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+---
+type: npc
+role: "Regional Cult Leader"
+location: "[[Valhold]]"
+alignment: Chaotic Evil
+race: Human
+class: Warlock (Fiend) 9
+status: dead (end of Arc 1)
+---
+
+# Keeper Valdrek
+
+## Appearance
+
+A gaunt, hollow-eyed man in his 40s with ritual scarification covering his arms — seven spiraling cracks carved into his skin, one per seal. His voice is a hoarse whisper from years of chanting. He wears the black robes of a Keeper, with four of seven cracks filled in with silver thread.
+
+## Personality
+
+- **True believer** — genuinely thinks he's saving the world
+- **Unstable** — years of channeling primordial energy have frayed his sanity
+- **Cruel but not sadistic** — he kills efficiently, not for pleasure
+- **Desperate** — fears failure above all else; the Pontiff does not tolerate it
+
+## Role in Campaign
+
+- Mastermind of the Eastmarch plot (Hook 1-3 of Arc 1)
+- Traced to Valhold after the party follows clues
+- Arc 1 climax boss: found in the Undercroft of [[Valhold]], mid-ritual to crack the second seal
+
+## Stat Block (CR 8)
+
+- **HP:** 104 (16d8 + 32) | **AC:** 16 (mage armor + DEX) | **Speed:** 30 ft
+- **Spellcasting:** Warlock 9 (DC 15, +7). 2 spell slots (5th level). Pact of the Chain (imp familiar — **Krazik**, a crow with glowing red eyes).
+- **Key Spells:** *fireball, wall of fire, hold monster, banishment, investiture of flame*
+- **Invocation: Agonizing Blast** — Eldritch Blast deals +4 CHA damage per beam (2 beams)
+- **Invocation: Devil's Sight** — sees through magical darkness
+- **Ritual Channel (Lair Action, Initiative 20):** While in the Undercroft, Valdrek can use the seal anchor's energy to cast *darkness* (centered on a point he can see) or deal 2d10 force damage to all creatures within 10 ft of the obelisk.
+
+## Combat Tactics
+
+- Opens with *wall of fire* to divide the party
+- Uses *hold monster* on the party's highest damage dealer
+- Sends Krazik (imp familiar) to harass spellcasters with stings (3d6 poison)
+- At 25% HP: offers to betray the Pontiff in exchange for his life (bluff — he's too terrified of Vosseth to actually do it)
+
+## Loot
+
+- **Cult Cipher** (finally decipherable — spells out the Hand of Ruin's full plan)
+- **Keeper's Grimoire** — contains 3rd-5th level warlock spells for copying; also contains a personalized note from [[High Pontiff Vosseth]]: *"The seals crack one by one. You will be the hand that breaks the second. Do not fail me, Valdrek. The Wrath does not forgive."*
+- **Signet Ring of the Hand** — a black iron band with the spiral sigil. Grants advantage on Deception checks when posing as a cult member.
+
+## Secrets
+
+- Valdrek was once a respected scholar at the [[The Silent College|Silent College]] — he found the same forbidden texts Vosseth did.
+- He joined the Hand of Ruin to save his wife from a terminal illness. The Pontiff "cured" her — by turning her into a spawn that Valdrek keeps chained in his quarters, feeding it prisoners he takes.
+- His final words are never defiance. They are: *"I just wanted to save her."*