<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;">Dark Shadow</span></div><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">Things are not well in the Kingdom of Markland, the land had been essentially at peace for nearly twenty years.  There had always been some bandit activity in the mountains between Markland and Ammerland, and the occasional highwayman on the roads but of late there had been attacks on farming communities across the country.<br/><br/>King Garth had expected his spies under the command of his brother Prince Karl to uncover what was clearly some organised plot, or the Royal Guard under the command of Crown Prince Willem to destroy the raiders but neither had so far managed to provide answers to this escalating unrest.<br/><br/>In a bid to find out things that the spy network had failed to discover, King Garth had decided to send Prince Alex and Princess Jessica out into country with a bodyguard from the Royal Guard.  The Prince and Princess were both intelligent and resourceful and the chosen bodyguards were elite knights of equal resource.</span>