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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Unwise" data-source="post: 5738105" data-attributes="member: 98008">It's funny how just a cool name an instantly inspire an entire adventure.I picture the Sighing Stones as being a place of ennui, apathy and grey depression. The Shadowfell is meant to strip people of desire and leave them grey, emotionless dried husks of people. In the Desert of the Sighing Stones, this happens literally.Eventually, people just can't see the point in continuing, so they just sit down. Then they can't see the point in standing up again...does not really matter if they eat either. Eventually they dry out, sand builds up on them, and a little magic happens, and all that is left is a dry stone, that sometimes sighs at the futility of it all.Suggested Skill challenges include:- Desert survival (endurance, nature, perception)- Withstand the despair (endurance, insight, arcana, religion)At this stage, I think it is a good idea to have them fail, or at least feel that they will never make it out. They require too many successes and will surely fail eventually. The reason for this is that they can be in the early stages of of slowly dying from depression when they are attacked.The enemies come to kill them and this gets their blood pumping, the fight for survival is never as real as well you are split open by a sword. You never feel as alive as when dodging an axe. They dispatch the enemies are triumphantly continue on their way, full of life again. The enemies ended up helping them survive.Finally, to keep some roleplaying in the session, I would include another encounter. The PCs come across some very humanoid rocks near the edge of the desert. These are clearly people who have given up all hope. By using social skills, insight and religion, they can inspire them to break out of the malaise. A physical party could even carry them out.If your party are not good guys, you might want to have these Sighing people say things that let the PCs know they have very valuable information. That way even mercenary characters will care about them.One last note, I would hint at there actually being something that gets enraged when they leave the desert. The whole place is spookier if you think there is a creature living below it that actually feeds on their despair. Oooh, cool imagery though. What if at the center of the desert is a huge bone white tree that is flourishing, maybe even a mirage of water. The effects of ennui get much stronger the closer you get to it. Nature rolls could tell that roots from that tree spread out all across the desert, perhaps to each of those sitting stones.</blockquote>

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