4/6/25 - Wrapping up the Last Chapter
General Summary
Our heroes were ready to take on Valin directly. While their time in the book was starting to wear them down, they wanted to be sure this undead threat was taken care of. They retraced their steps back to the crypt and prepared to open the sarcophagus.
Melkor and Slayer watched from the top of the carved pit, while Aglizzy and Malikae flanked the altar. They knew they were in for a fight when before even attempting to open it, a plume of noxious gas was released around the altar. Both those below were able to shake off the toxins thanks to their strong constitutions, but they were ever wearing. The sarcophagus itself was made of solid onyx and the lid itself weighed over five hundred pounds. Its craftsmanship was very intricate, with more symbols to Giac Moran as well as glyphs markings carved throughout. Malikae pulled out a prying tool and with his best effort, managed to crack the lid open.
This minor success was met with major consequences. Not only did noxious gas erupt from the altar, the glyphs along the sarcophagus itself shatter. While our dwarf was able to shake off the poison with ease, Malikae was wracked with pain as the glyphs caused his death to rot with necrotic energy. While all this took place, Aglizzy raised his shelagh Melkor and Slayer prepared ranged attacks ready for a fight. To everyone’s surprise, the sarcophagus laid empty with the exception of a few trinkets.
Reaching in, Malikae removed what appeared to be a small looking looking glass as well as a well preserved human eye. Upon closer inspection, the looking glass was indeed magical and had properties of enhanced magnification. While the item was interesting and the eye not unusual from what else they had found in this room, the fact that Valin was not resting was concerning. Welcome Tasks was determined to find this undead being and decided to push further into the temple.
Going through the double doors beyond the crypt, the group came upon a ceremonial room with an altar to Giac Moran. What was most puzzling about this room was the slanted ceiling and the large door roughly twenty feet above the floor. Malikae stood beneath the door in the ceiling and felt a sort of weightlessness. Soon he began to ascend towards the door frame, but willed himself back down before crossing the threshold. It mostly likely seemed their adversary was waiting for them in this chamber. After collecting themselves and determining a filing order, Malikae, Aglizzy, Slayer, and Melkor(as well as the scribe Tamvoi) drifted into the next room in that order.
This chamber was nothing like the other. Firstly, it wasn’t a chamber but rather an open space of infinite twilight as far as the eye could see that was reminiscent of Cacung Dien. In addition to the twinkling starlight around them, there were hundreds of glowing floating eyes. All were ophidian in nature and were either an amber yellow or a piercing emerald green. The weightlessness that lifted Welcome Tasks into this area remained, they party could easily see Valin meditating as she levitated among the scene.
For an undead, she looked surprisingly youthful. If not for her limbs, which were tightly wrapped in ceremonial burial cloths, she could easily be mistaken for living person. She was garbed in the now familiar yellow and green robes of the Order of the All-Seeing Eye and fashioned a headband with an emerald to represent Giac Moran’s third eye. She broke her meditation as the group floated in and smiled when Malikae could not orient himself and spun aimlessly.
The party parlayed with Valin, as they were curious for her motives. The obvious question was why would she betray her order. Valin was rather forthcoming on this, stating that she knew of the consumption of The Menagerie and wanted to be present for the rise of the god-eater. The disaster would not take place for several centuries though. In order to prolong her life, she knew that she needed to sacrifice those around her to achieve her vision.
Valin then took this opportunity to ask Welcome Tasks a few questions. She first asked the group their dealings with the god-eater, to which Slayer gave an outline of their many conflicts. There was then a broader discussion of divine beings. Valin was most curious of Helm since his worship was not known on this continent. Aglizzy also chimed in about his god, Bo-Sat. She smiled at the mention of Bo-Sat, but seemed less key to learn about it. Valin then asked Malikae directly why he referred to Giac Moran as the god-eater, since such events had not yet taken place.
The dwarf, who had finally gotten his bearing and was floating properly, was somewhat hesitant to answer. Being the modern day being, he was worried his words would be transcribed in the past, causing some sort of a paradox. He kept his answers short, but did ask how she knew about Giac Moran’s betrayal. She replied, saying that it was gifted to her in her dreams and that the god was unaware of the future she had seen.
This was perplexing and Malikae pushed back. How could a god not know something its clerics knew. Valin took a more cryptic response, saying it was in part because of how this sect of followers practiced their worship. She teased Malikae, saying she had even seen this very confrontation, and was confident this would not be the last time they would meet.
While everyone did not like the sound of that, Welcome Tasks decided that they would prove this seer wrong and strike her down now. Valin had taken a defensive position when the group had first levitated in and did her best to even the score while being outnumbered. First, she weaved the stars to enchant the room causing any spell to be cast to have the potential wither its caster. Then she looked to Melkor and stunned him in place.
Lastly she summoned a spiritual weapon to aid her. Welcome Tasks was very familiar with Malikae’s Hammer of Helm, however this time the weapon took on a different form. It appeared to be a quarterstaff with three loops hollowed out towards the top, and was an ethereal green in hue. The weapon was placed next to Slayer and would harass the Tabaxi for the rest of the fight.
All this “seeing the future” stuff seemed to give Valin the upper hand at first. Melkor was initially unable to act, Malikae was wracked with pain when he attempted to cast flame strike, and to add insult to injury, one of the floating eyes burst with light to blind Slayer before he could nock an arrow. Despite that, Slayer was still able to get a clean hit and Aglizzy was more than happy to enchant his own quarterstaff and strike the cleric.
The fight took a few moments to stabilize. Valin was a formidable opponent, and she rearranged the stars once again. This time she mocked Malikae and stated “our fates are intertwined!”. Unsure of what that meant, Malikae proceeded to successfully flame strike her. The evocation was quite potent, however the dwarf found the spell seared his skin as well. Melkor also followed up with fire magic. A well placed fireball burned Valin…and Malikae as well. The true meaning of entwined was becoming clear.
This however did not slow the party down. There was more than enough healing to keep Malikae healthy and Valin seemed to be more susceptible to fire than someone who wasn’t undead. With a second fireball, Valin was vaporized into a pile of ash. With the cleric dead, the illusion of the twilight sky and floating eyes faded and the familiar stone walls could be seen.
The weightlessness persisted however. This was most useful, as opposite the door they had come in from was a second closed door. Aglizzy was the first to float towards it and when he opened it he found a small chamber with a headband and a quarter staff displayed. Both were familiar, as Aglizzy had seen Valin fashioning the very same headband and her spirit weapon looked identical to the quarterstaff in front of him. Picking up the staff, he could immediately feel the arcane energy within it, and was most pleased with his treasure.
Melkor picked up the headband, and he too knew there was something magical about it. Unfortunately, the party lacks any way to determine the magic properties of something other than to either attune to it or simple trial and error. Both Aglizzy and Melkor weighed the risks, but curiosity got the best of them. The staff Aglizzy attuned to seemed to be able to alter weave time and tip the scales of fate in his favor. As for Melkor, the headband enhanced his foresight and even allowed him to see things previously unseen.
With their reward claimed and Valin defeated, Welcome Tasks made their way back towards the teleportation circle. Floating through the room where they fought Valin, the group noticed a faint breeze circulating. They would have paid it no heed if not for the fact that as the descended back into ceremonial room Malikae thought he heard a whisper on the wind.
“Do you even know the god-eater’s’s name?” the voice said. It very clearly sounded like Valin, but when Malikae responded there was no response. Clearly trouble was brewing. Welcome Tasks thought it would be best to not doddle and find Alessia so she could cast the teleportation spell. They did get side tracked though when they came back down to the very first T-section of the temple. If they went left, they would reach their destination, if they went right, there was still one area they had yet to explore. Not wanting to leave a stone unturned, the party headed right.
The hallway stretched far and led into a room of average size. It had four pillars of stone in the center with the usual symbols of Giac Moran, but lying in between the pillars lay a body. An investigation showed that this person died maybe a few weeks and the cause of death was self inflicted. One of the individual's eye was missing and in its place was an emerald crystal. The crystal was not placed gently and seemed to be embedded into the socket.
Thinking back to their fight with the golems, Aglizzy remembered that the still had two organs for the canopic jars; an eye and a heart. He deduced that this person, who was wearing cleric robes, had made a pact with Valin but soon realized the corruption would render him a mindless servant. Rather than let himself succumb, he took his own life. Malikae pulled the mantras out of his bag and reviewed the process. The victim had been dead too long for the revival mantra to take effect, but this thought process got the wheels turning.
Welcome Tasks took inventory of all their clues. They had a well preserved heart, the canopic jar did have Alessia’s name on it, and the cleric seemed to be healthy and not in the process of being corrupted. If Alessia had undergone the mantra, why hadn’t she turned into one of those golems? The light breeze they had felt before continued as they made their way to the teleportation room.
When they arrived, Alessia was right where they left her and she seemed relieved that the party was healthy and safe. She was deeply saddened to hear of Valin’s betrayal to the order and assured the group that she knew nothing of such devious schemes. The group asked if she too had gone through the rite of reclamation mantra, to which Alessia had no memory of it being performed. While she appeared forthcoming, there was still something off about the situation.
Aglizzy evaluated Alessia’s well-being. Even though a heart was found in a jar with her name on, he could still hear a heart beating. Malikae and Melkor once again referenced the mantras they had found and together they were put the pieces together. Alessia had gone through the rite of reclamation, but she was no mere golem. Instead Valin had used Alessia as a vessel to hold her own heart as some sort of living phylactery.
With this revelation, two problems immediately became clear. First, Valin was very much still alive and was certainly beginning her resurrection. Second, the only way to stop this process was to destroy the heart that was inside a living person. Not wanting to kill Alessia, it was agreed the best way to stop Valin would be to perform the second mantra and make Alessia whole again.
However this would take time and resources. The ritual takes almost an entire evening and requires water from a cenote. While Malikae began the ritual, the rest of the group headed back to the poisonous well where they met the first golem. They successfully collected the water, although the toxic fumes presented a hazard. Along their walk back, Slayer took a detour and followed the breeze back towards the crypt.
Down below in the pit, he immediately saw that things were not as he left them. The lid of the sarcophagus had been placed back on top and the breeze was stronger in this room than it was in the hallways. Slayer alerted Aglizzy and Melkor. They wanted to slow Valin down from reviving, and figured the best thing to do would be to destroy her vessel.
Algizzy took the opportunity to wildshape into a gorilla to maximize his strength. In his new form, he smashed the lid while the other two kept their distance from the now known poisonous trap. The necrotic runes that had injured Malikae last time Welcome Tasks opened the sarcophagus did the same to Aglizzy, but at least it was expected.
What was less expected was that the tomb was not empty. A withered hand whipped out and grappled with Aglizzy. Valin pulled herself out of the sarcophagus and began to slam her fists into Aglizzy. She was in her full form though, and looked more like a skeleton wrapped in ceremonial bandages rather than the regal cleric they fought earlier. It was a much shorter fight, and the only thing to note was that Valin’s attacks inflicted Algizzy with some form of rot which prevented him from healing.
With some time bought before Valin would return, Welcome Tasks reconvened and began the long ritual. As mentioned before, it took the better part of eight hours to perform and there were a few missteps along the way. In the end, the group was successful. Malikae watched as the healthy human heart he held in his hand transform into a black and withered one. With Valin’s heart now exposed, Melkor set it ablaze.
Welcome Tasks knew they achieved victory as the breeze immediately died down. Alessia was most grateful for what the party had done and told them to keep the staff and headband. She then drew up the teleportation glyphs and prepared for their departure. As the familiar smell of ozone filled the air, Welcome Tasks felt themselves pulled away from the temple of the all seeing eye.
However, their destination was not wherever Alessia had directed. Instead, Welcome Tasks found themselves standing once again in the halls of the librarian council in the present day. While most of the treasure and loot the group remained in the pages of history, Aglizzy and Slayer managed to manifest what they had found into existence. The Staff of Fate, the sun blade and even the dao jewelry lay in the ritual circle and were as vibrant and beautiful as they were when the party found them. Unfortunately though, the thoughts the party lost during their read through did not return immediately and left Welcome Tasks feeling groggy.
Now that they are out of the pages of Voi Toi 4-2.16: Events and Accomplishments of Bay Dihn Soi Under the Rulership of Ivellios the Cultivator, there are more leads to follow. It is not yet clear as to why this bookis so important, but it is now in their possession. If they so choose, Welcome Tasks have what they came for and can put the library behind them. Still though, follow up research could be pursued within the halls of Rang Nahan. There are still plenty of other books to find for The Tabaxi Sisters, and perhaps there are avenues each party member would follow for personal goals. Melkor learned a new glyph for teleportation circle while in the book and it has sparked an interest in finding more within the stacks. Although, this kindled interest may be just a burning desire for more destructive objectives.
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