The stables attached to the tavern exist because Vistani horses need a place, and Vistani will not board with the Church. Old Barovia’s villagers do not own horses — they cannot afford to. The three stalls therefore belong to travelers, Vistani, and the occasional Cathedral rider passing through. The stable-hand died six years ago and was never replaced. Anyone who needs a horse cared for cares for it themselves. The Vistani teach their horses not to whinny in Barovia because sound draws attention. Everyone else’s horses learned by imitation.

The stable door is unlocked — no one steals horses in Barovia. Three stalls, one occupied by a small unshod horse that watches you. It does not whinny. None of them do.

Sensory

• Clean straw (Vistani-swept)
• Leather, old horse, faint smoke from the tavern chimney next door
• No sound from the horses — they stamp instead of whinny