LostSoul
Adventurer
Watch this space for some resolution...
The way open, you walk forward carefully towards the flickering light. Dark tombs line the walls, tombs with arcane wards around them.
Silently you creep ahead, and you can hear the muttering of a blasphemous ritual being performed. The light grows, and casts a shadow of a tall, lanky figure engaged in some ritual that, if this were a just world, would have been lost in the depths of time.
You enter the crypt and see Shalmanisar in his true form - a tall, lean creature with a blank face. He is close to human, but wrong enough to be unsettling. Arrayed before him, on a sarcophagous of ancient iron, is a magic circle painted in blood, a bowl with a still-beating heart in it, and a brazier slowly cooking viscera.
Shalmanisar stops, stands, and turns to face you. The slit he has for a mouth seems to grow unnaturaly into a mockery of a smile.
"So, you've caught me. But it's too late. Kallista will wake. If you don't let me complete the ritual, she will be released on this world, free to do as she wishes. Do you want her crimes on your heads? If not, let me finish.
"But if blood is what you seek, I can repay you in kind."
His arm melts like wax, flesh dripping from bone. It grows into a long, serrated blade of bone with a razor's edge. His skeleton seems to rip through his skin, though he shows no sign of pain, and forms into plates of armour.
[sblock=Negotiating Success]Yeah, I really don't think the game would work if you changed the difficulty of the encounter either way. If you win the skill challenge, the next encounter should still be a fun one - which is to say, not too easy. If you win it by a little, that shouldn't change things.
It might work if I put another encounter in there, with a rest period in-between... though I'm not sure about that.
The best way to negotiate it would be to have it affect the story in some way - no mechanics, just changing the situation.
(The reason why I like degrees of success/failure, by the way, is because you end up with unexpected results. If resolution is binary, you don't get that dynamic, changing situation based on the role-play that you went through.)
I like to look at it like this: you guys got 100% of what you wanted; but Shalmanisar got 25% of what he wanted. He didn't just want to get away; he wanted to (slight spoilers)
What's 1/4 of that, in a way that will push the story along?
Another possibility is that (slight spoilers, again)
Oh yeah, that encounter in Keep on the Shadowfell is crazy! I bought it last week; hopefully I'll get a chance to run it soon.[/sblock]
The way open, you walk forward carefully towards the flickering light. Dark tombs line the walls, tombs with arcane wards around them.
Silently you creep ahead, and you can hear the muttering of a blasphemous ritual being performed. The light grows, and casts a shadow of a tall, lanky figure engaged in some ritual that, if this were a just world, would have been lost in the depths of time.
You enter the crypt and see Shalmanisar in his true form - a tall, lean creature with a blank face. He is close to human, but wrong enough to be unsettling. Arrayed before him, on a sarcophagous of ancient iron, is a magic circle painted in blood, a bowl with a still-beating heart in it, and a brazier slowly cooking viscera.
Shalmanisar stops, stands, and turns to face you. The slit he has for a mouth seems to grow unnaturaly into a mockery of a smile.
"So, you've caught me. But it's too late. Kallista will wake. If you don't let me complete the ritual, she will be released on this world, free to do as she wishes. Do you want her crimes on your heads? If not, let me finish.
"But if blood is what you seek, I can repay you in kind."
His arm melts like wax, flesh dripping from bone. It grows into a long, serrated blade of bone with a razor's edge. His skeleton seems to rip through his skin, though he shows no sign of pain, and forms into plates of armour.
[sblock=Negotiating Success]Yeah, I really don't think the game would work if you changed the difficulty of the encounter either way. If you win the skill challenge, the next encounter should still be a fun one - which is to say, not too easy. If you win it by a little, that shouldn't change things.
It might work if I put another encounter in there, with a rest period in-between... though I'm not sure about that.
The best way to negotiate it would be to have it affect the story in some way - no mechanics, just changing the situation.
(The reason why I like degrees of success/failure, by the way, is because you end up with unexpected results. If resolution is binary, you don't get that dynamic, changing situation based on the role-play that you went through.)
I like to look at it like this: you guys got 100% of what you wanted; but Shalmanisar got 25% of what he wanted. He didn't just want to get away; he wanted to (slight spoilers)
bind a demon to his will.
Another possibility is that (slight spoilers, again)
the demon wakes, but it's not terribly hostile to you off the bat, and Shalmanisar has no control over it. It won't wake until the combat is over, and it can be dealt with however you want. Maybe it would be cool if the demon felt like it owed you something.
Oh yeah, that encounter in Keep on the Shadowfell is crazy! I bought it last week; hopefully I'll get a chance to run it soon.[/sblock]
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