Barovia Valley

**Barovia Valley** is the mist-encircled land to which our heroes were transported at the beginning of season 1. At the time it was the domain of Strahd von Zarovich.

## Vistani

* 12: GILFs, Get Your Tongues Ready!: Description of the Vistani women: "There's a group of three women, dressed different from most people you've seen, in brightly coloured clothing, loose fitting garments, that kind of thing." / Goran asks Ismark about Madam Eva: "Madam Eva..." Goran: "Vistani." Ismark: "Vistani? Oh, okay. (He points to the women at the door.) Those are Vistani. Those women there, they actually own this tavern. I don't think I've heard of that... I mean, it certainly sounds like a Vistani name. I know there are a few encampments here in this land."
* 17: Village of Bologna: "And there next to the lake you see five colourful round tents, each about 10 feet in diameter, pitched outside a ring of four barrel top wagons, circled around a large campfire. There's a much bigger tent than the other five, standing closer to the shore of the lake itself. And this one's lit from within. You see near that tent, a bunch of horses drinking from the river. You hear the sound of music actually coming from the camp. You can see several brightly clad figures around the fire. And they are kind of talking and laughing" / Vistani: "You head off in the direction of the tent and you get there, and there is a man standing outside, dressed like the others are. They're all in more brightly coloured clothes than you are used to seeing. [...] Sidenote, if you remember those women [at the tavern in Barovia village], they seem to be dressed a lot like these people."
* 25: Eat Your Beets and Leave Me Alone: "You've not seen any half elf Vistani"

## Episode Appearances

* 1: This is Nowhere Near the Staggering Unicorn: "Everything is obscured by a very thick fog" / "It's so overcast you would hardly be able to tell it is daylight" / "Very spindly, dead-looking trees all around you"
* 2: You Fool of a Pumpkin!: "You're sure that the day is passing because it is getting a little bit dimmer out, and the temperature's dropping a little bit, but it's so universally grey in the sky, it's very hard to tell if time is passing."
* 3: Armpit Music: Will goes out on the Durst House balcony: "The mist and the fog is so encroaching and so tight around the house, it's not moving anywhere. There's no wind to push it around or anything. It's just hanging in the air."
* 7: Mist-ical Visions: Part 1: The Swirly Man speaking of Strahd: "He's in the place where you're actually at right now, and he's been trapped there for you know, a few 100 years. And it's actually like his own little dimension, and it's a big long story. Anyway, he has been reliving the same loop for the centuries or whatever."
* 11: New Friends, or BIFF! SPLAT! GUANO!: Strahd speaks to the group: "'I've graciously brought all of you here...' He gestures around him '...As my guests. Make yourself at home. These are my lands, the lands of Barovia.'"
* 12: GILFs, Get Your Tongues Ready!: Ismark gives a clue that many other adventurers have been called to Barovia before: "I've seen your kind before, strange people to our land, who seemed to have possessed quite a bit of skill, kind of come and go, if you will." / Terrified residents, Mary says "The evils of this land, I'm sure have consumed [Gertruda] in one way or another. I kept her here. I kept her safe."
* 13: My Necro-Sense is Tingling: The Swirly Man describes a little about how Barovia village fits into the bigger picture: "This village of Barovia is in the land of Barovia. You've heard of Vallaki? Vallaki is part of Barovia. You see that magnificent castle? The throne in there, you will sit upon."
* 15: The Truth of His Salvation: At the Barovia Village Church, Eric says: "The roof has some holes in it, the ceiling, sunlight streaming in from above, as much sunlight as there is here in [Barovia], which always seems like the most overcast day you could ever imagine. [...] Sunlight, it's not exactly streaming in, you don't see rays of sunlight pouring in because you never really noticed them and today is no exception. So far, very overcast."
* 17: Village of Bologna: The party head west from Barovia village: "You head west on the main thoroughfare. [...] You start walking. After maybe about 20 minutes, you get to a bridge stretching over a pretty large river, which Ireena let's you know is named the River Ivlis. It sort of runs south of Barovia, the village of Barovia. [...] Eventually after 40 or 50 minutes more of walking you get to a crossroads. [...] This kind of seems like the main road. It leads left at the crossroads off into the distance. But then right, you see it leads that way to a bit of a smaller track. Where the roads meet, there's an old wooden gallows standing there, frayed length of rope drops down from its beam. And then there's a signpost opposite the gallows. It points off in three directions. So, back the way you came, it says 'Barovia Village'. And then the path to the left, which is kind of to the southwest, it says 'Ravenloft / Vallaki'. And then the other road pointing to the right, sort of northwest says 'Tser Pool'. [...] That path kind of slants down and disappears into the trees, and then the other one kind of clings to an upward slope. And then you also see sort of around where the signpost is there's a low wall, sir, partially enclosing a small pot up plot of graves." / "As you leave the clearing, you hear this creaking sound from behind you. You turn back to look you see that there is a body hanging from the gallows where that frayed rope was. Goran and Will, when you look, the body that you see seems to be yourself. And Lank, when you look, you see what you think is the noble woman that you attacked before in your past." / The group take the road to the Tser Pool: "The road gradually disappears and is replaced by more of a twisted, muddy path through the trees. You see deep ruts in the earth and mud, shows there at some point have been waggons coming and going. And the canopy of mist and branches above suddenly gives way to darker clouds roiling above. There's a clearing here, next to a river that widens to form what you think is probably the Tser Pool. It's a small lake, really several 100 feet across, it's pretty big. And there next to the lake you see five colourful round tents, each about 10 feet in diameter, pitched outside a ring of four barrel top waggons, circled around a large campfire. There's a much bigger tent than the other five, standing closer to the shore of the lake itself. And this one's lit from within. You see near that tent, a bunch of horses drinking from the river. You hear the sound of music actually coming from the camp. You can see several brightly clad figures around the fire. And they are kind of talking and laughing, and the footpath itself continues past the encampment, if you continue to go that way."
* 18: It HAS Been Real!: Ireena talks about the Vistani: "I don't know that I feel too comfortable here. I've heard various tales of the Vistani and they're, to be honest, somewhat, I don't know... Some of them are not exactly scrupulous." / "If you remember, the footpath continued past the camp, but Ireena starts heading back towards the crossroads." / Goran suggests following the path by the lake. Ireena: "I've never been down this road. I know that the other road, the main road, does in fact lead the way to Vallaki" [...] A Vistani says: "Nah, that just goes back to the bottom of the falls. You're not going to get anywhere that way. It's kind of a dead end, that ends up down there. Road's waaaay up there." / "You make your way rather quickly back up the path, which turns into the road, and you're back at the crossroads. If you're curious, [...] the gallows is still there, but there's no body there, there's just the frayed rope that you remember from before." / "You keep on down the road, and eventually it gets a little bit higher, gaining elevation as you're going along, once you get past the crossroads on the main road. You take the path that is marked 'Ravenloft / Vallaki', you eventually get to [...] a spur leading off to the side, I guess kind of like the crosswords before, but this one is definitely a specific type of road, and the main road leads off the way you were going. The road to the east, you can see patches of cobblestone, more than this dirt road, so it seems like it was once a more defined thoroughfare. You see a sign. This is a very ornate sign. It's a dark, almost black wood, and etched into it is the words 'Castle Ravenloft'." / "You continue on down the road, gaining elevation, basically clinging to the side of a mountain, eventually. [...] Eventually, the forest opens up and you see this arching bridge of stone, covered with mould and lichen and things like that, spanning this huge chasm. There's gargoyles, at least on this corner you can see, perched on each side of the walls of the bridge. They're weather worn, you can't really make out too much of their features, though they don't seem to be happy, you know that. On the mountainous side of the bridge, which is to your left, there's this huge waterfall that spills into a pool, almost 1000 feet below, so you are way up here. And if you look at the pool, it seems to feed a river that meanders off into the pines, which you would assume, based on what you were told, that would actually end up leading down to the Tser Pool." / Nick explains to the new members Batthwack and Raphina: "This valley, it's the land of, what a lot of people here seem to refer to as, the devil Strahd. We've known him as Strahd von Zarovich. He is a vampire who this seems to be his dominion. [...] I don't think I would feel good leaving here without having at least made some efforts to free the land from this thing. Although other signs, at least from what he said, seems like I don't know that we would be able to. Though we haven't really tested that theory." Batthwack: "Did you all wander into the mists as well? They're impenetrable, as far as I can tell."
* 19: Does Anybody Have A Tent?: The party venture through the Svalich Woods: "It was kind of dark during the day and now it's getting even darker. And the wolf howls are increasing in frequency and you start to see a few bats fly around, like bats do in the dark." / Eric: "You're on the road, but it's wooded, like it's a forest road. So there's dark woods on both sides. The Svalich Woods, Ireena informs you." Ireena: "It's the Svalich Woods!" / During Batthwack's watch: "You notice a couple ravens up in the trees, that kind of thing, but nothing nothing weird. Couple owl hoots. Occasionally a wolf howl off in the distance, though nothing too close by." [...] During Raphina's watch: "You do notice there's seems to be a lot of ravens alighting in the trees and branches around, more than you would think being that there's a small fire there and people, as quiet as you may be, just seems odd. A bit too concentrated population of ravens. They're just kind of sitting there, not doing anything too aggressive or anything like that." / Talking of the ravens in the woods... Ireena: "I've always heard that it's bad luck to harm a raven. I've heard that they have souls." / "You come out of the woods a little bit eventually. And you find yourself looking over a valley. If you recall, your elevation had increased when you were at the bridge. And now you're seeing the road trail down into a valley below you. In the heart of the valley, a good ways away, but not too far, you see a walled town near the shores of a great mountain lake. It's still a good ways off to walk, but you think that that's probably Vallaki. If it's not, you're dubious of Ireena's recall of other settlements nearby because you don't see anything on the road between here and there, except closer to you than it is to that town, you can see since you have a pretty good view form where you are, a branch and the road leading west, which leads to a rise down there in the valley. And from here, you can make out, perched upon that rise, is a dilapidated stone windmill."
* 24: What Is the Airspeed Velocity of a Barrel-Laden Raven?: The group travel from the windmill to Valaki: "So you're headed down the road towards Vallaki, and it looks about a mile off or so."
* 25: Eat Your Beets and Leave Me Alone: Rictavio: "There are wolves prowling the forests and the roads outside of [Vallaki]. I don't know where you came from, if you ran into any, but they are a constant threat. And so they are present on people's minds. I think this last festival was celebrating the death of many wolves. They had hunting parties out trying to just kill as many as they could. And it doesn't seem to have really done much to affect the population overall." / Rictavio: "I've done well for myself recently. And so I know I can't keep this up forever, but it's maybe a bit of a interlude, plus, I don't know if you know, but there doesn't really seem to be much of a way to get out of this valley, which I've discovered. And I don't know how much of a market there is for a travelling troupe or carnival here in the Valley of Barovia, to be honest." / Raphina (to Rictavio): "I sure like your costume. People round here dress so drab." / Rictavio: "Well, the road out of town is... it runs into this very thick mist. Which seems to, at first, disorient discombobulate, and then weaken and drain. And regardless of how far you seem to go, you eventually get turned back around and find yourself back where you started."
* 26: Deer Eggs and a Bowl of Tabasco Sauce: Eric: "The closest you've seen, Will, to something like this all-encompassing, heavy, heavy mist was probably when your carriage first rolled in. [...] Everything is kind of misty in general. A lot of misty bullshit. [...] Then you were enveloped by mist at one point when you tried to get away from the house." [...] Ireena: "The mists are sort of bordering the valley as a whole." / "Morning has come. It is lacklustre morning as usual in Barovia, because there's no great shine of sun from the horizon."
* 27: Mist-ical Visions: Part 3: Lank: "Quick question, in all your life here in this area, has it ever been sunny?" Galdar: "Um, you mean like this? It's been pretty much like this, except for when it rains." Eric: "It's not sunny." Lank: "So it's never been brighter than this?" Galdar: "No. This is a bright day."

...

* 318: Don't Eat The Butt Mustard!: "[Rosco's] definitely not been to Barovia. I guess you may have heard of it."

## Quotes

Any memorable quotes about this location.

## See also

* Gwelloreddu
* Clearbrook