by Su Jolly, Tym Norris, Heather Law, Michele Minett, Daniel Taylor

Earth is Dying. The sun hangs low and red on the horizon, and who knows when it will go out forever? Her people live among, on top of, and in the shadow of rich cultures, buried countless millennia in the past. Everything that can ever be known has been discovered and forgotten a thousand times over. The fragments of lost magics, religions and technologies that remain, although poorly understood, give some lucky souls great powers! But what is given, or found, can as easily be lost.

Humanity's last civilisation has reverted to a quasi-feudal society with, for the most part, 18th Century levels of technology. Most citizens can do a little magic, but even the great magicians are limited by how many spells they can prepare at once.

All any citizen can do, is to try and persuade their fellows that their path is the advantageous one. To resist all temptations, except perhaps, their one besetting vice, and to try and meet the next day significantly advanced in circumstances, or at worst, with the price of a night's lodging and a hot meal to hand.

This is pretty much as much as you need to know about Dying Earth. Almost Everything else we have made up!

In Ankori'is, a small town persists in the dock area of a vast ancient ruin. The Annual Assizes boasts numerous attractions for both locals and visitors. The assizes themselves include the famed Mayoral Storytelling Contest – can anyone unseat the five-year champion, Mayor Silvertongue? There is also to be a criminal trial, a Deodand Hunt, and of course the renowned Festival of Foppery.

Some travellers, however, are drawn to the fabled ruins of old Ankori'is. Prospectors and wizards alike comb the ruins for ancient artifacts, lost technology, and powerful tomes of magic.

The visiting nobles of half-a-dozen neighbouring realms will use the Assizes to meet and conduct their business, and of course merchants will take the opportunity to sell them the very finest in foppish raiment as they do.

What could possibly go wrong?