In a long forgotten corner of wild space, amidst the ever churning remnants of an ancient battle, the Gate stands. Anchored to one solid point, never moving from its place in the cosmos. Long sealed since the last incursion, it took the death throes of a galaxy-spanning empire to bar the way. The tide of horrors that emerged from the Gate was so great that their descendants still live, scattered amongst this universe. From the lowliest Illithids to the larger, more ancient Things that wander the stars and cast their baleful light upon the cosmos, they were forced to flee in droves. Something truly ancient had stirred in the Far Realm, from where even the oldest of these aberrations had dared not tread. It swept through the strangest of realms, casting low even the mightiest of Elder Evils in search of… something. Now, the Gate opens once more. Just a crack, but a crack will do. The ancient bindings wrought by a dead empire loosen imperceptibly, allowing that ancient being to stare through… Far across the universe, an overworked fighter makes his rounds. Edmund Alden is one of the pre-eminent warriors of the Gray Hand, a special force dedicated to tackling the most dangerous threats to the great city of Waterdeep. While Edmund’s been in the game long enough to swing a sword with the best of them, the fact that he has no ability for magic limits his versatility in the upper-echelons of Faerun. So for the most part, he spends his time training up the rank-and-file of the Waterdhavian guards, occasionally being sent out as muscle in a Gray Hand mission. Everything changes when mysterious occurrences begin to happen within the city itself, bringing deadly monsters and ill omens to the very streets of Waterdeep.