The Witch of Berez

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

The Ruins of Berez is on the travel map from the start: 3 hours from Vallaki along the Luna marsh track, or 2 hours from The Wizard of Wines by the ravens' way. The marsh roads have their own chance fights. The quest is pitched at about level 9 and gives the region's one milestone, whichever way it ends.

You arrive on the causeway in the south-east. The quest starts (stage Arrived) when Baba Lysaga leans out of her hut on the great stump in the east and speaks to you, or, if you go to Marina's mound first, when you light the grave-lamp there.

The village, roughly: the drowned lane runs up the middle, Marina's statue stands on the only dry mound in the west, the burgomaster's ruined house is in the south-west, the Luna and a rotten jetty are along the north, and the scarecrow field surrounds the stump and the hut in the east.

Step by step

1. Look around the ruins first. None of this is required, but some of it helps.
   • The burgomaster's house (south-west): read the swollen diary of Ivo Dragan. He hid Marina in the chapel, and in the morning she was dead "not a mark on her, only a scratch over the heart like a bramble's." Reading it makes the deduction at her bier possible (step 2). His strongbox (lock DC 15) holds 60 gp, a potion of healing and an ink pen.
   • A drowned house in the lane: Athletics DC 15 to wade in (a miss costs 1d6 cold) reveals something inside (search DC 15: Mantle of Spell Resistance).
   • A roofless house in the north-west: Athletics DC 15 lifts a fallen beam, and under it is something hidden (search DC 14: Immovable Rod).
   • The jetty: walking out along it alone takes Acrobatics DC 15 and pays 30 gp (a miss costs 1d6 cold).
   • Smaller finds: a chest in the flood (25 gp, rope, lamp), a fisherman's locker by the jetty (8 gp, net), a Mirror in the reeds (search DC 13) and an Antitoxin in the reeds (search DC 14).
   • In the scarecrow field: one scarecrow's arm is a staff (search DC 15: Staff of Swarming Insects).
   • At night (19:00 to 6:00), walking into the drowned lane brings friendly-looking lights out of the flooded houses: three Will-o'-Wisp and two Swarm of Insects from level 8, two wisps and one swarm below that.
2. Marina's mound (west). You can come here before or after the witch.
   • With Ireena Kolyana along, she sees her own face on the statue.
   • History DC 15 on the white statue tells Marina's story.
   • At the statue, "Read the plinth." shows Strahd's signature: "Berez took her. I took Berez." "Dig around the plinth." takes half an hour and uncovers a stair down to Beneath Marina's Monument.
   • Leave the grave-lamp alone for now unless you mean to use it (step 7).

   In the vault Marina lies on her bier as if asleep.

   

   • Medicine DC 14 finds a single scratch over her heart that has never healed.
   • Arcana DC 14 works it out: that's the mark a thorned doll leaves, and somebody on a stump knows how to make one. The option appears once you've found the scratch or read the burgomaster's diary. The truth is now yours and the quest moves to Truth.
   • Speak with Dead, if a hero knows it, lets Marina tell you herself, with no roll and no diary needed (see the tip after these steps).
   • Straighten her veil for Liriel +1 and Godrick +1.
   • Loot: the painted dowry chest holds 150 gp and a Robe of Scintillating Colors (and your Tarokka treasure, if the reading put it here). The niche of offerings holds 30 gp.
3. The scarecrow field. Unless you're already her guests (or she's been lured out, bargained with, killed, or broken by Strahd), the scarecrows climb off their poles as you cross the field around the stump.
   • At level 9: six Scarecrow, two will-o'-wisps and two insect swarms.
   • At level 8: five scarecrows, one wisp and two swarms.
   • Below level 8: four scarecrows and two swarms.

   Scarecrows are vulnerable to fire, and their glare can frighten and paralyze you (Wisdom DC 11), so burn them from range. She'll complain about it afterwards.

4. The window. Baba Lysaga leans out of her hut as you come near, and the hut leans down on its root legs to sniff at you. If Ireena is with you, Lysaga stares at her face and offers to do her hair. Then:
   • "We're only travellers, grandmother. We'd be glad of a fire." She invites you up. The quest moves to Invited, and a ladder of living roots lets you climb to her door.
   • Deception DC 15, "Your boy sent us, to see that you're well." On a success she melts and wants to hear how her boy looks. On a miss you're still invited, but she knows you're liars, turns hostile and seats you by the door at supper. Nothing worse happens.
   • "We know what happened to Marina." This appears if you learned the truth at the bier. She invites you in to talk about it.
   • "Come down, witch. We've come for the green stone." The hut stands up, and you fight her and her hut together: Baba Lysaga's Creeping Hut at 150 hit points and Lysaga at 100 at level 9, 120 and 85 at level 8, 100 and 70 below that (14400 XP). This is the hardest way to do it. The hut swats with three roots a turn, so keep your casters away from it and bring Lysaga down first.

   

5. Supper. Inside Baba Lysaga's Hut she speaks first, ladles stew from a pot that's never empty, and watches your hands. There's no resting here.
   • If Ireena is with you, Lysaga serves her from a second, smaller pot. Insight DC 14 ("Watch the second pot") or Medicine DC 13 ("Lean over and smell Ireena's bowl") catches the smell of bitter almonds. That proves the murder ("I put one of you in the ground already, girl") and she attacks on the spot. If you'd rather not fight yet, pick "Eat your supper." or miss the check: Ireena smells it herself, pushes the bowl away, and supper goes on.
   • The hearth menu. "Who is your boy?", "What's in the cradle?" (a root shaped like a baby, with the Wizard of Wines' green gem tucked under its chin) and "What happened to Berez?" are all talk. "Do you know the wizard on the mountain?" tells you she keeps his mind in a jar. Insight DC 14 ("Watch her when she talks about the village") shows her eyes darting to a doll over the hearth.
   • The doll over the hearth. Look at it: a rag doll with red hair, an M stitched on its breast, and a thorn worn through its heart. Arcana DC 13 or Religion DC 13 reads the killing charm in its knots, but even a plain look is enough. The quest moves to Truth. She snaps at you to leave it alone, but she doesn't attack.

   

   • Hidden finds, any time: Arcana DC 16 on the bundles hanging from the beams reveals the one jar that doesn't hum (Investigation DC 16: Potion of Speed), and something is sewn into the cradle's lining (Investigation DC 17: Wand of Polymorph). Her pantry and jar shelf only open once she's dead, bargained with or broken.
6. The turn. Once you know the truth, you choose how she ends.
   • Fight her in her kitchen: "Enough games. Give us the green stone, or we'll take it."
     • The fight: Baba Lysaga at 120 hit points with two swarms of insects at level 9 (7400 XP), at 105 with two swarms at level 8, at 85 with one swarm below that.
     • Why here: inside, the hut can't fight for her, and when she dies in it, it dies with her. This is the most manageable of her fights.
     • What she does: she's a CR 11 spellcaster (save DC 17, up to Power Word Stun), she can turn into a swarm of insects, and once a rest she calls more swarms.
   • Blackmail her: "He'll hear about Marina from us, unless you make it worth our silence." If Ireena is with you she won't bargain; she attacks instead. Otherwise:
     • "The green stone from the cradle, and whatever's in your kitchen." strikes the bargain.
     • Intimidation DC 15, "Everything. The stone, the kitchen, and the wizard's jar.", adds Mordenkainen's memory jar. A miss still gets you the stone and the kitchen.
     • "On second thought, he'll hear it anyway." starts the kitchen fight.
   • Thank her for supper and leave, keeping the secret for now. You can climb back up any time.
7. Or lure her out. Light the grave-lamp at Marina's feet while the witch is alive and Strahd doesn't yet know the truth (Liriel +1). She comes screaming across the reeds in her bowl of bone, without her hut.

   

   • The fight at the monument: at level 9, Lysaga at 120 hit points with two insect swarms and two scarecrows (7800 XP); at level 8, 105 with two swarms and a scarecrow; below that, 85 with two swarms.
   • The hut afterwards: it waits for her. When you next step onto the stump it stands up and fights you alone (200 hit points at level 9, 160 at level 8, 120 below), unless Strahd has learned the truth by then.
   • Even after a bargain: lighting the lamp brings her out to fight.
   • Only once: the lamp can only be lit once.
8. Or tell Strahd. At night, Strahd von Zarovich stands at the foot of Marina's statue with a black rose, and speaks to you as you come near.

   

   • Talk: "Who was she?" gets his side of the story. Insight DC 15 shows he mourns her the way a man mourns a thing he owned.
   • "Berez didn't kill her. Your nurse did." He thanks you, very politely, and is gone; out east, something made of timber starts to scream. The quest moves to Strahd Told. If you met him here before you knew the truth, come back another night: he returns to the statue until you've told him.
   • If she's already dead, "The witch who killed her is dead. We saw to it." gets you a cold pardon, once.

   Back at the stump, the hut lies on its side with its legs snapped. Lysaga sits in the mud beside it and speaks first:

   • "It's over, grandmother. Let us end it." She fights alone, at 60 hit points.
   • "Then you know how Marina's family felt. We'll leave you to it." The quest ends at Broken. She throws you the green stone if you haven't already got it.
   • Insight DC 12 tells you she isn't going to fight anybody.
9. Her last words. However she dies, she speaks once more where she fell, confessing to the doll and the thorn. She was the one who killed the candlemaker's girl, and she'd do it again. The quest ends at Slain.

Choices and endings

Every ending gives the milestone (a level), and the hut's pantry (3 rations, 12 gp, and your Tarokka treasure if it's here) and jar shelf (2 potions of healing, an antitoxin) open up.

• Slain (success). Take the green stone from the cradle yourself ("Take the green stone."). That gives the Wizard of Wines its gem back (The Third Stone). Mordenkainen's labelled jar sits on her shelf for the taking. Strahd notices she's dead and his attention on you rises; if he ever sends you his letter of grievances, she's on the list ("She held me when I was born"). The epilogue leaves the hut empty.
• Bargained (success). You get the green stone, the kitchen, and the jar if your Intimidation worked. Liriel -2, Godrick -2, Kip -1. She hates you and keeps her word, for now. After the bargain you'll find her at her window as well as at her hearth, telling you to go away before she forgets she's a woman of her word. "We never said we'd leave you alive." breaks the bargain: in her hut it starts the kitchen fight; at the window the hut stands up and you fight her and her hut together, as in step 4 (Godrick -2, Kip -2). In the epilogue she's still in the mud of Berez, waiting for thanks that never come.
• Broken (success). Strahd breaks her house with his hands and walks away from her, and you leave her with nothing. She throws you the green stone if you don't have it yet, and the jar can be taken from her shelf. Strahd remembers who told him: at his dinner table he admits he owes you the truth about Marina. The epilogue is the same as the bargain's.
• Truth kept. Knowing about Marina isn't an ending; you can carry it out of Berez and use it later.

If you're stuck

• The hut won't let you up. Its door only opens once she's invited you, or once she's bargained, dead, or broken by Strahd.
• Strahd only comes at night. If you met him once without knowing the truth, he only returns while you know it and haven't told him.
• Ireena changes the hut. With her in the party, catching the poisoned bowl or trying to blackmail Lysaga both start a fight. Leave Ireena out if you want the bargain.
• The truth comes from three places: the doll over the hearth, Ireena's bowl, and the bier (Medicine, then Arcana, or the diary then Arcana, or Speak with Dead on Marina). Her last words reveal it too, but by then it's too late to use.
• If you killed her at the monument, the hut still has to be dealt with before you can climb up to her pantry and the cradle, unless you've told Strahd the truth since.

Rewards

• A level (milestone)

What your companions think

• Liriel Dawnsong: -2 you blackmailed Baba Lysaga over Marina's murder; +1 you lit Marina's grave-lamp; +1 you straightened Marina's veil
• Godrick Pendlebrook: -2 you blackmailed Baba Lysaga over Marina's murder; -2 you broke your bargain with Baba Lysaga; +1 you straightened Marina's veil
• Kip Smudgewick: -1 you blackmailed Baba Lysaga over Marina's murder; -2 you broke your bargain with Baba Lysaga

Fights

• The stump heaves. Roots as thick as a man tear out of the mud, and the hut rises on them, swaying, its door…, in The Ruins of Berez: Baba Lysaga's Creeping Hut, Baba Lysaga. Scales with your level.

• The door of the hut slams itself. The fire in the hearth stands up tall and green, and the jars on the shelf…, in Baba Lysaga's Hut: Baba Lysaga, Swarm of Insects. Scales with your level.

• She comes up out of the mud with her nails out, shrieking, and the reeds shriek with her., in The Ruins of Berez: Baba Lysaga.
• A bowl of yellow bone comes skimming over the reeds, low and fast, with a tiny furious woman standing in it.…, in The Ruins of Berez: Baba Lysaga, Swarm of Insects, Scarecrow. Scales with your level.

• The hut has been waiting for her. When you come instead, it stands up on its roots and screams through its…, in The Ruins of Berez: Baba Lysaga's Creeping Hut. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: Baba Lysaga, Strahd von Zarovich
• Places: Baba Lysaga's Hut, The Ruins of Berez, Beneath Marina's Monument