Curse of Strahd

Q1. Dragon Statue

The fog makes it hard to see the dragon's features from a distance, but close inspection reveals that it's a silver dragon of noble bearing, its spiny frill cracked and broken in many places. The statue is 10 feet tall but looks much more imposing perched on the granite block.

If scrutinized with a detect magic spell, the statue radiates an aura of evocation magic. The dragon statue used to breathe a cone of cold as part of a magic trap, but the trap no longer works (see area Q2).

Q2. Main Entrance

If a creature climbs the steps or sets foot on the landing, the dragon statue (area Q1) opens its mouth and exhales a 60-foot cone of harmless cold air, then closes its mouth and doesn't activate again until the next dawn. At one time, the statue would breathe a cone of ice and hail, but its magic has deteriorated over the years.

The doors are unlocked and can be pushed open to reveal a dark foyer (area Q3).

Q3. Dragon's Foyer

The tapestry is torn in places and worthless. It is a portrait of Lord Argynvost. The alabaster busts depict several of the dragon's other human guises. The stairs lead up to the second-floor balconies (x).

Q4. Spiders' Ballroom

Nine giant spiders nest here. They attack anyone who gets too close.

Q5. Ruined Stable

There is nothing of value in the stable.

Q6. Dragon's Den

Argynvost had the empty sarcophagus converted into a wine cabinet. Now, only shattered wineglasses and decanters are to be found on the shelves. The den's other furnishings include rotted divans, broken chairs, overturned ottomans, and smashed oil lamps.

A secret door at the north end of the east wall can be pushed open to reveal a storage room (x).

Q7. Parlor

Time and neglect have damaged the furnishings, leaving nothing of value.

Q8. Iron Gate

An iron gate, chained shut, closes off a 10-foot-tall archway on the north wall of the mansion. The key to the chain's padlock was lost long ago, but the lock can be picked by someone who uses thieves' tools and makes a successful DC 20 Dexterity check. The old lock can be smashed by a character who uses a bludgeoning or slashing weapon on it and makes a successful DC 15 Strength check.

Ten-foot-high flights of stone steps to the west and east of the archway lead up to landings and doors that provide access to areas Q7 and Q9.

Q9. Servants' Quarters

Lord Argynvost's household staff once slept here. The room contains nothing of value. Beyond the curtain lies the kitchen (area Q10).

Q10. Kitchen

The iron pot contains an ordinary bat. When the characters get close, it flies out and flaps about the room.

Q11. Wine Storage

Hiding behind the barrels is a wounded elf named Savid (N male dusk elf scout). He has 4 hit points remaining and is grateful for any healing the characters can provide.

Savid lives with the other dusk elves of Barovia in the Vistani camp outside Vallaki (chapter 5, x). He was searching the woods for a missing Vistani girl named Arabelle when a wandering mob of needle blights accosted him. He was forced to take refuge in the mansion.

Savid, who is more than four hundred years old, volunteers the following useful information:

• Argynvost was a silver dragon that liked to assume human forms. Argynvostholt was the dragon's home.
• In human guise, the noble dragon led a group of knights called the Order of the Silver Dragon. They gave shelter to refugees who had come to the valley to escape Strahd's army. Strahd's soldiers slew the dragon, destroyed the order, and sacked the mansion.
• Vistani and dusk elves avoid the mansion, believing that the dragon's ghost haunts it.

The wine in the barrels turned to vinegar and evaporated long ago. Emblazoned on the barrels' sides are the name of the winery, the Wizard of Wines, and the name of the wine, Champagne du le Stomp.

A secret door at the north end of the west wall can be pulled open to reveal a den (x).

Q12. Dining Hall

A continual flame spell was cast on the crystal chandelier long ago and has never been dispelled. The knight statues are lifelike but inanimate.

Q13. Chapel of Morning

If the beacon has not been lit (see x and x), add:

The figures are three revenants clad in tattered chain mail that affords the same protection as leather armor. Each revenant wields a longsword. If the beacon is lit, the revenants are cleansed of their hatred and laid to rest, and the characters find three armored corpses with longswords lying on the floor in front of the altar.

The revenants, if still active, are blinded by their hate and attack the characters on sight, seeking to drive them out of Argynvostholt. As an action, a revenant attacks twice with its longsword, wielding the weapon with both hands and dealing 15 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage on a hit.

Characters who study the room's iconography and orientation (the fact that it draws light from the east) can determine, with a successful DC 10 Intelligence (Religion) check, that the chapel is dedicated to a god of the dawn. Anyone familiar with Barovian religion can conclude that the god in question is the Morninglord.

The balcony (x) is 20 feet high and can be reached by climbing either spiral staircase (area Q14).

Characters who stand near the altar and look up can see the hollow interior of the beacon tower. The tower's lower landing (x) is 60 feet above the chapel floor, and the upper landing (x) is another 20 feet above that.

The bar across the north door is easily lifted from this side. Once the bar is removed, the door can be pulled open to reveal a stone staircase leading down to a cemetery (area Q15).

Q14. Chapel Staircases

The staircase leads from the chapel (area Q13) to the chapel's balcony (x) and climbs another 20 feet to a small, empty room with a window that looks down on the chapel.

Q15. Cemetery

If the beacon has not been lit (see areas Q16 and x), read the following text when the characters cross the cemetery for the first time:

The strange man watches the characters through the southeast window of x. He is merely an apparition intended to lure the characters to that room.

The mausoleum is described in area Q16.

The thick fog obscures the fact that five of the graves have been dug up. Closer inspection and a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals that the corpses buried there crawled out of the earth. Of the missing corpses there is no sign, but the surrounding fence is intact, which suggests that no one got into the cemetery from outside. (These corpses were animated by the spirits of revenants and clawed their way out.)

A stone staircase curls up the outside of a turret to a flagstone landing in front of a sturdy wooden door. The door is barred from the inside and opens into the chapel (x).

Q16. Dragon's Mausoleum

The dragon-shaped gargoyles are harmless statuary. The stone door can be pulled open with a successful DC 15 Strength check.

Characters who can read the Draconic script can decipher the writing on the wall:

Q17. West Staircases

These staircases connect the second-floor balconies (area Q18) to x and x on the third floor.

Q18. Balconies

The balcony is 20 feet above the floor of the foyer (x). The weapons and shields hanging on the walls are nonmagical. The busts, displayed atop wooden pedestals, depict various human guises of the dragon Argynvost. Their eyes seem to watch the characters as they walk by, but the effect is an optical illusion.

Q19. Ruined Bedchambers

There are two of these rooms.

The wooden floor creaks underfoot. Although it is safe to walk on, doing so attracts the giant spiders from x. The spiders crawl up into the room and attack. The floor here is 20 feet above the floor of the ballroom.

Q20. South Alcove

One of the narrow windows in the back of the alcove has a broken glass pane through which a slight breeze passes, causing the curtain to move. When the characters look behind the curtain, read:

Beneath the black cloth is the severed head of a randomly determined character—an illusion created by Strahd's consciousness. In actuality, it's an exquisite alabaster bust of a handsome, middle-aged human with a neatly trimmed mustache and beard (Lord Argynvost). The illusion is too strong to be disbelieved, but it can be dispelled if the bust is broken or covered up again.

Q21. North Alcove

The alcove is empty except for the narrow windows in the back walls. Whenever the characters part the curtain and leave, the curtain is closed when they return. Only by removing the curtain from its rod can they prevent the curtain from closing on its own.

Q22. Bathroom

The mural accurately depicts the Balinok Mountains.

Q23. Storage Room

This room has been thoroughly looted. The wooden floor is soft and spongy, and it can't support more than 100 pounds of weight. If more weight is applied, the floor collapses, and any creature in the room falls 20 feet, taking damage as normal and landing in x.

Q24. Chapel Balcony

The doors behind the throne lead to x and x. A wooden railing surrounds the balcony, which is 20 feet above the floor of the chapel (x).

Q25. Trapped Hallway

The ceiling in the hall is 20 feet high. The wooden doors to x and x are locked, requiring a successful DC 20 Strength check to break down. The 10-foot squares in front of the doors (marked T on the x) are trapped. When a character enters one of these squares, a floor-to-ceiling wall of stone (created by the spell of the same name) magically appears across the opening on the south wall. At the same time, the phantom warriors in areas Q27 and Q28 rush through the doors (which can be freely opened from their side) and attack.

The wall of stone vanishes after 10 minutes, at which time the trap resets. Characters who cast a detect magic spell in the hall can perceive hazy auras of evocation magic in front of the doors.

Q26. Northeast Guest Room

The door to this room hangs open.

When one or more characters approach within 10 feet of the fireplace, add:

The smoky dragonet has the statistics of a smoke mephit but fights only in self-defense. If left alone, it flies out of the room at a speed of 30 feet, up the spiral staircase (x), through the curtain at x, over the rubble in x, and into x. Once there, it lands on the back of Vladimir's throne and disappears.

Q27. Knights' Quarters

Four phantom warriors (see x) haunt this room. They manifest only when the characters enter the room or trigger the magic trap in x. They fight until destroyed.

Q28. Knights' Quarters

Three phantom warriors (see x) haunt this room. They manifest only when the characters enter the room or trigger the magic trap in area Q25. They fight until destroyed.

Q29. Northwest Guest Room

The portrait depicts the silver dragon Argynvost in its guise as the human noble Lord Argynvost.

Q30. Curtained Staircase

A tattered black curtain conceals an archway leading to a spiral staircase that descends to x.

At the top of the stairs is a secret door that can be pulled open to reveal x beyond.

Q31. East Staircases

A round-topped wooden door opens to reveal a spiral staircase with narrow windows set into its walls. The stair connects the third floor and the mansion's roof.

Q32. Ruined Bedchambers

These two rooms stand across from each other, separated by a ruined corridor that abruptly ends to the south of their doors.

The floor here is 40 feet above of the floor of the ballroom (x). The roof is 20 feet overhead.

Q33. Collapsed Ceiling

The ceiling here is 20 feet high, and the rubble is 3.

Vladimir Horngaard (see x) can hear visitors climbing over the rubble and can't be surprised by them.

Q34. Ruined Bathroom

Q35. Upstairs Gallery

From north to south, the three stained-glass windows portray Saint Andral, the Morninglord, and Saint Markovia.

Q36. Dragon's Audience Hall

Vladimir Horngaard (see x), commander of the fallen Order of the Silver Dragon, is slumped in the throne. If the beacon of Argynvostholt (see x) has been lit, the corpse is lifeless, and characters can plunder it freely (see "x" below).

If the beacon has not been lit, the body is serving as a host for the revenant. If the characters approach it, it says, "Go away." If they don't leave immediately, read:

Vladimir fights in self-defense. He also rises from his throne and attacks if the characters fail to heed his warning and press him for help destroying Strahd. The first time Vladimir takes damage, six phantom warriors (see x) materialize and join the fray, coming to his defense.

Hatred so clouds Vladimir's mind that he can't remember that Sir Godfrey (x) was his beloved in life. If Sir Godfrey helps the characters and faces Vladimir, anguished recognition shines in Vladimir's eyes, yet only lighting the beacon can free him.

Q37. Knights of the Order

The leaders of the Order of the Silver Dragon used to convene here.

If the beacon in area Q53 has been lit, the spirits of these revenants are laid to rest, leaving behind their inanimate corpses. If the beacon has not been lit, add the following:

The skeletal figures are five revenants. All five are lawful evil. They are awaiting orders from Vladimir (x) and fight only in self-defense. The revenants wear broken chainmail that affords as much protection as leather armor, and they wield longswords. As an action, a revenant attacks twice with its longsword, wielding the weapon with both hands and dealing 15 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage on a hit.

One of the revenants, Sir Godfrey Gwilym, is a spellcaster with a challenge rating of 6 (2,300 XP) and the following additional feature:

Characters who inspect the fireplace notice a shield-shaped patch on the wall above the mantelpiece. A magic shield once hung above the fireplace, but it was taken when Strahd's soldiers plundered the mansion. It now rests in Castle Ravenloft's treasury (chapter 4, x).

Q38. Closet

Q39. Vladimir's Bedroom

This room once served as a bedchamber for Sir Vladimir Horngaard and Sir Godfrey Gwilym. The bear and the dire wolf are stuffed and harmless. Looters ransacked the chest long ago, leaving nothing of value.

Q40. Argynvost's Study

Strahd's soldiers forced open the iron door that once sealed Argynvost's vault (x). They also took every book in this study but one. (Many of the books taken from here can be found in Strahd's study in Castle Ravenloft.)

The sole remaining volume lies on the floor behind the overturned chair. Titled The Oath Celestial, the book has been partially burned, and its cover was slashed by a sword. Leafing through the crumbling book reveals that it is a devotional text for knights from a place called the Holy Empire of Valentia. Most of the knights who joined Argynvost against Strahd came from that empire—now lost beyond the mists.

Q41. Dragon's Vault

The iron door leading to this room hangs open on a single rusty hinge. It has obviously been forced open and no longer closes properly.

This vault once held a dragon's trove but was stripped of all valuables long ago.

Q42. Argynvost's Bedroom

Argynvost preferred to sleep in his dragon form. Thus, there is no furniture here.

Q43. Hole in Roof

This 20-foot-diameter hole in the mansion's roof is directly above x, the floor of which is 20 feet below. The rubble on the roof surrounding the hole is 3. The roof is sloped and covered with cracked stone tiles. Climbing the tiled roof requires a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check. A failure by 5 or more causes the climber to slide down to the parapet, landing prone but taking no damage.

Q44. Dragon Gargoyle

The silver dragon wyrmling statue is 10 feet above the parapet and has a magic mouth spell cast on it. When a character passes in front of it, the spell is activated, and the wyrmling whispers the following short verse in the Common tongue:

When the dragon dreams its dream

Within its rightful tomb,

The light of Argynvost will beam

And rid this land of gloom.

Q45. Ancient Ballista

The ballista falls apart if disturbed.

Q46. Destroyed Ballista

The turrets are described in area Q47.

Q47. Roof Turrets

The knights who once guarded the rooftop used these turrets for warmth and shelter on rainy days and cold nights.

Q48. Roof's Edge

The edge of the roof is sturdy enough to walk on, and not in danger of further collapse. It's 20 feet down to x, 40 feet down to x, and 60 feet down to x.

Q49. Beacon Tower Door

This door is barred from the inside. The phantom warriors in the tower's turrets (x) make ranged attacks against characters who try to force their way into the tower. These spectral defenders have three-quarters cover behind the arrow slits.

Q50. Beacon, Lower Landing

The landing and the stairs creak and shudder underfoot, but they are safe.

Q51. Beacon, Upper Landing

The landing creaks and groans underfoot, much like in area Q50, but here things aren't so safe. The 10-foot-long section marked T on the x is particularly weak, collapsing under 50 or more pounds of weight. A creature on this section of the landing when it collapses must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or fall 20 feet to the landing below (x). The collapse of this section creates a 10-foot gap in the landing.

The doors lead to the rooftops of the turrets (area Q52).

Q52. Beacon Turrets

These turret rooftops are 80 feet above ground level. The spiral stairs descend 20 feet to archers' posts—small rooms lined with arrow slits. Standing guard in each of these rooms is a phantom warrior (see x) with a spectral longbow that shoots arrows of force energy. The two phantom warriors gain the following action options:

Q53. Beacon of Argynvostholt

The ravens that roost here are harmless, but they watch the characters with great interest. If the characters look out the windows, you can use the following text to describe what they see in the distance.

The small town is Vallaki (chapter 5). The windmill is Old Bonegrinder (chapter 6). The abbey is the Abbey of Saint Markovia in Krezk (chapter 8).

Special Delivery

This encounter occurs while the characters are inside Argynvostholt. Those who have a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 11 or higher hear the clopping of horse hooves and the crunch of wagon wheels on gravel.

A cart pulled by a draft horse and driven by a mad Vistana named Kolya (CN male human bandit) stops in front of the mansion. After relieving himself on the statue of Argynvost (x), Kolya untethers the horse and rides back to the Vistani camp outside Vallaki (chapter 5, x), leaving the cart and its cargo: a plain wooden coffin.

The coffin was made in Vallaki by the local coffin maker, Henrik van der Voort (see chapter 5, x). It has the name of one of the characters (determined randomly) neatly chiseled into its lid. Opening the coffin releases a swarm of bats from within. The swarm attacks the character whose name is engraved on the coffin. If that character isn't in sight, the swarm flies away.

Arrigal's Hunt

Ezmerelda d'Avenir (see appendix D) arrives at Argynvostholt on the back of a riding horse stolen from the Vistani camp outside Vallaki (chapter 5, x). She has heard that the reportedly haunted mansion might harbor enemies of Strahd and contain secrets to the vampire's destruction.

Once she arrives, Ezmerelda releases the horse (which flees back to its camp) and quietly makes her way through the mansion until she reaches the characters.

Hot on Ezmerelda's trail are the Vistani leader Arrigal (NE male human assassin) and two Vistani bodyguards (CE female bandits). Arrigal rides a black riding horse, while the bandits ride two dire wolves. These dire wolves are servants of Strahd and can't be charmed or frightened.

Arrigal is determined to capture Ezmerelda and haul her back to the Vistani camp to face punishment for horse theft. He does nothing to antagonize the characters, however, and returns to the Vistani camp if he can't convince them to give up Ezmerelda. For more information on Arrigal, see chapter 5, x.