The Wailing Hall

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

In the Amber Temple, climb from the doors into The Amber Temple: Hall of the Faceless God and go west into the hall of echoes. At the one desk not furred with frost sits Patrina Velikovna, a dusk elf ghost scarred by stones, turning pages that crumble at her touch. She speaks as you come near, and the quest starts (Heard). See The Amber Temple for how to get up the mountain.

It helps a great deal to have met her brother first. Kasimir Velikov mends nets at The Vistani Camp outside Vallaki. Pass Insight DC 13 on what he is grieving for, or simply sit with him a while (an hour, no roll; Wren +2, Liriel +1), and he tells you about his sister Patrina, stoned by their own people while he stood at the back. He only travels with you if Madam Eva's cards named him as your ally.

Step by step

Without Kasimir in the party:

1. Talk to her. Who are you? gets her story. Insight DC 14 there shows it's the crowd she can't forgive, and one face at the back of it.
2. If Kasimir told you about her, say You're Patrina. Kasimir's sister. The quest moves to Named, and she tells you her brother stood at the back and watched.
3. Lay her to rest one of two ways:
   • Your brother grieves for you. He's sorry. (after naming her), then Persuasion DC 15: He's been too afraid to come. That's the only thing he's ever been, and he knows it. She calls that very nearly brave, and rests (Wren +2). If the roll fails it is spent: she starts to wail, and you must back away, quickly or fight. He'd bring you back, if he could. only gets a scornful no.
   • Religion DC 16: Your bones lie under the castle. Let them lie, and rest. This doesn't need her name, and if it fails she just tells you not to preach, so you can try again. On a success she rests (Liriel +2, Wren +1).

With Kasimir in the party:

1. The first time you talk to her with him along, he stops in the archway and faces his sister. This plays whether or not you named her on an earlier visit without him. The quest moves to Named.
   
2. She tells him to say it properly. Every choice here ends with her at rest:
   • (Let him speak for himself.) "I let them, Patrina. Because I was afraid of being you."
   • Persuasion DC 13: (Help Kasimir find the words.) On a success he says it in full. On a failure he shakes his head and finds his own words anyway.
   • With Wren in the party, after Wren has given Kasimir Master Sorrel's letter (The Last Lesson), have Kasimir read her the last line of Sorrel's letter (Wren +3).
   • Kasimir. In the vaults below, there's a vestige that could bring her back. She forbids it (Wren -3, Liriel -2, Kip -2), and Kasimir speaks for himself.

Kasimir's bargain. While Kasimir is with you and Patrina isn't yet at rest, he can step up to Tarakamedes, the dragon in the grave, in the vaults' hall of vestiges. It offers to give her back bones, voice and breath for every year he has left but one.

• Let him choose. He pays. Patrina is restored.
• Persuasion DC 15: She went to the castle the first time, Kasimir. She'll go again. On a success he steps back (Wren +4, Liriel +2, Kip +1). On a failure, he makes the bargain.
• You heard her. She doesn't want to be bought back. (only if you've met Patrina). No roll, and he steps back with the same approval.

The fight. (Draw steel.), or staying after a failed Persuasion, brings Patrina (a Banshee with 110 Hit Points) and four frozen students (Specters), 1,900 XP. The XP is low, but once a day her Deathly Wail hits everyone within 30 feet (Constitution DC 13), and a hero who fails it at 25 Hit Points or fewer drops to 0. Keep your hurt heroes out of that range.

Choices and endings

• At rest (success). She closes the book, and it doesn't crumble. She asks you to tell her brother she is done waiting, and fades like breath from a window. If you destroy Strahd, the epilogue tells you her bones lie quiet under the castle. If Kasimir was there to say it himself, his own slide takes the place of hers: he leaves Barovia lighter than he came (or, if Strahd wins, his peace with her ghost is the only peace he finds).
• Restored (failure). Kasimir's hair goes ash-grey, the wailing stops, and bare footprints lead out of the temple and down toward the castle. She didn't wait for him. Wren -3, Liriel -2, Kip -2. In the epilogue he spends his last year at her side.
• Destroyed (success). Her spirit is gone, and the reading hall is only cold.

If you're stuck

• No way to name her. Only Kasimir's story in the Vistani camp, or Kasimir himself, gives you her name. Without it, the prayer (Religion DC 16) is the peaceful way.
• You named her before Kasimir joined you. That's fine: his meeting with her still plays the next time you talk to her with him along. While he travels with you the "Your brother grieves" option is hidden; in his scene he says it to her himself.
• Mind the failed Persuasion at Tarakamedes. It doesn't just fail: it lets Kasimir make the bargain. "You heard her" is the safe choice once you've met Patrina.

Rewards

What your companions think

• Wren Featherfoot: +2 you told Patrina her brother admits he was afraid; +1 you prayed Patrina toward rest; -3 you told Kasimir about the vestige that could buy his sister back; -3 kasimir bought Patrina back from the amber, and you let him
• Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you prayed Patrina toward rest; -2 you told Kasimir about the vestige that could buy his sister back; -2 kasimir bought Patrina back from the amber, and you let him
• Kip Smudgewick: -2 you told Kasimir about the vestige that could buy his sister back; -2 kasimir bought Patrina back from the amber, and you let him

Fights

• Patrina screams, and the frozen students at their desks lift their heads to scream with her., in The Amber Temple: Hall of the Faceless God: Banshee, Specter.

Journal

Related

• People: Patrina Velikovna
• Places: The Amber Temple: Hall of the Faceless God, The Amber Temple: the Vaults
• More in The Amber Temple: Something with a Lid, The Amber Debt, The Amber Temple, The Guide to the Temple