Rant: Oraşnou Makes No Sense
The village of Oraşnou is described as very small and isolated. The expanded background information packet,
"The Mist and the Wood," says it has only about three dozen residents and they rely on monthly trading visits from the Vistani, who are the only ones to bring them news and goods. The only nearby town is Vallaki; the village of Barovia is geographically close, but anyone going there would have to pass by Castle Ravenloft, so in practice people rarely make the trip.
In "The Beast" (DDAL04-02), Grigori Wurlbach says the Vistani visit every
other month, and they rarely see travelers, especially in winter. On the other other hand, there are
two places in town where travelers can stay: the rooms at the Hare and Hare, or at the Seven Tables. Grigori's shop even sells adventuring gear; it's clearly for gameplay reasons, but realistically, who are his customers?
Let's call the population 40--slightly more than three dozen. Think about how small that is! You could put the entire population of the town into two high school classrooms, or one if you squeezed. If we assume the average household is four people, that's ten buildings for the whole town. But the map of the town shows about 40 buildings total. Even if you assume some are outbuildings (chicken coops, etc.), that still means each household consists of several structures, which is at odds with how small and poor the place is supposed to be.
And what do they all eat? As described, the village is surrounded by woods and there aren't any outlying farms, unless there are some attached to either of the local noble estates, but considering that both of those noble estates have supernatural shenanigans going on, that explanation raises its own questions. There could be vegetable gardens and chickens in town, but would that be enough?
Then there's the fact that an extremely poor, isolated town of 40 people with no visitors somehow supports a general store, an inn, and a curio shop. Not to mention that they generate enough wealth for the burgomaster to live high and have an entire basement stacked full of things he has taken from the other 39 inhabitants. And the owner of the curio shop regularly sells things pilfered from the burgomaster's basement, and apparently nobody recognizes them.
Also, a random stranger suddenly shows up frequently with new things to sell and nobody thinks that's suspicious? The explanation is that he's getting all these things by robbing and murdering travelers, meaning that he must be killing a new group every few days, despite the fact that supposedly hardly any travelers come through this area. And the owner of the curio shop apparently is rich enough to keep paying for non-essential trinkets like jewelry, which means he must have a pretty good turnover of his items, which means he must be selling them to the villagers or possibly Vistani (since, again, no travelers to speak of). If he's selling to villagers, how do they afford these baubles when they're being taxed into poverty by the burgomaster? And if he's selling to the Vistani, why does he maintain a shop instead of just meeting their wagons when they stop in town every few weeks?
This just doesn't add up.
I think the only way to make sense of this is to assume that Oraşnou is larger and less isolated than it's described as being. Say the population is maybe 100-125, and they do see travelers regularly, but not much in the winter due to the harsh weather. Possibly say that the burgomaster's territory includes some outlying settlements in addition to the village proper. (Like, where do the rest of the Vaduva clan actually live? Do they pay taxes?) And add another reason besides the lack of furs for why supplies are so tight with the coming winter. Maybe there was a blight on the vegetables, or avian flu hit the chickens. The locals could attribute it to Strahd's anger, just as they do with the bad weather.
ETA: To add to the confusion, the intro to DDAL08, "The Broken One," describes Oraşnou as "a humble medieval village of two hundred souls."
