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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 4215165" data-attributes="member: 60965">Appropriate Skills: Athletics, History, Heal, ReligionUnlockable Skills: Insight, ThieveryForbidden Skill: AcrobaticsThese draws made me think of stumbling across the ruins of a cursed castle in the middle of the wilderness and trying to discover its past.  Alternately, they were sent there by a descendant of the lords who used to own it - he still has title to the castle, but can't claim it due to the curse and so hired/sent/asked the PCs to find out for him.The castle itself is covered with razor-sharp thorns and must be navigated very carefully.  Perhaps the lords of the castle offended the local fey or a fey-pact warlock and he put a curse on the castle.Athletics: Some of the castle has collapsed, masonry blocking doors that might lead to clues or stairways rotted mostly away so there is some hard climbing to get into the towers and look search for hints, though some of the doors behind the rubble or in the towers are locked.  Success unlocks Thievery(see below).Ex. success: DM: You roll the giant stone away with a heave and a grunt and find a small iron-bound door behind it.  It's locked.Ex. failure: DM: You roll the giant stone partially away, but it rolls back into you, knocking you into a patch of thorns.History: They might find the remains of old tapestries, banners with old heraldry, moldered, barely legible accounting or history books that can be pieced together to determine the nature of the curse.  Success unlocks Insight(see below).Ex. success: DM: You notice the tapestries seem to depict an awful lot of animals being caught alive in traps and taken back to the castle...Ex. failure: DM: You notice the tapestries seem to have caught on fire when you knocked your lantern over.Heal: Animals sometimes wander into the castle and get pricked by the thorns, the thorn's poison slowly paralyzing them.  PCs can gain the favor of local woodland spirits/what-have-you by treating the animals.  Alternately, they can treat players who get pricked to keep them going.Ex. success: DM: The animal staggers to its feet and runs away from the castle, though it seems as though it pauses and looks back at you for a moment before vanishing from sight.Ex. failure: DM: The animal thrashes, does 3 damage to you with a hoof, and you fall into the thorns with it.Religion: Perhaps the local lord was secretly sacrificing wild animals to some dark god in exchange for power.  The PCs might find a bloody altar or runes and symbols of the god and use Religion to figure out which god it is, etc.  Success unlocks Insight(see below).Ex. success: DM: You see a symbol of a broken antler with a rain of blood pouring from it alot.  It reminds you of something...Ex. failure: DM: You see a symbol that you think belongs to Grum'esh(sp?), god of Orcs!Thievery: Unlocking the simple locks on the doors allows the PCs access to small libraries or hidden shrines/altars, rooms with the abandoned personal belongings of those who lived there that give more clues.  Success unlocks Insight(see below).Ex. success: DM: You unlock the door to find a disturbing room full of animal bones.Ex. failure: DM: You unlock the door, but find when you jerk it open that the door was all that was holding the rest of the wall up.Insight: PCs can take the information and clues gathered to piece together that the local wood guardian(whatever it happens to be) is the one that placed the curse on the castle for the lord's sacrifice of the woodland creatures.Ex. success: Player: "I seem to be getting the idea that there were some form of animal sacrifices going on here.  Maybe it has something to do with the curse." DM: *nods*Ex. success: Player: "I seem to be getting the idea that the evil Lord Razor Thorn, eater of bones, destroyer of castles is awakening below the keep.  We should find our way to the catacombs and defeat him to remove the curse." DM: *nods*Acrobatics: The thorns are so thick and sharp that any fancy attempts at leaping/jumping/tumbling result in PCs just injuring themselves and getting slowed(maybe eventually paralyzed) by their poison.Ex. failure: DM: You try to tumble through the razor-sharp briar patch and quickly discover that, yes, it is as dense and pointy as it looked.To succeed, they need 8 successes before 4 failures.  Success means they discover the curse and how to appease the local spirit/guardian and get it to lift the curse.  Failure means being poisoned and maybe arousing the ire of the wood guardian.  Individual failures might mean being poisoned and taking -2 on their next rolls do to the numbing effects of the poison, while individual successes might give +2 bonuses to an appropriate related roll.Edit: Added example successes and failures.</blockquote>

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