The Story So Far
Necromancy. A vile practice, practiced by even more vile practitioners.
Manas has a problem with it. Or, rather, the environs of the metropolis do. A dark tower has appeared in the west, and reports of a shadowy figure making off with bodies from the nearby graveyards are disturbing the local yokels. Nobody really cares - a few peasant corpses disappearing don't trouble the master of the metropolis that is Manas. But someone does care, apparently. And they are hiring adventurers to take care of this issue.
The Setting
The Confederacy
A much more dangerous place to live than it appears.
Ruled by the Tyrant of Rath, the Confederacy is what cropped up when the aforementioned Tyrant went on a conquering spree amid the death-throes of the once-noble Empire of Alter. A glorious mess of drugs, corruption, death-squads and political plotting, the Confederacy is held together by the many Sons of Wrath, blood descendants of the Tyrant who rule over vast swathes of the sprawling polity that is the Confederacy. Nobody has actually seen the Tyrant in years, though of course all the actions done in the Confederacy are carried out in his name. Technology is roughly that of the early Renaissance, but both wealth and social inequality are rampant, meaning that the average denizen of the Confederacy lives in abject poverty with little access to luxuries beyond soul-and-body destroying drugs distributed by the government to keep the peasants too doped up to care about their plight. Her capital is Judas, a sprawling city that lies beside the great Oberon River.
Other major locations in the world include: the Spire, a sorcerer's tower whose denizen is rumored to be in league with the Tyrant; Brobdingnag, a Dwarven stronghold in the east that is a military ally of the Confederacy; and the Freistat of Altaburg, one of the last holdouts against the Confederacy's immense armies in the known world. Altaburg has been staving off conquest for years via diplomatic efforts and thanks to the general corruption and infighting in the Confederacy.
Bestiary
Humans - Hairless Apes. Generally more intelligent than their hairy brethren, but not by much. Notable contributions to society include wage-slavery and the fiddle.
Elves - Prissy and rude to non-Elves and fairly inconvenient to other Elves. They have pointy ears and are statistically taller than humans. Elves are from an island kingdom to the West called Albion. They enjoy tea.
Dwarves - Short and stout assholes from the mountainous areas to the North. They migrated down during some particularly bad snowstorms a few centuries ago, and nobody has been able to send them back since. Dwarves are skilled inventors and drinkers - the two are often combined.
Vampires - The Nosferatu Plague first emerged a few centuries ago. It's died down, but those whose blood becomes infected with find sunlight bothersome and the urge to bite people incredibly appealing (not to mention arousing). Tend to hang out in forests and abandoned castles.
Werewolves - Untreated bites from wild wolves will often lead to those afflicted howling at the full moon and growing unnecessary clumps of hair all over the body. Hate silver, love to chomp on the bones of the innocent.
Fairies - Fey creatures of the woodlands, moors, and other areas where technology and civilization are considered nothing more than a passing fad. Usually fond of screwing over travelers and sending them walking into bogs or over cliffs, they are rarely seen and even more rarely liked.
Ghosts - Spirits who don't get that no means no. They hang around the places where they died, or sometimes end up in places where they had fun times while living. Throw some ectoplasm on these nuisances and they'll go away.
Hippies - Weed was invented by Baron Robert, who ruled the city of Marley. It relieves stress and brings good times, but too much can turn one into a Hippie. You can find these guys pretty much anywhere, talking about love and peace, man. The key to dealing with them is to have a good right hook. Officially persecuted and subject to pogroms in the Confederacy due to being competitors in the drug trade.
Eastrons - Dark-skinned humans from a mysterious land to the direction of the rising sun. Some have begun appearing in the Confederacy, and most hail from around the time of the arrival of the Tyrants. Many Sons of Wrath are whispered to share their genes.
Orcs - Ferocious warriors with little in the way of a desire for self-preservation or domestic tranquility, the Orcs are the spawn of the Tyrant, and enforce his rule across the known world. They too are only known since the time of the Tyrant, and are generally hated by other races for their single-minded obedience to his rule.
Beastmen - Terrifying half-man half-animal amalgamations rightly feared by civilized folk for their tendency to slaughter travelers in the wilds and wear their skins as cloaks. Overbreeding in their hidden camps leads to life being very cheap to the Beastmen, and their slaving and pillaging is a constant nuisance to the Confederacy.
And last but not least, the application.
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