Shade of the Sinking Plain, The

Long after the last sailor could possibly have been alive, the swords and axes of the pirates rose and fell. When finally the killing lust left them, the pirates began transferring the cargo to the barge. Dawn was just starting to bring pink glow to the eastern sky when they finished. On the deck of the merchant ship, the pirates had left a flattened globe the size of a wine cask. As the barge backed away, an archer shot an arrow into the globe and the centre of the ship erupted in a ball of flames.

Estus watched as the barge slowly moved southward past him. The rising sun washed the bronze barge in a rosey light. At the top of the main tower of the barge was a figure in shimmering blue robes. The wind plucked at the robes and blew the hood back to leave the head bare. The early morning light revealed a face untouched by light. Estus would say later that it had been a mask, cut from velvet blacker than the deepest night, that obliterated the features of the spectre in blue. Gloves of the same material undoubtedly covered the hands that pulled the hood back into place. In the depths of his soul, however, Estus knew that what he had seen was not a mask. What stood in the central tower of the bronze barge had been a nightmare incarnate; a shadow that had forsaken its body and now walked the earth in the guise of a man.

So came the Shade of the Sinking Plain to the Northern Kingdoms.

Can you face the challenge of an unknown power and survive to enjoy your reward? In the quest you must overcome superior numbers, mysterious sorcery, and the Sinking Plain itself; all conspire to seal your doom. Will you return to fame and glory, or endure an eternity of torment at a demon’s hand?