Ezine - Taverns on the Border

The realm of humanity spreads and expands like an invasive weed. The Keep once stood on the fringes of civilization, but now it is a center of culture and commerce. The borders are growing ever more distant, but the Keep endures.

Today begins a week of festivities. Yet the celebration offers no solace. The Monarch lies dying from a deadly but slow-acting poison. The Monarch has emptied the royal coffers to buy a powerful antidote, but it has never reached her lips. Caravaners say she must have gotten mixed up in deliveries to the Keep's many bars.

Normally, the monarch would order the sheriff and city guard to go from bar to bar, emptying every ale barrel until they retrieved the antidote, but during the Chaos Festivities the city guard completely relinquishes the powers and responsibilities of law enforcement to the Church of Chaos.

Bounty posters cover the Keep, promising that whoever finds the antidote and returns it to the Monarch will earn their weight in treasure, as well as a barony in the newly acquired territory of the Borderlands. And whoever is behind the betrayal will also get their just reward: the guillotine.