The Story So Far
Several centuries (or so) ago, in a country whose name doesn't matter, there was a tall, skinny, straggly-bearded old wizard named Prospero, and not the one you are thinking of, either.
Prospero lived in the South Kingdom in a ridiculous doodad-covered house filled with the paraphernalia of a practicing sorcerer.... He's hero Number 1. Hero Number 2 is Roger Bacon, Prospero's longtime friend and learned necromancer.... In the frosty North Kingdom lived the wizard Melichus. The story begins in Prospero's home when he and Roger Bacon are reunited after a long separation. The two old friends should have been enjoying themselves, but actually they were both scared silly. Outside, inside, seeping around them in the weird, wailing night, was a Presence as cold as hell itself. The wizards tried chant after chant in corrupt Coptic but nothing did any good. The Thing was closing in.