Tony Vargas
Legend
How important is being drained of resources and resting to the pacing? Could it just be that a day or two increments because time has passed, it does take time to travel 15 miles through the mountains.It just feels more "natural" for my sense of story progression that the party roams through the mountain pass, finds a cult of morally ambigous dwarves, helps them to collect the relics of an unchained elemental titan, slay the orc raiders and finally confront the titan and banish him into the depths of the underdark.
- 5 encounters: roaming the tunnels, defending against orc raiders and travelling about 15 miles
- the party is mostly drained of ressources
- end of the day and long rest
- 5 encounters: freeing dwarven cultists from orcs, storming the orc's base, going back and binding the stone titan
- the party is mostly drained of ressources
- end of the day and long rest
Why am I eager to stick to the two-day solution? Because if think that it gives the whole endevour a bit more grandness. Its not only a modest tunnel pass that can be crossed in two hours but a dwarven ruin of quite a scale.
I would like to present the party with the first threat, the orcs and the dangers of the tunnel, on the first day. Then day get a feeling for the tunnels, can make a campsite snuggled up against some dusty bones. On the second day they see that the orcs aren't the only (and not even the worst) threat and could decide to help against the stone titan. This partitioning of the story and its elements is important to me in order to let the adventurers and the players breathe a bit. ..
Well, this is at least what I wanted to accomplish. Hope that I could make myself clear. (And I also appreciate the previous input.)
I could see breaking it up something like:
roams through the mountain pass: set-up/Skill Challenge (or interspersed simpler skill challenges to get from place to place if you want more detail). For one big challenge, each failure gets you an 'orc raider' encounter. Success locates the dwarves before they tangle with orc raiders and you can help the, and gets you the information they can provide. Failure, you reach the dwarves after an orc raid and they're on edge.
For multiple smaller challenges, it can be more sandboxy, the party roams about, a Complexity 1 challenge gets them from place to place without issues and when they approach a potential combat they can decline it. One failure, healing surge from mishaps or exhaustion. Two failures, the combat can't be avoided. Three and the potential encounter becomes an ambush.
I'd prefer the one big Skill Challenge.
finds a cult of morally ambigous dwarves: social encounter (SC if there are 'stakes,' otherwise, RP & skill checks or just RP & narration as you set up the rest of the adventure).
**Now, at this point, they've been walking around a mountain pass all day, and resting is fine, even if they haven't used resources.**
helps them to collect the relics of an unchained elemental titan: Tougher Skill Challenge, minor fights with Orcs (like equal number of minions or something, they fight for one round, then scatter, if any get away, that's another failure, if you stop all of them, that's a success) on each of the first two failures. Three failures means the jig is up, and you face the Orcs with no long rest. Success means you collect the relics you need to banish the Titan and the orcs are none the wiser.
slay the orc raiders: Series of combats. If you completed the SC successfully, you can rest before you take them on, and hunt them down, destroying them in detail one group at a time before they can organize a defense. If you fail, they're alerted & hunting you, and you have to skirmish with them, until you can get away.
Either way, that'd be the second rest, and if they failed the challenge they probably need it. The next 'day,' they have to fight through any remaining orcs and...
Combat + Skill Challenge. Point of the combat being to survive long enough to finish the challenge that banishes the Titan.and finally confront the titan and banish him into the depths of the underdark.
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