Long before Ireena Kolyana, there was a peasant from Berez named Marina.
The vampire Strahd first met Marina in this small village on the shore of the Luna River. Marina bore a striking resemblance to Strahd’s beloved Tatyana, both in appearance and manner, and she became Strahd’s obsession. He seduced her in the dead of night and feasted on her blood, but before she could be turned into a vampire, the burgomaster of Berez, Lazlo Ulrich, with the aid of a local priest named Brother Grigor, killed Marina to save her soul from damnation. Enraged, Strahd slew the priest and the burgomaster, then used his power over the land to swell the river, flooding the village and forcing the residents to flee. Later the marsh crept in, preventing the villagers from returning. Berez has remained mostly abandoned since.
The ruins of Berez are now home to Baba Lysaga (see area appendix D), an almost mythic figure tied to Strahd’s ancient past. A hermit, she spends most of her time crafting and animating scarecrows to hunt down and kill the ravens and the wereravens that infest Strahd’s domain. When she isn’t working evil magic, Baba Lysaga sacrifices beasts to Mother Night and collects their blood, then bathes in the blood on nights of the new moon in a ritual to stave off the effects of extreme old age.
Baba Lysaga recently stole a magic gemstone from the Wizards of Wines vineyard (chapter 12), in the hope that the wereravens who protect the vineyard will try to reclaim it. She keeps it in her hut as bait to lure her enemies to their deaths. The gem has given her hut a semblance of life.
I had nothing left to give but my own life’s blood, but it was hers to take. She would at last be my bride.
—Strahd von Zarovich in I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire
Approaching the Ruins
The following boxed text assumes that the characters approach Berez from the north, along the trail leading from the Old Svalich Road. If they approach from a different direction, don’t read the first sentence.
The trail hugs the river for several miles. The dirt and grass soon turn to marsh as the trail dissolves into spongy earth pockmarked with stands of tall reeds and pools of stagnant water. A thick shroud of fog covers all. Scattered throughout the marsh are old peasant cottages, their walls covered with black mildew, their roofs mostly caved in. These decrepit dwellings seem to hunker down in the mire, as though they have long since given up on escaping the thick mud. Everywhere you look, black clouds of flies dart about, hungry for blood.
The fog is much thinner on the far side of the river, where a light flashes amid a dark ring of standing stones.
The river ranges in depth but is never more than 10 feet deep. Muriel Vinshaw, a wereraven in human form, lurks amid the circle of standing stones (area area U6) and is using a lantern to signal the heroes. In the village proper, fog prevents a creature from seeing any other creature or object more than 120 feet away.
A few sections of dirt road have survived, and these places are not difficult terrain. The marsh, however, is difficult terrain. Whenever the characters take a short or long rest in the marsh, even if they barricade themselves in a ruined building, they are accosted by
Marsh Scarecrows
Seven Scarecrow stand guard in the marsh. They appear to be ordinary, nonmagical scarecrows stuffed with raven feathers until one or more of them are attacked, until Baba Lysaga commands them to attack, or until someone activates the howling skulls that surround Baba Lysaga’s goat pen (see area area U2).
Areas of Berez
The following areas correspond to labels on the map of Berez below.
U1. Abandoned Cottages
As you approach this cluster of ruined cottages separated by low stone walls, you see a short stretch of dirt road that has remained intact.
The cottages contain rotted furnishings and nothing of value. The walls that separate the cottages are 3 feet tall and easily scaled or circumvented.
U2. Ulrich Mansion
Toward the south end of the village lie the remains of a mansion built on higher ground. It has been reduced to piles of stone and rotting timber. Empty, arched windows stare at you. South of the ruin, an untamed garden runs rampant, surrounded by broken walls that are no longer able to contain it. East of the ruin, someone has erected a crude wooden fence, forming a circular yard in which several goats are penned. Surmounting the fence posts are human skulls.
The ruined mansion is littered with the rotted remains of furniture and decor. The last burgomaster of Berez, Lazlo Ulrich, haunts the ruin as a ghost. If the characters search the mansion, the ghost appears before them:
A ghost takes shape in the fog, assuming the form of a giant of a man, his features mutilated and his entrails hanging out like frayed ropes. Despite its intimidating presence, the apparition has a cringing light in its eyes. “Why do you invade my home? Begone, I beseech you!”
Strahd refuses to let Burgomaster Ulrich’s spirit find rest because of what he did to poor Marina. The ghost recounts Marina’s sad tale if prompted. Only by convincing Ulrich that Marina has been reborn in the form of Ireena Kolyana can the characters put the tortured spirit to rest. The ghost must see Ireena in the flesh, and it can’t travel beyond the confines of the crumbled mansion.
Ulrich’s ghost is neutral good. It attacks if threatened or if the characters begin searching the ruined mansion for treasure. If the ghost is reduced to 0 hit points, it re-forms after 24 hours. The characters receive experience points for the ghost only if they lay Ulrich’s spirit to rest, not if they defeat the ghost in combat.
Fortunes of Ravenloft
If your card reading reveals that a treasure is hidden in Berez, Ulrich’s ghost points the characters to the treasure’s true location, saying these words as it fades away:
“Travel west. Two hundred paces from the mansion lies a monument to my folly and the treasure you seek.”
Characters who follow Ulrich’s directions end up at area area U5.
Cellar
Buried under rubble inside the mansion is a stone staircase that leads down to an intact cellar. A single character can clear the rubble in 4 hours, and multiple characters working together can reduce the time proportionately. The cellar is a 30-foot-square room with mortared stone walls, a 10-foot-high ceiling supported by wooden beams, and a floor submerged under 3 inches of stagnant water. The cellar contains two dozen empty, rotted casks from the Wizard of Wines winery. Each cask is labeled Champagne du le Stomp.
Garden
The garden behind the ruined mansion has run wild. Hidden behind tall weeds and thorny vines are nude sculptures of handsome men and beautiful women, as well as carved stone benches.
Four Giant Poisonous Snake attack characters who venture more than 10 feet inside the garden.
Goat Pen
Baba Lysaga captures goats and uses their blood in her rituals of longevity. Nine Goat are trapped behind this fence. Fifty human skulls are mounted on the tops of the fence posts, spaced 10 feet apart.
There is no gate in the fence, and Baba Lysaga uses her flying skull (see area area U3) to enter and leave the pen. If the characters try to set the goats free by dismantling or damaging part of the fence, the skulls atop the fence posts begin howling and continue to howl for 1 minute. The racket attracts Baba Lysaga, who arrives in her flying skull on initiative count 20 in 2 rounds. The howling skulls also attract the seven Scarecrow in the marsh (see “area Marsh Scarecrows” above). Roll initiative once for all the scarecrows.
U3. Baba Lysaga’s Hut
Someone has built a ramshackle wooden hut on the stump of what was once an enormous tree. The rotting roots of the stump thrust up from the mire like the legs of a gigantic spider.
An open doorway is visible on one side of the hut, beneath which floats the upside-down, hollowed-out skull of a giant. Flanking the hut’s doorway are two iron cages that dangle like hideous ornaments from the eaves. Scores of ravens are trapped in each one. They squawk and flutter their wings excitedly as you approach.
Baba Lysaga (see area appendix D) is inside her hut unless she has been drawn forth by activity elsewhere. The squawks of the birds are music to her ears, but the noise makes it impossible for her to hear anyone approaching. Only the howling of the skulls in area area U2 or sounds of combat nearby are loud enough to be heard over the squawking.
Inside each cage is a swarm of ravens that fiercely attacks Baba Lysaga and her Scarecrow if released. Each cage is held shut by one of Baba Lysaga’s
Giant Skull
The upside-down skull that floats next to the hut is a hill giant’s skull that Baba Lysaga has hollowed out and transformed into a vehicle. It hovers in place until Baba Lysaga commands it to fly, which she can do only while inside it. It has a flying speed of 40 feet. No one else can control the skull. A creature inside the skull has three-quarters cover against attacks made from outside the skull. The skull is big enough to hold one Medium creature. It has AC 15, 50 hit points, and immunity to poison and psychic damage.
Hut Interior
The hut is fifteen feet on a side and packed with old furniture, including a wooden cot, a wicker cabinet, a slender wardrobe, a wooden table, a stool, a barrel-topped wooden chest reinforced with brass bands, and an iron tub stained with blood. In the middle of the room is a ghastly wooden crib with a small, angelic child sitting in it. All the furnishings except for the crib are bolted to the floor. Beneath the crib, green light seeps up through cracks between the rotting floorboards.
The child and the crib are illusions created by Baba Lysaga using a
Beneath the hut’s rotting floorboards is a 3-foot-deep cavity containing the magic, green-glowing gem that Baba Lysaga took from the Wizard of the Wines winery. This gem animates the hut (see “area The Creeping Hut” in the “Special Events” section below). The floorboards can be ripped up or smashed with a successful DC 14 Strength check. Characters can also break through the floor by dealing 10 damage to it. The hut doesn’t give up the gemstone easily, however (see “area Baba Lysaga’s Creeping Hut” in appendix D). If the gem is destroyed or removed from the cavity, the hut becomes
Baba Lysaga keeps soiled robes in the wardrobe and assorted spell components in the wicker cabinet. The tub is where she ritually bathes in blood to prevent aging (see “area Gifts of Mother Night” in the “Baba Lysaga” section in area appendix D). If the characters approach the hut at an appropriate time without being noticed, they can see Baba Lysaga bathing.
Treasure
The wooden chest in the hut is protected by a
- 1,300 gp
- Five 500 gp gemstones
- A vial containing
oil of sharpness - Two
Spell Scroll (mass cure wounds andrevivify ) - A pouch containing ten
+1 Sling Bullet - A set of
pipes of haunting - A
Stone of Good Luck
Fortunes of Ravenloft
If your card reading reveals that a treasure is here, it’s in the chest with the other items.
U4. Churchyard
Through the fog you see the empty shell an old stone church, north of which is a cemetery of leaning gravestones enclosed by a disintegrating iron fence. Half of the cemetery has sunk into the mire.
Rotted coffins and moldy bones are buried in the graveyard. Characters who explore the gutted church find the rotten remains of a pulpit and an old iron bell half immersed in the marsh, lying amid the remains of a collapsed steeple.
U5. Marina’s Monument
Strahd had this monument erected after Marina’s death. The monument is hidden in the marsh, and the characters aren’t likely to find it on their own unless they scour the area thoroughly. If they lay Burgomaster Ulrich’s spirit to rest (see area area U2), it points them to this location before fading away. Without Ulrich’s guidance, the characters must enter the square in which the monument is located and search that area. A character who searches the area for 10 minutes can make a DC 15 Wisdom (
The following boxed text assumes that the characters have met Ireena Kolyana. If they have not, don’t read the sentence that mentions her.
Hidden by the fog and elevated a few feet above the surrounding marsh is a raised plot of land, barely ten feet on a side, enclosed by a disintegrating iron fence. In the center of the plot is a life-sized stone monument carved in the likeness of a kneeling peasant girl clutching a rose. Although her features are gray and weatherworn, she bears a striking resemblance to Ireena Kolyana. Carved into the monument’s base is an epitaph.
The epitaph reads as follows: Marina, Taken by the Mists.
Fortunes of Ravenloft
If your card reading reveals that a treasure is here, it is hidden in a cavity underneath the monument, which can be tipped over or moved aside by someone who makes a successful DC 15 Strength check.
If the characters disturb the monument, read:
The croaking frogs and chirping crickets fall silent, and the stench of decay grows strong. You hear the trudge of heavy footsteps through mud and water as bloated gray shapes shamble out of the fog.
Seven distended human corpses have risen from the mire west of the monument. These Walking Corpse are 60 feet away when first seen. Use the commoner statistics for the corpses, but reduce their walking speed to 20 feet and give them immunity to the
Characters can take the treasure and flee, easily outpacing the snake-swollen corpses.
U6. Standing Stones
A dozen moss-covered menhirs form a near-perfect circle in the spongy earth. These weathered stones range in height from 15 to 18 feet. A couple of them lean inward as if to share some great secret with their inscrutable neighbors. A wary-looking peasant woman lurks behind the tallest stone, a rusty lantern clutched in one gnarled hand and a dagger clutched in the other.
The woman is Muriel Vinshaw, a wereraven (see area appendix D) and friend of the Martikov family (see chapters 5 and 12). A resident of Vallaki, Muriel spies on Baba Lysaga for her fellow wereravens. However, she avoids the village proper, preferring to lurk on the outskirts. If the characters allow her to speak, Muriel warns them about the dangers of Berez and arms them with the following information:
- Berez was abandoned long ago after the river rose and flooded the village.
- An ancient and powerful hag named Baba Lysaga lives in a hut in the middle of the village. When not in her hut, Baba Lysaga flies around in a giant skull.
- The scarecrows of Berez are murderous creatures under the hag’s control. They surround Baba Lysaga’s hut and serve as an early warning system.
- Baba Lysaga periodically sends her scarecrows to attack the Wizard of Wines, a winery and vineyard west of Berez. She’s made enemies of the Martikov family, which owns and operates the winery and vineyard.
- The hag has trapped several mountain goats in a pen near the ruins of an old mansion. (Muriel assumes that Baba Lysaga feeds on these animals.)
Muriel avoids combat and flees if attacked. She conceals her lycanthropic nature for as long as possible, and she doesn’t willingly identify other wereravens with whom she’s acquainted. She can’t be persuaded to accompany the characters if they decide to confront Baba Lysaga. However, Muriel knows Barovia well enough to point out other nearby locations that might interest the adventurers, including the ruined mansion of Argynvostholt (see chapter 7) and the ancient burial ground known as Yester Hill (see chapter 14). Muriel grew up hearing stories about the druids of Yester Hill, specifically how they turned away from their ancient beliefs to worship the devil Strahd. Muriel knows that the druids visit the circle of standing stones from time to time, and she does her best to avoid them.
Circle of Standing Stones
This ring of menhirs is one of the oldest structures in the Balinok Mountains—older than the Amber Temple, and much older than Castle Ravenloft and the various Barovian settlements scattered throughout the valley. The menhirs were raised by the same ancient folk who carved the megaliths near Old Bonegrinder (see chapter 6). Characters who have seen those megaliths can, with a successful DC 10 Intelligence check, discern rudimentary similarities between those stones and the menhirs arranged here.
The circle is 100 feet across, and the menhirs are spaced apart at regular intervals. The stones located to the north, west, south, and east are taller than the other eight stones, which have weatherworn glyphs carved into them that represent different animals. Characters who inspect the smaller menhirs can discern the following animal shapes carved into them: bear, elk, hawk, goat, owl, panther, raven, and wolf.
The standing stones are nonmagical. However, druid characters who enter the circle can sense that powerful gods once blessed this site, and that it still holds some measure of power. They can also sense one of its properties, namely that creatures within the circle can’t be targeted by any divination magic or perceived through magical scrying sensors.
The circle has another property that druid characters can’t sense but might discover when they use the Wild Shape feature within the circle’s confines. Any druid that uses the Wild Shape feature within the circle gains the maximum number of hit points available to the new form. For example, a druid character using the Wild Shape feature to assume the form of a giant eagle would have 44 (
At your discretion, the circle might have other strange properties that have been forgotten over time. Although she knows something of the circle’s history, Muriel is unaware of its properties.
Special Events
You can use one or both of the following special events while the characters are exploring the ruins of Berez.
Creeping Hut
Baba Lysaga has given a semblance of life to her hut using a magic gemstone stolen from the Wizard of Wines vineyard. If the characters overstay their welcome, she commands the hut to animate and attack them. If this happens, read:
The giant roots beneath the hut come to life and pull themselves up out of the mire. The hut and the roots lurch and groan, becoming a lumbering mass that cracks as it walks, crushing all in its path.
Baba Lysaga’s creeping hut (see area appendix D) is a ponderous construct that heeds Baba Lysaga’s instructions and no one else’s. It fights until destroyed or until the gemstone that animates it is removed or destroyed. Baba Lysaga does everything she can to keep the characters from obtaining the gemstone, without which the hut is
Lost Battlefield
This event occurs as the characters travel north of Berez after leaving the ruins.
You hear sounds of battle, but the fog has grown so thick that you can barely see more than sixty feet in any direction. Suddenly, the fog takes on the forms of soldiers on horseback charging across the field. They collide with armored pike-bearers wearing devil-horned helms. As each soldier falls in battle, it turns to fading mist. Hundreds more soldiers collide in a storm of screams and clashing metal.
Characters can move through this ghostly battlefield unscathed, and they can’t harm the foggy forms around them. The soldiers aren’t solid enough for the characters to discern emblems or insignia, but it’s clear that both armies are human.
If the characters have not yet explored Argynvostholt (chapter 7), add:
You hear a thunderous roar, and seconds later a huge dragon made of silver mist glides overhead, dispersing enemy soldiers with each flap of its mighty wings. Its long, reptilian tail slices through the air above you as the dragon carves a swath through the fog, affording you a fleeting glimpse of a dark mansion overlooking the valley.
The dragon, like the soldiers, is a harmless phantom. The mansion that the characters see is Argynvostholt.
