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[Copper+] Adventure - BroadSword Guide to Wandering Mystics - The Toll (3rd-Level)

Added 2025-01-07 19:56:35 +0000 UTC

Mountain • Horror • Monstrosity • Travel • Short

I love simple horror stories that are nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like the gatehouse featured in this module, this adventure exists as a side trek—an interesting way to illuminate the dangers of the world of the Wandering Mystics.

This Fifth Edition adventure is designed to suit a party of three to five 3rd-level characters, but can be adjusted to suit parties as high as 10th level. Adjustment tables are included in the text to help you scale accordingly based on the characters’ Average Party Level (APL).

Hack-and-slash players looking for a good fight will enjoy this adventure, as the strigoi are deadly brutes who crave the taste of man-flesh.

The adventure is set in The Echo and follows the Wandering Mystic campaign through line presented in this book. However, you can just as easily place the adventure in any wintry mountainous environment of your choice.

Adventure Background

The shard’s mountainous region is an unforgiving expanse, where the road clings precariously to cliffside, and the chill deepens as night falls. The party, traveling alongside the Wandering Mystics, has spent the day navigating this perilous path. As the sun sinks behind the jagged peaks, casting the shard into shadow, the group comes upon an abandoned gatehouse toll carved directly into a massive rock protrusion that blocks the road.

The gatehouse was once a bustling checkpoint where travelers paid their toll to pass safely through the mountain pass. Now, it stands silent and desolate, its doors ajar and the surrounding road devoid of any recent signs of life. To the adventurers, it appears empty, save for the faint echoes of the wind through its stone corridors and the stillness of long-abandoned halls.

The Mystics, seeking refuge from the freezing night and the dangers of the open road, suggest staying in the gatehouse until dawn. While the building shows signs of disrepair, its thick stone walls and elevated position make it an ideal shelter from the cold and any roaming predators. They see no immediate danger and quietly begin preparations to rest, though a faint unease lingers in the air.

Unknown to the characters, the gatehouse harbors far more than the remnants of its past purpose. Whatever secrets it holds, they will only reveal themselves as the group explores its shadowed halls. The toll’s name has not been spoken in years, but the price for passing through is far from forgotten—and it is a toll that the adventurers may be forced to pay.