Argynvostholt, Part 5
11th Moon, 735
Luca's arcane eye spell saw nothing else on the rooftop beyond a gargoyle-like statue of a silver dragon wyrmling. He then had it go over the roof and down towards the back of the manor to the cemetery.
The entire group gathered in the chamber where they met the spirit of Argynvost. Edmont and Taraka-san, with the use of a rope, decided to climb out of the window and down to the cemetery two stories below. With the rope being wet, the kenku ranger fell but only suffered a minor sprain. Together and with Luca's arcane eye, they investigated a mausoleum adorned with tarnished, silver-plated gargoyles shaped like dragon wyrmlings clinging to the stone-tiled roof of this mausoleum. An eight-foot-tall, four-foot-wide white marble door set into the southwest wall is engraved with a name: ARGYNVOST.
They entered but found the mausoleum completely empty.
After climbing back, the group decided to send Edmont and Luca together to search out the rest of the manor for anything that might help them learn more about Argynvostholt or find anything of value. The others would remain behind.
Edmont and Luca first searched the floor they were on. The first chamber they came upon was spacious. It was full of dust and cobwebs, with faded war banners adorning the walls. In the center stood a heavy wooden table. An iron chandelier hung above the table, which was surrounded by six high-backed chairs with wood-carved dragons perched atop them. Slumped in five of the chairs were skeletal humans in tattered chainmail.
The two decided to leave the room alone.
Heading down to the second floor, they first came upon a guest room. The contents of this room were draped in cobwebs. Between curtained windows stood a black marble hearth with a sculpted mantelpiece, above which hung a framed portrait of a handsome, well-dressed man with a wry smile and a thick mane of thistledown hair. Opposite the fireplace was a large bed with a rotting mattress and wooden posts carved to resemble dragons. Across from the double doors stood a tall wardrobe, its doors hung open, revealing a dark and empty cavity. The only other piece of furniture was an overstuffed leather chair that faced the hearth.
They both entered the room and examined it carefully but found nothing of interest.
Continuing on, the two came upon another guest room. Inside, two beds with torn canopies stood against opposite walls with a tattered rug lying on the floor between them. Set into the far wall was a fireplace black with soot. They both searched the room and found nothing.
Stepping out into the hallway, they both smelled the familiar stench of decomposition coming from a T-shaped hallway that branched to the west and east. Three arched windows in the north wall looked out into the foggy stormy night.
The two discovered the decomposing body of an adventurer, possibly a fighter by the looks of his equipment. The dead fighter lay face up down the eastern hallway, ten feet shy of a stout wooden door.
Luca examined the floor and noted that only the fighter's prints were visible in the thick dust. The fighter seemed to have moved about the hall a lot before he collapsed onto the floor.
Both felt it best to leave the dead body alone.
But as they turned around, they were horrified to see the hallway they came from earlier had now ended at a stone wall.
They were trapped and couldn't go back the way they came from!
Readying for a fight they felt was coming, they found themselves facing armored spectral warriors armed with longswords. The undead knights manifested out of thin air or floated through stone walls and came at them with hatred in their eyes.
Luca ran into the room he and Edmont just emerged from. Inside, the tabaxi wizard found himself surrounded by four of the knights who floated out of the nearby walls.
Out in the hallway, Edmont faced three of the ghostly knights alone. Surrounded, he was struck several times by the knights' ghostly blades.
Luca fared no better inside the room as the four knights struck him repeatedly.
Realizing they could die if they remained, Edmont decided to run into the room where Luca was. The wizard saw Edmont head straight for a window. Without stopping, the pirate rogue jumped through the glass window and disappeared into the storm-wracked night sky.
Luca wasn't about to jump out the window but had a similar escape plan in mind. He quickly moved to the window. The spectral knights attacked him as he fled.
Reaching the window, Luca looked outside and into the cemetery below. He spotted Edmont below. The wizard couldn't believe the pirate rogue's luck as escaping deadly encounters.
Before the ghostly knights could reach him, Luca focused on the cemetery ground. In an instant, the wizard teleported himself next to Edmont!
Both looked back up to the window where they saw the spectral knights standing and looking down at them both. Both were thankful the undead knights did not chase after them.
Drenched but alive, Luca and Edmont considered what to do next.
NOTE: The players decided to stop playing the Curse of Strahd module so we moved on to the Ghost of Saltmarsh module...which, sadly, didn't last much longer either. Perhaps in the future, a new group of travelers may find themselves drawn into the domain of Barovia by a mysterious mist?
Session played on May 8, 2020
Plot type
Chapter
Parent Plot
NPCs: Ezmerelda d’Avenir (Female Human Vistana)
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