Campaign Primer

The settlement of Macridi prospers from the darkwood of the Palakar Forest. Wealthy Kalistocrats conduct business and pursue the disciplined comforts of New Macridi, while loggers, merchants, craftsmen, and travelers fill the streets, workshops, and taverns of Old Macridi. Much of that prosperity depends on timber cut from the surrounding forest and carried along Profit's Flow. For generations, that trade has existed beside an older wilderness. Logging crews work beneath the influence of three powerful fey courts—the Court of Endless Revelry, the Cedar Court, and the Court of Seasons. Old agreements and practical caution have usually kept disputes between the settlements and the forest from becoming open conflict.

Over the past several weeks, however, an unsettling pattern has begun to emerge. It started with a single strange log arriving at Karland's Sawmill in Old Macridi. The timber looked healthy from the outside, but once cut, its grain proved streaked with thick, oily black sap that fouled saws, damaged blades, and carried a foul smell. At first, it seemed like an isolated curiosity. Then another affected log arrived, followed by a few more. The number remains small compared with the enormous volume of timber moving through Macridi, but the affected logs have appeared often enough—and from enough different cutting areas—that they can no longer be blamed on one diseased grove, one careless logging crew, or one spoiled shipment.

Whether the problem will continue to grow is unclear, but Danum Karland, owner of Karland's Sawmill, suspects it will. Other uncertain reports have begun filtering back from the logging country as well: unhealthy patches of forest, strange damage to living trees, workers uneasy about particular stretches of woodland, and an increasing sense that something in the Palakar is no longer behaving as expected. Most of these stories are difficult to verify and none, by itself, would justify panic. Couriers have also been sent toward the three fey courts seeking information, but no clear explanation has yet returned. The Blackjackets and officials of New Macridi remain reluctant to commit significant resources to what can still be explained as a series of unrelated frontier problems.

Then Reiver's Right went dark four days ago. Reiver's Right is an old logging site downriver from Macridi that was reopened roughly ten years ago. Since then, it has operated as a remote but productive logging camp supporting a substantial workforce. Timber came out, supplies went in, and workers traveled regularly between the camp and settlements along Profit's Flow. Four days ago, that routine stopped. No timber shipments have arrived, no messages have come out, none of the camp's workers have returned to Macridi, and attempts to contact Reiver's Right have received no response.

There is no clear evidence that the camp's silence has anything to do with the strange timber appearing at Karland's mill. In fact, most of the affected logs identified so far originated elsewhere in the Palakar. Some officials consider that reason enough to treat the two problems separately. Karland is less comfortable with that conclusion. He does not claim that Reiver's Right caused the blight, and he does not know why the camp went silent. He simply sees an unexplained problem appearing in living Palakar timber at the same time an established logging operation has abruptly stopped communicating. To Karland, that is enough to justify sending someone downriver to find facts before Macridi decides that nothing is wrong.