First, anyone recall which Dungeon magazines had the test of champions adventuring dual game?
Second, I was considering running one of the tests and have my party go up against the Stormblades. Opnions? Would it be over the top for the Fiesta?
Also curious how other people went with the Demonskar Ball?
108, March 2004
CHALLENGE OF CHAMPIONS V
Once again, the Adventurers Guild has sent out the call for those who dub themselves great adventurers to compete in a contest designed to challenge low- and high-level heroes alike. Can you make it through to victory without suffering the humiliation of defeat? A D&D adventure for characters of any level.
By Jonathan M. Richards
Searching the Wyrm's Hoard (www.paladinpgm.com/wyrm), I find Challenge of Champions 4 in Dungeon 91 and #5 in Dungeon 108. There were some before that, be they are pre-3.0.
I had the same idea, looked at these two adventures, and just felt like they didn't fit for some reason. I'm sticking with the contests as outlined in the book for the most part.
Hey thats a great resource. Thanks.
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First, anyone recall which Dungeon magazines had the test of champions adventuring dual game?
Second, I was considering running one of the tests and have my party go up against the Stormblades. Opnions? Would it be over the top for the Fiesta?
Also curious how other people went with the Demonskar Ball?
We just ran the Demonskar Ball a couple of sessions ago. Since one of my PC's is the youngest son of the Aslaxin family, I made the ball a little more important. Basically I decided to use the event as a roleplay heavy session which allowed me to introduce many of the major noble NPC's in the campaign.
In particular, the Aslaxin PC (Ander Aslaxin) decided to use the ball as an opportunity to woo the woman of his dreams, Thirfrane. I also set up some conflict by introducing the Blue Duke here, as a wealthy mercenary leader invited to the ball due to the power and influence he holds in the region. So I've been setting up a "love-triangle" between the PC, Thifrane and the Duke.
The highlight of the session, though, was the duel between characters playing Surabar and Nabthatoron. I selected the one PC with the Scion of Surabar trait to play the demon, while Zachery II played Surabar. I decided to handle the "dance" as a combat encounter, using perform checks in place of attack rolls. In the end the PC "defeated" Zachery with a critical hit, so Idecided to let the outcome of the dance change, as Surabar was struck down instead. It was a surprise the nobility, but I decided that since the PC got so lucky on his last roll, that they considered it amusing, instead of insulting.
We ran the Demonskar Ball last time we met too. I moved it to winter solstice so there was some event that happened in the winter between Flood Season and the springtime's Zenith Trajectory.
They were invited at the end of the Flood Festival, so they had tons of time to prepare, and that's what it was really all about. I told them that instead of normal xp for doing well at the ball, they would get a +2 to all Diplomacy checks with nobles in Cauldron (which will be very handy for my Charisma-challenged party). The mage was invited at Nabthatoron, so he would have a tougher dance to dance, but the reward was +5 to Diplomacy checks with nobles.
They spent November and December hiring tailors to make their costumes, taking dancing lessons with Madame Rubanskaya at Bluecrater, crafting slippers of dancing for the entire party, and then selling more slippers of dancing for the left-footed nobles who were invited (and making a pretty penny in the process).
They buffed charisma to the max on the night of the ball, the dwarven cleric (dressed as a winged demon) cast windwalk, and spent the entire ball "walking on air." The mage as Nabthatoron waited until just before the big dance, cast various light spells, levitated himself, then enlarged himself until his feet were touching the ground. He then cast fear on the crowd, which I thought was going too far (we didn't want a riot), so I had Vhalantru "wave his hands" and dispel it (which led to a big raise eyebrow from the mage, and is the first suspicion that Vhalantru may be anything other than a very good civil servant-- hell, at this point they've walked through his garden of "statues" of great adventurers and haven't batted an eye.)
In the end, the normal dancers in the party couldn't miss their perform checks because of all their buffs, and Nabthatoron had to roll a 6 or better. It was such a successful ball that they were paraded through the streets of Cauldron, hoisted aloft on painted thrones.
It was a great roleplaying session where not one combat roll was made.
Thanks all. So did anyone have some fun with the Stormblades at all?