The Ninth Landing
The Ninth Landing
Read aloud
At the Ninth Landing, the bell has rung nine times every night for three nights, though its rope hangs untouched. This morning, a ferry crew vanished from the lower stairs, leaving only their lanterns and a wet set of footprints. Keeper Mara Venn offers a reward to anyone who can find the crew and silence the bell before the next high tide.
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Discover how the bell rings and locate the route beneath the Landing.
- 2Find and rescue the missing ferry crew.
- 3Resolve the danger posed by the Ninth Bell.
- 4Recover the submerged registry plate.Optional
The clock
The next high tide arrives after the party's first descent. Use the d6 complication table when pacing calls for pressure; after three complications, the bell tolls and the lower route begins to flood rapidly.
Scenes
- 0:00A Bell Without a Rope
- 0:45Steps Below the Tide
- 1:45Names in the Water
- 2:30The Toll Beneath the Landing
- 3:45What the Shore Keeps
Cast
- Mara VennQuestgiver and keeper of the Ninth Landing
- Tovin RuskAlly and ferry pilot
- Sister CaldreWitness and archivist
- Edda SornAntagonist and grieving local resident
The hook
Set the scene
Read the hook aloud as the party arrives at the Ninth Landing. Mara waits beside the bell tower with a coil of unused rope, while Tovin points out fresh water stains on the steps. The bell is silent, but the stone beneath the characters' feet gives a faint, rhythmic shiver.
How Mara Venn asks
Mara approaches the party in person at the platform.
She offers a practical reward, shares the known facts, and asks them to keep the settlement calm until the missing crew is found.
Rumours
Scenes
about 4.5 hours0:00
45 min
socialThe table is here
1. A Bell Without a Rope
The windy platform, bell tower, and ferry moorings at the Ninth Landing.
Mara gives the party the job. They can inspect the bell tower, question witnesses, and notice that the stains and footprints point below the visible landing.
NextTovin leads the party to the first submerged steps when they identify the lower passage as the likely route.
0:45
60 min
exploration
2. Steps Below the Tide
A cliffside stairway below the main platform, with a rising tide and a chain fixed into the stone.
The party navigates the steep, flooded stair while searching for the missing crew. The drowned guard may attack, or the party may bypass it through careful movement and quick thinking.
The Flooded StairNextA survivor's account and a trail of old markings lead toward the submerged archive and bell chamber.
1:45
45 min
social
3. Names in the Water
A dry niche in the lower passage, lit by salvaged lanterns and crowded with rescued ferry workers.
The rescued crew and Caldre explain what they saw. Edda's distress becomes apparent, and the party can learn that the registry plate is missing or negotiate with her before entering the chamber.
NextThe party follows Edda's trail, or Caldre's archive markings, to the chamber beneath the ninth landing.
2:30
75 min
social
4. The Toll Beneath the Landing
A circular stone chamber below sea level, where the bronze bell hangs over a flooded shaft.
The party reaches the bell and confronts Edda. They can persuade her to stop, disable the mechanism, fight to reach it, or make a bargain over the registry and the echoes.
The Ninth BellNextThe characters return to the platform with the crew, and Mara asks them to decide what should be done with the recovered records.
3:45
30 min
social
5. What the Shore Keeps
The Ninth Landing at dawn, as ferry workers gather and the bell tower stands silent.
The party reports what happened and chooses who receives the registry, whether the Landing should be told the truth, and what safeguards or repairs are needed.
NextConclude the adventure or follow one of the open-ended hooks.
Behind it
What people believe
For three nights, the bell at the Ninth Landing has rung by itself.
A ferry crew has vanished on the lower stairs, and the keeper needs help finding them before the next high tide. Strange footprints, contradictory witness accounts, and a newly exposed passage suggest that the Landing's old stones conceal more than a route to the sea.
Background
The Ninth Landing is a wind-battered stone platform built into a cliff above a dark, tidal inlet.
Eight older landings descend toward the water, each marked with a different name and date; the ninth was added after a storm exposed a stairway that local maps insist does not exist. Travelers use the platform as a ferry stop, a lookout, and a place to leave messages for people who may never return.
The stakes
If the bell continues to toll, its echoes may begin replacing the memories of people at the Landing, while the rising tide threatens to trap the ferry crew below.
The party must decide whether saving the living requires destroying a device that may preserve the voices of the dead.
Encounters
2The Flooded Stair
Combat or hazardous traversal
Narrow stone steps descend beside the cliff. The lower steps are submerged, the walls are slick, and an iron chain provides a precarious handhold.
Foes
Tide-slick scavengers
A bell-haunted drowned guard
ComplicationRising water cuts off the safest exit. The party can hold the steps, find a higher route, or spend time securing a rope line.
ScalingFor a small or inexperienced party, use only the scavengers and make the guard a non-hostile hazard. For a larger or more capable party, add a second drowned guard or have the water rise during the scene.
The Ninth Bell
Social, with optional combat
A circular chamber beneath the Landing surrounds a suspended bronze bell. Narrow ledges ring a central shaft, and water pours through cracks in the ceiling with each toll.
Foes
Edda Sorn
Echoes of the lost
ComplicationEdda will not yield the bell mechanism willingly. If the party threatens her, the bell's resonance causes the stone chamber to crack and begin flooding.
ScalingFor a gentler finale, Edda can be persuaded to stand aside and the echoes remain disorienting but harmless. For a tougher finale, the echoes physically obstruct the party and Edda uses the chamber's chains and narrow walkways to defend the bell.
Cast
4Mara Venn
QuestgiverQuestgiver and keeper of the Ninth Landing
WantsKeep the Landing open and prevent the townsfolk from panicking, while concealing that she has heard the bell herself.
“The bell rang nine times, but nobody pulled the rope. Find out what answered it before the next tide.”
Tovin Rusk
Ally and ferry pilot
WantsProtect the stranded ferry crew and prove that the lower passages can be navigated safely.
“I can get you down the old steps, but I will not promise the sea will let you come back the same way.”
Sister Caldre
Witness and archivist
WantsRecover a brass registry plate from the flooded archive before the tide destroys it, even if doing so exposes the Landing's history.
“The Landing is not calling anyone. It is remembering them. There is a difference.”
Edda Sorn
Antagonist and grieving local resident
WantsReach the source of the bell and learn whether the voice beneath the Landing can restore someone she lost.
“You have come all this way to stop a bell. I have come all this way to hear what comes after it.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
A stormproof lantern recovered from the crew's supplies
A brass token granting passage on the Landing's ferry when service resumes
Optional: the registry plate, if the party chooses to keep it
On a win
The party rescues the crew and ends the immediate threat of the bell.
The Landing's future depends on how they handle the registry and Edda: they may help the community grieve, preserve the device under strict watch, or destroy the mechanism and accept the loss of its echoes.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party cannot locate the source before the next high tide.
- The bell continues to ring at high tide. The Landing is evacuated, ferry traffic stops, and the party must return later with fewer safe routes and more frightened witnesses.
- The party allows Edda to escape with the plate or cannot persuade her to cooperate.
- Edda takes the registry plate and disappears into the lower passages. She may become a recurring rival, while the archive's history remains uncertain.
- The party leaves the Landing without securing the ferry line.
- The stranded crew is rescued, but the ferry is lost against the rocks. The settlement gains a debt to the party and loses its regular connection to the coast.
Complications (d6)
- 1A sudden wave floods the lowest stair. Anyone in the passage must find a handhold or retreat to higher ground before the next wave arrives.
- 2The Landing bell rings once from an empty tower. For the next few minutes, spoken directions seem to come from the wrong stairway.
- 3A ferry line snaps loose and sweeps across the platform. The crew's boat begins drifting toward the rocks unless someone secures it.
- 4A lantern goes out in the lower passage, revealing wet footprints leading toward the party and no prints leading away.
- 5A frightened witness recognizes one of the characters as someone they remember seeing on the Landing years ago, despite having just met them.
- 6The tide brings a sealed message to the platform. It is addressed to a living character and bears a date from the following day.
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