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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6625479" data-attributes="member: 97077">After additional trials, tribulations, a pitched battle with a yuan-ti pureblood and its swarm of poisonous water moccasins, plus a long rest, the adventuring party is now 2nd level. They have encountered an insane castaway, Scurvy Pete, who knows a secret way into the dungeon...DM: Scurvy Pete challenges Chuck Dagger to go one-for one with him eating these fat, maggot-like grubs with black heads, each big as a thumb, that live in the palm trees. "They explode when you bite down on them and taste like old fish!" If Chuck can eat more of the grubs than Scurvy Pete, then he promises to tell you where the secret entrance to the dungeon is, outside of snake-men territory. If Chuck can't stomach this, then you're on your own.Lack-Toes: "How 'bout I just beat the information out of this lunatic?"Cow: "Let us not stoop to such measures. Bad karma."Rosemary: "C'mon Chuck, we need this. Those snake-men are dangerous."Cow: "Use your third eye and imagine they're something other than what they are." I cast guidance on Chuck.Chuck: I sigh. "I'll take the challenge... I'll try to imagine they're just pieces of runny cheese."DM: Scurvy Pete puts the palm leaf before you, covered in squirming grubs. "Go!"Rosemary: On the sly, I cast a spell - prestidigitation - to change the flavor of grubs on Chuck's side of the leaf to delicious cheese. << DM Decision Point... >> DM: That will grant advantage to Chuck's Constitution check, plus another 1d4 for guidance. The DC will be Scurvy Pete's Constitution check.Chuck: *rolls 15*DM: *rolls 18* Even with good advice and magic on your side, you couldn't eat more grubs than Scurvy Pete. What happened?Chuck: They tasted surprisingly good but the way they looked and squirmed psyched me out. I only got a couple down before my stomach turned.DM: Scurvy Pete does a jig to celebrate his victory. This crazed man won't tell you how to get to the secret entrance. You'll have to find it yourself which will take time or go through yuan-ti territory which is more dangerous. Later, after a dangerous skirmish with yuan-ti pureblood hunters and a giant constrictor snake, the adventurers are being pursued by a dozen or more snake-men...DM: Arrows whistle past you and embed themselves in nearby trees with an ominous "thokk!" as you try to keep ahead of the yuan-ti. More seem to join the chase as you race toward the volcano which trembles and smokes. Thorny vines and brush tear at your exposed skin as you run. How do you seek to get away from your pursuers?Rosemary: We know they won't follow us into the ruins in the mountain - they think it's cursed. "To the ruins!"Chuck: I'm huffing and puffing. This running fast over long distances is definitely not for me.DM: Your legs are burning and your chest feels like it's going to explode from the effort.Lack-Toes: I'm running behind Chuck to make sure he doesn't fall down and get captured. "Move!"Cow: "This reminds me of the running of the bulls during the Horned God's festival!" I run with the spirit of my deity in my heart and a smile on my face. << DM Decision Point... >> DM: It sounds like you're all just trying to push past your normal limits and beat the yuan-ti to the ruins. Let's do this as a group DC 14 Constitution check. If at least half of you make it, you get to the ruins and the yuan-ti stop giving chase. If less than half of you make it, then you're captured by the snake-men and brought before their Great Abomination.Party: *rolls 8, 9, 14, 17*Chuck: "I thought... we... were... goners..."Lack-Toes: "We?"DM: By the skin of your teeth, you leave the hissing yuan-ti behind as you plunge into a cave mouth on the mountain. They will most assuredly be waiting for you if and when you come out. Meanwhile, fissures in the mountain have been spewing smoke, ash, and toxic gases into the air. This cave and the tunnel that cuts into the mountain are choked with it and so do will you be if you don't do something about it. So what do you do?Cow: I gasp and cough, trying to get whatever good air there is into my lungs, then hold my breath.Lack-Toes: Me too. "We can power through this."Chuck: "I'm already out of breath from running - now this?!" I hold my breath as best I can, considering.Rosemary: I cover my mouth and nose with a wet cloth.Cow: I point ahead - maybe deeper in the tunnels the smoke will abate. "Onward!" << DM Decision Point... >> DM: Okay, this will be a passive Constitution check, DC 10. Disadvantage if you failed your Constitution check when you were being chased by yuan-ti. If you succeed, you make it to better air with no ill effect. If you fail, you make it to better air but you took in a lot of toxic fumes while traveling - poisoned for 1 hour. Rosemary, advantage for the wet cloth. How are you feeling after your journey through the tunnel?Chuck: I cough loudly and struggle to make it, crawling the last bit, nearly passing out. I'm poisoned.Rosemary: I feel okay and try to help Chuck along.Lack-Toes: "It smells good in here!"Cow: "I must admit  - I feel unwell. I am too used to the bracing sea air." Pro-Tip: There are three good go-to's that are easy to imagine for a failed check. Take some resources off the PCs - some hit points, a hit die, some equipment, time, etc. Throw a condition on them for a given amount of time. Or escalate the situation - the NPC gets hostile, they're captured, monsters show up, the trap's about to go off, or whatever makes sense in the scene. Make success be what they stated as their goal when they described what they wanted to do. Make failure cost them something or change the scene in some way. And always be sure it follows in the fiction and is interesting and fun for the players (even if it's bad for the characters!).</blockquote>

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