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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GameDoc" data-source="post: 5455487" data-attributes="member: 53915">I am designing a skill challenge for a 2nd level party and would appreciate any feedback or adivce.  Skill Challenge design isn't my string suit.   THE SETUP: At the end of the last session, while searching the forest for components for an antidote to save a poisoned ally, the party is attacked by a troop of elves.  This is unusual given that the elves are allies of their community.  The party defeated the elves fairly easily and fought to subdue rather than kill. THE SKILL CHALLENGE:  By interrogating the elves, the party can learn a few things that might help them with the actual combat challenge looming ahead.  The elves seem a bit delerious and tell a tale of being harried through the forrest by drow for several days.  They attacked the party (who has one drow member) on site assuming they were part of this force.A heal check can reveal that the elves cloudy perception and thinking is not the effect of poison or exhaustion. A perception check will reveal one of them is in possession of an odd piece of quartz. A nature check reveals the quartz is not of a type that would be found locally and a critical success indicates it's not even natural. An arcana check reveals the quartz is emitting psychic energy and may have originted in the Far Realm. A history check allows a character to recall there is an area in the nearby forest called the "Grove of Dread" that is supposedly haunted by bad memories and nightmares. Logically, the players should be able to peice together that the elves passed through the grove and became disoriented.  The drow were illusions or tricks of the mind.  One of them picked up the quartz in the grove and it's managed to perpetuate the effect on the group since. If the players figure it out, I was planning on giving them a bonus to defenses and saves agains any psychic effects they encounter when they reach the grove themselves. The grove holds a meterotite fragment that fell from the Far Realm and has mutated some of the local flora and fauna.  In particular, there are id fiends (borrowed from Dark Sun) that like to confuse and manipulate anyone who passes through. I am also toying with the idea that the "drow" were actuall Wilden who have recently manifested to destroy the meteorite, but the Id Fiends' managed to prey upon the elves' inherent fear and hatred of drow and make them see the Wilden as dark elves and attack.</blockquote>

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