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18 days ago
Current I think I'm Advanced+ level and could do that. But under Adv, I feel compelled to write a certain way and it makes writing feel more like a chore even if it's just in my head. Thus, I prefer Casual
18 days ago
Many people equate "Advanced" to "Big, high effort posts with lots of flowery language." It's a habitual thought I struggle to shake as an RPer with 20+ years of writing experience. It's very draining
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<Snipped quote by Digizel>

If you'd like to take a closer look at the footprints give me a Perception check to see if Saur can decipher how many may have left the trail. Regardless of whether or not Saur can decipher how many traveled this way, the tracks and direction of the trail are obvious now to everyone in the party.


Hm, with a 5 on the die that gets me a 13 total. Just a water trail, so it's probably harder to check for those kinds of details I suppose~
Ahh...I see, I see. This is starting to make some kind of sense now. I appreciate what you're going for there~ I suppose questioning back and forth with you is probably how I'm supposed to figure out what might be applicable. Since I suppose I'm aware that fey and druid magic could be nature focused, I might be able to come down to being able to use nature with a bit of dialogue and ask if that's applicable.

If that's how the module structured this part, I think the reason it says to let them make those specific checks is because a character with the relevant skills would be able to recognize that it's a certain kind of magic by default, with the DC just being whether or not they can successfully decipher it. But I'm fine with this as well, I think. It just takes a bit more thought and effort xD

No problem, you're all good. Makes me feel a bit better that I'm not the only one trying to figure things out xD

But while I've got your attention Wolf, I do have a quick question regarding the game. When it comes to the footprints we're beginning to follow, is there only one set? Or does it seem like more than one person walked out of the office? And if so, could Saur try to figure out how many there might have been, or if they might've been dragging something or someone? Usually stuff like that leaves different kinds of trails, but I'll leave it to you~


Oh yeah ALSO, a reminder to the group as you guys post: Saur turned over the sheet he found to the group to see if they might be able to figure out what its purpose is. Idk if the module allows for more than what Saur picked up on, but it might not hurt to roll them Arcana bones if allowed.
Saur


Saur smiled and nodded at Starfinger. "Indeed. It might be good to make sure everybody can take care of themselves in an emergency." He paused for a moment before raising a claw and putting it on the frog's shoulder. "And don't worry. This...Taldane is different for me as well. Expressions are...difficult." His gaze then drifted up to his companions, taking note that Fleur seemed to already be diving into taking a look around the office like he should be.

"But for now, let's focus on figuring out what happened here...and where Teacher Ot went." With another pat on Starfinger's shoulder, he once more shook off the wounds on his back and got to work.

Saur was not an investigator, and he never believed himself to be the most intelligent around. But if there was one thing he was proud of more than anything else, it was how attuned he was to his surroundings at all times; his powers of observation were as sharply hewn as his arrowheads. It didn't take the most observant person to notice that there had been some kind of struggle in the room. The shattered glass and bloody water were obvious clues to that regard. But from his unique position behind the desk, something caught his eye. A pile of papers that seemed off on their own. Despite everything else having been strewn about haphazardly, these were strangely collected. It could have just ended up that way randomly of course, but still, he found it suspicious....

The Kobold approached the pile and gingerly lifted them off of the wet floor and into his claws. He felt the tip of one of his claws tear a small hole into a wet corner and quickly decided to lay them out on the table in front of him to avoid doing any further damage. Then, he carefully began to sift through the papers. Finally, he found what was so important about them. Pictured was some kind of rune, with many notes scribbled around it, seemingly to analyze what its purpose might be. He frowned as he inspected it and read through it. But...something was off.

This wasn't right.

Whoever had been analyzing the rune had made some strange assumptions or something, because the analysis was off. He wasn't particularly talented with magic, but he could tell that the rune was definitely to produce some kind of nature-oriented conjuration magic. He had no clue. But he could see one thing for certain.

Finally, Fleur spoke up and brought his attention up from the papers he was reading.

"Ah, judging from the broken strap, seems like we can pretty much say for sure our mystery attacker was humanoid at least; unless Teacher Ot was in the habit of wearing masks in the privacy of his office. They were probably trying to conceal their face from Teacher Ot or other potential witnesses when they did it. An excellent find that tells us a lot," Saur commented with a nod. "And I think I found something too."

With that, he turned the sheet of paper he had found over toward the others. "I think you're all better versed in the ways of magic than I am. Maybe you can figure out exactly what this is. All I can tell is that it's some kind of nature magic, conjuration probably. My current guess is that it could be either druidic or fey in nature. And whoever was trying to figure this out made some errors at the top that led to all kinds of false conclusions. Their notes are basically useless. So unless a teacher in a school of magic isn't very good at understanding magic, it's hard to believe this belongs to Teacher Ot."

Once he had turned the paper over toward the others, he turned his attention to the prints that Fleur had pointed out before. "No matter what though, Fleur is correct. We should get moving and follow the trail before it joins the stone."
@Digizel Sorry about that. I ought to have phrased that differently; something like 'would Saur like to investigate the pile of papers'? Then you could have told me which skill Saur would have liked to use to Investigate with and I could roll Recall Knowledge with that skill.

See, that's what I thought too at first, but here's the problem I ran into with that, though: From my perspective, I just know that there are papers here and they're probably important since the DM is bringing my attention to them specifically. I didn't have info on what's on them or anything. I didn't have any way of knowing what skill could possibly be applicable since I didn't know what was on them or anything. Didn't really have a reason to even think Nature was even remotely applicable to it, as far as I can tell? So I wouldn't have had any idea what to put forward what to try. And even if I did know it was a rune, I'm not sure I'd have ever been able to figure out that anything other than Arcana would've worked.

In fact, if you didn't tell me to do a separate Investigation roll, I wouldn't have even considered Recall Knowledge being applicable at all. So I just kind of assumed that you'd just pick it out for me and tell me what I got if I was successful. Hence why I just dropped all my numbers for you.

So out of curiosity, since the decision's been made already, am I just doing a dumb and missing something there? It wouldn't surprise me, honestly; I do have a bad habit of overcomplicating things xD

As a result of a separate, secret roll:

Saur sifts through the piles of papers and debris and finds a small sheet of paper among them. The paper is marked with a strange rune and several notes analyzing various aspects of the rune in the margins. Using Saur's knowledge of nature, he is able to recall that this rune is related to conjuration magic and that the analysis of this rune is actually incorrect and led to false conclusions on the part of whomever penned the analysis in the margins. At this point, that's all Saur can divine from the small sheet.

Sounds good then! I'll have my response up shortly then. I'd like to have it done before I go to bed, but if not, it'll be done tomorrow for sure~


Tanrith seems to perk up at Azorigal's words. He smiled at the dragon, grateful that they seemed so up front and reasonable. He opened his mouth to respond, only to suddenly hear Raella--and very quickly afterward, Azorigal--inquired about his mechanical companion. And suddenly, his mood brightened considerably. Now the little lizard was practically beaming!

"OH!" he exclaimed brightly with a wide grin on his face. "Right! Agh, I'm sorry Zyrech, I totally forgot!" Tanrith spun around and immediately rushed over to the side of his mechanical companion. "Azzy, Raerae, this is Zyrech! My masterpiece!~ I made him myself from the ground up. I even made all the metal plating too! Zyrech, this is Azzy and Raerae, my new friends!"

At his introduction, the mechanical dragon bowed his head, but said nothing.

"I haven't figured out how to make him smart enough to think for himself yet," Tanrith continued. "So for now, all he can do is respond to specific stimuli with prerecorded actions. He can't take any complex action without my vocal instruction. But he can understand and process every word we say! He knows Common, Draconic of course, and even Giant!" As he spoke, he dug into his pocket, pulling out a small stone, holding it up to his maw. "Cool, right!?"

As he said that, he lowered the stone and fidgeted with Zyrech for a moment, sliding the stone into his mouth. "And if I inscribe a recorded message onto an object and put it in the latch at the back of his mouth like this, he can tap it on my command with his jaw and it lets HIM say it!"

"COOL, RIGHT!?~" suddenly came the voice from Zyrech's maw, sounding exactly the same as when he himself had said spoken those same words only a few seconds earlier. Tanrith flashed the pair a wide grin at that.

"Oh yeah, Azzy, you were wondering about the design, right? Well you're right, I designed him after a Blue dragon. See the horn here, and the frills on the side and how the spines look...? I immediately knew that a Blue dragon's what I had to base my design on 'cause it's the same color as Captain Stormclaw!" He chuckled again. "I mean, it also pairs well with me 'cause I'm the Lightning Fang, but that's just kinda icing on the cake, y'know? ...Aw man, now I'm kinda hungry...." He reached down and then patted his stomach a bit. "Forgot I basically haven't eaten all day today with all the stuff going on...."

And at long last, his nonstop tirade seemed to have finally come to an end. His passionate, almost babbling presentation stopping seemingly because of a mention of food, even if it was just a figure of speech. Whether anybody actually understood what he had said, or whether they were able to process it properly or not, one thing was easily understood.

He certainly didn't seem sad or depressed about the situation anymore.
@Digizel Saur notices everything that Fleur has just mentioned to the group, with one caveat: rather than seeing the mask, Saur is drawn to a pile of papers littered on the floor behind Teacher Ot's desk. There's something odd about them, but he's nots sure what.

Please roll an Investigation roll for Saur!


Sure thing, but the Investigation activity says I need to roll a Recall Knowledge check that I can make apply, but I'm not sure which ones might apply to a pile of papers since I don't know what could possibly be on them.

Looking a bit closer, I'm realizing that the issue may be that these Recall Knowledge checks are tagged Secret. And this time I understand why, if I'm not supposed to know if I have one that applies or not without a success. So, here's what I think might be a good compromise, or you can roll for me, I'll leave it up to you~

Here's my roll on the die: 15
Arcana, Occult, Society, Lore (Dragon): +1 = 16
Religion: +3 = 18
Crafting, Lore (Kobold, Military, Cavern): +4 = 19
Nature: +6 = 21

Those are all of my Recall Knowledge results, so instead of asking what to roll, I just did all of them and will let you decide the highest one that applies here, if that works for you? If not, feel free to roll this one for me xD
@wanderingwolf Ah, just a 16, so probably not much to be found but what Fleur's already found, I presume?
Is it fine if Saur makes the same check? Perception is his best skill, so he should probably also attempt to have a look around. He'll gratefully tuck away the new potion from Starfinger and start his investigation as well~
Saur


"Hm?" Saur murmured. As he was rising to his feet again and beginning to look around and investigate, one of his companions approached him directly, carrying some kind of small container. The Tripkee held it out toward him and asked him to drink it. He looked down at it in the frogman's paws and considered him for a moment. This was the one who had taken a shot at the Flashbugs despite his orders to the contrary. In the moment, he had felt a surge of frustration well up within him, but...it worked out in the end, and it wasn't like he had any actual authority in the group either. Plus, he seemed to be apologizing about what happened now....

Saur reached his claw out and took hold of the potion, lifting it up. He unstopped the gourd and sniffed at it. Judging from the medicinal scent, it seemed like it was at least similar to what he was already carrying.... He contemplated simply returning it for a moment. As he'd already decided not to drink his own, he didn't want to take someone else's valuable restorative either....

"...Are you sure?" Saur asked. "We're not in any immediate danger and my wounds aren't so bad that I need to use up a valuable resource just yet. But I am grateful for the apology, so I will use it if you truly desire me to do so."
It's a little bit slower, but I think it works best to ask if a roll is applicable here in OOC (or even just asking what roll you WOULD make to get a certain wanted result, or if there even IS a role you can possibly make)...and then roll when you get the confirmation. It keeps things relatively easy to keep track of.

Plus, nothing is more disappointing than rolling a nat20 on a check you weren't supposed to make anyway, and it also eliminates that possibility xP

In fact, now that I think about it, maybe even attack and damage rolls should be done in OOC before a character's post is actually made, since combat can sometimes be very context sensitive. If your first strike downs a target, you're not gonna make a second strike on that target. And there might be nobody else in your range, so you need to do something else with your two remaining actions. Getting the flow of your turn ironed out before your post means you can now carry it out and flavor all of that however you want when you go to actually write your post, putting whatever little flourishes you want on the scene.
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