Vallaki

A walled mountain berg in Barovia, west of the village of Barovia. The party arrived in Session 8 escorting Ireena Kolyana.

Description

Sullen mountain town surrounded by a wooden palisade. Thick fog presses against the walls as though looking for a way inside. The dirt road from the east ends at sturdy iron gates, flanked by six pikes bearing impaled wolf heads. The gates are iron, chained, and padlocked at night, with guards posting on the inside.

The gate has silver inlaid in it. Touching the silver is apparently the local test for being a vampire or similar. The party passed.

The streets seem populated by Barovian standards — people are out, nobody looks great, nobody looks actively inconsolable. Shops and homes are decorated with garlands and painted window boxes: all slightly past the point where someone should have taken the decorations down. One festival that never quite ends, or evidence of many.

Key Locations

• Blue Water Inn — center of town; only inn; wolves on the walls; ravens on the roof
• St. Andrew's Church — Morning Lord church on the eastern edge of town; the bones of St. Andrew were stolen from its crypt; protection against Strahd is currently compromised
• Blinsky's Toy Shop — south of the Blue Water Inn; orange roof; Blinsky makes toys and custom Ireena-adjacent dolls for Isaac; monkey present
• Henrik's Coffin Shop — southeastern quarter; Milovaj has been visiting frequently; no recent deaths in Vallaki to explain the frequency
• Burgomaster's mansion — center-south; not yet visited; Baron Vallakovich governs from here
• Town square — east of the toymaker's shop; not yet visited
• Stockyards — eastern edge of town, near where the party entered; Rictavio's wagon is kept here
• Vallaki Vistani Camp — southwest of town, outside the walls; Danica and Irwin are distrustful of it; Luvash and Arigal lead it; Dusk Elves housed at base of hill; visited Session 11

Governance

A Burgomaster governs Vallaki. Not the same Burgomaster as Barovia — Barovia's Burgomaster is dead. The structure here is unclear but functional.

What Is Known

• Silver gate; guards check it at night; strangers must touch it before entry
• Guard force under the Burgomaster's control
• St. Andrew's Church has protective properties (per local belief)
• The Vistani have a camp nearby; they occasionally come in to buy wine; mostly keep to themselves
• A craftsperson once here made the perfume the party bought from Alenka for Madam Eva — that person has since left Vallaki

First Referenced

Session 4 (Bill Drats mentioned it as the nearest larger settlement)

First Visited

Session 8