Friday Encounter: The Shrine of Strength

This encounter may be used in several locations - at a stop alongside the road, in a town, in the wilderness, or even in a dungeon (which itself may exist as an additional trial one must pass in order to get to the shrine). To make the most of the encounter, it is best to plant it as a rumor before the PCs come across it, and have NPCs mention the shrine or express their desire to partake in its challenge. This way, the PCs will want to attempt the shrine's challenge, or perhaps seek it out.

Some way or another, the party comes upon a shrine dedicated to Kord, the god of strength and victory. Yes, I basically just lifted him from Greyhawk, but unlike a lot of D&D-original gods, he feels like something out of ancient mythology, so I've always liked him. The center of the shrine holds a huge bolder festooned with many-colored ribbons, overseen by the shrine maiden, a stern and well-muscled woman named Lisbeth Brandle. The shrine maiden explains that, according to a local prophecy, anyone who has the strength to move the boulder will be a great champion of Kord and win his favor. Many have attempted to move the boulder (indeed, the PCs may see other visitors to the shrine attempt to put themselves up to the challenge, unsuccessfully, during their visit), but no one has managed to succeed.

Naturally, the PCs may wish to get themselves involved. To successfully move the boulder, one must make a DC 27 Athletics check (in other words, a very difficult task, but one that is possible for mortals to achieve). They may also attempt to push themselves while attempting to move the boulder - if so, they get Advantage on their attempt, but on a failed attempt, they pull a muscle and have Disadvantage on all STR rolls (both ability checks and attack rolls) for the next week. They can also clear this condition if they spend two days resting with no physical activity.

As the shrine maiden explains, Kord favors those who can perform such a great feat of strength by their own merits. Attempting the challenge with assistance from others, or magical enhancement (such as spell effects or magic items that give a bonus to Strength) is considered cheating. If PCs attempt to cheat, Kord will know this, and any benefit to their roll they might obtain through these means are nullified. If they fail the challenge despite cheating, Kord will strike them with a curse that gives them Disadvantage on all Strength-based checks and attack rolls, and halves all damage from attack rolls based on Strength (as a ray of enfeeblement spell) until they perform a quest or an act of penance to get back in the god's favor. If they cheat but make the check anyway, see below.

If the PC succeeds on the check, Lisbeth drops to her knees and supplicates herself before Kord's chosen champion, congratulating them on fulfilling the prophecy. The PC will be greeted as a hero whenever they return to the area. In addition, during the next long rest, the PC will be visited by Kord in a dream, who recognizes them as having the strength worthy of being his champion. He will then give them a quest worthy of such a great hero - ideally something requiring great feats of physical strength, such as diverting the course of a river or slaying a monster. Basically, think of something with the same vibes as the Labors of Hercules. If the PC cheated at the challenge but still passed, Kord will add a further caveat that they must fulfill to prove their worthiness - for instance, they may need to kill a great monster with their bare hands. If they succeed at his quest, Kord may grant them a further blessing or a magical weapon as a token of his favor - or he may even have further tasks for his new champion.

One possible avenue for this plotline to go is for Kord's task to see him using mortal proxies to further a feud between him and another god - for instance, he may task the PCs with stealing one of Torvald's sacred sheep. If so, things could escalate even further, with the Mortal Realm getting caught up in the midst of it...