Valindra Shadowmantle

Liches are the remains of great wizards who embrace undeath as a means of preserving themselves. They further their own power at any cost, having no interest in the affairs of the living except where those affairs interfere with their own. Scheming and insane, they hunger for long-forgotten knowledge and the most terrible secrets. Because the shadow of death doesn't hang over them, they can conceive plans that take years, decades, or centuries to come to fruition.

A lich is a gaunt and skeletal humanoid with withered flesh stretched tight across its bones. Its eyes succumbed to decay long ago, but points of light burn in its empty sockets. It is often garbed in the moldering remains of fine clothing and jewelry worn and dulled by the passage of time.

Biography

Valindra Shadowmantle works for Szass Tam, the most powerful lich among the Red Wizards of Thay, though she is not a Red Wizard herself. She found the heart and converted it into a base to use while her minions search for the Soulmonger. Her orders from Szass Tam are to seize control of the Soulmonger, if possible, or destroy it otherwise. Valindra created a teleportation circle inside the heart that she uses to travel instantly to and from Thay (where her phylactery is safely stored), to deliver reports to Szass Tam and pick up new instructions.

Characters who explore the Heart of Ubtao are certain to meet Valindra. She's considered the possibility that adventurers might cross her path, and she won't necessarily be hostile toward them. Her mission is to seize the Soulmonger by any means; if adventurers can help her achieve that, she'll use them.

With her ability to appear as a living elf, Valindra can easily conceal her lichdom and her association to Thay. She presents herself as a scholarly wizard who wants to 'imprison' the Soulmonger; that way, its unique magic can be studied while it's safely quarantined from the world. She argues that destroying it should be a last resort.