n the mountains of Bloodrise, there is an eerie silence. People who once trusted the neighbours, who knew their lands were safe, who strolled freely by night and by day, now lock their doors and speak in hushed whispers. Beasts are in hiding, birds nested and quiet, for even the creatures of the forests know to avoid attention, for war has come to the mountains—a shadow-war, fought by dwarven mercenaries against monsters unseen and, more often than not, unheard of before this age. The kobold infestation which has long festered above the foothills has spilled out, and all the Hells seem to have erupted from those peaks and spilled down the sun-reddened spires with them: shapeshifting lizardmen, basilisks and fire-lizards, black-skinned elves, big hairy goblins wearing spiked armour and even great and terrible insects.
The dwarves have held them back so far, and rarely has the violence spilled down into the human settlements, but no longer can you trust a stranger in the woods—not even one who just seems like a man with a lisp, or a gaunt-looking dwarf. No longer can you go hunting alone or in small groups, or collect berries and apples beyond the edge of a settlement except during brightest day.
People mutter fearfully of a New Age of Darkness.
The architect of this unsettling epoch, however, is miles away. Unbeknownst to even the heroes of light, the Copper Dragon King of Bloodrise, Dark Prophet of the Coming Age, is in the very capital of the human-led empire of the Children of the Gods of Light. In Hawksong, shining city of the Paladin Order, the Dragonborn Antipaladin known variously as Theral or (in his human guise of late) as Long Wang ahs been busy. Having come here to snatch a bride from the palace of Paladin King Archos himself, and to slay his hated and fated foe, the Green Knight.
He very nearly succeeded, too.
Princess Ekaterine was smitten, their courtship progressing rapidly, their informal betrothal awaiting only formal recognition, confirmation, and sweetest consummation.
And the Green Knight, Heinrcih Yosef? Defeated, utterly. He yet lives, but probably wishes he didn’t. he ahs been made a prisoner and his own mind and body by the loathsome love of the succubus who he kept as slavish servant.
Alas, the Green Knight was not alone—he had allies, adventures, who came to suspect that Long Wang and Theral were one and the same—or, at least, that ‘Mister Long, exorcist from the East’ was more than he appeared to be, and tied to the demonic and reptilian happenings in Hawksong. In an attempt to prevent their escape and his exposure, the Dragonborn Antipaladin engaged two of these powerful adventures in a pitched aerial battle in the skies above Hawksong. He was victories, and his foes tumbled to their doom like falling stars swallowed by the blackness of the void!