My party has been requested to gather the horns, claws, teeth etc. of 4 different creatures. They have obtained 3 of these items but still need the venom or scales of a Frost Drake. These items will be given to a town to help them create a protective magical barier about their town in the north. In exchange the party will receive a crown of Charisma.
How do I jazz up a hunt for a Frost drake. My party is level 7 and can probably take it out pretty easily. There is a Bard in the party that I believe is the one who will get the crown. The crown belongs to the Hearthmistress of the town. What can the crown be that would be cool for a bard? It has to have something to do with Charisma.
Thanks for any brainstomr ideas Pathfinder fans!!!
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First, I would make it a family of Frost Drakes.
Add a Frost Drake with the Large Template and a Frost Drake with the Young Template, this would be roughly a CR 10 encounter (an epic encounter!)
Now you can put together a skill challenge, treat it similar to a Chase, put down 9 cards in a 3x3 grid face down. On each card should be two different kinds of Skill or Ability Checks. Succeeding at 1 check takes approximately 1d4 hours (-1 per 5 points the DC is exceeded). Allowing a character to move from one card to the next.
If a character succeeds at both checks they may reveal two adjacent cards.
Card 1:
The Town
Catch the Trail (Survival) DC 20
Catch a Rumour (Diplomacy) DC 15
Card 2:
The Hinterlands
Avoid the Goblin Scouts (Stealth) DC 12
Fight the Goblin Scouts (CR 3 goblin Encounter)
Card 3:
The Tundra
A Chill Wind Blows (Fort DC 12) [Fail: Take 1d6 NL and become Fatigued)]
The Sheltered Path Knowledge (Geography) DC 20
Card 4:
The Frozen River
Swim a Thawed Section (Swim DC 17) (Fail: Take 1d4 Cold Damage) (Only takes 1 minute)
Cross the Frozen River (Acrobatics DC 15)
Each time the characters move into an unflipped card there's a 20% chance of a random encounter. Build an encounter table based on the region the players are in. Throw the Frost Drakes on the table.
Instead of just young templated Drake, why not a bunch of them as hatchlings?
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Wow, what a cool idea. So for each card, there is a negative consequence for a failed check - like becoming fatigued. There is only a 20% chance they will get to encounter the Drakes.
Once they encounter the drakes, could the drakes escape causing more cards to have to be encountered or is it life or death right there?
Love it - thanks for coming through with an awesome idea Dudemeister.
It's only life and death if the drake's fight to the death. Maybe, for instance, the hatchlings or mate is hurt, and the male covers their escape as best it can, which could cause it to die. Or maybe they use hit and run tactics.
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You don't want to punish them for failure too often though, since it's basically a dice roll we're talking about. Anything that risks damage should either have a significantly lower DC or significantly reduced time compared to the other choice.
There's a 20% chance of random encounter, I'd put together an ecounter table that goes:
1d10 - Encounter - Average CR
1 - 2d6 Goblins - 2
2 - 1d4 Tatzylworms - 3
3 - 1d6 Wolves - 3
4 - 1d4 Dire Wolves - 4
5 - 1 Winter Wolf - 5
6-10 - Frost Drake Family - CR 10
Also you might allow them to bypass any encounters that they've faced before with a successful Stealth (vs monster's perception) or Survival.
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Oh, and there is a chance that the players will want to split up. If they choose to do that then you might want to make a battle against a single Frost Drake or maybe only a pair depending on the APL of the party encountering the Frost Drake.
Try to reward clever use of spells and the like with a bonus to a skill or ability check.
A rampage of Drakes! :D
Also, while you're murdering them, maybe check the area for any eggs they left around?
Might provide a story hook.
Love it Dudemeister!
I plan on using this. I just need to come up with 5 more cards.
Thanks,
John
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I just wanted to post to provide some feedback on how I used this idea in my campaign.
I did create 9 cards with 2 skill checks on one side and a description on the backside, like frozen river or Tundra as described above. The party chose one card and it was flipped over. Each player was allowed to do 4 skill checks during the entire hunt. For each skill check they passed, they go an additional 5% chance to find the drake. But they only got to check if they passed 2 checks.
So for example, on card 1, they passed both tests. So they rolled a d 20 and on a 19 or 20 they find the Drake, otherwise we roll for a random encounter. I used the encounter guide in the back of the module.
On card 2 they only passed 1 test. So they earned a 5% chance, but didn't get to roll to find it after that card. On the third card they passed both checks, so now they roll a d 20 and on a 15 to 20 they find the drake, otherwise a random encounter.
I thought it worked out pretty well. It definitely made hungint the drake a lot more interesting. Thanks for the great ideasl.