And so it begins ...

Travelling in Karameikos, even on the Duke's Highway, can be hazardous. The Duchy is quite lawless. Footpads, robbers and cut-throats abound in the forests and hills away from civilisation. The goblin tribes are often on the war-path and the orcs are not renowned for their hospitality, so it is safer to travel in a group. This is why most travellers get together with others that are heading in their direction. You have all done the same and are now a party of six heading for Threshold on the northern frontier. You are all young and there are fortunes to be made in Threshold, by all accounts, if you have the nerve. With all the cockiness of youth, you expect to be rich by this time next week. 

The journey has gone smoothly so far, but the skies are dark when you leave the town of Verge with your new companions. Still, you expect to reach Threshold by nightfall all being well. Unfortunately, things do not go to plan. The skies open a couple of hours after you leave the town and soon the road ahead of you is thick mud. Travelling is tiring, but still you push on. By noon you are desperately in need of rest, so you stop in the best shelter you can and have lunch, before continuing. By mid-afternoon you are still some miles from Threshold when one of the feared mountain storms opens up. Thunder crashes overhead and lightning forks to the ground, while huge hailstones pelt down around you, heavy enough to bruise where they hit. There is no option to continue now. You must find shelter and sit out the storm. Ahead, a large, rocky tor rises from the ground, silhouetted at regular intervals by great branches of forked lightning. It promises some shelter, so you climb it. A few narrow ledges offer some shelter, but further inspection reveals a large opening in the hillside. Great fragments of a large round rock lie before it. The opening promises a dry haven for you all so you enter. Within is a huge stone chamber. Traces of paint and decorative stonework on the walls indicate that it must once have been decorated with some care, but the style is unknown to you, and, whatismore, not actually that important. Even the stone doors in each of the chambers' walls carry less significance than lighting a fire at this time.

With the fire blazing and the storm blowing outside, you settle down to wait out the storm. Given its fury, you are sure that you will have to stay the night here, so you make the most of it and introduce yourselves properly ...