Introduction

Introductory setting

The battlefield lies several days’ march south of Brevoy’s final border steads a no-man’s-land of brambled hills, broken trails, and ancient stone ruins. Fog clings to the hollows. Trees lean like sentinels over the dead. And silence lingers where hoofbeats once thundered. 

Few come here by choice. Fewer return. 

The Black Banner Company 

The Black Banner Company was no one’s first choice. They weren’t the shining heroes of war ballads, nor the polished elite of noble houses. They were iron blooded, dirt-born, and fire-tempered — fighters who took coin for dangerous work and didn’t ask questions.

If it bled, they’d kill it. If it whispered, they’d silence it. If it paid, they’d take the job. 

Their symbol was a plain square of black cloth, raised high on a weathered pike before every battle. A banner of mourning, not glory — a reminder that every step forward might be their last. That their dead had earned no graves, only ash and earth. 

The Company was made of broken people: disgraced knights, hunted outlaws, mad-eyed mages, and those who had simply nowhere else to go. What they lacked in unity, they made up for with discipline. They trained hard, marched harder, and fought like cornered beasts. 

They were not loyal — but they were committed. 

Their last contract brought them into the untamed borderlands to investigate and confront a supposed band of centaur raiders. A routine job. Clear the trail. Scare off the beasts. Collect the gold. 

But what they found was Varkari’s Gallop. 

And they were annihilated.