Akibara

Akibara was once a thriving trade city, ruled justly by a popular king. Nearby three other smaller regions were in a constant power flux fighting for dominance over a small valley of debatable significance. A powerful mystic from a distant land came to these towns and quickly tamed the riot by omen and prediction. Through his influence the three regions joined forces and turned on Akibara.

This same mystic had given as a gift to the king of Akibara a beautifully crafted sword of unknown powers. The mystic said it would come to his help at his greatest need. And so, unknown to the newly united regions and the king of Akibara, the mystic had set a destiny in motion. The united foes marched on Akibara with visions of defeating it and taking it for their own.

The sword in the king's hands saved the city from the invasion by raining an unnatural fire from the sky on the combined forces. The fire burned out and completely destroyed his enemies as well as the land and farms all around Akibara, but not touching it. The fires burned for months and by the time they were finished there was nothing left around Akibara for three days of traveling.

The king was beside himself for grief and what he had caused. The grief quickly grew and madness took him. Soon imagined plots against him began to sprout and perceived rivals were imprisoned and, in many cases, executed without a proper trial. Many started moving away for fear of the king's wrath so the king closed the gate with penalty of death to those that would attempt to leave.

And this is where outside history has no knowledge. When the gates closed, they were closed for the last time and nobody was known to escape. Stories of the king's violence and madness combined with the inhospitality of the surrounding lands made it an easy thing for the city to fade from history. Few attempts were made to study the city after the collapse and even fewer since then. Hundreds of years have passed without thought about the lost city and, while it is still known, few care. It is simply a story to tell by the fire.

-Rumors of undead in the surrounding area have started to sprout. The corpses of forgotten people are being reanimated by the whim of a necromancer that has made Akibara his new home.

-The mystics goal was to make a portal to another plane to release his trapped god. The death of so many was required and an incubation period for the portal had to be waited out but now is the time of the once trapped god's new rising.

-Tales talk of the sword in pretty good detail. Rumors now say that the sword has turned up somewhere else in a similar simulation and the PCs are some of the few that know the story of the last one. Can they stop the use of the sword? Steal it? Diplomacy?