The Auren River has been running the wrong direction for eight days. The ferry is grounded, and the mill is stopped. Nobody in town can explain it.
A naiad named Rue has kept the pool above the weir for longer than anyone in Ferryman's Crossing can remember. A collector of precious incidentals took her name.
The collector, Voss Aldren, is not the genre's typical villain. He has decided the work of preserving information from the Erosion, the forgetting of a thing from history, matters more to him than petty concerns like consent. Trying to write him and have him come across as "not quite evil" was one of the tougher tasks I set for myself.
The party has to decide how to handle him, and then live with their choice.
Where the Watermint Grows is live today. It's a free 5e-compatible one-shot for 3-5 players at level 3, built for a table that enjoys the social and exploration pillars of the 2024 rules as much as combat, sometimes more. Download it below.
Where's the line between preserving something and taking it?