Five years after a devastating unnatural disaster, now termed as the "Dreamquake", the continent of Lyberencia is still trying to recover. Worse than the change in landscape was the effect on the people: friend was enthralled and turned against family, drafted into some unknown beings' war, marked only by the ring of gold around the irises in their eyes. After countless weeks of fighting, these dreamers finally awoke, reporting visions of adventures combatting an evil and terribly powerful spellcaster who eventually was slain, breaking free those trapped by dreams. In the aftermath, the call to adventure rippled out as far as the chaos had spread, bringing many new quests along with many new heroes.
Corlys, Skeem, Loren and Raurik meet in the city of Hero's Hold and after discussing what they're after and the possible connections they all have, they decide to party up and adventure together.
Following a lead on where Corlys' Dragons Cavalryman friend went, the group heads into the sewers to help Tomlin slay some flickers, but they find him trapped and eventually transformed into one himself, revealing that people can become flickers. After killing the now mindless version of Tomlin, it's further discovered that someone is commanding them. The only lead is a deep voice that sounds vaguely familiar to Corlys.
Emerging from the exposed sewers, the party head further into the city with hopes of getting through the inner gates, but a self-righteous paladin named Shepherd stop them with the expectation of 500gp or no passage. After a few words of annoyance, he felt insulted and assaulted the group single-handedly, but after Raurik ripped the greatsword from his grasp, they knocked him unconscious, but not before Skeem's ghosts begin to manifest.
Loren disguises himself as the gate watcher and the group gains entrance to the central districts. They discover that the compass Skeem has been burdened with is charged with spell slots, allowing it to point to specific locations depending on proximity. Following the compass, they come to the bunker of promised death.