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Valmous was the last surviving member of the College of Shaping Magics in Volkumburgh Vale in the 12th century DR.[note 1]

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.[3]

Personality[]

Valmous considered himself to be a servant of good-aligned deities.[3][note 2]

Unless he considered them to be evil, Valmous would never try to kill someone he was facing in combat.[3]

Abilities[]

Valmous was innately capable of casting the druid spells animal friendship and pass without trace.[3] He could also cast a number of rune magic spells, including variants of darkness and curse, pyrogenesis, control entity, and runewall.[4]

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.[5]

In addition, Valmous possessed a spellbook that allowed him to cast the following magic-user spells:[3]

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.[3]

Possessions[]

Valmous possessed a set of chainmail,[1] +3/+5 vs. evil creatures golden sword, a pouch of accessibility, a scarab versus golems,[3] an enchanted carving knife,[6] and a bag of one hundred gemstones that were each worth 100 gold pieces.[7] In the 14th century DR his clothing was ragged and falling apart.[3]

History[]

Sometime in the mid-12th DR,[note 1] the College of Shaping Magics was tasked by King Proster Obarskyr of Cormyr with designing a new variant of stone golems to help expedite his ambitious building projects, following Valmous promising the king that he could construct something to rival the Statues-That-Walk of Mulhorand. These projects included such things as bridges [2] castles, harbors, hospitals, and schools.[8] He carved it out from a cliff-face near the College of Shaping Magics using an enchanted carving knife.[6]

While in the final stages of constructing the first of his awtawmatawns a spell backfired. This caused[2] a horned devil known as Rotbite[8] 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.[2]

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.[2] They entrusted one of its hands with Lord Volkumburgh.[9] 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.[10]

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.[2]

They placed him atop a stone bier, with one of the golem's glass eyes clutched in his arms,[11] in a cave behind the College of Rune Magics.[9] Then the surviving rune magic practitioners, using magic to prolong their lives, would watch over Valmous as he slept.[9] Over time he and his golem would become legendary, but his fate and the Awtawmatawn's fiendish possession would go unknown.[8]

In 1358 DR,[note 3] a group of adventurers hired by Amelior Amanitas to recover the scattered fragments of the Awtawmatawn[2] entered the College of Rune Magics and obtained its hidden piece of the golem, awakening Valmous from his centuries long stasis.[9] Initially he pretend to still be slumbering,[7] but he soon confronted the adventurers and tried to convince them to abandon their quest, though it was to no avail.[9]

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, using invisibility to hide in the shadows and disguise his actions, managed to drive away Valmous.[12]

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.[13]

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,[14] but if he survived Valmous planned to rebuild the College of Shaping Magics.[15]

Appendix[]

Notes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Canon material does not provide a year for the events described in The Shattered Statue that take place 200 years prior to the module itself. However, it is stated on page 3 that a "King Proster" commissioned the Awtawmatawn. The only known Proster from this period of publishing was Proster Obarskyr and page 77 of the The Grand History of the Realms dates his reign as lasting from 1122 DR1164 DR.
  2. Valmous is noted in the adventure as serving the "Powers of Light (Good)". This term comes from DragonQuest, a tabletop role-playing game that The Shattered Statue was written to be cross-compatible with. The "Powers of Light" were never clearly defined within that game system, but it essentially refers to deities that were good-aligned.
  3. Canon material does not provide a year for the events described in The Shattered Statue, but through extensive research this wiki has estimated a date. The explanation for this date is divided into three points:
    (1) Page 16 of The Shattered Statue (February, 1988) describes the destruction of Phlan by dragons as having occurred "several years ago." Since the conflict "Dragon Run" did not exist until The Moonsea, this has to be referring to the Flight of Dragons (1356 DR), which was introduced in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set.
    (2) The Savage Frontier (August, 1988), is set in 1358 DR and has Amelior Amanitas refer to its events in past tense.
    (3) Page 18 of The Shattered Statue describes the Cult of the Dragon as having long had no presence in Volkumburgh Vale, but TSR Jam 1999 has the cult re-establishing themselves there in 1359 DR.
    (4) In conclusion, all together this info suggests that The Shattered Statue takes place in 1358 DR.

Appearances[]

Adventures
The Shattered Statue

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 4. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 2–3. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 5. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  4. Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 4, 35–37. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  5. Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 4, 41–42, 44. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 15. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 14. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 9. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 11. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  10. Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 20. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  11. Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 13. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  12. Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 17. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  13. Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 29. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  14. Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 30. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.
  15. Jennell Jaquays (February 1988). The Shattered Statue. Edited by Steve Perrin. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 14, 31. ISBN 0-88038-498-0.