Background Story

**Tēlas, the land of many peoples**

It is nearing the 30th anniversary of the war that ended with a sad but reasonable peace reigning out across the continent of Tēlas. The war may have only lasted 5 years, but it was a bloodbath with casualties numbering in the 10s of thousands. No one knows exactly what caused the war; nations that were at peace with one another began to grow fearful of their brother and sister nations and out of this fear grew anger and unrest until an utter war rang out across all the peoples and even some of the creatures of Tēlas. It was not until newly proclaimed leaders arose that a treaty was signed between the warring nations. The treaty of Venefor, named for the ruler of the human kingdom of Elduīn, proclaimed that all nations were to declare five champions once every 10 years that would compete in a battle for the pride and power of their nation and in this fight to the death competition, they would settle disputes with other nations. As the years drew on these disputes became less fervent and there was again interaction and companionship between most of the peoples of Tēlas. Recently, however, there have been groups of bandits wreaking havoc, stories of horrible beasts, a rumor about cults rising in the east, and even whispers of devils surfacing in parts of the land.

Tēlas is the largest of the land masses in all Elàndūr and being the largest it is inhabited by a wide variety of peoples. Roaming tribes of orcs can be found to the far south, Elven and human cities interspersed throughout the northeast and center, Dwarves and Halflings make their burrows and mines in and around the mountains of Cur along the west coast. These are the largest nations on the continent however, the land is open to travelers and merchants from all over Elàndūr so one may run into all shapes and sizes of interesting folk when traveling through towns.

**The Unlikely Heroes**

There is a singular band of vagabonds which find themselves in each other’s company as a result of mere coincidence. They fight for their own interests which usually coincide with one another’s with their one common goal being the attainment of money to further their causes. They met at a guild of which they are all members called *The Seeds of Dawn*, in which all members take on requests for help or other exploits from citizens and organizations that are willing to pay the money and have no objection to hiring questionable individuals to get what they need done.

This peculiar band of individuals gathered forces on a recent quest to investigate some strange happenings on the Snout of Omgar, a small island to the southwest of the continent of Tēlas. The inquiry came from Dormu, one of the chiefs of a Tortle village to the north of the island who listed the reward for the investigation as 10,000 Gold Pieces to the adventurers who were willing to investigate the disappearance of an artifact from their village in the hopes that it may be returned intact. The group was intrigued that such a small village would come up with such a hefty sum of money, but they found that the task seemed simple enough and with five in the party it would be a quick operation. They paid for passage to the island and set out from an air ship port off the face of one of the southern mountains of Cur aboard the merchant air ship *The Floating Merry* in route to the island for trade.

After two and a half days of travel the island was finally in view on the horizon just before nightfall. As the ship flew closer to the island there was a large shudder that rang across the ship and a small explosion led to all those aboard reaching the main deck to investigate. The party watched as the crew tried their hardest to steady the ship but one of the main flight gems had been cracked and the deck keeled to one side. Moments later there was an eerie purple flash atop a nearby dark peak on the island followed by the entire ship turning entirely upside down spilling all those who found themselves aboard the main deck, including the party, falling into the tempestuous waters below. As the party fell, they each felt a sharp pain seethe in their minds, a very unfamiliar and unwarranted pain that was followed by four simple words that rang impossibly in their heads- *Yes, you should work.* The rest of the *Floating Merry* with its crew and wares plummeted onto the shore just to the south of where those onboard had plummeted.

The party swam against the harsh waves and made land break in the middle of the night to crumple into a group around a fire that one of them was able to muster with the last of his strength for the night and the party fell asleep exhausted and soaked to the brim. The following day the party awoke in awe of the events from the night before and with the terrible realization that in the wake of the shuddering of the hull of the *Floating Merry* they left almost all their belongings in the quarters they were given onboard. None were amused at having run into a pitfall such as this on their quest, but such is the life of one of the members of the *Seeds of Dawn.*