This is a timeline of the major events so far, along with most of what you've all worked out. I've left a few blanks where I'm not sure if you've fully grasped some of the details - if you can tell me what fills those blanks, then I'll fill them in :P. They're generally marked in orange, although there are all sorts of pertinent details you could add with sufficient (real-world) insight. If you can put it together, I'll rewrite it so that it contains a record of all your relevant revelations as well.
I've left out non-mainline story stuff; so no Bastard Sword, side quests, or Lachlan's plotline. Hopefully that will help keep things clear.
Anything else you'd like me to add, then, as ever, go ahead and let me know.
Prologue - The Many Sons of Faroud Al Abin
The individuals who are destined to become the founding members of the 13th meet, apparently by happenstance, during a caravan crossing of The Restless Desert. The caravan is led by Faroud Al Abin, and is otherwise principally composed of his family.
The caravan is attacked by a Frost Dragon, seemingly from nowhere, for no apparent reason. It talks - extraordinarily - to the group, as it decimates them. It asks "Where is it?", and when asked why it is doing this, it only answers "I will be beholden to no man." Finally, it effortlessly destroys the group, although much of the caravan and Faroud's family escape to safety.
The group awake aboard The Redoubt, an airship belonging to Darian, the Knight-Captain of the Order Hospitalier. They have been resurrected, partially at Faroud's request as thanks for sacrificing themselves to save his family, and partially because Darian's people want to know what the Dragon said, and the group were the only witnesses to this extraordinary dialogue. Alizad, Faroud's eldest remaining son, personally led the mission back into the desert to retrieve their remains for the resurrection.
The group are carried to The Rise with Darian.
Part One - Transience
Chapter One - Cerements
Faroud is set up in The Rise, trying to consolidate his losses from the caravan, and his family. He reveals that he did indeed ask for the groups' resurrection, but not his sons': resurrection is anathema to his people, The Anasazi. Instead Faroud wants to perform the correct rites of his people for his sons; these rites can be found in the nearby town also called Anasazi. The group enter Faroud's employ to retrieve these funerary rites so his sons can be put at rest. The Anasazi people are nearly extinct; indeed, Faroud doesn't know of any remaining outside his extended family.
Anasazi is a mostly ruined cliff-town, given over to bandits and wild creatures. The group clear out the area so Faroud can reclaim it for his family. After negotiating a series of traps and guards, the group eventually find the repository of Anasazi lore which includes a number of rituals and the funerary rites they were searching for. They also find Braid already there, poring over the books and scrolls. A dangerous enemy who attacks them almost on sight, they later learn that Braid is a known operative of the zealous Knights Justicaar.
Having defeated Braid, they return the cerements to Faroud, who can finally say goodbye to his sons. Faroud also then vows to restore Anasazi for his family, and starts moving his operations there soon afterwards.
Chapter Two - Dusk
Darian notices the efficiency with which the group aided Faroud, and decides he may be able to put them to use as well. He asks them to travel to Harbriggen, a small yet vital logging camp relatively near to The Rise.
The group find the entire area trapped in some form of permanent darkness for some reason. Worse than that, it seems that they are not even fully in the reality of conventional Eberron. Powerful arcane forces are at play, and the town is deserted.
They eventually uncover a covert research lab beneath the Reinstad Manor. The caves have somehow been rapidly formed beneath the town since the arrival of the small research team. Their journals speak of a mysterious yet wealthy and powerful patron asking them to research an artefact of some sort. When the research began to look dangerous, the patron pulled the funding and took back the artefact to continue research at a more secure location - but unbeknownst to the patron, the research team had already discovered how to make duplicates.
The team's continued research on the duplicate led to the arcane catastrophe which decimated Harbriggen and corrupted its populace. Eventually, the heroes destroyed the duplicate crystal artefact and returned the area to normality. On their exit from the caves, they found their actions had been observed by someone on horseback.
Chapter Three - Lift
Faroud is continuing his project to restore the Anasazi. As such, he asks the team to travel to Shah, where they are to duplicate (but not steal) an ancient text of the Anasazi. The tome is in the library of one Lady Constance, a charming but ruthless socialite. She is also later discovered to be a Justicaar, and a known confederate (of some description) of Braid's.
With no little cunning and some very careful planning, the group succeed in covertly using a ritual of Faroud's to make a full copy of the text. They return this to Faroud, with the authorities of Shah left clueless of the nature of the crime.
Chapter Four - Guardians
The team of heroes are formally inducted into the irregular knightly order known as the 13th, under the direct command of the Marquesa dell'Afforenze and Knight-Captian Darian.
Nevitash receives a communication from an old friend named Skamos. Skamos is a member of The Guardians, the (principally) Kalashtar resistance movement against the Inspired and their Reidran Empire. The 13th set out to meet him near Anasazi, but find the town, and everywhere else for that matter, deserted. Despite hours of searching the sun never rises. Eventually the 13th find Skamos's camp and free him from assorted enemies; they have been sharing a lucid dream. This should have been the safest way to communicate, but it seems Skamos's enemies somehow invaded the dream and endangered them all.
The Guardians ask the 13th for help rescuing one of their leaders, the Baron *gnnnh* Obama from the Inspired. In return, the Guardian seer Mevakri promises pertinent information. Baron is held in the keep of an Inspired Bastion City, one of the structures that contain the monoliths which augment, amplify, broadcast and otherwise refine the psionic control of the ruling sect.
A daring raid by the 13th succeeds in rescuing a thankful Baron. In return, the 13th are told that:
The Dragon was imprisoned by the artefact, and would naturally search for it once freed in order to make sure it was never used against it again.
That the artefact was used to imprison the dragon by the Knights Justicaar, and involved a deeply complex ritual - and the Justicaar were never known for their arcane proficiency.
The 13th had been receiving indirect help from some divine source; and even their meeting may not have been a coincidence.
Chapter Five - Breach
Just as the 13th return to The Rise, some form of terrible catastrophe befalls the town. All arcane bonds, locks, and communications collapse; the busy airship hub is devastated by the falling vessels. Skamos is killed in one such crash. Monsters and criminals escape from their arcane bonds in the gaol, and the small research station in the barracks is annihilated as arcane containment of volatile substances gives out.
It is all the 13th can do to help the devastated town; tending to refugees and eliminating the more dangerous escapees. It seems like The Rise has been the victim of a deliberate attack.
Chapter Six - The Rolling Court
The 13th are summoned to meet the Marquesa at his Rolling Court as it travels to Ghoza, the main Tiefling city of the Adarian Protectorate and the home of the various espionage academies which provide the bulk of the federation's intelligence.
The Marquesa reveals that it seems a very subtle, long-running and far-reaching campaign to destabilise the protectorate has just come to light. The attack on The Rise was the first overt action by this campaign.
The heavily-defended Court comes under precision attack on the narrow mountain roads. The Marquesa is nearly assassinated, but saved at the last minute by the 13th. To their shock, they discover that the attack was led by Alizad.
Chapter Seven - Death & Taxes
The plot to usurp The Marquesa and destroy The Protectorate is now in full swing. A resentful Elven aristocrat from Shah named Lord Illidan forms an unlikely alliance with a disaffected and charismatic young Ghozan named Qu'erla, a powerful psion.
Armies clash on the fields outside Ghoza as The Marquesa launches a surprise pre-emptive attack on the massing rebel forces. Despite heavy losses, the day is carried. The Marquesa heads back to Shah to consolidate the Protectorate, while the 13th head back to The Rise.
The 13th question the Marquesa as to why he is generating such resistance, and question his motives as absolute leader of the Protectorate. The Marquesa responds angrily, enunciating his hopes for the people of Adar and justifying his ambitions at some length. He tells the 13th to consider exactly what it is that they want, and what they consider is worth fighting for, if they wish to continue playing such an important role in Sarlonan politics (yet alone his employ). He doesn't want anyone working for him who isn't there out of choice.
Chapter Eight - Crux
The 13th return to The Rise, and Darian. Darian knows that the 13th are good friends of Faroud's, and so gives them the opportunity to try and bring him in for questioning respectfully and peacefully. He and The Marquesa have no wish to jump to conclusions. The 13th are to be given space to do this as they see fit, as long as Faroud returns to The Rise to talk to Darian soon. They are to leave for Anasazi the next day.
During the night, the 13th share a lucid dream in which they are visited by The Traveller. He:
Warns the 13th that a crux is approaching, and that the 13th will play a part in defining the resulting changes.
Suggests that their meeting was indeed no accident.
Confesses to very occasionally lending a helping hand (for instance in their unlikely success facing Braid in battle), although largely being committed to seeing the 13th make their own choices and fight their own battles.
Hints at a prophecy informing their actions.
Proffers that while change is frightening, "sometime you fly."
He then abruptly wakes them up to discover they were about to be assassinated in their sleep. They kill most of the surprised assailants, while the last one is captured by a returning Ziani.
In the morning, Ziani and Darian reveal that the attack was a rushed attempt on their lives by the Lady Constance, who has been caught and imprisoned in the barracks. She seems inexplicably angry with them. She suggests that the 13th's blind blundering has endangered everything, and that the world would be safer without them in it. She also sneers at her incarceration, saying (correctly) that the tenuous political situation in Shah mean that she will inevitably be promptly freed.
The 13th set out to confront Faroud, who is in his house in the otherwise empty Anasazi. They almost immediately fall victim to a powerful ritual laid in wait, and find their bodies (though not their minds) frozen in time. This, explains, Faroud, is so they can have a civilised conversation.
He explains his role in all that has come to pass.
He explains what he hopes to achieve.
And he offers the individuals of the 13th a choice.
They make their choices.
Faroud disappears.
And the world comes tumbling down.
Part Two - Ascendance
Chapter Nine - Sally Forth
The 13th engage in a desperate attempt to contain the area around The Rise, and to set up an outpost which might render it a viable habitat in the absence of long-distance trade.
They discover that the original team dedicated to the founding of the outpost were sabotaged by Reidran operatives.
Chapter Ten - Seed Crystal
The Reidran Empire shows every sign of intending to take advantage of the Adarian Protectorate's misfortunes. Their systems of control, being principally psionic in nature, are unaffected.
The 13th, the only local force who have any first-hand knowledge of the Empire, are tasked with gaining intelligence on how to remove this power gap. They are preferably to find out how to appropriate this technology for Adarian use, or failing that, to find a way to neutralise their systems, either globally or locally, should the worst come to the worst.
They are quickly discovered, however, and all looks lost - until the unexpected arrival of The Guardians, at the request of some old friends...
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