Main – The Price of Prophecy (Production)

Reiver's Right — Location 12

Log Stacks

The Dead Timber Does Not Lie Still

Rows of stacked logs form narrow lanes across the eastern yard. Some are freshly cut, others stripped and ready for shipment. A few bear black stains or bark split by unnatural dark veining, but most look ordinary at first glance.

Then one of the logs shifts.

A heavy timber rolls half free of the stack, stopping upright as though balanced by an unseen hand. Nearby, another lurches forward with a hard wooden crack. Behind them, something thin and antlered rises from between the piled lumber, all tangled roots, splintered bark, and a face that seems only half-formed from a screaming knot of wood.

The thing lets out a shrill, tearing wail. Around it, the stacked timber begins to move.

Combat Encounter

Wood Wraith and Animated Log Servants

A Wood Wraith (Creature 2) lurks among the log stacks, attended by Animated Log Servants (Creature –1). The wraith has rooted itself amid the piled timber and animates cut logs to attack intruders or anyone who begins examining the corrupted wood too closely.

Encounter	Creatures	XP	4 PCs	5 PCs
Reduced	1 Wood Wraith + 1 Animated Log Servant	80 XP	Moderate	Above Low, below Moderate
Standard	1 Wood Wraith + 2 Animated Log Servants	100 XP	Above Moderate, below Severe	Moderate
Strong	1 Wood Wraith + 3 Animated Log Servants	120 XP	Severe	Above Moderate, below Severe

XP Breakdown: Against a 1st-level party, the Wood Wraith is worth 60 XP and each Animated Log Servant is worth 20 XP.

For a 4-PC party, the encounter thresholds are 80 XP Moderate and 120 XP Severe. For a 5-PC party, the larger party increases those encounter budgets to 100 XP Moderate and 150 XP Severe. The creatures themselves do not change XP value; the larger party simply has a larger encounter budget.

The log lanes should matter in this fight. Stacked timber creates narrow passages, hard corners, cover, and short sightlines. The Animated Log Servants are most effective when they can block movement, roll down lanes, or force the party to fight in cramped spaces while the Wood Wraith lashes from behind cover or elevated stacks.

For 4 PCs, use the Reduced version for a standard Moderate encounter and the Strong version for a Severe encounter. The Standard version sits between those two thresholds.

For 5 PCs, the Standard version is the clean Moderate encounter. The Reduced version is lighter, while the Strong version creates a harder-than-Moderate fight without reaching the 150 XP Severe threshold.

The Wood Wraith should feel like a wrathful, blight-touched forest spirit rather than a simple undead or construct. It wails, lashes with roots, and uses the stacked timber lanes as a killing ground.

It begins combat hidden among the stacks if possible, opening with Defoliating Shriek when the party is clustered or already committed to the lanes. It then uses Erupting Roots to break movement and isolate targets.

The Animated Log Servants are not subtle. They slam, roll, and physically obstruct the party. Use Lumbering Roll when a lane allows a good straight-line path through one or more characters.

If you use the wraith's Summon Logger Echoes, treat the effect as spectral disturbance around the stacks: weeping shapes in sawdust, grasping afterimages, or miserable laboring silhouettes that make the battlefield feel haunted by the camp's dead and missing workers.

Narrow Lanes: Most passages between the log stacks are only 5 feet wide, making them ideal channels for the Animated Logs' movement.
Stack Cover: Stacks of timber provide cover and break line of sight.
Unsteady Timber: A creature that critically fails an Athletics check to Climb a stack or is force-moved onto a precarious pile may cause shifting logs at the GM's discretion.
Blighted Logs: Several marked timbers show blackened sap or dark veining. These are evidence, not a separate hazard unless you want to add one.

Challenge: Examine the Corrupted Timber

Once the encounter is over, the party can inspect the affected logs and the remains of the Wood Wraith more closely.

Primary Check Nature DC 16, Religion DC 17, or Crafting DC 16

Critical Success The character determines that the Wood Wraith is not a natural forest spirit in a healthy state. Something has twisted a fey-plant presence through blighted timber, grief, and corruption. The animated logs are similarly unnatural, given motion by the same hostile influence. Several of the affected timbers carry different collection marks. Clue: The corruption is not limited to one grove or one cutting crew, and whatever is happening at Reiver's Right is capable of warping not only living roots but even cut timber and lingering spirits.

Success The creature is not an ordinary Palakar spirit, and the animated logs were not simple magic tricks or routine constructs. Something has warped the timber with a hostile force tied to the wider corruption. Clue: The black-stained logs in this stack came from multiple sources rather than a single cut site.

Failure The character can tell only that the encounter was unnatural and connected to the disturbed timber.

Critical Failure The exact nature of the wraith and the animated logs remains unclear, though the scene is plainly dangerous and abnormal.

The remains of the Animated Log Servants are simply cut timber animated by hostile force. Once destroyed, they collapse into inert logs again, though some still seep darkened sap or show black veining beneath the bark.

The Wood Wraith's body should not leave behind a neat corpse. Instead, it comes apart into bark shards, root fibers, and lingering motes of sickly plant essence, as though a damaged spirit had been anchored briefly into dead wood and then torn loose again.

This is a good place to reinforce Karland's earlier conclusion: several of the affected logs in this pile carry different collection marks. The problem is not confined to one cutting area or one isolated crew.

The Log Stacks should show that the corruption around Reiver's Right is now affecting not only roots and living growth, but also cut timber, worked lumber, and the spiritual atmosphere of the camp itself.

This encounter also gives the party a more physical, terrain-driven fight than the tighter rooms elsewhere in camp. The stacked logs turn the eastern yard into a maze, and the Wood Wraith plus its Animated Log Servants make that maze feel actively hostile.

Most importantly, the aftermath continues the investigation: the corrupted timber comes from multiple marked sources, further supporting the conclusion that the blight is widespread and not the result of a single bad grove or shipment.