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Urban Blaze

st tier (
Challenge
DC
Area
(less than 1 hour)

Smoke rises from a building that’s ablaze with flames! The adventurers have 10 minutes to rally a response to the fire before it spreads to another building. If someone is trapped inside the building, they are incapacitated after 1 minute, dying 1 minute after that, and the challenge rating increases by 1.

Spell Solve. Spells that conjure or otherwise manipulate water help to dampen the blaze, granting advantage on checks made to put the fire out.

Possible Solutions

This is a group effort. The following three checks need to be made; each has a consequence for failure.

  • If someone is trapped inside the building an Athletics or Acrobatics check is needed to rescue them, and the rescuer makes a Constitution saving throw or they are poisoned from the smoke for 10 minutes.
  • An Engineering check (or a check made with tools the Narrator deems appropriate) to protect the nearby buildings from fire. 
  • An Intimidation or Persuasion check convinces passersby to help. 

Potential Outcomes

Critical Failure: Large swaths of the settlement are destroyed and the party is blamed. The adventurers have disadvantage on checks made to acquire help or information in the nearby region, regardless of the nature of the assistance or any impending threats. 

Failure: A few nearby buildings catch on fire but the flames are quickly extinguished. Rumors of the adventurers’ interference and help make people unwilling to trust them—they cannot gain expertise dice on Deception, Insight, or Persuasion checks in the nearby region.

Success: The building burns to the ground but no one else is harmed.

Critical Success: The adventurers manage to save most of the building and receive help from grateful townsfolk. Roll on the Boons and Discoveries table.