The party’s relics become dormant once again as they approach the manor.
As they enter into the home, they come to the main hall where they are greeted by a family portrait of the Durst Family.
A plaque beneath the portrait reads: Mr. Gustav and Mrs. Elisabeth Durst, with their two children, Rosavalda and Thornboldt.
As they look over the portrait the door slams shut and the all the lights in the house extinguish.
On the southern wall, bloody letters begin to appear:
Beneath this dwelling lurks a beast
Who hungers for a bloody feast.
He sleeps until the midnight chime
Then wakes to feed his dark design.
If morsels seek to flee their doom,
Then bring toward his secret room
A gift to soothe his savage mood
But mind the servants of his brood.
The grandfather clock then strikes six o’clock. In a race against time, the party explores the abandoned house uncovering a tale of infidelity on the part of Gustav Durst and the family’s nursemaid, giving birth to Walter Durst. Elizabeth Durst loathes the child. Gustav and Elizabeth were practitioners of the dark arts. They became the leaders of a cult that operated out of the basement of the home. Rose and Thorn were not allowed in the basement and did no know what was going on.
The cult tried to summon spirits without success, sacrificed visitors in rituals, and hosted morbid banquets to feast on their corpses.
Then Strahd von Zarovich 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 to be his playthings. A black carriage arrived at Death House soon thereafter, and from out of its black heart stepped the vampire himself. The cultists tried to impress Strahd. In response, he slaughtered them for slaying his playthings. Centuries later, the cultists’ spirits haunt the dungeons under the house. The building itself, it seems, is unwilling to let the cult be forgotten.
The party eventually finds their way to the basement, where they find the ritual chamber. In the center of the chamber there is an alter with the words “FEED HIM” carved into its stone top.
In a cavern in the wall of the chamber sleeps a Flesh Mound. This is the results of the only ritual that the cult successfully performed. Elizabeth consumed by hatred for Walter, the nursemaid, and Gustav killed them all, sacrificing Walter on the alter.
The flesh mound was formed from the body of Walter, and hosts his infant form in the center of its mass.
The party defeats the flesh mound, helps Walter, Thorn, and Rose finally rest in peace, and escape Death House. Upon leaving the house, they turn to see themselves standing in a field. A lone path through a dense forest is the only sense of direction that remains.