The Great Cities of the Archaeomancers are dotted across vast distances, and despite the overwhelming magical might of their creators they often lack for several basic resources - or simply don't specialize in creating certain things.
Thus. There is trade. A huge number of strange caravans make their way across the routes between the Cities, themselves a mishmash of magic and technology, sometimes carrying something as simple as food, sometimes esoteric weapons and formulae. And sometimes far worse things...
You are part of one of these caravans, having only recently picked up a series of sealed packages from the huge mining complex of the City of Gold and been instructed to deliver them to the bizarre abyssal pleasure palace of the City of the Boundary. A trip of some several hundred miles.
This will be dangerous. Deliveries from the city of Gold are just about the most tempting target imaginable for banditry. The numerous Cities and other sites you'll have to stop at to resupply will each have their own troubles. The very land warps and coils as if in pain as armies from all sides try desperately to either keep order or tear it to the ground, creatures become feral and ever more dangerous whilst spies and double agents exist in such numbers that a massive undercurrent of paranoia saturates all interactions that aren't between the closest of friends or family members...and sometimes even that trust is misplaced.
Good luck.
