You have been traveling for more than a week on a dreary camel caravan from the town of Solku to an unknown location in the northern scrublands of Katapesh. You are part of a ragtag group of adventurers, mercenaries, freed slaves, guards, and rapscallions under the watchful eye of a man named Garavel. Garavel is the no-nonsense major-domo of a merchant princess awaiting you at the caravan's destination.
Garavel has traveled throughout Katapesh to gather you and others to aid in the reclaiming of Kelmarane, a remote village in northwest Katapesh. This village once held the southern end of a trade route between Katapesh and Osirion, but it fell upon hard times and has lain abandoned for years. Said now to be the home of a tribe of gnolls in service to someone called the "Carrion King," ruined Kelmarane represents a great possibility to the Pactmasters of Katapesh. If the village can be reclaimed and rebuilt, the trade resulting would strengthen Katapesh's western and northern reaches, a region long plagued by gnolls, monsters, and worse.
In the distant haze to the west, you can just make out the immense outline of Pale Mountain looming over the mid-evening horizon like a tombstone. Everyone has had a few days to get acquainted and interact a bit.
