Chapter 1 - Corruption 

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Our story begins in North Vale, a frontier town in Northern Caldesa, where five unlikely heroes are drawn together. Illonas, a charming illusionist bard seeking to lay low after trouble up north. Karroq, a seeker of his lost mother and the ancient texts she carried. Erron, a former priest convinced the Church is hiding dark secrets after his friend vanished. Urskar, a villager desperate to stop a plague consuming his home. And Williwaw, a dreamer determined to reach the moon.

Fate unites them on the road, where they fend off thieves and return to North Vale to find the region unraveling. A ruthless thieves’ guild haunts the woods, the highways are no longer safe, and a devastating plague is spreading — killing plants, driving beasts mad, and infecting villages. When a fire breaks out in town, the group leaps into action, saving a family and a mysterious girl believed to carry latent magic.

 

Determined to help Urskar’s people, the adventurers set out into the western woods in search of a cure. There they discover the plague is worsening: animals twisted into rabid monsters, the land itself rotting. They secure a rare plant that offers hope — only to return and find Urskar’s village under siege by an army of gnolls, strangely organized and more dangerous than ever before.

The trail leads deep into the forest, where the gnolls are unearthing a buried horror: an ancient worm-creature, pulsing with plague energy and psychic power, using the gnolls as its pawns. In a desperate battle, the adventurers destroy the abomination, scattering the gnolls and saving Urskar’s people.

 

But victory is fragile. The plague still spreads, its true origin unknown. North Vale is no longer just a frontier town — it is the first battleground in a war that has only just begun.