Encounter

E8 — Smithy

Reiver's Right — Location 8

Smithy

Tools Worn on Stone

The smithy's forge is cold, its charcoal bed reduced to gray ash. Racks along the walls hold axes, logging hooks, splitting wedges, saw parts, wagon hardware, and lengths of chain waiting for repair.

On the main workbench lies a very different collection.

Mushroomed stone chisels, blunted picks, cracked wedges, bent chain links, and heavy iron tool heads have been arranged beside a smith's hammer and several unfinished repairs. Their edges are battered from repeated impacts, and pale gray dust has collected in the grooves of the metal and around the bench.

Against the far wall, separated carefully from the rough repair stock, rests a small bundle of dark, straight-grained lumber. The pieces have been planed smooth, cut to matching dimensions, and wrapped together with cord. A wooden order tag still hangs from the bundle.

The smithy provides another piece of physical evidence that Reiver's Right was supporting work far beyond ordinary logging. The forge serviced axes, saws, wagons, and river equipment as expected—but it was also repeatedly repairing tools used against solid stone.

It also contains something of particular interest to anyone who has spoken with Orvik Brasshand: a small shipment of highly processed darkwood matching the specifications he gave his missing assistant, Halven Dorr.

Automatic Discovery: The Wrong Tools

No check is required to notice that the smithy contains a large number of picks, stone chisels, heavy wedges, chain fittings, and reinforced hauling hardware.

These are not isolated tools mixed into a general workshop. Several are grouped together awaiting the same kinds of repair, suggesting repeated and sustained use.

Challenge 1: Inspect the Damaged Tools

The wear patterns on the damaged equipment can reveal what kind of work the tools were performing before they were brought back to the smithy.

Primary Check Crafting DC 15, Mining Lore DC 14, or Engineering Lore DC 15
Critical Success The character recognizes repeated stoneworking damage across several different tool types. Picks have blunted against hard rock, chisels have mushroomed from sustained hammering, wedges show compression scars from splitting stone, and chain fittings have been strained by lifting or hauling unusually dense loads. Clue: These tools were being used as part of a substantial excavation rather than ordinary logging, road repair, or occasional foundation work.
Success The damage comes from repeated work against stone rather than wood. Clue: Reiver's Right was maintaining equipment used regularly for excavation or tunneling.
Failure The tools are obviously heavily worn, but the character cannot determine whether the damage came from excavation, road work, or another form of heavy construction.
Critical Failure The character mistakes the damage for the ordinary abuse expected from tools used around a large logging camp.
The Gray Clay

Fine gray clay is packed into several tool sockets, chisel grooves, chain joints, and the seams of a pair of heavy work gloves left beside the forge.

The material does not resemble the dark forest soil surrounding the smithy or the muddy banks of Profit's Flow. It came from somewhere else.

Characters who have already encountered the same residue elsewhere at Reiver's Right recognize it automatically.

Challenge 2: Trace the Repair Tags

Small wooden tags tied to several damaged tools record repair requests, crew initials, and brief notes from the camp smith.

Primary Check Perception DC 15, Society DC 16, or Crafting DC 16
Critical Success The character notices that many of the most heavily damaged stoneworking tools carry the same crew designation: L.W. The initials recur across picks, chisels, wedges, chain fittings, and hauling hardware. Clue: If the party has examined Hendrick's records, they can immediately identify L.W. as Lower Works. The repair history confirms that the Lower Works repeatedly consumed stoneworking and excavation equipment.
Success The same initials—L.W.—appear repeatedly on repair tags attached to stoneworking tools. Clue: One particular crew or work site was responsible for most of the excavation-related wear.
Failure The repair tags contain a mixture of initials and abbreviated work orders, but no useful pattern emerges.
Critical Failure The character assumes L.W. is the initials of an individual worker or smith rather than a work assignment.
Halven's Darkwood

The bundle against the wall contains six narrow lengths of highly processed darkwood. Each piece has been carefully selected, seasoned, planed, and cut to a consistent dimension. Unlike the rough-cut timber stacked elsewhere around Reiver's Right, this material was prepared for precision work rather than construction or ordinary lumber sales.

Anyone who has spoken with Orvik recognizes the material immediately as exactly the kind of stock he described needing for his darkwood-and-brass spyglasses.

A small wooden order tag tied beneath the cord reads:

O. BRASSHAND — 6 SELECT

PLANED / SEASONED / NO BLACK VEIN

H. DORR — HOLD FOR COLLECTION

The bundle is complete and appears ready for transport.

Halven never collected it.

Challenge 3: Inspect the Darkwood

The selected pieces can be compared with the contaminated sample Orvik showed the party in Macridi.

Primary Check Crafting DC 14, Nature DC 15, or Woodworking Lore DC 13
Critical Success The character confirms that all six pieces were deliberately selected to avoid the subtle black veining present in Orvik's rejected shipment. Close examination shows several discarded offcuts nearby with faint dark threads beneath their grain, suggesting someone here was actively sorting contaminated wood from clean stock. Clue: Halven's concerns were known at Reiver's Right, and the camp had already begun encountering enough affected timber to require inspection and rejection.
Success The selected darkwood appears clean and carefully chosen. Several nearby scraps show the same faint internal discoloration Orvik described. Clue: The infestation was present in timber processed at Reiver's Right, but workers were still able to find apparently unaffected pieces.
Failure The darkwood is clearly unusually high-quality material, but the character cannot determine why these particular pieces were selected.
Critical Failure The character sees no meaningful difference between the selected stock and other processed lumber nearby.
What the Darkwood Establishes

The darkwood should not become another independent mystery. Its purpose is to connect Orvik, Halven, and Reiver's Right directly to the larger investigation.

Finding the bundle establishes that Halven's order reached the camp and that workers prepared the material he requested. It does not prove when Halven disappeared or what happened to him.

The important question is now narrower: if Halven came here to collect this shipment, why did he leave it behind?

The party may take the darkwood with them. If returned to Orvik, the six pieces are sufficient for the unfinished spyglass commissions currently sitting in his workshop.

The Stone Came From Below

The combination of battered stoneworking tools and pale clay provides a physical trail toward the Lower Works. The same residue appears elsewhere among equipment and workers' belongings and eventually throughout the underground excavation itself.

Characters who have already encountered the gray clay elsewhere at Reiver's Right recognize it automatically as the same material.

This does not yet reveal the location of the Lower Works, but it establishes that workers and equipment were repeatedly returning from somewhere involving exposed stone and pale subterranean clay.

Challenge 4: Reconstruct the Work Below

Taken together, the repaired tools can reveal more than simply the presence of stonework. Their variety suggests the scale and nature of the hidden operation.

Primary Check Mining Lore DC 15, Engineering Lore DC 16, or Crafting DC 17
Critical Success The character can reconstruct much of the underground workflow from the damaged equipment: picks and chisels broke rock, wedges widened cuts, heavy chain and reinforced fittings moved debris, and specialized hardware supported hoists or hauling systems. Clue: The Lower Works were not a small cellar or temporary dig. They required continuous tool repair consistent with a large, sustained subterranean excavation.
Success The variety and repeated wear of the equipment indicate ongoing excavation rather than a single construction project. Clue: Whatever the Lower Works were, they had been operating for a significant period of time.
Failure The character can confirm heavy stonework but cannot estimate the scale or duration of the operation.
Critical Failure The character underestimates the scale of the work and assumes the tools could have supported ordinary foundation repairs.
What This Location Should Establish

The Smithy turns the Storehouse's suspicious equipment into evidence of actual use. Reiver's Right was not merely stockpiling tools that could support excavation—those tools were repeatedly being sent somewhere, worn against stone, and returned for repair.

It also advances Orvik's missing-assistant thread without creating a separate sidequest. Halven's order was filled, the requested darkwood is still here, and Halven did not leave with it.

A thorough investigation should therefore establish four things: stoneworking was routine, the same Lower Works crews repeatedly used the equipment, the distinctive gray clay connects those workers and tools to a subterranean environment beneath or near the camp, and Halven's business at Reiver's Right was far enough along that his darkwood had already been selected and prepared.

No combat is required here. The Smithy works best as a compact evidence scene that rewards characters with Crafting, Mining Lore, Engineering Lore, Woodworking Lore, or similar practical expertise.