Wizard's Island ...
In a time near the end of the Dark Years, when the forces of evil were fighting to desperately to hold back the changing tide brought on by the Legions of the Four Sages, there was a wizard, Master of Mind Magics, who dabbled with the forces of the Thousand Hells until he had relearned the forbidden Black Art, Necromancy.
His powers were such that he could create undead. But he was not satisfied with just blaspheming the dead, he wanted also to blaspheme the living. So he chose instead to conduct other more heinous experiments. He sent his undead ships to raid the coasts of Avland and Tryuna for humans, humanoids, and other creatures to use as guinea pigs. The result of his experiments was the Blasphemer. No two Blasphemers were alike, as each combined the features of two or more living things.
Satisfied with his experiments, the evil mage was ready to conquer the world. Only the world had changed in the years he had been engrossed in his experiments: The Dark Year were ended and the golden age of Silverdawn had begun The Golden Empire had rapidly risen to a level of power and wealth unheard of since times before the Dark Years. Still, given time, the necromancer realized that he could build great armies of undead and Blasphemers, and once more assert the rightful dominance of evil.
But he had no time. The Sages had heard of his evil exploits and so sent one of their number to end his reign of terror. The Sage of Wizardry had spent the past several years in actual battle so that his combat spells were at their strongest. Kazanlan, the necromancer wizard, was no match for the battle-hardened Sage. Thus it was that the evil mage Kazanjian screamed with his final dying breath this curse: "I swear by the name of my birthing, Kazanjian, that I will return. My blasphemous hordes will reassert evil's dominion and will send the Sages to some dark hell!"
Kazanjian; the evil mage, is known in most historical accounts simply as The Wizard. Necromancy was often called Black Wizardry in those times ...
Now a group of adventurers have decided to explore what is left of his domain, which they assume to be abandoned ...