Kethra is a broad, sun-browned Goroth woman with a compact, powerful build and a steady, economical way of moving, as if every step has already been tested for loose ground. Her skin is weathered like dried clay, her dark hair is shaved close at the temples and braided into a thick cord down her back. Pale grit clings to the seams of her clothes, and she smells distinctly of bitter juniper smoke and hot leather; she knows about the leather but insists the juniper is only in her tea. A little brass wind-vane, absurdly delicate for a mercenary's kit, is tucked into her collar and turns when she breathes. She leaves the impression of a door barred from the inside.

Kethra is dependable but not obedient: she respects a clear agreement, yet will break its spirit if she believes it is being used to exploit the helpless. In public she is dry, watchful, and hard to impress; with children or exhausted travelers she becomes unexpectedly patient and practical. She can laugh at a clever joke, then turn severe if the joke makes a person's suffering into entertainment. Her pride makes it difficult to ask for forgiveness, even when she knows she owes it.

Kethra grew up among the Goroth Clans, where she learned to read wind-scoured tracks before she learned to read a treaty. Her mother, Sarg, kept the clan's oral histories; her older cousin, Bruk, trained her to guard caravans and taught her that a contract is a promise with witnesses. During a famine-year dispute, Kethra was ordered to escort a captured rival clan speaker through a night march. She discovered the speaker was carrying a record of a massacre committed by Goroth elders, and chose to let the prisoner escape rather than deliver him to a public execution. The choice saved the record but cost her standing and split her family: Sarg still sends her scraps of history, while Bruk calls her a traitor in public and quietly warns her when danger is near. Now Kethra works as a mercenary in the sands around the quest 'Session 7: Sands of Betrayal.' Her present contract is to escort a negotiator whose employer wants to use clan histories to shame and control the Goroth. Kethra intends to survive the job, keep the histories out of their hands, and avoid forcing the party's Barbarian to choose between her and their own clan ties.