Before the Tide Turns

Hazard · 4 players at level 7 · 1 in the cast

How they win

Every character reaches the mainland shore before the fourth tide step, or at worst swims the last stretch without anyone going under.

How they lose

Anyone who fails the last leg badly is swept out to sea and comes ashore a mile down the coast at dawn with two levels of exhaustion, having lost whatever they could not hold onto. If the whole party fails, they spend the night on the collapsed shrine, and whatever was hunting them in the abbey knows exactly where they are.

The opening scene

You come out of the abbey gate into a cold wind. The causeway is still there, a grey stripe running away into the fog, but the water on either side is already lapping at its edges and the pilgrim bell on the first marker is ringing in the swell. Behind you, down in the flooded nave, something rings back.

The hazard

What it is: The Saltglass Causeway: a mile of worn stone road that runs from the tidal island of the drowned abbey to the mainland, and is only above water for two hours at low tide.
What sets it off: The party leaves the abbey late. When they step onto the causeway the tide has already turned, and the water starts rising the moment they set out.
What it does: The crossing is four legs, and each leg costs the tide one step. Leg 1, the Breakwater: ankle-deep, slick stone, DC 12 Dexterity (Acrobatics) or fall prone and lose 10 minutes. Leg 2, the Gap: a 15-foot washout that must be jumped, climbed round on the reef (DC 13 Athletics) or swum (DC 13 Athletics; failure means 2d6 bludgeoning against the rocks). Leg 3, the Reef Stair: waist-deep, the current pulls toward open water, each creature makes a DC 14 Strength save or is swept 20 feet off the path and must swim back. Leg 4, the Last Rise: chest-deep, and anyone still on the causeway when the fourth step comes is swimming for the shore, a DC 15 Constitution save each minute or gain a level of exhaustion.
How it can be beaten: Speed and cleverness. Water breathing, levitation, a rope line strung across the Gap, or Tidebound Exodus all shortcut a leg. Sister Ysolde can lead them along the old pilgrims' line, which gives advantage on one leg's check, if the party has earned her trust.

How it plays out

Run it as four short scenes, one per leg, and keep a visible tide track. Let the party plan each leg before anyone rolls. A failure costs time rather than stopping them: a failed leg check means that leg takes two steps of the tide instead of one. Describe the water rising every time the track advances. Sister Ysolde casts Drowning Litany on anything that follows them out of the water.

The ground

Features and cover: Weathered pilgrim markers every hundred yards, a collapsed shrine halfway across that offers a dry platform for one round, and the reef, which is faster but cuts.
Hazards: Rising water, a strong seaward current, sharp coral reef, fog rolling in from the open sea
Light: Dusk turning to dark over the course of the crossing

Also included (from another kind)

Who is in it

Sister Ysolde Vane Ally and guide: the last novice of the drowned abbey, who knows the pilgrims' line across the causeway — fights like Priest

Rules it is built for

Use the travel pace rules only loosely; the tide track replaces them for this crossing.

Making it fit your table

For level 3 to 4 parties, lower every DC by 2 and remove the exhaustion on the last leg. For level 10 and up, add the Gloamtide Anglerhound from The Drowned Abbot's Vigil hunting them through the Reef Stair.

What it is worth

The party reaches the mainland with whatever they carried out of the abbey, and Sister Ysolde's gratitude. If they got her across dry, she gives them the pilgrims' conch, etched with the abbey's coastline, which is exactly the focus Tidebound Exodus needs.

escape · timed · wilderness · tide