One too many
For the Kingdom of Rostra, a nation spanning a small archipalego, life has been realtively peaceful, the fleets patrol the seas and deal with the pirates and smugglers which have rooted in after the Rasari uprising. After all the troubles of the last five years it seems life has finally been settling back in to normal, stability bringing the traders back and markets are now being stocked with more exotic foodstufs than the seemingly endless fish of before. Even further afield the Tianfal empire across the narrow sea which seperates the archipalego from the mainland has backed off, fighting invaders from the west.
Yet despite everything seeming to be finally going in favour of the people of Rostra, like all other times of peace, it didn't last. The troubles started on a remote island where constructs made of stone and clay, initially given life by a local mage academy in experiments designed to improve work within the kingdom began turning on their creators, wreaking havoc and slowly claiming the island for their own.
Despite attempts by local military to push the constructs back, their hardened bodies and shells proved to be much stronger than conventional weapons and so attempts were made to bring in mages to deal with the threat. While magic proved to be effective in damaging their shells, the effort needed to put one down for good and the introduction of more powerful metal constructs proved to be too much even for the mages. Four months later and the navy has managed to keep them contained, however it's commonly accepted that it's a matter of time until these things break through the blockade.
And so the king turned to the last resort and activated the guardian stone. An item of great power which picks four people throught the kingdom at random and gifts them with a mask, which when worn grant the wielder extreme magical power, enough to blow through the constructs. However when the masks had all picked their weilders and those chosen gathered at the captiol, five arrived with masks, each able to use the powers in the way they were meant to. However this could only mean one thing - one of them was a fake.