The Story of Serdon Shieldmark

Of Serdon Shieldmark and Nordath's Fall

Serdon Shieldmark is a phantom knight, one who was good in life but brought into undeath by a powerful curse that can only be temporarily halted (through a player quest in Norath), but not permanently broken. Serdon tells the following:

Do you know how this valley came to be cursed? I shall tell you. It is a story I've repeated more than once for every stone in these fortress walls. But what is one more time, when I have an eternity of undeath before me?

Some two hundred years past, the srryn poured out of their swamp, and crossed the flatlands to the south, making toward Earendam. But the srryn horde parted, passing around Earendam completely, and stormed through the grasslands and toward our valley. We had never battled the srryn--the southern baronies and Earendam bordered their foul swamps and fens. Our strong walls here were made to defend against other dangers. A thousand years stood our walls, turning all back who sought to destroy us, even in the dark war.

They slaughtered the bulk of our knights, who went forward to meet them before they could enter the valley. I've heard it said that the grasslands were dark from fire and blood for many a year afterward.

As this happened, the chief cleric of Nordath--forever be his name cursed--came to those of us who were left behind to defend the walls of Nordath keep, and the folk gathered within. He had an object, a holy relic, he called it. A black stone from the tomb of Converu, or so he claimed. "Swear on this relic," he said. "Swear on your soul to defend the walls, and the Gods of light will grant the strength to overcome."

And so we did. The srryn were even then at Noin's pass, and we were desperate and thoughtless of what such an oath would mean. We swore our very souls to forever defend the walls. And then the srryn reached Nordath. We held them off at Noin's pass for a time, but they filled it with fire. And they entered the valley, and within a day their fire magic had dried our moat. They began scaling the walls and ramming the gate. There were so many...

I stood here, on the battlement. And even as they came, I heard a bestial roar--from inside the courtyard. Turning to look, I saw the foulest creature I set eyes on, in life. It was a demon of giant man-like form, but with the head of a tusked beast and wings like a drake. Its eyes burned like the fires that were filling the forest around the keep. The fiend held the cleric's relic. He held it up for all the knights who defended the walls to see, and laughed.

The demon shouted, "Men of Nordath, behold your new master! You've sworn yourselves to me! You've sworn your souls upon on my very heart!" He held the heartstone over his chest, and it pulsed a dark crimson. Then the creature vanished. And even as we stood stunned, betrayed, the srryn were breaching the gate and scaling the walls.

The srryn-lord Thensith rose on wings of fire and we battled here, as the gate below was battered to pieces. I slew him, but it was meaningless. There were too many, and they were worked into an unnatural blood-frenzy. Perhaps they had been in league and given power by the demon. Or perhaps he had used them unbeknownst. I don't know. But here the srryn remain with us--compelled unendingly to strike each midnight.

What I wouldn't give, to know how the curse may be lifted. Or at least, to take that demon's heartstone and destroy the damned thing! But here I must stay, here where I stood that day, so long ago. And here I'll remain for as long as a stone remains upon stone in these walls.

As players who attempt the quest may discover, the cleric's name was Agunstad, and the demon's, Xichev'Drolough. The demon comes when the quest conditions are met, and players who defeat the demon deliver the heartstone to Serdon and lift the curse... until it is restored by another quest, or the MUD reboots. :)