The Long Road

Ten legs, one satchel. Each leg, choose Main Road (faster, riskier) or Back Trail (slower, safer) and roll a single d20. Setting out costs 10 gold, paid once for the whole journey.

Gold is what you carry between roads — it pays the entry fee and any companions. Coin is what the road itself pays out and takes away: satchel gains, tolls, and every bonus below are all coin, and it only becomes gold when you Deliver.

• ☠ Bandits — they take the whole satchel and erase every coin of distance bonus you've banked so far. The journey ends right there.
• ⚖ Toll — pay a fee along the road, never more than what's in your satchel (you can't go into debt). The lower you roll within the Toll band, the worse the toll. This leg's distance bonus is still banked.
• ☀ Fair Weather — a small gain, plus this leg's distance bonus. Roll a natural 20 on the Main Road, or a natural 19 or 20 on the Back Trail, and the road pays out a real windfall (bigger on the Main Road).

Before rolling, you can hire companions for the leg you're about to take. Each one costs 2 gold (from your gold, not the satchel), lowers travel DCs by 1, and knocks 1 coin off any toll you end up paying that leg. You can hire 1 or 2 on the Main Road, but just 1 on the Back Trail.

Deliver the Satchel after any leg to cash out: your satchel's coin, plus every leg's distance bonus you've banked and kept so far, all of which converts to gold you keep:

Leg 10 forces delivery — no more route choices, just cash out. Reaching it also earns a completion bonus on top of your banked distance bonus, sized to whichever route you took on that final leg: +17 coin if you finished on the Main Road, +8 if you finished on the Back Trail. That final leg is also a harder roll than the rest of the road — Bandits claim one extra number on both routes, on top of the usual odds.

Legs 8 and 9 carry a smaller homestretch bonus (+2/+4 coin on Main, +1/+2 on Back). Unlike the distance bonus, it isn't banked automatically — you only get it if you Deliver the Satchel right after that leg. Keep traveling past leg 8 or 9 instead of cashing out, and that leg's homestretch bonus is gone for good.