Side quest The Village of Barovia Level 3

The Goatherd's Count

Goodwife Petra's grandson Erno counts one more goat every evening on the high pasture than he owns.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Goodwife Petra carries water between the village well and the east road from 8:00 to 17:00 (not in storms). Ask her "Whose goats are those, up on the hill?" Her grandson Erno counts twenty-four goats every evening and only owns twenty-three. The quest starts at Asked, and The High Pasture appears on the travel map, half an hour from the village.

Step by step

  1. Get onto the travel map. The only way from the village to the travel map is the road west: examine the two leaning posts at the west end of the village and choose "Set out west." If the burgomaster is already buried, read the warning under "If you're stuck" first. Then pick the High Pasture on the map.

    loc barovia high pasture 1

  2. Find Erno at the fold in the evening. Erno stands at the gate of the dry-stone fold from 16:00 onward, counting the goats in. The last through the gate is an old nanny with a cracked bell, and the dog won't go near her. She keeps Erno's hours: before 16:00 neither of them is there.
  3. Look at the old nanny. [Animal Handling DC 10] "(Go and look at the old nanny goat.)" and "(Look at the bell on her collar.)" both lead to the collar: SNOWDROP, and a little mark like a boot. If you met Ilarion at the edge of the fog (The Last Traveller), you recognise the mark from his grey boots. With Speak with Animals, Snowdrop tells you she waited fifty years in the mists for the man in grey boots.
  4. The wolves come. Whichever way you get to the bell, the mists at the top of the pasture bulge and wolves pour out for Snowdrop. At level 2 or higher: 2 × The Mist's Old Wolf (Dire Wolf) and 4 × A Mist Wolf (Wolf) (600 XP). At level 1: six mist wolves (300 XP). Wolves get advantage when a packmate is next to their target, so fight shoulder to shoulder and pick them off one at a time. Winning moves the quest to Defended.
  5. Talk to Erno and decide.
    • "(Take her down to Goodwife Petra.)" Petra comes up the track to meet her old nanny (Liriel +2, Kip +2, Wren +1). If Ilarion has come home, Petra mentions he's waiting by her fire.
    • "(Walk her back up to the mists. They'll only send more.)" Snowdrop walks back into the fog (Thistle +1, Godrick +1).

    Either way the quest ends at Done, and you get a Potion of Animal Friendship and 25 gp: from Petra if you take Snowdrop home, or left for you by Erno at the fold gate if you send her back.

Choices and endings

Both endings pay the same: one potion and 25 gp. Only the approval and Erno's count differ. With Snowdrop at home she sleeps in Petra's kitchen, so she doesn't count. With Snowdrop gone, Erno still hears her bell sometimes at the edge of the mists.

If you're stuck

  • Leaving the village after the burial can count as refusing Ireena. Once the burgomaster is buried, if you've met Ismark, leaving by the west road before you've given Ireena your answer about the escort counts as refusing her, and Ireena's Escort jumps to Declined. You can put that right by going back to the mansion and talking to Ireena. Leaving before the burial is safe, and so is leaving after the burial once you've answered Ireena (even "Not yet").
  • Erno and Snowdrop are only at the fold from 16:00.
  • The wolves come only once. After the fight, talking to Erno or to Snowdrop leads to the choice of where she goes, never to a second fight.

Rewards

What your companions think

  • Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you brought Snowdrop home to Goodwife Petra
  • Kip Smudgewick: +2 you brought Snowdrop home to Goodwife Petra
  • Wren Featherfoot: +1 you brought Snowdrop home to Goodwife Petra
  • Thistle: +1 you gave Snowdrop back to the mists so they'd send nothing after her
  • Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you gave Snowdrop back to the mists so they'd send nothing after her

Fights

  • Out of the mists at the top of the pasture come wolves, white and wet with fog, low and fast, for the old…, in The High Pasture: Dire Wolf, Wolf. Scales with your level.
By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get)

Journal

Every journal entry and hint

Asked: Goodwife Petra's grandson Erno minds the village's goats on the high pasture above the road. Every evening for a week he's counted twenty-four of them, and he only has twenty-three, and the dog won't go near the extra one.
Hint: Go up to the High Pasture above the road, east of the village, in the evening, and find Erno at the fold.

Defended: The extra goat is Snowdrop, the nanny Goodwife Petra's father led into the mists fifty years ago. The mists gave her back, and sent wolves out after her. We kept them off.
Hint: Talk to Erno at the fold on the High Pasture, in the evening.

Done (the end: success): Erno counts twenty-three goats every evening now, which Goodwife Petra says is the most beautiful number there is.

Every skill check in its conversations
  • Animal Handling DC 10: (Go and look at the old nanny goat.)