Background

King Kroll VI rules the Eastmounts alongside his wife Queen Ruara. Kroll’s trusted advisor, Prime Minister Torrence, becomes convinced that the islands of the Raxos Archipelago hold mysterious riches that would be very valuable to the realm, and tries to persuade his king that establishing colonies on these islands would be worth the significant required investment. The king remains unconvinced, however, and forbids Torrence to put forward any more proposals for this “boondoggle.”

The prime minister is frustrated, but remains determined to prove that his colonial vision would be in the kingdom’s best interest. He secretly diverts some gold from the royal treasury to fund a small­scale version of his plan, setting up a single outpost on an island that had been identified by earlier explorers as having the largest crystal reserves. Torrence invests all his trust and power in the matter to his right­hand­man, Agent Tang. Tang begins investigating to find trustworthy candidates to lead the venture. Eventually he decides to approach two people: Captain Geth and Derick Lun.

Agent Tang approaches Captain Geth and recruits him, and Geth invites his friend Apisney to come with him. On paper, Geth has been reassigned to another barracks. No one cares enough to check the validity of the documents that Agent Tang forges.

Before departing, Geth, Apisney, and Derick Lun each go about semi­secretly recruiting settlers. Geth finds ten soldiers in the region he feels he can trust. Two of the soldiers have wives who come with them. One of the soldiers has a sister, who convinces her husband to join the venture as well.

Apisney goes on a quest to find the wise hermit Yulia and convince her to join them.

Derick Lun finds posts adds in a few small coastal towns offering positions in a colonial venture. That’s how the rest of the settlers, including fourteen indentured servants, who are put under the charge of a bureaucrat named Cedrick, whose brother Kendrick gets wind of it and blackmails his brother into letting him come along.