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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 4836710" data-attributes="member: 75065">Maybe failure, instead of resulting in death, results in something more like a geas, where the PC's are 'obliged' to do some dirty work for the Demon, something evil, or face the terrible consequences. Maybe they are sent to annoy/scout out some demonic rival of the demon lord, creator of a rival race (Half-Orcs vs Tieflings? Some Demonic competition?) Success, results in freedom and even some dark blessing, that could get the PC's into trouble later on. My PC's have unwittingly been i the service of Zehir, evil god of poison. They were destroying the altars of Zehir's rebellious son Auxl. Serving evil to destroy another evil that threatens its position of power. All at the promise of a 'dubious' blessing that would win favour amongst many they would normally consider enemies but also create many enemies both good and bad, including some they would normally consider allies. Unfortunately they put thier foot in it and only managed to infuriate Auxl who is now hell bent on bringing the temple down on their heads... so I don't know what is going to happen... My PC's are level 3, about to hit lvl 4. I ripped off the final encounter of the revised KotS and made the Thing in the Portal the semi-summoned manifestation of Auxl. The PC's had only achieved 2/8 successes made trying to reverse the ritual with no fails when Kalarel fell and was dragged off into the portal( I reskinned him as a snake-man highpriest named Sshliss, changing necrotic dmg for poison dmg). As the PC's headed towards the altar to read the ritual book to close Auxl down, Auxl reacted by disappearing from the portal, a gust of wind blowing out all the torches. When the PC's lit things up again Auxl had moved to the altar, surrounding it with his dark essence protectively. (I decided a mini-challenge was neccesary to dislodge him back to the portal , 3 successes before 3 failures) The PC's didn't bite, they just backed off. The blood in the pool, meanwhile began to evaporate,in a swirling waterspout of red vapour which formed a disembodied hand that began to scrape a message in the dried blood of the elaborate floor beneath (doorway to the inner temple). After deciphering the snake language the message was written in a second silmultaneous skill challenge began.  The message invited them to destroy Auxl's altars and statues throughout the temple to receive a blessing (written by the hand of Zehir himself). As they got closer to their goal Auxl stopped protecting the altar and spread hs presence throughout the three levels of the temple at  each main altar and statue. 1d3 shadow snakes appearing per round (minions) to whittle away at the PC's with psychic attacks. So now it was a battle on three seperate levels of the temple with 2 simultaneous skill challenges running all at the same time. Unfortunately, despite initial success, the PC's accidently destroyed the temple's light filter mirror system and one of the huge mirrors they were using to strike the altars with direct sunlight to destroy them. 3rd and 4th failures (athough 3 failures was enough...) were both critical failures. And with the shattered mirrors all over the floors and the temple beginning to tremble and crumble down above their heads, they will either have to flee for their lives or risk  being buried beneath thousands of kilos of stone and destroy the last two remaing statues... So here I find myself facing a similar situation to the Skill Challenge Fail and Die. If they insist on trying to defeat Auxl... and then they fail...? I can't think of anything happening other than them dying. I hope they are feeling creative next session and can come up with some clever solutions. Should I make a possible escape route hidden in the inner part of the temple below the door where Zehir wrote his message? They have already been in there and explored the area beneath, so they know it was a dead end? Or just let failure mean death? It is funny though. Despite the protests of my players when I communicated the dire consequences of their failure, noone could stop talking about last nights game today. In a way I think they enjoy the very real chance of instant death. Don't get me wrong. I hope they survive. But I get the feeling they appreciate the very real chance of dying. Maybe because it adds a real sense of danger to the game, and thus meaning is given to all their acts and decisions. Anyway, this is how I played out my PC's interaction with a god, although not in his full manifest form admittedly. Maybe you can glean somethhing useful from it. If not I hope the read wasn't too boring.</blockquote>

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