In this post we will look at the crypts in Castle Ravenloft and see how they changed from edition to edition.

Here’s a different post about locations in Barovia outside the castle. Here’s a third post about the castle itself.

Unnecessary Abstract Introduction (JUST SKIP THIS SECTION PLEASE)

Perhaps you have heard somewhere the idea that all stories—sitcoms, epic poems, video games, This American Life vignettes—are fundamentally retellings of older stories. Perhaps you have even heard the idea itself multiple times. In some contexts, the proposition refers to deep underlying structures to which storytellers inevitably return. This is a rich subject for analysis—but the big money is in abandoning all but the merest pretense of originality and casting the same characters in the same conflicts in the same settings that the audience remembers from 30 or 10 years ago. And this might be a good subject for analysis too. I hope.

This practice of story-rehashing is especially salient in the stories of Dungeons & Dragons, many of which are embodied in physical locations with detailed maps. The most successful D&D settings and stories are reprinted decade after decade, edition after edition, so that new players can enjoy the same adventures so beloved by their forebears, and old players can whine about the things that got changed.

I believe the paradigm example of this is Castle Ravenloft, depicted in the modules I6 Ravenloft (1983), RM4 House of Strahd (1993), Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (2006), and Curse of Strahd (2016). All four of these books tell basically the same story: “Go to this spooky castle and kill this evil vampire.” The vampire is always menacing the same young women; the aged fortune-teller always helps you find the same artifacts that will help you slay him. And in all four books, the floor plan of Castle Ravenloft is presented in basically the same form. This is fascinating, but not surprising: Nerds, who are humans, naturally hate change. Also, the original dungeon is very good. Why would you change it? Why indeed.

(The original Ravenloft was rereleased/updated for 2nd Edition in 1999, and Curse of Strahd got a “Revamped” release in 2020. I am excluding these versions from my analysis for the time being, mostly because I don’t think any differences therein are relevant to the subject.)

I am as fascinated by the changes made to Castle Ravenloft over the years as I am by the aspects that remain unchanged. I would like to quantify them, and perhaps account for them. The most quantifiable element of Castle Ravenloft for these purposes is Location K84, the catacombs beneath the castle, which contain forty crypts, which in turn contain numerous monsters and traps and characters and jokes.

Just to be clear: I’m not setting out to prove that one book is the best, or that one edition of D&D is the best, or that one design ethos is better than another. It is not my position that old things are bad, or that new things are bad. Even this practice of tweaking and republishing the same story/adventure/castle over and over again isn’t inherently good or bad! I just find it interesting. I just want to talk about it, at length, a lot, with many many words.

Somewhat More Concrete Introduction (SKIP THIS TOO PROBABLY)

Most readers are probably familiar with the context of these forty crypts, but some explanation may be helpful to someone:

A party of Dungeons & Dragons heroes usually enters Castle Ravenloft searching for its master, the villainous vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, with the aim of destroying him. (In some cases, they may instead be searching for an artifact that will help them defeat Strahd, or for an innocent girl that the vampire has abducted.) The catacombs are two floors down from the entry level, and the heroes will have to explore much of the rest of the castle before they come here. The main stairway would lead directly from the chapel to the catacombs, but Strahd has walled off that portion of the stairs so that none may disturb his tormented slumber—a useful pacing device.

If Strahd is defeated in battle somewhere else in the castle, he transforms into mist and retreats  (possibly through a chink in the wall sealing that stairway!) to his coffin at the south end of the catacombs. The characters will have to find him there before he regenerates in order to end his villainy with a stake through the heart.

The catacombs form a sort of labyrinth of distractions that the players must navigate in order to find Strahd’s tomb. The forty crypts are arranged in a manner that looks symmetrical and comprehensible from a Dungeon Master’s-eye view, but isn’t nearly so simple for the heroes trudging through guano past dozens of stone doors. Most of the doors are engraved with epitaphs of their occupants. In most cases, the crypts’ epitaphs and contents are entirely gratuitous: They have nothing to do with the heroes’ quests; they contain no clues as to Strahd’s location; they are more likely to contain traps than treasure.

I’m not sure that Tracy and Laura Hickman intended for players to bother looking at all of these crypts. I think it’s critical to keep in mind that a Dungeon Master’s experience of reading all these inscriptions one after another is wildly different from the players’ experiences of trudging through a bunch of nonlinear tunnels and deciding which tombs to disturb. The Hickmans had to be sensitive to this, and they leveraged this sensitivity along with a certain intention for the players’ experience when they designed these crypts (and made so many of the inscriptions such goofy puns). Each new Ravenloft author, when they came to Location K84, had to interpret that original intention and apply their own intentions to it—and I in turn can only interpret what I believe all those intentions to be. So let’s get started.

Crypt 1

Ravenloft: The inscription reads: “Spectre Ab-Centeer. She now walks that path of pain and torment. A gift to all who look upon her still.” In all versions of the castle, the door of this “crypt” in fact leads to a stone tunnel, which may be the heroes’ means of entry to or exit from the catacombs. “Ab-Centeer” would appear to be our first pun, but I’m not sure if it’s specifically a pun on “absentee” or it’s trying to say “Specter absent here.” (Most of these puns are subject to multiple interpretations, so I’ll give my own readings here in the hope that you’ll let me know if you have better ones.)

(The original is very inconsistent about whether there are periods at the ends of inscriptions. I’m trying to reproduce each book’s formatting as precisely as I can, so a lot of it is going to look weird.)

House of Strahd: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: “Steliana Albusel; She now walks a path of pain and torment; A gift to all who look upon her still” We shall see that the authors of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft just hated puns. This name looks sort of like it could be an anagram though…

(I believe the semicolons in Expedition‘s inscriptions stand in for line breaks.)

Curse of Strahd: “Herein lie the ones who walk the path of pain and torment” I think that, in general, Curse of Strahd waves away the revisions made by Expedition to Castle Ravenloft in favor of lending a new sort of slickness to the original Ravenloft. I understand that Expedition was not a well-regarded book, so it makes sense to minimize its influence (although it certainly hasn’t been ignored completely). This line uses the original language to refer obliquely to the adventurers in a cool way.

Crypt 2

Ravenloft: “Artista DeSlop – Court Ceiling Painter” This book’s explanation of location K84 says that “Each crypt houses the remains of the person (or persons) listed on the crypt’s stone door with an epitaph.” Since no other information is given about this crypt specifically, apparently Artista DeSlop is a real person. I don’t think there’s a real pun here beyond the fact that “Slop” is an ironic name for a professional artist. I mean, the name “Artista” is a pun too. I did notice that.

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Aurica Dancescu; Court Ceiling Painter; Beloved of Dragomir” The names in Expedition aren’t just rewritten to remove the puns: The authors have converted most of them into legitimate (or legitimate-looking) Romanian names, usually with the same initials as the original. There’s a little bit of backstory given about how Aurica was an illegitimate daughter of the Zarovich line. (All the backstory blurbs in Expedition require skill checks for characters to recall them.)

Curse: “Artista DeSlop – Court Ceiling Painter” Ten years later, the puns are back! Curse also adds unique physical details to crypts whenever it can, so no skill checks are required to see some additional characterization for each dead person. This chamber’s ceiling is painted with “imps holding bouquets,” and Artista’s skeleton is clutching a box of ancient painting supplies.

Crypt 3

Ravenloft: “The Lady Isolde Yunk (Isolde the Incredible). Purveyor of Antiques and Imports.” My interpretation of the pun is “Is old junk” or “It’s old junk” (Victor Gijsbers suggests “I sold junk” which makes a lot more sense) but, as of 1983, there’s no junk to be found in this crypt. 

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Lady Iolanda Yonescu; Merchant Queen Extraordinaire; Purveyor of Hope” This near-anagram of the original name is very impressive. Iolanda’s backstory paints her as a rags-to-riches trade mogul. Her (inanimate) skeleton clutches an antique silver ankh.

Curse: “The Lady Isolde Yunk (Isolde the Incredible): Purveyor of antiques and imports” This book finally makes good on Isolde’s name and fills her crypt with tons and tons of old junk.

Crypt 4

Ravenloft: “Prince Aerial Du Plumette (Aerial the Heavy)” I don’t think there’s more than one way of interpreting the joke between “aerial” and “plummet.” The prince’s violent ghost is inside the crypt, and the authors explain that “Ariel [sic] was a terrible man, who sacrificed more than himself in his quest for wings.”

House: “Prince Aerial Du Plumette.” The explanation of the prince’s ghost is basically the same, and the misspelling “Ariel” is preserved, but this edition adds a ring of feather falling to be looted from the right hand of the body.

Expedition: “Prince Aurel Plesu; His quest for the sky never ceased” Prince Aurel was an insane hunter who wanted to catch a flying horse. He accidentally fell in a chasm, and his faithful dog followed him. Ghosts of both the prince and his dog attack the players, as well as Aurel’s physical remains in the form of a “skin kite” that flaps around. The ring of feather fall is now hidden in a secret compartment along with a potion of fly. 

Curse: “Prince Ariel Du Plumette (Ariel the Heavy)” The misspelled name is now canon. Again he is described as “a terrible man.” Instead of hiding a ring of feather fall, Ariel has unreliable artificial wings that led to his death. His ghost attacks alone.

Crypt 5

Ravenloft: “Artank Swilovich: Here interred and with great mourning courtesy of the Barovian Wine Distillers Brotherhood.” I think the pun is just the word “swill” (and “tank?”) No other details are given.

House: “Artank Swilovich: Here interred and with great mourning, courtesy of the Barovian Wine Distillers Brotherhood.” The comma is the only thing added.

Expedition: “Duchess Dorota Dobre; Loved Forever; By Her Grieving Family” Dorota, “a minor noble of little importance,” was disinterred here to set up a trap that protects Crypt 6, quod vide. Artank’s Romanian replacement is in Crypt 9 for some reason.

Curse: “Artank Swilovich: Friend and member of the Barovian Wine Distillers Guild” The word “Brotherhood” is not politically correct. This crypt is full of empty wine bottles covering the entire floor.

Crypt 6

Ravenloft: The book explains that the engraving here has “been clawed off as if by some mad tormented beast. The stone once read, ‘Marya Markovia: Great was her beauty, undone by a jealous hand.’”

House: The (erased) inscription is unchanged, but now Marya occupies the crypt as a vampire. We shall see that House of Strahd added several vampiresses to these crypts. The book appeared a year after the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which brought sexy vampire ladies to the forefront of the public consciousness.

Expedition: “Saint Markovia; Great Was Her Might; Undone By a Jealous Hand” This engraving is almost unreadable. Markovia is no longer a vampire bride (and the focus on sexy vampire brides is much diminished in this edition), but she has become a much more complex character: A holy warrior who attempted to vanquish the vampire Strahd and somehow got her own crypt in his castle. (I’m not sure this makes sense, and I don’t think a “jealous hand” really enters the equation.) On her bier is the artifact Saint Markovia’s Thighbone, which can be wielded as a holy mace against vampires—but adventurers who try to access this crypt activate a poison dart trap and an ambush by various monsters.

Curse: “Saint Markovia: Dead for all time” The poison dart trap remains, but the monster ambush has been excised. The crypt still contains only Markovia’s magic femur. When it’s picked up, Markovia’s ghost appears and tells you to use her as a weapon.

Crypt 7

Ravenloft: “Endorovich (Endorovich the Terrible): What the blood of an thousand slaves did not do, the spurn of a woman accomplished.” (I’m not sure if “an thousand” is a typo or some sort of archaism? Invented archaism?) This stone door has been thrown to the floor, and the spectre of Endorovich lurks inside. Endorovich loved Marya Markovia and tried to poison her lover, but poisoned her instead. The unnamed lover was hanged for her murder. Endorovich was wracked with guilt and driven to murderous madness. I assume we are meant to think Endorovich or his spectre is the one who clawed at Marya’s tomb so tormentedly.

House: The inscription is changed to read “a thousand.” Endorovich’s story is unchanged.

Expedition: “Endorovich the Terrible; What the Blood of Slaves Could Not; A Woman’s Scorn Achieved” This is the first occupant whose name hasn’t been changed! Endorovich’s backstory has been edited only slightly, to specify that the victims of Endorovich’s murderous madness were women. And Endorovich himself is present as a ghost, who attacks intruders with some wraiths and ghasts.

Curse: “Endorovich (Endorovich the Terrible): What the blood of a hundred wars did not do, the spurn of a woman accomplished.” Besides replacing a thousand slaves with a hundred wars, in this version his backstory lacks the word “women” that Expedition added, with the overall effect of Endorovich appearing as an oddly sanitized insane undead murderer. His spirit possesses the two gargoyles (serially, not simultaneously) that guard his remains.

Crypt 8

Ravenloft: “Duchess Dorfniya Dilisnya” is given no further explanation, but the Dilisnya clan would go on to become a major element in the greater Ravenloft Campaign Setting. I don’t see any pun here myself, but “Dorfniya” is an awfully strange name.

House: The inscription is unchanged. The body of the duchess is now wrapped in a magical robe of vermin. 

Expedition: “Marius; A Life Well-Lived; Long Suffering, He Found Peace” Marius was an expert in geography. Ghouls ate his remains and are waiting here to attack intruders. By the time Expedition was released, the Dilisnyas were well-established players in the Ravenloft Campaign Setting. Why was the Duchess removed? Was there some sort of continuity issue? Were the authors of Expedition trying to distance this book from the campaign setting? Were they afraid the name “Dorfniya Dilisnya” might be a pun?

Curse: “Duchess Dorfniya Dilisnya” returns, interred with a magically preserved quilt that depicts a royal feast.

Crypt 9

Ravenloft: “Pidlwik (Fool of Dorfniya)” There are four earthen jars full of electrum pieces in this crypt.

House: The inscription and the crypt’s contents are unchanged.

Expedition: “Adrian Selymes; King of Vintners; Interred with Great Mourning” This appears to be Expedition‘s version of Artank Swilovich from Crypt 5, transplanted here perhaps to remove the indirect reference to the Dilisnyas. Adrian produced “nearly supernatural wines” in his secret winery, and his skeleton holds a bottle of magical wine (“aged 5 years, worth 12,000 gp”).

Curse: “Pidlwick — Fool of Dorfniya” They added a C to his name. Such a minor respelling is unusual for Curse of Strahd. Pidlwick’s ghost can be found elsewhere in the castle, as can “Pidlwick II,” his clockwork successor. The earthen jars are gone, but a deck of illusions can be found if this crypt is visited after the adventurers meet Pidlwick’s ghost.

Crypt 10

Ravenloft: “Sir Leanne Triksky (Sir Lee the Crusher). What sword did not, time’s passage did.” I feel like there’s a pun here but I’m not sure what it is. “Surly and tricksy?” This skeleton has three vague “pieces of jewelry” draped over it.

House: The inscription and the crypt’s contents are unchanged.

Expedition: “Let these remind those who would contest the Master’s will.” Inside are four corpses of adventurers Strahd tortured to death: The silly name is replaced with a scene of utmost grimness.

Curse: “Sir Leonid Krushkin (Sir Lee the Crusher): Bigger than life, he loved his jewelry” We change the name to a pun (or a different pun, if “Triksky” means anything), but now his nickname is a pun on his real name, and, this is all very strange.

Sir Lee left behind a huge skeleton. His bloodstained maul (nonmagical but awesome) leans against his oversized slab. His three pieces of jewelry are now explained to be necklaces.

Crypt 11

Ravenloft: “Tasha Petrovna, Healer of Kings. Light unto the West. Servant. Companion.”

House: The inscription is unchanged. Tasha’s coffin now has a secret compartment containing a spell scroll.

Expedition: “Tasha Petrovna; Light Unto the West; Friend and Companion” No longer a servant, but a friend. The background information adds “Healer of Kings” to Tasha’s epithets, but the spell scroll is gone.

Curse: “Tasha Petrovna — Healer of Kings, Light unto the West, Servant, Companion.” Back to being a servant! The ceiling is painted with a sun mural, which has some effect on creatures that would take damage from sunlight. Tasha’s holy symbol is around her neck, and it’s the focus of a little side quest that takes adventurers far away from the castle.

Crypt 12

Ravenloft: “King Toisky”

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “King Tomescu; He Traveled Far” The background information indicates that King Tomescu is not a real person. Inside is a “Portal to Anywhere” that by itself would be too complicated to get into here, BUT ALSO, there’s a hidden chamber where an erinyes is hanging out. AND, the erinyes has a mirror with a frame made of fingerbones. FURTHERMORE, one of the fingerbones is a relic of Saint Bogdan, which has magic powers.

Curse: “King Troisky — The Three-Faced King” A non-pun is converted into a pun! The Portal to Anywhere is no longer here. Instead of bones, a three-faced helm sits on the slab in this crypt. Removing the helm triggers a poison gas trap.

Crypt 13

Ravenloft: “King Intree Katsky (Katsky the Bright. King, Ruler, and Inventor).” Alexander Colton suggests that the name could be read “intricate-sky,” and “intricate” is a word we associate with inventors, so, okay. 500 platinum pieces are in “a hole under the skeleton” which is such a weird description.

House: The inscription and the crypt’s contents are unchanged.

Expedition: “King Ignatie Kazaku; Kazaku the Bright; King, Leader, and Inventor” The door is locked and trapped. Inside the chamber there is only a rusty clockwork device: A music box. The background information is intriguing: Kazaku had a secret workshop where he came up with lots of apparently nonmagical gadgets, and people thought he had a demonic advisor. It really feels like there’s something else going on here…

Curse: “King Katsky (Katsky the Bright): Ruler, inventor, and self-proclaimed time traveler” This crypt is an exciting synthesis of previous versions. The implications of Expedition are teased all the way out out, and Katsky is made out to be a time traveler whose “inventions” come from the future. His musket and powder horn lie near his skeleton, and a sort of hang glider is hanging from the ceiling. Certain details in Curse seem like they wanted to exert a sort of cooling influence over the wilder stuff from the TSR days, but a gun that comes from the future is a brand-new, totally out-of-left-field inclusion.

Crypt 14

Ravenloft: “Stahbal Indi-Bhak: Advisor to Endorvich [sic] from eastern lands. A truer friend no ruler ever had. Here lies his family in honor.” The pun is “Stab All In The Back,” which completely went over my head but luckily @slimeineden explained it to me.

This vault is bigger on the inside, and contains fifteen stone coffins containing fifteen wights. A trap protecting Strahd’s tomb teleport-exchanges intruders with the wights, so the heroes end up in the coffins and the wights get teleported into the heroes’ armor so they can stab all their co-adventurers in the back. I get it now! But this implies that the pun is Strahd’s, and Stahbal is not a real guy.

House: The typo in the inscription is corrected. Now there are nine coffins and nine wights instead of fifteen.

Expedition: “Shuhul Ishai-Bal; Advisor to Endorvich [sic]; Friend from the East; Here Lies His Family in Honor” As is typical of Expedition, they removed the pun while preserving the guy’s initials, but because he’s a “Friend from the East” they didn’t Romanianify the name. I’m not sure how they reproduced the “Endorvich” typo. This time there are fifteen coffins, but only thirteen contain wights. (The others contain a wraith and a shadow.)

Curse: “Stahbal Indi-Bhak: A truer friend no ruler ever had. Here lies his family in honor.” By removing the reference to Endorovich they kind of make it look like Stahbal was instead a friend of Strahd’s. This door opens on a shaft that plunges into darkness—at the bottom are the fifteen stones coffins and their fifteen wights, and the whole setup works basically like it did in the original, except that the bones of “servants who swore to avenge Stahbal Indi-Bhak’s family” litter the floor and can animate into up to a hundred skeletons. By referring to his family in the DM-facing text, Curse establishes that in this universe, ”Stahbal Indi-Bhak” is a real person, not an invented pun name.

Crypt 15

Ravenloft: “KHAZAN: His word was power.”

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Claudiu; None Shall Ever Forget; His Courage and Sacrifice” The background information explains that despite his epitaph, nobody can remember who this particular Claudiu might be. This is the type of joke that is acceptable in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. 

Curse: “Khazan: His word was power” Khazan was a lich who failed to become a demilich; he gets some more backstory elsewhere in the book. His skull is here, set with precious gems. A creature who utters the name “Khazan” boldly inside the crypt will summon a staff of power.

Crypt 16

Ravenloft: “Elsa Fallona”

House: The inscription is unchanged, but like Marya Markovia, Elsa is now a vampiress who sleeps in this crypt.

Expedition: “Elica Florea; Loyal Servant and Gardner” The name “Florea” for a gardener seems like the kind of pun this book supposedly doesn’t condone. And there’s a wand of command plants here too! Elica is not here; instead there are two vampire spawn who serve Sasha Ivliskova (see Crypt 20).

Curse: “Elsa Fallona von Twitterberg (Beloved Actor): She had many followers” I posit that, by exceeding the goofiness of the original adventure, by stretching its skeletal hand out of the D&D world and into the realm of pop culture, this joke is responsible for much of the hate that Curse gets from grognards. All the other puns would be far less objectionable if this one weren’t so egregious.

Elsa is no longer a vampire: She is an inanimate skeleton, surrounded by the bones and handsome portraits of her nine consorts.

Crypt 17

Ravenloft: “Sir Sedrik Spinwitovich (Admiral Spinwitovich). Confused though he was, he built the greatest naval force ever assembled in a land locked country.” Probably the dumbest joke in the catacombs. If any designer had any desire to purge Ravenloft of cartoonish goofiness to any degree, this is definitely where they’d start. Right?

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Count Sergiu Solomovici: Never Afraid To Attempt; What Others Deemed Impossible” Count Solomovici was also called “Admiral” Solomovici, and he supposedly built a  ship that sank in Tser Pool not far from the castle. This may in fact be one of the more charitable joke-deletions in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.

Curse: “Sir Sedrik Spinwitovich (Admiral Spinwitovich). Confused though he was, he built the greatest naval force ever assembled in a land locked country” This room contains a funeral barge full of fake gold coins. This detail is amazing: “The funeral barge, which was assembled inside the crypt, is too big to fit through the door.”

Crypt 18

Ravenloft: “Ireena Kolyana: Wife” This crypt is empty, and its stone door is carefully placed to one side. Ireena is the damsel Strahd intends to vampirize and marry, believing her to be the reincarnation of the woman he was in love with when he was alive. 

House: The whole situation is unchanged.

Expedition: Everything is basically the same, except that Strahd has placed a golden comb on Ireena’s bier “with several strands of dark hair lovingly and neatly woven through it.” (The color of Ireena’s hair could be the subject of an analysis similar to this but much, much shorter.)

Curse: The comb is gone, so we’re back to the Ravenloft version.

Crypt 19

Ravenloft: “Artimus (Builder of the Keep). Thou standeth amidst the monument to his life.”

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Dhavit The Builder; Thou Standeth Amidst A Monument To His Life” Background information explains that Dhavit was a great architect. There is a secret switch in this crypt that moves the bier, revealing a stairway—a secret exit from the castle!

Curse: “Artimus (Builder of the Keep). Thou standest amidst the monument to his life.” It tickles me that they corrected the grammar. The secret switch and the secret passage have been removed.

Crypt 20

Ravenloft: “Sasha Ivliskova: Wife.” Sasha, one of Strahd’s brides, resides here.

House: The inscription and the crypt’s contents are unchanged.

Expedition: This inscription is unchanged! Sasha has a tragic and fairly detailed backstory, the upshot of which is that she is compelled by Strahd to kill intruders. To this end she has some vampire spawn lurking in a nearby crypt, and she somehow summons a celestial dire lion to attack whoever opens her own tomb.

Curse: “Sasha Ivliskova — Wife” It’s very striking how Curse replaces Expedition’s lengthy backstory and complicated tactical encounter with just a few evocative sentences. The read-aloud text has Sasha covered in “webs as thick and pale as linen.” When her crypt is opened, she calls out: “My love, have you come to set me free?” When she realizes the adventurers aren’t her beloved Strahd, the abandoned wife tears the webs off her body and attacks.

Crypt 21

Ravenloft: “Patrina Velikovna: Bride.” Patrina is inside, in the form of a banshee. Hardly anyone interred in the 1983 edition gets any backstory; Patrina’s is astonishingly convoluted and worth reproducing in its entirety: “Patrina was a gypsy elf maiden who, having learned in early life a great deal of the black arts, was nearly a match for Strahd’s powers. She felt a great bond with Strahd and desired to become one of his wives. Strahd, ever willing, agreed, but before the final draining of spirit from her soul could take place, her own people stoned her to death in mercy. Strahd demanded, and got, the body. She then became the banshee spirit found here.” There’s a bunch of money lying around here: 500 platinum pieces, 3,300 gold pieces, 5,300 electrum pieces. 

House: The inscription is the same, and the book gives the same backstory. Patrina is still a banshee, and her loot is the same.

Expedition: The inscription is the same, but the backstory has been dramatically compressed: “Patrina was a villager in Barovia who was stoned to death for practicing witchcraft.” It’s very strange that Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, delighting in tidbits of lore for every skeleton in sight, chooses to reduce Patrina to almost nothing. She isn’t even present as a banshee anymore—and all the coins are gone!

Curse: “Patrina Velikovna – Bride” Patrina is back to being a banshee here, and her backstory has been edited a bit. She’s now a dusk elf, a subrace introduced for a Strahd-adjacent adventure in 4th Edition (and unused in 5th edition until Curse). Other than that, the story given here is basically the same, BUT ALSO, there’s a subquest where her ghost has been contacting her brother Kasimir, compelling him to come to Castle Ravenloft and bring her back to life. The outcome of this quest is presented very ambiguously, and overall Patrina is a really, really interesting character. But, to get back to the point: Now the coins littering her crypt are 250 in platinum, 1,100 in gold, 2,300 in electrum, 5,200 in silver, and 8,000 in copper.

Crypt 22

Ravenloft: “Sir Erik Vonderbucks”

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Sir Ulrich Bucaravich” The background information tells us Ulrich was a knight of the raven who was slain by werewolves. I find the edited name delightful.

Curse: “Sir Erick Vonderbucks” returns, now as a man whose dying wish was to have his corpse dipped in molten gold. So here we have corpse covered in gold.

Crypt 23

Ravenloft: The crypt is empty, its stone door unmarked.

House: Unchanged.

Expedition: The crypt is unmarked, but there is a skeleton in here.

Curse: Here is one of Curse of Strahd’s many little creepy tricks. The crypt has the name of one of the adventurers on its door, and inside is a rotting corpse resembling that adventurer. But when it’s touched, the illusion melts away, and the inscription disappears.

Crypt 24

Ravenloft: “Ivan DeRose, Champion of Winter Dog Racing. The race may go to the swift, but vengeance is for the loser’s relatives.” I’m just now realizing this must be a pun on “I won the race.”

House: The inscription is unchanged. 

Expedition: “Iancu Dudnic; Dog Sled Champion; Unjustly Slain” There’s some background for Iancu that expands on the story implied by Ivan DeRose’s epitaph: “the spouse of one of the competitors he beaten [sic] too many times” apparently killed him with his own sled. One of the walls of this crypt is hollow—but the implications of this are outside the scope of this blog post.

Curse: “Ivan Ivliskovich, Champion of Winter Dog Racing: The race may go to the swift, but vengeance is for the loser’s relatives” I’m not sure why “DeRose” was changed while “DeSlop” and “Du Plumette” were preserved, but “Ivliskovich” creates a fun connection with Sasha Ivliskova. The walls are painted to look like a snowy forest, and there are bits of fur on the skeleton. The hollow wall isn’t hollow anymore.

Crypt 25

Ravenloft: “Stephan Gregorovich, First Counselor to Baron von Zarovich” I don’t think “Baron von Zarovich” can be Strahd (a count), but then I don’t know who it would be.

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: Another person whose name didn’t change! The background information explains that Gregorovich was indeed an advisor to Strahd “during the vampire lord’s wars of conquest.” Wait a minute: Was he a vampire lord during his wars of conquest? I guess he was a baron before he was a count… but unpacking this requires getting more involved with the very malleable in-universe timeline than I care to at the moment.

Curse: “Stefan Gregorovich, First Counselor to King Barov von Zarovich” A palpable retcon! King Barov is of course Strahd’s father (interred in the royal crypt to the east of the catacombs), so all strangeness is resolved. Stefan’s magic skull will answer questions, but Stefan is not actually that smart and conveys only false information.

Crypt 26

Ravenloft: “Intree Sik-Valoo: He spurned wealth for the knowledge he could take to heaven.” The name reads like a really tortured pun, but I can’t get anything out of it.

UPDATE, FEBRUARY 2024: I think it’s “Intrinsic Value.” Yeesh.

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Khuden Doranal; Ascetic Monk of the Ecaterines” Khuden’s asceticism was so great that his body was borne to the Seven Heavens afer his death.

Curse: “Intree Sik-Valoo: He spurned wealth for the knowledge he could take to heaven” Intree’s skull is as magical as Stefan’s, but Intree actually knows what he’s talking about.

Crypt 27

Ravenloft: No door is mentioned. There are three huge spiders in this crypt.

House: Now this tomb contains a single monster, “an undead hybrid of hell hound and huge spider.”

Expedition: The door is explicitly unmarked, and there’s a nameless skeleton in here. No spiders or spider-like creatures.

Curse: There is no door, and we’re back to having three big spiders in here.

Crypt 28

Ravenloft: “Ardent Pallette, Chef Delux” The pun on “ardent palate” is not the worst we’ve seen in these halls. The text notes that the body, in chef’s garb, “rots naturally,” which is such a weird thing to say. The chef’s hat contains three “pieces of jewelry.”

House: The inscription and the contents of the crypt are unchanged.

Expedition: “Ardan Kharkov; Chef to the Count” Background information reveals that Ardan made the wedding cake for Sergei and Tatyana. (I think this is supposed to be the cake in location K36.)

Curse: “Bascal Ofenheiss – Chef Deluxe” This skeleton clutches a bell, which if rung, causes magic fire to sweep through the crypt. The jewelry in the hat is gone, but underneath the hat is a jewel-encrusted electrum spork. Which is probably weirder than the musket in crypt 13. The new name is still a pun: “Ofen” and “heiß” are German for “oven” and “hot.” The significance of “Bascal” (which Google knows only as an Italian brand of aluminum cups), if any, eludes me.

Crypt 29

Ravenloft: “Ivan Ivanovich, Beloved of Anna Petrovna.”

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Ivan Pietroviska; Beloved of Anna Philippia.” The background information: “The name of Ivan Pietroviska is unknown to history, but Anna Philippia is well known as a bard who stayed for a time at the court of Barov and Ravenovia.” I’m a bit surprised that the original names Ivanovich and Petrovna didn’t make the cut, but maybe they weren’t specifically Romanian enough.

Curse: “Baron Eisglaze Drüf” replaces Ivan completely. The crypt is incredibly cold, because it’s full of brown mold. Underneath the mold are Drüf’s bones and a luck blade with one wish remaining—a completely bizarre inclusion! But it’s justified (if only historically) by a similar sword to be found in the original version of Crypt 37. “Eisglaze” is another pun; it basically means “ice ice” and establishes a connection with Chef Ofenheiss next door. I’m not sure if the name “Drüf” means anything.

Crypt 30

Ravenloft: “Prefect Ciril Romulich (Beloved of King Barov and Queen Raven) High Priest of the Most Holy Order.” Ciril’s body also “rots naturally” and he has a small chest full of magic items useful to adventurers (arrows, some potions) under his skull.

House: The inscription and the contents of the crypt are unchanged.

Expedition: “Prefect Cyril Remylich; Beloved of Barov and Ravenovia; High Priest of the Order of the Raven” (Strahd’s mother “Raven” has become “Ravenovia” in this edition.) Cyril’s body has naturally rotted into a skeleton, but his vestments are magically intact. He still has the chest of magic items under his head.

Curse: “Prefect Ciril Romulich (Beloved of King Barov and Queen Ravenovia): High Priest of the Most Holy Order” Again, Curse synthesizes lore from previous editions while basically ignoring all the respellings of Expedition. Stone ravens are perched on the walls. The various magic items have been replaced by a slightly magical (and very valuable) holy symbol.

Crypt 31

Ravenloft: “$$We knew him only by his wealth” That is how it’s formatted, with two dollar signs and no space. It seems deeply weird to my eyes, but who know how it looked in 1983. There is a treasure chest in this crypt, but it’s actually bait for a trapper (a monster disguised as a normal floor).

House: The inscription is unchanged, but the trap is different: Opening the chest triggers a cloud of blinding gas. The chest is full of coins made of fool’s gold!

Expedition: “Thorgen the Grasping; Gold Is His Only Legacy” The skeleton in here is clutching a small chest. The chest is covered with contact poison and contains 1 gp. The background information says “Thorgen the Grasping is long forgotten. No check will reveal anything about who he was and what his role in history might have been.” Which seems awfully pointed.

Curse: “We knew him only by his wealth” There is no chest here, but the walls are painted with mountains of gold coins. The trick floor conceals a spiked pit.

Crypt 32

Ravenloft: “St. Finderway, Saint of Lost Travellers” Inside the crypt are two alcoves with another inscription: “Pass not these portals ye foolish mortals!” In fact, the alcoves are teleportation devices that allow access into and out of Strahd’s tomb. It appears that Saint Finderway is not supposed to be a real person, and the inscriptions are just clues/anticlues for the puzzle of reaching Strahd’s coffin.

House: The inscription is unchanged; the door has been changed to be easier to open than the others. The alcoves are now full of swirling mist to indicate their magical nature. Everything else is the same.

Expedition: This book’s distaste for jokes reaches its zenith here. There is no epitaph on the crypt. There is no inscription above the alcoves. There is also no mist swirling inside the alcoves.

Curse: There is no epitaph on the door, and no mist in the alcoves, but the words “PASS NOT THESE PORTALS YE FOOLISH MORTALS” return so that players have some sort of hint that there’s something going on here.

Crypt 33

Ravenloft: The door is blank; the crypt is unused.

House: Unchanged.

Expedition: Unchanged!

Curse: “Sir Klutz Tripalotsky: He fell on his own sword” Why waste a whole crypt? Put a joke in there! The skeleton still has rusty armor and a sword plunged through his breastplate—if the sword is pulled out, Sir Klutz’s ghost appears and becomes a temporary sidekick. 

Crypt 34

Ravenloft: “King Dostron” I don’t get the sense of there being any pun here.

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “King Dostron; Hellborn and Hellbound” The slab of marble that should carry Dostron’s body bears only a few ashes. King Dostron was an ancient and apparently not very nice ruler who claimed an infernal lineage.

Curse: “King Dostron the Hellborn” retains the backstory he was accorded in Expedition, and his crypt gets a bunch of fancy details. He has a gold-plated lead sarcophagus. There is also a stuffed owlbear in here. And an invisible imp who’s just here to mess with people. This is one of the best examples of Curse of Strahd’s overall sensibility.

Crypt 35

Ravenloft: The door is blank; the crypt is unused.

House: Unchanged.

Expedition: Unchanged again!

Curse: “Sir Jarnwald the Trickster: The joke was on him” This crypt is a pure trap: An illusory floor conceals a pit full of ghouls. Sir Jarnwald was a real guy, though, and his remains (what the ghouls didn’t eat) can be found on the pit’s floor.

Crypt 36

Ravenloft: The door is clawed up so that no name is readable; the crypt is empty.

House: The door is unchanged, but now there’s a (nameless) vampiress in here to be slain.

Expedition: The epitaph is now “chipped” away, and it’s empty again.

Curse: The name on the door is back to being clawed away, but this time there’s a nameless skeleton in here.

Crypt 37

Ravenloft: “Gralmore Nimblenobs” The name looks like nonsense to me, but it could be a pun. The body inside has a bunch of magic scrolls and a +1 sword with one wish. A sword that lets you cast wish is a very strange thing to leave lying around, but here it is.

House: The inscription and the crypt’s contents are unchanged.

Expedition: “Jannes” A super boring name to replace a super goofy one. Apparently Jannes was a powerful illusionist. His skeleton hides a wand of fireball. The other magic items are gone.

Curse: “Gralmore Nimblenobs — Wizard Ordinaire” That’s fun. The wish sword has been moved to Crypt 29. Gralmore’s staff unlocks a secret chamber with a few spell scrolls.

Crypt 38

Ravenloft: “Americo Standardski (Inventor)” It took me a long time to convince myself, but this can only be a reference to “American Standard,” the brand name most often seen on toilets. This crypt contains three hell hounds and no indication of what relation they bear to Americo.

House: The inscription is changed completely: “Bandit, Brigand, and Pirate. My beloved pets.” These are the three hell hounds, who still jump out and attack the heroes.

Expedition: This epitaph has been chipped away. Inside are the skeletons of three large dogs. Doesn’t this seem a little vindictive? I can’t help but read this as the authors deciding that hell hounds didn’t make sense in these catacombs. But I’m also noticing that almost all the combat encounters in this version deal with named characters, not with anonymous monsters. So maybe the hell hounds weren’t narratively complex enough?

Curse: “General Kroval ‘Mad Dog’ Grislek (Master of the Hunt): A lead of hounds and men” The three hell hounds are back, along with General Grislek’s wraith! Grislek commands the hounds in Infernal! There are murals of battle and a broken spear in the crypt. Lots of extra details compared to the original.

Crypt 39

Ravenloft: “Beucephalus, The Wonder Horse. May the flowers grow ever greener where he trods.” DID YOU KNOW: “Bucephalus” was Alexander the Great’s horse! This horse is a nightmare, though. (DID YOU KNOW: In D&D, a “nightmare” is a monstrous fiery horse!) He is Strahd’s horse, and the text explains that he usually leaves the catacombs by flying up the shaft in the big spiral staircase.

House: Everything is the same here, except now Beucephalus is referred to as female.

Expedition: There is no epitaph here, and the crypt now contains a boring human skeleton.

Curse: “Beucephalus, The Wonder Horse: May the flowers grow ever greener where he trods” Beucephalus is back, and he’s back to being a boy horse. If the adventurers slay Beucephalus, “Strahd hunts them down mercilessly,” assuming he isn’t doing that already.

Crypt 40

Ravenloft: “Tatsaul Eris: Last of the line” “That’s all there is!” is my favorite joke of them all, and the audience for the joke is really the Dungeon Master. The players won’t necessarily reach this corner of the catacomb, and they won’t necessarily reach it last. This is only the “last of the line” for the person reading the book.

House: The inscription is unchanged.

Expedition: “Sateris Taul; Last of Her Line” The lore explains that Sateris was a powerful fortune-telling mystic long ago. I think this anagram doesn’t follow this book’s usual policy of making the goofy names into fairly authentic Romanian ones, and I appreciate that “Last of Her Line” preserves the basic spirit of the joke.

Curse: “Tatsaul Eris — Last of the Line” When this crypt is entered, torches inside light up automatically. The skeleton, on inspection, turns out to be a bunch of fake plaster bones. Somehow this is now Strahd’s ambiguous, creepy joke on the adventurers. I love this so much.