Saur was silent and still, just as his mentor had drilled into him with all of his survival training. He was more used to hunting in the caverns and forests of the Maw, but the crimson kobold knew how to fish as well...especially when he knew exactly what he was hunting for. Once he had spotted exactly what he wanted, he waited patiently for just the right moment....
Then, his moment came and he seized it quickly. His claws suddenly plunged down into the water! They lunged downward and swiftly seized the aquatic beasts by the tail, just behind the tail fins! He could immediately feel their struggle, but it was in vain at this point as he wrenched his claws above the water and held the two glimmering fish aloft! A great success, to be sure! His experience in hunting for a group was paying off well with this.
The two fish flailed about, but he wasn't finished yet. He couldn't be. Two valuable fish wasn't enough for him. Not for his current efforts. So instead, he quickly moved to place the fish with whatever storage method they were using for their catches before quickly turning back to the river. A quick glance at the sky told him that time was drawing short, and if he wanted to really put in his effort to make amends, then he needed to get back to work.
He searched the river once again. But this time, he did not simply stay upon the shore. Seizing two fish at a time wasn't good enough for him. By the time he caught his next pair, too much time would have elapsed. So instead, he elected to plunge himself directly into the water himself! Thanks to the scales he sported, he could hold his breath for long enough to actually stay submerged in the water. From here, he could use his entire body in his capture attempt. He just needed to wait for enough of them to gather around close enough for him to scoop with both of his arms together.... The scales and spines would normally sting others, but thanks to his draconic scales lying beneath his newly acquired fishy ones, he knew he was going to be just fine.
Once completely submerged, he sought out and found an excellent hiding spot a little further down the river's current. He could tell his compatriots were doing well for themselves...but this also meant that they were likely to scare other fish in this direction. Especially with Jenk going so crazy further upstream and spearing again and again. All of that commotion made this the ideal spot for catching multiple prize fish in one solid move. They would be more difficult to catch, but he was confident that if he could just remain still enough, they would not even notice his presence and swim just close enough....
In an attempt to make up for their tardiness, Saur tries to spend additional time retrieving a surplus of fish, once more hiding his presence to attempt to seize those particular prize fish for Alandri and rolls a Natural 20 for a 28!
@Digizel Are you thinking that Saur will continue his stealthy approach with a second try? If so, you can set another stealth roll with a +1 and a higher DC this time. If you want to try something new, let me know!
Yup yup, that was the intent! Sorry for not posting again, I was wondering what exactly your answer was before I rolled anything.
I'll go ahead and make my post now then before I head off~
Tanrith didn't seem to get an immediate answer from the girl beside him, but more important to him in the moment was the rumbling "AHEM" of the dragon before them. He quickly spun around and looked back at the dragon, not wanting him to think he was being disrespectful or anything! He saw the puff of some kind of strange blackish, yellow energy and his eyes widened again. Was that a hint at his breath weapon maybe? What could it be? It definitely wasn't any of the elements he was familiar with. Still, he remained just as transfixed on the dragon before him as before, eyes continuing to sparkle as the large creature began to not only speak, but directly address him! He grinned widely, more than happy to accept all of the demonstrations that he was shown. He even jumped in surprise as the gem dragon was able to "invade" his mind.
"Whoooaaa!" Tanrith exclaimed, jaw dropped for a moment. "A gem dragon.... I've never heard of that before, that's awesome...." As he spoke, he began to drift into a light tone full of awe. "I had no idea that there was a whole other kind of dragon besides chromatics and metallics! And they can do that weird head-talk thing the Chief could do.... Argh, I wish I'd thought to grab a notebook or something.... Oh! S-sorry, hold on, can you give me just one sec?"
Suddenly, an idea seemed to pop into his head and he quickly scrounged around the area, before seizing what seemed to be a simple, flat stone from amongst the shoreline, only big enough to fit in his claw. "Perfect...." he murmured. As he did this, he ran over to Zyrech and began to dig through the bag he'd left on his body before withdrawing his Thieves Tools. He was quick to then plant his rear on the grass, spin the tools in his hand, and suddenly began to bring the tools down onto the stone. As he did, the tip of his tools began to spark and give of blue lightning-like energy around its tip as he worked. And then, a moment later, he exclaimed, "Done!" and then hopped back to his feet again.
Now inscribed on the stone were a handful of words, glowing with the same blue color as the lightning-like magical essence before as though inscribed in runes: "Azorigal (Azzy?), male (currently) topaz, amphibious. Really really cool."
"There, notes taken...." he murmured, turning his attention back to the dragon at hand. "So what were you going to show-"
However, Tanrith stopped himself short as he saw what Azorigal was pointing himself at. "A-ah, actually, maybe that's not a good-" he started, raising his claw, but was too late. His jaw dropped again. But this time, it was of alarm as he watched the large dragon unleash what seemed to be a burst of some kind of magical energy that reeked of death and decay. A scent he had smelled before--or at least something remarkably similar--during his first days in Sigil. The sensation seemed to take a grip on him as he stared in disbelief as the tree was completely enveloped in this energy and seemed to nearly decimate the tree, decaying and rotting it before his very eyes. The shock caused his grip on the stone in his claw to loosen to the point where it fell to the ground at his feet. Instinctively, that claw rose to his maw, covering his muzzle as though the mere scent threatened to make him sick.
But then, something seemed to come to his mind. He suddenly started forward. He didn't completely disregard the conversation going on behind him, but his attention was no longer on the topic at hand...as he seemed more intent on approaching the tree, studying it for a moment, wondering if there was anything he could do to perhaps put it back on the path to regeneration to try to fix the damage....
Tanrith worriedly examined the tree as the group behind him began to converse. He studied it as carefully as he could, noting the various forms of rot that had begun to set in, thinking about the magic-like abilities he had at his disposal. He thought back to all of the teachings he had been given way back in the day and the things that he had since learned on his own...but none of it seemed to be coming back to assist him in the here and now.
Tanrith frowned as he fell back to his last resort. He wasn't sure it would do much to help, but at least "almost nothing" was better than nothing. He found whatever parts of the bark and such he could that had been tearing and being worn down. He pulled up his tools and began to get to work. His specialty was in tinkering with machines and devices...but maybe there were other things he could do here. He started attempting to patch the tree's physical damage up as best as he could, readying himself to sit here for an entire minute to mend up the first large break in the bark he could find, attempting to stitch it back together...though he was clearly struggling to make any kind of actual difference here.
But as his magic was beginning to become infused with the tree, he paused as he...felt something. It was brief as he worked, but occasionally he would feel it. There was some kind of dim, very faint response from something. And after a few more moments of contemplation, he understood what was happening. There was a response from his magical stimulation, but...it wasn't strong enough. He needed something...more. Even if he continued to try, he wasn't going to make a difference himself.
"Ah crap...." Tanrith murmured under his breath before letting out a defeated sigh and slowly moving to put his tools away. This was definitely beyond his capability to fix. He stepped back and looked at the damage one more time. Luckily, it was only a single tree and shouldn't be TOO big of a deal, all things considered. Even if this tree died, eventually more green would regrow in the area. But that was a long time for something this scarred to sit here.
Tanrith felt a sudden surge of guilt well up within him. He knew it wasn't really his fault, but he had been the one to egg the dragon on. Even though he had no idea a dragon could have a breath like this, it had still been his own question that led to the demonstration in the first place. And right after he'd just finished telling Sarceron that he did his best to respect nature, too....
The small lizard turned away from the tree and back toward Sarceron, starting to approach the firbolg with an apologetic look on his face. "S-sorry, I tried, but I can't do anything about it. I-I didn't mean for him to- I-I mean, I didn't think he would...th-that is, uh...s-sorry...."
Tanrith uses his Magical Tinkering feat to take very brief notes, infusing a 9-word "message" onto a nearby stone.
He then goes to inspect the tree to see if anything can be done to save it and help it along its path to regrowth, rolling a 13 on Nature, resulting in very little progress.
Hmmm... you know what, you can use Mending AND roll a Nature check. Depending on the roll I'll tell you how successful you are.
M'kay, sounds good! So do you want me to go ahead and roll it here and include the result in my post, or would you rather me roll in the post and just mention that's what he's doing and then you can reflect the result in the next DM post?
@XxFellsingxX Hmmm, so here's a question. In my post, Tanrith is going to be inspecting the withered tree to see if there's anything he could do to help it recover from that necrotic blast. Your OOC mentioning that the tree did technically survive the blast gave me a bit of inspiration~ Should I roll Nature for that, and would Mending do anything? Cure Wounds says it has to target a creature, so I doubt that will work, and Mending seems to require an actual break or tear to actually do anything, which makes plenty of sense, but I figured I'd ask for your input anyway~
@Digizel Sure. At this point, the three of you (Saur, Stargazer, and Jenk) have spent most of the morning catching your respective fish for Alandri. Tanraeth still needs to reply and roll for his manipulation to have someone fish for him. To allow him more time to RP and roll, I'm giving the three of you one last shot to either RP with Alandri or keep fishing or call it a morning and sip some coffee before Alandri officially packs it up.
Alandri is very happy with all three of you for catching 2 fish each. Ecstatic. There's no need to keep pushing yourself, but depending on what you want to do now, I could set a higher DC and perhaps you could learn something or do something to award yourself some little extra something.
Go wild, or sit back, as we await Tanraeth's move.
Essentially I want to keep you engaged as we wait.
Gotcha, thanks! So given that Saur is putting everything he has into impressing Alandri to make up for their tardiness, he is probably going to go right back to fishing again to try to get more to present her with if that's fine.
Do you want me to do the same pair of checks as last time, or just stick with the Stealth check with the +1 bonus? Or just do raw Stealth this time?
"If you like, I'll give you a chance for extra credit or engagement with Alandri. There might even be a hero point or XP in it for you depending on your character's performance."
Think you could elaborate on this a bit, out of curiosity? I wanted to make a post, but caught this at the end and was kinda confused as I read it a couple times. Is this just, like...extra bits of dialogue or something? What kind of extra credit and engagement are we referring to here?
Saur fell silent at Alandri's words, electing to take this opportunity to consume the rations he had been gifted, making sure to take Alandri's advice and add the scale in along with the food as he swiftly devoured his meal. He had always been taught to eat quickly, for you never knew when a threat could reveal itself. Best to leave yourself vulnerable for as little time as possible.
He cast a glance to the side toward Tanraeth as the "elf" continued. The Kobold frowned as he listened to him speak; the words were fine, of course. Saur himself was considering the very same ideas that something could have happened. He hadn't seen Teacher Ot with his own eyes today as of yet, so he was hardly going to write off the idea. Especially if this was the first time he had ever failed to show. That was reason enough to raise his suspicion.
But what caught Saur's attention in this moment was the emotion in the elf's voice, or the lack thereof. There didn't seem to be even an ounce of concern in his companion's tone. That, in addition to the fact that he had elected to ignore Alandri's advice and not use the scale at all caused him to narrow his gaze at his companion out of the corner of his eye. He was tempted to make some snide comment about it, but decided to hold his tongue for the time being. If they were to be like clutchmates, he couldn't allow himself to start causing trouble with him. And so, he returned his focus to his own rations.
Regardless of it all, there was nothing to be done about Teacher Ot for the time being anyway. They would have their chance to find him when they returned to the school again. Worrying about it wasn't going to do him any good right now. He should simply focus on the task at hand.
With everything settled, the group was moved out toward the river and he was given an explanation on everything they needed to know for the task at hand. And once again, he was met with frustration from another elven companion of his who elected to detach herself completely in lieu of the task at hand. This time, he was unable to keep himself in check.
"You're going to abandon this for such a conceited reason!?" he snapped as Fleur began to take her leave. Regardless of her response, he simply dismissed her with a wave of his claw. "Humph. Not that it matters in the end. Arrogance like that only brings harm to the clutch. I'll simply have to do what I can to make up the difference myself."
He glanced down at the supplies Alandri had brought. In his mind, he could picture the various kobold traps that he'd learned to construct when he was still in training, but elected on another, separate method. Especially since he was going to need to put everything he had into this now that they were short a team member, and another seemed fit to avoid consuming the scale altogether.
He could feel the scale beginning to work not long after Jenk's had. His own sturdy, draconic scales seemed to morph slightly...or more accurately, he began to grow a second set over his own. He frowned slightly as he realized the scales were deep and blue...a color he was not particularly fond of. But still, this was only temporary, he was sure. And they would assist in the upcoming challenge at hand. He was not about to complain now.
"Excuse me, Ms. Alandri, before you dive," Saur said as he approached her once again. "Ma'am, I was wondering if I could bother you with an inquiry into what types of fish would be the most valuable around this time of day. You see, I am still new to this country and am somewhat unfamiliar with local markets and even its fauna. What such fish look like is important of course, but I am also looking for information such as what kind of habits they might have should they differ from ordinary fish, whether they are the type to flee downstream, breach a current or simply hide themselves among a reef or weed when threatened. The more information about my prey that is at my disposal, the easier they are to hunt."
He continued to inquire with Alandri about just what kinds of fish would be found to be the most valuable and easiest for him to hunt with his specific skillset until he was satisfied she either had nothing of use left to share with him, or he was satisfied he had enough information to narrow down his hunt. He thanked her and gave her the same salute he had given the group before: crossing his clenched fist across his chest and bowing at the waist a bit, lowering his head in the process.
Once he had done that, he stepped back and made his way toward the river's edge, eyeing it for a moment to decide just where the perfect place to dive would be. He had to pick carefully. With one ally down and one he couldn't be certain of, he needed to make sure he did more than his own fair share of work here. Especially since he was looking at this as his opportunity for them to make up for their earlier tardiness.
Luckily, Saur found his spot rather quickly and stood at the bank. The now blue-hued Kobold took a deep breath, feeling the air capacity working its magic, and immediately dove into the river's water to begin the hunt.
Using Alandri's information, Saur kept not simply his eyes, but all of his senses peeled for any sign of what he was looking for. He was on the hunt. He had fished in a river before, and this task felt right at home for him. It was almost as natural as leasing an arrow. He attempted to stray away from the fish he didn't care about, trying to remain distant enough from them to avoid startling them so as not to give the companions who were willing to work a harder time. Eventually, he found what he was looking for. A nice spot in the river to conceal himself, yet close enough to an open area of the river where he would have ample opportunities to ambush fish as they swam by, whether in a panic escaping the clutches of his companions, or simply of their own accord. He crouched in the water, pressed up against the crevice, and waited. He narrowed his eyes and remained completely still. His senses were tuned on nothing but the water at the moment, and whatever disruptions he could hear or feel. He kept his eyes focused forward to ensure he didn't miss a fish that the description he'd been given. He was ready to snare whatever he could.
Using his Hunt Prey action, Saur hunts down the most valuable fish he can manage for Alandri to sell. Saur's body remains as still and silent in the water as his frustrated mind can allow him, resulting in a 15 for Stealth to try to capture his prey.
1. Yes, Saur can Hunt Prey (he's a hunter after all!). That will give Saur a +2 to his Survival check. 2. For Saur's Foraging feat, sure you're not Subsisting, but story-wise there is not a difference in my mind between Saur fishing for himself/the group and Saur fishing to fulfill a task. You can use Forager for this. (This will be in effect off his Stealth roll below)
"While using Survival to Subsist, if you roll any result worse than a success, you get a success. On a success, you can provide subsistence living for yourself and four additional creatures, and on a critical success, you can take care of twice as many additional creatures. You can choose to support half the number of creatures with a comfortable living."
2. Is Saur Trained or an Expert in Survival? Forager lists a larger haul for Expert. 3. Roll Survival to find the fish that are particularly valuable to Alandri. (You get a +2 circumstance bonus to this roll for Hunt Prey), a success can give you a +1 (success) or +2 (crit) bonus to your Stealth check to capture the fish. 4. Roll Stealth to see if Saur can stand perfectly still to let the fish swim toward him, in the perfect location. (Success will catch 1 fish normally, 2 for a Forager. Crit would catch 2 fish, 4 for a Forager.) <- If Saur is an expert, double the Forager success amount. But for now, I will just write about the result of his Survival and his Stealth attempt and await the official word~
UPDATE: Here's the DC for your Survival roll so you can write a post around it's success (for your Stealth). DC: 8
1 & 2. Ah very well then, if that's fine by you, then it's fine by me~ Saur is not an Expert in Survival at Level 1, but he did get Trained in it from the same place he got the Forager feat: his Scout Background, but I don't think the ability to boost that above Trained is possible yet
3. Survival roll is an 11. Dang, had more than a 50% chance to crit this one, but if I had to roll low, I'm glad it's here. I'll take a standard success then~
4. Now for the important check, with a +1 bonus from the Survival check, his Stealth roll is: 15. A bit of a low roll, but at least the result is pretty good overall.
Very glad I put that idea forward now since if I'd rolled that 3 on the die for a total of 10 for my Stealth, I probably would've failed the check outright unless it is just that easy of a roll xD But if that 15 is a success, then I'm presuming Saur will be coming back with 2 of those particularly valuable fish for Alandri~
But for now, I'll just write up my post for his tracking success and await the official result from the official post~
So, I'm just getting back to Guild, and I'm not sure how the dice work. I'll be rolling Tripkee Lore, since their PC2 entry talks about their fishing habits. If that won't fly, probably Crafting to use some Frost Vials for dynamite fishing.
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