Death House
Owners of the house are Gustav and Elizabeth Durst.
The children are Rose and Thorn Durst, spectres that lure the adventurers to the house.
NOTES ON CHILDREN: 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 understand 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 actually the screams of the cult's victims.
Purpose / Function
The house was built and used as cult headquarters for worshippers of Strahd that slaughtered adventurers that Strahd had lured to his domain.
Architecture
IMPORTANT NOTES:
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 characters
arrive, although most areas contain working oil lamps
or fireplaces.
History
Death House is the name given to an old row house in the village of Shadowgrange/Barovia (area E7 on the village map).
The house has been burned to the ground many times, only to rise from the ashes time and again-by its own will or that of Strahd.
Locals give the building a wide berth for fear of antagonizing the evil spirits believed to haunt it.
The wealthy family that built the house practiced the
dark arts. Through seduction and indoctrination, they
expanded their cult to include a small yet nefarious circle
of friends. When word got out, the rest of the village
turned a blind eye to the house and the nightly debaucheries
happening within it.
The cult tried to summon malevolent extraplanar entities
with no success. The cultists also preyed on visitors,
sacrificed them in bizarre rituals, and hosted morbid
banquets to feast on their corpses. When nothing came
of these ritualized murders, the cultists' activities became
thinly disguised excuses to indulge their lurid fantasies.
The ranks of the cult thinned as members began
to lose interest in the debacle.
Then Strahd arrived.
The cultists regarded Strahd as a messiah sent to
them by the Dark Powers. Drawn to Strahd like moths
to a flame, they pledged their devotion for a promise of
immortality, but Strahd turned them away, deeming the
cult and its leaders unworthy of his attention. The cultists
withdrew to Death House in despair.
The cult's habit of trapping and devouring wayward
visitors proved to be its downfall. On one occasion, the
cult snared a band of adventurers whom Strahd had lured to his domain. A black carriage
arrived at Death House soon thereafter, and from
out of its black heart stepped the Devil himself. The
cultists tried to impress Strahd. In response, he slaughtered
them for slaying his guests. Centuries later,
the cultists' spirits haunt the dungeons under the house.
The building itself, it seems, is unwilling to let the cult
be forgotten.
Type
House
Parent Location
Related Report (Primary Locations)
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