The Story Thus Far...

GAME SETTING

It has been twenty years since the fall of the Arkasian Empire. Once a powerful and cosmopolitan nation, Arkasia descended into corruption and decadence in its final century. Embroiled in internal politics and debt, the country failed to safeguard its borders. The barbarian tribes to their north smelled weakness and descended upon the capitol and left it in ruin.

The Arkasian Empire is now a distant memory. In its place, tyrannical city states vie for scraps of the old Empire like dogs while the countryside is left to fend for itself. Once patrolled by Arkasian soldiers, the old roads of the empire are falling into ruin and are plagued by bandits and worse. Once prosperous trade routes have dried up, and the common people now struggle for survival. Dark creatures that were once driven from Arkasia have returned to prey upon the land.

OUR STORY

The characters began in Katagia, Last Bastion of Arkasia. A strong city of the southern coast where the last vestiges of Arkasian culture and learning are preserved. They formed a party and ventured forth into the hinterlands of the Old Empire, each for their own reasons.

After a month of travel, they heard of a town in dire need of heroes. Ralavaz the Night Lord had returned to the town of Whitesparrow to exact revenge for destroying his gang - the Night Blades - and sending him to prison some 20 years ago.

On their into town, they were waylaid by agents Night Blades, and repulsed them with ease. They surrendered their hostages to Sheriff Willowmane at the Whitesparrow, and began exploring the odd town with the enormous cyclopean hand and other strange features.

When staying at the Summerspring Inn, the group discovered a strange bug infestation - The Blight - and traced it to a dried up hotspring beneath the inn. Descending deep into the earth, they discovered an alien invasion of tentacles and bugs that tended tumours in the wall and fed off ambient magic. The tumours turned out to be egg sacs and the party nearly birthed a horrific taloned monstrosity, but destroyed the tumour in time. Further exploration revealed that a portal to some unknown dimension had opened in the tunnel system, and in that chamber were 13 more tumours at different states of incubation.

After returning to the surface to regroup and plan for a way to deal with this threat, the party was attacked the next day by angry Night Blades who knew heroes had messed with their agents. The battle was fought in the middle of town, and after the dust settled, the party had barely defeated the Night Blades. The town, which had been under the thumb of the Night Blades for some time, declared the party the "Heroes of Whitesparrow" and threw them a huge party after nursing the injured back to health.

Determined to defeat the Night Blades once and for all, the party enlisted the help of captured Night Blades and assailed their headquarters, The Lonely Tower. Unfortunately, the party was soundly defeated at its gates. The Night Blades murdered Iman, Aegar, and Barendd, and took Kit and Torden prisoner. Only Pageflap - the party's wizard - managed to get away.

Pageflap returned to Whitesparrow for help, but the Sheriff could not spare any forces for a rescue as they had to prepare to defend the town from the Night Blades' reprisal. They did give Pageflap a horse, who then returned to Katagia to recruit a team of relic hunters to help rescue his friends. They have returned 2 weeks later, only to discover that Whitesparrow has been overrun by Night Blades.