Aratheas is an NPC first encountered in the Dwellers of the Forbidden City. Here is how she got to the ruins located there to be rescued by the characters.

Aratheas grew up in a high elven village on the outskirts of the Menowood, near the Hollow Highlands.  She was always viewed as “different” by the rest of the village as she was affected by a forest fire that hit the Menowood near her village in her youth. Although the fire did not destroy the village, it left behind a swath of destruction. She decided to master this powerful force both to protect her people from its destruction capabilities and also to use it to defend her people at need.

Unfortunately, there were no mages focused on the element of fire nearby, so she went to the town of Naerie where she met a powerful mage who trained her. While residing in Naerie she realized that the threat to her people was greater than she imagined from external forces – notably the South Province. When the Greyhawk Wars occurred, she was in Naerie visiting friends when the fleet from the Kingdom of Shar was noticed. She joined the crew of a fast sloop to harass the Kingdom of Shar ships at sea. Her talents with fire were an asset, using the small sloop to attack at night to get close enough to be in range of her spells. Eventually with the fall of Idee, her crew decided they needed a new port to call home while they fought against the Scarlet Brotherhood remotely. They settled on Narisban as a free port.

Here, she provides the characters with some details of Narisban. Although her focus was purely to find funds to support the rebellion in Idee, she did learn some facts on the city. Narisban is a city ruled by factions; everyone seems to be part of one, or more, factions. It would seem that an individual can be part of multiple factions at the same time.  The leading Council consists of members from the most powerful factions, overseen by a Chancellor. If you want to get anything done, you need to work through one of the factions. As far as she can tell, there is no limit on the number of factions as new ones are created regularly. There are many rules in the city and the laws are strictly enforced. Although many of the laws are bizarre in nature, it is almost like the city is at war with itself to offer full freedom, yet be law abiding. The common populace is mostly overseen by a religious faction who manages the city watch.

One thing she noted recently was a new faction, headed up by the Kingdom of Shar, has set up in Narisban. Some of their members are obvious in their flowing scarlet robes walking about the city on business. The faction is well funded, obviously, and surely up to no good. Although her main goal for raiding the forbidden city was to acquire funds, one of her secondary goals was to get away from the Scarlet Brotherhood agents in case they recognized her as an Idee freedom fighter.  

As such, she joined a small crew of adventurers to raid the ruined city, which ended badly. And that is how she ended up meeting you.