Vyz'des Teshnan

## Manifestations

Vyz'des Teshnan was a Tiefling master thief and spy under the employ of Black Jack of Deut. He has since become the Demon Prince of Deception of the Shedim.

## History

### Origin

Vyz was born to Dira, an unmarried daughter of a noblewoman, who died while giving birth. He was considered an abomination by the family, a bastard demon child, but his aunt Kizu took him in out of familial obligation. Kizu considered him to be nothing more than a forced mistake and a burden, beating him relentlessly for every transgression. Her abuse fed the dark fire burning inside of him that he could not place or understand, until his half-demon lineage was revealed to him as his furious Aunt remarked, "What should I have expected, taking in a half-demon?" and threw him out of the house.

### The Streets

Vyz survived on the streets by picking pockets and breaking into homes, discovering his natural aptitude for stealth and theft. As is inevitably the case for a thief picking off whatever they can, he eventually stole from the wrong man. The morning after breaking into an unusually lavishly furnished small home in a dilapidated district of town and snatching a great deal of gold and an amulet, he discovered a note stuck to the *inside* of the door of his inn room by dagger.

The possibility of simply ignoring the note crossed his mine, but he had little doubt that any one who could sneak into his room past his alarms and leave the note without waking him could certainly do much, much worse. With that sobering thought in mind, Vyz did as the note demanded, finding the small house was a front for a massive underground complex housing Jack's Guild.

After Vyz revealed the amulet was indeed in his possession, Jack motioned for one of the doormen to get rid of him. With survival at stake, Vyz used one of his recently discovered innate talents to conjure a globe of darkness around himself and dispatch the ambusher, taking advantage of his ability to fight blind while his assailant fumbled around helplessly. Following the quick skirmish, Jack quickly recruited Vyz, who clearly had the potential to rise above common pick pocket.

### You May Have Promise Yet…

Vyz spent months training and toiling within the guild, enjoying its protection, until Jack came calling with a special mission. To ensure his success, Vyz was given the Thieves' Tools of Ramenon before being sent off to a merchant's mansion to retrieve a figurine.

Dodging guards and climbing up and around the outside of the building, Vyz cut a large hole in one of the glass windows of the mansion and slipped inside. He drew the vault's guards away with a distraction, picked the lock, and slipped inside. He retrieved the onyx raven figurine he was sent to recover and quickly made his way to his escape position.

The guards were infinitely more alert after the initial distraction, leaving Vyz with no hope of distracting them once again to ensure his escape. He once again called upon his natural ability to summon a globe of darkness and tumbled past them, spilling caltrops behind him. With the caltrops preventing the guards from giving chase, Vyz made a daring rooftop escape to safety and returned to Jack—and to a unique job offer.

### The Spy

Vyz was positioned to join an adventuring group, which found itself meddling with Jack's affairs. He took up the cover identity of Samuel Leobald, a cartographer. It took a great deal of make-up and minor illusions, but Vyz managed to hide his half-demon side and appeared completely human.

As the group progressed, Vyz fed their plans and weaknesses to Jack, foiling them at every turn, while he kept up the appearance of helping the group pursue its objective. Despite the fact that they were constantly foiled when it came to Jack, none of the group ever suspected the presence of a spy in their midst. A thief's skill and luck can't last forever, though, and eventually through pure, unavoidable dumb luck, he was discovered when the entire group was arrested by happenstance after months of traveling.

### A Spy Once Revealed is a Spy Unanticipated

He was immediately punished, cursed with a magical geas and sworn to no longer betray the group and serve Jack; however, Jack was no mere man and removed the previously thought unremovable magic. Because the rest of the adventurers did not believe the spell could be undone, they never entertained the idea that he could continue to sabotage them.

He was the perfect spy.

The leader of the band, a sniveling pious and self-serious man, trusted Vyz due to the magical compulsion he was allegedly under, treating him the way a man would treat a loyal hound. This hound, though, had no leash. For months, Vyz continued sabotaging the group's effort, with more cruel consequences for the party. They had tried to chain him. They had tried to use him as a tool after discovering him--a slave. They deserved no mercy, especially the supposed "leader" of their band.

Once their morale was broken and they had been steered off to some inconsequential task they were all convinced was a glorious quest to enshrine them in the annals of history, their captive hound escaped his "leash," and Vyz split away to find allies of his own with a promise to himself to exact more complete revenge later.

To Be Filled in: Time between his being Geas'ed and his becoming a full-fledged demon. Further details about this first half too? I don't remember it well enough.

### The Demon Unleashed

As time went on, Vyz began to succumb more and more to his demonic half, slowly twisting the new group of adventurers he had surrounded himself with into his own evil pawns. This new journey led him to meet face to face with the demon that had raped his mother—his father.

Being in the immediate proximity of the demon that had sired him, the demonic half that had slowly overtaken his soul was unleashed, taking over his body as well. To overcome this obstacle, he procured a ring of great magic to twist his body back into a humanoid shape for his cover identity.

### A Silver Tongue

Vyz's glibness and ability to improvise is legendary. Myth has it that Vyz once convinced a gnome that it was really a dragon. Vyz took it as a point of personal pride that he could make any person believe any lie at any time, and it was that very ability that saved him from being revealed dozens of times. Even the most implausible of scenarios sounded like a divine truth with the confidence he projected and the labyrinthine logic and flowing words he used to disorient his target.

### Demon Lord

After a time traveling with his demonic half unveiled, Vyz was finally overtaken by it and, with the sacrifice of his so-called friends, traveled to the very heart of his race's origin - The Thirteen Gates of Ashtar. Once there, he was confronted by the Daisthai, Gate Guardian of the Thirteen.

Vyz, after a time speaking to the Guardian, convinced him that he was in fact the Demon Lord of Omegadon. Despite bluffing the entire story, there was the minor truth of his parentage and so he was allowed entrance into the realm. It was here he confronted the Old Lord of Omegadon, Dantalion, and convinced his elite guard to turn on him and slay him. It was thus that Vyz became Lord of the Mirror that Smokes and a self-proclaimed Demon Prince.

### The War of the Gates

Shortly after his ascension, Vyz and the other Demon Princes waged war amongst themselves, a number of the older Princes seeking to dethrone Lucifaerul, the Archdevil and Master of the Gates. Vyz was seen as weak, but he presented no clear intent on siding with the dissenters or those who fought for the Arch-Fiend. Instead, Vyz fled his Gate and entered into the mind of a grotesque being manipulated by evil minds on the Material Plane. The being was known as Grum'nar and Vyz fashioned him to be a creature capable of slaying anything, even a Demon Prince.

Vyz re-entered the conflict amongst the Demon Princes and used Grum'nar to slay the most powerful of those opposed to the Archdevil. He gained a close enough position to betray him by offering false allegiances and sacrificing things that were of worth to him, such as one of Grum'nar's companions.