Polm Touskel spent most of his youth travelling in a small trading company based in Katapesh. While he was often busy caring for horses or taking care of any one of a hundred tasks that were required for the caravan, in his free time, Polm would read anything he could get his hands on, looking for any sort of information about what lies beyond the next hill. One evening, his master, drunken after a particularly successful trading session, gave Polm a book, and a challenge. His master had bought the book as part of a lot of goods from another travelling merchant, but had been unable to understand anything that the book contained. Polm was given the time it took for the next leg of the trading route to decipher the contents of the book, and if successful, he could keep the book. Though unable to completely understand the book, Polm was able to grasp some of the concepts contained therein and, with his own carefully created notes; he had gained a basic knowledge of the arcane arts, along with the name of a place he had never heard of before: Sarengave.
After discovering his knack for the arcane arts, Polm left the caravan trade and sought a teacher to better guide him in his studies. Polm apprenticed himself for the next two years to an exiled Varisian wizard. After years of study, Polm was no longer content with remaining hidden from the rest of the world. He ended his apprenticeship and set out to explore the world. On the evening he was to leave, he looked back at some of his oldest notes, and once again came across the name Sarengave. Pressing his master for any information he had on such a place, his master merely informed Polm that he was no longer his apprentice, and such council was not given freely, however there was no better way to learn than through experience.
Once again, he took up the mantel of a caravan aide, this time, as a wizard for hire. As luck would have it, he met up with a former traveling companion Tristam. They regaled each other with stories of their travels. One evening, Polm asked why he had left the trading company. Tristam revealed that the former caravan master had led their group to the outer edges of Sarengave, enticed by the thought of bringing back goods that the world had not seen before. The caravan was beset by troubles ranging from lack of water to giant scorpions. Tristam wandered out of the desert back into town, not even sure how he had gotten there, to find that near a month had passed. The only sign of his troubles was a tattoo that he had somehow acquired during that time. Polm examined the tattoo, and noted it to be an arcane symbol that he had seen only once before, in the book that had led him into the arcane arts. Determined to find any further information on it, he sought any caravan that would bring him closer to Sarengave.
