New DM, Help w/imorotant SC.

[woodnman412]

Hola gamers, (wall of text inc)

First post here on enworld. Lookin for some inspiration for my home Eberron campaign. I've been playing DnD since 2nd ed but I still have a lot to learn about DM'n.

I am fortunate enough having my wife play in this campaign, and her B-Day is landing on our Tuesday session so I want to do something fun for her.

-Quick rundown of party and campaign

Party: All 4th level, Gatekeeper Druid (wife), Artificer, Monk/Rogue, Bard and Paladin

Campaign Arc: Daelkyr lord is working to break out of his imprisonment in Khyber and wants to destroy the dimensional seals that are keeping Xoriat at bay. In my campaign warforged are brought to life by infusing the construct with a spirit from a deceased individual. The warforged are unawwere of this fact and it is known to only a few, one of which is the Daelkyr lord whom is having a "godforged" created to instill his own spirit in.

Dimensional seals that are attuned to xoriat are being tampered with and are losing their effectivness which is where the party comes in. They're job is to fortify the seals.

I am planning to have a number of seals that need attention throughout the campaign. I have managed to work out that the seals need to be "reset" to regain their potency which allows a portal to xoriat to open shortly while this is happening.

I'm looking for help designing a skills challenge/encounter to fortify these dimensional seals that will be used throughout the campaign. There is an item they will aquire after their first try and a dungeon crawl to aid in the process giving them some kind of +'s on the rolls. I will have the godforged vary in power depending on how many of these seals are sucessfully fortified throughout the campaign so the PC's don't have to sucessfully complete each challenge. The artificer and druid should have the skills to work the challenge while the others can defend them if this turns to a combat SC. I envision a seal as a ~10' diameter stone slab covered in runes and glyphs that can be reworked and redirected. There will be 13 of these placed throughout Eberron.

How would you design these encounters? Your input is appreciated.

Best Regards,
Woodnman412

 

[Jacob]

The idea of collecting an item to gain a bonus with the spellcasting necessary sounds very much like a Banishment spell. To make it simple, perhaps that could be the required spell in order to seal the deal? Sure, there is no Cleric of Wizard/Sorcerer in the party, but that doesn't mean they can't hire/befriend one, and have defending him be the challenge in question.

Your mention of the runes and writing needing to be rewritten makes me wonder if it could also be a mental puzzle as well, requiring a collection of Decipher Script checks and actual hands on puzzles.

 

[woodnman412]

I like the idea of involving a spell throughout the challenge. As a gatekeeper she has access to stuff like dimensional anchor. This could be a temporary fix till a dimensional lock can be applied. Maybe that is what the item holds.

Ty for the input, it is appreciated.

Woodnman412