The Bell Beneath Ashbridge
The Bell Beneath Ashbridge
Read aloud
The Ashbridge Gate opened three days ago, and now every night its stones answer a voice from beneath the road. A farm cart vanished near the entrance, leaving only its wheels and a trail of frost. Warden Mara Venn offers a reward to anyone who can find the missing travelers and make the gate safe before the next bell tolls.
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Discover why the Ashbridge Gate is sounding at night.
- 2Find the missing travelers and secure the gate mechanism.
- 3Decide who controls the Ashbridge Gate and what happens to the passage.
- 4Uncover the courier's private errand.Optional
The clock
The gate will pulse again at the next midnight bell, roughly one day after the party arrives. Each delay risks drawing a nearby traveler below or triggering another unstable opening.
Scenes
- 0:00A Warden's Quiet Request
- 0:35Tracks at the Threshold
- 1:20The Gatehouse Wakes
- 2:20Who Holds the Key
- 3:20The Last Toll
Cast
- Mara VennQuestgiver and local Gateholders' warden
- Tovin ReedWitness and former gate-maintenance apprentice
- Sella KorrAntagonist
- Irix ValeWildcard
The hook
Set the scene
Read the hook aloud in Bellwether's cramped gate office. Mara has a rough map and a list of missing travelers, but she admits the Gateholders have not authorized a public search. Tovin waits outside, anxious to speak privately. The gate's distant bell sounds once before the party has chosen whom to question.
How Mara Venn asks
Mara summons the party to the Gateholders' office after hearing of their recent work.
She speaks plainly, offers a written bounty, and asks them not to alarm the town until she understands the danger.
Rumours
Scenes
about 4 hours0:00
35 min
socialThe table is here
1. A Warden's Quiet Request
The Gateholders' office in Bellwether, a narrow stone room crowded with road maps, ledgers, and old brass keys.
The party meets Mara, hears the public account, and can question Tovin privately. A successful conversation earns Tovin's trust and a detail about the lower maintenance route.
NextMara gives the party a travel token and directs them to inspect the gate approach before nightfall.
0:35
45 min
exploration
2. Tracks at the Threshold
The muddy road and scrubland around Ashbridge, overlooked by the old gatehouse and crossed by a shallow drainage channel.
The party examines the abandoned cart, tracks the missing travelers, and finds signs that the gate's pulse pulled them toward a drainage entrance. Evidence of deliberate tampering points toward Sella's cell.
NextThe drainage route descends into a maintenance passage that leads to the lower gatehouse.
1:20
60 min
combat
3. The Gatehouse Wakes
A circular stone chamber below the road, where old controls sit around a shaft lined with frost.
The party enters the lower gatehouse, deals with the waking sentries, and finds the missing travelers sheltering behind a maintenance partition. The control rings show that the gate has been opened from inside the mechanism.
The Gatehouse WakesNextThe warning bell sounds, and Sella arrives with her followers to demand control of the gate.
2:20
60 min
social
4. Who Holds the Key
The gate's broad inner threshold, where the control rings have begun to glow and the bell's vibration can be felt through the floor.
Sella argues that Bellwether should control the passage, while Mara insists the Gateholders must prevent further danger. Irix reveals that her sealed parcel is connected to the mechanism. The party can negotiate, fight, or make a temporary agreement.
The Claim at the ThresholdNextOnce the party decides who may touch the controls, they must act before the next bell tolls.
3:20
45 min
skill
5. The Last Toll
The control platform at the heart of Ashbridge, with the brass rings turning slowly around a dark central seam.
The party uses the controls, the repair kit, or an improvised plan to seal or stabilize the passage. They can take the reliquary, leave it sealed, or reveal its existence to the others.
NextThe gate's final response leads into the resolution and determines which faction claims the passage.
Behind it
What people believe
The Gateholders recently reopened the Ashbridge Gate, an old passage beneath the road outside Bellwether.
Since then, a strange bell has sounded from below, a cart and its travelers have disappeared, and the gate's mechanism has become unstable. Warden Mara Venn asks for help locating the missing people and securing the passage before the next surge.
Background
The Gateholders maintain the old stone roads and the sealed passages beneath them, deciding who may cross and when.
Their authority rests on a practical truth: some gates were built to keep dangerous things out, while others keep dangerous things in. At the border town of Bellwether, the Gateholders recently reopened the Ashbridge Gate after years of closure.
The stakes
If the gate surges again, it may draw more travelers into the passage or let something escape.
The party's decision also determines whether the Gateholders keep sole authority over Ashbridge or the town gains a say.
Encounters
2The Gatehouse Wakes
Combat
A cramped circular gatehouse with waist-high control pillars, a central brass plate, and a narrow balcony above a deep shaft.
Foes
Ashbridge Sentries, two to four animated stone wardens
ComplicationThe mechanism's pulses make the stone floor shudder every few minutes. Anyone standing on the marked brass plates risks being knocked off balance or separated from the group.
ScalingFor a smaller or less combat-focused party, use one sentry and let clever use of the controls disable it. For a larger or combat-ready party, add two sentries and have the warning bell summon a patrol after several rounds.
The Claim at the Threshold
Combat or social confrontation
A broad stone threshold split by a waist-deep channel, with three control rings, broken columns, and a narrow ledge leading back to the surface.
Foes
Sella Korr
Two Bellwether Cutters
ComplicationA volatile seal-light sweeps across the chamber. It exposes hidden movement and makes the gate respond unpredictably if characters touch the control rings during a pulse.
ScalingFor a smaller party, Sella negotiates first and only one Cutter fights. For a larger party, add a third Cutter and have Sella use the gate controls to divide the battlefield rather than fighting to the death.
Cast
4Mara Venn
QuestgiverQuestgiver and local Gateholders' warden
WantsKeep Bellwether safe and preserve the Gateholders' credibility, even if that means concealing a mistake.
“The gate is not a roadblock. It is a promise someone made before we were born.”
Tovin Reed
Witness and former gate-maintenance apprentice
WantsWarn the town about what she witnessed at the gate, despite fearing that the Gateholders will dismiss her as unreliable.
“I heard the hinges singing under the earth. They were answering something.”
Sella Korr
Antagonist, leader of a local anti-Gateholder cell
WantsExpose the Gateholders' secret decision to reopen the Ashbridge Gate and claim control of the passage for the people of Bellwether.
“A door is only dangerous when the wrong people decide who gets to open it.”
Irix Vale
Wildcard, a masked courier with a private stake in the gate
WantsGet a sealed object through the gate before the passage is shut again, without revealing who hired her.
“I can help you close it. I did not say I would help you decide what happens next.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
A Gateholders' brass road-token that grants free passage through staffed Gateholder checkpoints, subject to local rules.
A sealed repair kit containing specialized wedges, wire, and chalk for maintaining old road mechanisms.
On a win
The missing travelers are found alive in a maintenance alcove, shaken and cold, and the gate is stabilized or deliberately sealed according to the party's choice.
Mara honors the agreement, though the party's decision determines whether the Gateholders, Bellwether, or no one has authority over the passage. The truth about the reliquary can be brought into the open, hidden, or carried forward as a dangerous secret.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party cannot stabilize the gate before its next surge.
- Bellwether's council closes the Ashbridge road and places the Gateholders under public suspicion. Travel and trade become harder, and the party may need to earn the town's trust before returning.
- The party abandons the control chamber or is driven away before securing the threshold.
- The passage opens briefly and something unseen crosses into the lower roads. The party survives, but must pursue the threat in a follow-up adventure.
- The party publicly exposes the Gateholders' secret without presenting evidence or a workable plan.
- Mara takes responsibility for the party's actions and loses her post. The Gateholders still offer limited support, but the party's local contact is gone.
Complications (d6)
- 1A brass warning bell rings from inside the sealed gatehouse. Each ring makes nearby metal objects vibrate, giving away the party's position to anyone below.
- 2A sudden wash of cold water floods the lower passage. The party must secure loose gear or risk losing one small carried item in the current.
- 3A Gateholders patrol arrives with a stamped order to arrest anyone tampering with the gate, including the party unless Mara can vouch for them.
- 4Sella's people release a frightened pack animal in the narrow approach. It bolts toward the party, scattering tools and threatening to knock someone into the drainage channel.
- 5The gate's runes flare and briefly display a name from one character's past. Tovin recognizes it as a sign that the mechanism has noticed the party.
- 6Irix offers an accurate map of the lower passage in exchange for permission to take one sealed parcel through the gate.
Media
0 imagesNo images yet.
Turn The Bell Beneath Ashbridge into a sheet
A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.
