Tudyak the Horned (The Demon of Bastian)

## Known Background:

The second wealthiest man in Bastian, a status which he does not like to be reminded of. He owns many of the businesses in the city, and also runs the majority of the slave trade here. Many of the slaves are brought in from south of the Shining Sea, on the idland of Chult. Gnomes, for their magical abilities, are sold as house slaves (among other positions) to the wealthy of Bastian. Tudyak acts as a middle man between slaver ships coming to berth and local businessmen and aristocracy. He leads a para-military faction called the Blood Runes.

## The First Meeting:

After murdering the street performer known only as Mysterio, the Tokens were caught by members of the Blood Runes and ushered to an audience with the Demon, who, when he was told that they had murdered Mysterio (who apparently had some ongoing business with Tudyak), he asked if they had any last words before he repaid them, a life for their lives. Luckily, through some quick action on the part of Ginko, and Bumhug's silver tongue, the party was able to avoid their death sentence, and instead offered themselves up to an unspecified mission, to be collected on a later date. To seal the deal, Tudyak marked each of the Tokens on their arms with a solid black rectangular symbol, indelible, left there seemingly by some kind of pact magic.

Several weeks later, the Tokens were summoned back to the feet of the Demon, who told them that their debt would be repaid once they completed an escort mission for him. He had a shipment headed for Chult, and told the Tokens that they were to ride along on the ship, not to disembark, and then to return once the job was done. Asking for a sign of good will, to which Tudyak somewhat reluctantly agreed, the Demon removed the mark from Bumhug's arm, and sent the Tokens on their way to Chult.

## The Return to Bastian:

Upon the completion of their mission to Chult, the Tokens spent their return voyage plotting their assassination of Tudyak. Arriving to the ports of Bastian under the cover of darkness, Ginko cast Water Walk on the Tokens, Captain Tristain, Alvyn, and Eurl, as they silently made their way toward the Blood Rune's private dock. Springing their trap, the Tokens attacked the Blood Rune guards on the dock, fighting their way to the underground hideout, where they hoped they might find the Demon.

Leaving Eurl, Triatain, and Alvyn above ground to cover the exit, the Tokens descended in to the Blood Rune's layer to find Tudyak and several of his lieutenants. A fierce battle quickly raged, and while his lieutenants fell, Tudyak escaped further into the hideout. The Tokens, exhausted, decided that rather than pursue, they would wait out the Demon, hoping to recover some of their strength in the meantime.

They did not have to wait long, for from the inner part of the hideout, they heard a rumbling noise coming closer at a rapid pace. Then, bursting through the door, not the horned man that they had been expecting, but a huge, red skinned demon with unfurled wings, radiating fire from his mere presence.

“Did you think the title of The Demon of Bastian was a name not earned?”

Another fight, this one as the Tokens' resources were all but depleted. The stone bridge leading up to the surface had broken away, and so it was all they could do to keep out of the reach of the flames radiating off of the body of the Demon. A few fierce blows, and then a scream as the Tokens see Bryn- who was attempting to stand toe to toe with the Demon- begin to smolder as her body, weak from the previous fight, gives in to the demonic flames.

Just then, a voice cuts through the air as Ginko utters the words to one of his Bonds of Burden- his final spell- to spare his friend from being consumed by the fire.