The Heart of Sorrow

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Two people in the castle's towers can tell you about the heart, and either one starts the quest (Heard):

• Pidlwick II, the clockwork jester on the grand landing of Castle Ravenloft, the High Tower, tells you for free. Choose You know this castle. Show us its secrets. He points up the stair to the glass heart ("HE GOES THERE WHEN HE IS HURT"), and also tells you about the stair behind the locked room's cupboard.
• Escher, in his locked suite in Castle Ravenloft, the Tower Rooms, sells it. Ask There must be something that keeps Strahd standing. What is it? and pay his price (below).

A dead prisoner can tell you too. Down in Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon, under the larders, a hero with Speak with Dead can question the skeleton in shackles in the north cells, who heard the guards talk about the glass heart. That also starts the quest at Heard (see The Cook's Guests).

You don't need any of them, though. Climbing to the top of the tower and looking at the heart starts the quest too, at Found.

Step by step

1. From the main floor, take the narrow door east of the great entry to the foot of the high tower stairway, and climb into the High Tower. The stair winds up round an open well (Pidlwick's advice: DO NOT LEAN).
   
2. On the grand landing Pidlwick II comes down to meet you. Ask him for the castle's secrets if you want the free version.
3. Climbing the upper turns of the stair wakes the stair's sentries: 3 Vampire Spawn and 3 Swarm of Bats at level 10 (4 spawn at level 11; 2 spawn and one swarm below level 10). A step near the top of the upper turns is broken (spot it at DC 14; Dexterity DC 15 or fall to the turn below for 4d6). Keep the fight off that step.
4. If you want Escher's version, take the door off the high landing into the tower rooms. Escher's door is locked: pick it (DC 16), or talk your way in with Deception DC 15 or Persuasion DC 15 (one try each for the party). His price for the secret:
   • Promise to leave his door open when Strahd is gone. No roll, and he tosses you a ring worth 150 gp as a keepsake. Wren +1, Godrick +1.
   • Pay 100 gp.
   • Persuasion DC 15 ("You hate him more than we do"). On a success he tells you for free. A failure is spent and doubles his price to 200 gp.
   • Intimidation DC 14 ("we open your curtains at dawn"). It works (Thistle +1, Godrick -1), but he turns hostile and won't talk to you again, which also closes Escher's Petition. If it fails, he attacks: Escher and two swarms of bats (1,900 XP).
5. From the high landing, take the stair up to Castle Ravenloft, the Heart of Sorrow. If Madam Eva's last card put Strahd here (the marionette, or the mists choosing this room) and you've had your reading, stepping into the round room starts your final battle with him and one helmed horror. Otherwise the room is quiet.
   
6. Use the heart. The first look moves the quest to Found. You can learn what it is with Arcana DC 15 (you can try again if it fails; Ratatouille +2) or, with a cleric, lay a hand on the glass and listen (no roll, Heroic Inspiration). This is optional.
7. Choose Strike it. The blow cracks the crystal and calls the tower's guardians up the stair: 2 Strahd's Animated Armor and a Helmed Horror at level 10 (5,700 XP; one more helmed horror at level 11; one armor and one horror below level 10). The armor has AC 21, ignores lightning and resists fire and cold; the helmed horror resists weapon damage and has Magic Resistance.
8. With the guardians down, use the heart and Strike it. again. It takes ten minutes, and then the heart breaks: Shattered.
   
9. Strahd feels it. He comes up the well as mist and fights you alone, then leaves after one round, or as soon as he drops below 110 Hit Points. He doesn't come if this room is where the cards put him, or if you have already faced him in his final battle. You can't rest at the top of the tower, so go into the second blow in good shape.

Choices and endings

• Break it (Shattered, success). Until now, every fight with Strahd anywhere in Castle Ravenloft gives him the heart's ward: 50 extra points of damage he soaks before his Hit Points. That includes the dinner fight, his final battle and the fight at his coffin. Once the heart is broken the ward is gone for good. In the parley before the final battle he tells you, "You broke my heart in the tower."
• Leave it beating. The quest stays at Found, and Strahd keeps the ward in every castle fight.
• Escher's price. The promise is the best deal: the secret plus 150 gp. Threatening him costs you his help and his quest.

If you're stuck

• Striking the heart doesn't break it. The first blow always calls the guardians. Only the blow after they're beaten shatters it.
• The heart room starts a fight with Strahd as you walk in. That means the cards put your final battle here. You fight him with the heart still whole, because the heart hangs in the middle of that room.
• Escher won't talk. If you threatened him he is cold for good. Pidlwick II tells you the same thing for nothing.

Rewards

• 150 gp

What your companions think

• Wren Featherfoot: +1 you promised Escher you'd leave his door open
• Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you promised Escher you'd leave his door open; -1 you threatened to open Escher's curtains at dawn
• Thistle: +1 you threatened to open Escher's curtains at dawn
• Ratatouille: +2 you studied the magic in the Heart of Sorrow before touching it

Fights

• Escher's smile goes long in the teeth. The bats in the canopy of his bed come down like a dropped curtain., in Castle Ravenloft, the Tower Rooms: Vampire Spawn, Swarm of Bats.
• The heart rings like a struck bell. Below, armour comes clanking up the last turn of the stair, and something…, in Castle Ravenloft, the Heart of Sorrow: Strahd's Animated Armor, Helmed Horror. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: Escher, Pidlwick II
• Places: Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon, Castle Ravenloft, the Tower Rooms, Castle Ravenloft, the Heart of Sorrow, Castle Ravenloft, the High Tower, Blinsky Toys
• More in Castle Ravenloft: Escher's Petition, The Cook's Guests, The Jester's Key, The Unnamed Crypt