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Grimm Heldwell

Tal'Dorei

Heldwell is a gaunt man with receding black hair and a big chin. He wore the symbol of his guild on a badge.

Appearance

Heldwell is a gaunt man with receding black hair and a big chin. He wore the symbol of his guild on a badge. After making his deal with the Timberblight, his veins became darker, his eyes became bloodshot, and purple fungal marks grew on his fingers; moreover, his shadow behaved oddly, being longer than normal, overwhelming.

After absorbing many eidolon he started changing even more, becoming 11 feet tall, with a body slightly humped, misshapen and covered in mushrooms, but with bulging muscles and bear-like teeth from the first Apex Eidolon he consumed, and spectral antlers burning with green fire and cloven feet from the second one. All those changes were reversed shortly before he died, when the spiritual energy of his lantern was released.

Personality

He is very impatient and bitter, willing to plot behind Slayer's Take's back and resort to violence to get what he wants. He used to dislike unclean places and people, but those concerns disappeared after allying himself with Putridius.

After some time connected to the Timberblight his mental state had worsened, and his behavior was more obsessive. He had started writing in the walls of the dungeon below his mansion, mostly about his rancor against Osysa and the Slayer's Take, and his own bond with Putridius.

Backstory

Grimm grew up outside Vasselheim in a mansion with his mother, and studied magic during his teenage years. Heldwell joined the Slayer's Take as a young adult and gained a respectable position there. He was aware of Timpani Guff's attempts to join the guild and despised him for it; furthermore, when the firbolg began trying to inform them of the strange undead activity taking place on Issylra, it was Heldwell and his men that he dealt with, and the monster hunter made sure that his superiors did not know about it.

" The Frozen Puppet " (RTx03)

Around 839 PD, answering a request sent by Timpani, Heldwell and Igor (a wereboar and fellow member of the Slayer's Take) attended a meeting near Himblewood, where the firbolg and his new allies showed them the skull of Rimefang and talked to them about the undead marionettes they had fought, and their potential connection with the Timberblight. However, Heldwell downplayed the statements and showed a lack of interest in the aforementioned monsters, stating that in any case they had disturbed the corpse of a dragon, and stating that Timpani's new friends were just as disappointing as him.

Despite his attitude, when they were leaving Grimm ordered Igor not to tell Osysa anything about what they had heard at that meeting.

" The Hungry Cloud " (RTx06)

The next day, presumably following Heldwell's orders, Igor followed the Re-Slayers to Josgren's Hollow to try to intimidate them, but ended up being kidnapped by whispers, and the adventurers had to free them. After that the wereboar was very grateful, telling them that if it were up to him they would already be official members of the Slayer's Take, and that he would try to put a good word for them to the people in the guild, including Heldwell.

At an unspecified time after this event Heldwell was expelled from the guild for concealment of information, and began working independently with close followers.

" The Dark Well " (RTx09)

A day after the Re-Slayer's Take visited Shoresight Isle, Heldwell, some of his underlings, and a group of adventurers sent by the Spectral Hand arrived asking for the adventuring party. Duderonomous, a local mage, wasn't willing to share any information with them, and when he felt hostility (due to Grimm's veiled threats), he used his wand to summon stormy weather and intimidate them; they agreed to leave, although before doing that, Heldwell dropped a gold coin in his direction, telling Duderonomous to fix his clothes.

" The Timberblight of Dead Man's Table " (RTx12)

After the Re-Slayers defeated Putridius Festerkin at Dead Man's Table they were intercepted by Heldwell and his men as they were returning to Himblewood. Heldwell was angry at them, telling them that their activity had ruined his position in the Slayer's Take, and wanted to kill them. The warriors of the Spectral Hand, who were still with him, hesitated, and their leader, Gavain complained, saying his team only wanted the weapons, and wasn't interested in hurting the other group; Heldwell snapped at him, telling him that they would be rewarded when the time came. Before they could do anything else one of the underlings, Sweeny (who had been infiltrated and still loyal to the guild the whole time), teleported with the Re-Slayers to a bakery.

" The Masked Man " (RT2x02)

Heldwell traveled to the Dead Man's Table and there he started to rant about how disappointing the Timberblight was, and that despite all the stories he knew about it, it has been reduced to a children's story defeated by a group formed less than a month ago, and that he refused to suffer the same fate. The revenant, still sentient, manifested as a mouth in the floor, laughing and telling him that Osysa had wasted potential by sending him away from the Slayer's Take. The Timberblight explained that his old ritual was incomplete because it needed more souls, and offered power and an equal treatment to Heldwell if he helped him; after some hesitance, the wizard agreed, and after asking him to call him Putridius, the mouth disappeared, leaving instead a goblin-made knife covered in silvery toxin. When Heldwell picked it up he felt thorns sending a wave of magical energy through his arm, as his pact with the Timberblight was forged, and both him and his new master started laughing.

" The Monstrous Mine " (RT2x04)

Heldwell traveled to Gurt Stumpstuck's swamp and waited for him inside his cabin, paralyzing him with a Hold Person spell. After boasting about how the Spectral Hand had told him how to find the place, the wizard took the dwarf's green lantern and ran away with it after throwing him against the wall. Gurt tried to chase him, screaming that he didn't know anything about the device; Grimm disagreed, mentioned that he could always return if necessary, and crossed the tree that brought him back to the Vesper Timberland (the tree would start burning shortly after he left).

" The Promised Pact " (RT2x07)

Using his new powers, Grimm went into the Ethereal Plane with the lantern, finding the lair of Ügel the troll near Seedfeld; when the remains of the monster were reanimated to fight the Re-Slayer's Take, Heldwell remained hidden, and through the reflective walls of the chamber where the battle was happening, he sent necrotic energy to strengthen the troll; however, when it was defeated, the wizard revealed himself in the reflection, admitting he had underestimated the adventurers. He started arguing with Heera Agneheart after seeing her deal with Bane, and even questioned the entire group's morality and what would Poogs think of their ties with a Betrayer God; Heera insulted him and bragged about the strength of her own dark influence, and Heldwell replied by telling her that even if what she said was true, he was no longer alone. Farah and Timpani tried to end the conversation by cracking the walls and making them opaque respectively, but Heldwell continued mocking them, telling the firbolg that he couldn't hide from him even if he tried. However, Norbert Klott encouraged the adventurers and they all used the magical daggers they had wielded in battle to destroy the lair; before his necrotic presence disappeared, Grimm Heldwell promised he would come soon to recollect soon.

Before " The Decomposing Domicile " (RT2x13)

Two days before the events of this episode, Heldwell traveled to the Demithore Valley to absorb the souls of the local eidolon spirits, attracting the attention of the Apex Eidolon and doing the same to it using the lantern he stole from Gurt. At some point he also used that device to transform Igor into a mummy, locking him under his mansion controlling him through a gem and a chain of marionette vines, which also kept several ghosts there.

The adventurers of the Spectral Hand visited his mansion as part of a mission, but Heldwell betrayed them and locked them in a dungeon, with undead spirits draining their energy until the Re-Slayer's Take rescued them.

" The Stalked Spirit " (RT2x18)

The wizard traveled through the Ethereal Plane to the Thorain Tundra to absorb the Apex Eidolon of that region, and found the Re-Slayers interacting with the spirit already; Heldwell restrained the latter with marionette tendrils, and used Hold Person to paralyze most of the adventurers. When Poogs shot him with his sling the wizard compared him with a useless flea, and he and Timpani (as soon as he got free of his spell) exchanged some insults too, but when Grimm was about to threated Farah, she attacked him with lava barf that caused him to lose concentration of his spell. The battle officially ensued, and Heldwell channeled his new powers to attack Frog with a spectral claw and his dagger; when Poogs used his sling again the wizard responded with Toll the Dead, and started summoning more marionettes, since his enemies had destroyed some of the tendrils. He protected himself from Farah's lava using Absorb Elements and used Toll the Dead. When Grimm asked if they had seen his basement and wondered if he would be able to do more experiments in the future, Frog declared his experiments were over, and tried to take his lantern, just to be knocked unconscious by Putridius through it.

He magically paralyzed Poogs and Timpani again, and then saw that his lantern had been covered by the illusion of a Distort Value spell, noticing Heera near him; she missed the attack against him, but when he hurt her in return, she used Hellish Rebuke, distracting him enough to be hit by Farah's lava again. The blood hunter used her powers to protect the tiefling from him, and Grimm, recognizing the hemocraft, decided to focus on a weaker target, just to find Poogs, already free from the Hold Person, jumping and grabbing his lantern. Heera managed to grab one of the wizard's hand with a manacle, annoying him and making him attack her with a bear claw and Toll the Dead; he also threw his dagger at Farah, but he missed. When she attacked him with lava he once again protected himselg with Absorb Elements, but he dropped his concentration anyway. He then used Power Word Pain to get rid of Poogs, and as he moved away, Heera wounded him. Despite being somewhat weakened, he decided to focus his energy on absorbing the Apex Eidolon with his lantern, getting more power and declaring that the Re-Slayer's Take were about to die.

" The Broken Beacon " (RT2x19)

Heldwell kept attacking the adventurers and used a marionette to grab Poogs, but when Frog detonated her motes of light around him he was badly hurt, so he created a shroud to protect himself from radiant damage; he then attacked Farah three consecutive times and knocked her unconscious. He then summoned several wraiths. Timpani transformed into a tiger to attack him, but he missed, and the wizard responded with a Finger of Death that almost killed the firbolg, as he told him that he had always hated him; when Poogs, still struggling with pain, told him they would stop him, he answered by asking the goblin who he was. Suddenly, the dome Grimm had created around the battlefield cracked, and with a burst of divine (which destroyed the undead) Pike Trickfoot appeared, casting Flame Strike against the corrupted wizard; he, after some confusion, recognized her as a member of Vox Machina, and although he tried to attack her with Toll the Dead, she was unaffected. Thanks to Pike's distraction the adventuring party able to regain control of the battle, and focused on hitting his lantern. He, feeling threatened, tried to leave, but Timpani blocked his way with a Wall of Stone, and by trying to move around it Heldwell activated Heera's Booming Blade, leaving the lantern ready for Frog, who broke it with a single punch; that freed its spiritual energy and the two Apex Eidolons inside, as the wizard's body returned to normal. The power of the Timberblight abandoned him too as the dark druid complained about mortals' witness, even though Heldwell said he was still useful, and demanded him to honor their pact. Frog grabbed him, and he begged for forgiveness as he tried to stab her, but the monk noticed and disarmed him; spiteful, the wizard boasted that even if his journey had come to an end, so had Farah's who had died because of her wounds. Then his body started to disintegrate, turning into spores, and he declared they wouldn't get rid of him, since he would become one with the rot; in response, Frog told him that he would be alone forever. Grimm Heldwell died moments after that.

Notable items

  • Stabbing knife covered by silvery paralyzing toxin, originally abandoned by Poogs
  • Magical green lantern, taken from Gurt Stumpstuck and broken by Frog

Abilities

  • Marionette Control: Heldwell is able to summon and control these ghostly vines, using them as conduits of his own will.
  • Spectral bear claw
    • Physical attacks deal additional cold damage
  • Legendary actions (3/round)
    • He can use 3 of them to absorb a spirit using his lantern

Appearances and mentions

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