Sand, Aino, Jodric and Olaf first meet at an opium house in the port city of Ilthmong, looking for work. There, they meet an unscrupulous merchant named Dinzhar, who offers them a job retrieving an item of “property” that he claims has been stolen from him. The party agrees, and sets out as per his instructions. However, the job goes somewhat awry. Witnesses to the break in escape, an encounter with a young man named Tani, who reveals he works for the shadowy Dhigan Society leaves the party badly wounded, and the “property” turns out to be a young lady!
The party attempt to negotiate with Dinzhar, but he’s having none of it. Eventually they leave the young lady in his… care, and realise they need to flee town pretty sharpish, as they have both sides of the law somewhat unhappy with them. A brief scuffle with city guards at the docks nearly stops them, but the party manage to daringly leap onto a departing ship and make sail for the capital city, Mongxar.
Arriving in Mongxar broke and tired, the party elect to spend an awkward night with Aino’s parents. Following this, the wizardess decides to lead her companions to her alma mater, where some ill-conceived attempts to procure funding for academic archaeology projects are made and rooms are taken. Eventually, the party hear word of some work in the city, and head off to the address they’re given in the commercial district.
In a small office in a bonded warehouse they meet Feng, who is the representative of a powerful courtier, although he declines to reveal who this is. He has a job for them that need be handled sensitively – planting seditious materials in the home of another courtier, in order to discredit him. This involves a jaunt through the city sewers. The party complete the mission, and return to Feng to collect their pay.
A few days later they are called back to the office, where Feng tells them his employer – a Mr Hu – is pleased with the work they’ve done. He has another job for them. Allies of the discredited courtier have worked out who was behind the scheme, and are looking for revenge. Mr Hu has learned of a plot to assassinate a foppish young noble, Ma Hei, who, despite his weak character, is an important financial and political benefactor of Mr Hu. The party are to escort him to the safety of his uncle’s village – Sha’zu – some thirty miles north east of the city.
The party manage to fend off one attempt on the nobleman’s life, and valiantly battle against a second, but in the end the nobleman perishes. They bear his remains to his uncle’s village. The grief stricken uncle asks that they hunt down his nephew’s killers, as a matter of honour, which the party agree to do. In Sha’zu they meet Mr Wong, a wandering goliath barbarian seeking adventure in the world, who decides to join their quest.
The party track the assassins to an ancient tiefling outpost in the mountains, and defeat them. In the boss’ chamber they find records of the deal made by someone named Soung. They also discover a doorway, long sealed, into some ancient catacombs which they learn is one of the many ‘Halls of Silence’, mass graves made for the millions of Tieflings who died in the cataclysm that caused the end of their empire. Inside they battle a horrid load of undead, but manage escape with their lives.
Travelling back to Mongxar, they return to Feng, who, whilst disappointed to hear about the death of Ma Hei, is pleased with the initiative shown by the party and says the information they’ve retrieved will be very helpful. The party take lodgings at an inn called ‘The Anonymous Shepherd’. He tells them he’ll be in touch.
The next morning, the party become embroiled in trouble between the owners of the tavern and some local gangsters, headed up by a man named Big Wen, who is looking for protection money. The party agree to try to sort this out for them. Olaf, however, decides that Evarressemme is not the place for him, and he heads back to the west. The rest of the party head out and begin their investigations. In the course of this they meet and befriend a Deva Cleric named Seraph, who was having a spot of bother with an irate Gnome Arcanist. Seraph is glad of the help they provide him with, and joins up with the party.
In the course of their investigations they discover that the pirate-turned-mercenary-turned-crime-boss, the hero of the battle of Yu Han Hill, Captain Octagon, is behind the shakedown at The Anonymous Shepherd. The party travel around the city, visiting Ilthmong Jo’s Opium Emporium making acquaintance with the proprietor who seems well connected; The Perfumed Fan, the most famous brothel in all Mongxar, run by Madame Deng and down in the market district meet Old Man Li – everyone says not much that goes on in the Mongxar streets gets past him.
They track down Captain Octagon’s crew, and are lead to the boss under arms. He’s not pleased, but after some bargaining, and realising something is wrong, the party manage to save their hides by agreeing to do some work for him. Embarrassingly, the Captain has fallen under some spell, and is trapped in his octagonal chamber at headquarters. Aino detects the source of the spell is somewhere on the Captain himself, in fact, it is the latest of his many octagon-themed tattoos!
This leads the party to Mr Magoo’s Fashionable Tattoo’s – arguably the finest studio in the empire – where they track down the tattooist, Benny Ren, who did the work on Octagon. Benny admits that he had been given some ink by some scary types, and told to use it only on Octagon. He gives the party an address across town.
Here the party find a group of foreign-looking types, have a big dust up, and then have to deal with some demons summoned by the guy in charge! They discover some documents which evidence that these people were responsible for the curse on Captain Octagon, which can only be broken by dispelling the original pot of ink (which thankfully they also find!). In a secret compartment of a demonic altar downstairs they find a ‘Book of Prayers to Phraxas’ and a ledger.
