This article is a continuation of coverage for the first dungeon of a friend's latest Dungeons and Dragons campaign. To catch yourself up to speed, please read the article “The Curse of Strahd, Fifth Edition, Part One: 'We're Looking for Baby-Shaped Things'” and the sequel, “The Curse of Strahd, Fifth Edition, Part Two: 'Why Don't We Just...Leave?”.

As before, there are heavy spoiler warnings for The Curse of Strahd, fifth edition, in this article. If you haven't played yet and don't want the story spoiled for you, turn back now and read another article on this site.

We left off stuck, a locked door in front of us and a key probably somewhere behind us. Occasionally, the DM will provide tips when his players have no idea what they're supposed to be looking for; now, he tells the group that these are really just spare bedrooms. They go into the last room in the attic that they can get into and are greeted by a typical “spooky attic” scene: lots of dress forms covered in billowing sheets and, most importantly, an unlocked chest.

[Name Redacted] plays the theme from The X-Files , which you can listen to too, if you want some mood-setting music not unlike the kind that the DM still has playing from the tinny speakers of his laptop.

They're strongly encouraged to make some perception rolls.

[Name Redacted]: What is [sic] these fours? Every time I roll perception it's a four!
Dorf: F*ck. We suck.

In the chest, they find the specter's remains. She has very clearly been dead for a long time, so long that all that's really left is skeletal in nature, but there's still enough evidence to suggest that she was likely “Caesar'd, but from the front.” The real question now isn't how the ghost died or what she was angry about, but Whodunit? Also, they're still pretty convinced that the house itself really is just an elaborate trap.

Alphonse: These kids are definitely bullsh*tting us right now.
[Name Redacted]: I agree with Alphonse. If the parents killed her, why [would] they tell the kids? I think the kids killed her.

The main priority becomes, again, getting into that locked room. Dorf notices something weird about the way the walls of the house are set up. “I don't like meta gaming, so I'm trying not to do that, but I feel like my character probably would have noticed that there's something up with those support pillars,” he says. Fair. They're, to quote him, “going back to the malt shop” and doing a sweep of the floors.

On return to the third floor, they realize that it's not just the ghost-maid's bedroom that's dusty, but the entire floor. Across the hall they find a master bedroom, complete with a rotting tiger-skin rug and some stained glass windows that feature a windmill.

Dorf: Is this a windmill of corpses?

There's a problem they're getting to with regards to the parents' room, and it's this: Why is this house so totally nasty when you go up from the first floor? It's clearly not being used. They remember something about the kitchen: the dumbwaiter.

Dorf: This might sound like a dumb [cymbal smash] idea, but can we use the dumbwaiter [to get to the basement]?

It's empty though, and it doesn't go to the basement. It also doesn't go to the attic, but that's a problem for later. There's jewelry, too, in the master bedroom, and they make the decision not to take it: For one thing, [Name Redacted]'s character wouldn't steal, and for another, it might be cursed. Leave it alone.

With nothing else to find, they begin investigating the next room.

Me: I'm having a good time right now
Haldric: Yeah, this isn't like the shitty adventures we usually go through.

This room ends up being a bathroom, which is the “first bathroom ever” in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that any of them have ever seen. It's also not used very frequently, judging by the description given of it.

[Name Redacted]: I have another problem. This is the only bathroom we've seen. Where are these people going [to the bathroom]?

He has a point; this house has a growing issue with the way it functions. We can imagine the players having to put on Sherlock-like deerstalker hats and trying to sort out the riddles of the game, since there's detective work involved. Obviously there is something very wrong, from the request from the purple children all the way to this clearly out-of-use bathroom.

The last room on the third floor is a storage room.

Dorf: Wait, did the portrait from before with the kids have the same kids we saw?
Alphonse: They could just be squatters.

It would explain the first floor.

They go back to the second floor, which they didn't actually look at for very long, since that was where the suit of armor attacked [Name Redacted].

They move into a room that must be used for entertaining guests, and the DM provides another detailed description.

Alphonse: Are these normal pictures right now, or full of death?
DM: On closer inspection, the figures are skeletons.
[Name Redacted]: I'm getting the feeling that this is a cult.

But there's nothing to be found in here, except for the images of dancing skeletons. The next room on this floor is the library, which functions as a study and also prompts more Scooby Doo jokes. The walls are lined with books, and they find a key in the desk drawer.

Alphonse: What kind of books are they?
DM: You see that they are fiction and poetry.
Alphonse: What kind of poetry and fiction? Are they full of death?

Yes, and apparently asking to get a closer look at the books was a good way to gain access to a hidden room behind the shelves. This is almost play-by-play a Scooby Doo mystery. I can't decide who's Fred, but the DM used to have an uncanny resemblance to Shaggy before he shaved.

The secret room is something of a passage way, filled with assorted necromancy goods. They roll an arcane check to find out exactly what the things are used for, and [Name Redacted] continues to get bad rolls. At the far-end of the room, a skeleton hangs out of a chest. He had triggered a poison dart trap which is no longer functional, fortunately.

[Name Redacted]: This is another explorer who got tricked into trying to find the parents.

They find a letter whose handwriting matches that on the one that brought them to Barovia in the first place. The long and short of it indicates that Strahd was summoned by the parents of the house, and then he basically trolled the hell out of them because he didn't like the idea of someone acting like he was a god or, worse, a servant for them. There are a lot of other things in the chest, including the deed to the house and a will giving it to Rose and Thorn. Additionally, as Strahd revealed, the baby was actually stillborn, which begs the question: Did the kids know that about their half-sibling?

The team notices issues in the timeline, starting with the remains of the ghost. For one thing, it's really weird that those remains are so old if the ghost was the mom of the sibling—for one thing, how old were Rose and Thorn? Were they not allowed to go upstairs, and if so was it because of the ghost or because they might have found the body? There are a lot of questions that need answering, and luckily, they finally have the key that might help answer them.

Upon return to the attic, they're able to unlock the door and they find two small skeletons in the middle of the room.

[Name Redacted]: I KNEW IT.
[Name Redacted], after a description of the room: The parents tried sacrificing the kids, and according to Von Douchebag's letter, they tried to get some kind of power from it.

Not quite—but ghosts (?) of the children told them that there was something about the basement, so where is it? If they're actually ghosts and they actually have unfinished business, and the heroes are supposed to finish it for them, why haven't they been able to find the basement? The DM takes a moment to again try to guide the players in the right direction.

They're able to find another door, which leads to the basement. They're not ready to go down yet, since they want to investigate the room. Maybe they won't be able to return to Dorf's malt shop later.

[Name Redacted]: I check the toy box and don't blink.
Haldric: I blink behind him repeatedly.
There are more dolls there, and the children materialize in the room where their skeletons are.
Dorf: Do they aggressively materialize?

[Name Redacted] returns the doll to the chest, to which Thorn says, “Thank you.” The children don't recognize them, though.

DM, as Rose: That was probably the house.
[Name Redacted]: Excuse me, what?

Apparently the house craves sacrifices and will take on the appearance of the children in order to lure people in. In short, the house itself really was a trap all along, and the children have been in the locked room for a very, very long time. They can't leave on their own, but they want to go to the basement.

Rose's ghost rushes at Dorf and possesses him, which for our purpose means he is still able to move around, but he has all of Rose's flaws, which are, “I like to be in charge and get mad when other people tell me what to do.” Everyone laughs, because that's exactly what Ganondorf does anyway. Alphonse gains Thorn's flaws, which involve having more fear and crying.

The ghosts will hang out for the rest of the ride that is the final part of the dungeon: the basement. The team tries to figure out the best way they should carry on despite being possessed, whether or not they'll have to exorcise the ghosts when they're finished. In the meantime, we all also take a survey about sexual harassment that someone has come by to ask us to fill out.

Everyone has leveled up, and I realize that I've been in the same seat for over three hours. They're ready to keep playing, but apparently this is where the last group finished up, and I think that it's where I'll finish up too. Besides, if I need to know the outcome, I can always just ask the DM. They prepare to descend into the basement and I call it a wrap.