In which we learn more about failing forward

 Was running a published adventure - attempting to end a plague.  In order to do so the party was to slay the BBG, then dissect her corpse to find the 300 (!) words of the needed ritual, then assemble the pieces, then read the ritual 24 hours a day for 10 days at the site where the BBG was slain.  As you can imagine this would NOT lend itself to exciting table play.  So I consulted with my DM mentors and game-ified the ending a bit.

1.  Reduced the words to 30.  Once the BBG was slain they party searched for the pieces.  Each made an Investigation check at CR 0 to find a piece.  If they rolled 20 or more they found two.  If more than three pieces were found the CR went up 5.  If fewer than three were found there was an attack.  The attacks started at CR 1 and went up one each time.  This further reduced the party after slaying the BBG.

2.  Once all pieces were found three of the members of the party (The Chosen) were able to assemble it (via magic hand-waving.)  Reduced the ritual to just 24 hours.  One member of the party at a time could read using Arcana, Religion or History.  The CR started at 0 and went up 1 every hour.  Successful roll meant no attack.  Failure meant more monsters, starting where they left off.  Character could only read 4 hours at a time, then needed 4 hours rest.  As you can guess the first ten hours went pretty well, then the wheels fell off.  The encounters soon hit deadly.  

EDIT TO ADD:  I told the party of these rules.  Shouldn't have.  Shoulda just given a level of exhaustion after four hours and let them figure it out.

3.  We knocked off after 18 hours.  Six to go.  And I realized I probably escalated too quickly.The BETTER "fail forward" option would have been to make the encounter CR equal to the amount of failure.  So instead of CR 10 when they failed at hour 16 by only rolling a 14 it SHOULDA been a CR2.  Party is near death.  Gonna implement the above for the final six hours and hope they a) roll better and b) avoid the TPK.

If you find ANY of this useful do me a favor and drop me a note in the comments.

In which one of the party dies

 Death needs to be an almost constant threat, to make taking risks actual risk-taking.  And so I provide opportunities.  Every third or fourth encounter is strong enough to be deadly, and about one out of every eight or nine is over-kill and should be avoided.  

The party is lost in the wilderness.  One way teleporting gates have a way of doing that.  They've cleared a dilapidated tower to provide shelter and a temporary base of operations.  They trekked west a couple days, rolled well, encountered a pack of death dogs, triumphed and back-tracked.  Then they opted to scout to the north.  After two days of a steady rain the going was slow.  Another moderately difficult encounter.  Another success.  Camp.  During second watch they spotted a fire a mile or so away.  The ranger opted to go explore - ALONE - and the party opted to LET HER GO!  She got within about 60' of what appeared to be a cult ritual (complete with robed figures chanting in ancient Sanskrit) and failed her stealth check.  Stepped on a twig?  Kicked a rock?  Flushed wildlife?  The ritual goes full stop and the cult leader orders their guard dogs to attack.   

And that's where we left it.  So the ranger has a week to reason her way out of this and the rest of the party has a week to reason out a rescue plan.  They're a mile away.  The death dogs are 55' away and slavering at a dead run.  And it's dark (a waxing crescent moon.)  

Meta:  The ranger is 5th level.  The DD's are CR1, so five would be a deadly challenge.  I COULD greatly reduce the number of DDs to make it survivable.  The rest of the party is, at best 8 (?) minutes away.  Ranger has a companion so a balance in the action economy would be two or three DDs.  Think I'll throw five at her and see what happens.

To paraphrase Ivan Drago: "If she dies, she dies."

(posted a month late so as not to spoil)