Campaign Primer

The settlement of Macridi is a study in sharp contrasts. Wealthy Kalistocrats unbind their fortunes at the Assembly Institute and relax at the Sanctitude Saunas, while loggers, merchants, and travelers crowd the Gilded Ledger Tavern and the workshops of Old Macridi. Governed by the strict economic doctrines of the Prophecies of Kalistrade, the settlement has long treated the darkwood canopy of the Palakar Forest as an immense ledger of resources waiting to be measured, harvested, and converted into prosperity.

For generations, that prosperity has depended on an uneasy balance with the ancient wilderness surrounding Macridi. Timber crews work beneath the influence of three powerful fey courts—the Court of Endless Revelry, the Cedar Court, and the Court of Seasons—and old agreements have kept outright conflict at bay.

Recently, however, that balance has begun to fail. Blighted darkwood logs have appeared in the processing bays, their grain stained with black, oily, foul-smelling sap that gums up saws and ruins blades. Isolated stretches of the Palakar Forest have begun to show signs of a strange rot. More disturbing still, workers at Karland's Sawmill have recovered several drowned bodies—both locals and fey—tied beneath lumber arriving from the upstream logging districts.

No one yet knows whether the corrupted timber and the murders share the same cause.

At the same time, Reiver's Right has gone silent. The historic logging site lies downriver of both New Macridi and Old Macridi, perched along Profit's Flow on the edge of the forest. Although the location itself is ancient, the present logging operation was reopened roughly ten years ago by an unknown wealthy Kalistocrat from Kerse. The financier has remained conspicuously absent from the camp's day-to-day affairs, operating through agents, contracts, and local managers.

For nearly a decade, Reiver's Right operated without any significant trouble. Timber moved, workers came and went, and the camp attracted little attention beyond ordinary commercial records. That changed only three weeks ago, when the first unusual reports began to emerge. Communication became increasingly sporadic soon afterward. Now the camp has stopped responding altogether.

Because Reiver's Right sits downstream of the major settlements, the Guildmasters and bureaucratic elites of New Macridi dismiss its disappearance as unrelated to problems affecting timber arriving from upriver. Official Blackjacket forces remain focused on protecting established commercial channels rather than investigating an apparently isolated camp whose troubles began only recently.

Danum Karland disagrees with that conclusion. As the owner of Karland's Sawmill in Old Macridi, he understands the Palakar Forest as more than a collection of trees divided by roads and rivers. Its root systems, waterways, fungal networks, wildlife, groundwater, and old magic form an interconnected whole.

Karland does not know whether Reiver's Right is the source of either problem. He believes only that a silent logging camp, blighted living timber, murdered locals and fey, and spreading rot appearing at the same time are too significant to dismiss simply because one site lies downstream. Profit's Flow runs in one direction; the forest does not.

Couriers have already been sent to all three fey courts seeking answers, but none have returned with a response. With the Blackjackets committed elsewhere and New Macridi unwilling to act, Karland has decided to hire independent investigators.

Before departing, adventurers have reason to explore Old Macridi and prepare for the journey. The Iron-Root Apothecary can provide remedies suited to wilderness hazards, Fanciful Inquiries may offer practical knowledge of the Palakar Forest, and the Veridical Scriptorium holds records concerning local trade, logging claims, and older events along Profit's Flow. Elsewhere in town, artisans, river workers, hunters, and laborers may already have noticed pieces of the same mystery from different directions.