A Journey to There and Back (My experiences learning how to make skill challenges)

[jbear]

Skill challenges were a mechanic that I liked the idea of from the moment I read them. I’m not a mathematician so I didn’t see any inherent flaws, 4e was brand new and I hadn’t played the game yet, so just the idea of having a system to reward players for being heroic outside of bloody combat instantly rang the ‘Fantastic Bell’ for me. I guess that was all the green light I needed, I finally had ‘permission’ to do something I’d wanted to be able to do since I began playing: Reward players for finding ways to avoid hacking things up. So I jumped in with energy and without reserve, excited to see how that would work in actual game play.

The day of our first session arrived and I began reading through the adventure module I had at hand: ‘Escape from Sembia’. All my players were new to D&D except one who had played OD&D when he was a kid 1 on 1 with his brother (who from the sounds of it enjoyed killing his characters in all sorts of delightful ways). I was perusing through the first couple of encounters when suddenly I began to feel very unsure about the Skill Challenge which involved the PCs fleeing the town after an assassination attempt and an altercation with the town guards who were in on it. I couldn’t imagine exactly how it was meant to work. All the PCs actions had already been decided? They had to guess the right skill to use or I just told them and they rolled? None of these struck me as particularly good options. Besides, what if they chose to do something else or god forbid, actually want some kind of description of the city they were fleeing through. I had approximately 1 hour before people started arriving and I was pretty sure we would get that far even though it was the first session, so I took pencil and paper and started wrestling with my first Skill Challenge.

I quickly sketched out a ‘map’ of the town. Maybe sketching is a little beyond what I actually did. I drew some forking lines to represent different roads of the town that lead to different areas where different skills could be useful and where different random events would occur. Some poor choices or Failures would lead to combat, and depending on the degree of Failure or poorly chosen course of action, the battle would be more or less perilous. With those few scribbled lines on a scrap of paper I felt like I had something I could actualize improvise off in game play, I could now imagine how to run the Challenge.

So here is a rundown of the Challenge itself followed by a few comments on how it actually played out.

Read the following:
The trill of a whistle pierces the air. From down the street, you see a large group of guards moving quickly your way. For the moment, the path appears clear in the opposite direction. You’re going to need to make a break for it!

Skill Challenge: Run!
E n c o u n t e r L e v e l 1 ( 3 0 0 XP )
Complexity 3; 8 Successes before 3 Fails

Setup
The PCs engage in a skill challenge to try to escape the town before the guards get a good look at them.

Scene 1
Running as fast as you can from the scene away from the guards, their whistles shrill and piercing not far behind you, you quickly come to a major intersection. Do you carry on North along this street or do you turn West towards the centre of town or East towards to main gate out of the city?

Streetwise (DC 15): (1 Success)If successful then read:
The Second Watch, alerted by the whistles is likely to be arriving from the North. The Main Gate to the East will have also heard the whistles. It is the shortest route out of the city but almost certainly the most heavily and well guarded. The road West will lead towards the busy Marketplace which may be an ideal place to get lost in the crowd.

North leads to a Combat Encounter in the street; further rolls towards the challenge receive a -1 penalty until they achieve 3 successes they make a group Endurance check DC 12 to put some distance between the guards with a sprint:

- 4 Human Soldiers (3 more arrive after 3 + 1d6 rounds)

The PCs realize they need to get to a busy part of town to lose themselves in the crowd. If they are defeated then they are captured for interrogation.

East leads to a deadly Combat Encounter at the Main Gate; 1 Auto Fail is achieved towards the continuation of the challenge and receive -2 to rolls until the achieve 3 successes or they make a group Endurance check DC 12 to put some distance between the guards with a sprint:

- 6 Human Soldiers ( 3 more arrive after 1d6 rounds)
- 3 Archers (Use Elves)

If they survive this fight or find a way to get out of the gates and flee count the Challenge as a Fail but allow them to flee. If they are defeated then they are captured for interrogation.

The Notes about combat were unnecessary. Due to the total inexperience of the players I used this Challenge as a chance to introduce them to their skills. Here I actually suggested they could use Streetwise to give them clues as to which one was the best road to choose. Otherwise they would have had no clue what Streetwise was even for. This wouldn’t be a problem for experienced players. They made the roll and headed off towards the Market Place.

West heads them into town down the main road towards town. Read:
To the left you see an alley crowded with crates and boxes piled almost to the roofs. The buildings on either side of the alley appear to be warehouses. To the right you spot a high fence that could be climbed to reach the rooves of the buildings

Alleyway Path: Primary Skills: Athletics, Perception, Stealth, Endurance
Secondary Skills: Acrobatics, Thievery, Steetwise, Heal

Climb up stacked boxes onto Roof: Athletics (DC 12):
Notice that a warehouse door is ajar and duck inside: Perception (DC 12):
Hide amongst the Crates: Stealth (DC 12):

Climbing the Fence Path: Primary Skills: Athletics, Perception, Stealth, Endurance
Secondary Skills: Acrobatics, Thievery, Steetwise, Heal

Climbing the fence to the Roof tops: Athletics (DC 12)
Navegating the Old Roof Tops: Perception (DC 12)
Creeping past above the Watch point: Stealth (DC 12)

The Players chose to climb up the fence onto the roof tops of the buildings along the main street. I followed the suggestion that I read in one of the Core books to have only the player with the lowest score in the required ability make the roll. That felt wrong to me somehow, the PCs skilled in Athletics didn’t have a chance to shine, they just got up the roof but it didn’t matter; nevertheless I took the opportunity to introduce the players to the AID mechanic. I ruled that two 3 people could aid, one from below and two from above. The Ranger guided the others over the rooftops but the Warforged smashed a tile with his big metal foot as they tried to sneak past the Watch point that formed a bottle neck in the street below them. In the original format of the challenge there were consequences at each fail throughout the challenge. This was a dynamic I liked and would continue to develop over time. Here I had the Guards make a perception check to notice the PCs. I set it at a Hard DC because they had stopped traffic in the search for the PCs. An annoyed mobbed of townspeople coming to and from the Market had formed and noisily made their complaints about the hold up. So the noise of the Warforged’s misstep was drowned out and the PCs made it by unnoticed.

Scene 2 : The Market Place: Read:
Down the street to the west you see a marketplace. Merchants are packing up their carts and putting their wares away in nearby tents as evening approaches.

Surveying the Market Place: Perception (DC 12)
Understanding what you See: Streetwise/Insight (DC 12)

5 different paths lead out of the Market Place each bearing its own risk and advantage. As the PCs arrive a young stallion is rearing up wildly out of control causing chaos in the East of the Market Place. A rich merchant is shouting orders at his workers who are trying to get it under control. There is also a crowd gathered around a group of performers to the North of the Market. The PCs can use this to their advantage as well; however, a group of guards are very nearby on the lookout.

The PCs wisely took time to survey the Market Place below them before carefully descending amongst the crowd. They also insisted in asking for further details and successfully received further details about their options. They decided to head towards the confusion caused by the stallion and then circled towards the exit to the North.

Moving through the Market Place: Primary Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Stealth, Streetwise
Secondary Skills: Intimidate, Diplomacy, Perception, Thievery, Bluff

The Direct Route: Endurance/Athletics (DC 12): To knock/push your way quickly through the surging crowd
The Subtle Route: Stealth (DC 12) to sneak amongst the carts and stands
Using your Charm: Streetwise (DC 12) to find the right person; Diplomacy, Bluff or Intimidate (DC 12) to talk him/her into helping you get through the market place unnoticed; Bribing provides a bonus relative to the size of the bribe

My players took the direct route the Warforged pushing a pathway through the crowd roughly and intimidating people to get out of their way. They went straight towards the chaos caused by the rearing stallion so I ruled that this didn’t draw attention to them. However, the rogue decided that it was a good moment to test out his pick pocketing skills. Hassled by his team mates that this wasn’t really a good time I stood up for him and said he could try and pickpocket the merchant whose horse it was and perhaps get some valuable documents they could use to validate their lies in the case they had to pretend to be someone else upon leaving the city. I wanted to establish early on that it was okay to take risks, and how to be creative with ideas and finding solutions. Unfortunately he rolled natural 1. Second failure and things all of a sudden went wrong. The horse turned into them just at the wrong time and the horse’s backside crashed into his back sending him crashing into the merchant with his purse in his hand. At this stage they had 6 successes and 2 failures and it felt right to put the pressure on to make the end exciting. So, all the commotion drew the attention of the guards.

Scene 3 : A Quiet Way Out
The PCs have managed to shake the Guards from off their trail for now, but now they need to find somewhere to lay low until night falls and find a quiet way out of the city

Exits: (use your judgment based on PC actions as to what skill checks are appropriate/valid)

Graveyard Road: The safest route, which leads to the Old Town where the PCs can hide in a very quiet, rarely frequented Graveyard. The easiest way to get there is to make the most of the chaos caused by the young stallion. If PCs still haven’t achieved enough successes have them use their skills to find and enter their temporary hideout. When things have quieted down they will still need to gather information or find a quiet way out of the city.

Tavern Road: A viable route, however it is very busy with people and so unless they play it cool they may draw attention to themselves. Have them use their social skills to blend in and not draw attention to themselves, avoiding any provocation by drunken louts. Remaining in a tavern is risky but a good place to gather information on how to leave the city unnoticed.

Thieves’ Road: Another viable yet risky route where PCs will have to do some fast talking in order to avoid being robbed or attacked. PCs should use their social skills to either be left alone or gain the assistance of the rogues that they have crossed. Bribery will help achieve the latter. Reward clever actions. Anything foolish on the part of the PCs will increase all checks to DC 19.

Guard Post Roads: Bad options. Getting past alert guard post is no easy feat. Make all skill checks Difficult. A failure here will lead to combat which will quickly draw more guards to the scene.

With the guards having spotted the PCs their way out was not exactly quiet. The Warforged scooped up the rogue and barged his way through the crowd, steamrolling men women and children on his way towards Tavern Road. The others followed in his wake. I had everyone roll endurance to see how well they did on their foot race with the guards which saw them get a slight head start on them and lose themselves amongst the revelers and get into an old abandoned house through a broken window. And with that they achieved their 7th and 8th success. It was great to see them all doing voodoo upon the dice as a team to ensure they didn’t fail those last two rolls. They were set on finding a better hiding place as they could still hear the guard’s whistles close by and as they had succeeded on the challenge already I let them take some cross streets over to the Old Town where they jumped over into the cemetery to rest. When night fell the ranger and the rogue snuck back to tavern Road to make enquiries about how best to get out of town. They found the shadiest looking character in the tavern and he told them that there was a gateway called the Camel’s Eye which was used by important merchants to enter the city after sundown when the gates were closed. At midnight when the guards changed the gate would be momentarily left unattended; a chink in the city’s defenses that the thieves’ guild paid well for. And so they managed to leave town with only the most confused description of their appearance given by frustrated and exhausted guards and amused bystanders. Not a small feat considering the rather motley look of the party: a warforged fighter, an elven bow ranger, a drow rogue, a genasí swordmage and a dwarven cleric.

Ending the Encounter
Whether or not the PCs succeed at the challenge, they escape Saerb. What’s important is whether they were observed long enough for the guards to gain an accurate description of them. If the PCs succeed at the skill challenge, the guards didn’t get a good look at them. This makes the final encounter a little easier.

If the PCs fail, the guards were close enough on their tail to get a good look at most of them and probably had a few scuffles with them. Each PC loses 2 healing surges. Their failure also makes the final encounter a little harder.

Everyone enjoyed the challenge. I was pleased to have been able to make it dynamic and exciting. Between my scribbled map and the information given in the Skill Challenge itself, I had enough ideas rumbling around to be able to guide the new players and allow them to have some choice, or at least the illusion of choice, and still have enough room to improvise as we went along. To say the least I was very glad to have that map as it really helped me visualize things spatially which meant I could answer player’s questions and give them semi-accurate descriptions. Attached is a digital version of the map. God knows what I did with the scribbled one. What I disliked was the idea of the worst player rolling when the entire group was being challenged. That was something that would never happen again.

 

[jbear]

Two sessions later I had a chance to make my own Skill Challenge for the first time. A new player was joining the game and so I decided to come up with a fun way for her to be introduced to the story. I think a little explanation of the background of this challenge is in order to set the scene.

The new player wanted to play a drow warlock, not the easiest character to introduce late into a game, especially in the mountains. Together we came up with the idea that she had fled her homeland in the Underdark when the high priestess of her House had prophesied that their family would continue to wallow in ignominy and suffer ill fortune as long as she remained alive. So of course they wanted her dead. She was only able to escape thanks to the aid she received from her family’s rival house, who, informed of the nature of the prophecy, wanted to make sure that she remained alive as long as possible, and in so doing, ensure that their enemies continued to suffer the spate of ill fortune that had recently weakened them.

The Situation: Far from home, despite the aid received by her family’s enemies, her own sister had at last hunted and brought her down. She was taken to a nearby shrine of Lloth hidden just outside an entrance into the Underdark, high in a mountain valley, where she was to be sacrificed, and from her body a Drider to be born. The drow’s half-sister, her only beloved family member, having scried the PC’s arrival, sent a desperate message to them using Animal Messenger hoping they would come to her aid. Meanwhile she prepared a distraction to draw the Drow away from the ritual in order to give the PCs a chance of success. A little bit convoluted, but hey, I did what I could. Details aside, the encounter was going to be fun as hell, which when it boils down to it is what matters.

My players follow even the slightest whiff of adventure and knowing that a new player was waiting to be introduced along the line, they bounded up high in the mountains following the mysterious feline animal messenger that had implored their aid. As they neared the valley a supernatural darkness began to devour the daylight. When they reached the valley they looked into the heart of that darkness, and like first class fearless and foolish heroes they went to the drow warlock’s rescue.

 

[nai_cha]

Talk about serendipitous! I am running the same skill challenge tomorrow and am trying to rework it to make it more interesting. This is full of great ideas. Thank you very much for sharing this.

I have to spread XP around before giving it to jbear again. Boo.

 

[jbear]

Skill Challenge 2: Stop the Drider Ritual

I had read a lot about skill challenges before the session and had decided to try out Stalker0’s Obsidian System. I also wanted to have a battle going on throughout the challenge, make movement important, and create a sense of urgency, involving all the PCs in different ways, which is what the Obsidian System seems designed to achieve.

For those who don’t know Stalker0’s Obsidian System, I recommend you take a look at it here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...skill-challenge-system-new-version-1-2-a.html
It is a top class alternate system for skill challenges.

For those who don’t like following links I’ll resume the key points of difference to a normal skill challenge:

The challenge is divided into 3 segments. Each player is involved in each segment. Success or failure is determined by whether the group achieves the required amount of successes by the time those three segments have been played out. There is no ‘three strikes, you’re out’ mechanic. The group’s performance during each segment can provide advantages or disadvantages during the following segment of the challenge depending on how well they do. There are three kinds of challenges: physical, mental and social. Only certain skills are allowed within each kind of challenge. DMs can determine which of those skills are most relevant and award a +2 bonus to checks when players use that skill. Players can improvise with skills that are not allowed if they do so creatively, however this is limited to once per challenge. There are many other neat features included in the challenge, like “Leading the Way”, but if you want to know more, then stop being lazy and click on the link!

Stop the Drider Ritual: Level 1 Battle Challenge 500xp (+1000 xp for the battle and traps)

This sets the DCs for the challenge at 18
I had 7 players at the time, which means they needed a total of 12 successes. 11-10 achieves a partial success.

Read:
Below on the valley floor a strange altar awaits, weakly lit by circles of light like a sickened rainbow. The altar, forged into the very rock of the valley itself appears like a miniature spider shaped mountain. A rocky stairway twists its way from the ground up to the peak like a snake, interrupted by five circles of diverse colours at different heights along the path. Within each circle two hooded figures stand with their backs to you, arms raised toward the top of the altar where an ebony woman struggles against chains that bind her within a circle of monolithic stones. Above her a living, pulsating shadow forms, the source of the supernatural darkness of the mountains, the source of some unpronounceable evil that is about to happen at any time during this macabre ritual.

Insert Map here (coming)

Features of the Area

Pathway: The path is narrow. PCs must ‘squeeze’ along the path: ½ Speed; -5 Atk; Grant CAdv. PCs can ‘Run’ up the path: requires Acrobatics check CD 10; Success: +2 Speed; Fail: PC falls Prone and must make a SThrow or fall off the Path. PCs can climb onto the path (10 ft high onto first flight of steps and another 10ft to the top of the path): Athletics CD 10: ½ Speed; Grant CAdv. If PC fails by more than 5 they fall.

Climbing up at any other point (20 ft): Athletics CD 15 (if hit while climbing make a new check or fall); Catch hold: Athletics/Acrobatics CD 20

Zone A: Large stone statue of Spider: 5 Rune Stone holes run along its back, each hole gives off a weak light of 5 different colours. Stone Runes carried by different ritualists must be implanted to deactivate the magic circles. Red = Ring 1, Blue = Ring 2, Green = Ring 3, Yellow = Ring 4, Black = Ring 5

Deactivating a coloured rune-slot: Thievery DC 20: Effect of ring ends temporarily (Roll d6 each round; reactivates on a 5 or 6); DC 22: Disable Temporarily (reactivates on a roll of 6); CD 24: Disable permanently

Confusion Trap: There is a multicolour ring around the spider statue
Atk: +6 vs Will; Hit: Target does random action (save ends): 1: Sing and Dance 2: Throw object away 3: Attack closest creature 4: Lie down 5: Lick Spider and Praise Llolth 6: Attack enemy 7: Attack statue 8: Move Randomly 9-10: No effect
Countermeasures: Perception: Notice triangular grooves on spiders back and eyes; The key around the cat’s neck (animal messenger) must be placed and turned to deactivate the trap
Unlocks Thievery: Deactivate the trap without a key: CD 25 (roll a d6 each round; on a 6 it reactivates)

Ring 1: Red circle of light: When a PC enters: Atk +6 vs Will; Hit: Slowed (save ends)

Ring 2: Blue circle of light: When a PC enters: Atk +6 vs Will; Hit: Immobilized (save ends)

Ring 3: Green circle of light: When a PC enters: Atk +6 vs Fort; Hit: Ongoing 5 Poison Dmg (save ends)

Ring 4: Yellow circle of light: This circle is 30ft high. It is not joined by a path, remaining isolated 10ft from ring 2. From circle 2 they can jump across and catch onto the rocky surface Athletics CD 15 and climb up Athletics CD 15
Jumpimg across directly requires Athletics DC 20 (requires a running start)

When a PC enters: Atk +6 vs Fort; Hit: Slowed (save ends); If first SThrow is failed: Unconscious (save ends)

Ring 5: Black circle(appears to have no colour unless seen with Darkvision): When a PC enters: Atk: +6 vs Fort: Blinded (save ends)

Bound Drow Warlock: (PC being rescued) Make a Athletics check CD 12 or Ref CD 12 to be able to attack (-2 for being prone); This provokes an OAtk from all 5 Mother Claws surrounding her.

Mother Claws: Atk: +7 vs CA (they have CAdv as she is prone: +2 atk); Dmg 2; If circle is deactivated corresponding Mother Claw fades away.

Set Up:
There are 2 Drow Ritualists in each coloured Ring, they do not pay heed to the PCs until they are attacked or they begin to climb the altar. Also, invisible in the shadows there are also two Shadow Claws in each coloured Ring (perception DC 23 to spot before they attack).
When they turn to attack the PCs they can see that they are young children aged perhaps 12 or 13.

Ritualist Drow (R) Lvl 1 Minion 25xp; Initiative +5; Perception +11, Darkvision; Speed 6
AC 15 Fort 11 Ref 13 Will 12 HP 1 (can’t be killed on a miss) Dark Wand: +5 vs Ref; 5 dmg Night’s Veil: (encounter) +5 vs Fort; 5 dmg and Blinded (save ends)

Shadow Claws (C) Lvl 1 Minion 25xp; Initiative +4; Perception +1, Darkvision; Speed 1
AC 15 Fort 13 Ref 14 Vol N/A HP 1 (can’t be killed on a miss) Claw: +6 vs AC; 4 dmg (+3 dmg if target is Bloodied) Shadow Wrath: (encounter) +4 vs Fort; 4 dmg and Ongoing 5 necrotic dmg (save ends)

One of the challenges building this encounter was the fact the PCs would be dealing with Drow. Now Drow would usually be far beyond the capabilities of PCs at level 1, not to mention having the place mined with effect traps and a player slowly being drained of life to worry about. So I decided to use only minions in the encounter and describe them as Drow children. How they got there, well no one will ever know, and no one ever asked, so … who cares! It certainly made for great entertainment as the poor mums and dads in my group suffered from waves of guilt as they laid waste to those poor kids, innocent or not!

Skill Challenge Part 1: Deactivate Protective Runes (mental challenge); all checks are minor actions

Allowed: Arcana (PCs receive +2 to checks), Religion, Perception, Heal
Locked: Thievery, History, Insight, Arcana (2)

Arcana: The multicoloured ring (zone A) is the lock to the other colour rings; the rings seem to lock the upper sacrificial circle.

Religion: This is a sacrificial shrine to the Drow spider goddess Llolth. The statue is some kind of guardian. The ritual being cast is summoning some evil servant of llolth, at each moment it grows stronger.

Heal: The spidery arms in the stone circle seem to be draining life away from the prisoner; they are probably giving life to each coloured ring which likely have some unhealthy effect.

Perception: Spot the grooves on Spider Statues back and the triangular grooves; Unlocks:

Thievery: See DCs above in Zone A to disable rings or the Confusion Trap

Arcana (2): Locked: The lock is connected to the slots along the Spider statues back. It must have corresponding coloured stones. The triangular grooves are different, perhaps a separate arcane lock which only affects the multicoloured circle

History: Locked: The clerics of Lloth are known to carry spider stones similar to the shape of the grooves on the statue. A drop of colour would symbolize the path of learning of the dark arts

Insight: Locked: Identify body language of the ‘stone bearers’
Many of the Skills relevant to the challenge needed to be ‘unlocked’. They couldn’t be used until they had, in this case, properly examined the Spider Statue.

The first part was pretty exciting. Before entering the scene the Swordmage realized the nature of what was going on, the prisoner was being turned into something else and the area was protected magically to keep intruders out. The arcane lock was centred upon the Spider Statue. Armed with that knowledge the Paladin charged up the narrow path, tripped and fell, crashing to the ground heavily 10 feet below. The ranger stayed below and began massacring children with her bow. The fighter for some reason also decided you use his bow and massacred all the rocks in the area. He eventually put his bow away after providing some more comic relief, confirming his growing reputation as a lousy archer, and climbed up the side of the mountain directly into Ring 1 where he was hacked by shadow claws and blinded by the Drow children. The cleric slowly made her way up the path healing her allies and removing their blindness as she burnt several kids to a crisp with rays of radiant light. The bravest of them all was the swordmage who climbed up into ring 2 where he was hacked, blinded and immobilized. Even still he managed to destroy everything in that ring with a blast of fire and a string of massively high rolls. He continually shrugged off all the magical effects, storming his way up the mountain altar into ring 3 and destroying the shadow claws while he was continually blinded. The rogue nimbly made his way up the stairs and entered the coloured circle to examine the Spider Statue. He was struck by the confusion trap and began licking the statue singing praises to Llolth. It was a beautiful moment. When he finally pulled it together he discovered the grooves and the key slot. The cleric, nearby had taken the triangular headed key from the cat, realized its use and threw it to the rogue. It nearly fell down the mountain side and the rogue had to leave the coloured circle to get it and reenter. He was struck again by the confusion trap but this time it had no effect. With the trap off he began work on disarming the the coloured rings. The cleric once aware of the grooves made a connection to the drow’s coloured shadow stones and began the search amongst the bodies of the dead to discover them. The rest of the party joined the search as the Warlock struggling against her bonds cursed the last drow ritualist to death. At each child ritualist’s death I had been describing the Shadow Spider growing in power. The children had been left there to hold the ritual til the other powerful drow returned. With the last one dead the ritual commenced again and the Shadow Spider began sucking the life out of the Warlock again. It got pretty exciting at this point as the PCs formed a chain gang to relay the shadow stones down to the rogue at the statue. Luckily when the fighter leapt across to Ring 4 he was unaffected by its power and remained awake. Ignoring the shadow claws, he got the stone from the dead child and leapt back. With the circles disabled they raced up the path towards the sacrificial circle.

Skill Challenge Part 2: Distract the Summoned Shadow Spider while someone deactivates the protective runes and frees the Warlock (social/mental)

Allowed: Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, Arcana, Perception, Heal, Dungeoneering, History

Insert MAP here (coming)

Kililing the last Drow Ritualist is the catalyst for the final part of the ritual: Warlock receives 5 necrotic damage each turn until she is dead and becomes a Drider

Shadow Spider Aura: Creatures starting their turn in the area receive 5 necrotic damage and are attacked mentally: Atk: +6 vs Will; Hit: Consumed with fear, run screaming towards the bottom of the altar (save ends)

Bluff: (Bluff checks receive a +2 bonus) A successful Bluff that this is not the right moment to convert the warlock (i.e master is not here) puts the shadow spider in doubt; necrotic damage reduced to 2; A second Bluff that the group is there to help will reduce the damage for the rest of the group too.

Arcana: Each of the 5 monoliths has an arcane lock; each must be held in place and the correct word spoken

Perception: You discover a symbol at the base of the stone which corresponds with the 5 symbols on the stone table where the prisoner is tied. Unlocks:

Arcana (2)/Religion: Locked: Identify: Shen (shadow), Mae (soul), Treth (drink), Llolth (llolth), Hex (change)

Heal: Allows warlock to spend a healing surge and consciousness

Dungeoneering: The stone table has power and may possibly block the Spider’s line of sight; Unlocks:

Thievery/Stealth: Locked: Make a Stealth check CD 20 to sneak under the table without notice; Fail +2 CD to thievery check; Thievery CD 20 to release Warlock

History: You have stories of renegade Drow turned into servile Dryders, melded with shadow spiders, deformed evil creatures that do Llolth’s bidding. This is what is happening and it will finish when the warlock dies

There was a collective groan as the Warlock discovered the nature of the Arcane Lock comprised of the rune marked monolithic stones. ‘Not more puzzles!’ So, sensing they had had enough of that I dismissed the idea of requiring them to say the key words in a specific order. Once they discovered where the runes were and their meaning all they had to do was have a person touching each stone and say the correct word. But they did things a little differently. The Paladin, who’d had a pretty miserable time trying to get anywhere near the action, clunking around in his heavy armour, finally got to the top and attempted to cower the Shadow Spider invoking his god. He rolled a critical 20. So, deciding it was a good moment to let him enjoy the spotlight I allowed him to continue intimidating the creature, disabling its damaging aura, while the rogue slipped in beneath the stone table and released the warlock. The Warlock once free, and the spider momentarily neutralized, quickly explained how to undo the arcane lock and dismiss the summoned Shadow Spider. Then she told them they had better run for their lives as her captors would surely return at any moment.

Part 3 Escape from the Valley (Physical)

The group must distance themselves as far as possible, as fast as possible before the ‘real’ Drow return to complete the ritual and discover what has happened.

Required: Endurance (All must Roll): One player can Lead, helping the rest of the group maintain their rhythm; if successful the Leader grants a +2 bonus to everyone else’s check.

Need 4/7 successes to count as 1 Team Success; 6/7 counts as 2 successes and gives a +1 bonus to next rolls; Failure: -1 to the rest of rolls here
Heal: Gives a person who failed the Endurance check a reroll if they spend a Healing Surge

There was only one way out of the valley as the keen eyes of the elf spotted the silhouette of a drider up at the top of the path they had descended into the valley from. So they ran. This is where I began my romance with ‘team rolls’. Everyone is involved. If you have to run, it’s no good if just the fighter is fit. And not everyone fails just because the rogue has the lung capacity of a hedgehog. It’s also where I met with the ‘Leading the Way’ mechanic which made success more feasible for characters who are weak in those areas, and also the inclusion of secondary skills that can correct failures, at a cost because doing so requires an extreme physical effort. While the group outdistanced themselves from danger they were soon stopped in their tracks as the elf spotted a second drider at the end of the valley blocking there escape route.

Ravine Guard Post: The way out of the valley is guarded by a monstrous drider capable of destroying the party single handed. The party must find a way past without being detected.

Perception: Understand terrain; success provides a +2 to everyone’s checks

Each PC must find their own way past: Each failure gives a -1 penalty to the next attempt and PC loses a HSurge; 4/7 counts as 1 group success; 6/7 gains 2 successes

One PC can Lead the Way along each of the routes, providing a +2 bonus to other PCs following that same path if their check is a success.

Acrobatic Path: Sneak up the narrow crumbling path without causing a rock slide. Then walk over the narrow rock bridge above the drider to the other side

Athletic Path: Jump over the rocks. Then climb up onto the path that goes above the Drider

Stealth Path: Sneak up as close as possible using rocks as cover. Then sneak through the thin line of trees along the side of the valley which make their way past the drider

This was a neat little mini challenge where PCs had to pick which escape route to take. I hadn’t thought of what might have happened if they had failed this part miserably and called the drider’s attention upon them. They had been made well aware of the dangre, however, and they took it seriously, getting into the roleplaying to eek out that +2 bonus from me to ensure their chances of success. The group split into two groups. The strong PCs climbed over the rocks and scaled the valley wall up to a path the elf had spotted that passed above the drider. The subtle PCs snuck past hidden in the trees. The cleric misplaced her step and was about to fall but I allowed the leader to make a check to catch her and pull her up to safety. This sent a shower of rocks down the valley wall. The rogue, hidden in the trees at the time threw a rock behind the drider, distracting it long enough for the PCs up on the valley wall to hide themselves.

Once Past the Drider PCs must make their way back to the original path safely:

Nature: One person in each group that made their way past the drider can Lead the Way and provide a +2 bonus to the others in that group’s rolls.

Perception: Doesn’t count as a success but it can provide a reroll on a failed check at the cost of a HSurge

This is also a group check; 4/7 successes are required for 1 Team Success; 6/7 successes gains 2 successes. Only one person in each group is required to make a Nature check. Other PCs can use their skills creatively to plausibly aid the group back to their original path.

The elf rolled a natural 20 on her Nature check to lead the way, and so I ruled that she lead her group so efficiently that they made enough headway to catch up to the other group, and so they were able to benefit from her leadership on their checks as well. This part seemed like a mere formality at this stage, so I told them to describe how they found their way back to the original path, asking for more rolls seemed unnecessary. I announced that they had achieved success, gaining an important time advantage over their pursuers, time enough for the warlock to introduce herself and tell her story. I had enjoyed the obsidian system enormously, although I hadn’t run it strictly to the letter. The next series of skill challenges would continue to be based on the same system. The idea of battle while running a skill challenge worked brilliantly. It involved all the PCs in different ways at the same time, and created a situation where they were thinking about a lot more things than just which power to pick or who to hit. These are elements that I would try and include in all my encounter designs from here on out, whether there was a skill challenge going on or not.