Shadow Walkers are a strange breed that possess the ability to slip between the planes of reality, becoming immaterial. This allows them to hide in the shadows, either hunting from the concealment of near invisibility or evading enemies. Though they become corporeal to mate or to eat, they spend most of the rest of their lives walking in the shadows. Shadow Walkers are wary creatures, though on dark autumn evenings when the leaves fall to swirl in the chill, rain damp air, they may be seen drifting out from the shadows.

Dragons are highly-intelligent reptilian creatures that—from a human perspective, at least—appear to live forever. Many different varieties of dragon exist, each with their own unique qualities, habitats, and behavior. Adolescence in dragons is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling’s wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. In Galsreim, dragons and humans coexist peacefully.

Every year, as the various Yuletide dragons finish preparing their feasts and celebrations, a quartet of shadow walkers put their plans into motion. After having spent all year observing dragons to find one most in need of their talents, it's time for them to reenact their own special morality play for this dragon.

Finveca, the last to appear, has the least rewarding job. Not only is he upstaged by Keph, who never leaves willingly, but he is tasked with scaring the daylights out of their by now quite reformed target by showing them scenes of what unpleasant fates might lie in store for them. Finveca has been cursed at, attacked, hexed, and on one particularly bad year nearly throttled. Being a gentle soul, it pains him both to cause suffering and to be so reviled. He doesn't even have the comfort of a disguise, as he alone of the four needs no costume.