"The Halfling Shires had been members of the League of Rhordia for over a hundred years. The alliance had been mutually beneficial from the start; the humans of the League received the surplus of the Shires' bountiful farms and pastures, and the Shires received the additional security of the League's powerful military in a very dangerous world. But recently the relationship has begun to sour. For reasons no one understands, a darkness is poisoning...