Malleus Key

The Malleus Keys are three magical devices built by the Ruby Vanguard and its allies to achieve the Vanguard's goal of releasing Predathos from Ruidus to allow it to consume the gods of Exandria. The Keys are located in the Feywild, the Shadowfell, and north of Yios, Exandria where the planes overlap a nexus point of the Apogee Solstice in 843 PD. The Key in the Feywild is the oldest, and the Key in Exandria is the newest.

Description
The Malleus Keys are large devices, described visually as "extended" versions of the Veilscatter Scope. Ryn, a specialist in the planes who observed the devices at a distance, said the Keys have "some unique planar projector or tether aspect", but she could not ascertain whether they create tears between the planes, fold the planes together, attempt to pull down and destroy Ruidus, or something else. It is not known if the Keys can fulfill their purpose if only two are operational.

They are located in the Feywild, Shadowfell, and north of Yios, Marquet at the point where these planes overlap with the nexus point for the Apogee Solstice in 843 PD.

Before Campaign 3
By 836 PD, seven years before Campaign 3, Ludinus was collaborating with Otohan Thull and the Unseelie Court on the first Key in the Feywild. In 836 PD, Birdie and Oleander Calloway stole the Moontide Crown from this device, hoping to delay progress. By the next year, though possibly earlier, Ira Wendagoth had left the project and began working against Ludinus and Otohan as well.

At some point after this, the Vanguard began work on the Key in the Shadowfell. In Unndilar 843 PD, three months before, the Cerberus Assembly (to which Ludinus belonged) forced members of the Grim Verity at the Aydinlan Seminary from their excavating ruins at a site that overlapped with the nexus point so that the Ruby Vanguard may begin building a Malleus Key there.

Campaign 3: Bells Hells
In 843 PD, Bells Hells discovered that Ludinus was working with Otohan Thull and the Unseelie Court on work relating to Ruidis through Ira, who left the Unseelie Court project. They learned more details of the Vanguard's work in Marquet, the Feywild, the Shadowfell through members of the Grim Verity and resolved to sabotage at least one of the devices. After they captured a member of the Ruby Vanguard, the group learned the names of the devices, Malleus Keys, were updated that the Key on the Material Plane is "near completion" and is the most guarded. By this time, tensions had arisen between the Assembly and the Unseelie Court; Bells Hells sought to take advantage of this to sabotage the Key there.

Trivia

 * Malleus is Latin for "hammer".
 * The Malleus Keys have a similar name to the Factorum Malleus, an Aeorian project aiming to kill the gods.