Side quest Argynvostholt Level 8

The Squire

A Vallaki boy has run away to Argynvostholt to swear the dead Order's oath, and since the Order won't take the living, he means to wait on the squires' graves until he's dead.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

You may hear about the boy first in Vallaki. Ask the Town Guard at the gate "Heard anything interesting?" and he mentions the cooper's son, Cosmin, who ran north with a wooden sword to join the dead knights. That's only gossip and doesn't start the quest. The journal starts at Argynvostholt in one of two ways:

  • Ask Sir Godfrey Gwilym "Heard anything interesting?" (on the front steps the first time, in his room upstairs after that). The quest starts at Rumored.
  • Walk up to Cosmin himself. He sits wrapped in a horse blanket on the last of the small squires' graves in the south-west corner of the grounds, west of the drive. Meeting him moves it to Met.

Start it before the Order is put to rest. If the beacon is lit before you've heard of Cosmin from Godfrey or met him, Cosmin is gone and the quest never starts. If it's already begun, he stays on the graves, but the vigil is no longer possible (see Choices and endings).

Step by step

  1. Talk to Cosmin. "Why do you want it so badly?" tells you his ancestor Ioan, the Order's last squire, is written down as "fled" in the Order's chronicle, and Cosmin wants one Vallaki name in the book that didn't run. Persuasion DC 17 ("Come home") doesn't change anything: pass or fail, he won't leave until Ioan's name is clean.
  2. Read the headstone he's sitting on. Investigation DC 13 finds small letters cut low on the back of the last stone: Ioan carved his brothers' headstones, then rode out with his lord's last word for the valley. If you miss it, look again. Knowing the dragon's last words from his echo in the chapel (The Dragon's Beacon) works just as well. Nearby, History DC 14 at the small headstones points you to something left on a squire's grave (Holy Symbol (Emblem), search DC 14).
  3. Ask Godfrey about Ioan. In Godfrey's room on Argynvostholt, Upper Floor, ask "Do you remember a squire called Ioan?" With the stone read or the last words known, he remembers sending Ioan down to the valley on his own horse, and how Vladimir wrote "fled" against his name. The quest moves to Truth. He tells you what a squire swears before the oath: a night's vigil at the graves, with the banner, against the men-at-arms who come out of the courtyard for anything living. Without the stone or the last words, he can't find the memory yet.
  4. Stand the vigil, after dark. Go back to Cosmin at night and choose "(Stand the vigil with him.)". The dead squires rise to watch, and you fight Squires Vigil on the graves:
    • level 9: the Gate Warden and 2 Knights Who Forgot (Revenants) with 8 Men-at-Arms (Phantom Warriors), 11,000 XP;
    • level 8: the same three knights with 4 Men-at-Arms, 8,200 XP;
    • level 7: the Warden, one Knight and 5 Men-at-Arms, 7,100 XP;
    • below that: the Warden at 90 HP with 4 Men-at-Arms.

    This is a hard fight. Rest first. Radiant damage is the answer to both kinds of enemy: the revenants regenerate 10 HP a turn unless fire or radiant hit them, and the phantom warriors halve weapon damage.

  5. Talk to Cosmin again once the last man-at-arms falls. Godfrey comes down with the Order's book, writes Ioan's name right and Cosmin's under it, and gives you Ioan's Arrow-Catching Shield and 150 gp. The quest is Done. Godrick +3, Liriel +2, Thistle, Wren and Ratatouille +1.

Choices and endings

There are two endings, and both count as a success.

  • Done. You stand the vigil with him (steps 4 and 5). Afterwards he stands at the gatehouse as the first living squire of the Order in four hundred years, and Godfrey's news mentions him.
  • Gone Home. If the beacon is lit after the quest has begun but before you've won the vigil, the knights and the squires go to their rest, and Cosmin tells you there's nobody left to give the oath. If you've read Ioan's headstone, he decides the stone is proof enough and goes home to Vallaki. If you haven't, he still offers Investigation DC 13 at the headstone (you can try again if you miss), and reading it sends him home. Either way the quest ends at Gone Home, with no shield, no gold and no approval. He stays on the graves to pack: talk to him once more and he's rolling up his horse blanket to say goodbye, and after that he's gone.

If you're stuck

  • Light the beacon last. If the Order is put to rest before you finish, the vigil is gone and the best you can do is send Cosmin home (Gone Home). If it's lit before the quest has even begun, Cosmin is gone and the quest never starts.
  • Godfrey's Ioan question only appears in his own menu in his room, after you've met Cosmin. If he's travelling with you as your ally, tell him to "Wait for us at Argynvostholt" and ask him there.
  • The vigil option needs both the Truth stage and night.

Rewards

What your companions think

  • Godrick Pendlebrook: +3 you stood the squire's vigil with Cosmin
  • Thistle: +1 you stood the squire's vigil with Cosmin
  • Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you stood the squire's vigil with Cosmin
  • Wren Featherfoot: +1 you stood the squire's vigil with Cosmin
  • Ratatouille: +1 you stood the squire's vigil with Cosmin

Fights

By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get)

Journal

Every journal entry and hint

Rumored: A cooper's boy from Vallaki, Cosmin, has gone to Argynvostholt to join the dead knights, and Sir Godfrey says he sleeps on the squires' graves in the cold until the Order will take him.
Hint: Find Cosmin on the squires' graves in Argynvostholt's grounds.

Met: Cosmin wants the Order's oath to clear his ancestor Ioan, the Order's last squire, whom the chronicle calls fled. He won't go home a coward's grandson.
Hint: Ask Sir Godfrey at Argynvostholt about the squire Ioan. The headstone Cosmin sits on may jog his memory (Investigation).

Truth: Ioan didn't flee. Sir Godfrey sent him on his own horse with the dragon's last words for the valley, after Ioan had cut his brothers' headstones. A squire's first oath was the vigil: a night at the squires' graves with the banner, and the men-at-arms will come out of the courtyard for the living.
Hint: Go back to Cosmin on the squires' graves after dark and stand the vigil with him.

Done (the end: success): Cosmin stood the vigil, the dead squires touched his banner, and Sir Godfrey wrote him into the Order's book under Ioan's corrected name. The first living squire of the Order in four hundred years.

Gone Home (the end: success): The Order went to its rest before Cosmin could swear its oath. Ioan's own stone, cut the night he rode, was proof enough for him: he's gone home to Vallaki, a cooper's son with nothing to be ashamed of.

Every skill check in its conversations
  • Persuasion DC 17: Come home. Your mother's at the north gate every night.
  • Investigation DC 13: (Look at the last headstone, the one he's sitting on.)