Title says it all:
Did Alustan tell them, did they use Comprend Language, a Knowledge(arcana), knowledge (history)?
because if they don't know his name they don't get the circlet.
Title says it all:
Did Alustan tell them, did they use Comprend Language, a Knowledge(arcana), knowledge (history)?
because if they don't know his name they don't get the circlet.
IIRC the wizard used failed her "decipher script" skill check and used "Comprehend Language" to understand the rune. She then used her Knowledge (Arcana) to recall something about him. But her roll was not so great, she just got a few pointers. Allustan gave them the longer version.
Bocklin
|
I had done a lot of background development for the dwarven cleric of Greysmere and for the half-orc former apprentice of Allustan. The players aptly took plenty of ranks in Knowledge skills so the cleric's comprehend languages and pooling of Knowledge (Planes/History/Arcana) checks was able to bring the overall Battle of Pesh outline to bear as "party knowledge". Appropriately the cleric's first word upon arrival to the true tomb was "Zosiel!" which flabergasted the rogue who'd been stuck in the tomb unable to do anything for several minutes while the rest of the party fought the wind warriors. But that's a long story for another thread...
My son likes to have his PCs known exotic languages, so we happened to have a PC who spoke Auran. He cut a deal with the air elemental - the air elemental gave him the full history on Zosiel and the tomb.
I had a player that I was using as a plot device. He was an aasimar socrceror with blood ties to the wind dukes. As they adventured through the cairn he eventually discovered that he understood auran.
Another player spoke terran and made a deal with the earth elemental. The elemental told the party all about the tomb, and they got Alustan to send it home.
As for the aasimar, his awareness of auran was gradual over the first three levels. At first level he heard words on the wind, but only subconsiously. At second level he could read the inscriptions, and by third level he suddenly found himself giving orders to the wind warriors, much like how Harry Potter suddenly commanded the snake in Chamber of Secrets.
But he died, and didn't want to bring back his character.
One of the party's rogues died and the player wanted a new character. The party had already figured out that the inscriptions were in a form of Auran, so he decided to play an air shugenja (of sorts). I built a class for him inspired by the Temple of the Four Winds article in DRAGON 314, called the Wind Disciple. It's a hybrid monk/shugenja focused on the element of air. The wind disciple's ability to speak Auran, combined with a party stacked with numerous ranks in Knowledge skills, was enough for them to figure out most of the background information. Alustan filled in some of the pieces the party was missing.
I had Allustan reveal it to them.
the wiz/rog passed her decipher script check with flying colors. unfortnatly, by the time my players actually get to the point where his name matters, i'm sure that the players will have forgotten the name.
My party was able to find out very little on their own, Allustan filled in many of the gaps, and then the party had Allustan request the book from the library at the Free City, and that gave them the rest of the information that they needed.
My party's sorceror finally managed to get a decent knowledge arcana check to work out that some of the glyphs were names. They still aren't sure about who's name is who's or indeed what the hell the cairn is there for. They will meet young Mr Land this week and have to go back to town (so far they've been camping out in the wolf lair for three days while they explore the parts they can get to), hopefully stopping at Allustan's to get the wands identified or they'll have a hard time with the wind warriors.
Did Alustan tell them, did they use Comprend Language, a Knowledge(arcana), knowledge (history)?
Allustan told them, the players didn't take notes, they failed their Intelligence checks (to remember what Allustan said).
So the NPC mage started shouting out the names until she hit "Zosiel" (Hey, I'm a "nice" DM!)
She gets the tailisman and the XP bonus...
The wizard in the group (also an Apprentice of Allustan) took rubbings of the markings he found on the sarcophagus, he asked Allustan what they meant. Allustan asked for a couple days to identify them. A few days later Allustan shared with the group about the great war of Law and Chaos. (However I think most of the players eyes glazed over as I read to them the details of the war.) Anyways, Allustan told the mage that the cairn was built to Honor Zosiel. I probably said it 3 or 4 times, hoping one of my players would right it down. That didn't happen.
So fastforward - the rogue is standing on the steps before Zosiels true tomb and he ask her, "Speak my name" She looked at the group and looked at me, and said "I don't know what it is?" I had them make intelligence checks. I made it a DC 20 (mainly because I was feeling like a rat bastard at the moment). Well to my surprise the wizard in the group rolls a 21 and remembers instantly what it is.
|
My group found runic reference to the name Zosiel on the alabaster statue in the architects lair. The name was discovered after the Wizard of the Party became quite intrigued by the statue. Studying the runic forms (He rolled a relatively high on knowledge planes) to garner information on the meaning of runic swirls, he finally interpreted the runes as indicating that Zosiel was a servant of the architect.
The party diligently note names,occurrences etc and more often than not never refer to them again.
Cheers
DDM
The wizard in the group (also an Apprentice of Allustan) took rubbings of the markings he found on the sarcophagus, he asked Allustan what they meant. Allustan asked for a couple days to identify them. A few days later Allustan shared with the group about the great war of Law and Chaos. (However I think most of the players eyes glazed over as I read to them the details of the war.) Anyways, Allustan told the mage that the cairn was built to Honor Zosiel. I probably said it 3 or 4 times, hoping one of my players would right it down. That didn't happen. <snip>
OMG, Ras - that is hillarious! Dito for my group. They actually do a great job at taking notes (normally). But, for some reason when I began reading the history of the War it sent all seven of them in to a catatonic stupor and they took no notes. I found it so strange since I enjoyed the history of the Wind Dukes and their final battle on the Fields of Pesh and I really thought at least half of my group would pay attention. I'm not so nice of a DM and will only give them the information once - if they don't write it down I don't give them int checks.
They haven't made it to the true tomb yet as they are due for a confrontation with Filge next, but I am sure they are going to be standing there dumbfounded and rifling through their notes shouting out random names. I look forward to it. =)
IIRC, they used Decipher Script to puzzle outthe runes. And I don't know if my players are just really anal, but one of them is very much the party's notetaker, and they all keep up with details like this. When it came time to speak the name, he said Zosiel with no hesitation, and no one was surprised by how he came up with it.
- Andy