Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses child abduction and pregnancy loss. In addition, the source text uses outdated and offensive terms for children whose parents are not married, which are only replicated in this section in direct quotes of the source.

Jack Tamerlaine arrives at Woe, a fishing village on the north coast of the mainland, at midnight. Jack first crossed the ocean 10 years ago with an old fisherman, leaving the Isle of Cadence for the mainland to attend the Bardic University in Faldare, where he now works as a teaching assistant. The Isle of Cadence is full of magic and the people who live there believe in the spirits, but the people of the mainland do not. Jack has been summoned to return to Cadence with his harp by his laird, Alastair, the current leader of the Tamerlaine clan, one of the two clans that inhabit the Isle of Cadence. Jack has come to Woe to ask the fisherman to take him back to Cadence. The old fisherman has died, but his son agrees to take Jack to Cadence in exchange for two magic dirks, enchanted knives that hold magical properties that can only be forged on Cadence.