Skill Challenge for a Cave/Dungeon?

[Dire Human]

I'm having a hard time coming up with a good noncombat encounter for the cave my players are running through. It's been infested by mind-controlling ooze creatures, but other than the monstrous humanoids that have been enslaved it's uninhabited; i.e., no settlements, ruins, or man-made traps. How do I keep it from becoming one fight after another? I'm thinking there could be a cave-in to clear, or some sort of other natural obstacle... but I'm otherwise drawing a blank.

Help!

 

[Fluxx]

MMMh - clear a cave in is agood idea -or perhaps there is actually a cave in and they have to runaway? but ther could still be s.th. to do/to rescue in the area of the cave-in?

Or they have to cross a underground lake so they have to search the dungeon for s.th. to improvise a raft and then silently cross the lake (without waking-up the highlevelmonster living inside it).

Or there is some part where they have to climb a very difficult part....

Are sure it is unhabited? Isn't there the ghost of some other adventurer who died years ago in this cave and who is the only one to show them the right way?

searching for s.th. like this?

 

[DanmarLOK]

I'd like to offer the suggestion don't get tied up completely in skill challenges but instead perhaps add points of interest to the areas? Not to say that SC"s aren't appropriate but encounters that don't require dice can add interest and some 'downtime' between fights. A waterfall that emerges from high above in a shaft that the characters have to negotiate and perhaps while they're climbing up the slick moss covered shaft an old tree comes falling down from above and drags one or more them back down. Their tunnel ends in a lake which they cannot see the far side to but know they have to go across it and have a whirlpool start in the center for reasons unknown but when whatever makeshift raft they're using starts to swirl toward it you can guarentee that they'll be up and interested in what's going on as they start having their characters paddle for their lives away from it. A crumbling rock arch that crosses a chasm and have the sounds of a large mob of creatures echoing from behind them but the mob heads in the wrong direction as the players try to cross the bridge without collapsing it from weight.

Things like this can add interest, roleplaying and excitement to an adventure without having to break out the dice. And of course with some broadening of the situations the above could all be turned into at least minor skill challenges.

 

[chronoplasm]

What sort of cave is it?
1. Solutional (formed in soluble rock such as limestone)
2. Primary (lava tubes)
3. Sea Cave (found along coasts)
4. Corrasional (formed by erosion by flowing streams carrying sediments.)
5. Glacier Cave (formed in melting ice under glaciers)
6. Fracture Cave (formed when layers of rock, such as gypsum, dissolve out from between layers of less soluble rock, causing the layers to collapse)
7. Talus Cave (openings between rocks that have fallen, often at the bases of cliffs)
8. Anchihaline Cave (coastal caves that contain a mixture of saline water and freshwater)

If you can't decide, maybe roll a d8 for help.
It is also possible to combine types. For example...

Cave of Fire & Ice
A geothermal vent as opened beneath a glacier, forming caves within the ice above connecting to the lava tubes below.
Hazards and features:
Slippery ice
Collapsing ceilings
Lava pits
Geysers
Sulfur springs
Clouds of steam that obscure vision and cause fatigue