The Expedition of Darian "Danger Finger"
"Roarank Ankar, Khazi of the lands of honey, descendant of Earth Mother Sinnoar, dedicate my glorious victory over the Knur to the Mother. Three hundred and forty-three sphinxwood spears, forty-nine newly made widows, and seven bound Knur were here sacrificed on the third night of the Twilight Lord's Hunt, thirty-three years after the Bubbling."
These words, etched into a toppled granite stele using a long forgotten script, are the only memories of Roarank Ankar and the Earth Mother that live on. But who, or more likely what, they were is a question that occupies many minds. For in these lands, Death wears a mask called the Knur. They do not march across the land in a great show of force, nor have they any imposing fortresses. Yet no army would dare challenge them. The Knur are the terrors that arise when shadows walk on their own accord. They are the whispers you hear when no one is around, and they are the unnerving silence before a predator swoops in for the kill. Before the pillar was discovered and translated, no one had even believed it possible to harm them. But now, from the Dead Horse Bog up to the Black Cap Hill, hope shined brightly into even the most boarded-up bunker hovel.
Darian "Danger finger", a dirty little man who made a fortune foraging the deadlands for rare magical mushrooms (but mostly less rare mushrooms that he could fool people into buying at exorbitant prices), was seated atop a grand stallion that made him seem even shorter than usual. Alongside him were a small detachment of West Port's Holy Citadel Templar Guards. And a band of ragtag misfit adventurers. He snorted. Those fools would surely be dead before nightfall. Taking the rear was a large caravan of laborers and supplies.
The little man on the big horse raised his hand and off they went. Although he had done well by the mushroom trade, finding a single stele with clues about how to stop the Knur would be enough for him to retire to a palace. That is, assuming he found it first. And made it back alive.