Tyzok

Tyzok

Tyzok was a gurroda that haunted the Wailing Waif Cavern for several years before being slain by the party. While residing in the cavern, the elemental petrified curious travelers and posed them around its lair like statues, taking pride in its own disturbing work. Like others of its kind, Tyzok used its ability to mold and soften hard earth not only to redecorate petrified victims, but also to hinder victims and glide through the earth with ease.

## History

On the 3rd of Atrios, 403 P.A., a group of rogue mages from Whitecliff University, led by a conjurer named Osfeld, sought to open a portal into the Elemental Plane of Earth to plunder its innumerable gems and metals. Setting up a base in the Wailing Waif Cavern beneath the University, the mages used the weakened planar buffers in the caves to begin the process of creating a portal. The mages used planar anchor points, likely pilfered from the University's stores, to stabilize the portal to prevent any portal mishaps, then began trying to summon an earth elemental that could bring them a planar sigil from the Plane of Earth.

Lacking formal conjuration education and relying instead on guesswork, Osfeld summoned multiple random elementals until stumbling across Tyzok. Osfeld did not recognize the creature he was looking at, having never encountered or read about a gurroda; however, Tyzok endeared itself to Osfeld by appealing to his ego and greed, making an offering of gems as "thanks" for calling it from beyond the Plane of Earth. The elemental assured Osfeld that it would secure the sigil the mages needed, much to the mages' excitement.

   A week later, after Tyzok secretly led a den of basilisks to the cavern to distract the mages, the elemental betrayed the wizards and petrified all of them, using them to decorate its new lair. Over the following years, Tyzok enjoyed snatching unwary explorers that stumbled on the Wailing Waif Cavern, letting them observe its macabre "gallery" before adding them to the collection. When in need of sustenance or bored of having no audience, Tyzok would occasionally open the portal to the Plane of Earth, snatching an unwitting elemental to become its servant or to be feasted upon by the deranged gurroda.

On the 16th of Merend, 406 P.A., while searching for the Shark Head wizard Scrawl, the party explored the Wailing Waif Cavern and made their way deeper into Tyzok's lair around the portal chamber. Excited at the prospect of new subjects, Tyzok announced its presence to the party, admiring their figures and welcoming them to observe its gallery while it brought in a "friend." The party managed to stop Tyzok before it could summon a brightstone elemental to help fight the intruders, and the mad elemental was slain by its would-be victims, ending its horrific practice and rescuing its petrified captives.

## Description

### Appearance

Tyzok's actual appearance differs slightly from the portrait used to depict it. It was composed of soft earth (primarily clay) and coated in a layer of hard, fragmented rocks that clumped closer together as they moved closer to its head. Resembling a lean humanoid from the head down to the torso, it had a singular, amethyst eye and a row of jagged, onyx teeth. Below the torso, it was connected directly to whatever earthen surface it stood on, moving along the surface with jagged rocks that seemed to form a skirt around it.

### Abilities

Tyzok could move through solid rock with ease, and could even move through worked stone, a feat few other earth elementals can boast. This is because by directly touching solid rock, it could soften the earth into the consistency of clay, allowing it to mold it as it so desired or to revert it to an unworked state. More often, Tyzok used this ability to reshape petrified statues, placing them in dramatic poses as though re-enacting scenes from plays - or from previous encounters with frightened victims.

In addition to reshaping earth, Tyzok could use its magical eye to petrify creatures that looked directly at it. While this had almost no applications in its home plane (where many of its denizens are already stone, and are thus immune), it could employ this on creatures of flesh to make new artistic subjects or a new source of food. Tyzok's stone-softening touch was used to slay earth elementals and dig into their bodies, pulling out animating energies with which the gurroda sustained itself; such an ability could likewise be used on petrified creatures, should Tyzok have grown bored and hungry with a victim.

Finally, Tyzok could grant petrified statues limited animated qualities. While it disliked the basilisks in its cave for trying to eat its subjects, Tyzok still made use of them by snatching their own victims and transforming them into constructs known as the stone cursed. These constructs possessed a petrifying touch that passed their curse onto those they struck, secreting a greyish substance similar to concrete that flowed through a creature's veins like a thick venom.

### Personality

Tyzok, like many gurrodas, suffered from delusions of grandeur. It believed that it was an unequaled artist, and loved nothing more than hearing adulations of its skill. It saw other intelligent creatures as little more than playthings, though it could be convinced to leave them alive if those creatures entertained it through flattery or engaging performances. Such displays only delayed Tyzok, who would have already decided on what it would do to the creatures; however, it would buy them enough time to come up with a trick to get away.

Despite this arrogance, Tyzok knew how to play the part of a cloying servant. While in the Plane of Earth, Tyzok was forced to work for dao masters as a slave in the City of Jewels, using its powers to decorate their palace halls. Believing its work was unappreciated, and chafing under its masters' constant mistreatment and mockery, the gurroda sought any opportunity to escape. When it noticed several mephit servants disappearing and reappearing around a particular section of the palace, the gurroda took a chance and found itself summoned into the Material Plane, silently pleased to have been called forth by gullible, greedy mages.

## Trivia

* Tyzok's physical description draws inspiration from a fusion of two sources:
	+ Tyzok's cyclopean eye and lean form were based on the geists from the Warcraft and Hearthstone series.
	+ Tyzok's method of movement and petrifying abilities were inspired by the playable character Lissandra, from the MOBA game League of Legends. Lissandra is an ice-themed mage who moves across the map by producing rolling waves of "true ice" before her, seemingly lacking legs or at least unable to move them. Two of her abilities can immobilize other characters: one of her normal abilities roots nearby enemies in place, while her ultimate ability can be used to stun a player by freezing them.