Need help desiging a series of skill checks

[mudbunny]

(Hopes that this is the right spot for this...)

It is my first time DMing, and I am jumping into a campaign as the previous DM is feeling a little bit burnt out and wants to play a little for a while. For the first night, I have a 3 encounters, but also want to throw some skill checks/challenges at them to mix things up a bit.

Here is the synopsis of the nights planned encounters.

It is a party of 6 L5 PCs. They have all of the class bases covered, I just don't remember the specifics offhand.

In one of their previous adventures, they came actross some amulets that radiated necrotic energy. I decided to say that these amulets somehow thinned the barrier between the PM plane and the negative plane. At the same time, a local cult who had been cast out of the local church started trying to create undead as revenge. Through a ritual that they stole from the church, they managed to create a brief rift and created a mummy. The cleric who lead the ritual also managed to become infused with negative energy and acquired the unholy template (from the Advanced Bestiary by Green Ronin). At the same time, the thinness of the barrier is causing some zombies and skeletons to arise from the local graveyard.

The first encounter the PCs will have, before they narrowness of the barrier is discovered, is with a group of cult members, one of which is a cleric who is suffering from mummy rot. About halfway through the battle, about when the tide is turning strongly in the favour of the party, the cleric will succumb to mummy rot and decompose into a pile of dust.

The second encounter will be with a bunch of zombies and skeletons.

The final encounter will be in a mausoleum and will be with a mummy, unholy cleric and a bunch of low-level trash mobs.

I would like the skill checks to be between the 2nd and third encounters and enable them to figure out where the zombies/etc are coming from. I am unsure exactly of how to do it or the DCs that would be appropriate. I am thinking that I would have, on the zombies in the second enounter, something that would lead them back to the graveyard if they figure it out. A flower or perhaps a trinket that people in the town have the local church put around the wrist of bodies that are buried. (The party is not local to this town, so they would have to figure it out by talking to people.) The town is located over an old battlefield, so there would be lots of bodies buried pretty much everywhere. This would be common knowledge so as to not have them immediately figure out that the corpses are from a specific mausoleum.

Beyond that, I am at a loss as to things that I could have them investigate.

Help.

 

[Dross]

I would like the skill checks to be between the 2nd and third encounters and enable them to figure out where the zombies/etc are coming from. I am unsure exactly of how to do it or the DCs that would be appropriate. I am thinking that I would have, on the zombies in the second enounter, something that would lead them back to the graveyard if they figure it out. A flower or perhaps a trinket that people in the town have the local church put around the wrist of bodies that are buried. (The party is not local to this town, so they would have to figure it out by talking to people.) The town is located over an old battlefield, so there would be lots of bodies buried pretty much everywhere. This would be common knowledge so as to not have them immediately figure out that the corpses are from a specific mausoleum.

Beyond that, I am at a loss as to things that I could have them investigate.

Several ways I'd do this:
Having a tell tale on the undead, like your suggested wristband is a must. Add others as need be, heraldric symbol, arcane mark, plant/dirt. And then there is the simple Track

• Survival/track the undead back to the site
• Know Religion for undead likely to be in graveyards and battlefield, to create undead you need certain things and room to perform you raising uninterupted.
• Know: Local for specific people being buried at special sites.
• Gather Info for the locals to tell the party about the graveyard/battlefield and who was buried where
• Know history for a battle fought here and someone of note died
• Know History for a person of note plus retainers who died and were buried here at a specific site
• Know Nobility & Royalty to know the heraldric symbol of the noble and his retainers found on the clothes of the zombies

(these may be more of the "hint" variety)

• know nature: Have the zombies and skelos covered in dirt and plants that typically come from graveyards or a certain site.
• Heal checks reveal the fingers have dirt as if the undead have been digging
• Know Arcana for a mage's arcane symbol (could have been an acolyte that died)
• Know geography maybe know that people in this area tend to have crypts in certain places (next to a stream or pond or always to the west of town etc) depending on who was buried.
• craft armour or weapons (if the undead have any) may show the items to be burial armour or weapons

Have the locals complain that someone's crypt seems to have been disturbed.

have an INT check to notice that the undead all came from a certain direction, like west

If there is a body of water on the right direction make some of the undead wet (especially for a monk or touch spell, or fire spell and steam)

An average to tough 10-15 DC of the appropriate skill. I'd tend towards survival being easier than knowledge (since minor nobles etc would not be necessarily well know and the undead would leave semi-obvious tracks), but gather info would work better for a noble.

I also allow off the cuff synergy bonuses for these types of things as this allows many clues to build a picture.

While never a guarantee a 5th level PC may have skill bonus of approx 8-14
a ranger / survival, wizard / know arcana, cleric / know religion, druid /know nature

History, geography, nobility and royalty, craft/profession may not be taken at all.

 

[mudbunny]

Thanks for the suggestions!! I will digest them, think over them and come back with some ways I am fitting them in.