Adventure Summary: A one-session horror expedition for four to five 6th-level characters. The party must escort seven pilgrims along a salt-white cliff road, expose the false saint walking backward through the surf, and reach Whitecliff Chapel before every traveler forgets the name they came to mourn.
Drowned Bell Saga: Part 2 of 4. This adventure stands alone. Previously: The Bell Beneath Blackwater. The saga continues with Beneath the Tidelocked Abbey.
Overview
Seven mourners leave Blackwater carrying sealed jars of ashes to Whitecliff Chapel. Spectral footprints appear ahead of them, each bearing a pilgrim’s name. At sunset, the towering shape of Saint Orra begins walking backward through the surf and every roadside shrine turns inland.
Track Forgetting from zero to four. Add one after a failed route challenge, an abandoned pilgrim, or ten minutes spent arguing without moving. At each mark, one pilgrim forgets a useful fact. At four, Sister Elian forgets the closing prayer, but the engraved shrines still provide every needed line.
Background
The real Saint Orra led flood refugees along this road and taught them to name their dead before releasing the ashes. A Procession Echo now wears her shape and consumes names offered in grief. The apparition can be fought, unmasked with evidence from three shrines, or dismissed by completing the pilgrimage in reverse.
Standalone hook: Sister Elian offers 800 gp to protect the mourners after two coastal guides vanish. She supplies the route map, the ashes, and the complete purpose of the rite.
Characters
- Sister Elian: The pilgrimage leader, honest about the road’s danger and ashamed that she cannot remember the final verse.
- Drowned Saint Orra: A protective memory trapped inside the false apparition. She signals the truth by pointing inland whenever the Echo demands the sea.
- The Procession Echo: A name-eating spirit that imitates holy gestures but cannot face a shrine turned toward open water.
Setting
The Salt Road crosses the Shrine of First Foam, Salt Widow’s Inn, Marsh Causeway, Backward Mile, Saint Orra’s Arch, and Whitecliff Chapel. Each leg takes thirty minutes, and safe shelter exists only inside the inn.
A character who speaks a deceased person’s name at a shrine gains advantage on the next Wisdom save made on the road. Repeating the same name gives no additional benefit, preserving the ritual’s focus on distinct remembrance.
Plot Outline
The party organizes the pilgrims, reads the First Foam shrine, defends the causeway, investigates contradictory relics at the inn, crosses the Backward Mile, and completes or reverses the rite at Whitecliff Chapel.
1. Seven Jars
Let the party assign walking order and one protector to the ash cart. A DC 14 Insight or Religion check notices that the spectral footprints lead away from Whitecliff. Failure still reveals the wrong direction when a footprint forms beneath a stationary pilgrim, but Forgetting increases.
2. Marsh Causeway
Three Procession Echoes rise from reflected moonlight. The party can fight them or earn three DC 14 Athletics, Survival, or Performance successes to keep the pilgrims chanting while crossing. Each failure separates one pilgrim by 20 feet; reaching that pilgrim before the next round prevents a Forgetting mark.
3. The Salt Widow’s Ledger
The empty inn contains a ledger naming every successful pilgrimage. A DC 15 Investigation check reveals that all entries end with the phrase ‘face the water, then release.’ The false saint faces inland. Failure awakens one Echo, but its backward prayer supplies the same clue.
4. The Backward Mile
The Drowned Saint towers over the surf. Each hero may turn a shrine with an action and DC 15 Athletics, Religion, or thieves’ tools check. Three turned shrines expose the smaller Procession Echo inside the image. The Echo can then be defeated normally or dismissed with three DC 15 group successes using Religion, Persuasion, or a named memory.
5. Whitecliff Chapel
The seven jars are opened at dawn and the apparition separates into clean rain and Saint Orra’s peaceful memory. Every surviving pilgrim remembers their purpose. Elian pays the party, records the dead, and ends the journey. A map hidden behind Orra’s icon points toward an inverted abbey below the coast, a voluntary saga lead rather than unfinished business.
NPCs and Monsters
| NPC or Monster | Statistics | Key Abilities and Table Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sister Elian | Medium humanoid; AC 13, HP 33. | Religion +6, Medicine +6. Once per encounter, her prayer gives one ally advantage on a Wisdom saving throw. |
| Drowned Saint Orra | Large celestial spirit; AC 15, HP 85. | Wave staff +7, 2d8 + 4 radiant. She cannot be reduced below 1 HP while the Procession Echo remains hidden and yields to the true prayer. |
| Procession Echo | Medium undead; AC 14, HP 45. | Name theft +6, 3d6 psychic. It cannot enter the light of a shrine facing the sea and flees when the true prayer is completed. |
Rewards
- 800 gp collected by the pilgrims’ seven households.
- Saltroad Rosary: This uncommon rosary lets its bearer add 1d4 to one failed Wisdom saving throw per long rest. When a bead is placed at a roadside shrine, the bearer always knows the direction to the nearest safe shelter for eight hours.
Scaling the Adventure
For 5th level, use two Echoes on the causeway and reduce Orra to 70 hit points. For 7th level, add one Echo and let Walking Reflection recharge Name Theft. For a shorter session, begin at the Salt Widow’s Inn with the party already holding the First Foam clue. For players sensitive to memory loss, describe Forgetting as crossed-out writing on the jars rather than personal amnesia.
Haunted Pilgrimage-Themed Table Gear
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- Miniature roadside shrines. Let players physically turn the shrines during the Backward Mile ritual.
- White stone craft beads. Track the seven mourners and build a tactile Saltroad Rosary handout.
- Coastal cliff battle mat. Supports the causeway defense, sea-facing shrines, and chapel approach.