A Log That Should Not Exist

The adventure began in Old Macridi, where the thunderous mechanical roar of Profit's Flow powered the saws, waterwheels, and hoists of Karland's Sawmill. Outside the mill, the five adventurers inspected an isolated log: sound-looking timber marred by thick, oily black sap. Their examination and detect magic revealed that the blight was not wholly natural. Magic was somehow involved.

Inside, mill owner Danum Karland explained that Reiver's Right, a remote logging camp employing roughly fifty workers, had fallen silent. For four days, no workers, messages, or timber shipments had come back. The camp had suffered a devastating blight seven years earlier, been quarantined, and reopened three years ago. Whether the new black sap and the camp's disappearance were connected was the question Karland wanted answered.

He gave the party the Investigate Reiver's Right handout and a contract: a 30 gp advance and 200 gp upon completion to determine the workforce's fate, investigate the camp, recover Foreman Hendrick's records, and seek evidence of the corruption. Karland directed them to the apothecary, the scriptorium, a mapmaker, and the Gilded Ledger tavern before they departed.

Four Stops in Old Macridi

At the Iron-Root Apothecary, the party met Morwenna Iron-Root, an herbalist familiar with the distressing effects of contaminated timber. Some of their investigations failed, but their alchemist was able to pursue a fellow-practitioner's challenge and obtain five Alchemical Reagent Bundles for the journey.

The Veridical Scriptorium yielded the expedition's first major breakthrough. While examining records connected with Reiver's Right, the party found a peculiar seal: a golden hand enclosing a coiled serpent. A critical success on Identify the Seal revealed that it belonged to the Golden Hand, a secretive society linked to Mammon and wealthy interests in Druma. This was more than an ordinary merchant's mark, and it suggested a troubling connection between the camp and an infernal organization.

At Fanciful Inquiries, the party obtained useful maps from the gnome cartographer Sorzmig Koob and gathered letters and other travel information. Those who wish to review available correspondence can find it in the campaign's player pack.

The River Captain's Bargain

At the lively Gilded Ledger, the companions met Captain Sella Varn of the river barge Long Dividend. She could carry them downriver to Reiver's Right, but offered a bargain in place of a fare: recover six darkwood boles lost at Mudjaw Beach, each bearing two blue slash marks.

Sella was guarded, and though several attempts to pry the full story from her failed, the party sensed that she was withholding something. They accepted the salvage job anyway, taking recovery equipment and heading into the backwaters.

What Happened at Mudjaw Beach

Mudjaw Beach was a flooded tangle of shallow water, reeds, muddy banks, submerged timber, and great cypress roots. The recovery stretched over multiple sessions. The companions fought dangerous Mudjaw Lureblooms while grindylows hunted two reefclaws nearby. One reefclaw died; the other escaped. The grindylows briefly fought but withdrew, watching to see whether the party would threaten a blue-ringed octopus that they revered.

Instead of fighting the octopus, the companions used meat from the dead reefclaw to lure it away from the timber. The gambit worked. They recovered all six marked logs—and discovered that one had been hollowed out. Inside was a concealed cache of smuggled Cedar Court amber.

The companions removed the amber, hid it, and returned the logs to Sella while claiming they had found the damaged bole that way. Their deception held. Sella remained suspicious, but for now she could not establish what they had done. The party had secured passage downriver and acquired a secret of its own.

A Camp with No Workers

After some downtime, the adventurers traveled aboard the Long Dividend to Reiver's Right. They arrived by river at E14, the Lower Landing, beneath a bluff crowned by the abandoned logging camp. Above them rose a massive log chute and hoist, its heavy chains and machinery connecting the docks to the upper yard.

Exploring near E13, the party discovered a hidden cave and signs of a collapsed, formerly worked tunnel. The evidence pointed to activity beneath the bluff that ordinary logging could not fully explain. They sent a familiar to reconnoiter through the damaged passage, then returned to the upper camp to continue their search.

Reconnaissance Above the Bluff

The companions moved cautiously through the strangely deserted camp. They reached the watchtower at E15, where they surveyed the grounds and spotted hostile creatures around the sawpit at E10. They passed through the carpentry area at E11, skirted the vicinity of the stables at E9, and worked their way toward the back of the foreman's building.

The camp's working structures remained, but the people who had operated them were gone. Whatever had happened here, it had left behind machinery, materials, and unsettling signs of corruption.

The Battle in the Foreman's Hall

The party approached Foreman Hendrick's building from the rear, broke a window, and searched inside. After gathering some materials, they opened a door—and Hendrick emerged with infernal rootlings.

Hendrick had been horribly changed. Black roots and oily sap threaded through his body, his skin marked by an unnatural ember-red glow. The companions fought him and the rootlings, but made a consequential choice: they subdued the foreman without killing him. They stabilized him, kept him alive, and transported his unconscious body back toward the river landing at E14.

What the foreman knows, and what caused his transformation, remain questions for another day.