The Order of the Silver Dragon

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Travel to Argynvostholt, which is on the map from the start: the knights' road runs north from Vallaki (5 hours) or up from Tser Pool (4½ hours). Sir Godfrey Gwilym waits on the broken front steps the first time you walk up the drive and speaks as you come near. That puts the quest at Met. Nothing has to happen first. After this first meeting he lives in his room on the upper floor.

Come by day if you can. Once you've met Godfrey, the courtyard in front of the doors fills with phantom men-at-arms after dark: a fight with 4 Phantom Warriors at level 8, 3 at level 7, 2 below that. It happens once, and never after the Order's fate is settled.

Step by step

1. Meet Godfrey on the steps. He sends you to the commander in the great hall. Good questions: "Who are you? All of you?", "Why is the beacon dark?" (which starts The Dragon's Beacon), and, if Madam Eva's cards named him, "Madam Eva's cards named you, Sir Godfrey." (see step 4).
2. Meet Vladimir. Go in through the front doors to the great hall. Vladimir Horngaard sits at the head of a long table of dead knights in a chair carved with folded wings, and he's there at any hour. Meeting him moves the quest to Commander. He won't help end Strahd: he wants Strahd alive and suffering forever, with the Order watching. Ask "Why keep the beacon dark?" and try Insight DC 13 ("That isn't the whole reason") to see the guilt under it. That opens a question for the dragon's echo later; failing costs nothing else. If the reading put a treasure "in the keeping of the dead knight who commands it", "You're keeping something that could hurt Strahd." gets him to admit it. Every ending below hands it over.
3. Do the legwork in the chapel and upstairs. It opens the plain, roll-free routes:
   • In the chapel, at the west end of the ground floor, the echo of Argynvost answers from the frosted window. "Why can't your knights rest?", then "What did you ask of him, at the end?", gets the dragon's last words to Vladimir. "What oath did your knights swear?", or reading the oath stone by the chapel door, teaches you the Order's oath.
   • On Argynvostholt, Upper Floor, Godfrey's room is at the west end. The charcoal writing that covers his wall is a list of every knight's name and what they loved, with his own at the bottom; reading it counts as legwork too. Vladimir's bare room at the east end holds his duty roster and a strongbox (lock DC 18: 120 gp and a level 1 spell scroll).
4. Help Godfrey remember (opens the muster). Once you've met Vladimir, ask Godfrey in his room "Your commander won't fight to end Strahd. Will you?" He admits he's lost the words of the oath. Give them back with any of:
   • the Order's oath ("Say the Order's oath to him");
   • his own wall ("Read him the bottom of his own wall", after you've read it);
   • the dragon's last words;
   • or Persuasion DC 15 ("You don't need the words. You remember that it mattered."). One try. If it fails he asks you to find the words.

   He remembers. The quest moves to Remembering, he becomes friendly, and he gives you his polished Armor, +1 (Godrick +4, Liriel +1). From then on "Is anything left in the Order's armory?" opens his shop. If the cards named him your ally, giving him back the oath or reading him his wall when you ask him to join counts as remembering too: the quest moves to Remembering and he hands over the plate before he joins (though without the approval). He gives the plate only once, whichever way he remembers. Joining him with "We can't give you back what you've lost..." doesn't make him remember.

5. Choose the Order's fate (next section). Each of the three endings gives Argynvostholt's milestone (a level), once.

Choices and endings

• Ride (success): the Order marches with you. In Vladimir's menu, "Call the muster, Commander. Let the Order hear us." appears once Godfrey remembers or you know the dragon's last words. He strikes the table and every dead head turns. Then:
  • "Tell the knights what the dragon asked of Vladimir as he died." (last words, no roll). Vladimir breaks and leads the march himself (Godrick +3, Wren +2, Liriel +2).
  • Persuasion DC 14, "Sir Godfrey remembers the oath. Let him say it to them." On a success Vladimir leads. On a failure the Order rides anyway, but follows Godfrey, and Vladimir is left alone at an empty table.
  • Persuasion DC 18, "Your hate keeps him company...". One try. A failure returns you to his menu, where the other routes still work.
  • A trial of arms: "We'll settle this by the Order's own law. A trial of arms." (from his menu or the muster) starts Vladimir Duel: Vladimir (Vladimir Horngaard, AC 17, 195 HP) with a Revenant as his second at level 8, Vladimir alone at level 7, Vladimir at 140 HP below that. He regenerates 10 HP every turn unless he took fire or radiant damage since his last turn, so keep fire or radiant on him every round. When he goes down he yields and speaks as you approach. "Then the Order rides with us to the castle." gives you the Order with Godfrey leading. "We only want what you're keeping." (if the treasure is his) takes the treasure and nothing else. "Keep your knights for now." leaves it, and "By the Order's law, we command now." stays in his menu for later.

  On a ride the quest ends at Ride, The Dragon's Beacon moves to Waiting, and you get the milestone and whatever he was keeping. Afterwards the knights saddle horses that aren't there, hunt Strahd's creatures on the night roads, and salute you on the stair at the end of the game.

• Rest (success): light the beacon. Kindle the dragon's fire at his bones in the mausoleum and carry it to the top of the tower; The Dragon's Beacon walks you through it. Vladimir climbs after you. The dragon's last words talk him down with no roll, Persuasion DC 17 does it with one, and otherwise you fight him there. When it burns, the knights lie down at the table at last and the quest ends at Rest, with big approval (Godrick +4, Liriel +3, everyone else +1). If Godrick is with you and has shown Godfrey Sir Aldric's sword but isn't a knight yet, Godfrey knights him at the beacon before he rests, and a Godrick at Close approval or better names the party his fellowship there (A Knight, More or Less). Lighting it after a ride also ends at Rest, with no fight, but the Order won't march. If you also carry Argynvost's skull home from Castle Ravenloft and lay it with his bones, the beacon burns for good, and the epilogue says so when Strahd is destroyed (step 8 of The Dragon's Beacon).
• Grudge (failure): swear Vladimir's oath. "What would the Order want from us? Name your terms.", then "We swear it." You promise to break Strahd and not end him. Vladimir pays 150 gp and 2 Holy Water from the Order's war chest, hands over what he was keeping, and you get the milestone. Godrick -4, Liriel -3, Wren -2, Kip -2. "No. When we reach him, he dies." turns him down instead (Thistle +1, Godrick +1). The oath has consequences:
  • Dead knights stand at the gate watching the castle from now on.
  • Vladimir keeps his promise about the knights' road: the column of the Conqueror's dead (Strahd Zombies and Ghasts) no longer comes up it at night. Wolves and werewolves still do.
  • Lighting the beacon later breaks the oath, and Vladimir fights you at the cradle first.
  • At the very end, at Strahd's coffin, Vladimir comes down the stair to stop the killing blow. The dragon's last words make him stand aside; so does Persuasion DC 18, and failing it means a fight. Choosing to break the oath outright also means a fight.

If you're stuck

• The muster option isn't in Vladimir's menu. It needs Godfrey to remember the oath or you to know the dragon's last words, and the Order's fate must still be open.
• Godfrey's "Will you?" question only appears after you've met Vladimir, and only while Godfrey is in his room. If he's travelling with you, tell him to wait for you at Argynvostholt and he goes back there.
• The last words are free. Ask the echo in the chapel why the knights can't rest, then what he asked of Vladimir. Ask before you light the beacon, because the echo is gone afterwards.

Rewards

• +1 Plate Armor
• Holy Water ×2
• 150 gp
• A level (milestone)

What your companions think

• Godrick Pendlebrook: +2 you made peace with Vladimir instead of fighting him; +4 you lit Argynvost's beacon and let the Order go home; +4 you gave Sir Godfrey back the Order's oath; +1 you told Vladimir that Strahd dies when you reach him; -4 you swore the dead Order's oath of hate with Vladimir; +3 you told the Order what their dragon really asked of them
• Wren Featherfoot: +2 you made peace with Vladimir instead of fighting him; +1 you lit Argynvost's beacon and let the Order go home; -2 you swore the dead Order's oath of hate with Vladimir; +2 you told the Order what their dragon really asked of them
• Liriel Dawnsong: +1 you made peace with Vladimir instead of fighting him; +3 you lit Argynvost's beacon and let the Order go home; +1 you gave Sir Godfrey back the Order's oath; -3 you swore the dead Order's oath of hate with Vladimir; +2 you told the Order what their dragon really asked of them
• Kip Smudgewick: +1 you lit Argynvost's beacon and let the Order go home; -2 you swore the dead Order's oath of hate with Vladimir
• Thistle: +1 you lit Argynvost's beacon and let the Order go home; +1 you told Vladimir that Strahd dies when you reach him
• Ratatouille: +1 you lit Argynvost's beacon and let the Order go home

Fights

• Vladimir rises from the winged chair for the first time, and all down the table dead heads turn to watch. He…, in Argynvostholt, Ground Floor: Vladimir Horngaard, Revenant. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: Vladimir Horngaard, Argynvost, Sir Godfrey Gwilym
• Places: The Beacon Tower, Argynvostholt, Argynvostholt, Upper Floor, Argynvostholt, Ground Floor
• More in Argynvostholt: The Dragon's Beacon, The Silver Hoard, The Squire