This folder contains short adventures for the Dungeons & Dragons 5e tabletop role-playing game.
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4 APPENDIX B | Death House Death House's Features Death House is aware of its surroundings and all creatures within it. Its goal is to continue the work of the cult by luring visitors to their doom. Various important features of the house are summarized here. The house has four stories (including the attic), with two balconies on the third floor—one facing the front of the house, the other facing the back. The house has wooden floors throughout, and all windows have hinges that allow them to swing outward. The rooms on the first and second floors are free of dust and signs of age. The floorboards and wall panels are well oiled, the drapes and wallpaper haven't faded, and the furniture looks new. No effort has been made to preserve the contents of the third floor or the attic. These areas are dusty and drafty, everything within them is old and draped in cobwebs, and the floorboards groan underfoot. Ceilings vary in height by floor. The first floor has 10-foot-high ceilings, the second floor has 12-foot-high ceilings, the third floor has 8-foot-high ceilings, and the attic has 13-foot-high ceilings. None of the rooms in the house are lit when the charac- ters arrive, although most areas contain working oil lamps or fireplaces. Characters can burn the house to the ground if they want, but any destruction to the house is temporary. After 1d10 days, the house begins to repair itself. Ashes sweep together to form blackened timbers, which then turn back into a sturdy wooden frame around which walls begin to materialize. Destroyed furnishings are likewise repaired. It takes 2d6 hours for the house to complete its resurrection. Items taken from the house aren't replaced, nor are undead that are destroyed. The dungeon level isn't considered part of the house and can't repair itself in this fashion. The children died of starvation centuries ago after their insane parents locked them in the attic and forgot about them. They were too young and innocent to under- stand that their parents were guilty of heinous crimes. Their parents told them stories about a monster in the basement to keep the children from going down to the dungeon level. The "terrible howls" they heard were ac- tually the screams of the cult's victims. The Mists Characters who remain outside the house can see the mists close in around them, swallowing up the rest of the village. As more buildings disappear into the mists, the characters are left with little choice but to seek ref- uge in the house. The mists stop short of entering the house but engulf anyone outside (see chapter 2, "The Lands of Barovia," for information on the mists' effect). Areas of the House The following areas correspond to labels on the map of the house on page 216. 1. Entrance A wrought-iron gate with hinges on one side and a lock on the other fills the archway of a stone portico (area 1A). The gate is unlocked, and its rusty hinges shriek when the gate is opened. Oil lamps hang from the por- tico ceiling by chains, flanking a set of oaken doors that open into a grand foyer (area 1B). Hanging on the south wall of the foyer is a shield emblazoned with a coat-of-arms (a stylized golden windmill on a red field), flanked by framed portraits of stony-faced aristocrats (long-dead members of the Durst family). Mahogany-framed double doors leading from the foyer to the main hall (area 2A) are set with panes of stained glass. 2. Main Hall A wide hall (area 2A) runs the width of the house, with a black marble fireplace at one end and a sweeping, red marble staircase at the other. Mounted on the wall above the fireplace is a longsword (nonmagical) with a windmill cameo worked into the hilt. The wood-pan- eled walls are ornately sculpted with images of vines, flowers, nymphs, and satyrs. Characters who search the walls for secret doors or otherwise inspect the panel- ing can, with a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check, see serpents and skulls inconspicuously woven into the wall designs. The decorative paneling follows the staircase as it circles upward to the second floor. A cloakroom (area 2B) has several black cloaks hanging from hooks on the walls. A top hat sits on a high shelf. 3. Den of Wolves This oak-paneled room looks like a hunter's den. Mounted above the fireplace is a stag's head, and po- sitioned around the outskirts of the room are three stuffed wolves. Rosavalda "Rose" Durst Thornboldt "Thorn" Durst