Innistrad's ancient history speaks of a human alchemist and healer named Edgar Markov, who sought to preserve his own life and the lives of his family. As old age began to claim him, he despaired of finding an alchemical solution and turned to black magic. Not long after, the demon Shilgengar appeared to Markov and revealed a means by which he could achieve immortality: a dark ritual that involved drinking an angel's blood.
The vampires of Innistrad are all descended from twelve ancient sires—the congregation that participated in Markov's blasphemous ritual. Of these twelve bloodlines, four constitute the vast majority of Innistrad's vampires: Markov, Voldaren, Falkenrath, and Stromkirk. Three of the others have died out completely, while five are so few in number as to be irrelevant. One of those nearly irrelevant lines is that of Strefan Maurer, who rules a remote region in Stensia's outland valleys.
This chapter offers suggestions for situating the region of Barovia, which is detailed in the Ravenloft adventure Curse of Strahd, within the plane of Innistrad. The changes range from the merely cosmetic (changing the Balinok Mountains to the Geier Reach, for example) to more thorough reimaginings of Ravenloft elements foreign to Innistrad, such as dusk elves, wereravens, and the enigmatic Vistani.
Much of the description of Barovia presented in 3 applies to Innistrad generally and to the outland valleys of Stensia in particular. Some elements do not apply, including the mists of Ravenloft. No magical barrier imprisons people in the outland valleys, or even on Innistrad as a whole. Planeswalkers, at least, can leave the plane, and high-level spellcasters native to Innistrad might be able to glimpse realms beyond the Blind Eternities through their magic.
The description of the dour people of Barovia applies to Stensians as a rule. However, all Stensians have souls, and those souls are not trapped on Innistrad.
Strahd von Zarovich—Strefan Maurer
The history of Strefan Maurer runs parallel to that of Strahd von Zarovich. After his father's death, Strefan studied magic and forged a pact with the demon Shilgengar in return for the promise of immortality. After murdering his brother Sergei and drinking his blood, Strefan journeyed to Markov Manor and consulted with Edgar Markov. Together, they worked with Shilgengar to create the twelve bloodlines of vampires on Innistrad. Maurer Estate (Castle Ravenloft) was not spirited away to a demiplane—it was already on Innistrad, itself a place of nightmares. And Strefan is not trapped here, so he is not seeking a successor in hopes of escaping. Newcomers to his domain do attract his attention, though, as the possibility of meeting a new consort is always on Strefan's mind.
Strefan's statistics are unchanged from the statistics of Strahd in the Curse of Strahd adventure, except that he lacks the Vampire Weaknesses feature. Instead, Strefan has the weaknesses shared by Innistrad vampires (see that earlier section).
Lands of Barovia—Outland Valleys
The region shown on the map in the Curse of Strahd adventure covers most of the outland valleys, the dales of the Geier Reach that are farthest from Gavony and Kessig. Only place names within the region need updating; the rest of the region's geography is unchanged. The Balinok Mountains are the Geier Reach, the Svalich Woods are the Somberwald, Lake Zarovich is Maurer Lake, and the Old Svalich Road is Somber Road.
Two passes cross the Geier Reach to connect the outland valleys with the wider world. Hofsaddel is the more often used, a wide and well-trodden pass mostly ignored by the vampires. The Somber Road runs through this pass, but it is a long and circuitous route. By contrast, Needle's Eye is a narrow, treacherous, and deadly path haunted by vengeful geists. It is a more direct path, but it runs perilously close to the demonic gateway known as Ashmouth, so humans use this pass only in the most dire need.
The lore known to the people of Stensia is different in detail but similar in substance to what is presented in the Curse of Strahd adventure.
Strefan the Fiend
The people of Stensia and the outland valleys know the following about Strefan Maurer and vampires in general:
- Strefan Maurer is a vampire, and he dwells in Maurer Estate. No one is welcome at the estate.
- Strefan the fiend is a curse placed on the land because of some forgotten sin committed by the ancestors of the people of Shadowgrange. (This is untrue, but the people of the outland valleys believe it.)
- Vampires have three supernatural characteristics that are shared across all bloodlines: agelessness, superhuman strength (mostly an exaggeration), and an aura of silence that emanates from them at will to a radius of two feet. Elder vampires can learn powerful magic of many different kinds, such as flight, a hypnotic gaze, or the ability to transform into other forms such as that of a bat or a mist.
- Weapons cut from living wood are particularly effective against vampires, though any weapon can harm or kill them. A vampire can't cross running water that shows the reflection of the moon, and water blessed by Avacyn burns vampire flesh like acid. The holy symbols of Avacyn, blessed in the proper rituals of the church, can fill a vampire with a paralyzing fear and a desire to flee.
The Outland Valleys
The people of the outland valleys know the following facts about their homeland:
- Many strangers have been drawn to the outland valleys over the years, but they all die or disappear eventually.
- Wolves, dire wolves, and werewolves prowl the Somberwald, and hungry bats fill the skies at night.
- The village of Shadowgrange sits at the east end of the valley. Its burgomaster is Kolyan Indirovich.
- The town of Lammas lies at the heart of the outland valleys. Its nominal leader is Baroness Lydia Petrovna, but the town is presently controlled by the inquisitor Seeta.
- The fortified village of Krezk lies at the west end of the outland valleys and is built around an old abbey. The village burgomaster is named Dmitri Krezkov.
- Wine is the lifeblood of the outland valleys—for some, it is the only reason to keep living. Taverns here get their wine from the Wizard of Wines winery near Krezk.
- A mad wizard of great power haunts the foothills of Mount Baratok. He is an outsider and no friend of the vampire's.
Beliefs and Superstitions
The people of the outland valleys have deep-rooted religious beliefs and superstitions that they pass down from one generation to the next:
- Avacyn and her angels watch over the people of Stensia just as they do over the rest of Innistrad. But Sigarda and the Host of Herons have a special love for Stensia.
- Spirits drift along the Old Somber Road toward the Maurer Estate in the dead of night. These phantoms are all that remain of Strefan's enemies, and this damnable fate awaits anyone who opposes him.
- The Bitterhearts (Innistrad's version of Ravenloft's Vistani) serve Strefan the fiend.
- Never harm a raven, lest ill fortune befall you!
Village of Barovia—Shadowgrange
Little changes about this peaceful village as it is described in the Curse of Strahd adventure, except that the religious trappings found in the church use the iconography of the church of Avacyn and the archangel Sigarda. The holy symbol seen in the office is not a sunburst but Avacyn's Y-shaped collar, looking slightly distorted because of the angels' madness. The priest Donavich prays to the angels, not the gods.
The books found in the church office are called Hymns to the Heron (chants to Sigarda) and The Blade of Truth: The Uses of Logic in the War Against Demonic Heresies, as Fought by the Lunarch Andreas.
Vistani—Bitterhearts
Madam Eva's people are the Bitterhearts, represented on cards like Bitterheart Witch (from the original Innistrad set) and Wakedancer (from Dark Ascension). They are descended from a people whose village was swallowed up in the chasm of Ashmouth. To ensure their survival, they made a pact with a demon and took up a nomadic existence. Of course, not all Bitterhearts are witches. Some have taken up a life of banditry, some serve Strefan directly, and some remember their people's ancient devotion to the Demonlord of Ashmouth.
As with the other people of the outland valleys, the lore known by the Bitterhearts is mostly the same as that known by the Vistani in Curse of Strahd.
Bitterheart Lore—Strefan
The Bitterhearts have their own beliefs about Strefan, their world, and their place in it:
- Strefan comes from a royal bloodline. He died centuries ago yet endures as one of the undead, feasting on the blood of the living. The people of the outland valleys refer to him as "Strefan the fiend."
- Strefan has taken many consorts, but he has known only one true love: a peasant girl named Tatyana. (The Bitterhearts don't know what happened to her.)
- Strangers aren't welcome at Maurer Estate without an invitation.
Bitterheart Lore—The Outland Valleys
- Strefan conquered this land centuries ago. He uses wolves, bats, and other creatures to spy on all of his realm.
- The Stensians are a simple, frightened people.
- The Old Somber Road passes through Strefan's domain. Three settlements lie on the road like beads on a string: Krezk to the west, Lammas in the heart of the valley, and Shadowgrange to the east. Strefan has spies in each settlement.
- An old windmill stands along the road between the village of Shadowgrange and the town of Lammas. It should be avoided at all costs. (The Bitterhearts refuse to say more.)
- It is wise to stick to the road. Wild druids, wayward geists, and packs of wolves and werewolves haunt the Somberwald.
Bitterheart Lore—Beliefs and Superstitions
- Some Bitterheart women are blessed with prescience. Of all the great Bitterheart fortune-tellers, none compares to Madam Eva. If knowledge of the future is what you seek, Madam Eva will tell you your fate.
- A prescient Bitterheart can't see her own future or the future of another Bitterheart. It is the burden of the Bitterhearts' great gift that their own fates can't be divined.
- Bitterheart curses are potent, but they are invoked with great caution. Bitterhearts know that to curse one who is undeserving of such punishment can have grave consequences for the one who utters such a curse.
- Ravens carry lost souls within them, so killing one is bad luck. (There is no truth to this legend.)
Vallaki—Lammas
In this town on the shores of Maurer Lake, the Lunarch Inquisition has taken fierce hold. A half-crazed inquisitor named Seeta has come from Thraben to the remote reaches of Stensia to root out evil and cultivate the happiness that should come from faithful devotion to Avacyn. A small demon cult does hide in the shadows of the town, led by Lady Fiona Wachter. No one in the village harbors any notion of escaping Innistrad, but they are desperate to stave off the anger of the angels.
Lammas also harbors the rebellious Blade of the Inquisitors, Rem Karolus, who is staying at the Blue Water Inn and goes by the name Rictavio. (People speaking of him do not describe pointed ears, since he is and appears fully human.) Rather than a saber-toothed tiger, he has a captive nettle swine (a giant boar). Rictavio's journal describes "oddities" that can be attributed to the approach of Emrakul:
- A woman in Wollebank whose mouth has grown large and powerful enough that she can chew through iron chains.
- A giant carnivorous plant with a remarkable singing voice.
- A pair of twins in Silbern who had grown so close that they actually fused together, with lattice-like flesh binding them to each other.
- A woman, seen only from afar, who wore strange clothes and had ears like a rabbit's.
Local lore about Heron's Light Hold (Argynvostholt) is that an angel died there long ago.
Saint Andral's Church is dedicated to Avacyn. The inquisitor Seeta has taken up residence in the church, demanding hospitality from Father Lucien, but she spends most of her time in the town square. There, several guillotines are set up for the punishment of heretics. Use the description of baron Vargas Vallakovich in Curse of Strahd to guide your roleplaying of Seeta. Baroness Lydia Petrovna is the nominal ruler of the town, but she has effectively ceded her authority to Seeta and the Lunarch Inquisition.
The wereravens in the Blue Water Inn are members of the Keepers of the Feather—an order of witches tied to a benevolent raven spirit. The dusk elves among the Bitterhearts are vampires of the Dusken family line.
Argynvostholt—Heron's Light Hold
This ancient hold was constructed by a group of knights called the Order of Heron's Light (replacing the adventure's Order of the Silver Dragon), led by the archangel Sigarda herself. Sigarda was not slain in the ancient confrontation with Strefan, but after her knights were all killed, she abandoned the valleys. Though she does not physically appear, she does try to influence the adventurers to help the knights find peace. Rather than a silver dragon, the hold uses imagery of herons.
Krezk
This fortified village is dominated by the Abbey of Saint Traft (replacing Saint Markovia), which is a madhouse. The abbey is named for an ancient saint who fought demons alongside the host of Avacyn. For all his bravery and zeal, Traft was betrayed by a demon and slain, and his spirit never entered the Blessed Sleep.
The approach of Emrakul has filled the abbey to overflowing, and physical corruption commensurate with the growing madness has transformed unfortunate victims into creatures akin to the mongrelfolk of the Curse of Strahd adventure. The abbess of the madhouse is an angel who once fought alongside Saint Traft, and who has descended into utter madness since the ancient saint's death.
Tsolenka Pass—The Needle's Eye
The Needle's Eye traverses the Midland Range to connect Stensia's outland valleys and inland valleys. Its proximity to Ashmouth means it is haunted by demons, including the vrocks atop the gatehouse wall. Far worse, replacing the roc of Mount Ghakis, is the Demonlord of Ashmouth, a terrible and ancient fiend. It uses the statistics of a horned devil, except that it uses a battleaxe instead of a fork.
The Ruins of Berez
An ancient crone here is dedicated to destroying the Keepers of the Feather, the witches that inhabit the Wizard of Wines.
Van Richten's Tower—Rem Karolus's Tower
The legendary monster hunter Rem Karolus, called the Blade of the Inquisitors, has become more interested in hunting angels than werewolves. But his protégé Kastinne (replacing the adventure's Ezmerelda) carries on his work while she searches for her mentor. After a demon killed her children and imprisoned their souls, Kastinne left her home among the Bitterhearts and adopted the lifestyle of a wandering monk. Swearing a vow that most called mad, she descended into the ghastly network of caves below Stensia, bent on killing the demon and liberating her children's souls. Against all odds, she emerged triumphant from the caverns to take up a life of demon hunting. She has trained and worked with Rem Karolus ever since.
The dragon that appears if characters fail to correctly open the door to Karolus's tower is a balefire dragon, but with the statistics of a young blue dragon.
The Wizard of Wines and Wereravens
The Martikov family who run this winery made a pact with a raven spirit of the Somberwald and became forcemages, forming the nucleus of the Keepers of the Feather. These witches stand on the side of humanity against the horrors of Innistrad, and against Strefan Maurer specifically. Their pact gives them magical power, supplemented by their extensive knowledge of herbalism.
The druids and search=blight here come from Yester Hill.
The Amber Temple—The Moonsilver Temple
This ancient structure predates any of the known peoples and cultures of Innistrad. The good-aligned wizards who built it anticipated the Helvault by entrapping semidivine evil forces in silver-lined prisons. Everywhere in the temple that amber is described, use silver instead. Both the arcanaloth and the death slaad here are various forms of Innistrad demons.
Yester Hill
Led by an elder named Rimheit, a group of druids and berserkers dwells atop this hill, revering an ancient yew spirit that inhabits a Gulthias tree. These people dwelled in Stensia long before the current inhabitants came across the mountains and built their villages. The yew spirit is the source of the blights (including the tree blights sometimes called lumberknots) that plague the valleys.
Werewolf Den
The werewolves are a branch of the Mondronen howlpack, who practice dark forms of blood magic.
Rahadin and the Dusk Elves—The Dusken Line
Innistrad has no dusk elves, so their role in the adventure is played by a line of vampires called the Duskens, named after their long-lost progenitor Irska Dusken. Strefan killed Irska centuries ago and scattered the Duskens. Some were subjugated, while others went to live among the Bitterhearts.
Rahadin has been serving the Maurer family for many years, and even helped Strefan subjugate the rest of his line. He appears human rather than elf-like, and dresses in red finery rather than wearing black armor.
Adventure Hooks
You can adapt the adventure hooks found in Curse of Strahd as follows.
Plea for Help
Arrigal is one of the Bitterhearts, and neither his clothing nor his accent are particularly outlandish. He comes to the adventurers when they are in the inland valleys of Stensia, perhaps in Silbern or Wollebank. The people there know that these Bitterhearts come from the outland valleys. The hook is otherwise unchanged.
Mysterious Visitors
The scene described here takes place in Wollebank in the inland valleys. Instead of Lady Morwen, the characters dine with Deigenhard, the mayor of Wollebank. Deigenhard is familiar with the Bitterhearts and believes they are little more than bandits, so he asks the player characters to get them moving on their way. If the adventurers follow the Bitterhearts to the outland valleys, they travel northwest along the Somber Road, through the pass of Hofsaddel.
Werewolves in the Mist
Werewolves are spilling out of the Somberwald into the inland valleys and threatening the shepherds and farmers there. The adventurers get information based on their affiliations with organizations on Innistrad (as opposed to the player factions of the D&D Adventurers League). If the characters are closely associated with any of these organizations, they can gain the information and benefits associated with the corresponding player factions:
- In place of the Harpers, use the parish-blades—specifically the Stensian branch, casually called the roadwatchers.
- Instead of the Order of the Gauntlet, use the knight-inquisitors of Saint Raban. Taking their name from the legendary investigator and slayer of werewolves, this order of cathars serves as inquisitors in the classic sense—not slaughtering the populace, but investigating mysteries and secrets. They are detectives, investigators, and delvers into enigmas best left untouched.
- Rather than the Emerald Enclave, use a group of springsages, the archmages of Herons, which includes a number of druids.
- Instead of the Lords' Alliance, use the Quiver of Kessig, who are experts at hunting werewolves. Eravien (a human Kessiger, not a half-elf as in Curse of Strahd) tells the adventurers that the werewolves are a branch of the Mondronen howlpack, which practices dark forms of blood magic.
- In place of the Zhentarim, use a criminal syndicate connected with Lord Mayor Herzag of Havengul, a corrupt merchant who allows the illicit underground to flourish for his own personal gain.
The characters' travels in pursuit of the werewolves lead them through the Hofsaddel pass. No fog engulfs them, but they emerge in the outland valleys.
Creeping Fog
Since there are no mists to transport characters to Stensia's outland valleys, this hook doesn't apply if you are running Curse of Strahd in Innistrad.
Creatures and Encounters
Use these guidelines to adapt creatures and encounters throughout the adventure.
Barovian Scouts
The first time the player characters encounter these Somberwald trappers, the group is led by a man named Paulin (whom the players might recognize from flavor text on a handful of cards in the original Innistrad block). He leaves them with some words of wisdom: "Bury your dead deep. The boars are hungriest while the corpse is still warm." (At your discretion, you can also replace berserkers with a like number of giant boars in a random encounter.)
Bluto
Found on Maurer Lake, Bluto has gone mad under the influence of the approach of Emrakul. He has devoted himself to an aquatic being he believes lives in the depths of the lake—something akin to the Gitrog monster or the squid-like Kralmar worshiped by coastal cults in Nephalia. Bluto has gill-like flaps on his neck. At your discretion, you could introduce an encounter with the creature he worships, which might be something like a giant crocodile.
Mad Mage of Mount Baratok
You can use Mordenkainen as written in Curse of Strahd. Or, in a twisted nod to the storyline of Shadows over Innistrad, this mad planeswalking mage could be Jace Beleren. Create a different list of spells for Jace, focusing on mind-altering and illusion magic.
Mongrelfolk
The statistics of these misshapen creatures are the same, but in appearance, they resemble the corrupted, malformed creatures warped by the influence of Emrakul. Rather than claws, they might attack with tentacles (dealing bludgeoning damage) or extra mouths (dealing piercing damage). No magic can restore a mongrelfolk to its previous form.
Vampire Spawn
Use the vampire neonate statistics in this document whenever the adventurers encounter vampire spawn, rather than the vampire spawn statistics in the Monster Manual. The first time the adventurers encounter exactly two vampire spawn, they meet the infamous twins of Maurer Estate, two young girls named Ruby and Carmine. The two enjoy pretending to be helpless young girls, lost and alone, in order to get close to their prey.