The Curse of Strahd - Barovia Basics Quiz

Answer: Acquire the permission of Strahd to leave

Strahd delights in treating newcomers as his playthings. He is never going to willfully allow them to leave his domain - they will have to earn their freedom by force, and will need to completely kill him if they're to escape. Trying to get his permission otherwise is entirely fruitless. Passive adventurers seeking a peaceful method leave themselves wide open to being toyed with by him at no gain.

Answer: Tome of Strahd

The Tome of Strahd joins the Sunlight Sword and Holy Symbol of Ravenkind as the three artifacts needed to make actually winning a conflict with Strahd manageable. The other three options for answers don't exist.

Answer: The Vistani

The Vistani are a travelling group whose allegiance is very murky and unknown. They appear to be capable of leaving Barovia whenever they want, and are responsible for luring adventurers into the domain. This would suggest they are in league with Strahd - yet they freely offer information on how to destroy him, and even encourage inquiring adventurers to do so. Curious indeed...

Answer: Wizard of Wines

The Wizard of Wines is in a precarious state when the party reaches it - it is currently under the control of a group of evil druids who have wrestled it away from the Martikovs. Their objective is to produce wine infused with poison, ship it to the Blue Water Inn, and ideally poison the inhabitants of Vallaki with it. Preventing this is clearly a priority.

Answer: Ravenloft

No matter how the adventurers move about his domain, the end goal is to confront Strahd within his castle and slay him for good. The castle is deliberately designed to be as confusing and treacherous to navigate as possible - there are many traps and the layout is quite bizarre. It ends up being quite the trouble just locating Strahd in the first place!

Answer: The Sisters

The Sisters are powerful female vampire spawn Strahd has created who devote themselves to whatever twisted cause he has committed to - bothering innocent civilians, slaughtering travelers, or destroying nefarious adventurers. Strahd originally converted them into becoming vampires individually, as he initially had romantic lust for them, then got bored and decided to more or less discard them. Yet, they remain, within his eternal servitude.

Answer: Win the affection of Ireena Kolyanna

Ireena is the vessel harboring Strahd's long lost love interest, Tatyana. As such, getting her to willfully submit herself to him at his Castle would please him greatly. He will even attempt to enlist the adventuring party into helping him do so.

Answer: Yes

Strahd is the most evil of evil characters to have ever evilled, simply put. He is an interesting blend of evil - he is obviously powerful enough to take whatever he wants by force. So why doesn't he? Sure, he takes great pleasure in toying with people and would delight at breaking them mentally.

But he has spies all over his domain, and he has an unquantifiably high amount of magic potency, so nothing goes on within his domain everyone is trapped in that he wouldn't know about. He is definitely a lawful evil character - an undoubtedly corrupt, sinister one.

Answer: Wachterhaus

Headed by Lady Wachter, this house supports Strahd directly - as armed hands, spies, or both. Conversely, the Baron is vehemently opposed to Strahd and tirelessly works - all for naught - to free himself and his people of his grasp.

Answer: Running water

Silver strikes werewolves for extra damage, not vampires. Garlic may be sometimes culturally viewed as holding vampires at bay, but this weakness does not exist in Strahd's stat block. Running water, such as a heavy waterfall, will hurt Strahd quite surprisingly.