Such a situation demands heroes, the bards cry! Well, heroes they definitely have in the Knight Protectors. Who could forget the heroic charge of the Silver Legion, straight into the ranks of the Brotherhood of the Storm? It's said the lightning discharges could be seen fifty miles off. King Goodwin loves his knights, and he's quite certain they'll keep the kingdom safe. Hmmm. Is that gray mass over the horizon a goblin army?

Someone in the court has got to take action. And someone has! They've hired you, some of the roughest, toughest, meanest mercenaries around, to take on the invading hordes. All right, perhaps you exaggerated just a bit, but it got you the job, didn't it? It's just that they didn't mention exactly what it was you were going to do...

You begin as third-level characters. You should create characters per standard PHB rules; please remember to do character creation one level at a time (you can't pool all your skill points from all the levels and assign them that way, for instance). You have 500 GP to spend on equipment regardless of character class. You get one masterwork item for free, as well as two potions of healing for free.

You will not roll for attributes; instead, pick one of the sets below. You can arrange them in any order you wish. You can lower an attribute by TWO in order to raise another by ONE; you can do this as many times as you'd like. Adjustments to these base stats should be made before applying any racial bonuses or penalties.

18	18	17	16	14
17	16	14	15	14
13	14	13	13	14
10	12	12	13	12
10	10	11	11	12
10	 8	11	10	12

All characters are part of a small and somewhat desperate mercenary band. You have worked together in the past, are on reasonably good terms with one another, and can trust each other in a fight. By and large, your job is to go out and boot heads for employers, who might or might not cheat you of your payment afterwards. You're loyal to whoever's paying you at the moment, but if you don't like the way you're being treated, or the nature of the work, you might not take the next job that this employer offers you. You are natives of Alsatia, so you do have some patriotic interest, or at least enlightened self-interest, in not seeing it overrun by hordes of monsters.

There are two principal sets of cosmic entities in this world, the Gods and the Great Dragons. They stand opposed to one another, representing, in simplistic terms, Technology vs. Magic. Ultimately, the Gods would like to see the Young Races (the humanoids, more or less) dominate the world, using merely their own skill and cunning. (Conveniently, this also means not needing to perform miracles-on-demand for followers.) This necessitates, eventually, destroying the sources of magic in the world, which the Great Dragons require to survive. Unfortunately, Technology is presently highly inferior to Magic, and the Gods grudgingly allow their followers to perform arcane magic. Most mortals think the feud between the Gods and the Great Dragons is basically just about immortal ego, and cheerfully use anything that will better their grubby little lives.

The Gods are referred to by "nickname" rather than by name, which is only spoken by the High Priests. The Gods are:

The Champion. (Lawful Good; Strength, Sun, Earth)

The Champion embodies everything which is righteous and good. He regards himself as the leader of the gods, though his brethren would not likely agree. He is a crusader, but, not being brilliant himslef, he has the unfortunate tendency to turn to The Unmanned for assistance. The kobold trickster often gets the best of him, but the Champion continues to forgive him.

The Dreamer. (Neutral Good; Good, Healing, Protection)

The Dreamer is the impractical idealist amongst the gods. He is the one that grants undeserved boons, the one that takes on hopeless causes, and the one who doens't quite see why the gods just don't all get along.

The Hunter. (Chaotic Good; Air, Water, Animals, Plants)

The Hunter would be the nature deity of the pantheon, except he's more inclined to put an arrow through it and cook it for dinner than to sit and coo at it.

The Eyeless. (Lawful Neutral; Law, Knowledge, Fire)

Justice is blind, and it's said that The Eyeless Sees Nothing Yet Everything. She is the swift sword of justice, the cleansing fire, rarely tempered with mercy. She presides over her brethren gods with an enigmatic dignity, staying out of most of their conflicts, yet seeming to be aware of every nuance of every occurrence in the mortal and immortal worlds.

The Empty. (True Neutral; Travel, Protection, Luck)

The Empty is the void personified. She encompasses the world, is the embodiment of Fate, and, perhaps, extends a hand of protection over her domain, though those who count upon her assistance too often will no doubt regret it.

The Unmanned. (Chaotic Neutral; Trickery, Knowledge, Luck)

A kobold deity of great cunning and mischief. Known for his cowardice, his dirty tricks, and, usually, his good fortune. Legend has it that he taunted The Reaver one too many times, who turned the tables upon him and fed his manhood to The Hungry.

The Reaver. (Lawful Evil; War, Law, Strength)

An ogre deity of great avariciousness, constantly seeking power with a methodical relentlessness. The Reaver does not always move quickly or with much creativity, but he has the patience of ages.

The Cursed. (Neutral Evil; Evil, Destruction, Death)

If The Cursed has a form, it has long since been lost to the ravages of time. The Cursed is a mass of pestilence that might once have been humanoid. It wants nothing more than to inflict its misery upon the rest of the world.

The Hungry. (Chaotic Evil; Chaos, Evil, Destruction)

The Hungry takes the form of a gigantic, eternally ravenous maw. Some whisper that The Hungry is completely insane, and indeed, it very well might be. Yet there seems to be a certain inexorable logic to the conflicts it has chosen to pursue over the years, but what its true agenda is, none can say.