Tyrian Vordt

Tyrian Vordt was an advisor to Count Corvus of Port Valor, as well as the leader of the Broken Crown, the city's main criminal organization. After being slain by the Champions Valoris, he became a revenant through a pact he formed with the Burning Knight.

Appearance
In life, Tyrian was a blonde half-elf man who wore fine clothing, including a blue cloak inscribed with his family's crest and a ring with a blood red stone. He wore splintmail armor under his finery. After his death and revival, his body began to rot and his armor fell into disrepair, although he has since replaced it with demonic plate. He is now missing a finger that was severed from his hand by Slumberjack after his death. At some point during his time sealed in the Champions Valoris' bag of holding, his hair turned black.

While Tyrian is able to retain his own appearance after his deaths (unlike typical revenants), his body does need time to fully reconstitute itself after dying. When the Champions Valoris encountered him about a month and a half after his previous death as a revenant, he had a large gash across his face, leaving some of his teeth visible. The rest of his body had a number of wounds as well. However, he claimed that these wounds would heal with time.

Personality
At first glance, Tyrian is cold and calculating. He is extremely ambitious and devoted to his work more than any of the actual people in his life, as observed by the Siren and evidenced by his reaction to her death. He is willing to consider odd alliances if he thinks it will end up furthering his goals, but takes betrayal very badly. However, he has a petty streak and anger issues, which come out when things stop going his way. For example, before the Champions Valoris killed him, Tyrian demonstrated a volatile temper, lashing out at Erak and repeatedly yelling at him to die.

Background
Currently, it is unknown if Tyrian began his career in legitimate politics or organized crime first. By the time the Champions Valoris encountered him, he had risen to become one of Count Corvus's most trusted advisors and was the leader of the Broken Crown, although his identity as the boss was unknown to everyone except his three lieutenants. He spent long hours researching in the count's library and learned of the Abyssal Crests, and he was able to identify a cloak that the emperor had entrusted to Corvus as one of these crests. Tyrian made a pact with the Burning Knight that involved him procuring the crest in exchange for power. He made plans to poison Corvus and take over his position, seizing power in Port Valor and gaining access to the Abyssal Crest to aid in the release of the demon lord Alzrius.

Broken Crown Arc
The Champions Valoris first learned of Tyrian's existence from Kargath the Butcher, who informed them of his role as the boss of the Broken Crown as part of their truce with him. He was incensed by the carnage at the Twisted Nail and took it as a personal insult, determined to track down the Champions Valoris and make them pay for it. Tyrian confronted the party after they killed the Siren, expressing disappointment in her death but offering the adventurers her position as they had proved their skills. When it quickly became apparently that this arrangement would be unworkable, he ordered his men to attack. The Champions Valoris were able to piece together Tyrian's plot to poison Count Corvus and arrange an armed uprising by members of the Broken Crown in order to seize power in Port Valor. After convincing Corvus that Tyrian really was trying to kill him, the Champions Valoris received the count's blessing to confront Tyrian and bring him to justice. Reides ultimately killed him when an Ice Knife missed Tyrian but exploded into him. Tyrian's corpse reacted strangely to Kilwin's touch, burning and emitting smoke, but Kilwin was unable to detect the presence of any unusual entities, such as undead. Tyrian also cleared out his office before the Champions Valoris confronted him in order to prevent anyone from gleaning any information from his belongings, leaving behind an encoded message that simply read "Fuck you." Tyrian's corpse was placed into the count's custody. However, the body mysteriously disappeared the next day.

Quadroad Arc
Although the Champions Valoris were confident that they had seen the last of Tyrian Vordt, they learned in Quadroad that Reides had been marked by a revenant as the primary target of its grudge. The party quickly deduced that the only person who could reasonably have a powerful grudge against Reides was Tyrian, despite the fact that revenants typically come back due to a wrongful death. With the knowledge that Tyrian was likely already stalking the group, the Champions Valoris attempted to research revenants and devise ways to keep Reides safe.

Werewolves Arc
The revenant Tyrian finally approached the party immediately after they had fought Irwin and Meredith, the werewolves responsible for the murder in the town. He brought several other undead creatures as reinforcements and quickly overwhelmed the Champions Valoris, who were already worn out from the previous fight. The party had little choice but to run for their lives and flee the village.

Tyrian Strikes Back
Tyrian pursued the Champions Valoris to their campsite on the road to Falas. Fully rested, they were able to fight off Tyrian's undead backup and Reides successfully shoved Tyrian into the party's bag of holding, effectively sealing him away for the foreseeable future. The bag was given to Kilwin for safekeeping and later magically sealed by Reides's Arcane Lock spell to further insure that Tyrian would be unable to escape.

The Fall of Port Valor
When the Burning Knight was summoned by Thorak's death, he removed the bag of holding from Kilwin's backpack and dispelled the Arcane Lock before emptying the bag, releasing Tyrian. Tyrian took a battleaxe from a fallen orc and attempted to enact his vengeance against Reides, but the Burning Knight told him to stand down because he was required elsewhere. The Burning Knight also revealed that Tyrian's return as a revenant occurred as a result of a pact between them. Tyrian went through the Knight's portal to the Abyss, in order to assist him with his quest of reassembling the Abyssal Crests.

Raven's Fall
After the Champions Valoris interfered with the Burning Knight's plans by intercepting the Plate of the Ancestors, Tyrian started using his revenant abilities to track them. He sent a pair of armanites who served him ahead to kidnap a pair of townsfolk from Raven Rock before the Champions Valoris' arrival in the town, allowing him and Slumberjack to catch up them with a larger demonic force. With Slumberjack's assistance, Tyrian led a host of armanites and babaus to ransack Raven Rock on the night the party returned there. Then, he waited for them at the cape as the west end of the town, called Raven's Beak. When they approached, he taunted the party, accusing them of wasting the Burning Knight's mercy. The party also taunted him a lot in return. Tyrian allowed Slumberjack the chance to spare their former companions one more. When the Champions Valoris refused to hand over the Plate of the Ancestors to stop the attack, Tyrian attempted to blame them for the continued assault on Raven Rock, but relished the opportunity to kill them. He claimed greater ambitions than those the Champions Valoris previously knew about, which could only be fulfilled once his work on the Material Plane was complete. During the ensuing battle, Tyrian demonstrated how his abilities had improved in the past few months. He was killed once again when Reides unleashed a white-hot fireball around him, melting him into a puddle of black goo. However, from their research on revenants, the Champions Valoris knew to expect his eventual return in a new body.

Temple Arc
After the defeat at Raven Rock, Tyrian was able to regenerate his own body rather than needing to possess a nearby corpse. His working relationship with Slumberjack also seems to have shifted at this point. While they appeared to be cooperative (if not necessarily enthusiastic about it) before, Tyrian began to torture Slumberjack in various ways to make them more "pliable." This included sewing their mouth shut. He also attempted to find a way to force their Necrotic Shroud to be permanently active, although his efforts resulted in only one wing being drawn out and removed Slumberjack's ability to summon both wings at the same time.

Tyrian and Slumberjack attempted to ambush the Champions Valoris when they visited the Temple of the Abyssal Guardians. While the ambush failed due to Slumberjack's possession of the Drape of the Cursed, Tyrian was able to detect the party's exact location. He taunted that their journey would end there and the party learned of his increased abuse of Slumberjack. Tyrian goaded Slumberjack into using the soul orb and Drape of the Cursed to summon an undead bulette. Enraged by Slumberjack's current state and Tyrian's willingness to take credit for it, the party mostly focused their offensive efforts on him. He was once again killed by Reides, who boiled him to death with a possibly excessive Scalding Splash. The battle quickly ended afterward, as Slumberjack was persuaded to stop fighting and unsummon the bulette soon after he was gone. Jorah kicked what was left of Tyrian's remains into a pool of lava after learning that Tyrian permanently injured Slumberjack by experimenting on them.

Goals
Tyrian serves the Burning Knight and, by extension, the demon lord Alzrius. His attempt to poison Corvus and seize power in Port Valor was at least partially motivated by the desire to take the Abyssal Crest entrusted to the count and hand it over to the Burning Knight. However, he also seems motivated by power for power's sake, referring to the intended outcome of his plans as his "kingdom." While the Champions Valoris originally assumed this referred to Port Valor, Tyrian has since clarified that he intends to rule on a more cosmic level. Whether this was always his plan or death made him reconsider the scope of his ambitions is unclear. Tyrian also seeks to eliminate the Champions Valoris for their role in his death and so that he may widen his focus beyond the Material Plane, although he abandoned an opportunity to achieve this at the Burning Knight's command.

Abilities
Tyrian has some degree of political acumen to be to rise so high in Port Valor's government. He also possesses skill with a variety of weapons, including rapiers, knives, and battleaxes. As a revenant, he has also demonstrated skill with unarmed combat. Being a revenant, he also possesses immunity to most effects that would turn away other undead, regenerative properties, and the ability to sense the location of his quarry, namely Reides. He can also open a rift in the ground that summons demonic hands to hold his foes by striking the ground with his rapier. After his second death, he was able to cast a fire-based spell and paralyze someone by glaring at them with glowing eyes. When this paralysis subsides, the victim became frightened of Tyrian as they had seen the face of death. If he is killed as a revenant, he returns to life after a period of time. Unlike most revenants, he is able to re-form his body when returning to life, although it appears to be a difficult and time-consuming process.

Tyrian and the Champions Valoris
As the leader of the criminal organization that the Champions Valoris found themselves on the wrong side of in Port Valor, things have never been amicable between Tyrian and the band of adventurers. Although Tyrian was willing to recognize the Champions Valoris' skills early on and asked if they would be willing to work under him, their relationship rapidly soured and Tyrian quickly returned to wanting them dead. The feeling was largely mutual and, in the end, the Champions Valoris brought Tyrian to justice and his grave. Both in life and undeath, Tyrian has expressed much contempt for each of the Champions Valoris, as well as anger at being bested by them. He bears a special grudge against Reides as the one who dealt the killing blow against him. Reides, in turn, harbors a strong resentment for Tyrian - stemming from the initial terror of learning that he was being tracked by the revenant. For their part, the Champions Valoris have strongly negative opinions of Tyrian, ranging from fear to disgust depending on the circumstances. After learning the extent of Tyrian's abuse of Slumberjack during their time as "allies," the party is currently eager to kill him as many times as necessary. Jorah once expressed a degree of pity for Tyrian despite the animosity between them, especially when he was sealed inside the bag of holding. More recently, Jorah has referred to Tyrian as "an abomination," so that sympathy only extended so far.

Quotes

 * (Dying) "This is my kingdom."
 * "This isn't a dog, this is vengeance."
 * "You don't know a thing about my plans. If you think my ambitions were limited to a small, backwater town like Port Valor, you've got another thing coming."

Trivia

 * The Champions Valoris have faced Tyrian in combat four times so far, more than any other character up to the current point in the campaign.
 * He is unable to tolerate spicy foods.[Source?]