4. To the Village of Barovia

The party now finds themselves in a dark forest clearing at the beginning of the Old Svalich Road. They find an old ruined tower to rest for the night.

In the morning they leave the tower and begin traveling along the road. They reach the Gates of Barovia.

The doors of the gate swing open on their own. As they pass through the gates they close behind them.

Traveling beyond the gate leads the party through the Svalich Woods. Here they find a body, whose clothes have been torn by thorns and branches, bearing no visible wounds. In the body’s hand in an old tarnished, copper compass. The needle in the compass trembling.

The hand with the compass was splayed out near a tree with thirteen tally marks on it and an arrow that pointed deeper into the woods and a footpath.

They follow the path, coming to a second tree with another thirteen tally marks and another arrow pointing even further in. The edge of the footpath has a corpse of a horse in a similar state of decay as the previous body.

They then come to a third tree with another thirteen tally marks, and another arrow pointing even further in. The path ahead vanished into a wall of fog.

The needle on the compass begins spinning wildly.

They push on, into the fog, emerging later to find themselves winded and exhausted.

They then see a fourth tree, once again with the tally marks and arrow. However this tree also has a dagger stabbed into the trunk. There is a rough carving of a figure on a horse with the text:

“THE HORSEMAN RIDES.”

“THE SEER SPOKE TRUE.”

Continuing on once again, they arrive back at the body where they first started.

The party decides to continue on the road, leaving the footpath and the body behind them.

As the road clears the woods and opens into a valley, they can see a small settlement ahead of them, and a dark castle overlooking the settlement atop a pillar of stone with a storm at the peaks of the tower.