Continuing with the setting background (chrome) as the plotline begins (not on the actual plotline yet, only building the layers of the onion):
- The Ffordey Forest has once again become an ill boding place as mysterious raiders strike the surrounding villages at whim, leaving everyone dead. City watch patrols that have entered the forest are never heard from again, and some speculate that the elves of old have returned, and once more stalk the age old woods. Scouts have seen Caliphate reavers enter the forest, which borders with the desert to the south. None know what these ominous emissaries of the sands do inside the Ffordey.
- As political tension rises, Strangler Cultists (sinewy assassins that strangle their victims while under the influence of a psychosis inducing narcotic) see ever more assignments. Nobles and wealthy merchants alike have been found dead in their beds, eyes staring blindly and mouth gaping.
- The Monks of Seywarde have declared a state of emergency as four of their holy ceramic tablets have been stolen in a daring raid, leaving more than 30 warrior monks dead and nearly forty lesser tablets crushed. Archoy Maldar, the portly head monk of Seywarde, is demanding an audience with the City Council and is sitting before the council mansion, refusing to eat or move until they accept him within their halls. Bemused politicians have thus far refused him, stating that they have more pressing matters than pottery on their agenda, but the increasing number of followers (now more than fifteen) accompanying the bald patriarch does unsettle them somewhat.
