---
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."*