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Hear the Third Rhythm Before the Still Watch Claims It - AI-generated fantasy Encounter

Hear the Third Rhythm Before the Still Watch Claims It

Encounters
Exploration and negotiation · Low · 6 players, level 15

Hear the Third Rhythm Before the Still Watch Claims It

The party can leave with a clearer account of the pulse, its answer, and the third rhythm, or let the Still Watch keep that knowledge.

Run the talk

Successes
0/3
Failures
0/3

Starts Neutral

Base DC 18

Success If all three tunings succeed

Failure Each failed tuning causes a horn-scream

Party 6 players, level 15

System D&D 2024

Cheat sheet

The party wants

Tune the three horn rows, learn what the rhythms reveal, and decide whether the Still Watch gets the result.

Success

If all three tunings succeed, tick Heard box 6, the Third Rhythm box.

Failure

Each failed tuning causes a horn-scream.
Clock
3 / 3
successes / failures
Base DC
18
Starts
Neutral

Read aloud

Say this

The horn-field trembles under your boots, its iron mouths rimed with frost and salt. Turn one toward the wind and a low note rolls through your ribs; somewhere above it, another sound arrives late. Odd Vale raises a hand for silence as the horns begin to answer.

Who says what

They wantOdd Vale wants a complete reading before the Still Watch can claim it. Sirri wants the sound recorded accurately, even if the full meaning has to remain uncertain.

LeverageThe party can choose who operates each tuning, and can stop after any result. Odd Vale and Sirri need the horns read before the Still Watch claims the finding.

  • Odd

    Odd Vale taps a finger against the horn's rim and says, “Don't chase the sound. Set the mouth, then listen.”

  • Sirri

    Sirri counts the beats softly, then stops when the answer comes late. “That pause matters. Don't fill it in for the horns.”

  • After a scream, both step back and wait for the checker to recover before anyone touches the frame again.

  • Odd

    If the party argues over whether to continue, Odd Vale says, “Two notes tell us there is another. The third tells us how it listens.”

Maneuvers

DC 18Assign three different characters to Low, Mid, and High; each makes one check only.
DC 18Low: Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Arcana).
DC 18Mid: Charisma (Performance) or Intelligence (Investigation).
DC 21High: Wisdom (Insight) or Intelligence (Arcana).
DC 17On each failed tuning, the checker makes a Constitution save against the horn-scream: thunder damage and deafened until the end of their next turn on a failure, half damage and no deafness on a success.

What the party can use

Offer to let the Still Watch hear the result in exchange for its record of earlier pulses.
Ask Odd Vale to demonstrate how the horn's angle changes the note before anyone commits to a tuning.
Have Sirri keep count aloud; steady timing helps the group focus, but does not remove the check or its risk.
Stop after two successful tunings to learn the third rhythm exists without learning its full character.

What happens

10–15 minutes
  1. ·

    Immediately after any tuning fails.

    A failed tuning releases a horn-scream. The character who made the check makes a Constitution save, taking thunder damage and becoming deafened until the end of their next turn on a failure, or taking half damage and avoiding deafness on a success.

  2. ·

    At the end of a round in which a horn-scream occurs.

    The next tuning check is made with disadvantage unless a character uses an action to steady the vibrating horn frame.

The battlefield

Zones

  1. 1

    Low row25 ft

    Three rows of ice-rimed horns face the sea; each carries one tuning.

  2. 2

    Mid platform25 ft

    A narrow platform beneath the central horns; their answers arrive a fraction late.

  3. 3

    High frame25 ft

    The highest horns shiver in the wind, carrying a note between the others.

What the party can use

Horn mouths can be turned by hand; changing a horn's angle clears its note but risks a scream if forced.
A character can brace a horn's vibrating frame, granting advantage on the next check to tune it, but that character cannot take a tuning check themselves.

Media

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