Old Svalich Road

The Night Before Vallaki

I'm always a fan of prophetic dreams, and the night before the PCs leave for Vallaki is a great time to insert some. If you want to plant some plot hints for Vallaki, read the following to one or more of the players (credit to here): (reddit)

A character has a prophetic dream: They see a mansion, a woman lying in bed with what looks like a mannequin, a door with what sounds like a cat scratching on the other side, and a distinctive wedding dress on a display. For a moment, the dress is being worn by a woman with white powdered skin and she looks pleased. This dream gives clues about the Wachters (page 110) and that the wedding gown should be taken and brought to The Abbot (page 155). (reddit)

Encounters on the Road

(page 29) Check every 30 minutes of travel. Roll a d20. 18+ means an encounter. My favorites are Corpse, Revenant, Skeletal Rider and Trinket. Here's some notes: [1]

Creepy Thieves: a spy trying to steal hair and pieces of clothing from the characters, to enable Strahd to scry them better. [2]

Corpse: Finding a corpse of yourself.. awesome.

False Trail: Spiked Pit (DMG page 123). Save DC is 12-15 (you pick). Damage = 11 (2d10). [3]

Hunting Trap: (PH page 152) DC 13 DEX save, d4 damage and stop moving. Escape = DC 13 STR check. Fail = 1 point of damage. It's like a bear trap - it clamps on your foot/leg and is attached to a chain that is held in the ground by a spike. [4]

Revenant: This might be a cool NPC to jump in and help the heroes fight some of Strahd's wolves. Revenant stats - MM page 259. [5]

Skeletal Rider: This could be fun to use fairly regularly. Maybe you could make it where the rider is eternally looking for a way out of Barovia. They might spot the skeleton near the mists, poking around, trying to find a way through. [6]

Trinket: The trinkets (page 210) are awesome. Pick a few in advance! [7]

With all the travel your players will be doing, random encounters should have a heavy presence in your campaign. The road from Barovia to Vallaki especially is long enough that you're quite likely to max out your random encounters for the day (the 12 hours of daytime travel, that is). Remember that the trip itself is only five hours or so (seven if you include the detour to Tser Pool), so they'll likely reach Vallaki before nightfall. (reddit)

The random tables are always fun to roll on, but don't be afraid to just pick an encounter from the list if you think it'd be more interesting. I rolled (and stuck with) the wolf and druid encounters, which I thought nicely set up the (1) Vallaki fear of wolves, and (2) the invasion of the Wizard of Wines winery. (reddit)

At the conclusion of my campaign, I'll likely make a compilation post where I discuss all of the ways I presented the various random encounters in the book. The as-written encounters are fairly barebones, and I tend to prefer giving my encounters some solidity in the world. In the druid encounter, the players encountered the druid and his blights in an abandoned crabapple orchard that had overgrown the road, and which they had decided to investigate during a lunch break. In the wolf encounter, I showed the players a map of the winding road, and gave them thirty seconds to decide which part of the map they wanted to choose to make their stand. These environmentally-based choices make up for a big part of the exploration and strategy of these random encounters, so I'd recommend putting in the work to make them fit the world. (reddit)

To give the journey more depth, I'd also recommend exempting the Ivlis Crossroads location from counting toward your encounters-per-day limit. I took another DM's advice and chose to place the skeletal warrior encounter here. It added a nice bit of atmosphere and really played up the historic and horrific environment of Barovia in the players' minds without really needing any kind of combat. (reddit)

Optional Encounter: Vasili von Holtz

Some of you may know already that Strahd occasionally goes into Barovia disguised as a minor nobleman named Vasili von Holtz. In fact, this same pseudonym is the person who convinced the coffinmaker Henrik van der Voort to house the vampire spawn and steal the bones of St. Andral (though your players won't know that yet). I enjoyed the idea of having a reveal moment later on, as well as giving the players a roleplaying encounter on the road toward Vallaki. (reddit)

Strahd, in disguise as Vasili, is laying in wait in the underbrush just past the bridge at Tser Falls. One of his spies (perhaps a bat, a wolf, or an evil Vistani at Tser Pool) has warned him of the party's egress from Barovia. When the party approaches, he stumbles out of the treeline, requesting help on the road. He claims to have lost his hunting party to direwolves, and to be too scared of Strahd's creatures to travel alone on the path. He waits to see where the party is travelling, and then mentions that he just happens to be travelling in the same direction! (reddit)

In reality, Strahd is amused by the party, and wants a chance to learn more about them - as well as to spend more time around Ireena. Remember that he wants her to come to him, so he'll hold off on biting her...for now. The PCs might notice him flirting with her, though, as well as asking very pointed questions about the party's abilities, background. and other capabilities. (reddit)

When they arrive in Vallaki, "Vasili" peels away from the party, thanking them and claiming that he has other business to attend to. He might appear later attending a dinner at Lady Wachter's home, or playing politics in the wake of a successful coup against the Baron. Don't forget to reveal his true identity at a suitable time, however - preferably at a moment where he can (a) steal Ireena, and (b) fuck over the party in the worst way possible. (reddit)

Road Battle Map

= Ivlis Crossing Battle Map

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