Session 11 prep — Vallaki factions, the three-day timeline & the night outside the walls

[IDEA — NONCANONICAL] Everything in this section is GM ideation, not actual play. Sources: Velocki Factions Timeline: Major and Minor Groups Revealed (2026-09-27); Major Factions and Suspected Events in the World (2026-09-27); Feast of St. Angels, Zombie Attack, and Bones Theft (2026-09-27); Sneaking into Valocky and Vargas’s Mansion Mystery (2026-10-08). The transcripts render St. Andral as “St. Angels” and Lucien as “Lucian”; this section uses the bible’s spellings. The GMs plan to build their own day-by-day timeline next, rather than lean on Dragnacarta.

Played in Session 11 (canonical): the party didn’t rest at the Vistani camp. They went with Ireena to the refugee camp, uncovered the parasites, then bribed and intimidated their way through the gate into Vallaki at night (a full moon). The werewolf raid, Izek’s patrol and Ernst’s shadowing didn’t come up in play; whether any of them still happens tonight is up to the GMs.

The cast of motives (Vallaki factions)

Only actors with their own motives are listed; agents who simply serve someone else’s motive are noted under their principal. Major factions — the ones likely to drive major events — are marked ★.

  • ★ Watcher House — Lady Fiona Watcher (agent: Ernst Larnack, her spy); Stella Watcher listed separately.
  • ★ Volokovich House — Baron Vargas; Victor (separate motive); Izek (with the Volokoviches).
  • ★ Anastrasya and ★ Ludmilla — separate factions despite both being Strahd’s brides.
  • ★ Strahd, with Eliza acting as his spy.
  • ★ Ireena.
  • St. Andral’s Church — Father Lucien (Yeska follows him); gravedigger Milivoj (bone thief); coffin maker Henrik van der Voort (receives the bones). Canon update (GM-confirmed 2026-10-14): Henrik is hosting a vampire spawn nest at his house, and holds Arabelle captive there — see 16.2.
  • Martikovs — Urwin (with Danika); Davian (separate motive).
  • Vistani of Vallaki — Luvash, Arrigal, Arabelle.
  • Dusk elves — Kasimir.
  • The Winter Fane (the worm and the poisoning thread).
  • Morgantha’s coven — her own, not part of Baba Lysaga’s.
  • Von Richten and Gertruda.
  • Dismas — unknown; previously speculated to have gone to the Watcher house.
  • Barovian refugees.
  • Can intervene but needn’t: the werewolves; the Deva at Krezk (about a day’s walk); Baba Lysaga’s coven.
  • Left off the motive list: Ernst and Yeska (agents only); Blinsky (no tie yet); Arturi; Von Richten’s tower (out of the party’s likely range).

Major events in the three-day window

       
Event Factions Condition When
Theft of St. Andral’s bones Anastrasya / Milivoj → Henrik — (inciting event) The night the party arrives, if they rest (16.4)
Feast of St. Andral — Strahd’s forces attack Vallaki Anastrasya, Strahd Bones not returned to the church, or the vampire spawn in the coffin maker’s shop not destroyed (RAW frames it as the party staying 3+ days without retrieving the bones) TBD; may coincide with the Festival
Festival of the Blazing Sun Vargas Vargas is still in control Day 3
Watcher rebellion Fiona Happens unless Fiona is dissuaded or becomes Burgomistress first Comes to a head at the Festival, or sooner with the players’ support
Zombie swarm on the Vistani camp Von Richten Von Richten isn’t dissuaded TBD (possibly day 1)
Winter Worm poisoning Strahd, Ludmilla (Rahadin) Ongoing unless the poison works are disrupted Every day; Rahadin’s dive TBD
  • Canon update (GM-confirmed 2026-10-14) — the coffin maker’s house: the vampire spawn in the Feast condition are real — a nest in his house, and Arabelle is trapped there. Her clairvoyance led her to the nest; Henrik kidnapped her so she wouldn’t expose him, and is hiding her in hope the spawn don’t notice. Rescuing Arabelle therefore leads the party to the nest, and to the Feast-of-St.-Andral thread. Whether the bones theft and its timing stay as above is still [IDEA — NONCANONICAL].
  • The poisoning as one thread in daily phases. The GMs mean to track it by what the players can observe each day, not by what Ludmilla does: visible water contamination, dead fish, new symptoms among the refugees. The players likely can’t stop it soon — stopping it means learning about the poison and disrupting the plant. The point of a timeline is to keep feeding them information so they’re informed when they can act.
  • Poison and parasites are two different conditions, each with its own stages. Poison floated as rashes progressing to jaundice. Ties to The Withering Sickness (parasites + poison) and the open parasite-stages question.
  • Rejected: the RAW event where the drunk Watcher brothers (Nikolai II and Carl) free Rictavio’s saber-toothed tiger during the festival — it doesn’t add anything.
  • MandyMod material reviewed (reference only). Michelle read through MandyMod’s Vallaki overviews: guilty-until-proven-innocent justice, the reformation center, Lady Watcher’s savior and festival uprising, Strahd’s spawn hidden in the coffin shop, and the Feast ending in riots that burn half the town. The gate rules too: Strahd’s name illegal even in writing (“the devil”), mandatory festival attendance, entry interrogation. The GMs will borrow pieces but felt the whole deviates too far from their story. Michelle’s take on the gate: guards grill newcomers and admit no refugees; if they recognize Ireena, it’s “above our pay grade — talk to the Burgomaster.”

Getting into Vallaki

  • What the party wants: get into Vargas’s mansion to look for Stella. They’ve also talked about overthrowing or killing Vargas. GM questions to answer: what happened to Stella? How do they find the mansion? How did the diary reach Morgantha (less important)?
  • The walls: Vallaki is walled on all sides, with portcullised gates and no port (Lake Zarovich is a walk away). Climbing is very hard. Roughly a mile long. The Vistani camp sits near the most natural gate; the refugee camp is outside the gates, about 15 minutes from where the party is.
  • Ways in: bluff as festival vendors; bribe the right guard (the Vistani’s tip); talk their way in with Ireena. A core social option is reaching Vargas by showing the letter of introduction and convincing the guards of Ireena’s lineage.
  • Izek interrupts most infiltration routes (see his NPC entry).
  • Map notes: Vargas’s mansion is N3, St. Andral’s is far from it, and Blinsky’s is in the middle of town. Sounds at the church won’t carry to the mansion.
  • Breakout scenes: if several night threads are live, players who pass checks can be moved into a private channel. Sample read-aloud for the Ernst thread: “From the corner of your eye you catch a cloaked figure dart quickly into the shadows from Vargas’s household. You glance back and see that [X, Y and Z] have made the same connection.” The GMs agreed four simultaneous events is too many — pick a subset per scenario (The night: rest or infiltrate).

The night: rest or infiltrate

The party chooses to rest at the Vistani camp or infiltrate Vallaki tonight.

If they rest — the werewolf raid on the refugee camp (~10 PM).

  • Replaces the routine bat-and-wolf harassment (the refugees already report nightly bats and wolves; Reyna has heard about it). This one is out of the ordinary: Kiril’s werewolves come to steal children for his fight pit.
  • Werewolf background (RAW, adopted):
    • The pack’s leader is Kiril Stoyanovich. Emil Toranescu challenged his practice of arming kidnapped children to fight to the death, with the survivor turned into a werewolf.
    • Kiril returned with dire wolves loyal to Strahd. Emil was taken to Castle Ravenloft, where he’s a prisoner in the dungeon (the transcript is unclear whether he’s rescuable; RAW allows it).
    • Emil’s mate Zuleika is confined to the den.
    • The Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is in the werewolf den — a strong hook pulling the party there (consistent with the Luna Lake location).
  • The encounter:
    • Combat objective: stop the wolves carrying off children. However many children are taken become fighters in Kiril’s ring.
    • Larger than Dragnacarta’s road version (two werewolves and three wolves): more werewolves moving through the camp.
    • Kiril probably sends a trusted lieutenant rather than coming himself — the GMs don’t want him dying here. A Dragnacarta “first Kiril encounter” is worth checking.
    • Michelle floated an OC sympathetic to Emil who wants to turn some of the children so they have a chance of retaking the pack. Chris is open to it but prefers Kiril raiding for the strongest children himself. Undecided.
  • Lycanthropy risk: a PC bitten by a werewolf can be cursed with evil lycanthropy — unlike Jacob’s, they begin to feel the hunger. Curing it requires a restoration spell, which the Deva at Krezk can provide — a deliberate time pressure.
  • Rest cost: the party can still long rest after the fight, but takes one level of exhaustion (disadvantage on ability checks). The GMs agreed losing the rest entirely was too harsh; the principle is that helping people should cost something.
  • Izek’s response: holds the gate (see his entry).
  • The bones: St. Andral’s bones are stolen on the evening after the rest (wording in the transcript is ambiguous; the theft happens around this rest).
  • Considered and dropped as the night’s attack:
    • an assassination attempt on Ireena by Anastrasya;
    • werewolves attacking Ireena to win Strahd’s favor (as the daughter of the Burgomaster whose town Strahd has been attacking).

If they infiltrate tonight:

  • Izek’s patrol and possibly the Blinsky’s satchel sighting.
  • Ernst shadowing Izek, opening the Watcher thread.
  • The refugee camp loses whatever children are left — the raid happens without the party.

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