Diabolic Toll Road
The pathways through the lower planes are winding and full of dangers. This makes it easy to set up a toll station to profit form the flow of souls and other beings that have chosen the safest routes. It’s infernal bureaucracy at its best—or worst.
Infernal Currency. The devils demand payment, but they aren’t interested in simple mortal money. They are generally interested in souls, memories, or especially potent magic. If the adventurers have a soul, sentient magical item, or enchanted item of very rare or artifact rarity, they can pay with it, triggering to an automatic Success for the party.
Lost Memory. Payment with a memory, functionally a part of your soul, is the assumption for those who don’t have souls or other valuables to trade away. This doesn’t mean that a creature can no longer remember what happened during that memory, but rather that the memory becomes less vibrant and less meaningful.
If the party has nothing else, the fiends will take memories as payment for passage. However, if you give a devil an inch, they’ll take a few miles. Each adventurer that pays in this way must make a Wisdom saving throw to moderate the process.
Critical Failure. Each adventurer that failed has lost a sense of themselves. They each suffer a level of strife. In addition, roll 1d6 for each adventurer to randomly choose an ability score. The resulting ability score is reduced by 1d6. An adventurer can’t be reduced to less than 1 in a given score. This reduction can be removed by greater restoration , but only after the adventurer has returned to the Material Plane and spent a long rest in a Haven.
Failure. Each adventurer that failed is able to only give up a single, potent memory. They suffer a level of strife, as well as a short-term stress effect. This stress effect will not begin to pass until the adventurer returns to the Material Plane.
Success. Each adventurer that succeeds manages to trade away a part of themselves that isn’t especially important to their personhood. They pass without issue.
Critical Success. The adventurer manages to convince the toll taker to take a memory that has long hindered them in some way. They can choose between lowering their fatigue or strife by one level or losing a short- or longterm stress effect. If none of these apply, they instead gain an expertise die on saves to avoid fatigue or stress for the next week.
Leave It Be
The adventurers can avoid the toll by simply taking a the long way around, losing 8 (2d6 + 2) days travel time. Additionally, there is a 50% chance that the alternate route involves the Bridge of Sorrow exploration challenge (see Chapter 5: Exploration Challenges in Trials & Treasures).