Workers Escape
Workers Escape
The Flight of Fifty
Two Roads into the Palakar Forest
As the corruption spread through Reiver's Right, fifty surviving workers abandoned the logging camp. They had seen enough of the blight to understand that remaining was dangerous, but they knew little about its origin or how far it had spread.
Rather than flee together, the workers divided into two groups. One headed toward the Cedar Court, while the other sought the Court of Endless Revelry.
Both groups avoided the road toward the Pulgari Estate. Rumors circulating among the workers claimed that the blight was particularly severe at the crossroads on the North Road, near the estate.
Abandoning Reiver's Right
The evacuation was hurried but not entirely disorderly. Workers gathered what food, water, tools, and personal belongings they could carry. They abandoned the heavy logging equipment, unfinished timber, and most of the camp's supplies.
The fifty survivors understood that traveling as one large party through an increasingly hostile forest would be difficult. Dividing gave them two possible destinations and reduced the risk that a single blocked route would trap everyone.
Both parties left Reiver's Right using familiar logging paths and woodland trails rather than attempting to transport the workers and their belongings in wagons along the main road.
The Cedar Court
The first group headed into the forest toward the Cedar Court, hoping to find protection among its ancient trees and resident fey.
They followed woodland trails, relying on workers familiar with the surrounding forest to keep them away from the North Road.
Their destination offered the possibility of shelter beyond the immediate reach of the corruption, although none of the workers could be certain how the court itself had been affected.
Known: The group departed Reiver's Right intending to reach the Cedar Court.
The Court of Endless Revelry
The remaining workers chose the Court of Endless Revelry as their destination.
Their party took a different route through the forest, avoiding the North Road and the approaches to the Pulgari Estate. Like the Cedar Court group, they traveled on foot and carried only what they needed to survive the journey.
The workers hoped that reaching another established fey court would offer them refuge from whatever was consuming the forest around Reiver's Right.
Known: The group departed Reiver's Right intending to reach the Court of Endless Revelry.
Why They Avoided the Pulgari Estate
Before the evacuation, rumors had reached the logging camp that the blight was especially dangerous around the crossroads on the North Road near the Pulgari Estate.
The workers had no reliable way to verify these reports. Nevertheless, the possibility of encountering a more concentrated outbreak was enough to convince both groups to avoid the crossroads entirely.
Neither group attempted to seek refuge at the estate. Instead, they accepted the difficulties of traveling through the forest rather than risk the reported danger on the main road.
Characters investigating the abandoned camp can find signs of a hurried evacuation: missing travel supplies, personal belongings left behind, and evidence that a substantial number of workers departed on foot.
Notes, conversations recorded in workers' journals, or accounts from any surviving witnesses can reveal that the refugees divided into two parties and identify their intended destinations.
The rumors about the North Road provide an additional clue, drawing attention to the crossroads near the Pulgari Estate without establishing whether the reports were accurate.
The evidence at Reiver's Right establishes that fifty workers fled in two groups. It does not, by itself, establish that either group reached its destination or was granted refuge by the fey.
The party may discover more by following the refugees' routes, visiting either court, or encountering survivors elsewhere in the Palakar Forest.