After routing a Goblin attack on the city, you returned to The Tricky Pony, to receive your reward and rest. You see old man Bob come into the tavern, and mid-greeting he turns a sickly shade of blue, as you see a spectral hand rip out his soul, leaving a husk of a man behind.

Grog immediately recognizes this as a sign that The Temple, a sealed, old research center built over ancient ruins, being active again.

Being the only adventurers at hand he offers 50 GP for you to investigate, but insists on you taking the less than friendly wizard Nitram, who was hanging at the bar and helped in the fight against the Goblins.

After walking in the direction of Ja'ffay Depths, you approach the outskirts of the swampy marshlands. Ione deduces that Nitram, being a wizard, has at least basic knowledge of this "Temple". He confirms this, and gives her the general location and an estimated time of arrival, and the party decides to rest.

After an uneventful night (during which both Ione and Nitram had a barely civil conversation) you begin to enter the marshland. Almost immediately Ravoo and Ione notice that the more the party advances, the more corrupted the ecosystem seems to get.

You're suddenly attacked by a swarm of Skeletons, and through luck, experience, and grit you manage to defeat them all. You decide to take a short rest and as you are gathering strength and tending to your wounds, 2 wraiths, whose presence emanates more power and darkness than anyone or anything any of you has ever encountered, manifest. They conjure a pair of what seem to be hand pistols and without warning, shoot the at the ground beneath Nitram's feet, forming a dark and arcane sigil.

The last you see of this Half-elf wizard is his face full of fear and terror, as he tries to extend a hand towards all of you, just to be grappled by a pair of ghostly, necrotic green skeletal hands that pull him into the dark abyss, as he vanishes before your eyes.

It is here where we reenter our story.

We enter a world one of many that exist in the prime material plane, one named D'orbiludum, a medieval-like place, booming with magic but also in the midst of developing primitive firearms. We change our focus to the continent Bàaxal, on the Midwestern town of Irkstone. This quaint mid-sized town is located south of the Meerqer Mountain Range, west of the Ja'ffay Depths and just touching the beginning of the Lamiscate fields. It is known to be the "starting points of adventurers".

You? Well you're a no-name/local legend band of adventurers, a party known as Table №5, and while it's not your official name it is related to an infamous event regarding a table, a lot of ale, and the unrestrained rowdyness of your Dragonborn Fighter and Half-Elf Ranger.

Though you're a dime a dozen, you do have a relatively good-ish reputation in the city of Irkstone... Somehow.

Your party, while diverse is known for it's lack of humans. You did however have a human adventurer by your side, a Wizard named Serolf. And though he was an odd individual, he did work well with you motley lot, but one day he decided to just retire to study at leisure. Some of you think him dead, others wonder where he really is.

The party decided to separate for a few months, and meet up at Irkstone at the local pub, Trichotillomaniac's Ponytail, this name is due to the previous owner being a pretentious asshole and the current one, Grog Steingut, being too lazy to properly do the paperwork required to change the name. In any case, folk just call it The Tricky Pony, which has NOTHING TO DO with the original name.

The Tricky Pony also serves as the unofficial Guild office, since Grog actually is the Guild Master the town's branch of the Adventurer's Guild.

It is here where our adventure starts.