Mark of Nerath, The

It is a time of magic and monsters, a time when only a few scattered points of light glow with stubborn determination amid a rising tide of shadows. It is a time when only the bravest heroes dare tread the wilds of the unknown . . .

Magroth the Mad—an erstwhile emperor and tyrant from the time of Nerath, the world’s last empire—yearns to be free of his eternal prison in the Shadowfell. And Orcus, the Demon Prince of Undeath, has a plan to help him. But in order for Magrorth to be free and raise a new kingdom in the world, one that will rule eternally in darkness, he must carry out a series of tasks—among them the elimination of Nerath’s remaining royal bloodline, and with it the possibility of defeat.

Falon of Nenlast, a small trading village in the northern reaches of the Nentir Vale, is a novice priest of Erathis, mostly content, mostly ignorant of the dark corners of the world. When he meets Darrum, one of the last remaining protectors of Nerath, he is shown just how far the shadows are cast.

With fear and dread loose in the world like hounds in a hunt, Falon and a ragtag company of adventures must venture forth and confront the forces that threaten to extinguish the delicate light of civilization forever.