D&D 4E Help creating a 4E Skill Challenge

[ghrezdd]

I have been running 4e since July, but I have not done any Skill Challenges except for the one in H1 (which I used to kick off my campaign). I would like to use one in the upcoming adventure. But I am not sure how to go about it.

Now for some back story:

My party will be 7th level (hopefully) when they get to it. They have been tasked to retrieve the Conqueror's Stone, a large ruby that is basically like Bob, the skull-trapped spirit from The Dresden Files. Unfortunately it is located in the ruins of a citadel that was destroyed by a mighty magical conflagration/implosion in order to keep it from the hands of an attacking Necromancer and his undead army.

This is a side quest, so I would like to keep it to about 3 Combats and the 1 Skill Challenge. I have very little else developed so far other than I want 1 of the Combats to be a waver after wave Zombie horde.

So any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

 

[chronoplasm]

"Ceiling's Gonna Collapse! Let's Get that Rock, and Roll!"
"Freaking Door Shut Behind Us!"

Time Limit: 10 rounds. If the skill challenge is not completed within this time, the party is buried and forced to take the long way out.

There is a portal in the room that the party can open to get out quickly, but it has a combination lock to activate.

Skills:
Arcana: Figure out the combination lock.
Diplomacy/Intimidate: Convince the stone to tell you the combination to the portal.
Athletics/Endurance: Pry the door open.
Dungeoneering: Prevent the pillars from buckling under. Each successful Dungeoneering check buys the party extra time.

 

[silverwhisper]

endless zombie hordes:
time limit: 5 rounds. if the skill challenge is not completed within this time, the party is utterly surrounded by zombies and cut off from the chamber's safe exits.

the room in which the zombie hordes catch up with the party features a pair of catwalks, which are accessible via the rough-hewn dungeon walls or several collapsed pillars in the room which conveniently can serve as ramps.

skills:
acrobatics: do the danny kaye "walk up the wall" thing.
athletics: climb up the wall/pillar segments to the catwalk.
dungeoneering: spot the tactical merit of getting off the floor.
religion: recognize the fact that zombies are not trained in either acrobatics or athletics.

hm...in retrospect, this might actually constitute a hazard rather than a proper skill challenge.

 

[ghrezdd]

Looks good so far

The ceiling collapsing is a good idea, chronoplasm. And I agree with you silverwhisper that that encounter would be a good battlefield/hazard.

Any ideas regarding a social challenge? Perhaps negotiating with a ghost?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Make sure you get the DMG errata. Skill challenge mechanics have been altered a good bit and the originally published version was VERY broken from a math perspective. Even the slightest variation of +/-2 on a single character's skill check could make a sure-thing 90% success rate challenge into a 10% success rate death trap or vice-versa. Even the patched version has very tricky math though. Basically you need to pretty much dry run the party through it to get an approximate idea of the odds.

You could have a maze in the place. That could be a decent skill challenge. You could even allow an INT attribute roll as an option (but make it a medium or easy roll since there is no skill bonus).