Hazlik is a villainous NPC from Ravenloft, the horror setting of Dungeons & Dragons. He was a renegade member of the Red Wizards of Thay (from Forgotten Realms) before being taken to the Demiplane of Dread by the Dark Powers, who then made him the darklord of Hazlan.
Description[]
Hazlik appears as a man in his seventies. He is completely bald, and his head is tattooed with many strange and arcane symbols, He sometimes wears a goatee, but no mustache. His left eye is brown, and his right eye is blue. Needless to say, he stands out in a crowd.
Hazlik wears the red, long-sleeved robes that are common to the Red Wizards of Thay. The collar is ruffled, but the robe is open in front, revealing his hairless, tattooed chest. He also wears a silver chain bearing a heavy, round, silver pendant adorned with a single, yellow gemstone.
History[]
As a Red Wizard of Thay, Hazlik rose quickly through the social and magical ranks. Unfortunately for him, he managed to make some powerful enemies. His offenses were relatively minor, so his adversaries decided not to kill him. Instead, they humiliated him. They kidnapped Hazlik and tattooed his head and body with designs that only women wear.
Hazlik swore vengeance upon his enemies and devoted himself fully to his craft. (This was easy, because the tattooing left him a social outcast.) One night, Hazlik was searching the woods for an ingredient vital to his experiments. There, he came upon one of his rivals engaged in romantic pursuits. Catching them unawares, he slew his rival's lover and forced her to drink her sweetheart's blood. He then slew her as well. Mists rose from the ground as he left the scene of his brutal crime. As he walked onward, he found himself in the Nightmare Lands. Daunted by its alien nature, he quickly retreated into the Mists. For months he dwelled in the fog, nursing his hatred and making plans for his enemies in Thay. When the fog lifted, Ravenloft granted him the domain of Hazlan.
For decades, Hazlan was the most dangerous place a wizard could find himself. Wizards became symbols of his disgrace, so Hazlik wanted all magical arts wiped from his land. However, during the Grand Conjunction, Hazlik was briefly returned to Thay. There, he discovered that the children of those who had humiliated him were rising to power. For over thirty years he had been trying to obliterate the magical arts from his sight, while his enemies had been founding new dynasties in Thay. He began plotting against them, but before he could turn his plots to reality, he found himself back in Hazlan.
Personality[]
Hazlik is a psychotic individual who hates wizards and their magic, but he has decided that sorcery is the only way he will ever gain his revenge. After more than thirty years of introspective hatred, he began taking on apprentices. His hope is that one day, one of his apprentices will return to Thay to wreak his revenge.
For all his grand plans, each night Hazlik still dreams of Thay and his humiliation at the hands of his enemies. In his dreams, he is always weak and cowardly, while they stride boldly across the Thayvian mountains. Thus, Hazlik dreads sleep and uses potions and philters to delay the inevitable. Thanks to this magic, he sleeps only once every few days.
Hazlik rules his domain undisputedly. Every inhabitant knows that he is the absolute dictator. His small council of governors (basically thugs) enforces his rules. Most of Hazlik's enforcers are 1st-level fighters equipped with scale mail and war hammers.
Powers & Abilities[]
Hazlik has all of the obvious abilities of a 12th-level invoker. In addition, he can detect the casting of any magical spell in Hazlan. He can also determine the location of the casting within ten miles, minus one mile for each level of the spell. For example, he would know a 3rd-level spell had been cast somewhere in a circle with a seven-mile radius.
If Hazlik is killed, his life force retreats into the yellow gemstone he wears, and only powerful magic can destroy this stone. Anyone who subsequently touches the gem must make a successful saving throw or be compelled to wear the pendant. Once the pendant hangs around his neck, the character will defend it to the death (although nothing else prevents its removal). Each night, the wearer of the pendant dreams that he is battling Hazlik. If Hazlik wins this nightmarish struggle, the dreamer dies, and the evil lord invades the victim's corpse. Within a month, the body itself is slowly transformed to fit the description of Hazlik, and the evil wizard is completely reborn.