Trouble Up Profit's Flow
Unease has settled over Old Macridi. In recent days, a small batch of blighted darkwood logs has drifted into the processing bays—their grain unnaturally stained with an oily, foul-smelling sap that gums up the heavy saws. Worse still, distant logging outposts upriver in the Palakar Forest have gone completely silent, and scattered reports suggest isolated pockets of the wilderness are suffering from a strange rot. Official couriers were dispatched to consult the three fey courts, but all three have failed to respond, leaving the town without answers.
While the Guildmasters upriver in New Macridi have assigned official Blackjacket squads to patrol their own primary commercial channels, the bureaucratic elites completely dismiss any connection to Reiver's Right downriver. Because Reiver's Right lies furthest downriver—past both New Macridi and Old Macridi—the elites insist that a downriver camp going dark cannot possibly be causing or signaling a timber issue coming from the upriver forest. Danum Karland, owner of the local mill in Old Macridi, sees it differently. He knows the forest and its underground root system are an interconnected web—if something is rotting down at Reiver's Right, the subterranean corruption is spreading regardless of which way the river flows. Refusing to wait for New Macridi to wake up, Karland is personally hiring an independent group of adventurers to investigate.
Karland directs the party's attention downriver along Profit's Flow to Reiver's Right, a historic logging encampment perched on the river bluffs. Named after an ancient Macridi Blade warlord, the site has a dark history tied to brutal timber extraction and an infamous past incident where a previous workforce vanished overnight due to strange geological shifts. Because Reiver's Right sits downriver of all the main settlements, no one in New Macridi believes its silence is relevant to the upriver supply chain. But Karland insists it is all connected: Reiver's Right has gone dark, and he wants the party to start their investigation right there.
Before setting out, Karland advises the party to take time to explore Old Macridi. Adventurers would be wise to visit local proprietors—stocking up on anti-toxins at the Iron-Root Apothecary, gathering wilderness advice at Fanciful Inquiries, or consulting trade records at the Veridical Scriptorium. Once equipped, the party's objective is clear: make the journey downriver along Profit's Flow, investigate the silent camp at Reiver's Right, and report their findings directly back to Karland.