LEVEL FIVE CHALLENGE - PUZZLE
EPISODE FOUR: "CALL OF THE IDOL"

LOCATION: Outskirts of Driftchapel, evening.

The Dark Idol of Qatu waits with patient malice somewhere in Driftchapel. It's shadowy, writhing influence dens every alleyway and twists every mind. But where is it? Tucked into a vault, sealed away in a private safe, dumped into a refuse bin? It's difficult to pinpoint it's exact location, but if the adventurers concentrate on it's fiendish call, they just may prevail.

MECHANICS PART ONE
Every living soul in Driftchapel can hear the Dark Idol's voice, even if only subconsciously. It's a constant, droning call, lingering on the edges of mortal perception, slowly driving all who hear it mad. Once they near it's location, you all can make out words within the Dark Idol's call - alien, unintelligible words. You can all make DC18 Wisdom checks to focus on the words and attempt to understand them - but failure results in madness. With a successful Wisdom check, you can glean meaning from the profane words and find the Idol's location. It speaks a phrase over and over, endlessly: FROM THE STARS OF SHADOW I AM HERE. THROUGH A DARK REFLECTION YOU WILL SEE MY FORM CLEAR.

MECHANICS PART TWO
You must then collectively peer into a reflective surface, such as a window, puddle, or mirror while hearing the words of the idol. However, to protect yourself, the surface must be obscured in very low light. Where and how you achieve this is inconsequential. You peer into the surface, your reflections move on it's own, holding aloft the Dark Idol. The surface begins to blur, and you see your reflections placing the Idol back where it remains - a location you've already seen before, or perhaps..a place you've never been to yet. You know what you must do to summon Qatu and destroy her. All of you must pass a DC20 WIS save. For each of you who passed the first Mechanic, reduce the DC by one. So, for example, if six of you passed the first DC18 wisdom save, everyone's individual DC for this part is now 14. Those who fail this part incur madness.

Wis ST 1 (DC 18): 6+1

****.

Wis ST 2 (DC variable): 13+4

Failing the first check: 22 

Uh, the second check I mean: 22

Wisdom1: 10

Wisdom2: 20

DIA: FAILED 5, 8, 18 Any food you ate this night, you feel, is now horribly tainted inside you. You must expell it. All of it. Right now. (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)
FATHER: PASSED, DC is now 19. PASSED.
VILLA: FAILED 6, 6 Raw fury overwhelms you. You feel at any moment you could snap and rip apart the closest person next to you with your bare hands.  (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)
MADISON: PASSED. DC is now 18. PASSED.

MADISON: DC18: 4, 20

Freya WIS ST1: 3

Freya WIS ST2: 4

Vulcan Wisdom saves~

13

17

El Wisdom 1: 5 + 4

El Wisdom 1: 6 + 2

DIA: FAILED Any food you ate this night, you feel, is now horribly tainted inside you. You must expel it. All of it. Right now. (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)
FATHER: PASSED, DC is now 19. PASSED.
VILLA: FAILED Raw fury overwhelms you. You feel at any moment you could snap and rip apart the closest person next to you with your bare hands.  (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)
MADISON: PASSED. DC is now 18. PASSED.
EXELDA: FAILED 1 You have seen too much! Your WIS score is PERMANENTLY reduced by 1. (You can raise it again with leveling)
FREYA: FAILED 8 Some sort of undead monster has bitten you. You are no long mortal. You are now vampire level 1.
VULCAN: FAILED 15 You understand a new, beautifully complex cosmic language. You slowly refuse to speak anything else. (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)
TORA: ??!?!?!?!?!

"Merde." LeBlanc rubs her temples.

When Freya makes her second attempt to find the Dark Idol, by staring in a reflective puddle of water, she notices something quite strange. For some reason, she has no reflection in the mirrored surface. “What the frick?  First the disapperation, and now this?  What the hell is happening to me?”

Tora assumes she might as well attempt wisdoms, (since she seems to be riding deaths line anyway), and attempts to discern the puzzle.

Wisdom 1: 6

Wisdom 2: 5

Freya slinks away from the group for the afternoon. Some members of the group are curious as to where she went, but she never says. You simply notice that crusty dried blood remnants are streaked across her tunic.

She also smells slightly of meat, like she just stepped out of a butchers shop with a satchel full of T-bone steaks.

But the weird thing about her, that you notice, is she’s rather cheery. Almost giddy with excitement about the next adventure. 

DIA: FAILED Any food you ate this night, you feel, is now horribly tainted inside you. You must expel it. All of it. Right now. (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)
FATHER: PASSED, DC is now 19. PASSED.
VILLA: FAILED Raw fury overwhelms you. You feel at any moment you could snap and rip apart the closest person next to you with your bare hands.  (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)
MADISON: PASSED. DC is now 18. PASSED.
EXELDA: FAILED You have seen too much! Your WIS score is PERMANENTLY reduced by 1. (You can raise it again with leveling)
FREYA: FAILED Some sort of undead monster has bitten you. You are no long mortal. You are now vampire level 1.
VULCAN: FAILED You understand a new, beautifully complex cosmic language. You slowly refuse to speak anything else. (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)
TORA: FAILED 14 You can feel corruption growing inside you. By consuming black powder, you can burn it away. (This will have role-playing implications as soon as we finish this first part of the campaign.)

COMING UP NEXT: THE ELDER THING

Everyone level up. This is where it gets nastier. 

LEVEL SIX CHALLENGE - HAZARD
EPISODE FIVE: "THE ELDER THING"

Sathog the Fleshspawn, servant of Umbra and denizen of the Darkness, has been writhing against the thin membrane between realities. Through the efforts of the cultists of Qatu, Sathog has finally spilled though into Driftchapel. Sathog is a minor cosmic entity, a shattered remnant of an old god of creation. You must do everything you can to escape your current location, or suffer the unknowable horror of this being outside of time and reality.

INESCAPABLE HORROR: The ground and walls of this town have become the flesh of Sathog, and it's shadowy ichor spreads at an alarming rate. If you must all make DC15 Acrobatics checks as you flee to safety outside the town, failure resulting in acid damage as you fall.

STRANGER EONS: Reality shimmers and warps in Driftchapel as more of Sathog's vile flesh overtakes our realm, causing the ground to shift and roil erratically. You are attacked by shadowlings from beyond your senses as you all flee. Pick a skill of your choosing and roll against DC18. If it's a physical skill, you dodge and weave to safety. If it's a mental skill, you find a way to outsmart the horrors assaulting Driftchapel in a creative way. Fail, and you will take additional damage as a creature from beyond time and space assault you.

MADNESS UNENDING: Time is in tatters. Space has no meaning. Staying anchored in this moment becomes increasingly difficult. You must succeed on a DC15 knowledge check (Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion) to stay firmly rooted in the here and now. If you fail, you are further consumed by maddening effects rolled and delivered at the end of this challenge.

Allons-y. LeBlanc would duck and weave through the shadows of the streets.

Acrobatics: 24 + 1

Using what ever momentum she could, she'd continue her tactics of dodging and weaving.

Acrobatics: 19 + 1

Exelda takes a moment to breathe. "Son of a biscuit." Her mind has not been there lately and it was time to test it again. She'd try to psych herself up.

Acrana: 16 + 4

Brush that, dirt off your shoulder.

Tora attempts to acrobatics her way through the shadows to begin with. 

Acrobatics: 25

She'd then attempt to combine her acrobatics, athletics, and stealth skills (all the same) to continue weaving through and away from the shadow creature. 

Combined skills!: 11

Once she is able to get past, she attempts to remain in the current moment using literally any of those skills because they're also the same.

Time for more madness!:0

EXELDA: SUCCESS, SUCCESS, SUCCESS.
TORA: SUCCESS, FAIL, SUCCESS. Terrors from beyond reality rend your flesh as you attempt to escape the fate of this town! You take 12 damage.
MADISON: SUCCESS, FAIL, SUCCESS. Falling flat on her face, the shadowlings found an easy meal. Madison takes 4 damage.

MADISON: 22, 27, 1
Oh are you ******* kidding me? I nat1 the +9 roll, and nat20 the ******* -1 roll??

And I ****ed up the post.

Dia gives the whole dodge and weave thing a go.

Acrobatics: 5+1

She sees if she can scary her way through the shadowlings, throwing them off long enough to make good her escape.

Intimidation: 12+1

And then she runs mentally through the most repetitive ritual she knows to keep herself grounded.

Arcana: 20+2