The party will be shadhavar transporting a fugitive from the domain of the Phlegm Dragon Luerax back to the Windy Castle, to their prince, Kutesenes.

The ancient phlegm dragon Lürax (Luerax) the Lubricious, herself banished from Equestria in the pre-classical period by a young Starswirl the Bearded. Lürax loathes ponies more than any other form of life, but fears Dusty Tomes, as she believes the skeletal archmage to be Starswirl.

• Lürax rules great caves north and below the Arcane Helix. She does not trust henchmen very much, and is unlikely to send her limited forces to go after the party even if she learns that ponies are on the threshold of her domain. Her subjects are: six large, thriving colonies of Scales; her inbred dragon progeny (Lürax was producing fertile eggs when banished), including four children (adult Phlegm Dragons) and nine grandchildren (young Phlegm Dragons); a few grundle villages; and assorted other denizens of the Dread Dimensions who happen to live in her territory, not including any little ponies - that she has placed an ample bounty on these creatures is well-known, and she enjoys torturing them if captured.

Eldritch Lore's first visit to the Dread Dimensions almost saw her tortured to death by Luerax. Eldritch first appeared in Luerax's territory, and made rather a mess of one of her outlying villages after the authorities there attempted to arrest her for being a little pony. She escaped into Shadhavar territory, where she met and charmed the prince of the Windy Castle, Kutesenes. Kutesenes, unfortunately, is suffering from leprosy. Eldritch offered him a cure in exchange for any of three treasures: the Score of Ursheqan, a legendary magical tome with a mystical link to the musical rump-marks of all shadhavar; the Cloak of Calamities, a living magic-devouring cloak that is part of the vestments of the high priest of the Slimefather; or the Epic of En-Mequnan, a secret book of shadhavar spellsongs and history that was restricted to the highest-level members of the Mequnanic Mysteries. Kutesenes was sorely tempted, but ultimately knew that giving up any of these cultural treasures would be a betrayal of his people and culture, and declined. He tried to woo Eldritch with gold or power, but she had eyes only for irreplaceable artefacts of the highest order. Negotiations broke down when Eldritch got bored and stole the Score of Urshegan, fleeing into the fungal woods with it.

EL eluded the shadhavar, perhaps unfortunately for her, as she was captured instead by bounty hunters hired by Luerax who had heard of her flight from the Windy Castle. The bounty hunters took Eldritch to Luerax and ransomed the book back to Kutesenes, fortunately not knowing what they had. (Eldritch told them the book had "sentimental value" to Kutesenes and that he might reward them for its return; she told them this to get a message to Kutesenes and try to un-burn that bridge a bit.)

While Luerax was "enjoying" her time with Eldritch, her message reached Kutesenes, who immediately sent envoys to ransom Eldritch. Unlike EL, Luerax _was_ swayed by an offer of a lot of gold, and agreed to sell her to Kutesenes.

The party traveled, with the gold, to Luerax, and at the start of the game, will have just received their prisoner, in rather pitiful shape.