can't be hurt for long while the glass heart beats at the top of the high tower: that starts [The Heart of Sorrow](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-heart-of-sorrow.md) at Heard, if it hasn't started. And the fresh straw in the open cell is a lid; they put the clever ones in there first. The pit under the satchel now shows as found.

### Choices and endings

- **Escaped (success).** Nadia goes down the cliff path in the scrap barrel, and next time Cyrus mentions that the barrel was very heavy and the crows were disappointed.
- **Caught (failure).** If you send her **up the servants' stair** alone and tell her **Yes. Go now**, the next time you pass the foot of the servants' stair her shawl is lying folded on the bottom step. Looking at it closes the quest.
- **Hidden.** She waits in her cell for as long as you like, until the count is dealt with. Come back and send her out with Cyrus's barrel, or up the stair. If you never do, the quest stays at Hidden and the epilogue settles it (below).
- **In the epilogue.** Nadia, Doru and Cyrus each get a slide at the end of the game, by how you left them. The slides differ between the endings where Strahd is destroyed (Dawn over Barovia, At Sergei's Side), the ones where he wins (The Mists Remain, The Bride of Ravenloft) and The Second Thirst, where one of you takes his chair. The Second Thirst has its own slides for a hidden Nadia, for Cyrus and for Doru at rest, and borrows the Strahd-wins slides for the rest (see [Endings](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/story/endings.md)).
  - **Nadia.** Escaped, she's home in Vallaki lighting the lamps on Main Street. Hidden, she walks out of the castle's front door once it goes quiet if Strahd is destroyed (in The Second Thirst the new lord lets her go, that once); if he wins, the count comes for her at dinnertime. Sent up the stair alone, she never reached the castle gates.
  - **Doru.** Given his rest, his father hears how he ended and sleeps through the night; if Strahd wins, or in The Second Thirst, Donavich only learns that strangers gave him an end. In Dawn over Barovia and At Sergei's Side there are slides, too, for killing him after you struck his chains off and for leaving him in them.
  - **Cyrus.** Slain, the kitchen stays cold (in The Second Thirst the new lord doesn't eat, and nobody thinks to hire a cook). Met and left be, he keeps the soup on in the castle, for a new master in The Second Thirst. If he agreed to help you get Nadia out, he walks up to the abbey with a sack of onions and a ladle and cooks for the Belviews in Dawn over Barovia and At Sergei's Side; in The Second Thirst he stays at his soup.

None of these pay anything themselves. The rations and the Ioun Stone come from giving Cyrus his family's news. Attacking Cyrus is a trivial fight (a [Mongrelfolk](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/mongrelfolk.md), 50 XP) but costs Ratatouille -3, Godrick -2 and Kip -1, and it closes the barrel for good.

### If you're stuck

- **No "help us get her out" option.** You have to meet Nadia before you can ask Cyrus. If he is hostile (a failed Intimidation) or dead, he can't help, and the only ways out for Nadia are the stair (which fails) or waiting in her cell. Telling her to hide keeps the quest at Hidden until the end of the game, where the epilogue tells what became of her (see *Choices and endings*).
- **Don't send her up the stair alone.** That ending is the failure, and it's final.

## Rewards

- [Ration](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#ration) ×3
- [Ioun Stone (Sustenance)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#ioun-stone-sustenance)

**What your companions think**

- **Thistle:** +2 you took the chain off the girl in the larder cells; +1 you gave Doru his rest at last
- **Godrick Pendlebrook:** +1 you took the chain off the girl in the larder cells; +1 you gave Doru his rest at last; -1 you threatened to put a cook in his own pot; -2 you drew steel on a cook in his own kitchen
- **Kip Smudgewick:** +1 you took the chain off the girl in the larder cells; -2 you struck the chains off a starving vampire spawn; +1 you told Cyrus his family sends their love; -1 you drew steel on a cook in his own kitchen
- **Liriel Dawnsong:** +1 you told Doru his father still prays for him; +2 you gave Doru his rest at last; -1 you struck the chains off a starving vampire spawn
- **Wren Featherfoot:** +1 you told Cyrus his family sends their love
- **Ratatouille:** -3 you drew steel on a cook in his own kitchen

## Fights

- *The chain falls. For a breath he is only grateful. Then the hunger reaches you first.*, in [Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-dungeon.md): [Vampire Spawn](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/vampire-spawn.md).

- *He laughs, and two more shapes unfold from the vault above the passage.*, in [Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-dungeon.md): [Vampire Spawn](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/vampire-spawn.md).

- *His hand closes on the nearest throat, and two more shapes drop from the vault above the passage.*, in [Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-dungeon.md): [Vampire Spawn](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/vampire-spawn.md).

- *Cyrus's shriek goes down the guards' run like a bell. Boots answer it, and some of them are not boots.*, in [Castle Ravenloft, the Larders of Ill Omen](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-larders-of-ill-omen.md): [Wight](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/wight.md), [Helmed Horror](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/helmed-horror.md), [Strahd Zombie](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/strahd-zombie.md).

- *Cyrus snatches up a cleaver in one hand and a ladle in the other, weeping.*, in [Castle Ravenloft, the Larders of Ill Omen](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-larders-of-ill-omen.md): [Mongrelfolk](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/bestiary/mongrelfolk.md).

## Journal

> [!quote]- Every journal entry and hint
> **Heard**: Cyrus Belview, the castle's cook, makes soup for his Master's guests in the cells below. He says they must be kept fresh for the table.
> *Hint:* Find the cells in Castle Ravenloft's dungeon, below the larders.
>
> **Found**: Nadia Boteanu, a lamplighter from Vallaki, is chained by the ankle in a cell under the castle. She got into a carriage with no driver.
> *Hint:* Get Nadia's chain off in her cell, then find her a way out of the castle.
>
> **Freed**: Nadia's chain is off. Now she needs a way out of a castle where every corridor belongs to him.
> *Hint:* Find Nadia a way out of the castle, or have her hide in her cell until you're done.
>
> **Hidden**: Nadia is hiding in her cell with the gate shut, waiting for us to finish with the lord of the castle.
> *Hint:* Nadia is hiding in her cell in the castle dungeon until the count is dealt with. If Cyrus the cook will help, she can still go out through his kitchen at dawn.
>
> **Escaped** (the end: success): Nadia went down the cliff path at first light in the cook's scrap barrel. The crows were disappointed. She'll be lighting Vallaki's lamps again by winter.
>
> **Caught** (the end: failure): We sent Nadia up the stair alone. Her shawl was waiting on the bottom step, folded neatly.

> [!abstract]- Every skill check in its conversations
> - Sleight of Hand DC 13: (Work the shackle's pin loose.)
> - Athletics DC 15: (Wrench the ring out of the wall.)
> - Insight DC 15: (Watch him while he talks.)
> - Religion DC 12: Pray the dawn prayer with us, Brother.
> - Persuasion DC 14: Nobody upstairs counts the guests. One fewer won't spoil anything.
> - Intimidation DC 13: Help her, or you'll be in your own pot.

## Related

- **People:** [Nadia Boteanu](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/nadia-boteanu.md), [Doru](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/doru.md), [Brother Anatol](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/brother-anatol.md), [Cyrus Belview](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/cyrus-belview.md)
- **Places:** [Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-dungeon.md), [Castle Ravenloft, the Larders of Ill Omen](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/castle-ravenloft-the-larders-of-ill-omen.md)
- **More in Castle Ravenloft:** [Escher's Petition](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/eschers-petition.md), [The Heart of Sorrow](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-heart-of-sorrow.md), [The Jester's Key](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-jesters-key.md), [The Unnamed Crypt](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-unnamed-crypt.md)

> [!example]- Cutscenes
> **Doru at Rest**: Doru, given his rest, comes apart into dust in the chains.
> ![doru rest](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/cutscenes/doru-rest.webp)