The Bell Beneath the Flood
The Bell Beneath the Flood
Read aloud
The Chain Gate's warning bell rings once, then falls silent, though no one has touched the rope. Water begins seeping through the stone beneath your feet, and a Gateholder in a rain-dark cloak presses a brass key into your hand. "Find the lower wheel before the river finds its own way through town."
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Find the cause of the Chain Gate's failure.
- 2Prevent an uncontrolled flood.
- 3Choose what to do about the hidden chamber beneath the gate.
- 4Secure evidence of the Gateholders' past decisions.Optional
The clock
Track three pressure increases during the lower-gate sequence. Advance the clock after a significant delay, noisy disruption, or failed attempt to control the mechanism. At three increases, the lower district begins flooding and the party must act immediately or accept serious losses.
Scenes
- 0:00The Warning Bell
- 0:25The Wheel That Will Not Turn
- 1:10Footsteps Underwater
- 2:00The Voice in the Brass
- 2:35The Last Turn
Cast
- Mara VennQuestgiver and senior Gateholder
- Tovin ReedWitness and lock-keeper's apprentice
- Sella QuillAntagonist and former Gateholder engineer
- Nim of the SluiceWildcard and voice speaking through the gate's…
The hook
Set the scene
At dusk, the party reaches the Chain Gate as the river runs high and brown. Gateholders haul sandbags across the crown of the barrier while a bell rope hangs still and wet. Mara Venn meets the party at the sealed service stair, explains that the lower wheel has stopped answering the upper controls, and offers access in exchange for a fast, discreet investigation. Tovin is nearby, watching the water as if he expects it to speak.
How Mara Venn asks
Mara Venn approaches the party directly at the Chain Gate after hearing they can handle dangerous work.
She offers a Gateholder escort and access to restricted service passages, but asks them not to alarm the town before she knows the scale of the failure.
Rumours
Scenes
about 3.5 hours0:00
25 min
socialThe table is here
1. The Warning Bell
The Chain Gate's crown, amid sandbags, rushing water, and anxious workers.
Mara briefs the party, Tovin reports the missing watch crew, and the characters choose whether to accept a discreet investigation or demand public evacuation first.
NextMara unlocks the service stair and leads the party to the upper wheel. If the party calls for evacuation, workers begin moving residents while the investigation proceeds.
0:25
45 min
social
2. The Wheel That Will Not Turn
An exposed iron platform above the river channel.
The party reaches the upper wheel and finds Sella arguing with Gateholder Wardens. They can negotiate, inspect the controls, or take the wheel by force.
The Upper Wheel DisputeNextThe party learns that pressure is escaping into the lower works. A service ladder descends to the gallery, while a signal pipe carries a faint voice from below.
1:10
50 min
exploration
3. Footsteps Underwater
A submerged maintenance passage beneath the gate.
The characters cross the drowned gallery, contend with its unstable route, and investigate the missing watch crew's tools and markings.
The Drowned GalleryNextThe evidence points to the lower control chamber. The party can take the direct ladder or follow the signal pipes through a narrower route.
2:00
35 min
social
4. The Voice in the Brass
A cramped junction where old brass pipes meet a stone door bearing a faded Gateholder seal.
Nim speaks through the pipes and gives a partial account of Old Nacre. The party must decide what to disclose to Mara and whether to open the sealed passage while stabilizing the gate.
NextNim offers a way to release pressure safely, but the route requires opening the lower control chamber. The party proceeds to the final mechanism.
2:35
45 min
skill
5. The Last Turn
The lower control chamber, where a counterweight wheel, bypass valves, and a sealed stone door share one flooded room.
The party operates the lower mechanism under time pressure, chooses whether to open the old passage, and determines who receives the recovered ledger or evidence.
NextOnce the controls are set, the river steadies or breaks through. Return to Mara, Tovin, and the waiting townspeople to deliver the outcome and face its consequences.
Behind it
What people believe
The Chain Gate is failing during a dangerous rise in the river.
The Gateholders need help reaching the lower controls, identifying the cause, and preventing a flood in the riverside district. A missing watch crew and strange sounds in the signal pipes suggest that the failure may not be purely mechanical.
Background
The Gateholders maintain the Chain Gate, an ancient flood-control and trade barrier that divides the river valley.
Their public duty is to keep passage safe and collect tolls, but the gate's older machinery also regulates pressure in buried channels beneath the valley. The Gateholders have guarded its controls for generations, though few understand every part of the mechanism.
The stakes
If the party does nothing or makes the wrong intervention, the Chain Gate may fail and flood the lower district.
If they uncover the sealed chamber, the Gateholders may lose control of their history, while whatever survives below may gain a path to the surface.
Encounters
2The Upper Wheel Dispute
Social or combat
A narrow iron platform above a fast-moving channel, with waist-high railings, slick stairs, a handwheel, and chains that can be released or secured.
Foes
Sella Quill
Two Chain-Gate Wardens
ComplicationThe water level rises at the end of each major exchange or failed attempt. At the table, treat this as a visible countdown: after three increases, the lower route is submerged and must be reached by another means.
ScalingFor a smaller or less capable party, use Sella alone and make the Wardens hold position unless attacked. For a larger or more capable party, add one Warden and let Sella use the wheel to create difficult terrain.
The Drowned Gallery
Combat or skill
A partly submerged maintenance gallery with waist-deep water, corroded ladders, loose stones, and a narrow ledge leading to the lower control chamber.
Foes
Two Sluice Crawlers
ComplicationEvery loud impact or uncontrolled use of force loosens more masonry. After repeated disruptions, the safe path collapses and the group must climb through the signal-pipe crawlspace or spend time clearing rubble.
ScalingFor a less experienced party, use one Sluice Crawler and let it retreat when injured. For a stronger party, add a third crawler or make the water surge periodically. Sluice Crawlers are custom hazards or creatures, not rules-specific monsters.
Cast
4Mara Venn
QuestgiverQuestgiver and senior Gateholder
WantsKeep the Chain Gate operating and protect the people downstream, even if it means withholding dangerous information.
“The gate is not a door. It is the only thing keeping the river from choosing a new road through our homes.”
Tovin Reed
Witness and lock-keeper's apprentice
WantsFind her missing brother and convince the Gateholders to evacuate the riverside district.
“I heard the stone singing under the water. Then the night watch vanished. That is all I know, and I wish it were less.”
Sella Quill
Antagonist and former Gateholder engineer
WantsExpose the Gateholders' hidden maintenance failures and force them to open the old spillway, whatever the cost.
“You call it a breach. I call it a warning that the Gateholders have ignored for a hundred years.”
Nim of the Sluice
Wildcard and voice speaking through the gate's old signal pipes
WantsPrevent a flood while preserving evidence that the Gateholders knowingly sealed a settlement beneath the works.
“I can help you reach the lower wheel. I cannot promise what will be waiting there, or that the gate should be closed again.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
A Gateholder service key that opens ordinary maintenance doors, but not sealed chambers.
A riverproof lantern with a shutter that can signal through fog.
Optional: Sella's annotated maintenance ledger, if recovered.
On a win
The party prevents an uncontrolled flood and leaves the Chain Gate in a stable state, though the method shapes the aftermath.
They may preserve Gateholder secrecy, reveal the truth about the sealed chamber, or negotiate a limited investigation. The lower district survives the crisis, but the people beneath the gate remain an unresolved question.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party cannot stabilize the gate before the water reaches the marked threshold.
- The lower district floods. Residents lose homes and supplies, and the Gateholders' authority weakens. Survivors may blame the party if they were warned too late.
- The party forces the control wheel without understanding or countering the pressure sequence.
- The Chain Gate jams in a partially open position. Trade stops, the river remains dangerous, and the party must seek another way to relieve the pressure.
- The party loses the confrontation or allows Sella to leave with the records.
- Sella escapes with the maintenance records, leaving the Gateholders able to deny the old failure and making future cooperation harder.
- The party closes the route before finding the source of the voice in the signal pipes.
- The gate is stabilized, but Tovin's brother remains missing in the buried channels. Tovin becomes a persistent ally or a determined seeker of answers.
Complications (d6)
- 1A support chain snaps across the upper walkway. Anyone crossing must find another route or secure the swinging chain before it sweeps someone into the river.
- 2The rising water reaches the public bell rope. If the party does not silence or redirect it, the evacuation bell rings early and crowds block the nearest stair.
- 3A Gateholder patrol arrives with orders to detain anyone entering the control galleries without an escort.
- 4A burst pipe floods the chamber knee-deep, extinguishing open flames and concealing a newly opened floor grate.
- 5Tovin recognizes a voice in the signal pipes as his missing brother's. Following it reveals a useful route but costs time.
- 6Sella releases a pressure latch to demonstrate the danger of the sealed spillway. The party has moments to brace the wheel or divert the jet before it sweeps tools and people away.
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