This is part of my Revised Guide to Curse of Strahd. For the list of articles, and the order to read them, see my Intro to My Revised Guide. If you find this interesting, feel free to use as much or as little as you want.
We bounced back and forth across the valley a lot, but I won’t assume what order you’ll tackle it in. For anything that I ran as it’s presented in the WotC Curse of Strahd book, I’ll put in Italics, for anything that I ran from one of the 3rd Party Sources, I’ll put in underline.
Some groups make a whole thing out of Berez, but it didn’t really interest me. For me, Berez can be knocked out in a single session, and never returned to. There is nothing of interest outside of the Swamp Fane and Baba Yaga. So if you go in, fight Baba Yaga, reconsecrate the Swamp Fane, and get out, I’m happy.
I will say, this is absolutely one of the moments in the campaign when I’m prepared to TPK the party. Really telegraph that this is going to be one of the hardest fights aside from Strahd himself, and they should be scared. No holding back on this one.
I really skipped the whole story of Berez, except for what you do in the Interactive Tome of Strahd. I feel like that plays it out much more cleanly, and nothing in Berez otherwise is particularly interesting. The ghost feels lame, and my party were never really treasure hunters.
Baba Yaga “Lysaga”
So, let’s talk about why I replaced Baba Lysaga with Baba Yaga? It’s clearly the same thing, a crazy old lady that has a weird Mother-of-Power thing with a floating giant skull instead of a Mortar with Pestle and a hut on a awakened tree instead of chicken legs. So let’s see how much we need to change.
One of my favorite things, is that this Baba Yaga is the same one from Russian legend, the same one that Hellboy fights, the same one in The Witcher that goes by the name Voleth Meir. She is so powerful that she can travel between all of these unrelated universes, including ours. So if someone asks what they know of Baba Yaga, I say “your character has heard the same things about Baba Yaga that you, the player, have at this point.” This brings a bit of meta into the game that I think is scarier than you listing a few pieces of lore. However, if you really want to have a lore check, Dungeon Magazine #196 has a cool article about Baba Yaga, including lore checked info, and a 4e Stat Block if you’re looking for some alternate abilities. The fun thing about using 4e abilities, is your players will always be surprised, because the goal of 4e abilities were different than 5e.
In my History of Barovia article I explain the details of Baba Yaga’s recent activities, but let me give you a summary. First of all, this might make you wonder, why was Baba Yaga, such a powerful spellcaster between multiverses, the midwife of Strahd von Zarovich? A lot of people in the community use the term nursemaid, when the book says midwife, because they can be the same thing, especially in medieval settings. A midwife helps the mother during pregnancy and birth, while the nursemaid, or nursery maid, helps the mother during a child’s infant and toddler years. This means that a nursemaid helps raise a child, but there is no evidence that that is the case with Strahd and Baba Yaga. No, Baba Yaga was only supposed to help the Queen birth the baby Strahd. In fact, Baba Yaga had a special, unhealthy attachment to baby Strahd, and Queen Ravenia banished Baba Yaga because of this.
This also allows for much more flexbility in the original motivations of Baba Yaga. It’s possible that she just happened to be present “right place, right time”, and King Barov asked for her help. Baba Yaga, being a well traveled and powerful being in her own right, knows the advantages of having a King owe you such a substantial favor. So she helped the Queen birth baby Strahd, and became more invested in the life of a firstborn son of a King. Or, you can easily change this, because it’s unlikely to come up, but it can create a very interesting secret to uncover.
Turning to Argynvostholt for a moment, it is established that the skull of Argynvost was stolen by Strahd after the Battle of Argynvostholt. A common fan edit is that he didn’t actually take the skull, since (as you’ve seen in my History of Barovia), he was mortally wounded at the time. So at some point later, Baba Yaga went into Argynvostholt, faced the revenants to steal the now decayed skull of the great dragon Argynvost. She gives the skull to the vampire consort Volenta to gift to Strahd, in exchange Volenta keeps Baba Yaga up to date on Strahd. More on Volenta in the Dinner with Strahd article.
One year ago, another powerful Outsider made her way into the valley. A great archmage named Tasha, or Iggwilv in some circles. Tasha is actually the daughter of Baba Yaga, and wants to find why she hides in this gods forsaken valley, and return to her place as Mother of All Witches. Baba Yaga is still obsessed with Strahd, and has lived in this valley off and on, hoping to earn his love. During a fight between the Mother and Daughter, Tasha damaged Baba Yaga’s hut so it could no longer move of it’s own accord. During Tasha’s attempts to convince her mother, she revealed a secret she had discovered, the truth of the Martikovs and their wereraven lycanthropy, as well as their secret gems. So Baba Yaga has since made it her mission to create constructed living Scarecrows to capture and torture every Raven she sees in the valley.
So Tasha decides to just go and kill Strahd herself, and gathers some Barovians as a healthy distraction. Unfortunately, she was overpowered, and during her failure, she was thrown from the castle. Her failure and subsequent imprisonment in Barovia has driven her to madness, and she has since been known as the Mad Mage of Mount Baratok.
Recently, Baba Yaga formed an alliance with the Forest Folk, ransacking the Wizard of Wines Winery, stealing one of their magical gems to repair her dancing hut.
Fighting the Baba
So when it’s finally time for your players to go to Berez, here are some things we need to have ready.
An important part of the lore is knowing how to find the door to her magical hut. You see, in Baba Yaga lore, when you walk up there are no windows or doors, even if you walk all the way around. So, to find the doors, you have to say “Hut, Hut, turn your back to the forest, hut, hut, turn your front to me.” Then the hut turns around, and you can see the door. Add to this that Baba Yaga always asks “Did you come of your own free will, or at another’s bidding?” and we have the opportunity to roleplay with the legendary Baba Yaga, and no chance of sneaking up on her.
The lore comes from Stilt Houses. I was able to find stilt houses from the Sami culture, which lived in Northern Europe including Russia. They built the huts as food storage, and raised them so that wild animals could not get into it. At one point I heard some more details, but I can’t seem to find the source, so take this next line with a grain of salt. The Baba Yaga inspiration specifically comes from burial huts. In swampy areas, it was difficult to bury bodies, so instead they placed them in huts up on stilts, so they could decay without spreading disease. The hut has no windows and doors, and the legs are pre-charred to slow rot from the swamp below.
Back to the game. Below I changed the Dancing Hut to have Chicken Legs, instead of tree roots.
My strategy for the fight involves Baba Yaga jumping in her mortar, and flying high out of range. She casts Cloudkill on the entrance to the hut, so no one gets inside, but this also telegraphs that something important is inside, specifically both an illusory baby Strahd, and the Martikov’s second gem. Cast some Evard’s Black Tentacles to help the hut grapple the party, Power Word Stun on anyone that flies high enough to engage her, and Finger of Death on the first person to deal damage to her. The Hut has two attacks, and the first attack is an attempt to grapple. If it grapples, then the second attack is a Slam, but if it doesn’t succeed in the grapple, then the second claw attack will be for damage. No point in trying to grapple someone just for them to crawl out on their turn. Between this and her minions of Insect Swarms and Scarecrows, this is a terrifying encounter.
For the record, killing Baba Yaga doesn’t actually kill her. She is the Mother of All Witches, and when she dies, her soul is teleported back to it’s home plane (wherever that is), like Fiends and Celestials. Luckily it will take her longer to get back to Barovia than it will for the party to finish the campaign.
Swamp Fane
This is by far the simplest of the Fanes. The Weaver, I chose to make her give out Werebear lycanthropy to her followers, but I almost regret it, because you don’t see any bears, it doesn’t exactly fit, and it feels like she had a lycan form just because the other two did. Things don’t need to be balanced, reality rarely is.
Anyway, to reconsecrate the Swamp Fane you must sacrifice the “Heart of the Defiler“, aka Baba Yaga’s heart to the shrine in the swamp. When the ArchFey appears, it is a face the party recognizes. Jeny Greenteeth from Vallaki! That’s right, Jeny was the Mother, the Weaver, all along. That is why she is an extremely powerful magic user that isn’t involved with the Hags at the Ol’ Mill.
When Strahd deconsecrated the Swamp Fane he gained resistance to Fire, Cold, and Lightning damage. This isn’t listed in the original stat block, but something I found in a couple community made stat blocks. If you replace it with something else, just again make sure to let your party know this meta knowledge, so they can feel the benefit of their hard work.
The Nerdd 
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