Page 96 - Curse of Strahd_Neat

CHAPTER 5: THE TOWN OF VALLAKI

OCATED CLOSE TO THE SHORES OF LAKE APPROACHING THE TOWN
Zarovich, the town of Vallaki (pro­
nounced vah-/ah-key) seems like a safe When the characters first approach Vallaki, read:
haven against the evils of the Svalich
Woods, if not Strahd himself. The town The Old Svalich Road meanders into a valley watched
lies beyond the sight of Castle Ravenloft
and doesn't, at first blush, seem as de­ over by dark, brooding mountains to the north and
pressed (or oppressed) as the village of Barovia farther south. The woods recede, revealing a sullen mountain
east. Characters who spend time in Vallaki, however, burg surrounded by a wooden palisade. Thick fog presses
quickly realize that there is no happiness here, only up against this wall, as though looking for a way inside,
false hope-which Strahd himself cultivates. hoping to catch the town aslumber.
Vallaki was founded not long after Strahd's armies
conquered the valley by an ancestor of the town's cur­ The dirt road ends at a set of sturdy iron gates with a
rent burgomaster, Baron Vargas Vallakovich. The Val­ pair of shadowy figures standing behind them. Planted in
lakoviches have royal blood in their veins and have long the ground and flanking the road outside the gates are a
believed themselves superior to the Zarovich line. Baron half-dozen pikes with wolves' heads impaled on them.
Vallakovich has deluded himself into believing that hope
and happiness are the keys to Vallaki's salvation. If he
can make everyone in Vallaki happy, the burgomaster A 15-foot-high wall encloses the town, its vertical logs
thinks that the town will somehow escape Strahd's held together with thick ropes and mortar. The top of
grasp and return to the forgotten world whence it came. each log has been sharpened to a point. Wooden scaf­
He stages one festival after another to bolster the spirits folding hugs the inside of the palisade twelve feet off the
of the townsfolk, but most Vallakians consider these ground, enabling guards to peer over the wall there.
festivals to be pointless, meaningless affairs more likely
to incur Strahd's wrath than to provide any hope for TOWN GATES
the future. Three tall gates made of iron bars lead into town:
In the last festival, Baron Vallakovich had townsfolk
parade through the streets with the severed heads of • The north gate is sometimes called the Zarovich Gate,
wolves on pikes. His next event, which the burgomaster or "the gate to the lake," because it leads to Lake Za­
has dubbed the Festival of the Blazing Sun, is soon to rovich (chapter 2, area L).
get under way (see the "Special Events" section at the • The west gate is referred to as the Sunset Gate, even
end of this chapter). Weatherworn garlands from previ­ though no living person in Vallaki has seen an un­
ous festivals still hang from the eaves ofVallaki's build­ dimmed sunset. A few abandoned cottages line the
ings, and work has begun on a large wicker sun, to be road outside this gate.
set ablaze in the town square on the day of the festival. • The east gate is also known as the Morning Gate, or,
In the days leading up to the festival, Baron Vallakovich as some locals like to call it, the Mourning Gate.
has begun arresting local malcontents and throwing
them in the stocks so that his efforts aren't ruined by
"those of little hope or faith."

THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THE
eyes of the men that feed off
this land. They are as dead
as the dead.
-Strahd von Zarovich

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