The Beacon of Argynvostholt

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NotebookLM

Gemini

Malron’s Account

Called Before Noon

As we woke, a revenant found us: Harkus Grishenko, a guard of the Order, sent to summon us. He carried word from a phantom warrior. Commander Vladimir Horngaard has called every knight of the Order of the Silver Dragon back to Argynvostholt by noon tomorrow. Horngaard is enraged that we broke into Castle Ravenloft, he sees Strahd as a necessary evil, and he is expected to command his knights to destroy us at any cost. Harkus apologized for the harm he may be made to do us if we meet again. Had we spoken with Sir Godfrey Gwilym and learned of his mission? We had. Then, he urged, if we held the skull, we must fulfill the dragon’s prophecy and return it to the cemetery before Horngaard’s full wrath fell.

AI-generated image of Vladimir Horngaard (Google Gemini, October 2026). Not official art.

Drained on the Road

We weighed creeping in against simply arriving fast. From Krezk by the Raven River crossroads it is about three hours to Argynvostholt, so we ran.

Haste dulled our eyes. In the middle of the road lay a man in fine clothes, his purse gone, no one of importance by the look of him, dried out and drained through the bite marks on his neck. I gave him last rites in Lathander’s light while the others kept watch. Halfway along the second stretch we found we had been following a false trail and lost an hour turning back, but we still reached Argynvostholt before dusk.

Strings of Black Wire

Thick fog covered the floor of Argynvostholt’s foyer. At the foot of the once-grand staircase stood a single revenant in patterned chainmail with a rusted longsword, red eyes glinting behind a beaten helmet. Strands of black spiked wire wrapped its limbs and crawled over its flesh like puppet strings. “May you greet your deaths with honor and courage,” it rasped, “as our general has commanded.”

AI-generated image of Revenants of Argynvostholt (Google Gemini, November 2026). Not official art.

It moved before any of us. Its glare locked Aera rigid where she stood, and the fear stayed on her after the paralysis passed. Its blade bit into Olfin. Crusty’s Scorching Ray, his owl harrying the thing, burned it twice. I laid my hand on Aera and set Lathander’s ward against evil upon her. Shabasta’s frost struck it, and Olfin cut it twice; when it tried to step past him toward Shabasta, Olfin’s blade caught it again and held it there, forcing it to keep fighting him. Free of the paralysis, Aera put an arrow deep into it from where it could not see her. Crusty’s Fire Bolt scorched it; my Sacred Flame washed off it; Shabasta’s Chromatic Orb burned. It struck Olfin again as one of his swings went wide, Aera hit once more, and Crusty finished it with one last Fire Bolt that took the revenant’s head off: “Just like Kamehameha.” Before it fell, the revenant warned us that Commander Horngaard waits in the cemetery: “May the Morning Lord protect you.”

“Some of You May Die”

The skull belongs in the mausoleum at the back of the cemetery, behind a high wall, and Horngaard was waiting there. We argued it out: go directly, go sneakily, a sniper on the guard tower, a zip line, Crusty turning someone into a T-Rex to break through the mausoleum wall. We settled on “sneaky but direct”: the rest of us would approach Horngaard as the distraction while Aera slipped around with the skull. Zorya flew to Aera and gestured wildly, trying to shape a skull with her claws, but Aera could not understand her, and even Crusty, who speaks Draconic, got only simple gestures and squeaks.

Then Shabasta offered a shortcut: the mausoleum was only 50 feet away, and he could open a door through the air to it. A step like that can go wrong and leave you stranded on another plane. Shabasta, cheerfully: “Some of you may die.” He took Aera with him anyway. They arrived inside the mausoleum and had to make no sound at all, and with a little help from his lucky coin Shabasta managed it.

Vladimir Horngaard was in the mausoleum with them, holding forth at the rest of us: “You’re too dangerous to be left alive. Your antagonism to von Zarovich is a threat I shall not tolerate.” Then Zorya flew in and harried his face. While he was distracted, Aera climbed the wall with the skull and set it on its mount in one clean, perfect climb. Black shadows swirled from the torches and dark flames spread across the cemetery in a ring, but because Aera befriended a pseudodragon long ago, because of Zorya’s distraction, and because the skull reached its place first, we never had to fight Horngaard at all.

Your Watch Has Ended

Silver light rose through the mist toward the skull, and pricks of light flared in its great eyes. With a roar like thunder, a bank of silver mist burst from the mausoleum and an enormous ghostly dragon took shape in the sky: Argynvost. Vladimir dropped his greatsword and stared upward. “My knights, what has this land done to you?” the dragon rumbled. “You have forsaken courage for fear and faith for despair, and so forgotten me.” Vladimir, weeping, swore they never gave up the faith. The dragon reached out a clawed hand to offer him rest, but Vladimir stopped: “What have I left, if not the suffering of the one who took all I once loved?” Argynvost turned to us for help.

AI-generated image of Argynvost (Google Gemini, October 2026). Not official art.

Shabasta spoke: “Although your efforts to prevent us from doing this were good-hearted, we knew that you truly wanted this done. And so we did it in the same heart that you had.” Vladimir placed his hand in the dragon’s palm. “From this until the end of days.” With a single claw on the knight’s cheek, Argynvost told him, “Your watch has ended,” and Vladimir crumbled away like fine ash, his empty armor falling beside his sword.

What Godfrey Knew

The revenants haunting Argynvostholt dissolved into mist, the spirits of the Order’s knights were freed from their corpses, and from the chapel came a clatter of chains. Sir Godfrey’s spirit took shape, restored to the noble, golden-haired knight he was, his scarlet eyes now a piercing blue. He knelt to us: “Hail, friends. Hail, Lord Argynvost.” The dragon thanked us; his knights are saved, and his long-waning hope is rekindled. He was woken weeks ago by distant dragon song from beyond Barovia, and he senses a grand alignment approaching. He asked whether any of us carries an amber shard. Aera does, and he warned her to beware how fiercely she gazes into its abyss.

Through Sir Godfrey we learned more of the Amber Temple. Weeks ago a dusk elf named Kasimir Velikov came to Argynvostholt seeking its history, location and contents. Godfrey warned him away from the darkness within but sensed magic, intelligence and desperation in him, the kind the temple preys on. The temple lies near the peak of Mount Ghakis at the end of a trail long lost; Kasimir may have found it again, and may guide us there.

A Silver Beacon

Argynvost offered a boon to one melee weapon for restoring his skull. Shabasta has his special spear and Aera her meat cleaver, so the blessing went to Olfin’s plain longsword until we find the Sunsword. Argynvost asked if we understand the evil we face and the trials ahead; we told him we have endured too much to stop. He asked us to bear the legacy of the Order of the Silver Dragon, and we swore its oath, line by line: “With honor as my shield and truth as my guide. In the shadow of evil, I shall be the light. In the face of despair, the beacon of hope… From this to the end of days.”

AI-generated image of Argynvostholt (Google Gemini, October 2026). Not official art.

His spirit, he warned, will burn as a beacon to tell the valley the final conflict is at hand, but not for long: perhaps half a cycle of the moon, about seven days, before it is consumed. We must make haste. A chorus of thousands of distant voices rose, the silver flames devoured the dragon’s form, and the blaze surged like a comet into the manor’s tallest tower. For an instant the land for miles was painted silver. The light found Sasha alone on the rooftops of Castle Ravenloft, her face twisted with sudden hope; Kavan’s spirit at his lonely cairn, lifting his head in remembrance; and Lady Fiona Wachter on the sagging doorstep of her manor, tears on her cheeks. The beacon still shines over the valleys.

While it shines, it shields us and every creature that opposes Strahd, for as long as we remain in Barovia. Blades find Crusty harder to reach than ever.

Key Locations

Road from Krezk to Argynvostholt: About three hours by way of the Raven River crossroads. A vampire’s victim lies in the road, and a false trail cost us an hour.
Argynvostholt, the foyer: Fog over the floor and a lone revenant on the grand staircase, bound by black wire.
Argynvostholt, cemetery and mausoleum: Behind a high wall at the back of the grounds. Where Horngaard waited, and where Argynvost’s skull now rests on its mount.
Argynvostholt’s tallest tower: Now home to the silver beacon of Argynvost’s spirit.
Amber Temple: Near the peak of Mount Ghakis, at the end of a long-lost trail.

Encounters

Harkus Grishenko, a revenant messenger, warned us of Horngaard’s coming order and urged us to return the skull.
A drained corpse on the road, and a false trail that cost us an hour.
A wire-bound revenant in the foyer. It froze Aera and wounded Olfin twice; Olfin pinned it in place, and Crusty’s Fire Bolt took its head off.
Shabasta’s door through the air, Zorya’s distraction and Aera’s climb put the skull in place without a fight, and Shabasta’s words helped Vladimir Horngaard accept his rest.

Loot

Olfin’s longsword, blessed by Argynvost: Its powers, as the DM wrote them down for us afterward: a +1 magic weapon with 3 charges, all regained at dawn.
- 1 charge, bonus action: silver flames wreathe the blade for 1 minute. Each attack deals an extra 1d4 cold damage, and on a critical hit the target must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution save or be paralyzed until the start of the wielder’s next turn.
- 2 charges, bonus action: cast beacon of hope.
- 3 charges, action: a blast of silver flame, a 15-foot cone for a melee weapon or a 30-foot line for a ranged one. Each hostile creature in it makes a DC 20 Constitution save, taking 58 (13d8) cold damage on a failure or half as much on a success. Once used, it can’t be used again for one year.
Beacon of Argynvost: While the beacon shines, +1 to AC and +1 to saving throws for the party and every creature that opposes Strahd, as long as they remain in Barovia.
Vladimir Horngaard’s armor and greatsword, left where he fell.

Notable NPCs

Harkus Grishenko: A revenant guard of the Order who delivers the warning and apologizes for the harm he may be ordered to do.
Vladimir Horngaard: Commander of the Order of the Silver Dragon, who chose vengeance against Strahd over rest. “What have I left, if not the suffering of the one who took all I once loved?” At last he takes the dragon’s hand and turns to ash.
Argynvost: The silver dragon, restored as a spirit by the return of his skull. He frees his knights, blesses Olfin’s longsword and burns himself into a beacon. “Your watch has ended.”
Sir Godfrey Gwilym: Freed from his revenant body and restored to the knight he was. He shared what he knows of Kasimir and the Amber Temple.
Zorya: Aera’s pseudodragon, whose distraction let us mount the skull without a fight.
Kasimir Velikov: Not seen this time. A dusk elf who sought the Amber Temple and may be able to guide us there.
Sasha, Kavan and Lady Fiona Wachter: Glimpsed only, touched by the beacon’s light across Barovia.

Plot Points

Vladimir Horngaard is at rest and the knights of the Order of the Silver Dragon are free.
We have sworn the oath of the Order and now carry its legacy.
Argynvost’s beacon may last about seven days, perhaps more. We must make haste.
A grand alignment approaches: distant dragon song woke Argynvost weeks ago.
Argynvost warns Aera about the amber shard she carries.
Next: the Amber Temple on Mount Ghakis, possibly with Kasimir as a guide, then the Sunsword and Strahd.

Session Highlights

Crusty’s Fire Bolt taking the revenant’s head off: “Just like Kamehameha.”
Shabasta stepping through the air into the mausoleum, and Aera’s flawless climb to mount the skull.
Zorya’s distraction turning a deadly fight into no fight at all.
Shabasta’s words to Vladimir: “We did it in the same heart that you had.”
All of us swearing the oath of the Order of the Silver Dragon.