The Mystery Room in the Caverns West of Barovia in Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession
By Daniel D'Agostino, 2024-08-05
Introduction
Anyone exploring Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession to a reasonable degree will notice something strange early on in the game. There is a room in the southeastern part of the Caverns West of Barovia that has two doors, but no apparent means to open them.
I knew this wasn't something I simply missed because other maps I've seen on the internet (including a 2013 forum post, a 2023 walkthrough, and some video playthroughs on YouTube) all had this region unexplored.
The official cluebook, whose maps are presumably generated by means of internal knowledge of the game engine, has so far been the only source showing the internal layout of the room. However, since all other doors on this level are initially displayed as walls until opened, the fact that it shows no access to the room is in itself inconclusive.
Having seen in the detail the otherwise careful level design of this game, it seemed odd to me that they would leave a gap in a huge map like this without any purpose.
Peering Inside
Author: gibberishh
Author: gibberishh
Author: gibberishh
Author: gibberishh
Author: gibberishh
Author: gibberishh
By means of an elaborate cheat mechanism not included in the game, fellow gamer and collaborator gibberishh was yesterday able to get inside the room, discovering that there was actually a pull cord inside the room! This pull cord, which is in the south alcove, opens both doors. There is nothing else of note inside the room.
It's worth noting that the internal layout of the room, as seen in the screenshot of the automap above, matches what we saw in the cluebook's map.
A Likely Hypothesis
Only the game's developers might be able to explain why they put a pull cord inside the room whose doors it was supposed to open, effectively preventing access. However, seeing the pull cord, one can guess what happened.
In this game, when you have a button on a wall, it actually works on both sides of the wall. This is particularly evident in a much later level called the Elven Warrior's Crypt: Lower Level 2. Pull cords work the same way, although the Caverns West of Barovia do not make this obvious.
Author: gibberishh
In the first map above, the position of the pull cord is indicated by a cyan arrow. If one were to stand on the other side of that wall, i.e. inside the wall indicated by the magenta arrow, then one would be able to pull the cord from there and open the doors to the room. gibberishh was able to verify this by cheat-teleporting into that wall, and could see the pull cord.
What likely happened is that that particular spot was accidentally walled in, thus hiding the pull cord and cutting off access to the room.