The Tollhouse at Blackwater Reach
The Tollhouse at Blackwater Reach
Read aloud
The road to the Tollhouse is choked with stranded wagons, and the river below it carries a chain that rings like a bell in the current. A soaked courier grips your sleeve and says, 'Someone is collecting a toll from the dead, and my brother just crossed.'
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Investigate the Tollhouse and establish what has happened to the crossing.
- 2Uncover the history and terms of the Tollhouse bargain.
- 3Resolve the haunting and decide what the Tollhouse will demand from travelers.
- 4Discover the fate of Tavi's brother.Optional
The clock
The river rises through the night. By dawn, the lower road and ferry landing will be submerged, stranding the caravan and making access to the Tollhouse cellar much more dangerous.
Scenes
- 0:00A Road That Ends at Water
- 0:25The Clerk's Last Ledger
- 1:00Names Beneath the Waterline
- 1:40The Chain at Midnight
- 2:35A Toll Worth Remembering
Cast
- Mara VennQuestgiver and caravan factor
- Oren BellAlly and retired toll clerk
- The Ferryman in BrassAntagonist and supernatural keeper
- Tavi RuskWitness and stranded courier
The hook
Set the scene
At dusk, the party reaches the Tollhouse as rain swells the river. Several wagons wait on the road, but their drivers refuse to approach the ferry landing. Tavi asks for help finding her brother, while Mara Venn offers payment for reopening the crossing. From the dark tower, the toll bell gives one low note.
How Mara Venn asks
Mara approaches the party among the stranded wagons, offers an advance, and explains that the next flood will cut off the road.
Tavi interrupts to ask for help finding her brother. Mara agrees to increase the reward if the party can resolve both problems.
Rumours
Scenes
about 3 hours0:00
25 min
SocialThe table is here
1. A Road That Ends at Water
The muddy road outside the Tollhouse, among stalled wagons and anxious travelers.
The party meets Mara and Tavi, hears competing requests, and sees the first signs of the strange crossing. Give the players a clear choice to prioritize the stranded travelers, the missing courier, or the investigation.
NextMara points out the lit upper windows. Oren Bell is inside and can explain the building's layout.
0:25
35 min
Social
2. The Clerk's Last Ledger
The Tollhouse office, with a shuttered service window, dusty desks, and a bell rope cut near the ceiling.
Oren guides the party through the abandoned toll office and describes the old crossing rules. The group can question him, search the office, and notice that the public ledger has pages removed from its binding.
NextA trail of wet footprints descends to the cellar, where the missing pages or evidence of the ferry mechanism may be found.
1:00
40 min
Exploration
3. Names Beneath the Waterline
The flooded cellar and its iron cabinet beneath the Tollhouse.
The party searches the flooded records room, contends with the rising water, and can recover the ledger pages. The records show that the lost passengers were never named in the official account.
The Flooded Records RoomNextThe bell sounds from the river landing. Oren can now help interpret the evidence, or the party can go straight to confront the Ferryman.
1:40
55 min
Combat
4. The Chain at Midnight
The chain ferry landing beneath the Tollhouse, as the rain-fed river rises around the stone platform.
At the landing, the Ferryman demands a name and a payment. The party can challenge its belief, present the recovered names, bargain, rescue Tavi's brother if he is present, or fight.
The Chain at MidnightNextOnce the Ferryman's demand is answered or it is driven away, the party can attempt to restart the ferry winch and return to the stranded caravan.
2:35
25 min
Social
5. A Toll Worth Remembering
The Tollhouse gate at dawn, with the river lower and the stranded travelers gathered to hear the outcome.
The party decides what record to make public and whether the Tollhouse will collect a fee, a remembrance, or nothing. Tavi learns her brother's fate, and Mara must decide whether to reopen the road.
NextThe restored crossing opens new routes for the party, while the surviving records offer leads for future adventures.
Behind it
What people believe
The old Tollhouse at Blackwater Reach has shut its ferry without warning.
A caravan is stranded, a courier has disappeared, and the river carries strange bell sounds at night. The party is hired to investigate the closure, find the missing traveler, and reopen a safe crossing before the valley is cut off by rising water.
Background
The Tollhouse stands where the old Kingroad narrows between a river gorge and a steep, wooded ridge.
For generations, its keepers collected a modest crossing fee and maintained the chain ferry. The road has been officially closed for years, but travelers still use it when floods make the bridges impassable. The adventure treats the Tollhouse and its supernatural features as original, system-agnostic material.
The stakes
If the party fails, the valley loses a vital route, Tavi may lose her brother, and the Ferryman may continue demanding a living payment from anyone desperate enough to cross.
If the party succeeds, they can restore the ferry and replace a lethal superstition with a public act of remembrance.
Encounters
2The Chain at Midnight
Combat or negotiation
The ferry landing is a narrow stone platform above fast, cold water. A heavy chain crosses the river, a winch stands beside the toll post, and broken paving offers unstable footing.
Foes
Ferryman in Brass
Two drowned toll-wardens
ComplicationThe waterline rises during the confrontation. After each major exchange or failed approach, the safest dry ground shrinks and the chain mechanism becomes harder to reach.
ScalingFor a smaller or less capable party, use only one drowned toll-warden and make the Ferryman easier to distract or bargain with. For a larger or more capable party, add a third warden and let the Ferryman pull a character toward the water when it gains an opening.
The Flooded Records Room
Exploration and skill challenge
A low cellar beneath the Tollhouse contains floating shelves, a locked iron cabinet, and a floor hatch partly submerged by river water.
Foes
None required; the threat is the failing mechanism and the river
ComplicationThe damaged toll mechanism can be operated, but it groans loudly and may bring the Ferryman to the landing before the party is ready.
ScalingFor a low-pressure version, the water rises slowly and Oren can identify the relevant ledger entries. For a more difficult version, the room floods rapidly and the party must divide attention between preserving the ledger and escaping.
Cast
4Mara Venn
QuestgiverQuestgiver and caravan factor
WantsShe wants the ferry running before the next flood isolates the valley, and she is concealing how urgently her own business depends on the route.
“I can pay you to open that gate. I cannot pay you to make the road forget what happened here.”
Oren Bell
Ally and retired toll clerk
WantsHe wants the Tollhouse's records protected and the dead acknowledged, but fears that exposing the old bargain will bring violence to the living.
“The ledger is not a list of payments. It is a list of names we promised to remember.”
The Ferryman in Brass
Antagonist and supernatural keeper
WantsShe believes the Tollhouse must collect one life for every life lost in a centuries-old ferry disaster. She wants the party to choose a substitute before the river claims one at random.
“The road is closed. The debt is not. Tell me who will pay, and I will lower the chain.”
Tavi Rusk
Witness and stranded courier
WantsShe wants to find her missing brother, who crossed the gorge road two nights ago, and is willing to risk another crossing to do it.
“I heard the bell before the ferry vanished. Then I heard my mother's voice from the water, calling me by the name she used when I was little.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
A brass toll token that can open the Tollhouse's iron cabinet and may serve as a clue at another old crossing.
A waterproof travel cloak recovered from the records room, useful but not magical unless the GM chooses to make it so.
On a win
The party discovers that the Tollhouse's supposed demand for a living sacrifice was a corruption of its original purpose.
By recording the lost passengers' names and exposing the first tollkeeper's betrayal, they give the Ferryman a way to release the crossing. The chain ferry can operate again, though the river remains dangerous and the community must decide how to commemorate the dead.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party cannot restore the chain mechanism or secure a safe crossing.
- The ferry remains unusable, and the valley's isolated settlements lose access to medicine and trade until another route opens.
- The party abandons Tavi or lets her follow the voice into the river.
- Tavi's brother is counted among the Tollhouse's claimed dead. Tavi survives but may become an ongoing rival, accuser, or ally determined to undo the bargain.
- The party defeats the Ferryman without uncovering or addressing the bargain's terms.
- The Ferryman accepts a coercive payment, but the community learns that the party chose who would bear the cost. Trust in the party and the relevant local faction falls sharply.
Complications (d6)
- 1A sudden rise in the river floods the lower stair. Anyone in the cellar must reach the upper floor before the next scene or lose access to the cellar route.
- 2The Tollhouse bell rings once from inside the sealed tower. Every character who hears it sees a brief vision of someone they failed to protect, making the next negotiation emotionally charged.
- 3A frightened mule breaks its tether and bolts toward the chain ferry, dragging a supply cart after it. The cart blocks the narrow approach until someone calms the animal or moves the wreckage.
- 4Oren discovers that one page has been torn from the ledger. The missing page names a living local as the person who renewed the old bargain.
- 5The Ferryman's lantern appears on the far bank, although the ferry is visibly tied to the near side. Anyone who follows the light finds a path that leads to the river's edge, not across.
- 6Tavi recognizes a voice from beneath the toll bridge as her brother's. She moves toward the water unless the party persuades or restrains her.
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