Skill Challenges in Play: Walk Through Dreams, Part 1.

If you're enjoying the content here, check out our new site, Thoughtcrime Games. Thanks for visiting!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

You may be surprised by this, but I actually run my group through the skill challenges you find on this site. I don’t do them all at once, as it often doesn’t make sense. One I’d been waiting for the opportunity to play through is Walk Through Dreams. It’s easily my most ambitious skill challenge in terms of what it is representing, so I wanted to give it a thorough test and see what came out of it. Th short version of the results is the playthrough was excellent, and my players had a lot of fun with it. The long version –the manuscript– follows. This is the closest approximation I can make, but my memory of it is pretty vivid, because it was pretty damn cool.

Staging: This challenge led the session. As everyone came in and we prepared to start, I handed each player a small index card with some question.

• Marc Greysun (human paladin): What is the worst thing your character has ever done? What does he fear he is capable of?
• Qummiel (eladrin wizard): How does you character feel about death? How does he think he is going to die?
• Arctana (half-elf warlock): Who is the person you love the most? Who is your worst enemy?
• Bobrick (elf ranger): What is your best skill? How did you develop it?
• Khalil (dragonborn warlord): What is your most prized possession?

Gave the players time to think about it, then started the session and the challenge….

GM: You’ve got done with your various tasks, and well after nightfall you find yourselves in bed. You sleep. You dream…You start the dream standing on a rock. In the sky you can see swirling clouds of dreamstuff. It’s like the elmental chaos in dream form. You can see each other in the dream, but you are very far apart. Before you can answer,the rock fragments and you are all falling. Falling into someplace else. the scene changes. <pointing at Marc> Read your question and give us your answers.

Marc: What is the worst thing I’ve ever done? That would be when I was a mercenary with Blackwater and stood by as I tortured someone. What do I fear I am capable of doing? Conquering the world…

GM: You find yourself in the midst of a field of soldiers. Their armor is the same shape as yours but it is black instead of shining steel. You are marching down a hill, towards your home. One a nightmare horse, at the front of the army, is…you!

Marc: No! I’m going to lay down my hallowed circle and fight my way to the front lines!

GM: OK, roll an attack. (decide to give a +5 bonus for the use of the daily).

Marc: I get a 28.

GM: You charge through the line. Caught off-guard, non can stand against you in your fury. One success. Qummiel?

Qummiel: How does your character feel about death…How does he think he’s going to die…He’s never really though about death, actually. He is young for an eladrin, and knows he has a long life ahead of him. What happens to the eladrin when they die?

GM: They return to the feywild and become part of the scenery…a rock, a tree, or something like that.

Qummiel: OK, well I guess that’s what he expects to happen. But he’s cocky guy, he doesn’t really think that will happen to him.

GM: You’re in your study, reading over one of your tomes, when you feel your feet attempt to stiffen. Your feet have become heavy, like rocks. The numbness is travelling slowly up your body.

Qummiel: I’ll try to move! Athletics?

GM: Ok, roll.

Qummiel: 18.

GM: You leap out of your chair, but you’ve already lost most of the function of your legs. You’re crawling on your arms through your home. Arctana?

Arctana: Who is the person I love the most, and who is my worst enemy? The person I love the most is my mother. She was killed defending the Ela’Thua Non from the starborn and died, but we were very close. My worst enemy is one of my teachers. He was extremely cruel and abusive for no reason, and really left a mark on me all these years.

GM: What’s his name?

Arctana: Any help here guys?

Qummiel: Belandros!

Arctana: Belandros.

GM: OK. so you are in a familiar field, walking along a path, and you see you mother at a distance. She waves to you.

Arctana: I wave to her and go towards her. Hi mom!

GM: As you approach, Belandros appears! He lifts her up by the throat, his hands crackling with raw eldritch energy, draining the life from her.

Arctana: I shoot an eldritch blast at him! I rolled a twenty.

GM: Before you shoot, he snaps her neck! And then they disappear. Then you are back where you were, and your mother is there again, and in comes Belandros. Bobrick?

Bobrick: My best skill is my elven precision.

GM: Come on dude, you know I meant an actual skill.

Bobrick: I know, but look, I developed this because I used to be so reckless before. When I had improved initiative, I used to run in and get dropped all the time.

Marc: You were running me out of heals!

Bobrick: Right. So I took that as I couldn’t be wild all the time. And now my control is most valued skill. Without it I’d be dead.

GM: Hmmm…OK. It’s kind of wierd but I like where you’re going with it. You are in an arena with your hammers at your side.

Bobrick: The evil hammers or the good ones?

GM: The good hammers. In front of you is another you. You attack yourself without warning. The attack from your shadow is extremely precise, and you are having a difficult time warding off the blows.

Bobrick: I’ll swing at him with twin strike.

GM: OK, roll to attack.

Bobrick: A 2? and 5? What the hell? I’m using my elven precision on one…and roll –ANOTHER 2? Wow.

GM: You don’t even make a dent in your shadow’s defenses. He presses his advantage. One failure. Khalil.

Khalil: My question is…what is your most prized possession? My most prized possession is the pendant my human adopted father William Fairborn gave me. It is a token that he told me represented the prime principles and precepts of a warlord.

GM: Do you wear the necklace under your armor?

Khalil: Yes.

GM: OK, you’re walking through New Water. You feel a a lightness on your chest, where the necklace is.

Khalil: I pull it out.

GM: As you hold it in your hand, you see that it is fading…disappearing from the world.

Khalil: I try to use Arcana to discover what could be happening to it. I roll…ugh. 11?

GM: It’s still fading, and you have no clue what’s happening to it. One failure. Marc, you’ve made it to the front lines and you face your evil self. He levels a flaming blade at you, and lifts his faceplate to reveal your face, twisted and corrupt. “Do not fight this. Join us.”

Marc: No! I know who I am! Shine the light of my Divine Challenge upon him, then use Intimidate. “I know who you are! You will drop your weapons and cease this right now!”

GM: Whoa! OK, +2 to the roll.

Marc: 23.

GM: He drops his weapons and surrenders. The scene fades…

Marc: Waitaminnit, can we go back for a second? I want to do something.

GM: Sure. What do you want do?

Marc: I’ve got him, and I’m going to tell him “I’m nothing like you. I’ll never be like you.” And I kill him.

GM: Nice. OK, the scene fades (GM starts scheming on clever ways to bring this back later in the campaign)…Qummiel?

Qummiel: OK, I’ll grab some of my books and see if there is a reference or spell to help me out of this, or figure out what’s going on.

GM: Sure, you open one of your books. The first page you open to says “Death” across both pages. And the next page. And the next. Each book says the same thing.

Qummiel: Hmm. I’ve tried to book smart it and that failed. But what if I realize that this is just a dream? If I’m going to die, it’s not actually going to be right now. This is just a dream.

GM: Roll Insight.

Qummiel: I got a 17.

GM: Just made it. You realize nothing happening is real, and you calm yourself. The numbness begins to dissapear, and the scene fades…Arctana, Belandros is approaching you now. ” You petulant little girl, always causing trouble! I’ll fix you for good!”

Arctana: I’ll give it right back at him. I start hurling insults and denirgating talk just like he did to me all those years ago.

GM: ok, Intimidate.

Arctana: 30.

GM: Yikes! The stream of invective pouring from your mouth freezes him in his tracks for a moment, but then he comes back at you. “You’re all talk little girl! You’re nothing!” One success.

Arctana: I’m going to get even tougher with him. Show a little attitude. I’ll use Streetwise.

GM: Heh?

Bobrick: You’re getting ‘street’ with him?

Arctana: <sheepishly>…yeah.

GM: hmmm…It’s a a bit of a stretch, but I’ll allow it. The DC is going to be quite high.

Arctana: Ok…13?

GM: One failure. He continues on, unimpressed by your posturing. He’s almost upon you..Bobrick, you are being pressed to your limit by your clone.

Bobrick: Ok, I need to recognize that I’m losing here, can’t just charge in like the “old” Bobrick. I’m going total defense and letting him come at me. I’ll focus on parrying and deflecting.

GM: Ok, roll one attack.

Bobrick: finally. Natural 20.

GM: You deflect all the blows easily. But the clone renews its assault! One success. Khalil?

Khalil: I am going to hold the memory of William Fairborn in my mind. All his teachings, on what it means to be good person, and to be good warlord. I use these to anchor the pendant to me.

GM: Cool…roll insight.

Khalil: Crap. I got 5.

GM: What does all of that sentiment mean when it is not enough? The amulet fades into nothingness. One failure. The scene fades into nothingness.

Khalil: Man…

GM: Arctana?

Arctana: Now I’m just going to deflect everything that he does or says, I’m going to just agree with him. “Yes, I am quite horrible. The worst ever. You’re completely, 100% correct.” Diplomacy?

GM: Sure thing. I’m assuming your going to make this with how high your Diplomacy is…

Arctana: 32?

GM: …and I was correct! You just start agreeing with him on everything. Belandros loses steam rapidly. Soon his words are nothing more than a dull roar in your ears. You realize that truly,he never had any power over you other than what you gave him…the scene fades.

Bobrick: Ok, we could do this all day, but we’re not going to. I look for a break in the action, and high-tail it out of the pit, and then run myself out of the arena.

GM: Athletics?

Bobrick: 18.

GM: You’re out of there. You catch your shadow off guard and run for it. Soon you’re out of the arena, in the wilds. Your shadow follows you but the distance grows and grows between you. While you run, the scene fades…

Similar Posts:

•      The Blacktree Chronicles #7: The World as Seen Through Shadows.
•      BlackTree Chronicles, Play Session #6: Hello Me
•      Blacktree Chronicles #14: Book Learning