Archive of Past Events

Event 1: Smoke and Mirrors

It is July in the year of Concordance 808.

The Champions have assembled, answering the call from the Thousand-Fold Assembly to join the Evensong Expedition. Their task: to protect the new Enclave that will be constructed near the ruins of Evensong Keep, to locate the long-lost Shrine of Dreams, and defend it against the agents of Nightmare until the Rite of Restoration can be completed later in the year 809. Only then will the threat of the Nightmare Lord be removed. Critical for the Rite of Restoration are three holy Artifacts of the Dreaming Goddess: the Chalice, the Altar-Cloth, and the Lamp, which were brought north with the expedition under high guard.

Dozens of wagons departed last winter, carrying the expedition into the cursed Northlands. Commander Morgan Shepherd, Favored of Ta'omun, member of the Holy Council, leads an array of administrators, farmers, carpenters, hunters, Favored, scribes, laborers, and more, as well as the families of those individuals. After a stop-over near the Zoku ruins called the Hall of the Farseer, back in March, the caravan arrived within a few miles of the Evensong ruins around May. Work on the Enclave was begun: clearing land, building structures, preparing to grow crops to sustain the endeavor.

But the Expedition has been plagued by difficulties. Attacks from harrowed, fierce local wildlife, foul weather, and more. Even worse, supplies are running dangerously low because there are no crops yet-- the land is proving strangely infertile-- and the mysterious volcanic fissure that formed earlier this spring on the old Stone Road is blocking the resupply caravans. Some supplies are being brought in by foot, but not enough.

There are also stories of animals being driven mad by volcanic fumes in the woods, of the terrible monster called the Basilisk that can turn you to stone, and of course the lurking danger of the Vespers, agents of nightmare and discord.

Nevertheless, the builders have finally completed construction of new barracks for use by the Champions, as well as renovating some of the existing ruins, and these are now ready for habitation.

But as the Champions gather on the evening of July 28, to travel the few miles from their temporary barracks to the new Evensong settlement, they hear sounds of alarm spreading through the enclave.

As the summer light leans into darkness, rumors begin to spread, of a Vesper attack on the Expedition, of something precious that has been lost, of Harrowed lurking in the darkness...