Start off as a pre-existing band of adventurers, in medias res. Pick 2 each of 8:

Bitty Bee - Pegasus, rogue, mare Big Tuck - Earth pony, fighter, stallion Pepper Papers - Earth pony, scholar, mare Green Bud - Earth pony zony, herbalist, mare Soaring Stratus - Pegasus, weatherpony, stallion Moon Magic - Unicorn, healer, mare Arrow Weed - Earth pony, ranger, stallion Brass Bobbins - Unicorn, tinkerer, mare

28 RYE-PLANTING 634 AE

Your band of adventurers were caught by the ELDER DRAGON Nares of Corundum trying to rectify a situation of profound economic inefficiency, to wit, the existence of the same dragon's vast unused hoard of precious metals, and were thus rather unfairly presented with a choice of either being burned alive or accepting a MAGICAL GEAS to perform a quest for him. You can still hear the words of the greedy old lizard ringing in your ears - literally, in fact, as that's part of the geas and seems to happen randomly at the most inconvenient times:

• YOU MUST GO TO THE LANDS OF THE REINDEER PRINCESS LULESAMI, AND BRING BACK TO ME EMBERS FROM THE GREAT BOREAL HEARTHFIRE BY ANY MEANS YOU FIND NECESSARY.

This quest has taken you into the farthest reaches of the FROZEN NORTH, through perilous Yakyakistan and the hostile wilderness beyond. Finally, you have arrived in the outskirts of the REINDEER KINGDOMS. It has been a long and been a long and difficult journey, and your supplies are running low.