The Ebon Mirror: Dark Marks (Dunamin judging)

[Halford]

OOC​

Skill Challenge: Navigating the Starkreach Woods​

The party is trying to find their way through the woods, not an easy task in a forest where the magic of the Feywild seeps through shifting the trees and disorienting those who try to traverse it. Tyrion's will be helping the party, but so tricky to navigate are the woods that he still requires the party to aide, so you need to tackle a complexity 5 skill challenge on your own.​

Primary skills: Nature, Endurance, and Perception.
Endurance: At least two characters in the party must make Endurance checks each turn to fend of the effects of wandering in the wild woods.
Nature: At least one character in the party must make a nature check to aide Tyrion in finding the groups way through the wilderness.
Perception: Using this skill does not count as a success or failure for the challenge, but allows you to add a +2, or -2 penalty if you fail, to the next characters Nature or Endurance check.
Secondary Skills: Heal, Athletics. May only be used once per character.
Other skills: You can try to use any other skill you can think of a good reason for. Explain how you are trying to use that skill to help traverse the woods.
Initiative: We will follow the initiative order strictly for this skill challenge starting from the top with Mri'thras. No talking out of turn (except for OOC posting. That's okay to do if you have questions or whatever, but no in character posting except on your initiative). Each character will choose a skill, post what they plan on saying or doing, and link to their skill check. Then the DM will post the result of the check and talk for the NPC as needed. Then the next PC, and so on till you attain 12 successes or get 6 failures.​

Mri'thras - 27
Ts'iri - 18
Riar'lon - 14
Kama'zer - 9
Callen - 7
Murphy - 4​

Examples: Tyrion looks up to the sky and gauges the position of the sun to try and determine if they are still on course. K.Nature = 18 success!
Tyrion strides along determinedly refusing to let the arduous journey break his resolve, despite the fact that his injuries are still clearly painful. Endurance = 21 success!​

In alpabetical order inits (1d20+2=7, 1d20+4=9, 1d20+8=27, 1d20+6=14, 1d20+3=4, 1d20+4=18)​

[/quote]

 

[Halford]

OOC: Hey folks I am trying to come up with a way to encourage more inter party communication amongst the group, in a similar manner to the group in The Captain's Caper. Its not necessarily possible, sometimes these things are dictated by character personalities, or simply time issues, but if you can think of anything I could do to facilitate, etc., let me know. I will be awarding roleplaying XP at the end of each adventure so it would be reflected in that to a certain extent.

I would also appreciate any constructive criticism on the battles, etc. I am still relatively new to ths malarky!

In anycase we will be returning to the skill challenge, see the post above for a refresher.

You will all also need to tick of healing surges as appropriate, though since we are out of an encounter I assume that Kama'zer will be prepared to use her abilities to offer everyone an extra d6 for every surge used - though Kama'zer will probably be helping herself.

 

[Voda Vosa]

ooc: well about the rp interparty communication, Mri'thas has opened a window without wanting it. I don't know if that's what you were speaking about.

Mri'thas watches everyone as checking for their reactions. As no one appears to say anything, he quickly busies himself, kneeling next to a tress. "I think that this path here is more safe, due to the kind of plants growing next to the trees. I've seen those plants before, and they tend to avoid other undergrow development. Should be easier to walk by from here." he explains.
Nature: 16

 

[elecgraystone]

Ts'iri was still finding the outdoors fascinating. There was just so much to see. She starts to hum a tune without meaning to. She did that sometimes when she was content, not she remembered doing it or what the tune was. Even though they had been walking for a while and had a fight, she was full of energy, even more so than when they started. She was really enjoying herself. She made a mental note to herself that she was going to have to leave the city more often.

Endurance (1d20+4=24)

OCC:Woot! crit skill roll. Now if I could do that in combat...

As far as encouraging more inter party communication like The Captain's Caper, I haven't been able to keep up with that thread so I really can't compare what's going on there and here. Once I get the chance to look it over, I'll comment.

 

[Erekose13]

Callen tries to follow the path suggested by Mri'Thas but misses a step and stumbles over a root and tumbles off into the undergrowth his companion attempted to point out. Unfortunately it takes time for the group to fish him out of the briars. Once freed from the briars, Callen asks his odd Githyanki companion about the knowledge he has shown. "Thanks all for getting me out of there. Mri'Thas you were right about those briars, nasty business in there. Where'd you pick that tidbit up? All this weird fauna is less documented in the texts I've studied. But from what I understand, the fey-touched landscape we travel through is foreign to you as well."

nature (1d20 7=9)
ooc: hope you don't mind the added text when failing too. As for added conversation its a great idea but I don't know yet what to pick up on. Comparing notes with Mri'Thas is easiest for me to hook onto.

 

[Voda Vosa]

OOC: Can I answer Callen even if it's not my turn for rolling?

 

[Halford]

OOC: Erekose, yes writing up a failure is great, saves me work so obviously I'm thrilled!

Definetly Voda! The only thing that limits talking out of initiative is realistic timeing, since these checks are not representing rounds you can pretty much talk for as long as you wish. In a combat round it ought to roughly fit within a six second window.

8 Successes 3 Failures. Everyone looses a healing surge as they suck pricked fingers and pry thorns out of their armor.

 

[Voda Vosa]

"It is not what I red in books what keeps me on track of this strange wilderness. I have read several botanical treatises, true, but none from these lands" He gaze the trees above him for a moment. "But the families of the plants, and the kind of grow, patterns of distribution, are quite conserved along the biotypes. May be this particular plant is completely unknown to me, but from its growing pattern and distribution, I can tell which role it will fulfil in the forest. Deduction my dear human, deduction." The githyanki explains, dodging a plant, armed with spines.

 

[Phoenix8008]

Kama'zer plods along through the forest with the group. Her usual knack for keeping an eye on everything around her seems to fail her for once as her mind turns inward replaying the scene and wondering what it could mean. 'No! Not you!' echoing again in her head. She doesn't even notice until they have been tangled in the thorns and brambles of the forest. Instead of pushing herself harder to set an example, she finds herself walking slower so that she can be near enough to Mri'thas that she can ask a quiet question to him when the others are busy. "What did you mean, 'Not you!'? What am I to you that panicked you in such a manner when I faced death?"

[sblock=Endurance check and conversation talk]Endurance check (1d20+6=12) Not sure if that's a failure or not, so I left it ambiguous enough for either.

As for the conversation element, I'm all for it and am trying to pick up the thread VV has laid out so we can see what becomes of it. The only thing I've done as DM to maybe foster some of the conversation is put in places in the adventure where I say 'X time passes while you are going from here to there' right after some encounter. Then I leave the thread alone for a day or so and let the characters fill the time in with talk. Not that this is guaranteed to happen or even deliberately planned, but its worked well so far.[/sblock]

 

[Voda Vosa]

The githyanki was walking peacefully, with both his hands in front of him, resting over his belly and concealed by his exuberant robes. But his stoic face banished when Kama'zer inquired him. Mri'Thas seems obviously embarrassed by the question and turns his eyes elsewhere, speaking with trembling voice. "Ah... I meant nothing, save for the fact that you are a member of my race. Seen you there, in such dread situation pushed me to use my most dire spell.... and to try to displace you with telekinesis... I think that was tactically a disaster... should you choose to take the leap, the wolves could have jumped ant bite you. I am terribly sorry." he bows quickly before the woman, and walks along. "You are strange Kama'zer; none of my siblings would have dare to ask such question, nor even think it." Mri'thas ventures to look the githyanki woman to the eyes for the first time. But quickly turn his gaze to the ground "I would enjoy if you told me about your past. Perhaps with a bit more of detail." he says, trying to appear as much uninterested as he possibly can.

OOC: Not easy to play a character with 20 Int and 8 Cha