The village council is in heated debate. Three factions have formed:

• The Woodcutters — Led by Garret Hask, they want to expand logging operations. Secret: His crew found a stone and sold it to a masked stranger.
• The Shrine Keepers — Led by Priestess Mira Bellwether, they believe the forest's anger is divine punishment.
• The Reeve's Faction — Reeve Crowl wants compromise but knows the stones were taken by agents from Edme.

Skill Challenges:

• Sense Motive (DC 12): Detect Crowl's secret — he knows the stones were taken by Edme agents.
• Religion (DC 14): Identify the stones' symbols — Azlanti geometry and Arodenite legal script.
• Nature (DC 12): Learn about the masked stranger — a priest of Norgorber who buys ancient artifacts.
• Diplomacy (DC 15): Mediate between the factions to earn trust.

Clues Gained: The masked stranger is a priest of Norgorber; the stones had Azlanti geometry; the missing face was marked with a star.

Following the woodcutters' trail, the party finds an illegally widened logging road. Four boars with thorn-grown hides burst from the undergrowth. They fight to disable, not kill, unless cornered.

PF2e Build: Four boars (level 1) with thorn hazards. The boars have resistance to piercing damage (thorn hides).

When defeated, the party finds a carved oathmark under the churned mud.

The woodcutters' camp is abandoned — tools scattered, a body near the fire pit killed by a clean, surgical cut.

Investigation Checks:

• Healing (DC 14): The wound is magical — the signature of Gray Gardeners' execution magic.
• Perception (DC 12): A sealed dispatch from Edme orders the capture of "any living descendant of the covenant's witnesses."
• Survival (DC 14): Tracks lead deeper into the forest — Gray Gardeners are hunting someone.

The tracks lead to a hidden hollow where Ormand Vex is hiding with a wounded student. He is gaunt, haunted, and clutching a leather-bound journal.

Ormand's Knowledge:

• The covenant's Fourth Seat is a "place of judgment where the unborn speak for the future."
• The Gray Gardeners are searching for the treaty faces.
• He possesses a fragment of Hosetter's writings about "oaths that bind beyond mortal memory."

Reward: Ormand shares a map fragment showing the Torvin Academy Research Outpost.

Three root-bowls surround a central stone carved with Azlanti geometry and Arodenite script.

The Test: Offerings must be made to each bowl:

• Restraint: A sacrifice given freely, not taken. (Woodcutter's ash or a coin earned honestly.)
• Witness: A truth spoken aloud. (A confession, a secret, or a vow.)
• Repair: An act of restoration. (Mending a broken stone, planting a seed, or healing a wounded creature.)

Wrong Offerings: Trigger a Grasping Root Snare (Level 2 hazard).

Success: The central stone reveals a map of the Silver-Tusked Guardian's grove.

The outpost is a collapsed tower deep in the Boarwood, once used by scholars to study the covenant's magical properties. It has been ransacked, but hidden compartments remain.

Discovery (DC 16 Perception): A sealed chamber contains:

• Ancient manuscripts detailing the covenant's creation and the role of the Fourth Seat.
• A map of the Root-and-Star Road, though much of it is illegible.
• Evidence that the Gray Gardeners have been here recently — they are close to finding the hidden road's entrance.

Reward: The manuscripts provide a +2 circumstance bonus to checks made to negotiate with the Silver-Tusked Guardian. They also reveal the location of the second treaty face in the Fog Peaks.

The party discovers a ruined farmstead converted into an interrogation site. A prisoner is being held inside.

The Prisoner — Elena Voss: A young woman from Edme, a former Torvin Academy student researching the covenant.

Elena's Knowledge:

• The Gray Gardeners are working for Camilia Drannoch and the Revolutionary Council.
• They believe the covenant can create a "perfect revolution" that can never be overthrown.
• They have captured a dryad who knows the Silver-Tusked Guardian's location.

Options:

• Stealth Rescue: Infiltrate the farmstead, free the dryad, and escape without detection. (Skill Challenge)
• Combat Assault: Attack the base directly. (Combat Encounter)
• Negotiation: Use Ormand's knowledge to bluff or bargain with the Gardeners. (Social Encounter)

Reward: The dryad reveals the Silver-Tusked Guardian's grove and grants a Token of the Forest — a leaf that provides one use of tree stride within the Boarwood.

The party is ambushed — not by enemies, but by a figure in a crimson feather cloak.

The Red Raven's Knowledge:

• The Gray Gardeners are trying to activate the Fourth Seat to execute their political enemies permanently.
• He knows the Silver-Tusked Guardian's location.
• He offers safe passage through the forest in exchange for protecting Edme's innocents.

Complication: The Red Raven is a former revolutionary, morally complex, and not entirely trusted. He participated in the uprising that brought the Council to power and now seeks redemption.

Skill Challenge:

• Diplomacy (DC 16): Earn the Red Raven's trust.
• Intimidation (DC 16): Demand he prove his intentions.
• Sense Motive (DC 14): Detect his true agenda — he may be using the party to further his own goals.

The party enters a hidden grove where an ancient boar, crowned in ghostly laurel, lies wounded.

The Guardian's Wound: The Gray Gardeners captured a dryad who was one of the guardian's witnesses. With her gone, the guardian cannot see the oath's full terms.

Three Ways to Resolve:

• Combat — Defeat the Guardian: The guardian is powerful (Level 3 elite). This ends the act with the guardian defeated, but the party loses an ally.
• Healing — Restore the Guardian: Using the items found throughout Act 1 (the Oath Ring, Torvin manuscripts, dryad's token), the party can heal the guardian's wound and restore its sight. This earns a powerful ally.
• Negotiation — Appease the Guardian: The party must explain the covenant's three principles (Restraint, Witness, Repair) and offer to restore the missing stones.