The Legend of the Trollskull Syndicate

The following is the story of the Liberation of Nightstone as told by Morthos the bard.

There they were, the mighty heroes caught in the jaws of the evil vampire queen's trap. Scores of vampire thralls swarmed out the houses surrounding the city square, and those already killed by the heroes rose as hideous zombies.

Faneara stood on what remained of the stage "You fools" she called out "you have walked right into my trap. I had thought it the blood of Maurice that I needed but I realized it was actually Morthos who had a blood tie to Stranix. He had been with Maurice when I first detected it, and believed it to be Maurice. Now I will kill you all for getting in my way, but Morthos your death will be especially painful as your lifeforce is ripped from your body and fed to my father".

"Oh get on with it then, you are boring us all" said the very clever and witty Morthos.

Then the sun was blotted out as the Ashen Manticore descended into the city square at Faneara’s command, the stone of control in her hand. The great beast landed letting out a terrifying roar that shook the ground. Intense heat emanated from the lava constructed creature setting the wooden tables and chairs nearby aflame. Mighty Argus let out a roar of his own and fearlessly charged the flaming monster with Rojakiin held high above his head. The silver dragonborn slammed the legendary greatsword into the beast, a gush of lava spilled out onto the ground and the Ashen Manticore let out a howl of agony. Now fully in the throws of his barbarian rage Argus thrust his sword into the creature a second time.

Leomarvis lay dying on the rooftop but the vampire thrall was not content to let the life slip slowly from the brash ranger. She stepped forward raising her sword the point centered above Leomarvis’s heart, then a grimace crossed her face. The deadly assassin that had tried to kill Leomarvis pulled her knife out of the vampire thralls back and let the creature fall and roll off of the roof to the ground below. She then pulled out a small club and hit Leomarvis in the head. Instead of killing Leomarvis it healed him.** Leomarvis woke up, a new bruise on his face, but he felt better. He was surprised to see the assassin standing over him with a smile.

“Stop lying about like a sloth, there are things to be done” said the assassin.

“You are not trying to kill me anymore” asked Leomarvis?

“I did that once already, and besides my mentor Ngarius has asked for my help. My name is Rin by the way. Now I think we have an unkillable monster to kill, so you had better get and start using that bow”. Leomarvis rose drew Winter’s Call and let an arrow fly. The ice infused arrow struck the Ashen Manticore and where it hit the fire of the creature seemed to cool as the light dimmed. Encouraged by the result he shot again. The Ashen Manticore turned and drew in a deep breath. Rin, the assassin, grabbed Leomarvis and used a teleport magic to get the two of them out of the way. The fiery breath of the Ashen Manticore incinerated most of the building the two had been standing on. Several of the thralls that had been nearby were reduced to ash. The heat of the breath could be felt intense to those that were not even close to the target. How could anybody defeat such a creature.

Morthos commanded his spectral hand to release Bob and then had it fly across the square to strike the shapeshifter in the back. The blow was enough to force the creature to drop Morthos but that presented another problem, Morthos was isolated from the group and surrounded by vampire thralls. It is all good he told himself as the menacing creatures surrounded him. Suddenly there was a fiery explosion all around Morthos, all of the creatures now lie dead, but Morthos was unharmed. Morhtos looked over to see Norbert smiling at the success of his fireball. The moment of relief was short lived as more vampire thralls raced towards Morthos, the one they needed to sacrifice to bring back Durdis.

Bob now free of Morthos’s giant spectral hand, drew his fire sword and ran towards Faneara killing thralls as he ran. His flame sword cut down thralls and zombies, but they were nothing. Bob was after the master. Rayla’s fireball exploded near Faneara causing the vampire queen to flee behind the rubble of the stage. Many of the thralls that had been Faneara had died, but even when they died, they rose again as zombies. There was a seemingly endless tide of evil creatures attacking the heroes of the Trollskull Syndicate, and their chances of getting out of the situation alive was in doubt.

Rin and Leomarvis ran from a hoard of creatures. Leomarvis used a grappling shot to get back onto a roof, away from thralls back into the sight of the ashen manticore. Rayla and Norbert fought side by side casting spells, but the thralls and zombies still came at them. Argus battled with the Ashen Manticore, the creature slashed at him opening a deep wound that the barbarian ignored and launched another attack with Rojakiin. The heroes were outnumbered, and it appeared to be just a matter of time before they would be defeated.

Then Fleshripper landed in the square and quickly attacked a thrall. Hellstrom landed not far away, and the massive fire wolf charged towards Faneara at Argus’s command. Wyverns flew above their riders firing arrows down into the square. Princess Sameria and Addelin appeared leading a group of soldiers and a contingent of citizens ready to tack back their city.

“We need to get the stone away from Faneara” yelled Morthos the courageous leader of the Trollskull Syndicate.

“What a great plan,” said Norbert.

“Our leader is so smart” replied Rayla.

Faneara tried to flee but Bob leapt in front of her and cut her with his flame blade. Faneara tried to enter his mind, tried to turn Bob against his friends.

“Yes, that’s it” said Faneara “I can give you everything you wish for, all you have to do is tell me what you want”. Hellstrom crashed into the back of Faneara knocking the stone out of her hand. The spell she was trying to cast on Bob faded.

“What I want is for you to die!” said Bob as he impaled the evil vampire queen with his flame blade. The stone rolled off of the step and Norbert used his telekinesis to pick it up. The moment he touched it his mind was assaulted by the intense rage and anger that was the Ashen manticore. The beast wanted to destroy everything, it wanted the world to be like its home, the heart of a volcano. Then Norbert took control of the creature.

Around the square, the thralls were in a frenzy. Their master had been killed and now they were in a state of insane rage. They attacked each other and anything near them. Nobert had the Ashen Manticore attack them, and then ordered the creature to return to its volcanic home where it could sleep in peace.

Faneara was dead, and the city of Nightstone was free from her tyranny. Sameria was named Queen, and she named the Trollskull Syndicate heroes of Nightstone. They were each given the title of Guardian Knight of Nightstone.

Bob was the first to say he was going to leave for a while, over the past year their lives had been going from one crazy adventure to the next. They all had things they needed to do. They agreed to meet back in Nightsone in one year’s time.

Bob left with the stone, he was the guardian of the stone now, and it was his duty to protect it. Leomarvis decided it was time to finally reconnect with his brother, while Rayla headed west looking for answers about her own family. Argus and Hellstorm went south, Argus determined to find a place the fire wolf could live in peace. Norbert found himself spending as much time as he could with Sameria. She wanted his advice on a number of things, but they were also in love, and they wanted to be close to each other.

Morthos stayed in Nightstone for a while. He got the tavern up and running with the help of Grumble Thorn. Morthos told the stories of the Trollskull Syndicate every night to a packed house, though people had lived through the Liberation of Nightstone they never seemed to tire of the story. Morthos might have stayed longer, he enjoyed entertaining in his own tavern. Then Morthos received a letter, he packed his things and left that same day. He left Grumble in charge of the tavern while he was gone. It seemed fitting somehow, the whole adventure had really started back in Norshire at Grumble’s tavern. Morthos stepped through the city gates, he would be back in a year’s time.

**The club of healing is strange item created by a wizard named Eldrid Smoorth. Smoorth, as he preferred to be called believed that all magic needed to have a cost or else it was just too easy. He took this approach in creating the club of healing, a simple touch just would not do. One had seriously hit a person with the club to heal them. Of course, like all things that Smoorth created there was always a chance that the club would do more damage than it would heal, but that rarely happened.