Trouble Up Profit's Flow
Unease has settled over Old Macridi, and Prophet Danum Karland has two problems.
The first is the timber. In recent days, a small batch of blighted darkwood logs has arrived at Karland's Sawmill from the upstream logging districts of the Palakar Forest. Their grain is unnaturally stained with black, oily, foul-smelling sap that gums the mill's heavy saws, ruins blades, and appears to have corrupted the trees while they were still alive. At the same time, isolated stretches of the forest are showing signs of a strange rot, and several distant logging outposts have fallen silent. Couriers sent to seek answers from the Court of Endless Revelry, the Cedar Court, and the Court of Seasons have failed to return with any response.
Karland's second problem is harder to explain away. His mill workers have recovered several drowned bodies—both locals and fey—tied beneath lumber arriving from upstream. The bindings concealed the corpses below the water while allowing the logs to float normally toward Macridi. Karland does not know whether the murders and the blighted timber share the same cause, but both suggest that something far more serious than ordinary logging trouble is unfolding within the Palakar.
New Macridi's Guildmasters have responded by concentrating Blackjacket patrols around their most valuable commercial channels and the upriver supply routes feeding the settlement. They consider the disappearance of Reiver's Right irrelevant. The historic logging camp lies downriver of both New Macridi and Old Macridi, so the bureaucratic argument is straightforward: a problem downstream cannot be responsible for contaminated lumber arriving from upstream.
Karland believes that reasoning mistakes the river for the forest. Profit's Flow runs in one direction; roots, fungal networks, groundwater, animal migrations, and old magic do not. To Karland, the Palakar is an interconnected living system. Reiver's Right may not be the source of the corruption at all—but an entire logging camp going silent at the same time that the forest, its timber, and its fey inhabitants are showing signs of distress is a warning he refuses to ignore.
Karland wants a discreet and capable group to travel downriver along Profit's Flow to Reiver's Right, a historic logging encampment perched along the river bluffs. Named after an ancient Macridi Blade warlord, the site carries a grim reputation. Earlier workers vanished there during a strange geological disturbance, and now the current workforce has disappeared as well.
The party's task is to determine what happened to the camp, investigate any signs of the spreading blight, and look for evidence that might connect Reiver's Right to the wider disturbances affecting the Palakar. Karland is careful about one point: he does not know that Reiver's Right caused either of his problems. He wants investigators precisely because no one yet understands how the silent camp, the blighted timber, and the murdered locals and fey fit together.
Before departing, Karland encourages the party to spend time in Old Macridi. The Iron-Root Apothecary can prepare them for wilderness hazards. Fanciful Inquiries understands the Palakar's trails, taboos, and fey inhabitants. The Veridical Scriptorium holds older records concerning Reiver's Right and Profit's Flow. Elsewhere in town, artisans, river workers, hunters, and laborers may have noticed pieces of the same mystery from entirely different directions.
Once prepared, the objective is clear: travel downriver, investigate the silent camp, determine what can be learned about the spreading corruption, and report directly back to Karland.