Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="wedgeski" data-source="post: 5098374" data-attributes="member: 16212">I used a Skill Challenge to chart the journey of my group from an above-ground trading town to a below-ground location (the Seven-Pillared Hall, as it happens). It was one of my earliest experiences with the framework, and while I've learned a lot since then, it played pretty well, mostly because I improvised a couple of extra hazards, and allowed free-form use of Secondary Skills. (Posted below for posterity.) Where I differ from you is that I woudn't have the party make the same checks on the return journey (which, as it happens they made only last session). An implicit reward of success, for me, is familiarity with that terrain, and I simply hand-waved the journey back. Of course, it wouldn't have hurt that they had gained 4 levels or so in the meantime. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Following the Shadow Tacks, Level 4 Skill Challenge (175 XP per player)You navigate the hidden tunnels of the underdark, following creatures that are probably far more at home down there than you are.Complexity3 (8 successes before 3 failures), including at least three in total of Perception, Insight, and Dungeoneering.Primary SkillsAthletics, Acrobatics, Insight, Perception, Stealth, Dungeoneering, EnduranceVictoryVictory allows the characters to follow the Shadow Tacks to their destination (a secret entrance to the Seven-Pillared Hall) without being detected.Defeat3 failures means that the Shadow Tacks realise they are being followed and lead the PC's into an ambush. Choose one of the random Thunderspire encounters to run.Possible Hazards During the Challenge    * The remnants of the old mine. The ground is strewn with dust and debris, and the path of the critters is easy to follow. However, the PC's may come to a collapsed or precarious section of tunnel requiring some expertise to navigate.    * The path arrives at a sheer wall down which plunges a frigid waterfall. Endurance is the name of the game.    * The trail arrives at a nexus cave with dozens of different exits. How do the PC's know which one to take? A small, makeshift camp sits nearby and a cave troll dressed in delver's kit observes the PC's wryly. Perhaps he can be persuaded to help?    * The trail comes to a cavern with a frigid lake for a floor. A web of thick, red silken strands has been constructed a few feet over the surface, in which large white fish are trapped, some still feebly struggling, others dead, yet more dead and coccooned. The characters can elect to make a difficult swim, or traverse the web without alerting its owner. A failed check here means that the group is attacked by a Blood Web Spider Swarm.Skill UsesAcrobaticsThis check allows the group to navigate a precarious ledge or squeeze through an entrance which the Shadow Tacks find easy to move through. Failure costs everyone a Healing Surge unless they make a Saving Throw.AthleticsThe Tacks are strong and lithe, and the group will have to work hard to keep up with them. Helping each-other up steep surfaces, crossing precarious rock formations, clinging to giant stalagmites are all potential hazards. Failures here costs a Healing Surge unless a Saving Throw is made.Insight & DungeoneeringUnderdark caves are vast and seemingly random, but every natural catacomb has an order to it. Characters can make Insight checks to follow a logical path or guess at a shortcut.PerceptionThe characters are following the Shadow Tacks and must stay observant. A failed Perception check can be negated with a successful Stealth roll.EnduranceThe hazards of the Underdark can sap the strength of the hardiest adventurers. Sometimes the best solution is to grit your teeth and struggle through.Succeeding at the Skill Challenge: If the party successfully follows the shadow tacks, they find themselves emerging in a refuse pit on the western side of the Seven-Pillared Hall. The pit is a square hole cut out of the stone floor, full of rotting rubbish being scavenged on by various denizens, including several spiky-maned dogs, a seething mound of brown-furred rats, and half-a-dozen humanoids, including 2 goblins, a human, 2 half-elves, and a duergar, all of whom are filthy and reeking of disease.</blockquote>

Verification