The muddy ground underfoot gives way to rain-slick cobblestones, and the tall shapes looming out of the fog become recognizable as the dwellings of the Town of Barovia. The windows of each house stare out from pools of black nothingness. No sound cuts the silence, except for a single mournful sobbing that echoes through the streets from a distance.
You trudge down the street toward the center of the village, without seeing a single soul. Soon enough, you reach the village center, a round, cobbled plaza built around a fountain of dark stone. Where once the fountain likely flowed water beautifully, it now only trickles into the dark pool of water around it.
To the left, sparse light spills out from behind heavy drawn curtains of a large building. A sign over the door creaks on rusty hinges, proclaiming the place "Bildrath's Mercantile."
To the right of the plaza, a single shaft of light thrusts into the plaza, its brightness like a solid pillar of light in the dull grayness of the fog. Above the open doorway, a sign hangs precariously askew, proclaiming this place the "Blood on the Vine Tavern."
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Credit to jermilex at DeviantArt.
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