D&D 5E Forced March question

Here's what I have so far, attempting to blend forced march & skill challenge. I need to flesh out the shortcuts a bit, any suggestions?

Skill Challenge: Forced March from Nangalore to Kir Sabal
Party sees 21 gargoyles flying a half mile up (2,640 feet) toward Kir Sabal @5mph. The inexhaustible gargoyles will reach the settlement in ~12 hours, but will wait to attack when night falls (taking advantage of their unilateral darkvision). It would take the PCs 2.5 days to reach Kir Sabal at a Fast Pace, but they can force themselves to cover 5 hexes (50 miles) to Kir Sabal in 20 hours, or less time relying on secret shortcuts through this stretch of jungle.

Each character pushing him or herself to such an extreme automatically suffers 1 level of exhaustion, with the exception of E’KAMA (ranger with jungle favored terrain), KOKO (druid with Land’s Stride), and whoever rides warhorse skeleton.

This skill challenge involves 3 shortcuts which require group "checks"* to be accessed/overcome. If the PCs successfully use all 3 shortcuts, they get outcome (A). If they succeed at two, they get outcome (B). If they succeed at just one, they get outcome (C), and if they succeed at none, outcome (D).

However, the entire party may choose to push through with brute endurance, each PC sustaining one level of exhaustion per increase in outcome “tier” (e.g. from C to A would require each PC to suffer 2 levels of exhaustion).

Exhaustion takes effect only at the end of the challenge.

Potions of healing can be used to mitigate a PC’s exhaustion level by one step per potion consumed, provided the exhaustion was caused by wear-and-tear (e.g. forced march or weather exposure), but not by dehydration, starvation, or sleeplessness.

1st Shortcut: Garden Earthmotes
Small lush floating isles rise from the mangrove and cypress marsh north of Nangalore, providing a 12-mile shortcut to the river above the rough jungle terrain, with lookout points, connecting vine "bridges", and possibly ways to gain limited control over earthmotes with magic. Includes the option to search for an exhaustion-reducing stimulant herb here.
??

2nd Shortcut: River Olung
A 22-mile stretch of river with numerous bends and low cataracts. Traversing it may involve acquiring boats, navigating tributaries, piloting rapids, and avoiding catastrophic waterfalls pouring down toward the Raptor’s Roost. Seems best handled as a sequence of checks/obstacles, perhaps interpreting as a group check at the end.
??

3rd Shortcut: Ancient Road
An elevated ruined overgrown stone road with intermittent guardhouses runs 16-miles toward Kir Sabal. It was established by the villain Ras Nsi to demarcate his “territory.” I’m not sure how to DM this part as a road runs straight usually, which seems to limit the option for checks… Maybe there's some form of enchantment lingering on the road? Maybe it is hidden by magic, requiring steps to make it visible? Maybe there’s a guardian that PCs need to bypass?
??

Outcomes
(A) Keeping Pace: They keep up with the gargoyles and arrive at the same time as the attack on Kir Sabal begins. The party can hastily help the aarakocra establish defenses.
(B) Close Behind: The gargoyles arrive at Kir Sabal first and the attack is already under way, with the aarakocra pulling together a desperate defense. Two aarakocra lie dead at the base of the stone ramp, with 5 shattered gargoyles nearby. As the PCs approach, the air elemental holding the line is destroyed, and another gargoyle plummets, landing at base of ramp with 10 hp.
(C) Lagging Behind: The gargoyles beat them to the chase. Kir Sabal has fallen, and the surviving aarakocra are retreating to the Elemental Plane of Air with the aarakocra golden egg bag (a sacred relic). They need the party to cover their retreat and protect their human wards Mwaxanaré and Na.
(D) Too late: The attack is over, all the aarakocra are dead, the aarakocra golden egg bag was taken by to Omu, and the only survivors are the human wards Mwaxanaré and Na. The party can't do anything but exact revenge.

*I put "checks" in parentheses because I don't interpret them strictly as checks in a roll a d20 sense, but rather as holistic challenges which creative thinking and/or resource expenditure might resolve.

So thoughts on the shortcuts/challenges.

#1) Nature skills to use? Or maybe athletics check to succeed at swinging between motes? Failure means they slow down, failure by 5 means they take 2d6 damage? Could the Ranger make a check to give advantage to the others on their checks? ("Hey, let me show you how you do this...") Does the party have any flight or teleport abilities they could use to assist? If they don't use them, then they fall behind because they have to travel through the swamp? Could they choose to go through the swamp and use exhaustion to balance out?
Also, searching and gathering herbs takes time. So... That would put the party behind right? But it would give them stimulants to overcome exhaustion...

Can they decide at any phase to use exhaustion to "catch up"? Probably anytime they fail a stage, give them the choice to use exhaustion to automatically succeed (keep pace).

#2) sounds like a traditional 4E skill challenge, they have multiple skills to use and have to succeed 4 or 6 times before X failures. Bluff, intimidate or diplomacy to obtain boats from natives. Nature? to navigate. Athletics to avoid obstacles or pilot. etc.

#3) parts of the road could be unstable or unsafe, and as such might need stonecunning or intelligence or perception checks to notice the dangerous parts (or passive perception followed intelligence checks). Maybe Wisdom saves to avoid a curse or to not be deceived by an illusion on the road. Or magic to cause vines/obstacles to part and give way for the party? Or a riddle guardian that has to be appeased with logic and/or tribute or?

Quickleaf said:

Snip...
Potions of healing can be used to mitigate a PC’s exhaustion level by one step per potion consumed, provided the exhaustion was caused by wear-and-tear (e.g. forced march or weather exposure), but not by dehydration, starvation, or sleeplessness.

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This seems a little too small a cost to mitigate exhaustion. For me that would be a total no brainier. Maybe only have healing potions and magic only have a chance of mitigating the exhaustion.

Something that occurred to me (and I wish it had at the start of this thread), combining the idea of HP/HD loss as the "cost" of pushing yourself you could use healing potions (and other healing magic) to lower the DC of the CON checks. Something like -1 DC for every die of healing (eg cure wounds lowers it by 1; potion of superior healing lowers it by 4; etc). This option could simply be a house rule going forward. Any time you have to make a CON check to not take exhaustion you can spend healing resources to make the DC easier.

3rd Shortcut: Ancient Road
An elevated ruined overgrown stone road with intermittent guardhouses runs 16-miles toward Kir Sabal. It was established by the villain Ras Nsi to demarcate his “territory.” I’m not sure how to DM this part as a road runs straight usually, which seems to limit the option for checks… Maybe there's some form of enchantment lingering on the road? Maybe it is hidden by magic, requiring steps to make it visible? Maybe there’s a guardian that PCs need to bypass?
??

Click to expand...

Ancient roadways are harder to make out than many people realise. Remaining on course while rushing is much harder. Walking in a straight line, especially through foliage, is harder than many people realise. All of this adds up to reasonable skill challenges and the risk of getting lost - even though you are following a road. There are bits that will certainly make the going easier, but there are bits that won't seem to be any different to virgin jungle. I've followed ancient Roman roads in England and sometimes the only reason you are sure you're still following the road is because there is a much newer fence that follows it. Patches of it are so completely obliterated that without the fence you could easily wander off and not realise for quite some time.

Otherwise I think that you are getting there in terms of making this an interesting event in the session.

LordEntrails said:

So thoughts on the shortcuts/challenges.

#1) Garden Earthmotes Nature skills to use? Or maybe athletics check to succeed at swinging between motes? Failure means they slow down, failure by 5 means they take 2d6 damage? Could the Ranger make a check to give advantage to the others on their checks? ("Hey, let me show you how you do this...") Does the party have any flight or teleport abilities they could use to assist? If they don't use them, then they fall behind because they have to travel through the swamp? Could they choose to go through the swamp and use exhaustion to balance out?

Click to expand...

Yeah, Athletics checks (falling damage on failed check), grung jumping, jump or plant growth spell, cape of the mountebank – I imagine all those strategies/resources will come into play.

An aarakocra monk PC is actually joining the party, and he'll be the only one with flight capability so far. Not sure yet how I'd incorporate his flight into the earthmotes shortcut yet.

Also, searching and gathering herbs takes time. So... That would put the party behind right? But it would give them stimulants to overcome exhaustion...

Click to expand...

Hmm, yeah it could work that way. I was initially thinking it would be a side check just in case there wasn't enough going on with the earthmotes to engage all players; one of the 3 players with herbalism kit proficiency could search for stimulants while traveling. But I think I like your approach better.

Can they decide at any phase to use exhaustion to "catch up"? Probably anytime they fail a stage, give them the choice to use exhaustion to automatically succeed (keep pace).

Click to expand...

Yes, that's the idea. With the caveat that I intend to have the exhaustion levels kick in only after the entire challenge is complete (i.e. all 3 shortcuts passed, for good or ill), because I don't want the PCs to be dealing with mass disadvantage on ability checks during a skill challenge.

#2) River Olung sounds like a traditional 4E skill challenge, they have multiple skills to use and have to succeed 4 or 6 times before X failures. Bluff, intimidate or diplomacy to obtain boats from natives. Nature? to navigate. Athletics to avoid obstacles or pilot. etc.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm torn about how to handle this. A sequence-of-events maps to river travel best, but that might be working at odds with my goal to wrap the entire skill challenge (all 3 shortcuts) up in around 60-75 minutes. That would probably work best with me presenting specific hazards/challenges.

As an abstract alternative, I was imagining having each player choose a "position" like forward lookout, manning the rudder, a pole-man to push off hazards with a pole / sound for depth, and a couple paddlers.

#3) Ancient Road parts of the road could be unstable or unsafe, and as such might need stonecunning or intelligence or perception checks to notice the dangerous parts (or passive perception followed intelligence checks). Maybe Wisdom saves to avoid a curse or to not be deceived by an illusion on the road. Or magic to cause vines/obstacles to part and give way for the party? Or a riddle guardian that has to be appeased with logic and/or tribute or?

Click to expand...

Hmm, I guess portraying an elevated road as hazardous seems kind of...milk toast...compared to #1 earthmotes where there's a real falling hazard.

I love the idea of an illusion disguising/warping the road! Brilliant!

TallIan said:

This seems a little too small a cost to mitigate exhaustion. For me that would be a total no brainier. Maybe only have healing potions and magic only have a chance of mitigating the exhaustion.

Something that occurred to me (and I wish it had at the start of this thread), combining the idea of HP/HD loss as the "cost" of pushing yourself you could use healing potions (and other healing magic) to lower the DC of the CON checks. Something like -1 DC for every die of healing (eg cure wounds lowers it by 1; potion of superior healing lowers it by 4; etc). This option could simply be a house rule going forward. Any time you have to make a CON check to not take exhaustion you can spend healing resources to make the DC easier.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's my instinct too. I was trying to be open to others' suggestions, but I share the same concern.

Well, in my effort to make a more satisfying/engaging scenario I've broken from how RAW says to handle a forced march. Currently, I've cut out CON saves vs. exhaustion. Instead, I'm trying out a skill challenge approach, but if the group falls behind, the players may push themselves, taking on exhaustion to end up with a more desirable scenario (effectively pushing through with brute endurance should skill at navigating shortcuts fail). Since CON saves are cut out, I don't know to interpret your suggestion about "-1 DC for every dice of healing."

Again, I'm making this up as I go. RAW is unsatisfactory in this case. Very open to suggestions.

Ancient roadways are harder to make out than many people realise. Remaining on course while rushing is much harder. Walking in a straight line, especially through foliage, is harder than many people realise. All of this adds up to reasonable skill challenges and the risk of getting lost - even though you are following a road. There are bits that will certainly make the going easier, but there are bits that won't seem to be any different to virgin jungle. I've followed ancient Roman roads in England and sometimes the only reason you are sure you're still following the road is because there is a much newer fence that follows it. Patches of it are so completely obliterated that without the fence you could easily wander off and not realise for quite some time.

Click to expand...

Ah, brilliant! I've never walked an ancient roadway so it's enlightening to hear your experience. Hmm. This present me with a bit of a paradox in how to describe the ancient roadway. I need to describe it such that it's clearly a faster route than hacking through the jungle, and yet I need to describe sections of it being so completely obliterated that wandering off trail would be easy.

Otherwise I think that you are getting there in terms of making this an interesting event in the session.

Click to expand...

Thanks, TallIan

Quickleaf said:

Ah, brilliant! I've never walked an ancient roadway so it's enlightening to hear your experience. Hmm. This present me with a bit of a paradox in how to describe the ancient roadway. I need to describe it such that it's clearly a faster route than hacking through the jungle, and yet I need to describe sections of it being so completely obliterated that wandering off trail would be easy.

Click to expand...

Usually an ancient roadway will be buried under too much earth to be visible. But if the roadway was originally significantly elevated above the surrounding terrain then signs could remain.

Quickleaf said:

Hmm, yeah it could work that way. I was initially thinking it would be a side check just in case there wasn't enough going on with the earthmotes to engage all players; one of the 3 players with herbalism kit proficiency could search for stimulants while traveling. But I think I like your approach better.

Click to expand...

Another consideration is to not change healing potions to get rid of exhaustion, but allow the players to spend time and search for these herbal "supplements". Akin to the potion of vitality, but only one level. You can also reintroduce the CON save for those cases when the party goes ahead and pushes ahead. So maybe the exhaustion isn't manditory. Only a single CON roll per instance so it wouldn't add much time to resolve. And agree not to have exhaustion occur until the end.

As an abstract alternative, I was imagining having each player choose a "position" like forward lookout, manning the rudder, a pole-man to push off hazards with a pole / sound for depth, and a couple paddlers.

Click to expand...

Or rather than have them chose postions, just say things like "Ok, know we need someone to make a navigation check." "Now we nee someone as lookout (perception)" "Who's paddling the boat? They need to make a ..." And just do that # number of times and define success by how many they succeed at, or keep up those types of things until they get X number of successes or failures.

S'mon said:

Usually an ancient roadway will be buried under too much earth to be visible. But if the roadway was originally significantly elevated above the surrounding terrain then signs could remain.

Click to expand...

Another things is if the road were magically treated, or treated with a road base that acts as a defoliant, vegetation could be lighter where the road is, even if it were not raised much.