Reuleaux's page

Thanks, totally understand. Hope to game with you again.

"Flippy, prepare the sextant. We're about to embark to distant lands and must plot a course." the wizard commanded.

"You don't have that anymore, remember? You shoved it into the plasma ignition cylinder of that flying cube thing before electrocuting us all and blacking out. Besides, its the bog, its like...over there a little." it pointed. "Also, you shouldn't say 'embark' that's for a ship or something...we're walking."

"Cube?! Nonsense. 'Twas a Platonic solid, indisputably, but merely resembled a cube. Ship... Prepare the mariner's astrolabe!" was the followup command.

"*sigh*...you removed the central bearing for that spider toast maker contraption, and never put it back." the faithful companion reminded.

Clicking his tongue "Ah yes, the Toasty Gridspinner Mk4. Was well browned."

"Indeed..." the bat responded sarcastically, rolling its eyes to the point of retinal detachment.

Reu had strapped down the last loose cable on his mobile inventory, raising an eyebrow at Ispen "What is it Mr. Ironborn, you had some further inquiry? Hmm..." he envisioned a problem only natural philosophy could tackle. "Assuming a plump healthy farm child of 50 kilos stewing in a kindle fed fire of 400 degrees centigrade, and with the added 5 g of salt raising the boiling point of the water...Flippy, the counting sticks!" begrudgingly, the little rainbow antenna'd bat produced a few lengths of etched bark, assembling them into arrangements at Reu's telepathic commands. Eventually the matter seemed settled "Yes, we should yet have 245.43 arcminutes of solar transit time. I suppose its safe to linger. Go ahead."

Reu nodded appreciatively at the leprechaun's addendum, for of course the woman must also be made aware of the anarchistic tendencies of some gooseberry species. Lawless little drupelets.

As the woman revealed her name and address however, the gnome quickly packed up his stationery and was ready for adventure.

As the woman struggled to understand the berry, Reu took it upon himself to be the grand arbiter of magical forces, scribbling a short written dissertation (in 3 parts) about juicy fruits and transmutative infusions of life. It started with a compare and contrast against the well known badberries, before speculating on the existence of neutralberries. Included with the document was a sheet of music he composed, imagining such would properly compliment the oral delivery of his argument, or jam making, at a later time.

His interest piqued to the maximum "Trouble, you say?!" quickly extinguishing his pipe and turning an ear to the racket "Something about an 'unhelpful stepfamily'? Or was it 'get that welp, Anna Lee?'" before rushing outside with the others, but briefly reconsidering "No, they commanded: 'eat that kelp, carb free."

Also, I'm a little confused now to be honest...

Having made a decision the young farmer crosses the common room and eventually gains the attention of Freona. Keeping his voice low, he politely asks about the possibility of other such work as she had discovered for himself and his companions.

"You see, we worked well together and thought that by banding together we could accomplish more than racing about all on our own." He adds with a casual shrug.

Is Freona just straight up ignoring Oskar?

Are you telling us to pursue Selene's story instead of a DM-structured adventure? Thanks.

Reuleaux, I do not want to stifle your creativity or ideas, but I will ask not to do a lot of time jumps, and to stay within the action timeframe so we can get a consistent narrative without spreading too thin back and forth ;) A good option can be perhaps to spoiler your ‘intended future actions’ and label them as ‘When the group leaves the Tea Kettle’ or ‘Later when/if there is a chance’ - would that work?

Yeah that's actually what I meant, if there was a chance. I see I didn't explicitly write that though, so you assumed it wasn't the case. Hadn't posted for almost a week and no one was responding to his last conversation so I just started thinking what he might do next like you suggested. Don't worry about stifling my non-existent creativity, hehe.

please feel free to continue moving ahead yourselves - will you go looking for work? Will you ask Freona? Will you poke around for rumors of unexplored adventurous sites? Will you try to establish a business? Will you travel to a different city? Will you join the guard? Will you team up with the criminals in Phlan? Will you inquire around regarding the mysteries surrounding last night?

Sorry if I overstepped something...I usually embrace time jumps in my games, they are very convenient for getting stuff done in pbp imo. Especially when its a sandbox/downtime...sometimes a scene change is needed. Hard to get 6 players moving in the same direction without a DM, but I tried. Happy to just wait though when waiting is needed.

Glad you are back and ok.

Reu would be interested in hearing Feona's response to Oskar, as well as building plot with Ispen and Serene. Additionally...

Later, when Reu was fully cleaned, refreshed, not pretending to be someone else, and had a few free moments he strolled down through Podol Plaza. Nosing about for a few special resources, he twirled a light bolt in one hand with half his coin in one boot and the other half tucked safely in his armpit.

Kiln fired clay molds for his molten tin and custom alloy casts were among his first solid pickups, following the legacy of the master tinkers of Lantan. Cold drawn wire for custom springs was harder to find, but a friendly specialist in chainmail had just the right stuff. Of course the best lubricant for clockwork was brontosaurus fat imported from Chult, but he settled for a thick pig lard he could later mix with ground charcoal.

The materials were inexpensive, that was the beauty of such things...being accessible to anyone with a bit of knowledge. Then again, few had the technological birthright a Lantanese gnome inherited. The complex sequences of automated gears, levers, and linkages required to imitate life were child's play in Reu's island culture...the more difficult endeavor was finding a purpose for it all.

Purchasing 30gp worth of materials for my racial rock gnome ability...to come in a later post. That will let me build all 3 devices when I have the in game time, and real life writing inspiration.

"Silver you say..." his eyes narrowed "...yes, just as I suspected! But the ring was left behind? Hmm...a curious clue. Always that scarlet thread of murder runs through the colorless skin of life, our duty as Sleuths to unravel it...isolate it. Expose every inch of it! But first, breakfast." pouring syrup onto her pancakes "Tell me more of this 'husband', and spare no detail...his business, his temperament. I know it may be hard, but please try...you may indeed be holding the fact that will crack this case wide open." he says with a nod, taking further puffs from the pipe.

Recovering HP from long rest. No change to spell prep.

Reu began his day building a house of cards...out of pancakes. Precarious daubs of butter balanced maple syrup waterfalls, while a monorail of blueberries carried busy businessmen and women efficiently throughout their day. It was a masterpiece of structural engineering (though some criticized not enough mind was given to green energy sources), and when someone reminded the gnome not to play with food...he wept. Wept for a fleeting vision, lost forever in the tangles of inspiration.

After, he produced a crimson tinted monocle from god knows where (it appeared his thumb was actually some kind of false thumb container? but that couldn't be...), adorned it over his left eye and began smoking an oversized pipe, slowly scooting his chair towards the Moon priestess "Pleasure to meet you..." he said in a voice that wasn't Reu's "Snaps McKracken, Private Eye..." he offered in introduction, producing a small business card "I've heard of your plight, and wish to help." The gnome's face was nothing but dead serious.

Yes, I also left myself 10gp from character creation for this purpose. And yes, the cast would be foiled if the special herbs and incenses were not able to be purchased in town. I was thinking we had free time and he could go shopping off camera, etc. If that doesn't fit with your narrative, no problem can do it another time.

Later, the misunderstood genius retired to the bunkroom, cordoning off a triangular area with bright pink twine. In the center he installed a small brass brazier, filled with a variety of expensive herbs and incense. He was relatively quiet as the embers crackled, but as the flame drew down to coals he startled suddenly as the first beads of perspiration began to flow down his face, and began to unbutton his shirt. Taking some of the crispy ash and mixing it with his sweat, he drew a tiny square door on his chest (complete with doorknob).

"Knock, knock, anybody gnome? I mean home. Time to come out!"

After a few moments pause there was a loud metallic crash and then "*sigh* What's the password?" the door seemed to answer.

"Blast...of course I don't recall such trivialities. Hrm, something to do with guano...whitlockite, tarankite...no...variscite?" Reu rattled off a few ceramic minerals known to form between the reaction of bat guano and the natural limestone in caves, certain he was on the right track.

"Can't open without it, sorry...them's the rules. And frankly, you can go to hell..." the little voice squeaked from beyond, getting softer as it seemed to descend some stairs inside Reu's chest (?), beyond the boundaries of reality.

"What! Good lord, that's rather uncalled for. The shoes would have fit if they hadn't gotten wet! You have to treat suede rapidly if you--wait, that's it! Calcium sulfate hemihydrate! Bass-an-ite!" The final syllables seemed to come from a different mouth than the gnome's own: deep, guttural and powerful, almost a command.

The door on his chest swung open squeakily (the hinges badly needed oil). From within a tiny bat's head emerged very cautiously, before finding a tiny wooden perch installed for him in Reu's front pocket. The bat was obviously a magical creature of some sort, given not only its torso-origin but the strange rainbow colored antennae that emerged from its cranium. "...do I have to say it?" it communicated softly.

Reu said nothing, but his fiery gaze spoke volumes.

"*sigh* ...'Flippy', at your service." reluctantly "...of all the dumbass names..."

Spending time and 10gp for a ritual cast of Find Familiar. Fey bat. The communication is only telepathic.

I can still enjoy 2e...as long as the 2.5 Player's Options stuff isn't in play. I really like the 2e skill system especially (yes, the NWPs). When they took the player's options and redid everything for 3.0 that was much better.

As for character goals, Reu is still chasing his optical themed innovations, hoping to gain some standing/renown in the glassblower's guild and Lord's Alliance (to secure access to exotic supplies he 'needs'). He's going to always want lots and lots of gold (for spell shenanigans that are expensive in 5e), so will be up for just about anything.

Like I said I think AL modules are pretty solid. They're great for PbP because of the length it takes to get through a varied story arc. First post here was Jan 5? Not even March and we are done. I don't know if this was in Season 1 (which is the Phlan season) but later seasons have modules that are like 4 of these length adventures in one and are a blast to play/run. They're certainly more convenient to run compared to published adventures, those require a lot more from DM and can take years for even a couple chapters.

Multi/Duals could be powerful, but remember in those days hand-waving XP wasn't really a thing (tracking each point instead of 'ok you're all level 5 now') and deaths were more frequent (like, actually a thing) meaning everyone was at different levels all the time and leveling at different speeds.

That isn't really done anymore.

Those classes were always slow and behind, and duals were especially groan worthy when they started their s%$% over at higher levels and became a useless blob of hp.

Thief had a wtf crazy fast XP progression, so I always liked them. Rangers were the go-to powerhouse. Games/characters for us also very rarely got very high level. Maybe 5th on average.

Granted I had a brutal f&%~tard of a 2e DM though...so many out of the blue character deaths. XD I deserved only half of them maybe... I wish I had a copy of his wild magic tables, there were like over 1000 possibilities he kept on an ancient computer.

Also curious about current level status.

Definitely down for more as well. There's like 20 or so more AL modules in the line after this if you have access to them. I like AL modules. IIRC, one or two touch on Pool lore.

I've never done Hoard of the Dragon Queen past the first scene so that might be fun.

Or you could try running the earlier edition Pool adventures in 5e, that works well without much effort to translate over. Someone has done a conversion already most likely.

He's eccentric and absent minded to the max. Think Doc Brown from Back to the Future, running around babbling about god knows what. He often wont bother with mundane trivialities the group is talking about in favor of his own intellectual pursuits and bizarre insights.

But sorry if you got the idea he won't communicate with you. That's not the case, and not at all what I'm going for. I'm not a great writer, give me a break please. :) Some of the others here know me as a player and DM for years already, so are probably (hopefully) cutting me that slack.

I mentioned at the beginning he would be pretty useless mechanically at level 1. I'm a little (a lot) OCD with spell selections. Still, he managed to kill a bandit with his optically enhanced crossbow firing enchanted ammo, which your character surely witnessed. Ispen has also seen him cast spells now both in and out of combat so he might believe Reu to be a wizard. Finally, he has mentioned a connection of some sort with House Jannarsk, which is a noble mercantile family in Phlan...perhaps he has some import or use you haven't yet seen.

His familiar should be a good foil to his ludicrousness, once it appears. It will be much more down to earth and likely share Ispen's frustrations and concerns.

Reu rapidly organized the new coins into his mechanical organizer, delighting in the glisten of the corrosion proof metal. "Oh yes, this will do nicely..." rubbing his hands together in pure evil. He wasted no time taking out a quill and inking up a quick supply list for shopping later, but to others it just looked like a bunch of random scribbles...the wizard's cipher script perhaps.

When/if we get a chance (3-4 hours), he'll use the gold to summon a familiar and finish a few Rock gnome tinkerings.

Reu resisted the urge to climb inside the cleric's top hat hidey hole while eating the egg in a stunning display of self-control, perhaps from the calming effect of the cleric's magic. Some kind of vaporous fumes slowly roiled forth from his nostrils as his nape tissues re-sutured themselves. He seemed much farther from death.

"Yes! You better keep it. Who knows what cascading effects its ameliorating aura might have on my precious instruments!" waving it away like a bumbling June bug.

Reu steps forward "Ah, it all makes sense now. Of course! The artificial leeches are cleverly packaged within your frock topper..." indicating the hat "...for convenient transportation and protection from the elements. Meanwhile you've got an emergency ecraseur up your sleeve, and a few tonic syringes in a slate case nestled in your front vest pocket. Tools of the trade! My, you are one stylish doctor."

Of course for the Lantan, common sense was smothering tyranny and Selene's motherly bluster went quite literally in one ear and out the other (thanks to a micro-dimensional crosslinking path between the two ears).

At Oskar's discovery of the sword gash, he pinched his chin to his chest and tried to get a good look "Zounds, I thought that was a raspberry I smelled." the gnome apparently undergoing some bizarre synesthesia (probably a by-product of the aforementioned crosslinking).

His crossbow string started playing a soothing, harpy jingle that seemed to alert him "Well! Nearly suppertime now. Nothing a good walrus loaf can't cure." But for the more insightful something was indeed bothering the gnome...squinting off into the darkness he thought he heard a child's laughter, and wary of another autumnal pine cone battle kept a quick pace with the group back to the stables.

---

"Terrific headgear, Stablemaster!" he commented to the stranger as they met the rendezvous.

Reu was still going on and on about ancient wizardry, oblivious... "...yes, that Carbury. Unfortunate hoaxter in the end, and none could say he had a heart of gold. But quite the opposite for the spells he wrought!" as the money is exchanged and the guards walk off "Ah such a booming economy Phlan has these days. Bless the Black Fist for finally restoring order to these lands..." he mumbled as he searched for his misplaced alembic.

Later, when the shouting and frustrations made clear that Reu was in Oskar's debt, the gnome quickly produced a tablet sized array of many cylindrical tubes filled with coppers, silvers, and gold...a novel little coin organizer. "Let's handle the balance, shall we?" he typed in a few digits and pulled the handle on the side, and the little device squirted out 4 gold coins. It was clearly an incorrect quantity, but Reu as usual didn't notice, and Oskar didn't seem to mind.

Should've waited until Tuesday, they have buy one get one half-price offers (coupon required).

No worries, I botched my Medicine roll to do it cleanly in the first place. Also sorta thought since more than half the party made their deception mine wouldn't matter...should of just not posted I guess, hehe. ;P

That adrenal gland was going to give some extra pep to his robot chicken.

Reu, quite unable either to give a straight answer or to tell a lie was taken away by the guard.

"One can certainly hope not!" he answered jovially, waggling a pinky left and right. "And egg-cellent question!" he added, with a weird popping sound from his jaw. "Allow me to expound...Carbury was a Netherese arcanist, prolific in spell inventions of both the illusory and phantasmal...taking advantage of the mythical enclave's universities of the time. He would not pass quietly without producing a number of classics...perhaps you are familiar with Magic Mouth? Yes, his production as well. But you see, psychet-visual distortions of the Weave are only an echo of true conjurative symphonic resonances, which is the very essence of the force you see here. Or rather don't see at all!"

There's a slight *pop* as the glass nozzle is plucked prematurely from his belly button hole, his eyes lingering on the knight's emblem "Ah yes, greetings, sons of Bane. Behold! It is I, Reuleaux of Lantan, optical advisor for House Jannarsk. Here hold this a moment..." he tells the invisible Pitblaster, who takes grip of the purpled alembic while Reu takes a proper bow.

The absent minded Reu had already completely forgotten the last 20 minutes of his life, back to fiddling with a large glass alembic which seemed to be siphoning some sort of purple substance out of his belly button.

"Let me handle this..." the gnome waved to his friends assuringly, the Pitblaster still scrubbing away at some hard to reach areas. He didn't seem to notice or care about the life threatening gash across the side of his neck and extending down his back.

Johnny, there probably isn't a rule for this specifically in D&D5e, but if the plan is to move along with the others 'while' remaining in Stealth, they will eventually outdistance you as you look for hiding places, and need to move from shadow to shadow instead of in a straight line :)

For this 10 minute walk you might consider the Travel Pace rules (chapter 8 phb), rather than trying to hash out the action economy of taking the Hide action every round (and thus halving the possible movement speed).

With those rules, a normal 30 ft speed character goes 300 ft per minute, but 200 ft per minute enables stealth (quick pace allows 400 ft per minute, but disadvantage on perception since you're Russian not Stalin). The normal vs slow pace is the difference between 3 mph and 2 mph, if familiar with Imperial lengths.

Of course, there is much room for DM spin. One might allow stealth at full speed, yet impose disadvantage on the roll for example. Then because of the length of time, you might go instead with just a passive stealth score to represent the average of the many rolls that would be made if you were actually tracking round by round hiding. Disadvantage can be used with passives as well, its a -5 penalty to the static score.

"Good lord, don't bother yourself with the bodily clutters of my research. That's what the Automagic Pitblaster is for! Granted, it was originally designed for a certain barbarian's hairy underarms, but it will suit our needs in the moment just the same!" he explained, putting the spleen down for a moment and slipping the adrenal gland into a hidden compartment of his belt buckle. "Just a moment!"

----

10 minutes passed of the bloody gnome prancing around in circles muttering various syllabic alterations of 'zippy' and 'miffy', throwing his hand into a number of obscure and borderline obscene gestures. For a moment the moon flashed red, the musky leaves of autumn returned to their sharp greens, somewhere someone stepped on a duck. The end result was nothing at all. "Aha! There we have it."

Ritual casting Unseen Servant and ordering it to clean myself.

Reu was hard at work with his illuminated quarrel and the dead body, wrist deep in something halfway between butchery and surgery. "Hmm...ah yes, the inferior vena cava! Nailed it! Look at this blood loss, its catastrophic! The Mark III optics are certainly an upgrade, aren't they?" But the dead bandit had no answer, as his vital organs were slowly plundered for academic purposes...

Insane Doctor (Medicine): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

...at least that's the way Reu had it in his mind. To everyone else, it appeared the gnome was just ripping random bits of flesh out and enjoying himself perhaps a little too much.

No worries, appreciate the heads up.

Reu was fine letting the bandit go, weighing the tatters of a failed ambush and his own bloodlust...he found the balance tilted towards mercy.

He would. You always get movement and an Action. So my movement was 5 squares and Action to Attack. If I had used Dash, I would have been able to move 10 squares but not attacked.

Also, characters get a free Use an Object action every round.

For most characters Dash is an action. Think of like 'move your speed'. So if you Dash and then do your normal movement, you move twice your speed (and are unable to do anything else except a bonus action).

Rogues (for free at 3rd) and Monks (for ki point at 2nd) get to Dash as a bonus action, meaning they can double move and take an action. They can also double Dash (Dash as action, Dash as bonus action, then normal speed move) for triple movement speed. Certain spells and a handful of other abilities grant extra leniency with Dash as well.

And yes, part of the Unconscious condition is going Prone and dropping items.

I typically ignore init order for the most part, but it helps for a small variety of things...mostly certain spells and death saves. Which side goes first matters a lot since combats are so short, even if it inevitably degrades into party-up, ok, monsters up etc. Always giving party the first round is a pretty big benefit. Then, since there are no surprise rounds in 5e, figuring out surprise without initiative is a bit of a headache as well.

Additionally a lot of the game language uses 'end of turn' or 'start of turn' that needs initiative order as reference. Turns aren't as fluid in 5e compared to earlier editions; there's no delay, and one can only Ready a single Reaction for someone else's turn...and it doesn't modify your original turn count etc etc. So, even if DM doesn't use it for character actions, its still helpful to have as reference and parse to make sense of everything.

Death saves are one of those 'start of turn' things. If you've rolled a death save and didn't stabilize, you've taken your turn that round.

Just IMO. ;D

Reu limps out the barn door towards the abandoned cart, slipping a pair of rose tinted vision enhancing goggles over his eyes...he focuses on JB's assailant and quickly fires the light-enhanced bolt...

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Piercing Dmg: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8 +light

Move to H23 and Attack.

Yes JB, you're not doing it properly: Halfling Luck is supposed to be a merry time, not one laden with despair.

Inspiration is great. Most DMs (myself included) forget about it chronically. I find its easiest for me to just blanket award it to everyone at certain milestones like levels or interesting story points. Some players spend it instantly, others hoard forever. Personally I guess I use it when I actually write something interesting and don't want to have it get jacked up to s%*~ by a crud roll.

Reu scampered away from the melee, spilling blood and gears along the way...

Withdraw C18

Ok, you said 'ajar' in the written description but it looked closed in the picture so I wasn't really sure. I'll hit the other 2 next to each other instead, if they are looking hostile.

Reu was sketching the egg furiously from memory with a very precise live octopus when the commotion started. His mechanical jaw chittered out "YOLKS on you!" but then there was some malfunction and it started flapping wildly "EGG EGG EGG ALBUMEN ZYGOTE EGG" sending a shower of sparks all over the poor inventor, nearly catching his parchment on fire.

Full of regret, he tore the device from his face, licked his lips a few times and then reached deep into his nose. From that mysterious portal the wizard produced a slender vial marked simply 'HF'. Unscrewing the cap immediately released a melon-sized cloud of emerald vapors, which seemed to react with the concentrated pattern of hand gestures ol' lefty was executing. The cloud took the form of a baby dragon, which promptly spit at the highly demanding scoundrels...

Acid Splash. Going for pair at G23 to take advantage of acid splash's AoE. Its a DEX save on their part else take...

DEX DC 13 vs Acid Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 2

By the way, for AoE spells the damage is rolled just once not individually (pg 196 PHB).

After the transaction, Reu seemed to affix some kind of mechanical device to his jaw to allow him to speak again "...EGGscuse me, m-m-might I EGGxamine the dragon's cackleberry? It's quite EGGxiting...refuse and you shall be EGGsecuted! Hehee..just YOLKing..." he inquires of Oskar.

DM, can I try my Artificer's Lore rock gnome ability to assess the so-called dragon's egg?

Int(History): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

Reu's eyeballs actually extended out of their sockets a few micrometers, tracking the egg's position with incredible accuracy. He wanted to dissect it...examine and deduce every property of shell, yolk, and albumen. He had a tiny scalpel in his hands at the ready, but the prolific amounts of sweat pouring off his body made it super slippery...resembling a back-alley rogue tumbling a dagger in hand.

Speech was still impossible, this time the noise from his mouth resembled a simple G7 chord (it was wholly unclear how he was actually able to produce multiple notes at once with just his mouth, but rather remarkable to the musically inclined).

Reu appeared to have simultaneously a) invented the adult diaper and b) swallowed a fast-acting laxative. His face swirled and contorted like the image on a pond's surface in the rain in some indecipherable combination of shock, disbelief, and pure energy. Drool ran from both corners of his mouth, and he was also softly crying.

The gnome's hands shook slightly less than the rest of his body as he reached for a handkerchief, promptly proceeding to clean out his ear holes with a tiny vial marked 'hydrochloric acid'. His skin was as bright red as a cardinal's crown, and indeed from the look of the goosebumps he was about to sprout feathers and invoke the eternal spirit of Daedulus in a triumphant ascent.

Such was the struggle to maintain composure before even his nose began to bleed. An attempt was made to say the word 'dragon', but alas nothing came save a high pitched squeal resembling a lazy baby trying to cough. His focus had been wholly stolen, replaced with trembling anticipation.

If a real dragon egg was about to be plopped here before the Lantanese guildsman, it would be the first domino to fall in a chain reaction leading to god knows what...

From out of nowhere Reu brought The Weapon forth.

*zzzip klik wRRrrr*

Deep blue, arcane energies glistened across its polished brass surface. It had a ratcheting system that looked foreign and didn't seem to make mechanical sense. A copper string played some kind of stabilizing song, a sequence of 3 notes (that actually sounded more like syllables) gripping a quarrel on the edge of explosion.

But it was Reu. The light from his face filtered through another attached lens device, focused into a narrow beam that lit the projectile with an inner source of its own.

The wizard held it at the ready, smiling, a shimmering globe of radiance.

Casting Light on my quarrel and standing around.

He says with a smile, picking pieces of cone out of the fibers of his vest "All in good sport, my planestouched companion (besides it is they who in fact started it). Conflict breeds innovation! A challenge well met means problems to solve. But yes, I sense a crisp autumn breeze from the north..." he raises an eyebrow mysteriously seeking something invisible, wetting a finger and putting it into the air "...humidity 77%, barometric pressure fluctuating. Let us quickly find the warmth of cape and steed and begin the journey proper."

@Reuleaux: How do you use True Strike to dominate foes? :D

He was getting attacked by children throwing pinecones at him, so he dressed up the pinecones like witches with magic. Since witches love children, they then became homing missiles and turned the tide of battle. Was a bad joke, no worries moving on.