Campaign Primer

Macridi prospers from the darkwood of the Palakar Forest. Wealthy Kalistocrats conduct business and pursue the disciplined comforts of New Macridi, while loggers, merchants, craftsmen, river crews, and travelers fill the streets, workshops, and taverns of Old Macridi. Much of that prosperity depends on timber cut from the surrounding forest and carried along Profit's Flow. For generations, that trade has existed beside an older wilderness shaped by three powerful fey courts: the Court of Endless Revelry, the Cedar Court, and the Court of Seasons. Old agreements, inherited boundaries, and practical caution have usually allowed Macridi's logging interests and the powers of the Palakar to coexist without open conflict.

Over the past several weeks, however, an unsettling pattern has begun to emerge. It started with a single strange log arriving at Karland's Sawmill in Old Macridi. The timber appeared healthy from the outside, but once cut, its grain was streaked with thick, oily black sap that fouled saws, damaged blades, and carried a foul, unnatural odor. At first, it seemed like an isolated curiosity. Then another affected log appeared, followed by several more. The number remains tiny compared with the enormous volume of timber passing through Macridi, but the affected logs have appeared often enough that Karland no longer considers them an isolated problem.

No one yet knows whether the problem will continue to spread. Darno Karland, owner of Karland's Sawmill, increasingly suspects that it may. Other uncertain reports have begun filtering back from the logging country as well: unhealthy patches of forest, strange damage to living trees, workers uneasy about particular stretches of woodland, and occasional signs that something in the Palakar is no longer behaving as expected. Most of these stories remain difficult to verify, and none alone would justify panic. Messages have been sent toward the fey courts seeking information, but no clear explanation has returned. The Blackjackets and officials in New Macridi are therefore reluctant to commit substantial resources to what may still prove to be several unrelated frontier problems.

Reiver's Right has a troubling history of its own. During the forest blight of 4719 AR, the logging settlement was caught within the affected region. The outbreak was eventually defeated, but Reiver's Right remained closed and under quarantine for several years while the surrounding forest recovered. By the time the site was cleared for occupation again, no active trace of the old blight had been identified for years.

Reiver's Right finally reopened in 4723 AR. For roughly three years afterward, it operated as a legitimate and productive logging camp supporting around fifty workers. Timber came out, supplies went in, and workers, merchants, and river crews moved regularly between the camp and Macridi. There was no known recurrence of the old outbreak, and nothing about the camp's normal operations suggested that the danger of 4719 had returned.

Then Reiver's Right went silent four days ago. No timber shipments have arrived, no messages have come out, no workers have returned to Macridi, and efforts to contact the camp have received no response. For a working settlement that had maintained regular contact with Macridi for the past three years, the sudden silence is difficult to dismiss as an ordinary delay.

There is no clear evidence that the silence at Reiver's Right is connected to the strange timber reaching Karland's mill. Some officials regard the old history of the site as coincidence and the current problems as separate frontier troubles. Karland is less comfortable doing so. He does not claim that Reiver's Right caused the corruption, nor does he know what has happened at the camp. What concerns him is the timing: troubling signs are appearing in the Palakar, and during that same period an established logging operation has suddenly stopped communicating.

Karland wants facts before rumor, fear, or complacency settles the matter for Macridi. Rather than wait for the authorities to decide whether the situation warrants intervention, he is willing to hire an independent party to travel down Profit's Flow, enter Reiver's Right, determine the condition of the camp and its workforce, and bring back whatever evidence can explain why the operation has gone silent.