Throughout the month of Lexadian in the second year of the new era, commonfolk and villagers alike began to exchange gossip regarding strange happenings in the distant graveyards of Sapience. Though it began only as shreds of rumour regarding shambling soldiers walking the road at night and odd sounds in places of the dead, it did not take long before adventurers stumbled upon evidence verifying these disturbing claims. Noting a trio of burial sites to be desecrated by dark magic and haphazard digging, several citizens of Enorian took it upon themselves to patrol the countryside and look for the ones responsible for such a dire atrocity. These keen-eyed scouts swiftly caught on that this desecration had begun the process of awakening the dead and hastened to end this new threat without any thought aside from the safety of the land.

It took two additional weeks for Sapience's finest to discover the destination of these skeletal shamblers: the Hlugnic Labyrinth.

The Hammer of Dawn was the first to discover this growing legion of terror and moved to take action without further delay. Herald Sryaen Kavoros swiftly commanded several full groups of mounted knights to trample the risen threat and succeeded in thinning their numbers at the cost of a full hundred lives. After reinforcing his position, the Pentarch managed to lay the rest of the mysterious battalion low before quickly moving to take control of the area and rally the city to quell the threat struggling forth from gravebound loam. From that moment on, Enorian's faithful searched high and low for defiled graveyards, assembling each dusk to quell the walking dead that crawled forth from disturbed burial mounds.

After another week of hostility against this unknown force, its master made itself known. Declaring these skeletal servants as their plan against the Sanguine Fist, Qor Qogol spoke unto Sapience for the first time in centuries. Llsya Falsehead swiftly demanded recompense from the Hammer for their unknowing interference in the Hlugnic city's foreign policy, asking that the lightsworn city bleed on their behalf after robbing them of their newly risen military might. Though Enorian was swift to deny this attempt at coercion, the Vanguard took the opportunity to beseech the city to give up their practices of necromancy - a request that fell on deaf ears. Amongst the many political developments to follow this debacle was the Dragon of the North's attempt to seek an alliance with Qor Qogol. Though the lost city made no public response to this overture, the High Judges motioned to send a missive to Regent Virelen to begin the process of establishing diplomatic ties. Stating that they did not want to tie the Silvertongue's time up with this process, they elected instead to send Varach Scolrys, Court Mage of Qor Qogol and infamous necromancer of the Age of Despair.

What followed after this was a dizzying chain of decisions from adventurers acting as the realm had come to expect of them - in individual capacities both serious and dramatic, with copious amounts of bloodshed. Though renowned duelist and commander Sheryni offered her services in a personal manner, she swiftly found herself upstaged by Whirran's declaration that Immortal Strife's faithful would be interfering on behalf of the Hlugna. The Priest of Loss cited a mutual distaste for Bloodloch as one of the prime reasons for this temporary show of support and he was firm in his renewed fervour that bloodshed itself was the sacrament most appropriate to exalt Lord Bamathis.

As the middle of Slyphian arrived, skeletal legions began to gather in other parts of the realm. The Hlugna made a concentrated effort to harry Bloodloch's seat of power through a preliminary raid, as well as making attempts at seizing the Demon Blade yet still ensconced within Mournhold. Attempts at jostling the weapon summoned several denizens from the elemental plane of Air, revealing a link betwixt Kel Keleru and the broken airship engine poisoning Mournhold's southern beaches with ylemnic radiation. Though neither proved successful, the city made clear its conviction and its limitless supply of fighting forces, for they remained stoic in the face of accumulated failure.

With the die cast and all players but one situated at the table, the game began...

Penned by my hand on Kinsday, the 25th of Slyphian, in the year 2 AC.