The Wizard of Wines

Area W: The Wizard of Wines Winery (west of Vallaki, follow the Old Svalich Road signs)

Hook: The wine has stopped coming to the villages. In Barovia, wine is not a luxury — it is how people survive psychologically. Something has overrun the winery, and the family that runs it is asking for help.

Current Status (as of session 24): Raised, then orphaned. Urwin Martikov named the winery in session 19 — first as a hint when Vess asked about resistance against Strahd, then plainly in the evening conversation where he revealed the Keepers of the Feather: something has gone wrong at the Wizard of Wines. Two nights later, the party killed Urwin in the chaos of the inn defense (sessions 20–21). The quest-giver is dead at the hands of the people he asked for help. Danika runs the inn now; Davian has lost the son he never reconciled with. The druids and blights are still at the winery, Wintersplinter is still growing at Yester Hill, and the timeline is still moving. Whether any Martikov would still accept the party's help — and whether the party would dare offer it — is the first question this quest now has to answer.

Overview

The Wizard of Wines is the only functioning winery in Barovia. The Martikov family have run it for generations. They are also, quietly, wereravens — a fact they do not advertise and will not confirm until they trust someone completely.

The winery has been overrun by druids and vine blights from Yester Hill. The druids have occupied the building, driven the family out, and are using one of the winery's three magical gemstones to cultivate something at Yester Hill. The family patriarch, Davian Martikov, is furious and difficult and asking for help because he has no other options.

The Martikovs

A large family. Davian is the patriarch — stern, proud, and exactly as grateful as he needs to be and no more. His sons and daughters-in-law are more practical. The grandchildren are curious about everything.

They are wereravens — members of the Keepers of the Feather, a secret society that opposes Strahd. In raven form they are distinct from Strahd's crows. The Martikovs maintain their own network across Barovia: ravens that watch the roads, the villages, the people moving through the mist. They have been watching the party for weeks and have opinions.

Urwin Martikov (killed by the party in the inn chaos, sessions 20–21) ran the Blue Water Inn with his wife Danika. He was Davian's son, and they had bad blood between them: Davian blamed Urwin for the loss of the first gem — Urwin was on watch the night it was taken, ten years ago, and Davian believed he shirked his duty for his betrothed. Urwin denied it to the end. The reconciliation that delivering the wine might have started is no longer possible. Davian has lost his son to the same adventurers his family's network had been watching with cautious hope.

What they think of the party — per character:

• Corvin: They respect stubbornness. He has it in quantity. What they're less sure about is whether he knows when to stop.
• Myra: She works hard at the wrong things. Sharp, driven, pointed entirely at a goal that was handed to her. They want her to slow down long enough to look at herself. She won't.
• Vess: She used to feel like someone who was paying attention. Now she feels like someone performing attention. The ravens notice this difference more than most would.
• Logi: Unpredictable in the way fire is unpredictable — usually useful, occasionally catastrophic, hard to be near without watching it. They do not dislike him. They don't fully trust him yet either.
• Taara: They like her. Old creature, moves carefully, doesn't take up more space than she needs. The butterfly situation they find quietly poetic in the way ravens find things poetic — which is to say, they think it is funny and also inevitable.
• Khione: She listens before she speaks. In their experience this is rare and worth something. They are curious what centuries of listening has made her, and they are patient enough to find out slowly.
• Pipwick: They are fond of him in the way you are fond of someone who has been handed a terrible inconvenience and simply gets on with it. He cannot come into their trees but he has never complained about it once.

(This list predates the inn night. Corvin is dead (s21), Vess is unconscious in Ravenloft, Logi is banished, and Yager and Mark have joined since — the ravens have no settled opinion of the new men yet. What the Keepers think of the party now is shaped most by one thing: Urwin died in the inn chaos to a party blade.)

What they want: The winery cleared of druids and blights. The gemstone recovered if possible.

What they offer: Wine. Information. The possibility of allies who have actual local knowledge, can fly, and have been watching the roads since before the party arrived.

What they will not do initially: Confirm the wereraven thing. They will confirm it when they decide the party deserves to know.

The Winery

Large. Three levels. Occupied by wood druids and vine blights — plant creatures twisted by the corrupted Fanes of Barovia. The druids are not mindless; they have a purpose and have been given authority by Strahd (indirectly) to exist in Barovia. They will not negotiate.

The blights move through the building like vegetation with intent. They are not fast. They are relentless. In enclosed spaces with limited light, they are disorienting.

The family's living quarters are on the upper floor. Personal effects. A baby. The druids have left these alone because they are not relevant to the goal. This detail will land wrong.

The three magical gemstones — pinecone-sized, dark, humming faintly — are what sustains the winery's grapes against Strahd's blight. One is missing for each stolen:

• At the winery: one gem remains, still in the vine roots.
• At Yester Hill: one stolen by druids, being used to grow Wintersplinter.
• At Berez (Baba Lysaga): one stolen by Baba Lysaga from the winery three weeks ago. The party was in the Berez area during sessions 14–15 — they were at the Memory Vault nearby but did not encounter Baba Lysaga's hut directly. This gem is now behind them geographically.

The gems are tied to the Fanes of Barovia — Van Richten's notes at the tower explain this. The Martikovs know the gems matter but not fully why. Without all three, the winery cannot make its best wine (the Champagne du le Stomp has been gone for a decade since the first gem was taken).

Yester Hill

A blighted hill to the south. The druids worship a massive statue of Strahd carved from the hill's stone. They have been using the stolen gemstone to grow Wintersplinter — a massive tree blight, a weapon of living wood intended to destroy the winery entirely.

If the party does not go to Yester Hill, Wintersplinter will be completed and sent against the winery regardless of whether the druids inside have been cleared. The timeline is not fixed — but it is moving.

At Yester Hill: a druid ritual, the statue of Strahd (unsettling in the specific way of being worshipped), and Wintersplinter in its final stages of growth. The gemstone is at the center of the ritual circle.

The Difficulty

Two locations that need handling in sequence. Clear the winery, then deal with Yester Hill — or deal with Yester Hill first to stop Wintersplinter, then clear the winery. Either order leaves a window where the other problem grows.

The blights are not individually dangerous. In large numbers, in an enclosed building, they are. The druids at Yester Hill are protected by numbers and terrain and the ritual's momentum.

The more significant difficulty: the Martikovs are not easy people to help. Davian will not thank the party in a way that feels good. He will tell them what they did wrong. He will also, quietly and completely, have their backs from that point forward — which is more valuable than gratitude.