Day 1: Remembrance Day
Posted 8th January 2009 at 05:31 PM by Radiating Gnome
The first day of the Festival of the Goddess is a day devoted to remembering the dead. It's primarily intended to honor those who have died in the past year, but it is not at all unusual for people to make smaller offerings to honor important dead in their family -- parents, spouses, etc.
The temples, shrines, and cemeteries are packed all day long, and the day traditionally ends with a sober, quiet feast with no planned entertainment other than music, if the particular celebrants can afford to hire musicians.
Skill Challenges:
1. Ritual for the High King
If the PCs are keeping any sort of tabs on what Prince Fillin and the Cloak Knights are up to during the festival, they can't help but be aware of the plans for a major ceremony planned in the primary temple in Ikarport, at which Fillin and every cloak knight in Ikaria will make an offering to honor the dead High Kings and other Kendricks of the past. This is an unusual ceremony -- on this scale -- because the High King, Fillin's alleged great grandfather, has been dead for 80 years. But the Ikarian people have always been proud of their continued allegiance to the missing High Kings, and given the current favor that Fillin has in Ikarport, the plans for the ritual are largely approved of, and a massive turnout is expected.
Complexity: 6 successed before 3 failures
DCs: 7 easy /12 medium /17 hard
Primary Skills (any, if DM feels the idea is appropriate)
What can the PCs do? Anything they can come up with, really. This is a very wide open Skill Challenge.
Some possibilities:
(Most of these ideas will require multiple skill checks from the party members involved -- the DM will need to use some discretion as this plays out).
They Do Nothing: The Ceremony is a thing of beauty, and at the same time a demonstration of the strength of the Cloak Knights. If the PCs don't try anything and make no appearance to counter the ceremony, the combined effect earns the PCs a failure in the Meta Challenge.
They Disrupt the Ceremony: Given the deep feelings being expressed by Fillin and the cloak knights -- feelings echoed by the public -- anything that the PC do that disrupts the ceremony that can be traced to them -- even indirectly -- results in a failure in the challenge as the PCs are seen by the public as disrespectful to the High Kings and the Goddess.
If, on the other hand, the PCs disrupt the ceremony but manage to avoid any connection to the disruption, the effect disheartens the public, casting a pall over the festival which results in a -2 penalty on all future social skill checks for the rest of the festival.
The PCs could join the Ceremony. This will require a few skill checks (medium) with Mother Cathair, high priestess of the goddess, to arrange to have the party added to the program for the ceremony. After all, they are not nobility, family members, or (probably) members of the Goddess's clergy, so adding them to the program will be very unusual. 2 successes using social skills will be enough to get the PCs added to the ceremony. If the PCs use intimidate, however, Mother Cathair's resentment results i a -2 penalty on future checks made to conduct the PC's part of the ceremony.
Once they're part of the ceremony, the PCs must make the remaining skill checks using religion (medium), arcana (hard), bluff(hard), or history (hard) to conduct themselves appropriately during the ceremony. Each participating PC should make his or her own check (no assists); any PC that decides not to join the ceremony can observe; this allows them to make an insight or perception check (hard) to gather a piece of information during the ceremony (below) but does not earn a success in the skill challenge. During their part of the ceremony, the PCs taking part in the ceremony may make one skill check each.
If, once the ceremony is over, the PCs have not completed the skill challenge, they can take turns making speeches to the gathered congregation (diplomacy or bluff) earn any remaining successes. Each time a single PC makes another check, it becomes harder (-2, cumulative) as the audience gets tired of listening to them.
If the PCs manage to succeed, they earn a success in the meta challenge. If they don't succeed or fail, nothing happens. If they fail, they earn a failure in the challenge.
They can arrange another ceremony to honor the Duke's family. This will work in much the same way as the party's efforts to join the ceremony to honor the Kendricks.
2. Eyes and Ears
With so much pomp and circumstance, this is a great day to watch people, follow people, gather information and try to get the lay of the land. This skill challenge will allow the PCs to observe and learn about what's going on in and around Ikarport over the course of the first day.
Each success in the skill challenge represents a day spent watching, following, spying, rumor-gathering, and just plain asking around. Each success will provide a bit of information -- a clue about something going on that the PCs can follow up later.
Any PC that decides not to take part in a ceremony during the day can make a second check in this challenge.
Once the PCs have earned 3 failures in the challenge, they are done gathering information for the day.
Once the PCs have earned 6 successes in the challenge they can continue to make checks to gather information, but they will have earned a single success in the meta-challenge.
Complexity: 6/3 *
DCs: 7/12/17
Primary Skills: Perception, Insight
Secondary skills (none)
Special: There are six lists of information that PCs can gather -- three for each skill, one at each difficulty level. PCs only earn successes in the skill challenge if they make their check at the medium level, but they still see something, albeit simple if they beat the easy DC. If you run out of information at one level you can give the PC information from a lower level in the scale.
Easy Insight (DC 7; does not earn a success)
(coming)
Medium Insight (DC 12; earns a success)
(coming)
Hard Insight (DC 17; earns a success)
(coming)
Easy Perception (DC 7; does not earn a success)
(coming)
Medium Perception (DC 12; earns a success)
(coming)
Hard Perception (DC 17; earns a success)
(coming)
The temples, shrines, and cemeteries are packed all day long, and the day traditionally ends with a sober, quiet feast with no planned entertainment other than music, if the particular celebrants can afford to hire musicians.
Skill Challenges:
1. Ritual for the High King
If the PCs are keeping any sort of tabs on what Prince Fillin and the Cloak Knights are up to during the festival, they can't help but be aware of the plans for a major ceremony planned in the primary temple in Ikarport, at which Fillin and every cloak knight in Ikaria will make an offering to honor the dead High Kings and other Kendricks of the past. This is an unusual ceremony -- on this scale -- because the High King, Fillin's alleged great grandfather, has been dead for 80 years. But the Ikarian people have always been proud of their continued allegiance to the missing High Kings, and given the current favor that Fillin has in Ikarport, the plans for the ritual are largely approved of, and a massive turnout is expected.
Complexity: 6 successed before 3 failures
DCs: 7 easy /12 medium /17 hard
Primary Skills (any, if DM feels the idea is appropriate)
What can the PCs do? Anything they can come up with, really. This is a very wide open Skill Challenge.
Some possibilities:
(Most of these ideas will require multiple skill checks from the party members involved -- the DM will need to use some discretion as this plays out).
They Do Nothing: The Ceremony is a thing of beauty, and at the same time a demonstration of the strength of the Cloak Knights. If the PCs don't try anything and make no appearance to counter the ceremony, the combined effect earns the PCs a failure in the Meta Challenge.
They Disrupt the Ceremony: Given the deep feelings being expressed by Fillin and the cloak knights -- feelings echoed by the public -- anything that the PC do that disrupts the ceremony that can be traced to them -- even indirectly -- results in a failure in the challenge as the PCs are seen by the public as disrespectful to the High Kings and the Goddess.
If, on the other hand, the PCs disrupt the ceremony but manage to avoid any connection to the disruption, the effect disheartens the public, casting a pall over the festival which results in a -2 penalty on all future social skill checks for the rest of the festival.
The PCs could join the Ceremony. This will require a few skill checks (medium) with Mother Cathair, high priestess of the goddess, to arrange to have the party added to the program for the ceremony. After all, they are not nobility, family members, or (probably) members of the Goddess's clergy, so adding them to the program will be very unusual. 2 successes using social skills will be enough to get the PCs added to the ceremony. If the PCs use intimidate, however, Mother Cathair's resentment results i a -2 penalty on future checks made to conduct the PC's part of the ceremony.
Once they're part of the ceremony, the PCs must make the remaining skill checks using religion (medium), arcana (hard), bluff(hard), or history (hard) to conduct themselves appropriately during the ceremony. Each participating PC should make his or her own check (no assists); any PC that decides not to join the ceremony can observe; this allows them to make an insight or perception check (hard) to gather a piece of information during the ceremony (below) but does not earn a success in the skill challenge. During their part of the ceremony, the PCs taking part in the ceremony may make one skill check each.
If, once the ceremony is over, the PCs have not completed the skill challenge, they can take turns making speeches to the gathered congregation (diplomacy or bluff) earn any remaining successes. Each time a single PC makes another check, it becomes harder (-2, cumulative) as the audience gets tired of listening to them.
If the PCs manage to succeed, they earn a success in the meta challenge. If they don't succeed or fail, nothing happens. If they fail, they earn a failure in the challenge.
They can arrange another ceremony to honor the Duke's family. This will work in much the same way as the party's efforts to join the ceremony to honor the Kendricks.
2. Eyes and Ears
With so much pomp and circumstance, this is a great day to watch people, follow people, gather information and try to get the lay of the land. This skill challenge will allow the PCs to observe and learn about what's going on in and around Ikarport over the course of the first day.
Each success in the skill challenge represents a day spent watching, following, spying, rumor-gathering, and just plain asking around. Each success will provide a bit of information -- a clue about something going on that the PCs can follow up later.
Any PC that decides not to take part in a ceremony during the day can make a second check in this challenge.
Once the PCs have earned 3 failures in the challenge, they are done gathering information for the day.
Once the PCs have earned 6 successes in the challenge they can continue to make checks to gather information, but they will have earned a single success in the meta-challenge.
Complexity: 6/3 *
DCs: 7/12/17
Primary Skills: Perception, Insight
Secondary skills (none)
Special: There are six lists of information that PCs can gather -- three for each skill, one at each difficulty level. PCs only earn successes in the skill challenge if they make their check at the medium level, but they still see something, albeit simple if they beat the easy DC. If you run out of information at one level you can give the PC information from a lower level in the scale.
Easy Insight (DC 7; does not earn a success)
(coming)
Medium Insight (DC 12; earns a success)
(coming)
Hard Insight (DC 17; earns a success)
(coming)
Easy Perception (DC 7; does not earn a success)
(coming)
Medium Perception (DC 12; earns a success)
(coming)
Hard Perception (DC 17; earns a success)
(coming)
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