The player characters will begin the first game with a radio announcement that the Esteron Empire has violated the peace treaty and have begun to invade Geldon. The town of Shendar (that the players are now residents of) is only about 20 miles from the border with the Esteronian conquered country of Belzhag. The news report recommends that residents along the border with Belzhag either hunker down and prepare to defend or fall back to the larger better defended cities. They expect to have the Geldonian Army and Militia mobilized to meet the Esteronian forces by the end of the week. A few minutes later the border town of Eechen is broadcasting that they are seeing tanks and soldiers on the surrounding hills when the broadcast is cut short.