The Count's Portraitist

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

This is a late quest. Haralamb only starts sitting on his own doorstep once your whole party is level 9. You'll find him there on the east row of Vallaki, near the east gate, from 17:00 to 21:00. Before that he's only the man painting the Baron's wicker sun in the square. You'll notice his hands are stained a red-gold that doesn't come off. Ask "Your hands. That isn't sun paint." and the quest opens at Asked. If Ireena Kolyana is with you, he knows her face at once: he has painted it forty times.

Step by step

1. Hear his story. A carriage with no driver took him to the castle for eleven nights to paint a woman in white from the count's memory, using the count's own paints. Now every face he paints is hers, and he has sold three copies: one to the Baron, one to Lady Wachter, and one to Urwin for over the bar at the inn. You can try Arcana DC 14 on the paint on his hands. If it works, you learn that the copies are eyes of the castle, like the portraits on its walls, and you get an extra line in the studio. A failure costs nothing, and either way he opens his door ("Show us the studio").
2. Go into the studio. A new door, "Haralamb's door", opens on the east row and leads to Haralamb's Studio: a front room of paint pots, then the long studio at the back. He won't go in himself after dark.

   

3. Face the great canvas. It hangs against the far wall in a gilt frame taller than a door. When you examine it, the painted woman's mouth moves, and the count speaks to you through it. You can ask who's talking, or put a light to the canvas straight away. Either way, every portrait in the room turns its head toward you and the fight begins.

   

4. The fight (counts_likeness). This is the same at every level: The Count's Likeness (230 HP here, AC 13) and six Copies (Guardian Portraits, 30 HP each).
   • The Likeness hits in melee with its swinging frame. The Count's Regard is a DC 16 Wisdom save against 5d10 psychic damage and fear, and it can also use the Regard between your turns. Once each per day it casts Hypnotic Pattern and Hold Person.
   • Its defences. It shrugs off two failed saves a day, and it can't be charmed, frightened, paralysed or knocked prone. Damage spells work better against it than spells that try to control it.
   • The Copies go down fast, so clear them early to cut down the number of attacks coming at you.

   Winning burns the canvas, and the journal moves to Burned.

5. Go back to Haralamb in the evening. Find him on his step again between 17:00 and 21:00. Every copy in Vallaki has gone blank, the Baron's included. He gives you the count's paints, scraped into clean pots and prayed over, which are Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments, plus 150 gp. The quest ends at Done.

Choices and endings

There's one ending. You get Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments, 150 gp, and approval from Godrick Pendlebrook, Liriel Dawnsong, Wren Featherfoot and Ratatouille (+2 each) and Thistle (+1). Afterwards Haralamb paints the Baron's dog and it comes out looking like a dog, and the copies in his house stay blank.

If you're stuck

• Haralamb isn't on his step. He only appears there once the lowest-level member of your party is level 9, and only between 17:00 and 21:00.
• No door into his house. The door only opens after he has told you his story.

Rewards

• Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments
• 150 gp

What your companions think

• Godrick Pendlebrook: +2 you burned the count's eye out of Haralamb's studio
• Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you burned the count's eye out of Haralamb's studio
• Thistle: +1 you burned the count's eye out of Haralamb's studio
• Wren Featherfoot: +2 you burned the count's eye out of Haralamb's studio
• Ratatouille: +2 you burned the count's eye out of Haralamb's studio

Fights

• The great canvas leans out of its frame on its own, and the portraits round the walls come with it, frames…, in Haralamb's Studio: The Count's Likeness, Guardian Portrait.

Journal

Related

• People: Haralamb
• Places: Vallaki, Haralamb's Studio
• More in Vallaki: Black Roses, Lady Wachter's Book Club, One Lantern Too Many, Ribbons, The Attic Circle, The Bones of St. Andral, The Cat in the Window, The Doll Collector