# General No floor plan image yet — the full room-by-room layout (areas Q1-Q53 across the ground floor, upper floors, and roof) lives in the CLI reference chapter linked in GM Notes below. Add a `leaflet` map block here (see [[2-World/Hubs/Village of Barovia.md|Village of Barovia]] for the format) once a floor plan image exists. A winding branch of the Old Svalich Road climbs a forested mountain spur to Argynvostholt, a sepulchral mansion perched on high ground above the Svalich Woods and the Luna River valley. A third of the structure has collapsed and part of the roof has caved in, but the rest still stands — turrets capped with fairy-tale cones, battlements lined with sculpted stonework, and a dark octagonal beacon tower rising above it all. The mansion was once the seat of Lord Argynvost, in truth a silver dragon who lived among humans and founded the **Order of the Silver Dragon** — a company of knights who sheltered refugees fleeing Strahd and helped guard the nearby [[2-World/Points of Interest/Amber Temple.md|Amber Temple]] against anyone seeking what's sealed inside it. During the war between Strahd and his enemies, the order held the valley for years before Strahd's reinforcements finally overran it, slaughtered the knights, and slew Argynvost himself — hacking the dragon's corpse apart and carrying its skull back to Castle Ravenloft as a trophy. Since then, Argynvostholt has stood empty and haunted: a former bastion of nobility turned into a place of grief and unrest. #### Layout The mansion's areas are keyed Q1-Q53 in the source material: - **Grounds** (Q1-Q2) — a moss-covered dragon statue with a long-dead breath-weapon trap, and the main entrance beneath it. - **Ground Floor** (Q3-Q17) — the Dragon's Foyer and grand staircase; a collapsed ballroom nested by giant spiders; ransacked private rooms including Argynvost's den (haunted by a harmless spirit of living fire) and servants' quarters; the wine storage where the wounded dusk elf Savid is hiding; the Dining Hall; and the Chapel of Morning, which opens onto the cemetery and the Dragon's Mausoleum where Argynvost's remains once lay. - **Second Floor / Balconies** (Q18-Q30) — the foyer's overlooking balconies, ruined and guest bedchambers, a bathroom and storage room, the chapel's balcony, and the Trapped Hallway, where a hidden *wall of stone* trap unleashes phantom warriors from the adjoining knights' quarters (Q27-Q28). - **Third Floor** (Q31-Q42) — the ruined Dragon's Audience Hall, where Vladimir Horngaard broods on his throne; the meeting hall of the order's leaders, where Sir Godfrey Gwilym and four other revenant knights wait on Vladimir's word; and Argynvost's Study and looted vault. - **Roof & Beacon Tower** (Q43-Q53) — collapsed sections, a rooftop gargoyle bearing a prophetic rhyme, ruined ballistae and guard turrets, and the Beacon of Argynvostholt at the tower's peak — the site of the mansion's one chance at redemption. #### Atmosphere Fog, rot, and rain-slick rubble everywhere the war and the years since have left their mark. A tattered tapestry of Lord Argynvost still hangs over the grand staircase, and his shadow — harmless, but unsettling — still crosses the foyer walls. Dusk elves and Vistani alike give the place a wide berth, certain the dragon's ghost still haunts it. They aren't wrong, exactly — they just don't know that the ghosts that matter here are the knights who failed him. # Travel | Destination | Travel Days | | ---|---| | [[2-World/Hubs/Village of Barovia.md|Village of Barovia]] | 🕓: A branch of the Old Svalich Road climbs from the valley floor up to the mansion — roughly a day's travel through the Svalich Woods. | | Vallaki | 🕓: Visible to the north and east from the beacon tower, across the valley and past [[2-World/Points of Interest/Old Bonegrinder.md|Old Bonegrinder]] — about a day on foot. | | Krezk | 🕓: The [[2-World/Points of Interest/Abbey of Saint Markovia.md|Abbey of Saint Markovia]] is visible to the west from the beacon tower, beyond the fog-smothered pines — a day or more through the hills. | # Scene Summary High above the river valley juts a quiet promontory upon which looms a sepulchral mansion, its turrets capped with fairy-tale cones, its towers lined with sculpted battlements. A third of the structure has collapsed, as has part of the roof, but the rest appears intact. A dark, octagonal tower rises above the surrounding architecture. Out of the fog comes a distant peal of thunder, quickly followed by the howling of wolves in the woods below — but the house itself stands silent, like the fossilized remains of some long-dead thing. ### The Foyer The unlocked front doors open onto a room that feels like a king's tomb: a grand staircase climbing to stone balconies, a faded tapestry of a silver-armored nobleman, and alabaster busts of handsome men on marble pedestals — one shattered on the floor. The first time the party crosses it, a great shadow with wings sweeps across the walls and vanishes with a soft, bestial hiss. It's harmless. Probably. ### The Ballroom and Ruined Wings Much of the mansion's southern end has collapsed into rubble, and what's left of the grand ballroom below is thick with webs and home to a nest of giant spiders. Broken chandeliers and furniture litter the pink marble floor beneath torn silk and dust. ### The Chapel and Cemetery A stone chapel dedicated to a forgotten god of the dawn sits at the heart of the ground floor, its stained-glass windows mostly shattered and letting the fog pour in. Armored figures kneel unmoving before the altar — until the party gets close. Beyond a barred north door lies a fog-shrouded cemetery ringed by iron fencing, where several graves have been dug up from below, and a marble mausoleum bears a single name carved into its door: Argynvost. ### The Beacon Tower Wooden stairs climb sixty feet above the chapel floor to a peaked chamber ringed with tall arched windows, roosted in by silent ravens. From here the whole valley is visible through the fog: a distant town and windmill to the north and east, a marshy river valley to the south, and a snow-capped abbey to the west. It's easy to imagine, standing here, what this room might look like lit from within.