Four strangers are drawn together at the behest of the Guildmistress Numadaya, a powerful diviner of the city of Hollowfaust. She has seen that powerful forces are beginning to organize against the city. The spirits have told her that these four strangers will be pivotal in the events to come. They begin preparations to leave the city and strike out into the vastness of the Ukrudan Desert.
Northwest of Hollowfaust lies the armed trader camp known as Akrud. This camp is where the desert tribes, slavers from Dunahnae, and traders from Darakeene, Hollowfaust, Shelzar, and other nations meet. The Four prepare to journey to this lawless city amidst the sand where agents of Hollowfaust have retained a guide from the desert tribes to guide the four into the Ukrudan Desert.
As the group readied for their departure to Akrud, they were approached by a young man with a problem. He had lost his curfew token within the Ghost's Quarter of Hollowfaust. Desperate to get it back, he offered the sum of 500 gold pentacles and four bottles of wine for its return. But the curfew token was nowhere to be found. The Four determined that the token now laid in the possession of a high gorgon who now walked the streets of Hollowfaust.
Knowing that an enemy of Hollowfaust now walked its streets, the group began investigating the nature of the interloper. A few days after their excursion into the Ghost Quarter, a suspicious man was seen consorting with a Guildsman. Following the man, he was determined to have taken up residence within one the city's inns only a few days ago. Was this the one they sought?
