Wilderness
Dangerous
Squalid prices
The Three-Toed Bell
the raft bar over the drowned sanctum
A low, lurching raft lashed to mangrove roots drifts in muck-black water above the moss-choked roof of a sunken temple. Lanterns in jars cast jaundiced circles over a dozen mismatched barrels and planks; frogs and the wet chitter of insects stitch the gaps in conversation. The air is rank with fermenting fish, spilled rum, and the copper tang of old blood; patrons lean low and keep knives within easy reach. Below, water slaps at hidden stone carvings, and every so often someone will hush the room to listen for the muted chime that echoes up from the depths. Walk in and your boots stick to a patch of slick planking. The common table is scarred with ritual symbols scraped into the wood; a map, half-rolled and stained, is tacked to a post with a spear tip. Conversations are fractured, eyes dart outward toward the marsh; newcomers are measured silently and tested with a bowl of bitter swamp ale before a seat is offered.
A bell made from a warped bronze toe bone hangs from a rotting beam; its clapper is a length of braided swamp vine. Algae and reed tassels cling to it, and a faint salt-stink seeps from the wood beneath.
Hurn Quickjaw
human
Manner
Quirk
Stats
Bellwater
5 cpA rough mix of fermented reeds, a splash of brackish water, and a pinch of crushed bone; it tastes of copper and peat and leaves a metallic afterbite. Those who drink it feel steadier on wobbling planks for the next hour but gain a vivid, trance-like dream of the temple's interior if they sleep within 24 hours.
Squalid (5e lifestyle: about 1 sp a day)
Tiv · barmaid
A wiry halfling with quick hands who serves bowls of greasy stew and watches pockets; she slips notes into people's drinks when Hurn nods.
Mog the Oiler · stablehand
An amphibious half-orc who tends the raft lines and dives for anything that falls overboard; he hums cleansing chants while he works.
Old Braggan
A scarred reedboat captain who brags about finding a drowned priest's ledger and wants someone to fetch the rest of it from the temple roof.
Sira the Reedwitch
A gaunt woman who trades charms and maps for rum; she murmurs that the temple's idol remembers names it once ate and can be bargained with.
Nemm of the Deep
A water-marked silt-seller who claims a new, ornate bell was pried from under the altar last tide and that the statue it rang for still wakes at moonrise.
1
Old Braggan says the drowned priest Marrek kept a ledger of names that lets you open the inner door beneath the altar; he sold Hurn the first page.
2
Sira the Reedwitch tells of a 'Bone Idol of Karg'—a black reed-carved statue beneath the temple that answers questions if offered a finger's worth of blood.
3
Nemm of the Deep warns a diver named Calaen is assembling a gang to pry up the temple bell at next moonrise; she claims the bell thrums and will call something up when rung.
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