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River spirit is visible supernatural agent coiling around mooring piles at wooden ferry slip. Spirit is made of river water, foam, current-sheen, and translucent aquatic mass rather than generic ghost. Its body wraps tightly around outer line of piles, then surges sideways downstream with current, making pull direction unmistakable. Water streaming from its form merges with surrounding flow so spirit reads as living force of river itself. Upper mass suggests clearly hostile expression: brow lowered, face-like crest opened in snarl, intent fixed on ferryman and collapsing slip rather than neutral or blank. Ferry slip is planked wooden platform projecting from bank, attached to shore by hinge line at bankward edge. Outer side is carried by mooring piles driven into river bottom. Spirit’s lateral pull tears this line of piles from alignment, so one support row is visibly displaced while shore-side hinges still hold. Structural asymmetry must be clear: bank edge stays attached, riverward side loses support, and whole slip rolls toward water around surviving hinges. Platform deformation follows failure. As unsupported side drops, deck tilts sharply toward river, and first major crossbeam splits under torsion. Broken boards open around that fracture line, with planks separated enough to show dark water below. Some boards cant downward with failing side while others remain caught at nails or framing. Pulled piles, broken crossbeam, twisted planking, and hinged bank edge should describe one chain: spirit pulls piles, piles fail, slip rolls, deck splits. Cloaked ferryman is lone human figure on outer edge, caught in immediate response to collapse. He drops to one knee as deck rolls beneath him. One leg remains braced on intact boards, while other leg slides through broken planks above river, proving exact location of floor failure. Hands may brace on deck or reach for balance, but figure must stay in desperate recovery rather than leap. Cloak swings with motion and slope, helping show direction of roll. River environment frames incident as working landing rather than open sea. Bank may show muddy shore, wet grasses, worn steps, rope fittings, and simple landing hardware. Current moves strongly past slip in same direction as spirit’s surge. Water surface shows shear, eddies, spray, and foam around displaced piles and dropped platform edge. Lighting must remain clearly exposed: build readable riverside scene with broad daylight or bright overcast revealing timber texture, cloak folds, broken boards, hinge line, river surface, and spirit anatomy. Any inner glow within spirit remains secondary. Image should read as fantasy disaster grounded in visible mechanics. Materials must separate clearly: flowing water spirit, wet timber, split boards, rope, iron fittings, muddy bank, and heavy cloth cloak. Composition should place ferryman and failing edge in foreground or near-midground, spirit wrapped around piles to one side, intact bank attachment visible opposite, and river occupying open side beneath dropped platform. Preserve one charged instant where river spirit’s sideways surge tears support piles free and ferryman drops to one knee above splitting boards and rushing water. --mod asymmetric composition --mod fantasy structural-failure scene --mod exposed daylight riverside lighting --mod coiling water spirit --mod tilted collapsing ferry slip --mod visible broken planks over river --mod grounded mechanical causality
Read aloud to the players:
The ferry slip jerks beneath your boots. One piling bends, another vanishes with a
crack, and the middle of the platform bursts upward in wet splinters. A ferryman
crawls toward shore as water climbs the remaining posts behind him.
The river spirit has a face now. It coils around outer pilings, hauls sideways, and
a section of dock goes into the river with the ferryman still on it.
Below the broken planks, something bright turns in the green water and disappears.
Roll initiative.
ADVENTURE BACKGROUND
For centuries Dunwater paid the river. On the first spring flood, ferrymen lowered a
silver basin from the old steps, filled it with cider, bread, and coin, and emptied it into
the deepest channel. Ferries crossed, mills turned, cattle drank, and the river stayed
where rivers belonged.
Eleven years ago a new reeve stopped payment. Nothing happened. The rite
became a joke.
The river started taking payment itself.
Ferries are gone. Docks have been torn apart. People have vanished from the bank,
including one standing twenty feet from the water. Barges now unload miles
upstream, merchants are howling, and Dunwater's guilds have pooled 8,000 gp for
any party that can make the crossing safe again.
There is more below. Accounts record two hundred years of offerings: coin, plate,
rings, jewels, and at least one sword surrendered by a knight seeking passage.
None was recovered.
MODULE OVERVIEW
The characters may hunt the spirit, search Dunwater for the forgotten rite, bargain
with it, or descend into the drowned masonry beneath the ferry. The spirit will accept
the eleven missed offerings, restoration of annual payment, and replacement of the
silver basin the reeve sold for scrap.
Players who hear "two centuries of treasure on the bottom" may develop other plans.
Let them.
AREA 6: THE BROKEN FERRY
Dunwater straddles the King's Road where the river is too deep to ford. The main
channel drops fifty feet. Broken pilings, chains, drowned carts, and masonry choke
the shallows.
The spirit may strike anywhere along the bank, but favors docks, boats, and anyone
standing near the water.
DUNGEON MASTER'S NOTE
The spirit is dangerous on shore and murderous below it. Heavy armor drags
characters into black ooze, slashing weapons lose room to swing, bows are useless,
visibility falls to a few feet, and currents can carry a separated character into Areas 7
or 8 in one round. The spirit moves without penalty and attacks from the water itself.
Characters depending on a single water-breathing spell should remember that dispel
magic exists.
The drowned offering chamber contains 6,430 gp in mixed coin and plate, six gems
worth 500 gp each, a pearl torque worth 2,000 gp, and the +2 blade Marrowfin.
The treasure belongs to the spirit.
It also happens to be lying loose in the mud.
If anyone pockets so much as a coin while bargaining, the river notices.
