I quenched the thirst of the well. Now it asks me to pay the fare. I offer a mad kings ransom, and it just takes some of my gold and then nothing more seems to happen or be available. I guess I'll try some of the other options. Has anyone figured this out?

If you are talking about the well inside the tower after the gargoyle maze where some brothers are stuck in it, giving it gold should give you random items in your inventory depending on how much you gave, I believe you can do it once with every characters.

I guess I didn't notice the random stuff, thanks!

You can get the reward for every player char and so far paying the most seemed quite worthy.

You get, in order of your generosity, an uncommon item, a rare item or a rare item and a skillbook. Items scale to your level so might be worth leaving until late in the game.