Shards of the Silve Flame -- OOC thread

[drothgery]

I'm sure drothgery has gotten to check out his ECS for Investigate by now, but here's a quick summary for future reference (and my take on it, so drothgery can correct me if he thinks it should work differently):

While I had my ECS out, it was for my tabletop game (Thursday nights for now), so I haven't written up anything for Investigate beyond a normal Search.

For this specific case, I'm not sure whether Investigate even applies. I'm thinking in terms of the puzzle in question being why the fiends wanted Lord Alistair. An example of clues in the recent posting might be the drawings and journals. Analysis might be able to suggest what he was working on when the fiends came in, or perhaps provide some insight into what Lord Alistair's research was trending towards: Hariel probably wouldn't know about fiends in detail, but she might be able to deduce from the pattern of the research that some item is of greater significance, and draw that item to the attention of the people who do know more about fiends.

Investigate might also reveal as character knowledge some of the "what's going on" bits that were posted about how the fight came to be, with the silence spell to try to keep Kahlia from getting involved, etc.


Investigate is definitely one of those skills where it's totally up to the DM what information may or may not be gained from use, and how to provide that information. Sometimes, there won't be any use for it. Sometimes, it'll be an appropriate time to use it, but there still won't be anything useful to be gained. (Same sort of thing as Gather Information: sometimes there are no locals to talk to. Sometimes there are locals, but they don't know anything of import.)

I think there might be some things you can pick up, especially given an excellent result on the Search check. I'll have to think about it.

 

[drothgery]

Ask the DM

OCC: Drothgery---do you prefer OCC comments/mechanics in grey [...] or in SBLOCKs

I'd rather reserve SBLOCKs for things that aren't known to all characters, unless you've got a long block of mechanics to write (which shouldn't happen too much in-character, and more than a line or two of OOC comments should really be over here in the OOC thread).

One question for you guys, though -- is anyone else waiting on anything from me before moving on?

 

[stonegod]

I'd rather reserve SBLOCKs for things that aren't known to all characters, unless you've got a long block of mechanics to write (which shouldn't happen too much in-character, and more than a line or two of OOC comments should really be over here in the OOC thread).

I'll do so from here out.

One question for you guys, though -- is anyone else waiting on anything from me before moving on?

I think Hariel is waiting for Ava to get tools to open the drawer, the rest are waiting for search results, and Saalin is waiting for the above in addition to Kahlia's response on the divinatory thread of investigation. That's my reading, anyway.

 

[Anax]

Actually, I was too busy to post this weekend--my apologies for not mentioning something earlier.

 

[stonegod]

I will be out Fri-Sun myself, though I may be able to check intermintently.

 

[drothgery]

Don't worry about it unless you can't post for more than three or four days (and if it's over a period when I'm not around, it's probably not too important). Although it's great when everyone can post every day (including me), I didn't expect that would be the case very often.

So very advanced notice...

Thanksgiving weekend and the week between Christmas and New Year's almost certainly will have no GM posts (unless I'm both really bored and have access to an internet connection).

I'm moving into a new apartment (just down the street and around the corner from my current one) the next weekend (Dec 2/3), and I'm not exactly sure how long it will take the cable company to disconnect me, reconnect me, and get everything up and running again (though if everything works out okay, it should be just a day without an Internet connection; that's what they said, anyway).

 

[stonegod]

I'm a bit rusty at wizards (haven't played one since 2nd), so I am not aware of any means other than re-scrying to either (1) trace where a scry came from [especially and old one] or (2) trace the destination of a teleport. Saalin would attempt a Spellcraft check to make up for my ignorace.

 

[drothgery]

I'm pretty sure the only core way to trace a telport is with the Trace Teleport psionic power. Don't know about scrying, though Detect Scrying doesn't let you know who's doing the scrying.

 

[stonegod]

Assuming nothing exciting happens at the inn or while we are in Thaloist, Saalin will acquire two scrolls of comprehend language and one of scrying (for a total of 750gp before markup) and then head back. I'll wait to post anything about the arrival until time catches up w/ us on the other side of the split.

Does Brother Dain have any business in Thaloist he wants to accomplish before we leave?

 

[drothgery]

Two quick questions, and a reminder

Hariel/Drue/Oz
- Do any of you have any specific questions for the rakshasa, or should I just roll some dice and write out what you learn from questioning it? I'll do the latter if I don't have any actions from you by tomorrow.

Oz
- Any reason you haven't posted for more than two weeks? If it's Real Life-related, I can keep Oz in the background (or find a reason why he stays somewhere when the PCs move on). If you're not interested in the game anymore, I'll probably recruit a replacement.

Everyone
I'm going to try and move things along a little bit tonight or tomorrow, but I'll be out of town from Wednesday to Saturday.