Played tonight.
Not too much to report except the cool skill challenge we had.
Situation: Half the PCs were headed back to Winterhaven. Half the PCs were in the Keep, at the mercy of Kalarel.
Winterhaven:
In peril! The dead are rising from the graveyard!
The Keep:
Kalarel: Submit to the will of Orcus, or die!
I ran The Dead Walk encounter for three PCs. (Two players only; the Cleric's player left because he got a job that was on at nights.) So it was the Rogue, the Cleric, and the Wizard against Ninaren and the rest of them.
They had a single NPC minion - 1st level human - on their side, that they controlled using Minor Actions. Yeah, he went down right away.
The PCs were not doing much better. They knew they had to shut down that magic circle, but they had to stay alive long enough to do it. And I was rolling hot.
Meanwhile, we were cutting to the other PCs in the Keep and their skill challenge - once per round, giving each player a chance to do something. Kalarel was trying to break them, to curse them to do the will of Orcus. I started off by using torture, but the PCs were resisting. The Warlock feigned an interest in Orcus to keep the hot pokers away from his flesh, so Kalarel dragged them all to the upper temple. (Room 18)
On the way there, the Fighter broke his bonds.
Cut back to the fight.
Things going bad. PCs dropping. The Cleric turns undead, the Rogue is able to shut down 1/3 of the Magic Circle thanks to the guidance of the Wizard. ("Your lifeblood will cancel out the magic!" the Wizard's player said. The Rogue just barely made his roll.) But the Wizard went down, and so did the Rogue. Not good. They had taken out maybe 2 skeletons and one zombie dog at this point.
Cut to the Keep.
We're in the blood-soaked altar room. Time for a sacrifice! I started dragging the PCs onto the altar to see what would happen - what they would do to get out of that situation.
The Warlord, a new PC - replacing the Cleric - said that he had created a small sympathetic doll that would take the curse instead of him. Arcana roll (Hard) = success! He undergoes a ritual - soaked in the blood of a sacrificed pig - but suffers no ill effect.
The Warlock is next. He says he already believes in the power of Orcus, and he didn't need the blood ritual. "Good, then," Kalarel responds, "you can have the fire!" Bones burning with a sickly green flame scorched his flesh.
Yes, this was a failure.
Then we turn to the Fighter. Who, remember, had broken his bonds. He's thrown on the altar. "You are the most stubborn," Kalarel says. "You will taste the knife of Orcus!" He draws a knife, preparing to plunge it into the Fighter's chest.
The Warlord responds with a Scorching Burst right on the altar. "The holy flames of Orcus!" he says. "He is already blessed!"
Yeah. Kalarel is not buying it either. "Betrayal!" he shouts. The Warlord runs.
Now the Fighter makes his move. He flips out and goes all bad ass. He crushes the throat of the vampire spawn next to him. He punches the underpriest in the face and breaks his nose. He kicks Kalarel in the gut and winds him.
We're at 7 successes and 2 failures. What's the Warlock going to do?
Let's cut to the graveyard.
Things aren't looking good. The Wizard is back up and wipes out a bunch of skeletons thanks to a Colour Spray, but even using his Action Point he can't make it to the Magic Circle in time to attempt to break its power. And with ~10 hp left, that's not good.
Ninaren goes and fires at the Cleric. Twang! A 3 comes up on the die. Yeah, I'd use my Elven Accuracy too. Swhiff! Another 3. Crap. I probably would have nailed him if I hit with that sweet, sweet 1d10+5 damage.
The Cleric survives. Survives long enough to make it to the Magic Circle and make a check to dispel it. But one check isn't going to do it. Thank the Raven Queen he's got an Action Point. He makes the roll, and all the undead drop dead.
Back to the Keep.
It's down to the Warlock's roll; success or failure, it's going to be resolved here. Will they be swarmed by the Kalarel and his bitches, or will they break out?
The Warlock makes his move. He calls a flaming claw from Hell to grab the underpriest and throw him down the well. The underpriest tries to dodge, then to wiggle his way free, but he's stuck. He gets tossed down the well. All they can hear is a loud splash.
The PCs decide to beat feet and get out of there before Kalarel can rally his troops.
Back to Ninaren vs. the PCs.
It's one non-elite NPC vs. 3 PCs, but they are badly hurt. Almost all healing's gone, this is the 3rd encounter of the day and the last one was a bitch - no dailies remain. But the men in Winterhaven can see what's going on, and when the PCs call for support - and make the Diplomacy checks to get it - the odds shift in their favour.
Ninaren is surrounded, attacked from range, flanked, blasted from afar, and he can't roll above a 3. The Rogue puts him away for good, and Ninaren collapses into an open grave.
Okay, that was longer than I thought it would be.
After that, the PCs in the Keep pushed their way through to daylight; the PCs in town recruited a few allies (i.e. 16 year-old minions); and eventually they met up again. (The Wizard had an awesome idea, to send the PCs in the Keep the secret passcode found on Ninaren; too bad it didn't matter, since the guards were dead, and hey, it's a fake passcode anyways.)
"So what do you want to do now?"
"How about we go back down into the Keep?"
They pushed forward, destroyed the clay scout who was lurking in the first room before it could alert Kalarel, and made it to the gauntlet/skeleton generator room. They wiped out the room and destroyed the sarcophagi.
I had the whole room dedicated to Orcus and the scribblings to Bahamut were there because Keegan was trying to banish these things. But he was cursed; he couldn't speak the words. So the PCs had to do it.
Anyways. The skeletons gone, they smashed the altars, weakening Kalarel's bond with Orcus. (i.e. They get the benefit of the dragon statues.) They looked at the door, glowing with warding symbols of Orcus, wondering what it meant:
"If good wards are meant to keep evil things away..."
"...then evil wards are meant to keep good things away!"
That's where we left off.
Some things I suspected, but I think I learned: When running a skill challenge, as a DM you really have to push the PCs. Don't just leave them in a place where they can do nothing. "Okay, you make it to an empty room. You're okay. What do you do?" NO! "Okay, you make it to an empty room. But you hear the sound of stone rumbling... EARTHQUAKE! What do you do?"
You don't get a roll as DM. You have to pack your punch without the roll. Push them to a situation where they have to make a roll - and make sure they deal with the consequences of that roll, of the change in the situation -whether they succeed or fail.
edit: The Skill Challenge was Level 4: DCs 7/12/17; most checks were DC 12, a few DC 17. We used some Powers/Attack Rolls as Skill Checks. Still used the same DCs, though Kalarel would have been Hard, while the Underpriest was Moderate and a Minion would have been Easy.
