Skull Lord Var-Gall Champion Lore
Outside of the Sorrowlakes, Arnoc has the largest remaining enclave of Lizardmen, most living within the cavernous, labyrinthine sewers beneath the streets of the Free City. Within those pungent warrens, the Cult of the Skullsworn holds great sway over their kind. The most popular non-Lumayan sect among the Lizardmen, these cultists don the skulls of their ancestors, believing that the spirits of the lost grant them supernatural speed and ferocity. It is unclear if the Skullsworn truly benefit from magic or are merely fanatical, even to themselves. Regardless of the truth, in the bedlam of Arnoc’s sewers, every advantage makes a difference in the battle for survival.
While the Skullsworn have no defined hierarchy, the skull each wears is tied to an ancestral lineage. Some of these are ancient, and the older or more storied the skull, the more powerful the spirits within it are supposed to be. None of the Skullsworn have as storied or ancient a skull as the one Skull Lord Var-Gall, the leader of the cult, possesses.
Var-Gall does not live in Arnoc proper, but a few miles upriver on the shores of Lake Durham. He has lived there ever since he took up his title of Skull Lord, in the same cave as all his predecessors have for centuries. The skull too is centuries old, that of a Dragonkin suzerain, one who is said to have ruled over Arnoc back in the Gray Age, over a thousand years ago. This ancient ruler was once a mage-lord, and the words and runes of some of his spells have been etched onto the skull, granting strength and magical power to the one who bears it. This Dragonkin skull has been passed down since before the Cult of the Skullsworn itself was founded. The previous Skull Lord granted it to Var-Gall on her deathbed, for he had impressed her with years of devotion, knowledge of the cult’s history, and fighting skill.
There are oaths that bind the Skull Lord to the skull they wear and to the cult they lead and serve, but only Var-Gall knows them, and the only one who will learn them from him is whoever replaces him. Whatever these oaths are, they keep him out of the petty politics of Arnoc’s sewer gangs, and even limit his direct involvement with the Skullsworn. Supplicants from the Cult will come to him for advice, arbitration on disputes, or training, which Var-Gall provides without fail – again in line with his oaths. Otherwise, Var-Gall lives a quiet life of contemplation, often fishing, the intricacies of which he sees as a metaphor for living a good life.
When danger comes to the Skullsworn, however – when monsters creep up from the undersewers, or when Sacred Order crusaders descend into them purge them of ‘undesirables’ and ‘blasphemous creatures’ – the Skull Lord will come. He stalks the tunnels of Arnoc like they were his own, butchering any who attack his people. He can rip straight through plate armor or inches-thick carapace with his frenzied strikes, and the barbs on his skin will wither and poison any who are pierced by them, infecting their bodies with foul magic. That same dark power will draw his faithful Skullsworn back to him — even restore the wounded to health — lending the Skull Lord near-infinite reinforcements in every fight. Most foes flee before Var-Gall’s power before long… but few live to get that chance.
The Sacred Order is convinced that the Skullsworn are necromancers, worshiping bones like the cults of Narbuk once did. The magic of the Skull Lord’s Dragonkin crown is the strongest evidence they possess. Unfortunately for them, any justice they might mete out will have to wait — first, they have to capture him, and he has little interest in the Sacred Order’s hospitality.