After passing through the forbidding gates leading into the Land of Barovia, we came upon a pair of scared children, their pleas to save their parents and baby brother from the monster within their looming home off the wayside. We ventured forth, ready to seek justice for the Durst family!

However, upon entering, things took a sudden turn for the strange, and, quite frankly, creepy. Striding forward into the grand landing, the doors suddenly shutting themselves and barring exit behind us, we see a pristine home. Fireplaces crackling, dining table laden with a bountiful meal, all semblances of a home quickly evacuated. Desperate to save the parents of the poor children locked outside, we make our way through the home, floor by floor in a mad attempt to find the basement where the monster was said to have taken up residence. All the while on edge, taken aback by the uncanny feeling of being ever watched, and the eeriness of the home becoming more and more disheveled and unkempt as we ascended level by level… It did not help that the very home seemed to have come to life, attacking us at every turn! Attempts to leave met with out pourings of rat swarms, armor animating, rugs a’smothering, brooms attacking.

Eventually, we do come across the spectral form of what turned out to be the nursemaid, Margaret. In a twisted turn of events, we discover that her newborn son, Walter, is missing. Even more upsetting, he is the illegitimate child of Gustav Durst. Fret not, however, as the plot certainly takes a turn for the horrid, as we uncover the entry to the attic, the place where the children we had encountered outside the home had actually perished after being locked in their hidden bedroom by their very own mother during her further descent into madness.
For, you see, the Durst family had a deep and dark secret. When war came to the land, and later as the mists rolled in, famine ran rampant. In a gruesome and desperate measure, the Durst, along with other Noble families in the area, gathered together to lure in travelers in search of any form of a meal. They would, in fact, become the meal themselves. This was quite problematic in many ways, as I am sure you are able to imagine, but mostly in that it caused a sickness of both their hearts and minds, as they continued the practice in secret long after the famine had receded and their new normal had begun to level out. Yes, they had now begun a cult of cannibals, sacrificing any and all that they could get away with.

The result, as I am saddened to tell you, was not pretty. Warped and twisted as they now were, atrocities continued. When Elizabeth Durst discovered that Margaret had given birth to a child sired by her very own husband, she lost any remaining semblance of sanity. Locking her two children, Rose and Thorn, in their bedroom, she slaughtered Margaret while Gustav was away on business. After, she and her most trusted members of the cult they had formed took baby Walter to the basement to perform their dark rituals, leaving behind but the top most portion of him for Gustav to discover upon his return.

Interestingly enough, the Dark Powers of the land did finally answer the Dursts, turning Elizabeth into a ghast that immediately slew all the cult members that were present. Gustav, in his grief and horror, took his own life without even checking on his remaining children. All perished, and none found any solace or peace in the four centuries since. In fact, the very home they once shared was now cursed, taking on a sentience of its own and still drawing in the innocent and unsuspecting… that is, of course, until we burnt it down!

Standing outside the gates to the old home, we are greeted by a tall and rather imposing gentleman with a striking figure. Black cape billowing, he gives us a simple greeting before seeming to disappear before our very eyes - “Welcome to Barovia!”