Intro 3

In the beginning of time there were two gods, brother and sister, Orcus and Ishtar. They fought. They had children. Xiximanter the lizard prophet warned Orcus that one of his children would usurp him. The brooding Orcus greedily ate the children that Ishtar bore him. Thus he invented death.

Ishtar was horrified and pregnant with triplets. She planned to deceive Orcus and after a painful birth, wrapped 3 lizards up in swaddling clothes. Orcus quickly swallowed the children presented to him by Ishtar. Thus Ishtar saved her own children and became the goddess of life. She named her 3 daughters Mitra, Valar and Psathyrella.

You are the children of Valar. You come from Hroogpith, a mist-shrouded and ramshackle village lying at the edge of the Ghost Marsh. This year your goddess Valar has abandoned you, leaving the Ghost Marsh frozen. A sense of hopelessness, born out of its dreary location, permeates the village.

The one point of light in Hroogpith’s miserable existence is the merchant that comes once a week to buy fish oil. This has been good for you as the frozen marsh made it possible for you to go deeper in and catch larger eels. However nothing ever goes well in Hroogpith for long. The giant black eel Smoglath ate auntie Elyn last week. Old Alfrith said he’d seen men without skin walking on the ice. And you? You were all fishing on the Ghost Marsh when you failed to notice you were surrounded by slavers from the Aquilonian Empire. 

So you’re tied up on a prison barge amongst 9 other slaves. The barge has been poling north on the Serpent’s Tongue river through the wintry forest. It is headed towards the dreaded slave trading post, Pimpers Block. An hour after sunset, the night chill sets in. You whimper and huddle for warmth just hoping to survive the journey. Suddenly you hear shouting outside the cabin. Arrows shriek and punch through the cabin walls!