Wizard Grayzag

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Professor Melville Grayzag, better known as simply Wizard Grayzag, is an insane wizard and summoner located on the first floor of the Wizards' Tower tending the demon there. He seems to have a grudge against Wizard Mizgog, whose room is directly adjacent to his. Melville is a self-proclaimed master of imps and is able to summon them, use them in battle and give them various commands. For example, the quest Imp Catcher focuses on how he told his imps to steal Wizard Mizgog's (a "beadromancer") beads. He is also seen during the Wizards' Tower Robbery, summoning five imps to counter the attack, although they are easily killed by robber Zenevivia with blood barrage. He curses and teleports to safety, just before the arrival of Wizard Traiborn's Thingummywut. In reality, this is but a mere façade held up by Melville to hide his plans of world invasion to avenge himself on his condescending colleagues in the tower.

When conversing with Evil Dave about his luck with 'demon-summoning', Dave reveals that he thought he should start small. He asked Melville for help with summoning imps, but instead only succeeded in summoning Hell-Rats, a level of demon even lower than that of imps. His expertise on demons and summoning them, previously red robes and general behaviour strongly suggest that Melville is a follower of Zamorak. However, this is never directly confirmed. It is, however, safe to say that Grayzag is utterly insane, gone mad from his hunger for vengeance as explained below.

During A Towering Feast, an imp had stolen Grayzag's hat and, in addition, four of his imps had decided to play hide and seek. One had to find the imps and retrieve the hat, then suggest to use snow imps as waiters instead of regular, and much more mischievous, fire imps.

Joining the Wizards' Tower
Much of Melville's early life remains unknown. The little information available tells that Melville joined the famous Wizards' Tower near Draynor Village some time in the late forties of the second century of the Fifth Age, likely under Archmage Sedridor. He arrived at the tower in the middle of the night and applied to become a student. Despite the strict rules against Zamorakian wizards which are in force as of the burning of the first tower in the year 70, Melville Grayzag was made a tower wizard. Perhaps he did not have Zamorakian sympathies yet, or he hid them well enough not to be suspicious, or, of course, he was not a follower of Zamorak, despite hints towards this. Either way, he became the new guardian of the demon Azacorax.

Azacorax had been trapped inside a magical barrier for years, unable to be destroyed despite several earlier attempts, and needed experts to be watched over all day. Melville became its guardian and treated it like a pet, calling it 'Lemmy', while practising his normal day magic, i.e. the summoning and control of imps, the second lowest form of demon. This suggests that Melville might have been a demonologist.

Melville's reputation in the tower, however, was not particularly good. Although he claimed to be a master summoner, he was ridiculed by the other tower wizards for his apparently feeble magical skills as well as his affection towards Azacorax. He bullied his neighbouring wizard and beadromancer Wizard Mizgog by disrupting the latter's research using his imps, which led to further negative opinions of him. Over the years, Melville was mocked and laughed at and even gained the nickname "Lamezag" from his colleagues.

All of these factors contributed to Grayzag's later descent into madness, but, at that point, although very angry and longing for vengeance against the tower wizards, he held up his façade of grumpy and ridiculous mage and kept doing what he always did. He defended the tower, along with Sedridor, Mizgog and Traiborn, when Dionysius and Zenevivia attempted a robbery using his imps, but he didn't fight very vigilantly and was quickly defeated before teleporting to safety.

Castimir's trial
In 165, shortly after the return of King Roald's embassy to Morytania, the wizard Castimir was brutally arrested on orders of the Tower for stealing the books of Master Segainus. Grayzag was responsible for Castimir's being kept in the Varrock Palace dungeon overnight, naked and chained to a cold chair, taking delight in the torture. The next day, Sedridor and he attended the actual trial, acting as judges along with Layte Aubury.

Grayzag continuously mocked Castimir and enjoyed his miserable state. After Sir Theodore's testimonial in the accused's defence, he cruelly remarked that Theodore owed his life to his friend and therefore could well be lying, stating that he should not be trusted. Then, all of the three wizards determined Castimir to be guilty and proceeded to vote on his sentence.

Enjoying the torture it brought Castimir, Grayzag openly put a death rune into the voting urn, which meant a vote for death. Sedridor and Aubury kept their runes concealed, but one of them placed a law rune into the urn, a vote for life. When this law rune was counted after the preceding two death runes, Grayzag angrily sneered at his colleagues, demanding to know who had wanted to spare Castimir. After the trial, he and Sedridor returned to the Tower.

Several days later, he did not join his colleagues at the Second Battle of the Salve at Paterdomus, but instead ambushed the Untainted who had returned from hunt of Arisha. He led a number of tower wizards as they fought the Untainted and their hill giants, utterly ravaged the Mountain of Fire, and, most importantly, stole all of their rune essence, which had been taken from the tower during the Runecrafting Crusades.

Studies and experiments
In the meantime, Grayzag began an entirely new form of research, to find out how he can avenge himself. Soon, he stumbled upon stories of a mystical, legendary and almost omnipotent weapon: the valluta. He found out that this valluta was to act as a guardian between planes, there to protect Gielinor from extra-dimensional invasions, specifically from The Void. Grayzag studied further and researched the Void in detail. He discovered it is a transferring plane. Intelligent and hive-minded creatures known as 'pests' use the plane as a redirect to enter Gielinor from their own realm. These invade other dimensions and attack structurally: for example, the ravagers destroy enemies' protective barriers and void leeches are there to heal fallen pests as well as weaken the enemy using their special goo. The pest invasions, which so far have never succeeded on Gielinor due to the interference of the valluta, are led by an almighty creature - the Pest Queen.

Grayzag figured that this could be the ideal way to prove himself as the most powerful summoner ever. He thus began his experiments. In a remote location, where he would not be seen, he started creating portals to The Void. On several abandoned islands in the Southern Sea, he finally succeeded. Hordes of pests came through and destroyed everything on their path. Satisfied, Grayzag kept summoning more to perfect the technique.

Soon, the invaded islands were discovered by the Void Knights, a member of which had predicted their arrival over 130 years ago. They soon cleared one of the less swarmed islands quickly and founded an outpost of the Void Knights there, striving for balance. Led by admiral Boyce Khael, they were determined to rid the world of pests, with new recruits and casualties every day. Enjoying the chaos and manslaughter, Grayzag continued to summon pests, realising that this was indeed the way to his goals.

This went on for some twenty years until he made a capital mistake that would eventually lead to his downfall. Back at the Wizards' Tower, Grayzag once more stole the stuttering Mizgog's beads to halt his research. The latter secured the help of an adventurer visiting the tower to retrieve the beads by killing Grayzag's imps around the world, and so he did. Enraged, Grayzag swore vengeance on the adventurer too, determined to destroy him. Not taking Grayzag's threats seriously, the adventurer ignored him and left, although they would soon meet once more.

Commencing the mastermind plan
By the year 169, Grayzag had grown confident of himself and decided to finally set his great vengeance plot in action. He would prove himself by summoning the Pest Queen, an immensely hard feat to achieve, but in order to do this, he needed to obtain and destroy the valluta, which would otherwise squish the queen with ease, then kill Grayzag.

Obtaining a pest
First, Grayzag did some minor reconnaissance amidst the Void Knights and formed a plan. At the Wizards' Tower, he contacted a young researcher called Jessika Silverline. Claiming to be a 'Professor Melville', he told her that he was a scientist at the Wizards' Tower currently investigating pests, purely for academic reasons of course and that he required a living species. As neither Grayzag nor others had used his first name in years, nobody suspected that it was him. The professor also warned Jessika, who was also studying pests at the Void Knights' Outpost in order to find new ways to kill them, to discretely steal a pest and bring it to him, as the Void Knights would never let it happen. Jessika, falling for Grayzag's trap, managed to acquire a void leech from the battlefield and kept it hidden in her house. However, she grew affected to the leech and set it free and it swam off to the mainland.

The Void Knights quickly got ear of this and Commodore Matthias alerted the Temple Knights of Falador that a pest had escaped and was now on the loose in Asgarnia. The Knights were put on high alert by Sir Vey Lance and Sir Tiffy Cashien recruited one of his knights, an adventurer, to visit the Void Knights and find out how the pest managed to escape. Matthias redirects them to Captain Tyr, who advises in questioning the knights of the island and their relatives. Soon, the adventurer found out that Jessika was acting suspicious and by entering her mind using a potion, her guilt was confirmed and she was sentenced to house-arrest, confiscation of all research and twenty-four-hour surveillance by Commander Korasi, who was rather hostile towards the young researcher. The mission being successful, the adventurer returns to Sir Tiffy while Matthias gathers a party of Void Knights and squires to travel to mainland and track down the pest.

As Tiffy and the adventurer go to the docks of Port Sarim to greet the knights, things turn very sour. The void knight lander is nowhere to be seen, and only a mentally weak Commander Korasi stands on the dock, very confused. She is quickly brought to Temple Knight HQ where it is found out something terrible had happened. While on sea, the knights were ambushed by a swarm of pests, who slaughtered all the knights and squires present. They were led by a mysterious figure who personally duelled the much weaker commodore. Korasi had fought her way up to help the commodore but he quickly teleported her to Port Sarim before being murdered by the figure's lightning attacks. After recovering, Korasi returns to now-commodore Tyr at the Outpost, determined to find the pest as well as the person who killed the knights.

Aid from the Kinshra
Jessika, feeling guilty for what has happened, helps the adventurer track down the void leech, still being watched by Korasi. They start looking in Port Sarim, where the leech left behind a long trail of purple goo and several ill villagers. The trail leads to the cellar of the Rusty Anchor inn, where more of the goo is found leaking from the wall. They continue their search on Musa Point, where more goo is found along with more ill people. Eventually, the trail ends at the leech's burrow, where they find splinters made of waxwood, a type of wood generally used only for its resistance to water and moisture. They head to the Rimmington chemist to investigate.

After the attack on the lander, having made sure that the pest was in his possession, Grayzag proceeded with his plan. In the Black Knights' Base under Taverley, Grayzag approached the Lord of the Kinshra Daquarius Rennard and made him an offer. Grayzag would supply the Kinshra with the void leech which he had located on Musa Point, who would produce huge amounts of life force-draining "foodgoo" that could be used to weaken then overrun the Kinshra's arch nemeses, the White Knights of Falador, in return for the Kinshra's cooperation in Grayzag's plan. His mind set on the downfall of Falador, Daquarius agreed, not knowing he had become another victim of Grayzag's mad manipulations. The leech is imprisoned in a highly secured workshop, where slaves are to craft boxes filled with the goo from waxwood. The Kinshra also hired a man from the Kharidian Desert named Ali Tist to sell the waxwood boxes as puzzles in the heart of Falador. The plan works and soon many Faladian citizens become ill from fumbling with the unsolvable boxes.

As Korasi, Jessika (who have since become close friends) and the adventurer rush to Falador to warn the Temple Knights about the goo, they purchase a puzzle box as well after realising they are causing the disease amongst the Faladian populace. Unable to solve the puzzle, they destroy the box with Korasi's sword to find the foodgoo and Sir Tiffy and Sir Amik Varze issue a search warrant for Ali's stall. He claims that he was given a mysterious clue scroll that led him to a place where the boxes were stocked and that he was told to sell them, but he did now know by whom. The adventurer follows the clues to the Kinshra's workshop, which they infiltrate along with Korasi and Jessika. After getting rid of elite Black Knight doorkeepers, they find the void leech and release it from its prison, ending the foodgoo supply. They do not know, however, that most of the boxes with goo have already been relocated to the Kinshra's Base under Taverley, on Grayzag's request. With the attack on Falador prevented, the party report back then travel to Commodore Tyr to tell that the pest has been tracked down and dealt with. Despite everything, Korasi remarks that it is rather suspicious that the Kinshra produced so much goo when a lot less would be needed to conquer Falador. It is only then that they begin to suspect there is someone with ulterior motives behind everything.

Meanwhile, Grayzag, whose mind by now had crippled to a degree of madness, deems the situation perfect to commence the grand finale of his plan. Unbeknownst to Daquarius, he infiltrates the Kinshra's base and enters the storeroom where all waxwood is located. By first bypassing, then sabotaging all security measures he makes sure nobody can follow him. At the heart of the storeroom, Grayzag creates a large portal leading to an unknown location where the valluta is located and transports the hundreds of waxwood boxes through before going in himself. There, he finds out the visage of the Valluta: it is not a weapon, but a gigantic stone tortoise and one of the Guardians of Guthix. Valluta, unable to prevent Grayzag from weakening it and draining it of its strength, is trapped and watches and Grayzag makes the final preparations for the ritual.

Showdown
Back in Falador, Tiffy, Korasi, Jessika and the adventurer form a plan. The latter, having infiltrated Kinshra bases earlier, disguises themselves as a black knight with bugged armour, so that Savant may rescue them should things turn sour, and enters the Kinshra Fortress, where they are mistaken for a member of Captain Gilroy's party by Commander Colby. They are teleported to the Kinshra Base and have to join Gilroy and two other knights to check on the storeroom. The passage to the second room requires a daily changed password for the door, but as one of the knights attempts to open it, he gets electrocuted and dies. Gilroy shockingly realises that the system has been sabotaged by someone but the adventurer manages to solve the puzzle and open the door. In the next room, they are suddenly ambushed by a small swarm of pests which are not easily defeated by Gilroy and the disguised adventurer. In the third room, a dangerous magical trap is found on the control panel, but quickly disarmed.

As they enter the last room where the waxwood is supposed to be stored, they find themselves in an empty room, devoid of all waxwood boxes and with a large pulsating portal inside. Gilroy quickly summons a furious Lord Daquarius to the scene, who, wanting to know how it is possible that they managed to bypass the sabotaged security, becomes angrier still when discovering the adventurer once again infiltrated his ranks. Although he first wanted them killed, they convince Daquarius to hear them out as they are working for the Void Knights and not the White Knights and the Kinshra have never dealt with the Void Knights before. The adventurer will tell that they have been tracking someone who has been controlling the pest attacks as well as manipulating the Kinshra, someone whom they suspect has now backstabbed Daquarius and stolen all foodgoo for something terrible. Daquarius insists that it is a load of rubbish when Tiffy, Korasi and Jessika teleport in. Together, they manage to convince him of the gravity of the situation and even persuade him as to form a temporary knight alliance between the four orders White, Black, Temple and Void Knights to stop whoever is behind this, with the adventurer, not belonging to any side, leading the attack.

When they are all prepared, the adventurer, Korasi, Jessika, Tiffy, Daquarius and Tyr step through the portal, appearing in a medium-sized cave, with another tunnel at the other end. As they are about to send their troops forward, none other than Melville Grayzag approaches from the other end, accompanied by two pest drones. Jessika is overwhelmed by guilt and shock as she realises her Professor Melville had been behind all of this, while Daquarius is enraged by the treason Grayzag committed toward his men. Enjoying the frustration, Grayzag reveals how he got sick of the mockery at the Wizards' Tower, how he caused the twenty years of pest attacks against the Void Knights (to Tyr's great anger), how he easily manipulated Jessika and Daquarius, killed Commodore Matthias, detests the adventurer and is now about to summon the greatest of all creatures: the very Pest Queen herself. Not being quite ready yet, however, he summons a battalion of pests to hold the protagonists back and leaves. Jessika, however, runs after him in disbelief, while the others quickly hide in a side cavern before a group of splatters suicide-bomb and cause a minor cave-in. With the help of Savant, a conquest Void Knight squad defeats the remaining pests and the group are teleported back to the main cave, with Korasi immediately running into the tunnel Grayzag and Jessika went. The others worriedly send their troops through and the adventurer is the first to follow Grayzag.

In the cave, they find themselves in a grave situation. Grayzag has both Jessika and Korasi captured and under death threat and sucks the last bits of Valluta's life force into himself. Fully prepared for the summoning ritual, Grayzag finally needs a cataclyst in the form of a human death to complete it. The adventurer has to choose between saving Korasi and Jessika, the other being killed. With her death, Grayzag is able to create a portal and a huge pest soon crawls through. The other girl ignites the waxwood boxes, destroying the portal, but unfortunately the pest queen had already climbed through and is ready for battle. Grayzag marvels at his work when Daquarius and Tiffy enter to arrest him. He laughs at them and makes a run for it. Tiffy says not to worry as Tyr and the troops are in the other room ready to stop Grayzag and that the pest queen must be defeated as quickly as possible.

Defeat
After a long and extremely tough battle with many deaths from all sides, the pest queen is finally defeated and explodes. Grayzag, who has now lost all common sense and has gone completely and utterly insane, is bound to a pillar as Valluta gives her thanks for protecting the world, claiming that all who battle the pests are their own valluta, and the knight order leaders quarrel over what to do with him. Sir Tiffy wants Grayzag (who, in the mean time, is babbling utter nonsense, having clearly lost his mind from his defeat) interrogated then disposed of, or incarcerated forever on behalf of the White Knights, Daquarius wants to torture him right now while Tyr desires an immediate execution to restore balance. The adventurer eventually gets to choose what will happen with him, finally marking the end of Wizard Melville Grayzag once and for all as well as breaking the alliance of knights.

Despite his defeat, Grayzag's interference with the world's barriers have remained permanent. A new pest queen is born in the Void and, although unable to enter Gielinor, she still commands her army in the Southern Sea and the Void Knights must continue their battle for balance. In the Wizards' Tower, nobody is able to believe that Grayzag was capable of such horrible feats and his position as demon guardian and master of imps is taken by Wizard Taloram, whose personality resembles Grayzag's in every way, save the psychological illness.

A Towering Feast
The Wizards' Tower had convinced the Wizards' Guild in Yanille that they could host the annual Christmas party the year before the aforementioned events. Work was soon started, however, things staggered soon enough. As the Guild's parties were always tremendous and Archmage Sedridor had to impress the guild wizards (who had arrived to the tower early, criticising everything, much to their delight) and addressed help from the same adventurer to do so. Even Grayzag, who was quarrelling with Mizgog by Lemmy's cage, had to be careful and make sure nobody would be suspicious of him and grudgingly accepted the adventurer's help to track down several of his imps, supposed to be waiters at the banquet, who had decided to play hide and seek as well as stolen Grayzag's hat, much to Mizgog's pleasure. The imps (and hat) were retrieved and Grayzag then used Snow Imps, who are more rational, as waiters. At the banquet, he had an argument with Wizard Frumscone of the Guild, who not only was a better summoner than he was, but also mocked his snow imps, calling them cute. They were about to attack each other when Sedridor intervened, teleporting them to a separate room where they fought it out using battle snowmen. As such, the Christmas banquet turned out great after all.

Trivia

 * Melville was once combat level 41. He was attackable and would summon black imps (three at once) to assist him in combat. He can no longer be attacked and therefore no longer has a combat level.
 * Melville used to look very different from his Wizards' Tower version during The Void Stares Back, but since his graphical update on 28 November 2012, the two look entirely the same. He doesn't even have a staff during the quest anymore, even though he uses it at least twice in animations.
 * Melville's cousin Wizard Whitezag replaces him during A Towering Feast and Wizard Taloram during the Wizards' Tower Robbery and afterwards, for players who have completed The Void Stares Back. The former is a reference to Wizard Gandalf the Grey from , who is killed but is resurrected as Gandalf the White.
 * In the third book in the RuneScape series, Legacy of Blood, it is stated that Wizard Melville is the most powerful summoner in the realm, and one of the most powerful wizards related to the Wizards' Tower. It is also suggested by Castimir that he is evil to the point that he deserves torture.