It started with the nights.
They grew longer, colder, and the fires in the bastions burned earlier than before. No one knew what it meant. No human in Arthengard has ever lived through a winter here. Humanity fled generations ago, long before anyone could have learned what the cold does to this world.
Now they are about to find out.
The first reports came from merchants and messengers traveling between the bastions. Something is changing out there. Not overnight, but steadily. What exactly winter means for Arthengard, no one knows yet. But that it will have consequences, no one doubts anymore.
And where uncertainty grows, so does mistrust.
Until now, the bastions have worked together. Built together, fought together. But with winter approaching, trade routes between the cities are opening for the first time. The question is: Will this new exchange strengthen the bond between them? Or will the rulers look beyond their own borders, not to trade, but to take?
At the same time, messengers from the outer regions report something else. Creatures never seen before. Beings pushing up from deeper regions to the surface, driven by something that has changed beneath the earth. Whether the cold is driving them upward or whether they are fleeing from something lurking below them, no one knows. What is certain is that the dungeons are no longer what they used to be.
The rulers of the bastions face a choice. Stand together or take what you need. Watch the monsters at the gates or keep an eye on the neighbors. Doing both at once will be hard.
Winter is coming. And Arthengard has never been a place that forgives weakness.