Location from Curse of Strahd by Tracy & Laura Hickman, Chris Perkins / Wizards of the Coast
Strahd's seat of power — a vast gothic fortress perched on a thousand-foot pillar of rock, one of D&D's most iconic dungeons and the dark heart of Barovia.
Castle Ravenloft is magnificent and terrible. It rises from a sheer pillar of rock overlooking the village of Barovia, its spires and battlements silhouetted against a sky that is perpetually overcast. Lightning flickers around its towers. Bats swirl in clouds around its eaves. The drawbridge spans a thousand-foot chasm. Everything about it is designed to make you feel small. Inside, the castle is a labyrinth of grandeur and decay. Dusty ballrooms where music once played. A dining hall set for guests who died centuries ago. A chapel where Sergei's ghost still lingers. Libraries stacked with Strahd's collected knowledge. A pipe organ that plays itself in the dark hours. And everywhere, the sense that the castle is watching — that its master knows you're here and is deciding when to appear. The crypts beneath the castle hold the remains of the von Zarovich family and their servants. The dungeons hold prisoners Strahd has collected over centuries. The throne room sits empty most of the time — Strahd prefers to rule from shadows, not from a chair. Castle Ravenloft is not just a building. It is an extension of Strahd himself — his pride, his loneliness, his cruelty, and his inescapable past, rendered in stone.
Also known as: Castle Ravenloft, Ravenloft, the castle, Strahd's castle, the fortress