Krezkians 
The people of Krezk are largely as described in Chapter 8:

The Village of Krezk (p. 143), S3. Village of Krezk (p. 145), and Krezk Lore (p. 146). The villagers are largely unaware that their burgomaster, Dmitri Krezkov, is secretly a werewolf.

The fortified village of Krezk lies at the west end of the valley and is built around an old abbey. The village burgomaster is named Dmitri Krezkov.

• I made it have three times the population, with a lot stronger organization from one of the PC's siblings that was stillborn in Faerun. It's a functioning communist society that is barely holding on after refugees show up from the still smoldering town of Vallaki. Cows, chickens and goats roam through the streets since no predators can get inside the walls. The town being bored by their isolation, turned to music (the Abbot inspired them with his own passion for music) and there is usually someone on the small stage playing some song. I made a small playlist of songs that fit the feeling i'm looking for.

AREAS OF KREZK

The following areas correspond to labels on the map of Krezk on page 144.

The fortified village of Krezk lies near the edge of Strahd's domain, and the wall of mist that marks the border is clearly visible above the treeline. Yet even here there is no escaping the vampire. In fact, the villagers are so terrified of Strahd and his wolves that they never venture away from the village.

Within their walls, they grow trees that provide ample wood to keep them warm on cold nights, and they draw water from a blessed pool. They have chickens, hares, and small pigs, as well as gardens of beets and turnips. The only thing they depend on from the outside world is wine. The burgomaster, Dmitri Krezkov, comes from a noble family and regularly has wine delivered from the nearby winery, the Wizard of Wines, to keep the locals' bellies
warm and their spirits up.

Looming high above Krezk is the Abbey of Saint Markovia, once a convent and hospital, now a madhouse
overrun with wickedness. After Saint Markovia and her followers failed to overthrow Strahd, the abbey became
a fortress closed off from the rest of the world. Strahd ruthlessly preyed on the fears of the clerics and nuns
holed up inside, but ultimately it was their isolation and greed that doomed them. The clergy began fighting over
food and wine. By the time their supplies ran out, they had either been killed by each other's hands or driven
hopelessly insane by Strahd's acts of terror against them. For years afterward, the villagers of Krezk avoided the place, fearing that the abbey was cursed, haunted, or both.

Then, over a century ago, a pilgrim from a distant land came to Krezk and insisted that he be allowed to reopen
the abbey. The nameless man was strikingly handsome and extremely persuasive, and the villagers couldn't
help but do as he commanded. Eternally young, he presides over the abbey to this day, and locals refer to him
simply as The Abbot. Many villagers suspect that the Abbot is Strahd in disguise, for they've heard stories about
Strahd appearing in other guises. The truth, however, is even more disturbing.

The gleam in her eyes was like warm sunlight on a still pond. That light is gone forever. When I try to imagine those eyes, all I see is a mad abyss.
-Strahd van Zarovich

AREAS OF KREZK

The following areas correspond to labels on the map of Krezk on page 144.

S1. ROAD JUNCTION

The road branches north and climbs a rocky escarpment, ending at a gatehouse built into a twenty-foot-high wall of stone reinforced with buttresses every fifty feet or so. The wall encloses a settlement on the side of a snowdusted mountain spur. Beyond the wall you see the tops of snow-covered pines and thin, white wisps of smoke.
The sombre toll of a bell comes from a stone abbey that clings to the mountainside high above the settlement. The steady chime is inviting-a welcome change from the deathly silence and oppressive fog to which you have grown accustomed. It's hard to tell at this distance, but there seems to be a switchback road clinging to the cliffs that lead up from the walled settlement to the abbey.

The Old Svalich Road continues west from this location for a little more than a mile before it plunges into the
foggy curtain that surrounds Barovia (see chapter 2, "Mists of Ravenloft"). Characters who follow the road
north arrive at the gatehouse (area S2).

S2. GATEHOUSE

The map of Krezk includes a diagram of the gatehouse.

The air grows colder as you approach the walled settlement. Two square towers with peaked roofs flank a stone archway into which is set a pair of twelve-foot-tall, iron bound wooden doors. Carved into the arch above the doors is a name: Krezk.
The walls that extend from the gatehouse are twenty feet high. Atop the parapet you see four figures wearing fur hats and clutching spears. They watch you nervously.

Cut into the upper floor of each tower is an arrow slit 6 inches wide, 4 feet tall, and 1 foot deep. An open doorway leads from the archer's post in each tower to the adjacent parapet. Behind the walls, wooden ladders lead from the parapets to the ground 20 feet below.

Two archers (LG male and female human scouts) are stationed inside the gatehouse, one in each tower. Four
guards (LG male and female humans) man the adjacent walls. If the characters are seen flying or climbing over
the walls, the guards assume that the village is under attack and cry out in alarm. Five rounds after the alarm
sounds, every able-bodied adult in the village arrives at the gatehouse, ready for battle.

Krezk's militia consists of four more guards plus forty commoners (LG male and female humans) armed with handaxes. The double doors are made of thick wood planks bound with iron bands and sealed shut with a heavy
wooden bar held in iron brackets. The bar can be lifted with a successful DC 15 Strength check. The doors require
a siege engine to break them open.

There aren't enough people in Krezk to adequately defend its outer wall. Every 300-foot stretch of wall is
watched over by a lone guard (LG male or female human). The guards are trained to crouch behind the wall
and sound the alarm at any sign of danger.

BURGOMASTER Dmitri Krezkov

If the characters ask to be let inside or otherwise draw the attention of the guards on the wall, one of the guards
fetches the burgomaster, Dmitri Krezkov (LG male human noble). His ancestors built Krezk at the foot of the
abbey after Strahd's armies conquered the valley. Dmitri is a lord and expects to be treated like one.
He places the safety of his village above the welfare of strangers. He has seen adventurers before and assumes
that the characters are Strahd's allies or enemies; either way, their presence spells trouble for Krezk. Dmitri
isn't prepared to shelter Strahd's enemies any more than he is willing to humour Strahd's allies.

The only way the characters can earn his favour is to help Krezk in some way, whereupon Dmitri is required by his oath of office and his honour as a Barovian noble to show them hospitality. If the characters ask what they can do, Dmitri asks them to secure a wagonload of wine from the Wizard of Wines winery to the south. His people
have been without wine for days, and the next delivery' is long overdue.

If the characters force their way into town using magic or strength of arms, Dmitri tells his guards to stand
down, hoping to avoid bloodshed, and does everything he can to expedite the characters' departure.
A character who succeeds on a DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check can discern that Dmitri is trying to hide the
fact that he is distraught. He is grieving over the natural death of his youngest son, Ilya-the last of his children
(see area S3).

S3. VILLAGE OF KREZK

When the characters get past the outer wall, read:

The mist-shrouded village beyond the wall is nothing more than a scattering of humble wooden cottages along dirt roads that stretch between stands of snow-dusted pine trees-so many trees, in fact, as to constitute a forest. To the northeast, gray cliffs rise sharply, and the road winding up to the abbey is easy to see from this vantage.

The village operates as a commune, with no exports or moneymaking businesses. Villagers grow trees and
vegetables, cut wood to heat their homes, raise chickens and pigs, and share their food. A few villagers have cows
and mules, but there are no horses in Krezk. The village has no inns or taverns. Characters who are willing to
chop wood, milk cows, or perform other chores can spend the night in the burgomaster's cottage or some
other residence.

COTTAGES

Krezk's residences are single-story pine cottages with stone chimneys and thatch roofs. Pigs and chickens are
kept in indoor pens and coops so that they don't freeze. Burgomaster's Cottage. The building closest to the
outer gate is the burgomaster's cottage-the largest building in town-but still a modest dwelling. Dmitri
Krezkov and his fearless wife Anna (LG female human noble) have no living children. The last of their four children, Ilya, died of an illness seven days ago at the age of fourteen. Given their age, the Krezkovs are unlikely to have more children-a source of great consternation to everyone in the village, since that means the end of the
Krezkov bloodline.

The burgomaster's cottage has a wine cellar (currently empty) and lots of space for pigpens and chicken coops.
Behind the cottage is a graveyard where deceased members of the Krezkov family are interred. Dmitri and Anna's
four children, all of whom died of illness, are buried here.

Several of the family caskets are empty, their contents stolen in the night by the Abbot's mongrelfolk gravediggers (see area S6). Ilya's plot is fresh and undisturbed, since he was interred only four days ago.

Commoner cottages. A typical cottage is only 200. square feet yet contains 1d4 adults (LG male and female human commoners. 1d4 - 1 children (LG male and female human noncombatants), plus the family's pigs, hares and chickens.

Every cottage has its own graveyard where family members are interred. All the caskets planted in the past decade are now empty, thanks to the Abbot's sneaky mongrelfolk gravediggers (see area S6).

KREZK LORE
In addition to the information known to all Barovians (see "Barovian Lore" in Barovia), the villagers of Krezk
(called Krezkites) know the following bits of local lore:

• Residents never leave the village for fear of being attacked by wolves, dire wolves, and werewolves. About once a month, a wagonload of wine arrives from the Wizard of Wines (chapter 12), the winery and vineyard to the south. The business is owned and operated by the Martikov family.
• Burgomaster Krezkov recently lost his fourteen-yearold son, Ilya, to illness. Ilya was the last of the four Krezkov children.
• A pool at the north end of the village provides fresh water throughout the year. Next to the pool, the village's ancestors built a shrine to the Sorted/Morninglord in a gazebo. It's known as the Shrine of the White Sun.
• The Abbey of Saint Markovia is named after a priest of the Sorted/Morninglord who took a stand against the devil Strahd. After a fierce uprising, Markovia and her most loyal followers stormed Castle Ravenloft, only to be destroyed.
• The abbey was once a hospital and a convent, but it fell on hard times after the land was swallowed up by the mists. Some of the clergy fell prey to Strahd, while others went mad and either starved themselves to death or turned to cannibalism.
• The head of the abbey, called simply The Abbot, arrived over a century ago and hasn't aged a day since. He occasionally visits the Shrine of the White Sun but doesn't talk much, and he demands tribute in the form of wine. No one knows his true name or where he came from, and many believe he's Strahd's servant or, the vampire himself in disguise.
• No one from the village visits the abbey anymore. The abbey's bell rings at odd times, day and night, and the place is filled with baleful screams and horrible, inhuman laughter that can be heard throughout the village.

S4. POOL AND SHRINE

Even under grey skies, this pool at the north end of the village shimmers and sparkles. Near its shore sits an old gazebo on the verge of collapse. A wooden statue of a mournful, bare-chested man, its paint chipped and faded, stands in the gazebo with arms outstretched, as though waiting to be embraced.

The pool is fed by an underground spring and was blessed long ago by Saint Markovia. Its waters defy corruption, and anyone who drinks from it for the first time gains the benefit of a lesser restoration spell. (The water once had even greater magic but has weakened over the years:) The water otherwise tastes sweet and fresh.

The gazebo is so frail that it couldn't take more than a strong wind to knock it over. It remains standing because it's protected from the elements by the surrounding trees, walls, and cliffs. The statue is a depiction of the Sorted/Morninglord, positioned so that he is reaching toward the east (the dawn). Locals refer to the statue and gazebo as the Shrine of the White Sun, though they have no idea why their ancestors named it so.

If your card reading reveals that the treasure is here, the item is hidden under the gazebo. The gazebo must be torn down to reach it, and doing that doesn't sit well with the locals. If the characters damage the gazebo and
don't repair it, any Charisma checks they make to shift the attitudes of the villagers have disadvantage.

S5. WINDING ROAD

The switchback road that hugs the cliff is ten feet wide and covered with loose gravel and chunks of broken rock. The ascent is slow and somewhat treacherous, and the air grows colder as one nears the top.

The road climbs 400 feet, doubling back on itself twice before reaching area S6.