Ravenloft – Strahd’s Possession

Ravenloft - Strahd's Possession

(Adapted by Braggi from the docs in the ASCII map set put out 
TERRATRON - THE  DOCUMENTATION  GROUP (Thanks guys!!!))
  

                    General Strategy


   a)The best way to start this game is with at least one multi-
classed character. I took a straight Human  Mage and a Dwarven
Fighter/Cleric (he starts out with chainmail, which is better
armor then a straight fighter class gets... they start out with
leather.) This combination works, but I am sure there are lots of
others. No matter what classes you take, don't worry. There are enough
NPC's of different class types that you can fill the gaps pretty
quickly. I used the Fighter you rescue at the beginning of the game,
along with the Half-Elf Fighter/Mage/Theif you find just south of
the Village of Barovia, and won the game with them.
 Clerics can be hard to find until near the middle of the
game, so taking one from the get-go is not a bad idea.
   b)Create an "ammo" dump in Barovia. You're going to collect
*alot* of stuff and it is good to have anything you set aside
piled up in one place for future reference, especially if you
change NPC's frequently. You can either make one of the rooms in
the Blood o' the Vine your base, or find an empty house. There
are also NPC homes that you can use as well, if you prefer that.
   c)Undead abound (as you might have expected) and you are going
to need to prepare to deal with level drainers. Useful spells for
this emergency include: Negative Plane Protection (gives a chance
to avoid a successful drain attack and damages the undead who hit
you at the same time), Bless and Prayer (ups your
party's chance to hit the uglies while lowering their chances to
hit you) and Stoneskin (makes you invulnerable to phiscal damage
for a short period of time.)
   d)Look for places where the monsters regenerate nightly...
this will allow you to get lots of XP so your party levels go up
reasonably fast. The first part of this game is darned tough and
you may be outclassed several times. Be patient and raise your
levels or you will be constantly reloading the game because your
party has snuffed it yet again.
   e) A note on Mage scrolls: there aren't a whole lot of
duplicate scrolls in this game, so if you brought a mage as one
of your original PC's fill his or her spellbook first(!) Any
dupes you find you can then stash in your ammo dump for any other
Mage NPC's to scribe after you pick them up.
   f) Save containers such as sacks and chests, so you can carry
lots of stuff (like a ton of healing items... you WILL need
them).
   g) A note on using Stepping Mode: There are alot of spinners
in this game. Some will change your facing once, others will
rotate you cotinually until you get off the square they are
located on. Use the Step Mode option (clicking on the compass at
the bottom middle of the adventure screen turns it on and off) to
make it easier to avoid getting jammed on a spinner. It can also
help you line up for runs through doorways and halls that are
trapped by fireballs or lightning bolts. (There is nothing more
frustrating then losing your party after you got jammened in a
doorway because you weren't lined up correctly while trying to
outrun a fireball!) Stepping mode is also useful for times when
you want to sidestep quickly, since you move from square to
square much faster then in free motion mode.
   DON'T use step mode in combat, since you can only face
directly north, east, west or south, but the monsters are still
able to come at you from any angle they want to. Thus, you may
not be able to see or hit an ugly, because you are in in Step Mode, 
while they can cut you to pieces at their liesure.
   h) Take your time! Explore and don't be in a rush to beat the
game, especially if you intend to take a party from this game to
the next one in the series, The Stone Prophet. There's no time
limit so raise your levels and choose how to tackle the storyline
at your own speed.
   Now, on to the game!

         
                 FORGOTTEN REALMS FOREST

   Go after the assassin, kill him and pick up all his
items. You will be teleported to Ravenloft by the mists
automatically after picking up his stuff. The artifacts will
vanish, never to be seen again, so don't sweat it. It's also a
good idea to rest, heal, pray/memorize and cast any spells you'll
need for combat after you kill the assasin but BEFORE you pick up
the items he was carrying... this way, you aren't vulnerable when
you get to the barovian woods, since some of the encounters are
pretty tough for starting level PC's.


                      
                     BAROVIAN WOODS

   Find the hut!!! The monsters (Worgs and Goblyns) will swarm
you if you wander too much, and you'll need a bolt-hole to rest
and heal up in. In the hut, if you push the button near the
fireplace, a trap door in the floor will open.  There are some
items down there, such as bows, chainmail, healing potions and
mundane swords as well as a +3 dagger for any fighters you may
want to have use a weapon in each hand. You can rescue the NPC
fighter from the Goblyn hordes and he will make a nice addition
to the party since he can carry alot and does some extra damage
due to his high strength. Exit the woods through either of
the two entrances.



                    SVALICH ROAD SOUTH

   You can explore the road thoroughly. The monsters to the
southern end of the road include a few Brigands, Worgs and some
pesky Skeletal Bats. There is a huge gate that you will not be
able to open (ever) so don't worry about it. When you are ready,
head north towards Barovia.  You will encounter a gypsy. Talk to
him and he will tell you to meet him in a tavern in Barovia. Keep
going north. You will be attacked by Brigands.  Kill them. One of
them will beg for mercy. Spare his life and he will tell you the
location of their camp. Continue north. By the big rock, pull the
hidden lever on the wall to open the secret entrance to the lair. 
Kill all the Darklings for some more items but watch out for the
poison on their swords(!). If you have been having problems with
the encounters so far, wait until you have raised your levels a
bit before tackling the camp. You can scout it by using the Invisibility 
10' Radius spell first, if you like. Head further north to find a Half-
Elf Fighter/Mage/Theif NPC, if you want her, and then enter the
village.



                          BAROVIA

   Warning: the town streets fill with Brigands and Darklings
after dark!!! Until you have and can cast the Invisibility 10'
Radius spell, you will get swarmed to death VERY quickly when it
the moon is up. You can visit the Blood o' the Vine tavern for
some conversation, but there is nothing useful there YET. 
   If you choose to explore the town a bit before you go to the
burgomaster, you can find some useful stuff like Keoghtums
Ointment (heals you, cures diseases and neutralizes poison all at
once) in some of the villager's houses. Save before entering any
residence, so that if you happen to trip off a quest before you
are ready for it (EG: the jeweler's ghost in a large building to
the north end of town) you can restore the game and skip that
location until later. Go to the burgomaster's mansion. Be sure to
loot this building for useful scrolls, potions and wands. In the
same room as the burgomaster you can pick up a female Elven Mage
NPC. Then talk to the burgomaster and you will be invited to
Castle Ravenloft to speak with Count Strahd. Accept the
invitation and his coach will take you to him. 
  Strahd will give you a Seal of Entry for the Ivlis Caves. Go
to the wooded area west of the village. You can find a Human NPC
Mage in the hut surrounded by the circle of stones, but you
shouldn't bother to take him along right now since you will only have 
to drop him when you pick up the Cleric and Vladislav later on at
the Caves. By the entrance to the caves, talk to the white-robed
woman. She is a Cleric and you can get her to join you. Her presence
in the party is vital to finishing the storyline in the caves and
if you don't have her when you do, the game may glitch on you.
Enter the caves next.

     

                         IVLIS CAVES

  Use the Entry Seal by the first portal. Beware of floor
spinners, lightning bolt traps and teleportals. The monsters here
are mostly Strahd Skeletons with an occasional Bone Golem (which
can be considerably tougher to kill.) Blunt weapons (maces,
staves, clubs) are best in this dungeon since the monsters take
half damage from edged weapons like swords and axes. A fighter
just inside the cave entrance will offer to join you. You should
let him, even though he is actually Strahd in disguise. (He is
still useful, since he is a pretty high level and you can swipe
his armor and weapons if you want to.)
  You will need to find four jade keys in succession, and in
using them you must make your way to a portal in the southeast of
the map where you will find the Church Vestibule Key lying on the
ground nearby.  Make sure you pick it up since it is an important
quest item.  Take the portal by going through two sets of
illusionary walls. There are floor spinners just past them that
can get you killed since Bone Golems will rush you when you come
through.  The portal will turn out to be a fake. Vladislav
(Strahd) will leave you. Go back to the village and the Cleric
will leave you as well.  


                     BAROVIA II

  This is a good time to start exploring Barovia for items, clues
and NPC's. You can also claim a house for yourself now and set up
your ammo dump. In town, you will find homes containing the
following NPC's:
  a) The Human Fighter you rescued from the Goblyns is a little
to the southeast of the Inn. (If you rescued him, that is.)
  b) A female Human Fighter is in the southwest part of town. She
is low level and only so-so in the strength department.
  c) The Half Elf Fighter/Mage/Theif you met outside of town is
located due east of the Inn. If you didn't pick her up when you
came into Barovia, then she is still waiting outside of town.
Though she is slow raising levels, she is useful since she can
use a polearm or missile weapon from the rear rank, as well as
casting spells and trying to open locks. Make sure to give her a
Robe and Bracers of Protection if you have spares, since wearing
any armor will not permit her to cast spells.
  d) The Elven Mage you met at the burgomaster's mansion can be
found at the tavern in one of the rooms, if you dropped her at
any point.
  Other people to watch for include:
   a) A mad hag (near the female fighter's home) who will give
you clues about the Undead Forest.
   b) A fallen Paladin in a large-ish building in the east
section of town who will offer you an optional quest to recover
his holy symbol from the lesser catacombs below Barovia. 
   This optional quest is worthwhile for the items and XP, and he
will give you his sword (magical and one of the best in the
game), dagger and armor when you return his holy symbol(!). A
lower level party can survive the lesser catacombs fairly easily,
since they are filled with Wererats and "Living Walls". 
   The latter monsters should be attacked with missile weapons
from a distance, since they don't move and don't seem take much
damage from melee weapons or spells. Stay out of their reach
though, or they will kill you! If you found the Dagger of
Throwing at any point, use it to get rid of the Living Walls
quickly. Other dangers include fireball-trapped corridors. You
can use these against the monsters sometimes, if you wind up
fighting them while their backs are facing a fireball emitter.
   c) A woodcutter who you likely met in the woods near the
beginning of the game. He is here for atmosphere, more then
anything and if there is a quest he offers, I never figured out
how to get it or complete it either. There are some useful items
in his home and you can rest here after dark if you need to.
   d) The ghost of a jeweler in the north part of town. You'll
know the right building because one of your party will remark
about feeling cold near the door to his home. Don't go in until
you need his quest later in the game, because he will posess one
of your characters. This is not a problem except that he will
appear and give you a hard time if you deviate from the path to
the graveyard. This can glitch the game and make it unwinable if
you haven't found the graveyard key yet(!) Just mark the location
on your automap for future reference.
   Items to watch for:
   a) A Fireball scroll in a small house in the south west corner
of town.
   b) A Military Pick in a small shack near the Paladin's home.
It has no use in the game except to help you fulfill his quest.
   c) Lots of potions, Oil of Fiery Burning, slings and sling
bullets, bows and arrows, some melee weapons, mundane armor,
mundane sheilds and a few wands in the villagers' houses. 
They won't object if you kype this stuff, so feel free. 
   Also be sure to clear the southeast warehouses of
the Broken Ones for some extra XP. A good item to use on them is
a Wand of Paralysation if you have one, since they almost always
fail their saving throws against it.
   d) A home a bit north of the Inn that has an small room with a
single red keyhole in it. Mark this location on your automap for
future reference, if you intend to take up the optional werewolf
quest later in the game.
   Once you have done some or all of this and gotten your party
equipped and stocked with the NPC's you want, it's time to head
to the Church of Lathander.
          

                 CHURCH OF LATHANDER, LEVEL 1

Take the easternmost exit in the north wall of Barovia to get
onto the church grounds. Enter the church. Use the Vestibule Key
on the circular lock by the first door. Kill all of the Hell
Hounds and locate the mirror with the face in it and the immobile
Cleric of Lathander near the alter.  You need to pick up the
Catalogue and you should pick up the Special Scroll of Cure
Disease for the werewolf quest later in the game, both of which
are on the first level of the church.  Head for the stairs down,
but before you go, pick up the Tome of Cursed Items which will
help you figure out how to release the Cleric from the Mirror of
Life Trapping. Look carefully for the hidden buttons on the walls
that will open the doors to let you get at the stairs and the
library. They can be very hard to spot. Go downstairs when you
are ready.  
          

               CHURCH OF LATHANDER, LEVEL 2

  You must recover the Old Church Key which will open most doors
on this level. This level is fairly easy since the monsters are
mostly Strahd Zombies and Strahd Skeletons. Recover the four
fragments of the Tome of Cursed Items and insert them into it.
Keep an eye out for illusionary walls (A Dwarf PC will be very
valuable here) and one very nasty trapped door in the southwest
corner of the map. To open this door, you have a corridor with a
fireball emitter at the end of it and a row of buttons down each
side. One of the buttons opens the door, but you may get blasted
several times before you find it. 
   Also, recover the Special Scrolls of Remove Curse and
Attonement for the werewolf quest and make a note of the room
containing a set of bones on the floor, since you will need to
find it later. 
  Look for one door that you can't find a key to open and mark it
on the map for future reference as well. It leads to a lower level of 
the church, but you won't be able to go through it until later in the
game.
  Go back up to the first level.  Read the Tome (with all four
fragments inserted) by the Mirror of Life Trapping to free the
soul of the old cleric. Talk to him. Ask him for the key to the
cemetary and ask about his alcolyte. Go out and go back to
Barovia.
   Now you can go to the house with the ghost and get possesed. 
Take the Bone Vault Key he drops for you and leave. 
   Go back to the church grounds and open the cemetary doors in
the northeast corner using the key the old cleric gave you.  Enter the
cemetary.
          

                          CEMETARY

   This is the first place where you will face a number of level
draining undead. The Vampiresses can really do a number on you so
be very careful. Also, please note that the paralysis attack from
a Ghoul or Ghast WILL discharge a Negative Plain Protection
spell, leaving you vulnerable to level draining again, so you
will have to re-cast it if one of them successfully hits a PC. 
   There is a mistake in the game's programming that you can use
to your advantage here: Undead are normally immune to
invisibility spells of any kind, and this is the case in most of
the dungeons in the game. However, on the outdoor graveyard map,
the Invisibility 10' Radius spell WILL work against undead. This
ONLY happens outdoors here, but you can use this to thin out some
of the undead popultion so you can get at the various vaults and
crypts without getting attacked and swarmed repeatedly.
   You can also find a Theif NPC in a cluster of tombstones to
the East of the map. Whether you take him or not is up to you.
   Go to the tomb of the Ghoul Lord and kill him.  Get the Rod of
Rebirth from his crypt. When you exit the tomb, the ghost will
leave you and give you a key which will open the door in the
ghost's house.  You can recover the gem later, so keep going. 
Get the two pouches of Fine Golden Dust from the crypts in the
graveyard and go to the mausoleum in the southeastern corner.  Use
a pouch of dust on one of the statues standing outside the door
of the mausoleum.  Talk to it and ask for its blessing.  It will
not give it to you yet, so go to the other statue on the other
side of the door and use the other pouch of dust.  Talk to the
second spirit and ask for its blessing which it will bestow upon
you. 
  Talk again to the first spirit and receive its blessing which
it will now give you.  The banshee in the mausoleum will be gone
and you can safely enter the Tomb of the Elven Lord.
       

              TOMB OF THE ELVEN LORD LEVEL 1

  Talk to the ghost of the elven lord.  He will inform you that he
needs his signet in order to be free of his curse.  The monsters
here are largely Wights, Werebats and an occasional Pyre
Elemental. The Wights on this level are particularly hard to beat
without your party getting drained, so save the game often and keep
your protective spells fresh. Also, have a Detect Magic and 
some Improved Identify spells ready for use in the room with 
all of the arrows lined up on the floor.
  Several of these arrows are +3 Arrows of Undead
Slaying, but you have to identify them first. If you do grab
them, give them to a rear rank PC who can use a bow, so that
your front rankers can continue to fight with two weapons and
(hopefully) make some Wight chutney. Also, have lots of Ice Storm
and Cone of Cold spells ready for use against the Pyre Elementals
since they take double damage from them, and be ready to heal
afterwards. Those elementals do *ALOT* of damage in one swat, so
you may have to reload a few times, even if you are well prepared.
  To solve the first part of the puzzel here, take the teleportal
which is accessible to you right now.  In the area to which it
takes you, push the button to open the next teleportal.  Take
that one and push the button for the next teleportal.  Take that
one and get the Vault Key.  Use it to open the door west of the
three teleportals. Go down the stairs when you are ready.
          

            TOMB OF THE ELVEN LORD LEVEL 2

   This level is absolutely LOADED with Spectres who are even
worse then Wights, since they drain 2(!) levels every time they
touch you. The best strategy is to clear all the hallways of the
Pyre Elementals and then save before opening any doors. Getting
rid of the Elementals means you can open a door, nuke a Spectre
then back like mad down the corridor, sniping at any undead that
may follow you. If you don't clear a room completely, rest in any
empty room with a CLOSED door, then sneak back to the room you
didn't clear and sucker out any Spectres that may still be
lurking inside. Be careful, since they may have followed you
partway out of the room when you left the first time and might be
wandering the hallways. A Detect Undead spell cast before you
leave your "safe room" will go a long way towards avoiding nasty
surprises from a Spectre you forgot about in the corridors.
   Get the Green Vault Key which will eventually open the door to
the signet ring. Push ALL the buttons on this level. One of them
is located on the side of a fireball trapped corridor in the
upper northwest quadrant of the map (you may miss this one when
rushing down the corridor to avoid the fireballs) and the rest
are scattered in various rooms throughout the level. Then go to
the string of doors, guarded by a fireball emitter, which will be
open when all the buttons are pushed. 
  Go through (watch for a spinner partway down the corridor) and
get the signet necklace for the elven lord.  Go back  up to the top
level and talk to the elven lord again.  Give him the signet, and
he will disappear, leaving a crown, sword, and suit of armor. 
The crown in one of the five items you need to get back to the
Forgotten Realms.  The sword is one of the best weapons in the
game. The armour is magical plate mail. 
  Leave and go back to the church.  Go down to the second level
and find the bones which you marked on the automap before. Use
the Rod of Rebirth you got from the cemetary on the bones to
resurrect Misha.  Not only will he offer join you, but he also
gives you a key to get into Castle Ravenloft.  
  Go back to Barovia and enter the ghost's house again.  Use the
key you got from the ghost after you killed the Ghoul Lord on the
locked door.  Get the red gem.  It, too, is one of the five
important quest items that you need. 

          

                 OPTIONAL WEREWOLF QUEST

  By now you should have the three special scrolls.  Go back to the
wooded area west of Barovia where the Ivlis Caves are. A bit north
of the cave entrance is the lair of a werewolf.  You can save him
from his curse by killing his progenitor, a white albino Werewolf
which appears at night in the same woods. When hunting the
progenitor, you will also encounter a whole whack of other
Werewolves and those annoying Skeletal Bats. Once you have killed
the albino go back to the lair and use the three special scrolls 
you collected in succession:  Atonement, Cure Diesease and Remove
Curse.  This will cure him and the ex-werewolf will then give you a
key to his treasure trove in the village. It contains a Ring of
Regeneration, amongst other treasure. When you are ready you can
tackle Castle Ravenloft for the first time.




                     SVALICH ROAD NORTH

  The monsters here are the same here as Svalich Road South,
until AFTER you have entered Castle Ravenloft for the first time.
After that, the vicinity closest to the castle will be loaded
with Strahd Zombies every time you re-enter the area. All the
other monsters will repopulate as well.
  Once you get to Castle Ravenloft use Misha's Key on the
lock and enter.



                       CASTLE RAVENLOFT

  The cellars here are filled with various undead including
Strahd Zombies, Strahd Skeletons and those @%@#$^ Wights. There
are a few lesser items like some healing potions down here, but
it isn't worth the risk the Wights pose. You can safely skip the
area if you want to.
   However, the upper levels of the castle and towers are
important. The programming glitch mentioned in the cemetary will
work here on the Vampiresses again, but the Gargoyles, Zombie
Golems and Doom Gurads will still see you. Watch out for the
Golems especially, since they are fast and, like the Pyre
elementals in the Elven Lord's Tomb, they do a WHACK of damage if
they hit you (which they usually do). Use sucker tactics to take
them on one at a time if you can, since two of these creatures
attacking at once can destroy even a high level party very
quickly.
  You'll need to get two (2) keys in total.  Go to the secondary
tower and use the tower key to open it.  Go up to the top and
kill the Inquisitor, then rescue the Wereraven chained to the wall. 
He will give you a Wereraven feather (another one of the five
quest items needed to escape) and will tell you the password
ritual you need to contact his brotherhood. 
  Now, head back to Barovia and go to the Blood o' the Vine inn again. 
Talk to the barkeep and mention to him about the "lair" just as
the Wereraven told you to do. He will tell you to go the the
Merchant's Pride warehouse and talk to a contact of his.  
  Go there and talk to the brigands.  Allow them to blindfold you
and take you to the catacombs below Barovia.


                 CATACOMBS BELOW BAROVIA

  Here you meet the Raven Lord.  He will tell you that the only
item capable of banishing Strahd is the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. 
He will then give you a key which opens the one door you could
not open on the second level of the Church of Lathander.  He will
also tell you that the symbol was hidden by Sasha, and he only
left a few coded clues on parchement fragments as to its
location. He will give you a magic crystal which will allow you
to decode these clues once you find them.  Then he will vanish,
leaving you to fight your way out of the catacombs. 
   Get the chest from the ground and get the first of
four catacomb keys.  The problem with this place is that you have
to go practically everywhere. Most of the monsters are Revenants
which are easy enough to deal with, but there are some Spectres
here as well. Use the tactics mentioned in the Tomb of the Elven Lord
to dispatch them. 
  Make sure you press all the buttons, as some will open up
hidden doorways. You will need to find all four keys as well. The
Barovian Coins are scattered throughout these catacombs.  Of
course, there are exactly fifteen and you need EVERY SINGLE ONE
OF THEM in order to purchase the potion from the gypsy.  Since
you must have the potion to advance the storyline, you also have
to get all the coins.  Once you have them, leave using the ladder
in the north eastern corner of the map. You will emerge in one of
the houses in Barovia, and you can go back down through this
entrance if you need or want to later.  


                          INN

  Go back to the Blood on the Vine inn and talk to the gypsy, to
purchase the potion.  Drink the potion, and you are now able to
walk into the Mists without getting hurt. Step into the
Mists anywhere you want and you will be transported to the Undead
Forest. 
  NOTE: Make absolutely sure that your party is rested and fully
prepared for combat before you do!!! The forest is a nasty place
and you WILL die, repeatedly, if you go in half-prepared.
Spells to cast include: Haste, Prayer, Bless, Invisibility and
Aid. Have all Mages load up with as many combat spells (Magic
Missile, Fireballs, Cones of Cold, Ice Storms) as they can and
bring along any wands with these spells that you may have. Bring
a truckload of healing as well, since it may be a long time
before you can rest and you are going to get hurt, often and
alot, no matter how you approach this area.


                    THE UNDEAD FOREST 

  The object here is to locate the four Seeds of the Morninglord.
They are very tough to get due to the Undead Treants who will
swarm you. The best strategy is to save before entering the Mists
and try to run to an area where your back is to the Mists that
border the map. Also try to get some cover on either side of you
as well, so that the Treants can only come at you from head-on.
  If they have more then one direction to attack you from, you
will die quickly. Undead Treants are vulnerable to fire, so it is
best to use Fireballs and Flamestrikes on them, if you can cast
those spells. Cones of Cold are fairly effective too.
  Once you have destroyed the initial pack of Treants, stay put
for a bit and use healing potions and scrolls to get the party
back up to strength. Then, *cautiously*, start to explore the map
a little at a time. Don't move fast or you will get rushed again! 
  Try to conserve your spells and use them effectively, by moving
forward until you can see a Treant and have a clear shot at it.
Sometimes, you can hit them with a spell and they won't come
after you, but be prepared to have them come running down your
throat, using a zig-zag apparoach that makes them hard to hit
from a distance.
  There are lightning bolts that shoot across the entire map at
wierd angles, so watch out for them as well. Stay away from the
individual mist patches, since they will teleport you to a new
area of the map, and it may be loaded with uglies. If you can
clear a large enough area, you will be able to rest and replenish
you spells. Once you can do that, the Treants can be taken on
with less caution.
   Near the north end of the map is a circle of stones which has
one of the seeds and a dead tree in it. (If you get rushed a
second time, you can sometimes make it to the circle and the most
of the Treants will get hung up on the border of it. Don't think
you are completely safe though, because one or two of the
entrances to the circle are big enough for them to get through.)
The other seed is lying on the ground out in the open, so you
will have to hunt for it. It's best to clear the map of all the
Treants before you do. 
  Once you pick up the seeds, go to the eastern most mist
teleportal, and enter it.  You will be transported to a second
part of the forest. This map is exactly the same as the first one
in layout, although I think the lightning bolts shoot off at
different angles. Use the same tactics you used before to deal
with the first swarm of uglies and then hunt down the rest of
them. You also have an ace in the hole now... at any time you can
run into the Mists on the border and they will transport you back
to Barovia. Then, enter the Mists again to return to the first
map which will remain cleared. Thus, you can rest as needed. You
can use this method over and over again, until you get the Holy
Symbol of Ravenkind.
  Once again, you need to find the two Seeds.  When you do, go to
the circle of stones on the second map. There are four small
circles within it and a healthy a tree in the middle.  Place all
four seeds in the small circles (one per circle) and Lathander
will present you with the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind.
  This is the only item in the game capable of harming Strahd. 
When you use it, it will shoot a beam of fire, then it will take
a few moments to recharge itself.
  Enter the Mists at the edge of the map to go back to Barovia.


                RETURN TO CASTLE RAVENLOFT

  Now that you have the Holy Symbol, it's time to face off with
Strahd. Head back to Castle Ravenloft and make your way up to
Strahd's throne room on the second level. Near here, you will
likely have found a series of rooms that lead off from a central
library chamber. Open the staircase that will take you to the
dungeons.  It's in the library behind a secret door, on the level
called "The Halls of Weeping" on the automap.  You must push the
appropriate button to open it.  There you will find a door you can
open with the Blood Bat key, and beyond that door (aside from
the set of stairs to the dungeons) is the Tarot Card, the second last 
item needed to finish the game. Go down the stairs, and make your way 
to the large crypt chamber guarded by lightning bolt traps.


                 RAVENLOFT DUNGEONS
  This area is made up of a lot of open space with crypts set at
regular intervals along it. The crypts will either be empty or
contain Vampiresses and you will be able to get into all of them
except for one near the middle of the room. There are also a
number of those tough Zombie Golems wandering around, so be ready
for them.
   At the center of the north, south and east walls, there are
sets of stairs leading down. You won't be able to get at the
southern stairs due to a teleporter that drops you in line with a
lightning bolt trap. 
  Go to the north stairs, take them, and push the button on the 
north wall (it may be behind some furniture) in the
room you find yourself in. Go to the eastern stairs, and do the
same. Now you will be able to enter the crypt near the center of
the map, which will have a teleportal that will take you past the
southern stairs. 
  Take the teleportal and make your way south. When you enter the
room where you encounter Strahd, freeze in the doorway! After he
is done his "I-am-a-terrible-nasty-who-will-destroy-you-now"
speech he will attack. (Big surprise. :) ) If you stayed in the
doorway, most of Strahd's fireball attacks will miss you and you
can snipe at him with the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. It takes
several good hits to kill him and be prepared to heal a couple of
times, since every now and then he will drop a fireball right in
your lap that you can't avoid.  
  Once you have destroyed Strahd, pick up the amulet of Helm, and
use the Catalogue to end the game. You will be rewarded in the final
videao by both Lord Dhelt AND the god Helm.


                        FINAL NOTE

  If you want to take the PC's from this game into The Stone
Prophet, make a save of the party from just before they enter the
final teleportal in the central crypt. This way, you can take the
party back to your ammo dump, equip them with the best items
there and save them like that for use in the next game. Remember
that you can only bring single items and anything stored in a bag
or chest, and the containers themselves, will not transfer over. (This 
includes, unfortuantely, the Bag of Holding). Also keep in mind that only 
the two PC's you originally created will be brought over and NPC's (and 
their carried items) will not.
  Good luck, and now I'm off to work on the walkthrough for The
Stone Prophet.


-Braggi, Swain and Varlet at Large