Our story begins with Leo, the ever-vigilant Shifter Warlord… After disbanding from his original adventuring party three months ago, he continues to wander the lands in search of work. His wanderings lead him to the city of Ellenhall where he sleeps for a night at the Falcon Claw Inn. The next morning Leo awakens to the smell of bacon and eggs. During his meal he is interrupted by a hooded Warforged wizard with an ominous mask like face and body covered in dark heavy robes. This strange mechanical creature introduces him self as “Siege” and reveals that he knows a lot about Leo’s previous misadventure. He offers Leo work but doesn’t say exactly what it is, and tells Leo to think over it. If Leo wishes to work for Siege then he would have to find Sieges home by 6:0O PM and enter after 7:00 PM. After that brief interlude, Siege leaves Leo to this own devices. For the next few hours Leo cautiously considers Siege’s offer and goes off to wander the city of Ellenhall, visiting various sites of interest and talking to the locals.

In his wandering he discovers that the city is preparing for the Festival of Korah and the yearly Korah Tournament in the next 3 days, but he has yet to find any information pertaining to Siege.

Meanwhile, Adelle, a young Elven Ranger makes her way to the city from the Enthis Woods. Prior to her journey, she lived a pampered life as the adopted daughter of a human family. At the tender age of 19 she left home to find her long lost older brother, who had gone away to live life on the edge as an adventurer.

At the city gates Adelle runs into a bored eccentric guardsmen who explains to her that the city is on the verge of panic due to the undead invasion in the bordering towns and because of recent activity from an unusual site in the city. The guard remarks that he shouldn’t be telling people this information, but wanted to warn her of the potential danger of staying in the city for too long.

Adelle spends the next hour searching for the unusual site that the gate guard referred too and finds a massive black spire at the far end of the Market Hall district. She is frightened by the spire after feeling some thing moving under the glossy black stone and quickly returns to exploring the city.

As our two unlikely heroes explore the city a strange Warforged awakens in a machine repair shop to find that his memory has been damaged and that he had been found in the Enthis Woods lying in a death sleep. This strange creature doesn’t remember his name or his past, but can still manipulate magic with the ease of a professional. The Silver Knight who found him was kind enough to pay for his revival. Before the Warforged leaves the shop the shopkeepers apprentice artificer tells him that a Warforged Wizard named Siege can help him and that the only time he could find him would be at home at 6 in the afternoon.

As Adelle Explores the city she hears word of an archery tournament and rushes to find it in hopes of finding someone who knows her brother. To her dismay the tournament was over, as she found the competition winner proudly gloating over his victory in a public square. She timidly approached the man to ask him about her brother. Before she could mention his name the man tried to invite her for a drink in the market hall. “Berry” the ranger called him self, was a human adventurer who was nice around the ladies, but gladly boasted over his accomplishments in the face of the public. Adelle seemed ready to accept his invitation when an old man interrupted the two, to ask for help. Berry ruddily tried to shoo away the old man. (He was cramping his style!) Adelle gladly accepted the old mans plea for help and chastises Berry for not “respecting” his elders.

Meanwhile Leo explores more of the cities various historical attractions and word of an undead invasion in the boarder towns catches his ear, but the cities people are assured that the Silver Knights and the Korah Tournament champions will deal with the threat. Leo is intrigued by the sound of the Korah Tournament and delves deeper into the subject. After talking with many of the locals he pieces together vague history of the cities origins and finds that the people here are proud of their warrior heritage and celebrate it accordingly by holding a festival every year on the day that their forefathers drove off an Imperial army from the far east. As part of the festival, a tournament is held in honor of the seven princes who fought against the Imperial armies greatest warriors and won. In this years tournament the champions would have the honor of fighting along side the Silver Knights against the undead invading the bordering towns. Leo is intrigued by this and considers joining the tournament.

Adelle follows the old man who had asked her for help, and finds out that he had been continually mugged by thugs on his way home every day from work. For protecting him, he would tell her the name of an individual who could offer her good work. Not long after that the two are stopped in the middle of a lone street by thugs, who demand payment. Seeing that the man had brought a woman with him, they offer the old man safe passage if he gives them the girl. He refuses and the men attack.

Despite her seemingly frail stature, Adelle is far quicker and more nimble then any of the thugs. She quickly dispatches the first two thugs and severely wounds the third. She attempts the reason with the last thug but before the he could consider her words the battle is interrupted by a city guard. The guard shoos Adelle and the old man away, dismissing them as civilians who were simply protecting them selves.

As Adelle fled the scene with the old man, she hears a gunshot echo behind her and realizes that for the first time in her life she had killed a living sentient being; not one but three: two with her own hands, and the last through the city guard…

Adelle guides the old man back to his home, there he thanks her for the assistance and tells her of a Warforged Wizard name Siege, who had work available for adventurers. Adelle leaves the dwelling with a sickening mixed feeling of guilt and exhilaration. Never before had she ever considered having to kill some one in her travels… and never before had she ever felt the terror of being attacked by beings who had the intent of hurting her for the sheer pleasure of it. She spends the next hour fighting back the severe urge to throw up…

Later in the day the nameless Warforged from before continues to wander the city, browsing various shops and seeing all the interesting sights the city has to offer, while pondering the words of the apprentice artificer that he had met earlier in the day. The young man had told him about Siege, but he also told him about a way by which he could get his memory back. His memory crystal was damaged and the information within it was fragmented and inaccessible, but the arcane code flowing through his encephalon could repair it by leeching information from another Warforged memory crystal. Doing so would damage the other memory crystal and possibly destroy the memories of another Warforged. Doing this was illegal, and carried a heavy punishment.

The nameless machine let the thought drift and went back to exploring the city. As the hours drew closer to 6:00 O clock he made his way to Siege’s home and spent the rest of the evening studying a fallen mechanical titan that lay sleeping in a nearby park.

At 6:00 O clock, Adelle, Leo and the nameless Warforged gathered at the park across from Sieges home. They notice each other but don’t bother to speak. Curious about whom Siege is, Adelle asks a lady in the park and finds that Siege is some thing of a local hero in Ellenhall who helped many people in the past. Leo and the Warforged listen in on the conversation.

When the hour hand hits 7:00 O clock, Leo, Adelle, and the unnamed Warforged gather at Sieges door and spend a lengthy moment of drifting in awkward silence, bewildered at each other’s presence.

Eventually, Leo breaks the silence and opens up the door, which leads into a small dark room with another door on the other end. Leo and Adelle walk in cautiously while the Warforged stands in the doorway. Then suddenly the door behind the Warforged pushes him into the room and shuts behind him, locking the group in a pitch-black room.

The Adventurers begin to panic when they start to sink into the floor. They attempt to struggle out of the floors grasp, but are soon consumed entirely and fall through into another dark room. Before the group could snap out of their daze the room is suddenly illuminated with magical torches, revealing a shambling hoard of undead marching their way down a flight of stairs to devour them. The group pulls it together and manages to dispatch the zombies with relative ease.

After solving their way through a puzzle consisting of activation runes and pressure plates, the group is led into a freakish twisting hallway that led into another dark room, illuminated by a single candle at its center. Near the end of the hallway they discover a message written on the wall. It read…

“Were there is light, there will always be darkness. But were there is darkness there will not always be light… but do not fear the darkness, for it is not evil, it is merely the absence of light.”

The group takes note of the message and cautiously proceeds into the room. There they discover that none of their lights or torches worked, and that there was some thing else in the room with them. Every few feet some one walked, an unseen assailant stabbed at them from the shadows. Eventually the unnamed Warforged figured it out, and blew out the candle in the center of the room.

Just as the room was engulfed in darkness, luminescent fungus lit up, bathing the room in a cool bluish light. The group found no unseen assailants, but did find four corpses chained to the walls and a closed door at the other end of the room. As the unnamed Warforged approached the closed door, the corpses on the walls suddenly animated to life and broke free of their bonds. While the group struggled against the undead, a new horror rose out of the floor… a giant hand made of shadow slid its way across the floor and scattered the group across the room. With combined effort of the unnamed Warforged Wizards icy ray and Leo’s sword, the creature was destroyed, shattered into a million icy shards.

Beyond the closed door the group finds a ladder leading upwards to a trap door, beyond the trap door they find a dining room, with food and drinks set up for them… along with Siege, who was joyfully clapping for their splendid performance…

Next: Part 2 Grim Tideings