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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EugeneZ" data-source="post: 5093702" data-attributes="member: 83605">Ran this yesterday. Thanks for the advice, Ryan, I ended up going with brigands like you said. [spoiler]And now that I understand the reason behind the freezing river, I made sure to make the icing of the river very clear as they travelled up, so huge thanks for that.[/spoiler] The party ended up capturing a brigand and I just tweaked the Refugees story a little bit so that they were indeed once refugees from Ragesia/Rego but turned to brigandry after Rego kicked them out of his lands.For anyone interested, I posted the barebones "script" of my plans, which includes the converted-for-water skill challenges and read-aloud text:You have 'volunteered' (thanks to Katrina) to tag along with a half-elf named Balan on a diplomatic mission to Dassen. Despite any misgivings you might have that the King's court is the right place for you, a hard look in Simeon Gohanach's eyes suggests that he does not send forth his new-found heroes lightly.The morning following the meeting in the Lyceum, you meet with Balan in the breakfast room of your inn (where you are treated to your daily free breakfast). Having discussed the possibility of water-travel the night before, you present this idea to Balan. He looks nervous, but agrees that it is likely the faster route, and the extra danger water travel poses should be no match for the five of you. He walks with you to the north docks and arranges for your travel goods to be delivered while you search for a suitable vessel.There seems to be three river-worthy ships in the harbor: The large, fast caravels, the small, slow keelboat, and the well-balanced cogs. Finding a captain willing to take the trip north will not be easy. Finding TransportationLevel 10 Skill Challenge (XP 500) | Complexity 1 (4,3) <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Caravel: Large, fast - 150 GP per head (900 GP) </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cog: Medium, medium - 120 GP per head (720 GP) </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Keelboat: Small, slow - 90 GP per head (540 GP)</li> </ul>Victory: The heroes manage to find a boat and hire it for 400 GP if they bargained well, regardless of the ship price. If they were successful on their Nature check, they are most likely to select the Caravel due to its speed. Failure: The heroes manage to find passage on a vessel of their choice. They must pay full price for whichever ship they selected. Regardless of success or victory, selecting the keelboat grants them a failure in Journey, the Caravel grants a success. Nature (DC 16): The hero is able to identify information about each of the individual ships. Grants 1 success, max 1. Diplomacy (DC 21): The hero attempts to convince the captain to travel up the river, or to bargain on the price. First success unlocks Religion. Grants 1 success, max 2. Religion (DC 12): The hero discusses religion with a captain. The captain will happen to be Aregal regardless of the boat the PCs choose, and he will take them due to their religious inclanations. Insight (DC 21): The hero is able to gain some insight into the mood at the docks. The water is freezing over, so captains will be charging far more than normal. They are superstitious in nature and appealing to their religious nature may be helpful. Grants no successes, but grants a +2 bonus to the rest of the skill challenge.If the PCs appealed to Aregal's religious nature, read the following after they've successfully hired his boat:As his men load Balan's possessions onto the vessel, the captain looks at you like he wants to say something. After some silence, he laughs akwardly, like he just thought of something funny.Ya know... out on the sea, a man... a man listens to his gods. Meybe it's easier to hear 'em out there, middle 'a nowhere. Anyway, I been thinkin' about these freezin' waters in March, and now the Skyburners are hirin' out my vessel. Been havin' strange dreams, so startin' to think me god, me mum's god, comin' ta collect me soul soon.Me mum told me stories o' this great big dragin, all gold, like, what will come one day and save the world. Called her Syana... elven name, like me mum's. Anyway, in tha dreams, I see a gold dragin, like Syana, but smaller, a whelp. She's searchin', lookin' 'round fer... fer her soul. Ya. ... But she's trapped, beneath tha waves... trapped in a sea of this dream. I wanna help her, like me mum wud want me ta, but I kint do nuthin'. But it's okay, 'cause there's a dragonborn, all burning up, castin' spells and tryin' to rescue the dragin. I feel his voice, sometimes. ... I feel his voice, like he's askin' me ta save the world. I talk ta him sometimes, an' sometimes... sometimes, he answers.The captain looks at you with hopeful eyes, clearly expecting the worst from this story.JourneyLevel 11 Skill Challenge (2000 XP) | Complexity 3 (8,3) You set sail soon enough. All the sailors look at the water like they've never seen it in their life before. They look up to the sky occassionally, seeming to search for something, then back down at the water. The mood aboard the ship is dire, and the boat is clearly not fully crewed, some unwilling to make the trip. The speed is suffering, as a result, but you crawl across the bay never-the-less. The weather is unnaturally cold and a biting wind whips across the decks constantly.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1st Success: Refugees </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">4th Success: Bodies in the Water </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">6th Success: Grim Tidings</li> </ul>Victory: The heroes make it to Bresk just before the Talon begins to guard all the city gates. (See “Into the City”.) Defeat: The skill challenge does not end when 3 failures are accrued (all 8 successes *must* be met). However, earning three or more failures slows them down enough to have to bypass the Talon to get into the city (see the skill challenge "Checkpoint"). For each failure, reduce the XP by 250 XP (but only if it's 3 or more failures) Athletics (DC 16): Due to the cold weather, helping to crew the boat isn't hard, but requires a successful partnering Endurance check of DC 21 to be successful. An Endure Elements ritual negates this. If a character's background involved sailing, they recieve a +5 bonus to the atheltics check, but not the endurance. Earns one success. Bluff (DC 12): A player wishing to entertain the crew with song or games must make a bluff check to portray a feeling of joy and fun that is hard for the sailors to believe... never-the-less, they want to, badly, making the check rather easy. This earns two successes. Diplomacy (DC 16): A hero tries to cheer the crew through casual conversation and friendship, generally being a good passenger. Earns one success. History (DC 21): A hero uses his knowledge of the water routes in the bay and river to assist the navigator. This is a difficult task since the player is unlikely to be superior to the on-board navigator. Earns one success. Failure, however, eliminates a previous success in addition to counting as a failure. Insight (DC 21): A hero tries to understand the sailor's fear. They are superstitious and are depressed because the weather is unnatural, and that after an unnatural hurricane. Reveals also that the sailors could use some cheer. No successes. Endurance (DC 21): This is the check that must be attempted to succeed at any task done abovedecks for a long period of time (Athletics to sail the ship, for example, as noted above). However, it grants no success -- on a failure, the character fails due to the extreme cold. Having the Endure Elements ritual activated automatically negates this. RefugeesYour journey across the bay is reasonably fast and uneventful, and you quickly enter the Nasham's mouth, the crew seeming cheered by the progress so far and no major catastrophe to show for it. However, grins rapidly turn sour as only a few miles up the river, a sailor spots chunked ice floating downstream. Sure enough, the chunks begin to scrape against the hull as the hull sweeps them aside.The captain doesn't seem to concerned, until ahead looms a large frigid wall of ice blocking the river, like a dam made by a beaver. The sails are rolled and the boat comes to a stop before the dam of ice. The men slide off the side of the ship with clubs to beat the ice into chunks. A few look at you five hopefully.If they help, as they're starting on the dam:Insight 21 and Nature 15: Such walls are not unheard of on icing rivers like the Nasham, but this one looks like it might have been piled together by someone... As you start in on the wall, you hear the shuffling of snow, and from both banks leap up warmly-dressed brigands, looking mighty pleased to have netted such a valuable vessel. ... battle here...If the brigands are questioned, the heroes learn they are Regesians running from the war in the north. Having been banished and unwelcome in Lord Rego's lands, they became a rather unsuccessful band of bandits.Bodies in the WaterLevel 10 Skill Challenge (1,000 XP) | Complexity 2 (6,3) The sailors are nearly mutinous after the brigand encounter, and the ridiculous weather has earned them nothing but sickness, fatigue, and in one case, frostbite. The captain, however, has done his best to keep them in good spirits. All this is shattered, however, as the vessel, a good ways up the river now, suddenly emits a painful squeal as ice scratches through the hull. The crew immediately panics: many jump overboard, apparantly deciding they've had enough of this voyage and are willing to make their own luck, and the rest head belowdecks to bilge and repair. (NOTE: I had Balan be smacked on the head and go unconscious in his room. They discovered his unconcious body later when they went to search for him.)Victory: The heroes can make the rest of the trip to Nresk via boat. Failure: The heroes lose the boat and are forced to travel the rest of the way to Bresk by foot, losing three healing surges each.At some point in the skill challenge, while they are bilging: The cut is not too terrible, but as the carpenter moves in to seal the flaw, he gasps and makes a religious gesture. Looking over his shoulder, you see that a hand is stuck in the gap, a hand encased almost completey in ice. After some shouting, pulling, squeezing, and general discomfort, three icy bodies lay in the hold. They were clearly dumped in the river recently enough to not wash the bodies out to sea, but long enough ago to have frozen in the ice at the bottom of the river. All three men have the same device on their tabards: A leopard and a serpent dancing under a sunburst. Two were killed by crossbow bolts in the back, while the third appears to have been hanged. (DC 18 History/Diplmacy to reveal as Lady Dene's)Note: That's all I have. These are DMs notes, so maybe I'll come back here at some point and clean them up. I don't really like the resolution of the Bodies in the Water skill challenge..., and I didn't actually include and skill check details. I just improvised the skill challenge, and since most of the PCs chose to bilge, it wasn't a big deal (Athletics). I probably could have done something more interesting considering they're bilging freezing cold water but whatever.</blockquote>

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