It is the Year of the Lion.
The Battle of the River Rising has just ended outside Featherdale, and the wizard Mhzentul, lost in the fighting, has just been laid to rest. Thieves have raided his holdings, braving traps and summoned beings for hopes of uncovering the fate of what history has come to call the Seven Lost Rings of Mhzentul.
Meanwhile an unassuming band of adventurers have been summoned to nearby Phlan, in search of a very different lost treasure, the Baneblades of Demron, fabulous lost treasures of Myth Drannor whose whereabouts and even history have been sought for a thousand years.