3/2/25 - Valin's Resting Chamber

General Summary

When we last left our adventures, they were still in the pages of Voi Toi 4-2.16: Events and Accomplishments of Bay Dihn Soi Under the Rulership of Ivellios the Cultivator. The party wanted to attempt to rest after their bout with the Dao, and Tamvoi suggested that they skip ahead a few pages. The librarian’s form flicked from his youthful self to its current state, and the sound of pages fluttering in the wind soon rushed through the temple halls. Once the sound of page turning ceased, the party found themselves in the exact same place they left off, but well rested and ready to proceed.
There were some setbacks though. Each member of Welcome Tasks felt their minds begin to slip, and even Malikae and Aglizzy began to lose the knowledge of skills that were once core ideas. Welcome Tasks deduced that staying within the pages of the book was what was the cause for their memories to fade. While concerning, they felt that once they “finished the story”, their memories would return.
With that, they took inventory of what to do next. To their north stood a pair of large golden double doors, to the west was a long hallway with the faint sounds of bubbling water, and to the south was the entranceway they came from. Slayer were curious about the sound of water, and scouted ahead. The western hallway turned northward and soon after formed a T-section with a large open room to the west. Peering in, Slayer could not see very far as the room was filled with thick fog and a somewhat acrid smell. However, the Tabaxi could make out at the back of the room a pair of glowing yellow lights roughly 10 feet off the ground. Cautious that they were a pair of eyes, Slayer returned to the group so as not to be completely isolated.
After regrouping, Aglizzy took the lead into the mist-covered room. Being rather crafty, the Lizardfolk proceeded to use his arcane abilities to destroy the fog. Now getting a better look, the room was rather large with a flat pool or well with bubbling water, a small stone cabinet on the opposite wall, and a rather large and imposing statue made up of a green crystalline material. Unsurprisingly its eyes glowed the same bright yellow Slayer had seen when he had first peered into the room.
The statue stood about fifteen feet tall and was carved with great craftsmanship to appear as if to look like a living person. Other than its solid crystal appearance the only other defining characteristic was that it had a large carving of an ophidian eye upon the center of its chest. When seeing the adventuring party, the golem’s central eye glowed a faint yellow and a disembodied voice echoed through the chamber. It introduced itself as Valin, stated that it was the figurehead of The Temple of the All Seeing Eye, and asked why the adventures were here.
The group was immediately skeptical. They knew that Valin was the name of the person they were initially trying to find who had gone missing in the temple, but they were described as elvish and not a statue. When pressed about this, Valin stated that she was communicating through the golem and she would be happy to speak to them in the room beyond the previously mentioned golden doubled doors. The golem then began to lead the group back the way they came but only Melkor and Slayer (and Tamvoi) followed. They wanted to give the illusion they were playing along while the rest of the group could investigate without being disturbed.
With the room unsupervised, Aglizzy first wanted to look at the well. It was a circular pool roughly fifteen feet in radius with a terrible acrid liquid bubbling constantly. Around its edging there was also some religious markings that made it clear the well had some ritualistic purpose, but Aglizzy was unable to determine its usage. It was very clearly the source of the mist. Even as he investigated it, a fresh layer of fog began to coat the floor. He debated whether or not to jump into the pool, as Lizardfolk tend to enjoy the water, but decided the terrible stench of the water was enough of a warning sign not to.
At the same time Aglizzy investigated the well, Malikae walked across the room to the small ceremonial cabinet. Inside, there were a variety of scrolls and basic religious trappings, but the dwarf’s keen eyes saw that there was a false backing to the furniture. In its hidden compartment, Malikae found a manual for a ritual known as the Mantras of the All-Seeing Eye. Necromantic in nature, it described two rituals. The first was on how one could extend their lifespan, while the other was on reviving those who recently passed. While fascinating, and a bit concerning, Malikae and Aglizzy could not linger in this room long. The mist was growing and the pair soon learned it was rather toxic. Coughing their way out of the room, they proceeded to meet up with their compatriots.
Slayer and Melkor stayed a safe distance as they followed Valin’s golem. The pair was on high alert and took note of the iconography on the walls as they walked through the temple. Much of it was very characteristic of Giac Moran, with symbols of serpents and triad groupings of eyes scattered about. While the walls themselves were stone, anything carved had an ethereal aesthetic that reminded Slayer of the twilight sky of Cacung Dien. Further still, any part of the wall that had an eye on it would flicker faintly yellow randomly.
During this entire walk, Tamvoi furiously scribed details and asked questions to the statue. While it did its best to clarify things, Valin(speaking through the golem) insisted that it would be much easier to communicate with her once they arrived in the main chamber. Once they all arrived back at the receiving chamber where they fought the Dao, Slayer took the opportunity to sneak ahead of the golem and proceeded through the golden double doors unseen.
The grand room beyond was a sight to behold. It was a large rectangular room with a narrow walkway surrounding a deep pit that took up the majority of the room. On either side, a steep staircase descended almost a hundred feet, but what was concerning was what Slayer saw below. There were two more of these green crystalline golems, and they were flanking a large altar with golden sarcophagus. He was already skeptical of Valin, but this all but confirmed that Welcome Tasks was dealing with a powerful undead.
Perhaps Valin sensed the gig was up, or maybe she was always waiting for someone to walk into her resting chamber, but the time of pleasantries was over. The two golems below immediately hurled crystalline darts at Slayer and the one still in the receiving chamber turned its focus on Melkor. It was abundantly clear that these golems were not something to be trifled with, as their blows struck much harder than expected and the pair wished they weren’t so isolated from each other and the rest of their friends.
Fortunately for the tiefling, Aglizzy and Malikae came rushing from the hallway once the sounds of battle rang out. The cleric of Helm began the battle by casting his spiritual weapon, and directed it to swing at the nearest golem. However, the hammer appeared to phase through the creature, leaving it completely unharmed. What was worse, is as soon as the arcane effect completed its strike, Malikae felt a heavy blow upon his armor. Surprised, he looked to find the source but none was to be found. This confusion was further shared by Melkor, who after a volley of scorching ray, found the beams uncharacteristically miss and one was reflected back at him. Clearly, it was going to take some clever thinking to combat these constructs.
Slayer, who was still by himself in the main chamber, was having a terrible time. Two on one is hard enough, but these creatures were relentless. The two golems proceeded to march up one of the two staircases, and each chance they got they would shoot a volley of darts at the Tabaxi. Badly wounded, Slayer surveyed the room to figure out his best course of action. He noticed that about ten feet down from the edge of the pit, half a dozen or so outcropping were carved into the wall and in each of them sat a canopic jar. Quickly, the Tabaxi secured a rope line and descended to the nearest hole in the wall.
Aglizzy had been successful in striking at the first golem with his enchanted staff, but could see darts flying from the pit through the open double doors. He rushed in to see Slayer both literally and figuratively at the end of his rope, and started doing everything he could to help. The Lizardfolk first to care to heal some of Slayer’s injuries with healing word, and then cast a well placed spike growth at the top of the steep stairs to slow the golem’s advance. Lastly, seeing that Slayer was attempting to reach gather one of the canopic jars, Aglizzy transformed into a giant eagle to help with the matter.
Back in the first room, Melkor and Malikae were slowly making headway with defeating the first golem. They learned that while arcane effects that directly target it are ineffective, the golem could still be struck by zones of magic. Melkor was most effective with a cloud of daggers while Malikae engaged the creature, preventing it from moving. The dwarf also called upon some of the most powerful magic he had at his disposal, striking the golem with both flame and radiant energies. It took a long while, but eventually the first golem was defeated, and all of Welcome Tasks was able to enter the resting chamber.
At this point in the battle, Welcome Tasks could be divided into two teams: “canopic jar collection team” and “golem destruction team”. The first team was Slayer and Aglizzy. The jars they found upon each of the shelves were fairly large, roughly two feet in height and made of stone, a name inscribed on it, and each one had a symbol or effigy on the cap. Slayer collected the ones that he found, while Aglizzy would scoop the jar in his talons before smashing it to see what was inside. After some trial and error, the pair learned that jars with snake effigies were empty and those with a unique symbol(wand, book, crystal ball, etc) had some bodily organ. All of the organs appeared fresh when the jar was opened, with the exception of a withered pancreas. Being his true self, Aglizzy could not resist eating several of the organs, with the exception being the heart. This was not because it was not appetizing, but rather because the name on that particular jar was that of the cleric that brought them here, Alessia.
“Team golem destruction” was having a hard time of things. Malikae did his best to be a frontliner, but the barrage of fists was taking its toll. Melkor did whatever he could to assist, from another cloud of daggers and peppering the construct with magic missles, as well as summoning his hellhound to assist Malikae. In between blows, Valin both taunted and tempted the party through the golems. She condemned the values of Helm and offered if either Malikae or Melkor wished to join her in immortality. Malikae was disgusted by even the notion of defying his god in such a way and told Valin they would never serve the God Eater.
Valin chuckled at this response. She asked the dwarf why he would give Giac Moran such a title. Remembering that he was in a book written long before the consumption ofThe Menagerie, Malikae was worried that by being in this book he may have caused an alteration in time, planting the seed of what would eventually become their problem in the distance future. There was little time to dwell on that though. Presently, there was a creature trying to kill him and that needed his immediate attention.
The second golem went down after some fierce fighting, but the third one had barely been scratched. It slowly approached from the far side of the room and at this point, everyone was exhausted. Slayer however still had one last trick up his sleeve. He positioned himself so he, the golem, and the pit formed a straight line. He drew one of the arrows The Tabaxi Sisters had gifted him and steadied his shot. When the arrow loosed, it took on the property of a concussive shot, pushing the golem over the edge of the pit and cracking part of the stone altar below. While not completely shattered, having distanced the threat made the task of defeating it much more feasible.
All in all the fight was quite intense and Welcome Tasks was badly bruised. There was still the sarcophagus in the center of the room, to which Aglizzy swooped down to investigate. He noted the snake iconography crafted upon it and also noted at least two sets of arcane glyphs lining the sarcophagus. Still in his giant eagle form, he flew back up to the rest of the group and took on his natural form. Obviously, they wanted to open the coffin but they felt that a brief pause might be needed before they continue to cause trouble.
Welcome Tasks decided that it would not be wise to rest inside Valin’s Tomb and regrouped in the room with the teleportation circle and the cleric Alessia. Upon their arrival, they told the cleric of Giac Moran that they found a heart in a canopic jar with her name on it. She seemed perplexed and said she had no memory being that far into the temple and she was clearly very much alive. A quick measure of her well being revealed that she was in fact living, had a heartbeat, but was feeling clammy.
The party was mostly satisfied with these findings and then turned to Tamvoi. He put down his ledger and again his form flickered to the elder grey skinned elf of present day. Pages fluttered, some memories faded from Welcome Tasks, and once again they all found themselves fully rested and ready to take on Valin herself.

Report Date

02 Mar 2025

Related Characters

• Tamvoi