Background

The Demon Plague

It is the late-1300s by the Christian calendar (early 5100s in Hebrew, late 700s in Arabic, but the late 6800s by the Roman calendar, the official calendar of the Byzantine Empire). A few decades earlier, Europe, the Near East, and North Africa were devastated not by the Black Death but by a Demon Plague. Something weakened the boundaries between worlds, which has only been breached in small ways before. Literal demons and creatures of all kinds only ever depicted in art or described in stories appeared and ransacked many communities. The Antichrist and a horde of devils and otherworldly beasts have captured Jerusalem and other places of import. They are somehow able to appear in many places in the world, albeit in usually small numbers.

But other things have come back to the world. Magic and miracles, while still rare and uncommon, have become more reliable. Old faiths have grown. Technology and art have also advanced as the Renaissance spreads widely. Fleeting contacts have been made with peoples of other worlds it is said, with even Elven and Dwarven worlds.

Several crusades have been waged against the Antichrist's horde, Christians, Islamicists, Hebrews, and Pagans fighting together against a common foe. But we are currently between crusades. The Antichrist's forces have halted their advances, the crusaders restore resources and reinforce holdings.

The Dark Company

The Dark Company is a mercenary band who got their association with darkness from a former employer who was eventually revealed to be a Dark Prince working for the Antichrist. (The actual name refers to their origin as a company of archers raised by a French lord, Le Comte Maxime de Namur - "d'arc", short for "de l'arc" - "of the bow"). But they turned on that employer, a disguised demon it is said, and have fought hard to restore their reputation, heaping glory on their employers, though stain still follows in the minds of many.

The Dark Company is serving garrison duty in the deep port town of Abydos near the entrance of the Dardanelles in Anatolia (modern day Turkey), three days walk from Constantinople. It is fairly casual duty and members are often assigned to secondary tasks as they become available but are also able to pursue their own interests, within reason.

Abydos

With a somewhat protected deep water port, Abydos is a secondary port on trade routes and a good ferry location across the Dardanelles into the former Thracia and Gallipoli. Being a bit further from the capital, it is somewhat more favored by smugglers who use ‘The Narrow Path’ to avoid the most stringent scrutiny of the empire's pervasive tax collectors.

The Shadow Market

Praetor Typhlos, head of Abydos, tolerates a market outside the city walls, where few questions are asked and none are prevented access. The Dark Company is tasked with security there. Although the Strategos of the military fort down the road at Dardanss (modern Çanakkale) would like to have it removed, for now it is a convenient place for finding and selling things that the Byzantine Church might not approve of, including shrines to other faiths.

Portal to Atlantis

Enterprising members of the Dark Company explored a forgotten temple in nearby Thracia and discovered there a scroll and crystals used to open a portal to the legendary Atlantis. Entering the magic portal they were confronted by a magical image that explains the have only entered the "Champions Portal" to Atlantis--they must prove themselves worthy by facing it's challenges and reaping its rewards to enter the city of Atlantis proper.

To do this, they must acquire six diamond-shaped crystals and insert them into the recessed vertexes of of a crystal hexagon embedded into the floor of the entry chamber.