This castle is nearly complete and they have yet to find what they are looking for, however, they bravely seek a dragon to sleigh; they should be careful what they wish for… 

The heroes continue to ascend through the dilapidated cathedral and tower, as they climb higher, the group finds very little of use. While they are rummaging room by room, Andromeda finds a tomb that is half burned and hacked up. She gives the book to Bent and he thumbs through it carefully, not finding anything of significance… however a page flies out and lands at his feet. He looks at it, with a peculiar glare, and tilts his head. After a few moments he realizes he is reading the last words of Argynvost; citing to the group that he was saying goodbye to his mortality and taking his “true from”, which the heroes took to mean this man must have been becoming the dragon itself, in order to join the fight presumably against Strahd. After reading the slip of parchment, Bent starts to say the name aloud, almost calling to the being, giving the notion to the group that he believes this being is still here; perhaps this is the reason the ghostly dragon has been following them through the building. As they ponder the thoughts, a cloud of dust emanates from the room they are in and a figure sitting on a throne at the far side of the room is revealed, and a loud hissing voice emerges “gooo awaaayyyy”. The party is startled, but Bent begins to ask many questions of the figure that appears to be animated, and not a real person. As he asks more questions, the hand around the hilt of the sword the figure is holding seems to clench tighter, but no other movements are made. The form of a knight is clear and he only says that Strahd cannot be destroyed and they are doomed to stay as Strahd suffers in this reality. They implore the knight to help them repeatedly and the knight stops responding. As the group continues to question the stoic inanimate knight, Andromeda quietly moves closer to the figure and reaches out for his sword, as soon as she does he animates stands up and assumes his fighting position.

The heroes immediately takes an aggressive position, Melrick strikes first trying to disarm the knight, but was unsuccessful. After the dwarf hacked away he seemed to do no damage but undead skeletons seems to manifest all around the party almost as if they were coming from the knight as he was attacked. Bent lashes out sending magical bolts at the nearest skeletons that had animated around them blowing magical holes in the skeletons. Then Shamesh swings wildly trying to fend off the nearby foes accidently landing a glancing blow on the nearby dwarf who was obviously not expecting the incoming sword from his friend. Melrick was not phased, despite the disadvantage he had incurred. He lands several blows on the knight who is finally starting to seem phased by the oncoming assault. However the knight was skilled, despite the source of his animation being unknown, and he laid consecutive strikes into Shamesh, thankfully Andromeda was not far and was able to keep her friend from falling. Melrick, Hugo, and Bent continue to unleash their fury on the surrounding undead, the dwarf focusing on the knight who was now taking blow after blow; this did not stop him from proclaiming that no matter what happened in this fight his demise would only mean a new host tomorrow. As Shamesh took more damage from the surrounding undead and the knight himself, Andromeda was able to move closer to employ more healing on her companion keeping him in the fight. The dragonkin, despite being kept in the fray by his druidic companion, was unable to land any successful blows clearly shaken by the battle as he was taking the majority of the eyre of the undead enemies. Bent unleashed a chain of magical lightning into the nearby enemies, anddespite taking damage he is able to hold his concentration dropping a nearby skeleton. Hugo unleashed more magical energy that drops another undead. Andromeda seeing the opportunity to help her friends with the tide turning, stepped aside and dropped a bolt of lightning from her fingertips electrifying the undead who were conveniently in it’s line of fire with Melrick stepping forward to land the final blows on the knight; as he crumbled he swore vengeance on the paladin that stands before him, but Shamesh was vigilant turning his attention to the nearby skeleton, and finally was able to land a blow and drop another skeleton. Bent continued to concentrate and land more lightening onto the final skeleton and while Andromeda grunted some magical words in angry fashion at her quarterstaff and watched it curl, whither, and gnarl while glowing; she charged into the last skeleton landing the last blow that watched it crumble. Needing a rest the heroes searched the skeletons to see what they could find. There was a magical sword, and an amulet that the party decided to keep and the druid girl took a moment to mediate.

After they gather themselves they search the remainder of the room and Shamesh found another door that appeared to lead further up the tower, and up they went. As they ascended the stairs they received shots from above and Hugo ran toward the door that was protecting the area where the skeleton warriors were firing from and with a wave of thunder slammed them with the door and crumbled them. As they continued to move up the narrow stairwell they were met at a doorway with another skeletal warrior. While being stuck on the stairwell there are skeletal warriors are coming from the walls as they are at a choke point trying to enter the final landing spot at the top of the tower. While they fend off the ghostly skeletal figures they fight their way to the top of the stairs and ascend into the room through the narrow doorway. They pass through the gargoyles that looked like dragons… and the statues spoke to the heroes, saying:

“When the Dragon dream’s its dream within it’s rightful tomb, the light Argynvost will beam and rid the land of gloom”

They enter the room and they see five revenants that animate demanding to know why the living are so intent on disturbing the dead. Bent speaks for his companions and once again proclaims that they are there seeking help in destroying Strahd; no sooner does he utter the words that one of the revenants steps forward and says, “say no more, I am Sir Godfrey, and I will help you destroy Strahd!” As he states his claim the fellow revenants are not pleased and they turn to attack, the heroes seeing their opportunity to fulfill one of the final prophecies, they know they need to save this fallen knight. Andromeda slings a fiery cantrip from across the room as the revenants surround Godfrey. Melrick rushes forth and starts swinging wildly at the nearest revenant. Shamesh finally finds some skill with his sword and lands some blows on the most damaged revenant, while Bent lights up the far corner with a fire blast trying to take down a revenant flanking Godfrey. As the heroes come to the aid of the knight Shamesh conjures more magical power and smites the knight standing in front of him. Bent then continues to unleash his magical power onto the corner revenant knight flanking Godfrey; seeing the opportunity to get into the fray, Andromeda growls angrily and once again her quarterstaff withers and gnarls as it starts to glow as she charges in to lay blows into the revenant that Bent had been trying to bring down. Seeing the cue her companions focus fire down the flanking undead, freeing up Godfrey a bit more. Shamesh moves to the opposite flank to get Godfrey further protection and tries to draw attention off of their new paladin friend, however the effort fails as these ghostly legends are ruthlessly intent on destroying Godfrey. Bent continues to rain witchfire down on the enemies, and after moving between the final two revenants Andromeda sends another fire blast at the enemy being attacked by Godfrey, then opens her palm and blows a noxious magical gas at the undead being watching it whither beneath the puff of sparking green dust. Behind her back the final revenant moves forward and tries to flank her but Hugo draws its attention with a shocking grasp pushing it away to save both himself and Andromeda. Shamesh fails again to do anything of consequence with his blade but is continuing to protect his allies from incoming blows. Melrick, in an antagonized rage of frustration with being in this castle brought the engagement to an end, bringing down the final revenant with a flurry of axes. Godfrey looking grim, but pleased with his new companions and said:

“We go to Castle Ravenloft….”

The end is nye, and one way or another, our heroes are entering the final chapter and versus of this saga; will they live to tell the tale, or become ever part of the story of Barovia, allowing Castle Ravenloft to claim their lives…