Magnamund: Rise of the Darklords
The story so far...
Most of the stores and houses in the market area of Suentina are already boarded up and some have been looted. Prices on horses, oxen, wagons, cart and anything that can move sky-rocketed when the news came that the city of Tekaro to the west had fallen to the armies of Darklord Gnaag, meaning that the vast horde of giaks, drakkarim and worse are less than a week's march from the capital of Slovia. Those who could, left with what they could carry and fled east.
The inns are still open, but the atmosphere is extremely tense and bleak. The patrons - most of them mercenaries or conscripted citizenry - stare into their drinks, listening to or spreading the multitude of rumours that abound: About the dreaded helghasts roaming the city in human guise, ready to strike from within the moment their masters arrive; about the diseases spreading through the garrison, believed to be the result of cenerese poisoning; about the slave camps in the Darklands, awaiting anyone who are not fortunate enough to be killed in battle...
The grand prince has chosen to remain and does his best to keep up the spirits, with rousing speeches and valiant work by the Ishir clergy, and his recruiters conscript anyone that can move and hold a rusty sword, even letting out condemned criminals from prison with a promise of a pardon if they fight valiantly. But rumours say that he has already made the princess and her daughter leave the city for the security of neighbouring republic of Anari...
As night falls over the city, the guards on the west gatehouse can make out shadows moving across the setting sun; kraan riders scouting the way ahead for the advancing Darklands army...
Rise of the Darklords is set in the world of Magnamund - the world created by Joe Dever and presented in his series of gamebooks, Lone Wolf and Grey Star. The time is set right before of the 8:th book, Cauldron of Fear, and the place is Suentina, the capital of Slovia in the Stornlands. Your characters have, for various reasons, remained in the city to await the approaching armies of evil; maybe you are a merchant unwilling to abandon your investments; maybe you are a foreign diplomat or envoy, or a scholar with a duty to the city, or a mercenary who has been well-paid to remain. Or maybe you are actually a noble or a knight or priest of Ishir, ready to stand defiant against the approaching evil. Whatever your reasons or your background, you are in a city just about to be attacked, and have to deal with it...
