Hero's Heir: The Shadowed Gate

A thousand years ago, a young king was handed a crown by a priest and promised a world without war. What followed was the Mad King's reign: decades of slaughter led by his once-noble champion, the Fallen Hero, raised in death as a knight of darkness. Seven in ten people on the died before six heroes stormed the King's fortress, struck them both down, and sealed them in a tomb deep beneath the mountains. The key was entrusted to a halfling bloodline sworn to guard it forever. Over the centuries, that oath faded into a bedtime story. Now someone remembers, and the digging has already begun. Five A-Ranked adventurers have no idea they're standing in the way. Jay, a stoic knight of the war god Sildor; Finnick, a halfling thief running from the Empire and his own family; Elaria, a brilliant elven mage; Brother Silas, a reformed drunken brawler turned divine master who can heal with his fists; and Lyra, a sharp-tongued arcane archer. All they wanted was enough coin for a boat ticket. But Finnick carries the key without knowing it, and the Rexel Empire's secret police, his own blood kin, and the dark powers that set the Mad King on his path will stop at nothing to claim it. To keep the Fallen Hero and the Mad King from rising again, this ragged band of misfits will have to become the heroes the world forgot it needed.