Encounter

E15 — Watchtower

Reiver's Right — Location 15

Watchtower

What the Last Lookout Saw

The watchtower rises above the northeast palisade, its upper platform exposed to the wind and the resinous smell of the surrounding pines. From here, nearly all of Reiver's Right lies below: the central yard, sawpit, log stacks, river bluff, and the dark forest beyond the walls.

A weather-stained logbook lies beneath the narrow window slit. Beside it rests a battered brass spyglass in a leather sleeve, its lenses scratched but still serviceable.

From this height, the camp's abandonment feels even stranger. Buildings stand open below, but no smoke rises from the cookhouse and no workers cross the yard.

The Tower Spyglass

The lookout's spyglass is still usable. A character who spends several minutes scanning the camp and surrounding terrain can examine distant features in considerably greater detail.

No check is required to identify the major locations within Reiver's Right. Checks are only needed to notice unusual details, obscured trails, or signs whose significance is not immediately obvious.

Area Viewed What Can Be Seen Check / Additional Detail
Central Yard The central yard is empty. Wagons, work areas, and scattered equipment remain where they were left. No organized activity is visible anywhere in the camp. No check required. A character who has already explored the yard can easily orient other locations from this vantage point.
Sawpit & Sawyard The raised framework of the sawyard and its unfinished timber are clearly visible. Several work lanes end abruptly, as though crews simply stopped where they were. Perception DC 15: Some of the abandoned work appears newer than the surrounding cutting activity, supporting the impression that operations stopped suddenly rather than gradually.
Log Stacks Rows of stacked timber form long lanes through the eastern portion of the camp. From above, several dark stains can be seen running across otherwise pale cut surfaces. Perception DC 15: The staining is concentrated rather than random and appears on several stacks produced at different times.
Log Chute & Hoist The hoist structure descends toward the river bluff, with hauling equipment still standing in place. Nothing is currently moving along the chute. Perception DC 14: Tracks and disturbed earth around the hoist are noticeably heavier than would be expected from ordinary timber handling alone.
Profit's Flow The river is visible beyond the bluff. No barge is tied at the lower landing, and no scheduled traffic is approaching the camp. No check required. This supports the gatehouse records showing that normal traffic ended abruptly.
North Track The trail leaving the camp can be followed for some distance between the trees before the canopy closes over it. Perception DC 15: A few broken branches and pale patches of disturbed ground suggest that someone traveled this way after the camp had already gone quiet.
Forest Northeast of the Camp At first the forest appears uninterrupted, but several small openings in the canopy form an irregular line extending away from Reiver's Right. Perception DC 16: The openings are not natural clearings. They form a loose sequence of cut brush, flattened undergrowth, and disturbed ground leading toward the area of Encounter 18.
Encounter 18 Approach The destination itself is mostly concealed by trees and terrain. Critical Success on the Perception check above: The character can trace enough of the disturbed vegetation to identify a practical route from the camp toward the hidden site. From above, the trail resembles a series of deliberately cleared working spaces rather than an animal path or ordinary forest trail.
Finding the Route Toward Encounter 18

The route is deliberately difficult to recognize from ground level. It is not a formal road. Instead, workers repeatedly cleared just enough brush to move equipment through the forest, creating a chain of short openings separated by stretches where the trail nearly disappears.

From the Watchtower, however, the pattern becomes visible. A successful Perception DC 16 check reveals the sequence of clearings.

A character who identifies the pattern gains a +2 circumstance bonus to the first Survival check made to follow that route from Reiver's Right.

The Watchtower does not reveal what waits at Encounter 18. It only gives the party a direction and evidence that people or equipment were deliberately moved through the forest along that line.

Read the Watch Log

The early entries are routine: barges, work crews, animals at the tree line, weather, and occasional notes about travelers on the North Track.

During the final week, the entries become shorter and less regular. Several watches are recorded only by time and initials, and one entire evening watch is missing.

Perception or Society DC 15: The lookout repeatedly notes faint crimson lights below the bluff after midnight, always on nights when no scheduled river traffic was expected.

The lights are described inconsistently as lanterns, reflections, or "red sparks below the cut." The lookout apparently never determined their source.

Critical Success: The last complete entry also notes that the camp cookfire had gone dark while movement continued near the hoist. This confirms that some activity continued after the camp's normal operations had already ceased.

Third watch. No river traffic scheduled. Red light below the bluff again. Two carts moved toward the hoist after the cookhouse went dark. Asked the foreman whether anyone was meant to be working that late. Told to mind the tree line.

Joran's Trail Sign

Beneath the outer tower rail, where it cannot be seen from the yard below, someone has scratched a small practiced trail mark into the wood.

If Garrick Vance previously showed the party the Blackjacket field signs, they recognize it automatically. Otherwise, a Survival DC 15 check identifies it as a scout's directional mark.

The mark indicates three things: arrived alive, danger present, proceeding alone. Its directional stroke points toward the North Track.

Tucked into a crack beneath the rail is a narrow strip of weathered paper, folded twice and protected beneath a smear of pine pitch.

Garrick—

Camp was already quiet when I reached it. No sentries at the gate. No smoke except old coals, and nobody answered when I called.

I found signs that people left in a hurry, but not all in the same direction. Someone has been moving through the trees north and east of the camp. Not a road. Cut brush, broken limbs, dragged weight. Easy to miss from below.

I can see the line better from the tower. It runs through several small clearings before the trees hide it again. I'm going to follow it far enough to learn where it leads.

If I don't come back, start with the North Track and watch the ground where the brush gets thin.

— Joran

What Joran's Note Establishes

Joran reached Reiver's Right after the camp had already gone silent. He was not present for the evacuation and therefore cannot explain what happened to the workforce.

His scouting did reveal something the workers' records do not: someone had been moving people, carts, or equipment through the forest beyond the ordinary camp routes.

Joran followed that evidence toward the North Track and the sequence of concealed clearings. His trail sign and note give the party a concrete route to continue searching for him.

Do not reveal Joran's fate here.

What This Location Should Establish

The Watchtower turns Reiver's Right from a collection of isolated locations into a connected landscape. From here, the party can understand the relationship between the yard, sawmill operations, hoist, river bluff, North Track, and surrounding forest.

The watch log confirms that unexplained activity continued around the bluff after normal operations stopped. The spyglass reveals a concealed chain of disturbed clearings leading toward Encounter 18, while Joran's note independently confirms that someone had been moving through that same part of the forest.

Together, these clues should give the party a new direction without explaining what lies at the end of it.