Return to Nightstone

The group was flown to the ruins of Sagmaru and they entered looking primarily for more of the glowing gems. Perhaps they would be able to help fight the vampires. When they reached the ruins the noticed that some other people had entered recently, most likely soldiers from Krull's army. They would have to be careful inside. The ruins had clearly been made by some type of giant. Everything inside seemed suitable for a person that was nine to ten feet tall. The moved carefully from room to room looking for gems but mostly finding other treasure. They eventually did find another gem that could summon a light as bright as daylight and their spirits heightened though that would be short-lived.

Not long afterwards Ngarius appeared in the ruins. He had been flown out to find the group, he had bad news. Faneara had captured Maurice, and she was going to use him in the ritual to bring her evil Lich father back to the mortal plane of existence. The group left the ruins of Sagamaru and flew to Nightstone, the Trollskull Syndicate were returning to where everything had begun.

They landed a couple miles from the city under the cover of nightfall. The group then set out on foot towards the city. The top on the city walls were well lit with torches, and a heavy contingent of guards manned the walls. The group needed a way in but that started to look near impossible. Then Norbert had an idea, he could try using the power in the staff again, like he had when they were fleeing the Ashen Manticore. Morthos could cast his dimension door spell and Norbert would try to channel the power from the staff.

Norbert felt a tinge of fear, worried the guards on the wall would hear them casting and attack. He pushed that fear back, he needed to be brave to channel the staff's power. He would be brave, he was brave. A torrent of arcane energy flowed from the staff and into Norbert. Morthos seeing the flows of magic encircling Norbert cast dimension door. The arcane power leapt from Norbert and into Morthos's own flows of magic. For a moment it felt as though the two casters had become one symbiotic being of pure arcane energy, then a door appeared and they all stepped through.

"Its great that worked and all" said Bob "but where are we"?

"The only place worth going to, we are home" said Morthos.

The group had travelled halfway across the city in a mere instant and were now in the basement of Trollskull Manor. They expected to return to an empty home, but noise from the tavern flowed down through the floorboards. The group started to discuss what to do, and wondered who was running their tavern. Bob decided it would be best for him to go take a look. He quietly snuck out of the basement, stealthily stepped across the room unnoticed and then sat at the bar. At the far end of the bar was Roland, the man had betrayed them, and now he was running their tavern as if it was his own.

Roland then noticed Bob, a look of fear washed over his face.

"Can I get you a drink" Roland asked, struggling with the words a bit. Bob ordered a drink and Roland brought it to him. The bravado of the man was all but gone, to Bob he seemed somewhat of a shell of who he been. "I had not expected to see you here" said Roland.

"Nor I you" replied Bob.

"When they captured Addelin and Chace, I thought you guys might come but when you didn't, well I never thought I would see you again".

"Yet here I am, and quite surprised to see you running my tavern".

"I suppose it was, it was a gift from Faneara, one that came with a steep cost. Look you have no reason to trust me, but if you have come to help Addelin I will do what I can to help. It will be tough to do it alone".

"The others are with me and we plan to put a stop to some ritual Faneara is planning, but we can save Addelin while we are at it".

"You will have to move quick, the wedding ceremony is tomorrow evening".