Barovia Village Church

**Barovia Village Church** was Barovia Village's only place of worship, presided over by the local priest, Donavich. It was where the party discovered Donavich's son, the vampire spawn, locked in the undercroft. Situated right under the shadow of Castle Ravenloft, the church had been on the receiving end of repeated attacks by agents of Strahd.

## Description

The church looked worn and weary, a grey, sagging, mishmash of stone and wood. The doors stood open, but were marked with claw marks and scorched by fire. It did have an intact bell tower towards the back. Behind the church was a graveyard, which backed onto woods.

Inside, there was a relatively wide, unlit hall, about 10 feet across and 20 feet long. There were two sets of doors leading off on each side. The hall led into the chapel, which was blazing with light. The chapel itself was a bit of a mess, strewn with debris; pews were overturned and in some places, demolished. It didn't appear that any parishioners had used it for a while. The light in the chapel came from dozens and dozens of candles, candlesticks and candelabras, situated in every corner. Seemingly, whoever lit them didn't want any scrap of shadow to be seen from within. The rooms off to the side of the hall were two bedrooms, an office, and a damp room with a trapdoor leading down to the undercroft.

## Areas of the Church

**(1) Hall**.

**(2) Chapel**.

**(3) Office**.

**(4) Donavich's bedroom**.

**(5) Doru's bedroom**.

**(6) Trapdoor room**.

**(7) Undercroft**.

## Episode Appearances

* 13: My Necro-Sense is Tingling: The party are told about the location of the church by Ismark while at the Burgomaster's mansion: "the church is basically up the street, about double the distance from the tavern to here"
* 15: The Truth of His Salvation: The party view the outside of the church: "It doesn't look too good. It's a grey, sagging, mishmash of stone and wood. Basically, it just seems worn and weary. It does have an intact bell tower towards the back. And you can see, the door is hanging open. [...] Similar to what you saw on the outside of Ismark and Ireena's house, the doors themselves are marked with claw marks and seem to be scorched by fire as well." / Ismark: "This is a place, as as meagre as it is, of holiness and goodness that it can serve as a sanctuary, and under the shadow of that..." Eric: "He gestures and basically the church is closer to the castle, it looms way up high over the town, and this is basically as close as you can get to that within the village. So this is the closest point to the castle from the village of Barovia. There's a graveyard behind the church. And then there's some woods behind that. But not too far within that, there's basically this sheer dark black rock, juts out from the woods and soars above and on top of that is the castle." Ismark: "...Under the shadow of this evil, I can't imagine that Strahd liked seeing this out of his window. So he's launched many assaults, trying to bring this place to the ground. It stands, though maybe you can say barely. We haven't seen too much of Donavich, the priest here. So as far as I know, he's still all right. But he seems to have receded into the church itself and doesn't really make his presence known within the community at this point anymore. We haven't seen him in, I would say, about a year. We've been, as usual, busy with keeping up the town." Goran asks if Donavich will conduct the funeral service. Ismark: "I would hope so. That's what we're here to do. He's a good enough man, I would think he would be happy to, in the name of the Morninglord who he serves." / Description of the initial "Hall" (1) and "Chapel" (2): "A relatively wide hall, probably about 10 feet across, about 20 feet long. It leads further into the church where you can see the chapel beyond, which seems to be blazing with light. Seems to be many, many candles lit from within. The hall itself though, is unlit. And there's doors leading off of both sides. Two closed doors to the left. Two closed doors to the right." / Description of the "Chapel" (2): "The chapel is a bit of a mess. It's strewn with debris. Pews are demolished, in some places overturned, but you do notice that there are dozens and dozens of candles, candlesticks candelabras, in every corner. Seems like whoever lit these didn't want any scrap of shadow to be seen from within." / More descriptions of the chapel: "It is a mess. It's not in good shape. Does not seem to have been used by parishioners anytime recently, that's for sure. There's basically very few places to sit. There's really no single pew that's completely intact and most of them are kind of beyond almost recognition, except for the fact that you know, that there normally would be pews where are now piles of broken wood." / Will explores the "Office" (3): "The one that's in more [...] if you're looking at the altar, [...] on the right." Eric: "It's not locked. If you peer in, it's dark inside. It's day, there is a window leading out that's kind of boarded up, but there's enough light coming in that you can see. [...] Against the south wall [...] you see an old desk and a chair with a wooden holy symbol mounted above them, it's in the shape of a sunburst. It's similar to a lot of the holy symbols you actually saw tacked up all over the walls in Ismark and Ireena's house. They're all kind of different, but it's same kind of sun motif is constant throughout. On the north wall there's an iron rod, a 10 foot rod attached horizontally, kind of pretty high up, [...] otherwise bare, so you think there might have been something like a tapestry or something hanging there once. Against the far wall, away from the door, there's a wooden cabinet, pretty big, with four tall doors. On the seat, there's some sort of box, and there's some stuff on the table, scattered on it." / Will explores "Donavich's bedroom" (4): "Will walks across to the other door" Eric: "It looks like a bedroom. It's got a wooden bed with a straw-filled mattress, which looks very lumpy and very, very dirty. There's a small table with an oil lamp, which is lit next to it. So there's definitely light in here and again you see another kind of sun-shaped holy symbol above the bed. Other than that there's nothing in here, it's very, very bare. And it kind of smells a little bit, but not like death, just like unwashed priest." / Will explores "Doru's bedroom" (5): "The next one on that same side, the bedroom side." Eric: "Another dirty room. This one does not have a light in it. And like the other one, it looks like another bedroom. Straw-filled mattress, this one smells musty, doesn't really smell dirty in a stinky way. And there's another bed in there. Again, there's another holy symbol mounted above the headboard, like in the previous room." / "Trapdoor" (6): "The last closed door, the one on the right side of the hall, closest to the entry doors. [...] This room is in poor condition. 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, but there's enough light to see the floor. There's roof shingles on the floor in puddles of water that have collected through however long this room has been in bad shape. You see no furniture in here, but you do see in the far corner of the room what looks like a wooden trapdoor set into the floor, held shut by a chain and a padlock. [...] Weather in this room has not kept this chain and padlock in good condition. [...] You lower yourself about three feet down onto a landing. And you can see stairs leading north. From there into the darkness." / "Undercroft" (7): "You kind of lower yourself about three feet down onto a landing. And you can see stairs leading north. From there into the darkness. Stairs go about maybe 10 feet down to a dirt floor below." / Description of the undercroft: "It's pretty large from what you can tell. It's basically the size of of the church above, including the four rooms and the main chapel. [...] Spaced regularly throughout are thick pillars holding up the weight of the wooden ceiling. [...] There were a lot of candles lit [in the chapel above]. There's cracks in the floorboards. It's pouring down through, especially in the northern part of the room." / The inside of the trapdoor: "the bottom of that door is ravaged" / Height of the ceiling in the undercroft: "And the ceiling again, it's about 10 feet high." / Will finds a chest in the undercroft: "Tucked in under the stairs, what looks to be a box or a chest or container of some type, in the shadows. [...] You see what looks like a couple sacks that [...] might contain some coins. You see two bottles that might be potions. You also see what looks like a really, really nice pair of boots, leather boots. But on top of all of this, you see a hangman's noose, frayed about a foot above the knot." [...] About the chest, Donavich says: "That's where we had some of the collections and donations." / Describing the noose: "When [Will] pick it up, you notice that it feels maybe three times as heavy as you feel like it should."
* 22: Aren't We a Little Old to Be Put in Child Pies?: "And you also find what looks like a holy symbol, looks like it's made of gold. It's in the shape of a sun attached to a gold chain. There's some carvings in it surrounding a yellow gem, a large yellow gem affixed in the middle. And it looks very similar to the symbols that you saw adorning Ireena and Ismark's house and the church in Barovia. [...] Raphina and Batthwack, you both you can feel an aura coming off of this. It feels pretty much in line with a lot of the equipment and teachings and whatnot in your area of faith."

## Quotes

Any memorable quotes about this location.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 15: The Truth of His Salvation