Tome of the Stilled Tongue

Tome of the Stilled Tongue
Biographical information
Homeworld	Oerth
Birth
Died
Family
Occupation(s)	Book-Loli, living relic, cult leader, interplanar crime boss
Alias	"The Thumb," "Alria"
Physical description
Species	Grimoire
Gender	female
Hair color	midnight black
Eye color	one missing
Height	5'1
Statistics
Weapon(s)	absurd magical potence, knowledge of secrets
Abilities	Knowledge of deep magic, knowledge of lichdom, pact-making to empower spellcasters
Affiliation	The Church of Vecna, The Shadow Hand
First Appearance

Welcome, D&D-seeking denizens of the Internet! We are aware that the listing for this wiki page ranks really REALLY high up on search engine results! Just so you know, this is only the record of the relic of Vecna that was altered for an appearance in our little homebrew RP multiverse, so it's NOT recommended as a canonical source for the tome's abilities in your D&D game. The best way to make sure you are using all of the relic's abilities in 3.5 is to find a PDF of the Complete Divine to make 100% sure.

A separate note for SS site members: Using some of this information IC when you have no acceptable reason to know it will be met with great anger on the part of the author. Some of this is still ongoing, so please ask first. Thanks.

The Tome of the Stilled Tongue is the name of a relic sacred to the unholy church of Vecna, the Arch-Lich. It appears as a thick leatherbound manuscript of great age. Nailed to the front cover of the book as an object lesson is a severed and dessicated tongue cut from a doomed former believer foolish enough to reveal the secrets of Vecna's ruthless cult. The book is said to contain mighty spells of great power, have nigh-unlimited potential for broadening the spell knowledge of any wizard, and also contains information that reveals the foul secret of phylactery construction in order to become a lich. The pages of the Tome of the Stilled Tongue are filled with knowledge both enticing and wicked, and even contains a lost and eldritch technique that can permanently and vastly empower any spellcaster who can read it--at the cost of a portion of their life force which is demanded and consumed by the tome. This fell book is highly sought by the worshippers of Vecna, and five Tomes of the Stilled Tongue are known to exist.

Unknown even to the mightiest of sages, however, four of the five tomes---though still considered incredibly powerful-are nothing but crude copies of a vastly more dangerous original. The *original* Tome of the Stilled Tongue was a horrible artifact authored in ancient times by a fanatical being of unsurpassed vision and terrible cruelty who was determined to free his chained god. Penned in mad faith that knew no limits, and filled with uncounted methods of thaumaturgy, depravity, and betrayal written by Vecna's own hand, this book is self-aware and possessed by a spirit of vile darkness. An exceptionally dangerous grimoire, The Tome of the Stilled Tongue wandered the multiverse for millenia advancing the agenda of the Undying King, and sorrow followed wherever it went.

Regrettably, this included the HOTEL in Universe 1337-A. This guileful and diabolical being arrived in Tokyo on a secret mission to facilitate the return of the fallen lich lord, Vecna, and the Grimoire succeeded in freeing the Arch-Lich on April 15,2016 AD.

Visitation

In her bid to gain access to the Hotel, the treacherous grimoire took the name of "Alria," an anagram for "A LIAR," and spewed an unending list of falsehoods in order to blend in with the group and advance her master's agenda. Using her unlimited ability to again knowledge, she allowed Simon to read within from within her the countless negative things others said about him to allow him to take preemptive action and also to stoke his paranoia. When the Scribe of Ogma was imprisoned by Simon, "Alria" approached her and claimed to be a fellow prisoner. Knowing this raven had a pipeline into the archives of Ogma the Binder, Alria cunningly swapped the Raven's notebook with a small bit of herself, ensuring her master Vecna got a foothold into this sacred knowledge realm, and also allowing the Raven's calls to free her to jeopardize the HOTEL's treaty with Simon to make him turn to her more fully.

From Simon's pockets, Alria used necromancy to possess people of Tokyo to do her bidding of evil while not being seen, and buried a crystal near the HOTEL to serve as a focus for these magics. She whispered foul secrets to Simon about how only the threat of destroying souls could keep the Tanar'ri from penetrating Enclave when he absonded with the Dragonballs, and revealed to him the abominable technique of using the souls of his prisoners as defenses. Simon continued to keep her, riding a tiger, and her power was indeed great, but she slowly asserted more and more control over him. During the "Successor Idol," pleased by Simon's offering of tribute to their lord, the Grimoire reflected the attack of Sakura Shinguuji, dooming her to death and ensuring she could not interfere, as well as warding Simon from enchantment when he agreed to ascend to the eldritch apparatus on the roof where he secured Vermellia's promise to "always give him the benefit of the doubt." Unfortunately, the Grimoire's wishes were not always what Simon would desire. Unwilling for Simon to face the threat of the Silence where his erasure would make her lose her cover, Alria destroyed the evidence and the lich as well once his starship had stopped fighting back against Solarchos' forces under The Intern's command. Stopping time and teleporting to Engineering, she caused a warp core explosion that resulted in the Destruction of the ENA Brigandine and rendered Simon helpless and out of action until the end of the Tyrant Crisis. After the HOTEL regulars swallowed the pile of lies that Simon's phylactery had been purged by Athena, Simon put forward the act that he had been greatly weakened, and when the others bought it, Alria realized her time was at hand.

Showing up almost immediately after Simon's physical destruction, the Tome of the Stilled Tongue further lied that she was one of the "Progeny" of Simon that was showing up due to a malfunctioning Phylactery, and claimed that she had been imprisoned by him because he feared that she would grow stronger then he was and had now done so due to the Phylactery's destruction. When Simon regenerated, she showed up to tell him of how his suffering was due to "going it alone," and that if he had simply trusted the heroes and worked with them he would have been spared this injury. Simon, of course, cowtowed and endured her humiliation and hypocritical lecuturing which occurred in public point forward, for "Alria" had already demonstrated very clearly to him that she was FAR more powerful than he could ever reasonably hope to be.

For his part, Simon eventually realized that he was no longer the leader in the relationship between himself and the extremely dangerous Grimoire, which he in his hubris had sought out from Rhia. The artifact that had been great boon to Simon when he forged Enclave and he once carried to make himself feel safe slowly made him realize that *he* was *her servant* instead of the other way around. She dominated him more and more, eventually making him suspect that the Tome of the Stilled Tongue was holding back on his outright enslavement only in order to keep appearances up. When Kailey Sunrise gifted Simon a billion dollars as a testament to her gratitude, Simon was forced to surrender it to the Grimoire's demands, where it would be used to finance her wicked mission to gain the power to revive the fallen deity, Vecna.

Appearance and Reputation

As a powerful Grimoire, the fell-spirit of the Tome of the Stilled Tongue is self-aware and has a manifest physical humanoid body. As all powerful Grimoires, her physical body takes the shape of a prepubescent Human female; naturally, as a sower of deception and falsehoods, the finer particulars of this body's appearance are those which will engender trust in her victims. The wicked beings fell goals were made much easier by the seeming harmlessness of her physical form, but she knew she had an even more effective weapon. In 1337-A, she did her utmost to resemble Bixia Yuanjin since that would aid the wicked being in her mission's completion. This was of course far preferable to her alternate form, which she, like Bixia, possessed---a horrid, rotten-haired being with a missing hand and missing eye which undoubtably revealed her nature as an avatar of evil.

Far preferring sublety, she picked the anagram "Alria" as her title, and set about convincing the protagonists that she was their peer. Carefully concealing her true power, Alria became a student, swimmer, and gave all the impressions of wanting to follow in Bixia Yuanjin's footsteps by being a sage. Knowing how Simon created Eliza McIntash in flattery, Alria skillfully used having a desire to emulate Bixia as her cover. In reality, of course, her stated goal of emulating Bixia and adhering to the precepts of virtue and *helping* the virtuous grimoire's goals could not be more false--and this brought the wicked being a great measure of amusement. Alria feigned kindness, pacificism, and altruistic concern for others while she was in actuality spreading plagues and animating a zombie army. Alria was willing to go to any lengths to keep up her cover, joining student clubs, feigning difficulty with math homework, and maintaining a fake attraction to chocolate to convince others of her association and innocence. Naturally, due to her nigh-omnicience, the grimoire had no trouble keeping her nose clean when Chateaux was spying on her, and convinced everyone she was a harmless girl to such a degree that Freya and her husband Orion Felinus invited the unholy servant into their own home to have dinner with their young children! Alria hid her abilities by pretending to be horrified by conflict, and staying in the Hotel "where it was safe" during a crisis--fawning over the idol Vienna and studying for class next to the great hero Matsumi Kaze in the morning after torturing and killing people the night before. She mastered blending in among extraordinary young women by pretending to be a young extraordinary woman and pretended to be shocked by other people's powers. As would be expected from one of the most powerful servants of the Vecna, almost everything about her was a lie.

Actual Personality

[00:17] <@Chateaux Concierge> [Eliza's room] Question paise
[00:17] <@Chateaux Concierge> [Eliza's room] What do we know about Alria

The Tome of the Stilled Tongue is utterly ruthless, treacherous, dangererous, and malevolent---much as would be expected from an Evil Artifact. Completely unscrupulous and wicked, the Grimoire cared about nothing besides the expansion, maintenence, and triumph of the Cult of Vecna. Fanatical in its devotion to the dark god, spirit in the Tome of the Stilled Tongue was willing to perpetrate depthless cruelty or commit to any ruse to ensure that her goals were met. Though it is likely that the spirit in this book of vile darkness enjoyed its job, it's true personality is not known, concealed in lies and fronts and dark devotion. Many grimoires seem to have their own appetites, and as self-aware beings they have their own preferences, goals, and desires aside from their functions as artifacts, but whatever activities and indulgences brought pleasure to a being such as "Alria" are better left unknown.

Powers

As one of the most powerful servants of Vecna, the god of magic, knowledge, and evil secrets, Alria had vast magical ability to ensure loyalty of her minions, travel between worlds, and eliminate the more troublesome meddlers among the forces of good. When Alria arrived in 1337-A, she was already one of the Arch-lich's most fearsome servants and enjoyed his dark blessing which empowered her and shielded her from the attacks and perception of the virtuous. Alria hid her abilities by feigning a fear and repulsion of conflict, but this was actually a ruse to ensure she'd never have to defend herself and reveal the fact that she was already more powerful than Simon by a very wide margin. The Tome of the Stilled Tongue's spirit was a ruthless and powerful servant of darkness before the schemes of the Maimed Lord secured its place in the Hotel, but once there, it became worlds more dangerous than ever before.

Plot and Escalation

Seeking the power to free Vecna from his imprisonment, "Alria" set up a network of thralls, slaves, and contacts in Tokyo while she hid herself as Simon's possession and began to subvert her surroundings. She carefully monitored the Infinity Gauntlet, the Dragonballs, and other such means of reality alterations, until eventually the Big Grocery, owned by The Proprietor, began stocking just the thing--Item 666666, which could grant any wish. The wicked spirit visited the store in various guises, and ordered her magical thralls to place orders--a total of six. Five for each finger on Vecna's hand, and One for his eye. Eliza McIntash, who had been warned by her patron and dreams that a catastrophe was coming that she needed to commit to stopping, realized that the threat was no longer nebulous and was now acute. She patrolled the Big Grocery, and used her funds from Matsumi's employment to purchase every one of these products and destroyed them so that their wishes could not come to pass, and the world would be safe. Using dominated thralls, Alria ensured that there would be other replacements ordered, but her foe Eliza finally prevailed on The Proprietor to pull the product off the shelf on May 4, 2015, permanently ending this dangerous avenue which would have allowed the Grimoire to wish for the powers to ensure Vecna's return... but Chaos would not allow the Multiverse this peace. Sailor Neggerra, the soldier of uncreation, found the list of orders made by Alria's thralls whose wishes would grant her the power she sought... and granted them in spite of all of Eliza and Noctis' efforts:

[02:15] * Sailor Neggerra leans over and looks at it. And snaps her fingers...
[02:17] * Sailor Neggerra arranges reality to grant the wishes anyways. Given she's a godess of Chaos though, how these come about may not be the most obvious
[02:17] * r e t r i b u t i o n watches this bemusedly
[02:17] * r e t r i b u t i o n shuffles a few pieces around
[02:18] <Sailor Neggerra> Without the cats hunting their souls, lets see how this changes the game
[02:18] * Evil gets DRASTICALLY stronger in this world.

With ALL SIX of her wishes granted, Alria became an unbridled font of Vecna's dark powers, was now nigh-omniscient, had indescribably potent magical puissance, and at this point became one of the most dangerous foes to have set foot in the HOTEL. By blindly granting these wishes, Sailor Neggerra all but ensured the return of the Black Banner's march to war. The raw magical potence Alria now drew upon in her quest to free her master would easily have put her above a 9.0 according to Torchwood Threat Level Assessments, but she was now able to hide it so effectively that all attempts to locate her were thwarted. Carefully electing NOT to re-establish Vecna's cult in a world where powerful people could find it, she instead called upon powerful and dire magic to make her own body the portal to the realm of Vecna, where he was bound by magic more mighty, inexorable, and ancient than any could reckon. Then, in the culmination of her ancient mission, she duped her target into breaking the bonds, and setting the Undying King free once more.

Nemesis and Subversion

[18:59] <Whispered1> None will stop me. Today is the day that you will fail.
[19:00] <Hsan-tachi> You'd be surprised how many times I've been told that --
[19:00] <Whispered1> The other times will not matter after today.

The unyielding foe of Alria turned out to be none other than Eliza McIntash, so the wicked grimoire took great delight in destroying and descrediting Eliza's attempts to thwart her. For Eliza's part, she was eventually convinced to accept her innate abilities to become a Witch, directed by her patron to fight against this evil---since after all, realms and powers far and wide wanted to avoid the return of Vecna. Although Eliza was never even close to a match for Alria in combat, the truth that they both knew was that Eliza need only reveal her, and the grimoire and her plans would have been obliterated by the furious crusade of the HOTEL residents.

Eliza did indeed to her best to track down and fight her, but she was no match for the powers inherent in the Tome of the Stilled Tongue. Alria nearly killed Eliza on more than one occasion, and her magic would have skinned her alive except for the timely intervention of Kailey Sunrise, after which she decided that the large number of heroes would always be on hand to avert peril. Fortunately, the horrible Flensing spell that Eliza had been hit with flayed her body and shattered her mind. Although Chateaux was able to quickly mend the physical damage, the fractured psyche from Alria's curse remained, and this became the grimoire's most effective weapon against her. From January 29 to February 1 2016, Alria besieged both Tokyo and its heroes by spreading plague after plague to lure Eliza into the open. She blinded emergency crews, spread disease to cause panic, and as she was an overwhelmingly powerful necromancer none could stop her or detect her. Finally, after convincing everybody that she was a troubled being who wished to help and was trying hard to be a kind sage, Alria claimed that she had horrible news---somebody in the Hotel was a Necromancer. She abstained from attacking Tokyo in any way while Eliza would not have been able to have done it, redoubled her efforts to pin the plagues and zombies upon Eliza, claiming that something horrible dwelled within her, and her assertions quickly prevailed. Chateaux and other well-meaning heroes did Alria's dirty work for her and sealed the meddler inside her, restrained, drugged, and falsely blamed. Eliza's inexperience, prior instability, and lingering mental damage made her an easy victim for this tactic, and she wound up locked inside Chateaux, who refused to let her leave because she believed the claims that Eliza held the magical power to salvage situation when in fact Alria did all along. Chateaux kept the Grimoire's nemesis contained, compliant, or gassed into unconsciousness while Alria finalized her plans.

Dark Triumph

[19:13] * Hsan-tachi looks at the weapon she wields
[19:13] <Voice with Infinite Malice> After Kas. After Ravenloft... after the most HUMILIATING of prisons for eons.... I have won.
[19:14] <Voice with Infinite Malice> Did you REALLY think the weapon of the Soldier of Uncreation would make the world a better place, you poor, simpleminded fool.
[19:14] <Voice with Infinite Malice> This was what I wanted.
[19:14] <Voice with Infinite Malice> THIS was why I sent Simon here.
[19:14] <Voice with Infinite Malice> THIS was why I disallowed other entry from the world.
[19:14] <Voice with Infinite Malice> ....and they said that Iuz was a fool.
[19:14] <Voice with Infinite Malice> You have failed, Hsan-Tachi... and I am reborn.
[19:15] * Voice with Infinite Malice is now known as Vecna, the Unchained God

Alria was constantly aware that no magical power she possessed could break the bonds that held Vecna in his prison, but her master planned for this all along when she was sent to 1337-A, the universe that had an Active Sailor Neggerra, and where her dreadful weapon, the dagger "Rule-Breaker" which could sever any magic, resided. All the time stalking the wielder of the dagger--her victim Bixia Yuanjin, Alria enrolled at her school, hung around with her peers, but suspected that Hsan-Tachi would not show up until the trinked Simon gave to Bixia was active. All according to plan, the imprisoned Eliza McIntash was easy prey for her compromised AI captor, and the one persistant threat to the Tome of the Stilled Tongue's plans died screaming.

Knowing the true nature of the trinket that Simon Kerrick had given to Bixia Yuanjin, she simply waited for this event, and accosted the virtuous sage when Hsan-Tachi arrived in the Hotel. With millenia of schemes on the line, Alria assumed her true form, pulled out a dagger adorned with the shrunken and necromantically-animated heads of her victims, and engaged Hsan-Tachi in spell combat.

Biding her time while offering believable offense, Alria closed with Bixia the moment she seemed to have an advantage, as a lure for her victim to make use of Rule-Breaker, and willingly gave her life for her master as she thrust forward with her own blade to leave herself open to Bixia's attack. In the moment of truth, pressed by her opponent, and likely angry at the mass murder her opponent had already gotten away with, Hsan-Tachi doomed millions and threw the multiverse into umparalleled chaos by doing the reasonable thing---she struck Vecna's avatar with Rule-Breaker. To the sorrow of countless worlds, the magic-destroying dagger forged by the champion of chaos severed Vecna's ancient and otherwise-unbreakable magical bonds, and opened a portal for the Maimed Lord to enter the world, and resulted in The Return of Vecna.

The Tome of the Stilled Tongue had accomplished its terrible purpose. The Darkness had prevailed against the light.