The annual entrance exam for the Officers' Academy has just completed. By means of this exam, anyone can become an officer in the royal army...<br/><br/>...anyone with excellent exam scores, that is. The process is completely blind to race, sex, or class. The score is all that matters. This particular exam has been completed by a band of special candidates.<br/><br/>Shortly after they had been accepted into the Officers' Academy, war broke out between Cormyr and the neighboring kingdom of Sembia.<br/><br/>The war began as a small skirmish during the coronation of King Richard of Cormyr, and escalated into a bloody, full-scale war that involved the surrounding kingdoms as well. Pressed into service under the most trying circumstances possible, many cadets in the Officers' Academy lost their young lives in this trial by fire...<br/><br/>In the course of this conflict, the focus changed suddenly when a third foe, more deadly than all the kingdoms combined, reared its fearsome head in the fray and threatened to wipe out humanity itself...The war had taken its toll on every kingdom, without exception. In  Kingdom Cormyr, nearly all the Officers' Academy cadets that enrolled with the special candidates were slain in the course of the conflict. As for that squad, the day finally came for their final exam, assignment to the forefront of the battle for humanity's survival.<br/><br/>In the Cormyrian command center, a man recognizable as being in commander's dress eyed the squad skeptically. "Well...the duty post for the next party has been decided. We have assigned you to protect the citizens of Marsember from the enemy's threat. Logan is the superior officer at Marsember. Report to him at once."<br/><br/>His look of skepticism fades to concern as he addresses all of you. "The fact that we must integrate your final examinations into actual combat situations is unfortunate, but there is no choice. The large number of Officer Candidates who enrolled in this Academy with you has been reduced to a mere handful. I pray that you fare better than those that have come before you."