Ben glanced over the accumulated men and women, from a brooding man in an oversized hat to the pair that looked curiously as if they didn’t quite belong. He grimaced. He’d hoped for less of a motley crew, perhaps a group of clerics not unlike himself. Alas, this would have to do.

“Welcome, everybody. Let’s get down to our business. I am Benjamin Adelphar, cleric and veteran. I come to you seeking your aid in a task relating to a being disturbed in my youth who has recently resurfaced. It is not a being to be trifled with in the least. The threat I wish to tell you all of is incredibly real and I ask those who balk in the face of danger make themselves scarce.” Ben began, pausing for a brief moment to allow a good quarter of the crowd to shuffle out the door. “Cowards, all of them,” Ben muttered.

“With that out of the way, I wish to begin in earnest. Being a cleric, I have had my brushes with the darker parts of the cosmos. Beings that are not necessarily within the scope of Althanian fauna. One of these beings is an assistant to a local alchemist, a piece of sentient darkness who exists in a metal automaton. Those sort of beings are harmless, easily contained and usually more curious than threatening. However, the threat I speak of is one named Calathor. He hails from a world beyond ours, perhaps even a different plane of reality.” Ben stopped, taking a breath. The crowd before him was littered with people who were visibly interested and those who still looked as if being stabbed in the face wouldn’t surprise them.

“Calathor was called into our little world by a mage. Not some mage trying to take over the world mind you, but an apprentice who thought it might be fun to watch his master banish a greater threat. Suffice to say, he didn’t enjoy being disturbed. We had to scrub apprentice and master alike from the floorboards. After that, Calathor vanished. Typical for a being of this sort. But he has recently reared his ugly, incomprehensibly shaped head and that has caused some concern in my clerical circles. They have tasked me with permanently banishing him from these lands.” Ben continued, watching as some people quietly stood up and left. Another rather audibly retched from the thought of blood.

The elderly cleric stood up from his stool in the middle of the circle of chairs. “I seek four or five of you willing folk to aid me in this journey. There’s no direct physical harm that will be involved, however, no such promises can be made for your sanity.”

Knees cracking, he made his way around the circle, pointedly looking into the eyes of each potential candidate. His deep brown orbs drilled their faces into his memory. Should this fail. This blood will be on my hands.

“So I ask,” Ben began “Who’s willing?”