Valmous

Valmous was the last surviving member of the College of Shaping Magics in Volkumburgh Vale in the 12 century DR.

Description
Valmous was handsome and possessed a heroic physique, but his face was marred by a permanent frown. By the time he awoke centuries later his beard and hair were both long and white.

Personality
Valmous considered himself to be a servant of good-aligned deities.

Unless he considered them to be evil, Valmous would never try to kill someone he was facing in combat.

Abilities
Valmous was innately capable of casting the druid spells animal friendship and pass without trace. He could also cast a number of rune magic spells, including variants of darkness and curse, pyrogenesis, control entity, and runewall.

From his time studying at the College of Shaping Magics he knew how to construct clay golems, rag and string golems, amulets that could store defensive spells, and how to enchant almost anything.

In addition, Valmous possessed a spellbook that allowed him to cast the following magic-user spells:
 * anti-magic shell, banishment, charm monster, charm person, cloudkill, detect evil, detect invisible, detect magic, disintegrate, dismissal, dispel magic, dolor, enchant an item, ensnarement, ESP, fly, invisibility, lightning bolt, limited wish, locate object, magic missile, minor globe of invulnerability, permanency, polymorph other, protection from normal missiles, read magic, and stoneskin.

Possessions
Valmous possessed a set of chainmail, +3/+5 vs. evil creatures golden sword, a pouch of accessibility, a scarab versus golems, an enchanted carving knife, and a bag of one hundred gemstones that were each worth 100 gold pieces. In the 14 century DR his clothing was ragged and falling apart.

History
Sometime in the mid-12, Valmous was hired by King Proster Obarskyr to design a new variant of stone golems to help expedite his ambitious building projects. Such things as bridges, castles, harbors, hospitals, and schools. He carved it out from a cliff-face near the College of Shaping Magics using an enchanted carving knife.

While in the final stages of constructing the first one, known as Awtawmatawn, a spell backfired. This caused a horned devil known as Rotbite to be summoned on to the Prime Material plane, who quickly went and possessed his inert golem. It then proceeded to slaughter all the residents of his College, who were unprepared for such an attack. Only Valmous himself survived, managing to escape while in a gravely injured state to the nearby College of Rune Magics.

Using his intimate knowledge of the golem, Valmous helped the residents of the College of Rune Magics defend against his creation. They managed to destroy the golem, but ultimately the college was left in ruin and only a few survived. In the aftermath of that battle, Valmous and the remaining rune magic practitioners scattered its pieces. They entrusted one of its hands with Lord Volkumburgh. While Valmous himself placed both the head and a stone wizard locked box containing the tome of shaping magics inside a volcanic vent within the abandoned Temple of the Dragon Oracle.

Sensing the aura of the horned devil still within the fragments of the golem, they knew that it could wreak havoc one day if it were to ever be re-assembled. Thus they chose to use a combination of their rune magic and his magic items, placing the gravely injured Valmous into a healing stasis. Allowing him to arise in the future if anyone attempted to reconstruct his creation.

They placed him atop a stone bier, with one of the golem's glass eyes clutched in his arms, in a cave behind the College of Rune Magics. Then the surviving rune magic practitioners, using magic to prolong their lives, would watch over Valmous as he slept. Over time he and his golem would become legendary, but his fate and the Awtawmatawn's fiendish possession would go unknown.

In 1358 DR, a group of adventurers hired by Amelior Amanitas to recover the scattered fragments of the Awtawmatawn entered the College of Rune Magics and obtained its hidden piece of the golem, awakening Valmous from his centuries long stasis. Initially he pretend to still be slumbering, but he soon confronted the adventurers and tried to convince them to abandon their quest, though it was to no avail.

Later, at the Temple of the Dragon Oracle, he attempted to stop the adventurers from taking the golem's head. But a mercenary named Lychor, hiding in the shadows and disguising his actions, managed to drive him off.

The adventurers eventually managed to retrieve all missing fragments of the Awtawmatawn. A week after they were turned in to Amelior, Valmous and his disciples attacked the village alongside an army of neanderthals, seeking to destroy the golem before it could wreak havoc. At the same time, Lychor unleashed a counter-force of undead in hopes of both protecting the golem and claiming it for himself.

During this siege the golem's head was lowered on to its body. And after ten minute of clumsily experimenting, the demon Rotbite fully regained control of the golem and began to rampage around Volkumburg, destroying Amelior's workshop in the process. Both armies, as well as everyone else in the village, stopped to gawk as this occurred. Lychor then used the distraction to cast a deadly spell on Valmous and those around him, putting the unprepared magic-user out of action for the rest of the battle. His fate after this was uncertain, but if he survived Valmous planned to rebuild the College of Shaping Magics.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * The Shattered Statue