The players characters are demon hunters or other heroes who travel the land to fight evil. They spend a night with a monk who is abducted while they are asleep. Later, they find out that the area is terrorised by bandits with evil powers who seem to focus their raids on holy sites.
The bandits are actually cultists of the elder gods and plan to increase the shadowland overlap into this area by sacrificing 10 holy men in a terrible ritual. They hope that by obtaining the favour of these foul entities, they will be able to drive the occupational forces from their lands.