Skill challenge help - restoring an old temple

[NewJeffCT]

This is a 4E version of Stolen Lands from Paizo, which is the first adventure in the Kingmaker adventure path. The level has been bumped up a bit from the AP as well.

A quick background - a wandering priest who fell out of favor with his goddess (think Diana from ancient Greece, Mielikki from the Realms, etc - the nature goddess/goddess of archery) has a vision of a long lost temple and thinks that if he restores the temple to its former glory, he'll get back in the good graces of his goddess.

The temple is over-run with a family of dire bears, led by a demonic large white bear as the leader. I'm assuming it will be a combat encounter to fight off the bears, but I'm looking for some ideas for a Skill Challenge for the PCs to help restore the temple and re-consecrate it.

What are some good checks to make - Nature and Religion are certain. Anything else? Arcana to deal with the demonic presence maybe? Any other ideas?

 

[Spatula]

History, Athletics, and Endurance seem like they would be appropriate. History for knowing things about what the temple (or others of its kind) were like, and the physical skills for grunt work. Maybe Thievery too.

Is there any conflict? Absent any forces trying to prevent the party from their task, it seems like a quick montage could handle the situation better than a skill challenge. What would a party failure look like? Can they just try again?

 

[Keenberg]

I'd say draw out some maps of what needs to be done. maybe stone circles need to be made and embued with divine powers, while others need malignant forces bound within. Maybe a large stone needs to be moved to serve as a pulpit or altar.
After you have what needs to be done drawn up, pick skills you think would be needed to accomplish such tasks. Keep your mind open during play incase players think of other ways to get things done, or other ways to do things.
[D][/D]
Refering to what [MENTION=2198]Spatula[/MENTION] asked about the repercussions of a failure, I had an idea:

Partial failure: The temple is nearly restored: stone binding/channeling circles have been rebuilt, altars have been placed, etc... but an important artifact must be found. A search of the demonic bear's lair will reveal the artifact, perhaps a final combat encounter with the dire bear's spirit.

Full Failure: Although a few steps towards restoring the temple may have been accomplished, the Goddess has not favored the priest. He must find another way to appease the Deity, or else search his soul for what his new calling is.

 

[NewJeffCT]

good ideas folks -thanks

 

[Quickleaf]

What if the temple was defiled by the "Beast" (or whatever entity fits in your campaign world), of which the demon white bear is an incarnation? Until the temple is cleansed the Beast haunts the temple and can do all sorts of nasty things. So the challenge becomes an exorcism.

This kind of challenge could easily be treated as LTWDI (Let The Wizard Do It)
To keep the whole party engaged and to keep the action moving once the ritual is begun they have 3 rounds by which they must succeed or the spirit manifests with a nasty curse (or summons another demon bear).

Going the HeroQuet route you might require the PCs take on different ritual roles (eg. Hunter, Maiden, Trickster) in a reenactment. Or you could have any PC who fails a check get sucked into the spirit world where they have to work on the skill challenge "from the other side" while contending with hostile spirits/incorporeal demons.

You could include a bit of a temptation to less scrupulous PCs by dropping hints of a way to yoke the demon bear's power so they can summon it later. Play up the risk vs. reward.

Dungeoneering could be used to unearth different areas or stone circle wards (a la Indiana Jones), to envision what demolished areas of the temple used to look like (eg. Determining that walls were brightly painted with casein paints), or identifying key supports which need to be destroyed to collapse the lower level on a portal to the Abyss.

 

[Larrin]

Some support skill ideas (giving +2 to another persons check, or other benefit, but not gaining any success towards the final result)

Acrobatics-getting high in the rafters to hang banners or set up a pulley system (+2 to another's physical moving stuff check.....and maybe they find something cool in the rafters)

Bluff-do shoddy work that looks good but cuts corners , or touch up someone's shoddy work(+2 to your next check to fix something, or maybe make it after someone fails by just 2 to try and cover it up and avoid a failure. Use of this may have a long term drawback)

Diplomancy-gather up people/woodland animals to help you move a heavy statue or act as helpers in a sanctification rutiual (+2 to related skill, or if its a really good success perhaps you add another helper to the cause)

Dungeoneering: find a replacement statue or resource in local dungeon, or even just have a feel for what big ornate things should look like (finding a good statue or useful material might add a +2 item bonus for some checks, You could use also aid a history or religion check to check for what makes a good temple)

Heal-fix an injured worker, or tend to them so they don't get tired (+2 to aid a friend in endurance checks, or perhaps if someone gained a failure due to failing an endurance or athletics, etc; a hard heal-check could remove the failure, perhaps the failing PC needs to spend a surge)

Insight-aid in a religion or arcana check by intuiting what Goddess likes in her temples (meh, probably not)

Intimidate- aid in exorcism checks to remove demons (or bears)

perception-find dangerous parts of crumbling temple, looking over others work, find an obvious place that needs attention. (+2 to a variety of checks, and possibly a hard 'rescue' check to catch a failing ally, letting them reroll)

Stealth - Avoid working, or make it look like you're working when you're not. (a way of passing your turn without failing or helping, can only be used a few times.)

streetwise - getting help similar to diplomacy, though not useful if the temple isn't near any streets

Theivery - setting up the security of the temple, relocking the treasure vault, etc, actually this probably would be a skill capable of gaining 1 success at least, and make it harder to defile next time....

 

[Rechan]

Honestly I think these answers are what the players should be coming up with. But if not: Arcana: ways to maximize the flow of power through the place while minimizing the corruptive energy (think: feng shui).

Related to skill challenges, I like this house rule on how to run skill challenges (example of it in action here).

 

[NewJeffCT]

Honestly I think these answers are what the players should be coming up with. But if not: Arcana: ways to maximize the flow of power through the place while minimizing the corruptive energy (think: feng shui).

Related to skill challenges, I like this house rule on how to run skill challenges (example of it in action here).

Thanks. I've always liked the idea of skill challenges, just haven't been able to implement them in game as much as I'd like.

 

[NewJeffCT]

This has all been very helpful to me. I gave the group the option of me emailing out a vignette of the forgotten temple being restored, or having a skill challenge for the group that has them help in the temple restoration.

The group chose to have the skill challenge, so we'll start off next Friday's session with the temple skill challenge.

 

[Beretta]

Is there any conflict? Absent any forces trying to prevent the party from their task, it seems like a quick montage could handle the situation better than a skill challenge. What would a party failure look like? Can they just try again?

I'm about to run the Kingmaker campaign myself and was trying to think of ways to get more Skill Challenges into the 4e conversion. I am a big fan of the concept and it's much better way of giving the characters XP rather than handwaving it or subjecting them to random encounters. I hadn't thought of making restoring the Temple a Skill Challenge, so thanks!

In terms of punishment for failure, what I had in mind was that if the characters fail the challenge, they do not complete the Temple of the Elk quest, Jhod does not offer them free Rituals* nor will he accept any leadership roles in the kingdom (feeling that he has lost his clerical favour and authority). If he does not have a role to play in the later books apart from that, I may just have him leave the Stolen Lands altogether.

* In the PF version he casts spells for free (expensve components must still be paid for). For a 4e conversion I have given him some cheap rituals he can cast for free.