Izek Strazni

***Guard Captain Izek Strazni is a hulking brute, tall and broad-shouldered, and his gaze is cold as he looks over your group, fixating on Ismark for a long moment. In one hand, he grips a bloodied battleaxe almost as tall as he is. His other hand - no, whole arm - is fiendish and misshapen, covered in barbed spines, each of his unnaturally long fingers ending in a sharp, wicked claw. Without a word, he strides forward, eyes full of dark, murderous intent.***

## The Captain

For years, Izek has loyally served the burgomaster as the guard captain of Vallaki. What is a treasure for the burgomaster is a nightmare for the town, however, and there are many townspeople who have witnessed - or faced - the horrors he is willing to bring upon them on the burgomaster's orders. Shops and homes burnt to the ground, citizens dragged through the streets to the burgomaster's mansion never to be seen again, guardsmen scarred for questioning him.

It is rumored that even the burgomaster herself is afraid of him, and that he is not fully under her control after all.

## The Dolls

For nearly as many years as he has been guard captain, Izek has been demanding toymaker Gadof Blinsky create dolls for him, month after month, under the threat of burning down his store if he does not. Each and every doll is made according to Izek's specifications, and each and every doll is almost identical to Ismark Kolyanovich, but each and every doll is off model in its own unique way. Despite these errors coming from his own instructions, they inevitably infuriate Izek and send him across the street with more threats and demands.

Blinsky does not know why Izek covets these dolls so much, nor did he realize they were meant to be based on a real person before encountering Ismark himself.

## The Festival

One of the very, very few Vallakians allowed to not attend the constant festivals without facing the wrath of the burgomaster, and as such was not in attendance when the wicker sun failed to burn, nor for the resulting riot in the town square. During the riot, a group of townspeople and two guards united in a raid on the burgomaster's mansion, attempting to both kill Izek and to free the latest prisoner of the baroness - a shoemaker named Udo, taken before the previous festival.

Izek proved too much for them, and while the two guards held him off as long as they could for the others to escape, he mercilessly slaughtered almost everyone.

## The Party

Two of the survivors - Rana, a maid in the burgomaster's mansion, and Willemina, Udo's elderly mother - returned to the town square, and on the way encountered the party when they answered their cries for help. Rana was badly injured, and Willemina was wielding a table leg like a club, and the two women explained the situation as the party helped to heal Rana's wounds. Willemina also told them that she was going back for her son, and that she could not leave him locked away in there, whether he was alive or not.

The party managed to talk the old woman down, offering to deal with Izek and her son for her. Reluctantly, she accepted, and the two women explained further that Udo is locked up in an upstairs room, and that Izek has a ring of keys, one of which might unlock the room. With this in mind, the party went to the burgomaster's mansion, finding a number of dead bodies, and Izek himself, who joined the dead soon after.

After being killed, Izek's arm exploded into a massive ball of fire.