Background
Background and History
For some or all of history mankind and its gods have been at war with the octopuses and their gods. The Flood the most recent attempt by the octopuses to kill off humanity, but Noah was crafty and saved the race. The concept of earth being covered by water, then battle between gods with the land-god victor making land out of the body of his enemy is old, and oft repeated. In fact there may have ben many such struggles since time began, probably about every 1000 years. Jesus may have an octo-attack through his crucifixtion, and the next one is due in the year 1000. The octopuses are served by men with tails, who attacked Egypt and the Hittite empire long ago, but now live in America.
Around 400 BC a Norse woman named Igwilf (pronounced Ikulu by the Greeks) learned of these things, and decided to try and do something about it. She gathered power and knowledge from all over the world, and she tried to unite humanity by manipulating Alexander the Great, and later his sucessor Antigonos. She had two daughters, Aramin and Drelzna. Aramin died, and she hid Drelzna on the moon in case the octopuses take over the earth. She also made Ikulu's List, a list of things one needs to prevent octo-armageddon. The recipe for how to combine them is in a book, the Book of the Moons, that can only be read with a magical crystal. We need both the ingredients and the book, though we already have the crystal. In addition one needs to know the 50 names of Marduk, which are words of power that have been lost to time. Igwilf did not find the names, and Alexander did not unite humanity, and all of her plans came to nought. She left the scene, perhaps through death, perhaps by other means, but she gave much of her knowledge to the holy men of the Mithraic religion. This religion survives to this day, though much knowledge has been lost.
More recently, around 400 or 500 AD, King Arthur traveled to America, and he encountered the tailed men there. He learned enough to freak out about it, and teamed up with the Qabar Hadra, a Syrian hero. How they prepared or fought is still unknown.
In 986 a Norse princess with six fingers on each hand was kidnapped by tailed men and taken to America to be sacrificed. A bunch of jerks known as the Old Party were hired to rescue her. They went to Vinland and had adventures, finally rescuing the princess and bringing her back. Then they went to a very old dungeon, where they learned about Igwilf and the octopuses and met Cain (the one from the bible). The party also killed an entire colony of lizard-men who lived in this dungeon, down to the last female and hatchling. Harald released a demon woman who appears to have been Lilith. Lilith apparently hired or commanded an undead knight from Jesus' time named Evelake. The party got new members and lost old members and kept adventuring, finding out more and more about Igwilf and her daughters. They even found the Book of the Moons and the crystal needed to read it, but before they learned anything Evelake showed up to harass the party and steal the Book of the Moons from them.
Meanwhile, it seems that a new religion was springing up in the East, led by a man(?) named Throk. He seemed pretty miffed about the lizard-man genocide, perhaps because he is the prophet for a lizard-God named Semuwania. He sent out an all-girl band of adventurers to kidnap any members of the Old Party and bring them to him. They also stole some magical teeth. We don't know a lot about Throk or his religion, save that all his followers are girls (or eunuchs), he uses the plover bird as a messenger, and he really wants to get ahold of the Old Party. One Throk party kidnapped Harald from Byzantium after kicking the party's ass several times. They took him East until he was rescued. A different group of Throkians was defeated in the Castle of Maidens. Throk seems to be able to make people suddenly convert to his religion, perhaps through charm magic. Followers often relate that suddenly they heard his voice in their heart.
So, what are we doing now? Well, the Following Alexander Party is trying to collect everything on Ikulu's List while following the route that Alexander took to conquer Asia. They are stopping off at interesting sites along the way, such as the Nine Cities that it is said Igwilf traveled to. They also tend to rescue entire villages from evil while worshipping true gods. The Danger Gang is running around in Italy and Greece to try and solve The Riddle Of Stratoniche's Tomb and discover a means of lunar travel. The Kebnegard-Bound Party is busy beating back the octopus invasions in the north, which are led by Tailed People, as well as amassing as much information as possible. Also, they've recently secured an alliance between the Byzantine Empire and the Kievan Empire, which was the first step in uniting the world against the octopuses.
Inter-party relations are often strained, but basically Harald knows most of the Kebnegard-Bound Party, and they know him as well. They adventured together briefly. No one else in the Following Alexander Party knows anyone save Ido, who is a party of one now. Likewise, of the Danger Gang no one save HZ knows anyone in any other party. HZ adventured with Harald and Ido. The Danger Gang's boss, Eorl, knows everyone. Almost everyone dislikes him due to his grating personality, stinky butt and general failure to get along with others. The various party pages do a fairly good job of explaining the changes in membership over the years.
