Valkyrie Spiritshine

What Do We Know?

Valkyrie Spiritshine was a female wood elf of an unknown age at the time of her death. She is believed to have been a teacher of necromancy at the Arcane Academy in the northern city of Thaneas. It was there that as a fully trained master she was known for having a relaitvely short temper and having frequent outbursts, especially directed toward students attending there. She would later leave the Arcane Academy due to the loss of funding as those allocating funding had some serious ethical concerns surrounding the research she was conducting. Valkyrie was later made the warden of the extra-deminsional prison space known as The Void where she oversaw the prison's day-to-day activities, after being appointed the position by the former Archmage of Conjuration, John Morazmus. The Menagerie have had just a few interactions with Valkyrie prior to her death which the party did cause. The party were arrested shortly after the successful invasion and recovery of the farming town of Famel in the city of Thaneas. It was here with the help of Archmage Xanier Morazmus and an inside guard that the Menagerie lived as prisoners for a few days as we investigated Valkyrie. Toward the beginning of our stay, Cain and Loxia were taken from their cells in the middle of the night and were transported to a separate area of the prison where Valkyrie had planned to perform inhumane experiments on them. Luckily for Cain and Loxia after investigating further, Valkyrie determined she would likely be unable to and so did not due to the tattoos Cain had surrounding his death contract with the Raven Queen. Unfortunately, the small amount of necromantic magic that was used, caused a 30-day timer for Cain's death to begin, which would ultimately end up never being resolved due to his death a few weeks later in Llurth Drier. A few days later into our stay, it was discovered what was required to break the magic shielding jade cuffs that all prisoners were required to wear and as news spread so to did chaos as a riot quickly ensued. It was during this riot that the Menagerie slipped away to deal with Valkyrie now knowing she needed to be eliminated following her actions from the night she kidnapped Cain and Loxia to perform experiments on them. After battling a strange plant and several necromantic monstrosities that proved to be quite a difficult fight for us, we made our way into a final chamber where there were six creatures of which we had seen once before. We had previously termed them "corpse collectors". Furthermore, Valkyrie sits on a throne that appears to be made of bones right before they transform into a hydra-like creature and a battle takes place. We later defeat Valkyrie as one final blow to the hydra takes the creature and her out all at once. Immediately as the battle ended in the room in The Void, five of the six "corpse collector" creatures disappear, teleportation we assume. The final creature appears to have malfunctioned due to some severe damage that had been caused to it from a fight we had had previously with it in a colllapsing mine/cave. We also find Valkyrie's journal and a teleportation stone that was bound to an unknown location. Reading through Valkyrie's journal, we learned some incredibly useful information. First, the "necromancy cult" of which we had previously attended a convention for in the northern city of Thaneas is formally known as the Moons of Order. We also learn that the creatures that teleported away at Valkyrie's defeat also have a name. They are known as "lunaphages" and are sometimes in her notes also referred to as "machines of harvest". One additional thing that did also come out of Valkyries defeat. While searching through her office a note was also found which contained a letter which was given to use a few days later. This letter helped to further confirm that she was indeed working for the Moons of Order and that she seemed to go by a code name "Crescent." We also learned that the leader adorned in golden robes we had met at the convention prior was likely known as "Eclipse." Finally, we believe the mage we had met at the beginning of the campaign in the old abandoned Raven Queen temple is likely known as "Quarters." The letter also goes on to express that it would help a great deal if Valkyrie was able to create something to help with the "grave digging problem" which likely implies that the "machines of harvest" were meant to serve just that purpose, but that is purely speculation.