D&D 4E Dragon Mountain (4e conversion - complete!)

[Cleon]

@Cleon Heh, if you get a chance, let me know what you steal and how it works for your group.

Thank Quickleaf.

I'll be far more likely to pinch encounter ideas and mechanical bits-and-pieces that run it as-is, but I appreciate good game writing.

Any chance of you being able to host a single file version of DM somewhere we can get our clammy paws on it?

Or, failing that, could I PM you an address and have you email it to me?

 

[Quickleaf]

Thank Quickleaf.

I'll be far more likely to pinch encounter ideas and mechanical bits-and-pieces that run it as-is, but I appreciate good game writing.

Any chance of you being able to host a single file version of DM somewhere we can get our clammy paws on it?

Or, failing that, could I PM you an address and have you email it to me?

Unfortunately, I do not have a site set up to share files. However, I'd be happy to email you the 3mb PDF file. Just keep in mind that it's not *totally* complete. Actually, since my group entered via the second level, I've got to flesh that out in the next two weeks! Must be Murphy's Law of DMing: players are always drawn to your area of least preparation

EDIT: I promised photos. This is the only one i had on my phone (that paper is gaming paper - awesome stuff).

 

[Cleon]

Unfortunately, I do not have a site set up to share files. However, I'd be happy to email you the 3mb PDF file. Just keep in mind that it's not *totally* complete.

Well in that case I'll message you my address, although I'm happy to wait if you want to finish it first.

Actually, since my group entered via the second level, I've got to flesh that out in the next two weeks! Must be Murphy's Law of DMing: players are always drawn to your area of least preparation

I believe it's one of the laws. Another is what makes PCs go to your area of a DM's greatest preparation and performs whatever action is most likely to completely mess it up.

 

[Quickleaf]

Haha, ain't that the truth!

I should mention that the exploration skill challenge is giving me a bit of trouble at the table...I'm just not sure how to frame it yet. Any insight from...I don't know...maybe [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] or [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] or anyone else.... would be great.

 

[Manbearcat]

Haha, ain't that the truth!

I should mention that the exploration skill challenge is giving me a bit of trouble at the table...I'm just not sure how to frame it yet. Any insight from...I don't know...maybe @pemerton or @Manbearcat or anyone else.... would be great.

While exploring Dragon Mountain (a skill challenge), we encounter...

(12) Kobolds, Trap, Special

(9) A group of 15 kobolds, 8 kobold archers, and 2 kobold wyrmpriests. It would appear they are (3) lurking in an ambush.

(6) The chamber"s floor is lodestone, weighing down arrows and pulling metal-armored opponents to it. Maybe the wyrmpriests need lodestone as a component for rituals?

(4) The kobolds have a weighted net trap to spring with their ambush. It makes sense that the metal weights on the net are magnified by the lodestone.

(2) Their preferred strategy is to have several kobolds swoop in to aid the attack of another kobold before shifting away.

If caught unawares, the kobolds are probably (6) practicing disarming traps and having trouble remembering which woe to cut. Maybe there are knots in their nets they're trying to work out?

If there is treasure to be found it consists of (4) a kobold corpse holding a magic item of level 11+1d4 that seems to attract catastrophe.

Is it this extended Exploration Skill Challenge that you're referring to?

A couple of generalities about Skill Challenge handling first:

1) There needs to be stakes.
2) Those stakes need to be explicitly conveyed at the table; you can use purple prose replete with foreshadowing and literary conventions, or you can overtly reference the metagame. Given what you have outlined about your table's interests, it is almost assured that the route that you typically go is the former.
3) You need to have conditions for success and conditions for adversity/complication should failure arise the first go around.
4) You need to have mechanical and mapped narrative results for those two resolutions. As in 2, you need to convey them (there is likely no getting around at least a tacit reference to the metagame here as the player's need to be made aware of the mechanical influence from their side of the screen.)

Now that that is over, a few questions:

- Is this Exploration Skill Challenge micro-region driven; eg, one skill challenge per tribal region or dwarven ruin region

or

- Is it level (physical level) driven?

Personally, at my table, I would make it the former. The stakes could be set each time the PC's enter a new micro-region. You could set them as you're relaying the color (sights, sounds, smells, lighting, topography, atmosphere, implied/potential threats) of the new locale. If I were doing it, I would relay the color then place my Success die and Failure die on the table after that is done (my metagame expression that the PCs have just entered a Skill Challenge). I would then regale them with a narrative that encapsulates all of that color and the potential dangers; that clearly outlines the stakes and alludes to the implications of success/complications of failure. What would ensue would be a closed scene where the PCs would navigate/explore the region. When those conditions for success are reached, the would move to the next closed scene (the next micro-region and the next Exploration Skill Challenge). If the conditions for failure are met instead, then the complications/adversity scenario would ensue; a new Skill Challenge which would attempt to resolve the complication/adversity and get them to the next micro-locale...or more failure for more complication/adversity. Insert feedback loop.

I'm pretty sure you've got complications/adversity outlined somewhere upthread:

- One or more PC getting lost.
- One or more PC getting kidnapped.
- A combat encounter with one clan or another or with the strike force.
- Exposure to a hazardous environmental condition/disease track.
- Moving along the Eyes of the Mountain track.
- Accidentally activating dwarven tech, drawing from nearby monsters/predators or having to deal with the tech/constructs themselves.
- Cave-In/Avalanche!
- Elaborate Kobold Trap, etc.

I'm pretty sure you've got all of that stuff. The most important part of "framing" a Skill Challenge at the table is making sure your players intimately understand the nuance of the concept; from a mechanical resolution standpoint, from when they are actually in one, from when/how they progress or regress, the stakes, the conditions for success/failure, how to properly compose and frame a single step/task (one check) of the overall conflict resolution mechanic (the skill challenge which resolves the exploration).

If you have specific questions that I didn't address in the above post, go ahead and ask it and I'll see if I can answer in a way that illuminates.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] Yeah, you zeroed in on an issue that I've been wondering about: whether to organize the exploration challenge by micro-region or by dungeon level.

I think the core of my dilemma is that a dungeon is a bounded environment with clear maps. For example, when the party ascends the stairs in the Bell-Chasm Distrcit, those stairs lead to the Smithy' Quarter. From the player's perspective, there is no need to make a skill check.

Btw I'm going off of the original module. Of course, I could do something creatively different - ah ha! the stairs are crumbling or trapped - but I doing that for every area transition seems a bit much.

I'm not saying I think the exploration challenge is a bad idea. Far from it. I like it. I just need to massage it a bit to fit a bounded dungeon environment with a very defined map.

EDIT: A good example of a time to run the exploration skill challenge is if the PCs decide to clear one of the caved-in passages.

 

[Manbearcat]

Well, if you have concern for using it as a means to adjudicate the actual exploration of a level or the transition between micro-locales, there is another option. You could use the Exploration Skill Challenge as a pacing mechanism that dictates extra pressure/adversity (possibly driven by the Weight of a Thousand Eyes component you created or just interesting adversity/encounters you wish you insert) that you place on the PCs (beyond the static elements of the Mountain's encounters/adversity) as they progress through the overall dungeon level (not the progression between micro-regions). If they succeed at a the respective level's Exploration Skill Challenge, then the pressure relinquishes to the "static" components. If they fail, then the pressure may increase further, they may be exposed to some calamity (environmental or disease exposure, some old, long-dormant, forgotten monster/beast, etc), or they may progress further along the Weight of a Thousand Eyes, and/or standard resource attrition + inability to take extended rests until they reach the next level (or pass an immediate repeat of the Skill Challenge or the next level's Skill Challenge).

The stakes in that scenario would be sheer survival; lack of or greater exposure to dangerous threats/conditions, resource stabilization or severe resource attrition, the ability to refresh resources or the inability to do so, etc.

 

[Manbearcat]

Here is one you might use:

SULFUR DIOXIDE!

Meta - Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a toxic gas with a pungent, irritating smell, that is released by volcanoes. Inhaling sulfur dioxide is associated with increased respiratory symptoms and disease, difficulty in breathing, and premature death. The short-term exposure limit (about 15 minute period) is somewhere around 5 PPM. The immediate threat level (this would literally be a hazard that would be probably be an Att vs Fort with large ongoing damage [save ends] and a reduced aftereffect [save ends]) is about 100 PPM.

The Setup - One of the mountain levels contains many natural vents to volcanic lava plumes. SO2 levels are elevated here (perhaps at the 5 PPM threshold or just below). The pungent stench is overwhelming and the inability to take a composed breath and get requisite oxygen is smothering, exhausting. The kobolds have been exposed to this over the course of millennia and their lungs and physiology have evolved to accommodate. It is no threat to them. To the PCs, it is deadly if exposed to these conditions for too long. The air is not stagnant; there is flow. If you want, there could also be a hanging, acidic causticness in the air that may damage the PCs in some fashion as well.

The Stakes - The PCs have to find their way out of these chambers to an above (or below) level before their body clocks tick out. Success in the Skill Challenge means they have found their way out of the area/level with the elevated PPM; the stench, the asphyxia, the hacking cough, the light-headedness all go away quickly as their bodies return to normal. Failure in the Skill Challenge means they have to start all over again...GULP!

Miscellaneous - No Extended Rests during the Exposure Skill Challenge. Perhaps they can find some of fissures to the lava plumes, clog them and buy them some time as well? Perhaps that yields an accrued success and a + 2 for the PCs next roll (morale - it wouldn't have an immediate effect on the PPM of the SO2. The lag would be too much to matter for this challenge). Perhaps the dwarves had an old ventilation system for when this occurred? If it can be located, perhaps it can be turned on (a mini Skill Challenge) and it will provide 2 successes and a + 2 for the rest of the extended Skill Challenge? Perhaps the PCs have to pass an intermittent group Endurance check (aiding for bonus and low man rolls it). Failure equals an accrued failure in the Skill Challenge, loss of 2 healing surges, and no Extended Rests effects/resource recharge until the group is out of the area. A large success (beat DC by 5 or more) can provide some reprieve perhaps; a small sheltered area where the PPM is decreased...but this area has guardians - tough combat encounter to claim the territory! Perhaps here they can take a makeshift version of an extended rest - recover 1 Daily or 2 Healing Surges...something like that. I would probably make all physical check failures (perhaps all check failures period...depending on how deadly you want it to be) cost all the PCs a healing surge as well as the accrued failure in the Skill Challenge (and some other trouble/pressure/adversity).

On a failed check, I would include an event with the Hazard with the extreme/deadly PPM somewhere in there as well. Something like this:

SO2 Vent (Elite)
Hazard
Level 12 Elite Blaster
XP 1400

Pouring from the vent is an air parcel saturated with noxious, super-heated sulfur dioxide. The smell of rotten eggs permeates the air, the eyes sting, the air takes a yellowish hue. Your mind reels and your lungs choke.

Hazard: The vent is only 1 square in size. Any creature adjacent to it is obscured and has partial concealment.

Perception: No check is necessary to notice the vent. It is much larger than a fissure. It almost looks like a secret passage to exit the chamber...

Nature: Once attacked by the gas, DC18 to idenify it and its effects.

Trigger: When a creature enters within 15 feet (CB3) of the SO2 Vent's space, they are attacked by the deadly gas.

Attack
Opportunity Action Close burst 3
Target: Each creature in burst
Attack: +15 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 2d8 + 5 poison damage. The target is immobilized and takes ongoing 10 poison damage (save ends).
Aftereffect: The target takes 5 ongoing poison damage (save ends)
Miss: Half damage and 5 ongoing poison damage (save ends).

Countermeasures

- Athletics DC 24: A character can heft or roll a large piece of adjacent rock over and "stopper" the vent. The Attack suffers a - 2, the damage goes to 1d8 + 5 and the immobilized rider goes away.
- Endurance DC 20: A character missed by the attack can move himself and 2 allies out of the area of effect.

 

[pemerton]

[MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION] - just a brief comment on your skill challenge - as [MENTION=386]LostSoul[/MENTION] and I discussed a month or so ago on some other thread, skill challenges are tricky when the situation is fully defined (eg like all your levels and transitions between them you mentioned). You need something abstract/undefined so that you can manipulate it in framing the need for skill checks, and then narrating successes and failures of skill checks once made.

Narrating your crumbling stairs seems to be an example of the sort of thing you need to do.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] Totally awesome! You've gotten me thinking about differentiating micro-regions of the dungeon in the context of the exploration skill challenge, and I think that'll make all the difference. Thanks And your SO2 hazard is very nicely done - may I borrow it?

[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] Yes, that's a great observation. There needs to be something abstract/undefined for a skill challenge to work best. I guess in this dungeon exploration skill challenge I haven't gotten clear about what the undefined framing element is...

Just spitballing here, but it looks like there are 3 "flags" I should look for when determining when to include exploration skill challenge checks...

1. When there's a looming pressure in the micro-region
2. When there's a hazardous/challenging area transition
3. When the PCs stay in one place for a period of time

That framework is really helpful, thanks guys

EDIT: With that in mind I think this skill challenge will work best without any final victory condition. Each new area to explore, old area to spend more time in, or challenging area transition to cross requires a check. The PCs keep making checks until they've either explored all of Dragon Mountain or leave. Each success means they efficiently explore in relative safety (well...for Dragon Mountain). Each failure costs a couple hours and leads to a roll on the Calamity Table, but there is no final defeat condition, just a question of how much punishment the PCs are willing to endure.