Valdis Lietus

**Valdis Lietus** is *a human appearing blacksmith who has joined up with the party after receiving a coded letter.*

## Description

### Appearance

Valdis is a tall man of human appearance. His hair is mousy brown, getting longer and more unkept as time progresses. Streaks of a silvery bluey grey have started to appear in it. His eyes have been replaced with that of an owls, pitch black, giving him incredible dark vision. His skin has gotten progressively more pale. His hands are rough and calloused from long hours of working in the forge and he tends to be somewhat dirty and dishevelled.

### Personality and alignment

Chaotic Neutral? Valdis enjoys chaos and gold and power. He has little concern for danger either for himself or his friends. Getting progressively more twisted as the campaign progresses

### Religion

Valdis does not seem to have any religious tendency and indeed is quite dismissive of organised religion. He does however mention a "patron" on occasion...

## Skills and traits

Valdis is a Pact of the Blade, Hexblade Warlock. He uses both spells and weapons. He does not consume alcohol but has a strong liking for apple juice.
He is working on developing some tinkering skills, in addition to his smith abilities, inspired by an apple press he purchased in Arrith Natel. He has a large collection of tools and scraps.

### Languages

Common
Dwarvish
Draconic

### Armour/Clothing

He wears a mythril shirt underneath a ragged set of black travelling clothes. For more formal events, he weird a black suit with vibrant blue accents.

Valdis often wraps his arms in bandages or wears long sleeves, there are scars in the pattern of dragon scales running down his arms, as if the scales have been cut into is skin. Wh

### Weapons

His once favoured weapon is his Blade of the Fiery Depths, a black rapier with an octopus hand guard, won at the smuggler ambush in Evesfol.

However, these days he dual weilds 2 swords.

- Scimitar of Sharpness

- Eastern styles scimitar (Kind of like a katana)

- Frost Brand Rapier

- Carved out of a dragons wing bone, this rapier is shrouded by an icy mist

### Spells / Abilities

Valdis deals primarily with lightning spells and notably Eldritch Blasts. His aim if often awry! He can make people invisible and regularly uses this to aid Arwyen's nefarious activities. He has the ability to breath lightning. and

## Home

Valdis grew up in a remote mountain community.

## Treasure

Valdis likes treasure. He often conspires with Arwyen to obtain gold and treasures, by any means.

He has an infinite apple that was gifted to him by Aunty Greenleaf.

He has a sandstone dragon which often appears to be simply a ring called Skuveklis that was a treasured gift from the Yulefather.

## Relationships

### Family

All Valdis' known family were killed by a group seeking information about their draconic pact.

### Allies

Valdis is currently travelling and allied with, Drenn, Arwyen, Hargrim (prior to his death) and Idril as the group seem linked having received similar coded letters. More recently Pim has joined the group as another ally.

### Enemies

Valdis is seeking the destroyers of his people and was recently shocked to see the symbol, tattooed on his enemies, in some papers found in Bishop Writingham's safe. The relationship between The Church of Light and the destruction of his people is now a lead for investigation.

### Animals

Valdis rides a black stallion, purchased in Pepkey, called Silhouette, although he is currently stabled at the High Cloak Inn. When not in ring form Skulveklis is a tiny dragon.

## History

I grew up away from the rest of the world, high in the mountains. We are quiet people, or should I say were... As a child I was always getting into mischief, my friends and I would steal food from the local markets, but our village was small, everyone knew everyone. We were one giant family. As a young adult, I helped out around the forge, in our village, it was either help out or die.

We were the Vētra, which roughly translates to "People of the storm" in the common tongue, the tales go back as long as time through our history. If rumours are to believed our ancestors saved a family of Blue Dragons years ago in Australis, the specifics of which are long forgotten, there are talks of a book, the Zibens Grimoire, lost years ago, generations of knowledge on our people and the "Magic" we are born with. The Dragons bestowed a blessing (I call it a curse) on our people, the gifted us their talents. We have always been at home in the rain, with streaks of light in the sky and the echoing thunder bouncing off the mountains surrounding our valley. Almost every day we were blanketed in cloud.

I keep saying "were". I still don't believe it. I don't who they were, but I can guess what they were after. The grimoire. No one in our village had it, but the kept killing innocent villages. Their methods would change, every day and different villager, they would make us watch. The questions were always the same.... Where is the Grimoire? What is the secret of your people? They started with those most likely to know something, every day someone else, the village elders, the herbalist. The storm witch who lived in her hut up in the mountains. Slowly our numbers dwindled, I lost friends, I lost family, my younger sister. I don't know why they didn't choose me, but as the villagers kept numbers dwindled they become restless, more impatient. One night there were 5 of us left. They got drunk, were loud, and left us unguarded, or so we thought. We tried to escape. 3 were killed before they hit the treeline. 2 of us escaped. We knew the mountains well, they didn't, my last companion fell ill a couple of days later. I had to bury him within the week. Since then I've been travelling with nowhere to call home.

At the time of the slaughter, I was no-one special, just a young man training to be a smith. No powers to be heard of. That all changed. It was almost like the entire magical energy of the entire race became mine.

During my escape, in my dreams, I would see electric blue writing etched into the darkness. "Find me", it said. "You want to avenge your people?", "I can help you grow stronger". "Your ancestors have used my power for thousands of years". I don't know if I'll ever find out who murdered my people, but I'm the last Vētra left, I have no home, and no direction. But I am sure, this unnamed being which gave me these warlock powers. Is the key to unlocking it all