Curse of Strahd Handouts

Hail to thee of might and valor!
I, a lowly servant of Barovia, send honor to thee. We plead

for thy so desperately needed assistance.
The love of my life, Ireena Kolyana, has been afflicted by an
evil so deadly that even the good people of our town cannot protect
her. She languishes from her wound and I would have her
saved from this menace.
There is much wealth in this community. I offer all that might be
had to thee and thy fellows if thou shalt but answer my desperate
plea.
Come quickly for her time is at hand! All that I have shall be
thine!
Kolyan Indrirovich,
Burgomaster
Hail thee of might and valor;
I, the Burgomaster of Barovia send you honor–with
despair.
My adopted daughter, the fair Ireena, has been
these past nights bitten by a vampyr. For over 400
years, this creature has drained life blood of my
people. Now, my dear Ireena languishes and dies
from an unholy wound caused by this vile beast. He
has become too powerful to be fought any longer.
So I say to you, give us up for dead and encircle
this land with the symbols of good. Let holy men
call upon their power that the devil may be
contained within the walls of weeping Barovia.
Leave our sorrows to our graves, and save the
world from this evil fate of ours.
There is much wealth entrapped in this
community. Return for your reward after we are
all departed for a better life.
Kolyan Indirovich,
Burgomaster
My friends,
Know that it is I who have brought you to this land, my home,
and know that I alone can release you from it. I bid you dine
at my castle so that we can meet in civilized surroundings. Your
passage here will be a safe one. I await your arrival.
Your host,
Strahd von Zarovich
My most pathetic servant,
I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers of this
land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality.
However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar,
however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know
that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land.
You are but worms writhing in my earth.
You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent. You
abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another
woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by darkness? Of that
I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness? I think
not. I much prefer you as you are.
Your dread lord and master,

Strahd von Zarovich
I am the Ancient, I am the Land. My beginnings are lost in the
darkness of the past. I was the warrior, I was good and just. I thundered
across the land like the wrath of a just god, but the war years and the killing
years wore down my soul as the wind wears stone into sand.
All goodness slipped from my life; I found my youth and strength gone, and
all I had left was death. My army settled in the valley of Barovia and took
power over the people in the name of Karrn the Conqueror, but we had none
of Karrn's charisma or vitality.
I called for my family, long unseated from their ancient thrones, and brought
here to settle in the castle Ravenloft. They came with a younger brother of
mine, Sergei. He was handsome and youthful. I hated him for both.
From the families of the valley, one spirit shone above all others. A rare
beauty, who was called "perfection", "joy", and "treasure.” Her name was
Tatyana, and I longed for her to be mine.
I loved her with all of my heart. I loved her for her youth. I loved her for
her joy. But she spurned me! "Old One" was my name to her- "elder"
and "brother" also. Her heart went to Sergei. They were betrothed. The
date was set.
With words she called me "brother," but when I looked into her eyes they
reflected another name- "death." It was the death of the aged that she saw in
me. She loved her youth and enjoyed it. But I had squandered mine.
The death she saw in me turned her from me. And so I came to hate death,
my death. My hate is very strong; I would not be called "death" so soon.
I made a pact with death, a pact of blood. On the day of the wedding, I
killed Sergei, my brother. My pact was sealed with his blood.
I found Tatyana weeping in the garden east of the chapel. She fled from me.
She would not let me explain, and a great anger swelled within me. She had
to understand the pact I made for her. I pursued her. Finally, in despair,
she flung herself from the walls of Ravenloft; and I watched everything I
ever wanted fall from my grasp forever.
It was a thousand feet through the mists. No trace of her was ever found.
Not even I know her final fate.
Arrows from the castle guards pierced me to my soul, but I did not die. Nor
did I live. I became undead, forever.
I have studied much since then. "Vampyr" is my new name. I still lust for
life and youth, and I cusre the living that took them from me. Even the sun is
against me. It is the sun and light I fear the most. But little else can harm
me now. Even a stake through my heart does not kill me, though it holds from
movement. But the sword, that cursed sword that Sergei brought! I must
dispose of that awful tool! I fear and hate it as much as the sun.
I have learned much, too, about this land of Barovia. Ancient are its
ways, ancient beyond the knowledge of the simple folk of the valley. Ancient
before Dhakaan rose and Vvaarak taught the first of his Orcs. Ancient
even when the Dragons warred upon the Demon Lords of Old. I have
walked the ancient ways, secret roads linking three fanes of might, and thus I
have become the Land.
Three ancient saints dwelt in this valley long before my coming, and three
hidden fanes still give tribute to their memories. I visited the Swamp Fane,
the Forest Fane and the Mountain Fane, and claimed their power for my
own. Thus I solidified my grasp on this dim shadow of life.
I made the fanes my own, and I have become the Land. Also I made
the fane-servants my own, and they now serve me as once they served the saints
of the fanes.
I have often hunted for Tatyana. I have even felt her within my grasp, but
she escapes. She taunts me! She taunts me! What will it take to bend her love
to me?
I now reside far below Ravenloft. I live among the dead and sleep beneath
the very stones fo this hollow castle of despair. I shall seal shut the walls of the of
stairs that none may disturb me…
For more than three decades now, I have undertaken to investigate
and expose creatures of darkness to the purifying light of truth and
knowledge. “Hero” I am named in some circles; “sage” and “master
hunter” I am called in others. That I have survived countless
supernatural assaults is seen as a marvel among my peers; my name
is spoken with fear and loathing among my foes.
In truth, this “virtuous” calling began as an obsessive effort to

destroy a vampire that murdered my child, and it has become for me
a tedious and bleak career. Even as my life of hunting monsters
began, I felt the weight of time on my weary shoulders. Today I am
a man who has simply lived too long. Like a regretful lich, I find
myself inexorably bound to an existence I sought out of madness
and, seemingly, must now endure for all eternity. Of course I shall
die, but whether I shall ever rest in my grave haunts my idle
thoughts, and torments me in my dreams.
I expect that those who think me a hero will change their minds
when they know the whole truth about my life as a hunter of the
unnatural. Nevertheless, I must reveal, here and now, that I have
been the indirect yet certain cause of many deaths, and the loss of
many good friends. Mistake me not! I do not merely feel sorry for
myself. Rather, I come to grips with a devastating realization: I now
see that I am the object of a baleful Vistani curse. More tragically,
the nature of this hex is such that I have not borne the brunt of it;
instead, far worse, those who surround me have fallen victim to it!
I have related the tragic story of how my only child Erasmus was
taken by Vistani and sold to a vampire. I explained how Erasmus
was made a minion of the night stalker, and how it was my
miserable part to free him from that fate at the point of a stake.
What I have neglected to illuminate before is how I tracked
Erasmus’s kidnappers across the land, or how I “extracted”
Erasmus’s whereabouts from them.
In fact, the Vistani took Erasmus with my own, unwitting

permission. They had brought an extremely ill member of their tribe
to me one evening and insisted that I treat him, but I was unable to
save the young man’s life. In fear of their retribution, I begged the
Vistani to take anything of mine if only they would withhold their
terrifying powers, of which I knew nothing. To my lasting
astonishment, they chose to surreptitiously take my son in exchange
for their loss! By the time I realized what had occurred, they were
already an hour gone.
Incensed beyond reason, I strapped the body of the dead young man
to my horse and doggedly followed the Vistani caravan through the
woods, naively allowing the sun to set before me without seeking
shelter from the night. Shortly after darkness fell, I was beset by
undead that would have slain me, had not their master—a lich—
intervened and spared my life, for reasons that I do not completely
understand. He somehow detected me and, with his powerful magic,
took control of a pack of zombies that wandered in the forest. He
spoke to me through the mouths of the dead things and placed a
magic ward against undead on me, then animated the dead Vistana
and bade it tell me where I could find its people. Unfortunately (I
say in hindsight), the plan worked. I found the child-stealers, and
my unwelcome entourage included a growing horde of voracious
undead that could not touch me, thanks to the lich’s ward.
When I found the caravan, I threatened to set the zombies on the

Vistani unless they returned my dear boy. They replied that he had
been sold to the vampire, Baron Metus. Something inside me
snapped. I released the zombies, and the entire tribe was eaten alive.
Yet the story has not ended. Before she died, the leader cursed me,
saying, “Live you always among monsters, and see everyone you love
die beneath their claws!” Even now, so many years later, I can hear
her words with painful clarity. A short time later, I found my dear
Erasmus made into a vampire. He begged me to end his curse, which
I did with a heavy heart. The darkness had torn him from my
loving arms forever, and I foolishly believed that the curse had
exacted its deadly toll. I wept until an insatiate desire for vengeance
filled the bottomless rift in my heart.

Curse of Strahd Handouts

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Hail to thee of might and valor!

I, a lowly servant of Barovia, send honor to thee. We plead

Your dread lord and master,

In truth, this “virtuous” calling began as an obsessive effort to

In fact, the Vistani took Erasmus with my own, unwitting

When I found the caravan, I threatened to set the zombies on the

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