The Device of Drotar
The Ancient World of Drotar. Long ago, the site of a prosperous alliance between Gnomes and Dwarves, which, with the aid of magic and technology, spread themselves far and wide. Then came war.
For reasons unknown, the old empire split into two factions, armies of gnomes flung powerful spells into the walls of mountain fortresses, dwarven armies charged through the breach, slaughtering their brethren within. In the end, as is common in war, neither side really won.
The survivors were forced to abandon the fortresses in which war machines and wild magic ran rampant, they fled to wilderness. Now thousands of years later, people have begun to rediscover the technologies that lie within. However, long-lived races build to last, and much of what lies within still functions, though some of it has come a little unhinged. Craftsmen and artificers pay large sums to very brave, or very foolish, adventurers, to venture into the ruins and retrieve these lost relics, that we might return to the land of plenty from the days of yore.
Recently, a large group of gnomes have arrived in your town, and have paid you to go into a nearby ruin, and fetch one of the artifacts that lies at its heart, supposedly a device of unrivaled power. It remains to be seen which category of adventurers you fall under.
