Once upon a time there was a herbalist named Chenard, who was so skilled at healing the sick that some said he had magical powers. Chenard practiced his trade among the decadent plutocrats of the Ammenite court, and his skill won him sufficient fame and fortune to indulge his forbidden desires and practice the blackest of arts.

About ten years ago Chenard acquired his seventh concubine, a Zaru child named Kamala, who has since grown into a beautiful young woman. Kamala is a quiet girl who was pampered once by her tribe and now by the slaves in the Lake Temple.

Centuries ago the Lake Temple was a lively place, a Zaru holy site known as the Garden of Love's Sweet Fruit. But when the Sky Fire struck, the earth changed, and most of the temple sank into a filthy swamp. Now only the high towers that jut above the slime are habitable. These towers are linked by rickety rope bridges, and reached by rowboats from a tiny Zaru slave compound on the shore. The Lake Temple is inhabited by Kamala, her ladies-in-waiting, the household staff, and a handful of guards to keep discipline. Long after midnight a brood of ratkin can sometimes be seen slinking along the unstable portions of the ruined temple complex.

When the story opens, Chenard is due to arrive at the Lake Temple very shortly. Players should be associated with Chenard, Kamala, or the Lake Temple somehow. Some options:

• A disgraced apprentice who hates Chenard
• Chenard's personal assassin, in love with Kamala
• Chenard's goblin toady and torture-monkey
• An elven house-mistress who commands the slaves
• A ratkin sent to assassinate Chenard
• Kamala's brother, come to avenge the family's honor
• A Zaru priest who must retrieve Chenard's blasphemous magical knowledge
• An ailing aristocrat who needs Chenard's expertise

"A Very Brief Engagement" was run as a casual game between strangers on December 27, 2004 and January 3, 2005. The game took place over IRC, and lasted about five hours total due to the slow pace of IRC play; it probably would have lasted 2 or 3 hours in person.

Given that two of the protagonists were in love with Kamala, it was easy to establish a rivalry between them--and with the goblin, who was ordered to marry the girl although he was in love with Chenard. Meanwhile the elven house-mistress plotted against everyone else. Events just sort of grew from watching their goals coincide and conflict.