Valdos

Valdos

Valdos

Player Name	Connor Schroll / doublecheese247
Languages	Abyssal, Common, Deep Speech, Infernal
Affiliations	N/A
Marital Status	Single
Species	Tiefling
Gender	Male
Height	5' 10"
Weight	167 lbs.
Eye Color	Purple

Valdos is a tiefling researcher/investigator on events pertaining to the eldritch nature. He has recently become a warlock himself after following a rumor that led him to an eldritch contract with an unknown Old One patron.

Physical Appearance

Valdos is 5'10" tall, 6' if you include his horns that curl above his head. Valdos has a smaller frame and is rather skinny and doesn't have a lot to him with his weight coming in at 167 lbs. He has an inquisitive set of purple eyes that are shielded by his black frame glasses that have been hastily repaired many times with adhesives (tape). He wears his longer length hair back in a pony tail to keep it out of his face while performing research and now performing battle. His hair is black with purple tips that all converge at the end of the pony tail. Similar to his hair, his horns are also mainly black with some purple accents. His horns go up and back after coming out of his forehead. You will find him wearing his standard set of leather adventuring gear under his lab coat. His lab coat is torn and dirty in some places while clean and fresh in others due to recently learning the mending cantrip after becoming a warlock. You will also see him carrying around a book everywhere he goes. The book has a dark red color face and back, and is bound by a black cord that wraps around the book multiple times ending in a simple clasp.

Personality

Valdos enjoys spending his time in libraries a little too much as he is always trying to find more/new information regarding eldritch powers that are entirely unnatural.

History

In the works.

Languages

Abyssal, Common, Deep Speech, Infernal, (has Comprehend Language as a spell)

Powers and Abilities

Valdos has a pretty simple combat session.

Step 1: Move outside of melee range. Step 2: Hex a target. Step 3: Eldritch Blast said target. Step 4: Repeat Steps 1 and 3 until target is taken care of. Step 5: Select new target and repeat Steps 1-4.

Disclaimer for fellow adventurers: Valdos's actions may vary depending on circumstance. Valdos is not guaranteed to hit targets and may require assistance.

Attacks and Weapons 

Preferred method of self defense includes but is not limited to eldritch blasting a hexed target while outside of melee range.

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Hopes and Goals

Valdos is hoping that his time helping the Tempest Brothers group will allow him to eventually open avenues for him to become a legitimate researcher in all things eldritch as he has always been interested in the powers and beings that are not natural for Quelmar.

Adventures

Markster Farmstead Investigation:

Valdos was selected with five others to go and investigate the Markster Farmstead as they have reported some strange happenings in the area. Valdos along with Nokori, Coryn, Ghargux, Hummer, and Finny went and traveled to the Farmstead with the two gentlemen that run the farm. The two farmers told us that there have been cases of finding dead animals in the forest and that some of their animals have gone missing. They also reported that their barn was broken into and some goats were eaten.

We arrive at the farmstead and meet the two families. In particular, we meet a little girl who has a very active imagination according to the parents. The little girl keeps mentioning this "imaginary friend" that she calls "Hopper". In the evening, Hummer talks to the little girl and discovers that she possesses a shield guardian. The shield guardian was in the shape of a dog and would stay in the forest unless told otherwise. Hopper also apparently delivered himself to the little girl.

Hummer and I took first watch, I was posted up on top of the barn, I heard some howls from the forest, but nothing else of note happened. During second watch, Coryn and Ghargux saw some floating blue orbs in the forest. They thought it could have been the guardian. Nokori and Finny took the last watch. They found some weird indentations in the ground out in the farm field. They also noticed three figures moving through the farm field, Finny shot one of them with an eldritch blast, they then ran away into the forest.

The following morning, our group then went and followed the tracks into the forest to try and track down the three things that were going through the field. After a while, we came across a stone building with a locked door that had no visible way of opening it. We found that it had an arcane lock on it, requiring us to use the "knock" spell to open it, none of us had the spell, so we physically knocked on the door.

We were eventually greeted by a voice asking why we were there, we explained, and the person opened the door. The man turned out to be an artificer of sorts who enjoys living alone and just wants to help the local farmers. He has been making these automs (scarecrows and harvest reapers) and has been sending them over to the farmers property in secret to help them out. This could likely explain the dead creatures in the forest. It also explains the weird tracks and indents in the ground that our group followed to his house. We also found out that he could be allergic to magic as when Finny casted prestidigitation to clean the guy up, he accidentally released a blinding light in all directions. He is either allergic, or gets spooked very easily and is part wild magic sorcerer.

We talk to the artificer and explain what is going on and then convince him to begin communications with the family to explain that the automs will not harm them, but help them with security and farming and will follow their commands. He also offers the family shelter if anything goes wrong. With that, we left his place and went back to the farm with the scarecrows and harvest reapers in tow. We deliver them to the farmers and explain the situation to them before leaving back for the waystation.

Lost in Transit:

Valdos was recruited with five others to go and investigate some missing cargo that was being delivered from the town of Ymbtrymman. Valdos, Esperanza, Karma, Lysvan, Twilsby, and Slog The Bonk all set out together and took a teleportation circle to arrive at Ymbtrymman. There we talked to the town leader who explained the situation and that they stopped receiving sending's from the caravan group the other day and that they are worried about the town leaders son who was leading the caravan. We then met Gumptor Flynn who was going to guide us on the path that the caravan took.

Gumptor Flynn then lead us on an extended forced march through the jungle until we happened across a broken caravan wagon. We found some trails left by what we could only assume were some large jungle cats. We followed the tracks until we got ambushed by 10 jaguars. Karma tried speaking with the jaguars and was hit with a hivemind answer of "food...". Combat then ensued, however, these jaguars were not normal as when some of them died, they dissipated and their essence was fed into the remaining jaguars making them stronger. The fight ended after our group killed the remaining two jaguars in rapid succession. Immediately after killing the last of the jaguars, Valdos went over to where they died and casted Detect Magic to try and figure out what was going on. Valdos could not accurately pick up what the magic was, but it had traces of transmutation magic.

After that, we continued following the tracks after a short rest. We eventually came across a tunnel going into the bottom of a cliff face. Twilsby's grandfather spirit scouted the tunnels for us and relayed the layout. (tunnel went forward and split into a left and right tunnel. Right tunnel lead to a storage room of sorts with what appeared to be the caravan supplies and then a metal door at the back of the room. In that room, there were a bunch of prison cells. Down the left tunnel, was what appeared to be a lab of some kind with a couple tables surrounding a teleportation circle in the middle of the room, at the far end of the room, there was a curtain that was blocking a small tunnel that lead to a door. Behind the door, there was the residents abode.

Slog and Karma went ahead and scouted the room more thoroughly than Twilsby's grandfather. The rest of the group then followed. After entering the room, Valdos went and casted detect magic again to see if he found any of the same magic that was found earlier. Instead of that happening though, a Mindflayer was discovered to be hiding at the ceiling invisibly. After being discovered, the Mindflayer blasted all of us with a stunning psychic/psionic blast. It then floated down and grabbed a metal clock in the shape of a heart and then vanished. We were unsure of how it got away, but we swiftly destroyed the teleportation circle so that it couldn't teleport back in and surprise us again. We then went and looted the place. Valdos grabbed hold of a magic compass of some kind (tbd). After clearing the lab and the living space, we went to the storage area and then into the cell chamber. In the last cell, we found the son of the town leader and one other. We freed them and then left the tunnel system and began the march back to Ymbtrymman.

Search for the Well of Souls:

Darian Tempest gathers myself, Ghargux, Zarrial, Karma, and Bardek together in the morning and takes us to the office where we find an elven lady sitting there waiting for us. Darian introduces her as Elowen Thistledown, a researcher from the Grand Library of Warukami who has come to the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company (TBEC) to borrow the use of an airship to try and find a rumored Well of Souls. Elowen has long braided silver hair, piercing green eyes that strike us as wise, she is an elf of years, hard to say how old. She possesses an aura of knowledge and wisdom that surrounds her from her many years spent as a researcher. After introducing Elowen and explaining what the mission is and what to expect, he leads us out the back door to where the airship we will be taking is docked.

Darian then introduces us to the airship that we will be using for the mission, the Windrunner. The airship looks shiny and new, it has its wings folded back and appears to be sitting roughly 15ft off the ground on a makeshift docking structure. He explains that this airship was dragged here when they moved into the Waystation and that this will be her maiden voyage. He also informs us that the ship has no mounted weapons and that we will be in charge of ensuring that little to no damage happens to the new ship. Darian also warns us that due to it being her maiden voyage, he wants us to keep the stresses applied to the airship to a minimal and wants it back by nightfall. Our group then gets introduced to Skippy, the Halfling captain of the airship and his two crewmates, Charlie and Reggie.

Elowen and our group then climb abord the airship while Darian wishes us luck and then leaves back towards the office. Once we are all on the airship, Skippy starts the airship up, and begins to take us into the air. Elowen asks Skippy to take us in a Southwestern direction from the Waystation. Elowen then gathers our group together and explains in more detail what she is looking to find on this adventure. She also goes into more detail about what a Well of Souls is, explaining that they are areas where the veil between the living and the dead is extremely thin due to its location near or on Ley Lines. She also explains that there are usually strange phenomenon in the areas surrounding a Well of Souls due to powerful arcane sources allowing for the Wells to occur. Elowen also presents us her evidence that points to there being a Well of Souls in the area as around 60 years ago, a group of druid messengars came out and relayed that they destroyed a cult that was trying to occupy a Well of Souls. The druid group then warned that those without cause should not venture in search of any Well of Souls. Elowen then brings up her cause for searching for the Well of Souls to ease our hearts due to the warning left by the druid messengars. She explains that she hopes for knowlegable alchemists to use any resources that are born in the area of a Well of Souls to try and create new life saving/extending potions.

Our group then continues flying in a Southwestern direction while looking for any signs that could lead us to a Well of Souls for around 2 hours. We cannot see much in terms of details on the ground due to the thick forest canopy. Eventually, our group sees three different points of interest. We see two clearings in the jungle, and then we see a large area of fog that is higher than the tree tops themselves. Our group decides to continue travelling towards the foggy area. As we get closer to the foggy area, we eventually see six black birds flying from around the fog and heading towards us. As they are flying towards us, Karma enacts a physchic connection with three of the birds to communicate with them. Doing so results in her hearing them chanting things along the lines of doom and death. Valdos blasts two warning shots at the birds but they kept approaching the airship. The birds eventually reach the ship and land on the railing of the ship. There, we recognize the birds as Doom Sayer Crows. They are birds that enjoy staying in areas where death and disease are present, such as blood battlefields. Karma keeps communicating with three of the crows and they keep saying that death is awaiting us and that they will feast on our corpses. The crows seem to get more and more excited as we get closer to the fog. Due to this we decide to try and stop the airship and put it in reverse so that we don't enter the fog. However, the airship had too much speed previously and we enter the fog while Skippy is throwing the ship into reverse. As soon as we enter the fog, we are hit with a wave of dread and misery so powerful that it corrupts our minds and gets Valdos to the point where he is trying to throw himself overboard, however the rest of the group is there to grab him and drag him back onto the deck of the ship. Twelve more Doom Sayer Crows approach the ship while we are inside the fog. Another wave of dread hits our ship shortly after the first wave and again, Valdos finds himself halfway over the railing of the ship with Karma and Zarrial coming to the rescue. Skippy is able to get the ship to then back out of the fog and we are free from the dread fog for now.

After that, Zarrial reveals that the fog is a physical manifestation of necrotic energy and that something very wrong is happening here. We also come to the conclusion that this very well might be the Well of Souls that Elowen is looking for. However, with the necrotic fog covering the area, there is no way to venture forth and find the central point of the Well of Souls. With that information, we decide to try and investigate the area on the ground. We tie a bunch of rope together and tie it to Zarrials living sword Mal. Zarrial then throws Mal overboard and has it get to the forest floor and relay back what it sees. Shortly after Mal gets to the floor, it is attacked by two creatures that it cannot really describe other than large and green. The rope that Mal is tied to is crushed to the point of it breaking. Mal then tries to fight the large green creature that is attacking it, with little to show. Zarrial then calls his sword back to him and decides to climb down the rope and fight whatever is down there with Karma following. Valdos and Ghargux follow them down with Bardek coming down last. What happens next on the forest floor is an absolute shitshow of a fight. Zarrial gets down there first and finds that we are fighting a corrupted Treant and a Bark Warden.

Zarrial gets down to the forest floor first and gets absolutley hammered by the two creatures to the point where he goes down. Karma follows him down and starts hitting the two creatures with some fire magic. Valdos tires to jump onto a branch thats about 20ft into the air, but misses horribly and hits the ground which has spike growth coming out of it due to the Bark Warden. Ghargux gets down to the floor and starts smiting the Bark Warden. At this point, Zarrial was able to get himself back up from being down and dimension doors back to the ship while Bardek is climbing down the rope. Karma then starts flying in the air using an arifact that she has and is throwing some alchemists fire at the Treant. Valdos goes down shortly after as the Treant crushes him in his grasp. Ghargux is then able to finish off the Bark Warden. Bardek tries to jump off the rope and land on the Treant, but fails to hit the mark and then goes down after being attacked by the Treant. Zarrial sends down the manifestation of Mal to distract and attack the Treant. A Haregon comes out of hiding and drags my crushed body under a camoflauge blanket to hid me and then stabilizes my body. A whistle was then heard from the forest and a bunch of flaming arrows were shot from the surrounding forest at the corrupted Treant. Immediately after, a group of Haregons also run out of the forest to try and attack the corrupted Treant. Zarrial then has Mal lead the Treant away from the area as the Treant seemed intent on trying to harm Mal.

The haregons then get us all together and start ushering us to leave while getting excited about the dead Bark Warden. Elowen also comes down once combat ended. Bardek and myself get brought back up by Ghargux and then we each take some health potions. The haregons call themselves the Guardians of the Well of Souls. They let us know that something happened to the Well of Souls a couple of moons ago and that they are now unable to approach the Well of Souls since then. Elowyn and the Haregons take some pieces of the dead Bark Warden for research purposes. The Haregons also want us to return and talk with the druid elders and help figure out what is happening with the Well of Souls. Afterwards, we then pack our stuff up and head back to the Waystation.

Why are there so many Baby Silver Dragons here?

It has been getting colder in Eastern Amusa, colder than it should be. That is when two letters arrive in the middle of the waystation at around similar times. The first of the letters has some crudely written handwriting addressing the Tempest Brothers Expeditionary Company for some aid and is asking for "those who do not die easily". This letter also arrived with a bundle of meat that has been seasoned. The other letter appears to be a more formal invitation of sorts and asks for the TBEC to send some members to "enjoy the spoils of a recent hunt" and is signed by the Venator Syndicate.

Following the arrival of the two letters, a scrawny halfling named Tulie Maplelip walks out of the main office with a list of names, the two letters, and a map. She then proceeds to call over the group that was picked to investigate the two letters. Mark, Wiggler, Coryn, Eavan, and myself all get called over to where Tulie is standing. Tulie then proceeds to read the first letter regarding "those who do not die easily" and then produces the meat package that came with the letter. Eavan and I investigate the meat and find that it comes from a type of bear that we are unsure about and that it is seasoned with frostbell which is a very rare flower found in and around the Iceback Mountains in Breme. This immediatley alerts Eavan as she is from Breme being that she is a witchwolf. We also investigate the letter and find that the writing is very crude in that it appears to be somebodys first attempt at writing bermish common. Tulie then goes to read the second letter that was sent by the Venator Syndicate regarding a party of some kind to celebrate a recent hunt. After we go through the letter, I remember that the Venator Syndicate is a group of poachers that tend to hunt, capture, and then experiment on wild magical creatures. There is also a seal at the bottom of the letter depicting a flame that is encased in ice, Eavan recognizes it as the symbol for House Coldflame, a noble house located in Breme. Our group then looks at the two maps that came with the two letters. The map that came with the crudley written letter shows us going to the Northeast of the Waystation while the map attached to the Syndicate invitation leads us to the Northwest of the Waystation. After talking amongst ourselves, our group decides to investigate the crudely written letter first as they are asking for help and should be responded to immediatlely. As such, we gather our things and start the 2 day travel to the marked location on the map.

As our group is travelling, we begin to notice that the weather is getting more frigid and "heavier" in a sense. The cold seems to want to penetrate us and weigh us down, but we are able to shake it off and keep travelling. While we travel, I try to use Detect Magic to try and see if the weather is natural or is carrying traces of magic. I come to find that the cold is not natural and that it carries a feeling of magic that I am not entirely familiar with, but it resembles a mixture of abjuration and evocation schools of magic. The cold also does not appear to carry any traces of malevolence, but it is all surrounding and ever present. It also appears to get stronger as we continue travelling. We eventually make it to a clearing to rest for the night.

Mark and Coryn take first watch and find that nothing of note happens. However, during the second watch, Wiggler and I notice that there are some dragonoid looking eyes peering into our camp. We wake up Mark and Coryn incase we are attacked, but the two creatures run away. While they run away, we catch faint glimpses of silver scales. After that, Coryn and Mark go to lay back down to finish resting. A little after Coryn and Mark lay back down, our camp is rushed on by 3 direwolves who appear to see us as their food. Our group then proceeds to kill two of the direwolves while knocking out the third one after Mark talks to it and finds that it is not acting naturally. After we knock it out, we investigate the direwolf and find that it had traces of a red powder that was later identified as Frenzy Powder. Upon Mark remembering that an "overdose" of Frenzy Powder can lead to death. Our group then proceeds to stabilize the dying direwolf. After the direwolf was stabilized, two baby silver dragons come running out of the woods, one more shy than the other. We proceed to talk to the baby dragons (Kalda and Oinoq) about why they are here and we find out that their older sister was the one that sent the letter to the camp with the meat. We also find out that their mom (Isrun) is missing. Eavan is extremely worried about that as Isrun is/was the guardian dragon of the Iceback Mountains and is an Ancient Silver Dragon. While we are talking to the two baby dragons, a third dragon that is a little larger comes out and scolds the two younger dragons for exploring in the night and engaging the Venator Syndicate. The third dragon introduces themself as Isfrid, the third oldest dragon in their group of silver dragons born from Isrun. Isfrid and the two younger dragons then lead us to their camp. We also take the unconcious direwolf with us to their camp. Our group arrives at the dragons camp and we meet Kelrynne a dragonborn and the eldest of Isrun's children. After she approaches our group, I find that the cold that I detected earlier appears to be originating from her and that she seems to be unaware of it. The cold appears to be surrounding her and then spreading out, almost acting as a barrier of sorts. That night Kelrynne explains to us the situration that they require help with as the Venator Syndicate has taken one of the younger baby dragons captive and Kelrynne requires our help to rescue their sibling due to wards and barriers set up against dragons invading their base. We then reveal that we were invited to the Venator Syndicate base that Kelrynne identifies. Kelrynne also explains that this branch of the Syndicate is being led by Alos Coldflame from House Coldflame. Upon hearing his name I remember seeing somewhere that Alos is the current heir to the family after he "bested" his sister (Risna Coldflame) in a duel. Kelrynne also explains that their friend witchwolf friend Brynhild was also captured. Kelrynne informs us that there are also multiple witchwolfs that are acting as members in the Syndicate base under Alos Coldflame. After discussing our plans, we all decide to finish our rest before setting off tomorrow to rescue the youngest dragon.

In the morning, we are greeted by the small of meat being cooked. We walk over and find that Kelrynne is preparring breakfast which is some cubed meat seasoned similarly to what was sent to camp. Kelyrnne explains that she has taught herself how to cook the meat as it can be comforting to eat a prepared meal instead of eating the meat raw. We each take a portion and go about eating our meals, we find that the meat is hot, but at the same time, it carries a chill to it that balances on the meat very nicely. The meat itself is gamey and chewy, but is very good. Kelrynne then explains that she is going to be going and taking care of another Syndicate base while we go and rescue their sibling. Before we separate, I have her write her name in my Book of Shadows so that we can communicate when we find their sibling and what the situation is. Our group then leaves for the Syndicate base.

After travelling for a while, we come across the Syndicate base. It appears to be an old bandit hideout and there is no one outside the building besides a slush elemental patrolling the grounds. We proceed to walk up to the front door and knock, but we get no response. With that, we just decide to enter with Eavan leading us in as she is more familiar with the Coldflame family and the witchwolfs that are working under the Syndicate. After entering, we introduce ourselves as the group from the Tempest Brothers. Alos welcomes us in as he is sitting at the head of the table with some witchwolfs and a ice genasi sitting on the sides. They are all drinking some Bremish Coffee. While we are talking to Alos, Risna walks in with another bowl of coffee for the group. She then proceeds to "trip" and hand Wiggler a note stating that theres some bad stuff going on here and that she is only here to "watch over" Alos. Risna then goes back into the kitchen area with Wiggler then following her in to "talk about coffee". They actually talk about whats going on and Risna explains that there is a baby silver dragon upstairs in a room guarded by her direwolf, but the direwolf should let us pass. Wiggler then telepathically relays that to our group and we ask for a distraction to be made so that Eavan and I can sneak upstairs. For the distraction, Mark decides to chug some of the Bremish Coffee and starts singing some songs with the witchwolfs as they are drunk on the coffee after having a bunch already. Risna also then "accidentally" spills some coffee on Alos and takes him into the kitchen to clean off the coffee spill. Eavan and I are able to sneak upstairs, but the door to the room that we need to get into is locked. We end up ramming the door open quietly so as to not disturb the people downstairs. In the room, we find the youngest baby dragon, a small Cosmic Bear, and a female witchwolf that is laying on a bed passed out and appears to be suffering from a poison. We quickly ask why they havent left through the window in the room to find that it is trapped by a spell casted by Alos. I also contact Kelrynne through my book of shadows letting her know that we found their sibbling and are working to get them out of here. She responds that she has already taken care of the other Syndicate base and is now on her way over. Wiggler then proceeds to cast Dispel Magic on Alos to disrupt the alarm spell on the window, but doing this starts a fight with the members of the Syndicate. We eventually beat the Syndicate members except for Alos who was able to escape with a Dimension Door. Eavan and I go over to the Genasis body and look for any potions that might help with the poisoned witchwolf upstairs. We are able to successfully get the witchwolf (Brynhild) back up and let her know that Kelrynne is on her way over. She thanks us and we go back down into the main room where everybody is. We all then loot the building before leaving. Kelrynne comes and picks up the youngest dragon, the small Cosmic Bear travels with us back to the Waystation, and we invite both Risna and Brynhild to come and join us at the Waystation.

Later on, we then receive another letter from Kelrynne with the following written on it:

“White Dragon. Ysildra.

Among first white dragons in legend.

Mother of hundreds of white dragons.

Mother in Ivory.

Long ago, Isrun and other good dragons banished her to the Ice Plane. Her eggs were destroyed. Maybe not all of them. Ysildra is back.

Run.”