There were 3-man sized spider cocoons in the room. Loki used his Survival skills to “skin” the webs off with minimal damage to anything inside. However, the adventurers inside were long dead. Of note, they were dressed as outsiders and not Barovians. We started down the “how did they get in and maybe we can get out the same way” path but Brian cut that short and told us to “move along”. Each had a magic item though. Boots, short sword and wand which were carried by Loki, Ambrus and Lady P respectively until we could spare the time to Identify them. We started the slow process of listening, searching, sneaking and opening doors but that got boring pretty fast and Ezra just started opening doors. We went through the grand entrance hall and ended up in the dragon’s den. It, like everything else, had been thoroughly trashed. The only thing of note in there, other than the portraits of noble looking knights which had been defaced, was an upright coffin. However, on the way to searching it, Ambrus noticed a small ember in the fireplace. On closer inspection, it was moving, gathering tiny piles of ash and consuming it. Loki decided to feed it a piece of furniture kindling to see what would happen. With that, it grew a bit and started to look like an incorporeal elemental ice fire dragon spirit. Kaladin stepped up and addressed it in Draconic. At this point, it started to fly away.
Kaladin followed it and Loki followed him. Reluctantly, the rest followed suit as it headed up two levels. By the time it had reached a trashed study, it was a gargantuan incorporeal elemental ice fire dragon spirit that looked like Argon. It spoke common. It was indeed the spirit of Argon, trapped in this barely existing state for 100s of years. He said that there was much anger and unrest in the castle. (Dan: Grandpa Argon came off as a bit impersonal. He didn't know Kaladin and when told he was his descendent he brushed it off as "who can keep track of the whelps". This is in contrast to the visions previously given both fake and probably genuine that were more personal. So a bit underwhelming after all the time it took to get there.) We offered to help and he said if we could find and solve the corruption, maybe that would help. Unfortunately, he could offer no help as to where to look and no help to keep the spirits of the slayed knights from attacking us even though we were there to help. About then, the recovered short sword appeared in Ambrus’s hand and he was compelled to attack. He got top initiative and charged, doing massive backstab damage. Which did nothing to the spirit other than amuse/annoy him. Loki tried to grab him but his Acrobatics was too high. Kaladin hit him with several subdual blows but he saved on each stunning blow. Lady P tried to put a sphere around him but he saved. Ezra attacked and then shield bashed him prone. Once prone he grappled him with advantage, which probably wasn’t legal. Lastly, Baron Q tried to kick the sword free but could not best his Acrobatics either. Who knew Ambrus was so formidable? He went next. He Misty Stepped away and attacked again. Thankfully, this time, he saved against the sword. The Wizard did not have a Remove Curse memorized so the sword was put in the Portable Hole. Other than amuse Brian and waste a bunch of time and resources; we were back on track.
We went back to the den to start our search. We took a short rest first to Identify the items. Boots of Misty Step (once per short rest) which went to Ezra and Wand of Detect Magic which went to usually attending Loki. The coffin was just a wine rack. Nothing of interest was found until we came upon a chapel off the dining hall. In there were three undead knights. Revenants. Ambrus went first and attempted to parlay but it didn’t seem to be working. He moved up, just behind Ezra, and delayed to attack if attacked. Kaladin did much the same. Loki went and started firing, missing twice. Then they went. Since Ezra was in front, they all attacked him. Two attacks per, with +10 to hit a 3d10+ damage. He went from full to almost out. The room was small and the pillars in it made moving and seeing difficult. Their AC was low but they had massive hit points. Most everyone hit the first one but it survived the round. Somehow Ezra did too. He used new boots to get out of there, did all his Lay on Hands, and then charged back in. Lady P cast Greater Invisibility on Loki who piled on the damage. (Not as much as the Paladin with the Holy Avenger.) Without our Barbarian hit point buffer, Ambrus and Baron Q ended up in the fray.
It was quite a fight. We were doing tons of damage but they were taking it. However, a round after we finally took out Reverent 1, he stood up with 20 regenerated hit points. One round, Loki finished off two of them and since they went next on the order, they just stood up. Ezra, Ambrus, and Baron Q all went down multiple times. Lady P fired a radiant Fireball, hitting all 3 of them plus Ambrus, Baron Q, and invisible Loki. Loki saved for half, recently revived but still prone Ambrus evaded for none but Baron Q took a bunch. And none of them went out and when they were knocked out, they still got up. Eventually, we figured it took fire damage while they were at 0 to stop them and turn them to dust. All and all, we used 5 Good Berries and the 3 of them walked away with 1 berry hit point. The other 3 came away relatively unharmed. We did a quick search and found nothing. Lady P, after getting yelled at by Ambrus for more friendly fire damage, did her commune with spirits thing. She could sense a change but the corruption was still there. We limped back to the den for a long rest and stopped there. I think we’re mostly through the 1st floor.
