Whispering Wall

Located at Yester Hill, the Whispering Wall is rumoured to predate the creation of Barovia. A rumour that seems to be confirmed by the arrival of the Warforged Wizard Marcus. The wall has offered many visions to the party of the past, present and future, these visions are stored here.

## Von Zarovich Bloodline

Vision 1

Two kids are loudly playing together on the lawn of a large manor house. A child of about ten years old with messy black hair plays tag with a younger clone of himself. The boys laughter is broken by the scream of a woman from inside the manor house. As if by instinct, the older brother pulls the younger to the ground, covering his ears. He casts a spectacle of the lights in front of the child's eyes to distract him from his confusion. The spell is broken when a gruff man's voice rings out. "Boy! It's time for training, get in here.". A woman brushes past him covering her face as she strides across the lawn and sweeps the younger boy into her arms. The vision fades as she takes a scared Sergei to a lonesome bench on the outskirts of the garden, as Strahd accompanies his father into the manor.

Vision 2

Arrows fly through the sky as an older Strahd rides fast through a battlefield side by side with his father, King Barov. They make quick and easy work of their opponents, who don Dragon Sigel armour. The two men stop high atop a hill, overlooking their victory. The young Strahd looks to his father, who looks onward emotionlessly gauging the field. The moment is interrupted as an arrow from the tree line hits Strahd squarely in the chest. With a look of disbelief, strahd falls off his horse down the rocky cliff face of the hill. He lands at the bottom, body broken and unmoving.

As his vision begins to fade in and out of focus, his father looks down over the edge from above. His voice echoes down from above. "As much as I should have expected. I have a son who refuses to fight and another who dishonours me when he does." His father rides away, as Strahds vision goes black. After an unknowable amount of time passes, a group of Vistani emerge from the trees and surround Strahd's body. Strahd appears to come to for a moment, looking up at these unknown individuals, he lets out with a raspy voice "If you ensure I live through this, I will ensure you are given everything.". The vision fades.

Vision 3

There's a flash of several battles, each one ending with Strahd as the victor. Prominent in each one is a silver dragon and his knights. The visions quickly shift, to a sunny village that resides at the bottom of a cliff with a half built castle. In the main street, Strahd can be seen flirting with a pretty young woman. Both look happy and content, until the young woman learns of his name. A look of disgust spreads across her face as she is quick to leave.

A dejected Strahd turns to walk in the opposite direction when his face suddenly grows wide with a smile as he spots his brother walking toward him. As he goes to embrace his brother, he is stopped by Sergei, who emotionlessly tells Strahd that their father has died. There's a cold silence, before Strahd asks Sergei if their father had ever read his letters of conquest in Delmor, how he'd renamed the land after him. Sergei nods silently. There's another moments pause, before Strahd ask Sergei if he thought he had been proud of his victory. Sergei only looks back at his brother, pity and sadness painted across his face. "Mother is sick." Sergei says, finally breaking the silence. Strahd picks back up his usual bravado, and tells Sergei that him and his mother should come live with him at his new castle, and that he's named it after their mother. Sergei agress to talk with her about it, as Strahd departs.

Sergei looks concernedly after his brother, when two strangers approach him. The young woman whom Strahd was in conversation with, Tatyana and her brother Izek. She asks Sergei whether he knew that man. When Sergei reveals that they are brothers, she invites Sergei to have a drink with them. The vision fades.

Vision 4

Light pours in through the windows of Castle Ravenloft. Strahd, who now looks pale and sickly, sits on a bench as Sergei informs him that their mother died while traveling to the castle. Sergei is clearly effected far more by his own words than he was when their father past. Strahd however sits their emotionless, as he informs Sergei of his sadness that she will never see her names sake and that he'll make sure she is entombed respectfully at the castle. A familiar silence forms between the two.

"Are you going to be there today? You're my only family now. I want you to be by my side." Sergei says. Strahd replies "I have gifted you my home, but I will not gift you with my presents. I do not trust that woman or her brother. You've only know her 6 months, she does not love you. She is obsessed with me, if you cannot see it, then I'm not going to waste my time convincing you.". He gets up to walk away, as Sergei snaps back "Always my protector, right? Well let me give you some advice for a change, brother. Whatever you're mixed up in. It's warping you. Everyday I see less of my brother and more of my father.". The vision fades.

Vision 5

Strahd is walking down an empty hall, as hushed voices echo off the walls through the ajar door to the ceremony hall. He stops outside the door, listening close. The voices of Izek and Ireena can be heard pleading from within. "Please husband, your brother is pure evil, whatever man you once knew is long gone. He must be stopped!". Izek adds "He's as ruthless as King Barov himself, except there's a glimpse of something else in him, you must have seen it.". "Sergei, my newly beloved, if you truly love me, you will end his tyranny.". Sergei begins to say "He's my brother, I love him. You can't actually expect me to-".

He is interrupted by Strahd bursting through the door. "I knew it! I knew she couldn't be trusted!". He draws his blade, advancing forward. "Brother stop! This isn't you!" Sergei exclaims, as Izek steps between Tatyana and Strahd, sword drawn. In one quick motion, Strahd cuts off Izeks arm, dropping him to the ground and continuing forward toward Tatyana. "Brother please! This isn't you, there is so much kindness in you! I've seen it, please stop this!". Sergei places a hand on Strahd's shoulder. Strahd stops in place and turns to look straight into his brothers eyes. Strahds Blue to Sergei's Green. "Brother?" Sergei questions "No, that's not you?". With no hesitation Strahd sinks his teeth into his brothers neck, ripping it open as he pulls away. Strahd turns once more and runs after Tatyana as she sprints to the balcony. She turns around to face Strahd at the ledge, before she lets herself fall backwards into the abyss.

Guards rush into the room, bows raised, in attempt to free themselves of a tyrant, they release a volley of arrows into Strahd's back. Four arrows thud into him, pushing him towards the ledge. The blood soaked, pale face of Strahd turns to face the guards "No escape." he growls, as his eyes turn from blue to red and the light at his back goes out. The vision fades.

## Battle of Silver & Scarlett

Called into the hall of Argynvostholt, Marcus attends the final battle meeting of his order. In this meeting he learns from Sir Godfrey Gweilym that their agent Tatyana has wed Strahd's brother Sergei and both her and her brother will begin a final attempt to get him to their side. Argynvost also shares news that the guards at the Amber Temple went silent last night and were not present when their relief guard arrived. Although worrying news, he believes the war will be won by their side before the night is over. After sending knights to several skirmishes around Barovia, Argynvost request a private meeting with Marcus. He expresses his real concerns over the Amber Temple and gives Marcus a rainbow imbued crystals, telling him that the fey creatures at yester hill said it will take him there. If the battle a head takes a turn for the worst, he is to activate the crystal and beg for aid from the Whispering Wall. Agreeing, Marcus heads out to Berez with the other order members. The battle is already raging when they arrive and with the help of Argynvost, they begin shredding the Von Zarovich army apart, paving a way to their main outpost. At the moment all seems won, the world goes dark. A blast of lightning can be seen hitting the top of Ravenloft in the distance as the ground beneath the order members begins to shift. Hands reach out from the ground and the bodies of those they disposed of begin getting to their feet. The order finding themselves suddenly surrounded by a horde of undead turn to Argynvost as he erupts into a Silver dragon, smashing his way through the hoard. His presents gives hope for only a moment however as a swarm of fog appears and Lord Strahd Von Zarovich emerges. Argynvost yells an order to Marcus to go as he turns to Strahd and releases a blast of pure white fire into him. As the flames extinguish, an unharmed Strahd stands tall. Marcus activates the crystal and all is gone, he is left standing on a lonely hill, the only thing in sight is a dying Elder tree. He approaches the Whisper Wall and asks for aid, a moment of silence occurs, before a window opens up in the fog and a tiefling stares back at Marcus from within. Marcus steps through.

## Van Richten's Notebook

For more than six 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. Something inside me snapped. I released the zombies, and the entire tribe was eaten alive, except for two small children, who I had not the heart to watch get ripped to shreds.

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.

## Ismark & Asterius

The glow of a camp fire breaks through the trees. Huddled around the heat are two figures silently staring into the flames. One is an older man with the memories of fire imprinted across his face. The other is a young tiefling, no older than six or seven with pale white skin. The silence sits comfortably between the two before it is broken by the younger.

“Why do the people of the village call you Ismark the lesser?”

The older man chuckles to himself as he pauses before answering.

“It is an old Barovian tradition to compare a son against the deeds of his father. I am seen in the eyes of many as lesser in the comparison.”

The young man furrows his brow in concentration as he stares deeper into the flames.

“Am I lesser than my father?”

The elder stares at the young man, observing the scarlet flames reflecting in his amber eyes. He lets out a sigh.

“Your father was a great man who helped many people. Everything he did was to ensure that you could live a better life, but he would never have wanted you to come here and have to finish what he started. Our lives are what we make of them and our value is never tied to someone else's legacy.”

The young man’s eyes never leave the flames as he whispers,

“Why does the vampire want me?”

Ismark pulls the boys gaze away from the fire,

“That creature is a spawn of darkness and deception. There are things in this world that have no reason for their cruelty. The greatest power we have against such evil is the bonds of family and friends we forge despite it, not because of it. It is the light we create for ourselves where there was only darkness before. Do not torture yourself over the vampire’s reasonings, just keep your defiance burning within you. It’s what your father always tried to do.”

The child’s innocent confusion and fear stare back at Ismark.

“We should get some sleep.”

Ismark gets up and begins walking over the tent when Asterius calls out.

“Ismark!”

He turns his battle worn face back toward the child once more.

“Yes?”

Asterius Hesitates before Saying,

“I don’t like when they say it. When they call you lesser. You’re Ismark the Greater to me.”