Imagine the city of Los Angeles 20,000 years into the future, the once mighty city now fading ruins in the midst of a howling and trackless wilderness. Tens of thousands of years earlier a nuclear war devastated the globe leading to biological mutations and somehow to the weakening of the fabric of reality itself, allowing magic to flood through from unknown dimensions. In the ruins of Hollywood, mutant packs of coyotes, wolves and the only vaguely recognisable descendents of domestic canines contend amongst themselves, and prey upon on the vast herds of bison and cattle that sweep through the arid plains east of the ruins. But beneath the shifting sands of the desert, and the ruins where only the hiss of rattler and the scuttling of the giant scorpion is heard, lives another city.

The ruins draw adventurers from the scattered communities far away, as surely as flowers draw the bee, for here abounds wild magic of interest to those practise the black arts of sorcery, and occasionally treasure troves of ancient technology or precious metals may be found. Yours is one such group. The tales of the tunnels beneath the desert are common knowledge, although few who delve into the great chambers and the immensely long and skillfully constructed passages return to tell the tale, yet you have prepared yourselves to take that risk.

But death is far from your thoughts this sunny morning, as you stand upon Hollywood hill looking out across the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, serene beneath an immaculate dome of cerulean blue sky. A keen sea breeze ruffles your hair and clothing, and the sun reflects in minute brilliance from a million lapping waves.