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Conners
2007-09-12, 01:10 PM
Through searching the internet, try to locate a tranlator for the following drow paragraph to discern the secret message :smallbiggrin: .

Al'doer! Nindol zhah whol haska wun ilythiirra. Nindel zhah ditronw, dos phuul naut shinder ulu telanth wun lil rivvin ooble' ghil :smalltongue:.
Vel'bol dos xun telanth bauth zhah dossta ulu detholar. Rilu'oh, ka dos kl'ae nindol ulu lassrinn lil kultar, t'yin jalbyr usulii zhah ulu tesso lil Hiran, xor nindyn harl ukta. Ka ezual klezn nindel orn'la lassrinn lil kultar wun Rivvin xuat wun Ilythiirra, t'yin nau uss zhah ulu tesso lil Hiran lueth ukt miulk'ars :smalltongue:. Dos shlu'ta inbal lil Rivvin plynnithus del vel'bol dos telanthus wun spoiler tags.
Al, inbal jivvin. Lueth ori'gato lil yeunn kivvin rei ulu lil xal del lil Ilythiiri :smallbiggrin:!

If you don't want to have to search the web, or tried and couldn't find a good translator, it is in here: http://www.fantasyrole.org/learn_trans.asp and also http://www.grey-company.org/Maerdyn/resources/translator/index.cgi

Indon
2007-09-12, 01:25 PM
Forget translation, I get the impression this is a basic cipher. Hmm...

Randalor
2007-09-12, 01:48 PM
How DARE you! My mother was a saint!

Conners
2007-09-12, 01:51 PM
((Indon: Note: I didn't intend people to cipher the message, just so you know, so it might not work. If it does cipher, then good on you for working it out :smallsmile:!
Randalor: Jiala-jiala-jiala :smallbiggrin:!! Nindel zhahus zhennu!))

PlatinumJester
2007-09-12, 01:51 PM
I can speak drow.

"Life is pain. Let me slit my wrists with a razor blade since my life is meaningless and full of darkness. Why was I cast into the darkness?"

Conners
2007-09-12, 01:56 PM
((PlatinumJester: Nau, lil char'riss 'udtila naut telanth nindel. Usstan usieva dos jal'yur zhaunau nindel, rilu'oh.:smallsmile:))

Yami
2007-09-12, 03:22 PM
Your drow seems oddly different than what I am used to. Perhaps you speak some odd dialect?

PlatinumJester
2007-09-12, 03:26 PM
((PlatinumJester: Nau, lil char'riss 'udtila naut telanth nindel. Usstan usieva dos jal'yur zhaunau nindel, rilu'oh.:smallsmile:))

Whosajiggawhat? Even in English that didn't make sense :smallconfused:

Tweekinator
2007-09-12, 03:30 PM
That is because drow is the language of emo. Nothing emo makes sense.

"Why do you dress like a girl?"
"Because life is pain!"

Indon
2007-09-12, 03:48 PM
((Indon: Note: I didn't intend people to cipher the message, just so you know, so it might not work. If it does cipher, then good on you for working it out :smallsmile:!

I'm thinking it has too many special rules for me to figure out just by staring at it, and I'm not in a position to whip out a notebook and pour over it, so... eh.

....
2007-09-12, 04:58 PM
Drizzt Do'Urden zhah natha tool.

Wow. What race would replace a one letter word with a five letter word.

Oh, thats right. The drow would.

Conners
2007-09-13, 01:13 AM
Yami: It might be the translator I'm using. It's the one in the spoiler tags, in the first post.
PlatinumJester: Well, either you used a translator that didn't work very well, or it might be the fact that the Drow and Elven Languages are low in volcabulary. Perhaps it's because they make all the simple words so long, they can't think up any more words :smallbiggrin:.
My message said: No, the message does not say that. I guess you already knew that, however. Did it come out that way?

Kaelaroth
2007-09-13, 10:35 AM
That is because drow is the language of emo. Nothing emo makes sense.

"Why do you dress like a girl?"
"Because life is pain!"

heeeheeeeheeeeheheheeee.... Now THAT's comedy... :smallsmile:

John Campbell
2007-09-13, 12:13 PM
Eh, they're drow. Who cares what they're saying? Put 'em out of their misery and move on.

(My group is probably going to be cutting our way across Cormanthor tonight.)

PlatinumJester
2007-09-13, 12:41 PM
Yami: It might be the translator I'm using. It's the one in the spoiler tags, in the first post.
PlatinumJester: Well, either you used a translator that didn't work very well, or it might be the fact that the Drow and Elven Languages are low in volcabulary. Perhaps it's because they make all the simple words so long, they can't think up any more words :smallbiggrin:.
My message said: No, the message does not say that. I guess you already knew that, however. Did it come out that way?

Something like that.

bosssmiley
2007-09-13, 02:00 PM
I can speak drow.

"Life is pain. Let me slit my wrists with a razor blade since my life is meaningless and full of darkness. Why was I cast into the darkness?"

"I attack the darkness full of angsty Drow!" :smallbiggrin:

Jack Mann
2007-09-13, 10:59 PM
If I want to talk to drow, I'll cast Tongues lu' tlu xunor xuil ol.

skywalker
2007-09-13, 11:07 PM
"I attack the darkness full of angsty Drow!" :smallbiggrin:

Wait, wait, *I'm* the darkness!


Eggman, do you have any mountain dew?

John Campbell
2007-09-14, 01:26 AM
Okay, I take back what I said earlier. I found a good reason to be able to understand Drow.

In crossing drow-occupied Cormanthor tonight, my party ran across a couple of drow, advance scouts for a raiding party. There was a brief skirmish, in which no friendlies took so much as a single point of damage (we're 13th level; the higher level drow was maybe 5th), and which resulted in two unconscious drow tied up for interrogation. This task was delegated to the half-moon-elf bard, who actually speaks Drow (Moradin alone knows why), the moon-elf cleric of Corellon Larethian, who has a helm of comprehend languages, and yours truly, dwarven fighter/wizard with permanent tongues, while the rest of the party stood around uncomprehending.

Well, the bard and I charmed (not the spell, though he tried... frickin' SR) and intimidated some information out of them, then used the threat of revealing them as informants to blackmail them into revealing the rest, and finally left them there, tied up, in the snow, with a single knife stuck in the ground halfway between them, and each of them firmly convinced that the only way he can survive is to hide his treachery from their drow superiors by killing the other one.

And we did this in front of two paladins, who were a bit dubious about the whole arrangement, but had no choice but to believe us when we assured them that this was, in fact, the way the drow had bargained for us to leave them.

My only regret was that I hadn't prepared scrying that morning. I suspect that the next few minutes after we left were hilarious.

Solophoenix
2007-09-14, 02:21 AM
Not to go wrecking the fun with pedantics, but Drow speak Undercommon, not Drow. They do have Drow Sign Language as a bonus language though.

Conners
2007-09-14, 06:02 AM
T'yin ele 'udtila lil translator lar ol Ilythiirra/Ilythiiri? Then why does the translator call it Drowish/Drow? :smallbiggrin:

Cogwheel
2007-09-14, 06:12 AM
Only partially translated, sadly...

lythiir practice natha sil'in martial lloun - l' menvis d'lil walrus. Ol's sil'in p'wal nind insist ol zhah, lu' olt practice revolves bauth caving l' karliiken d' jaluss vel'uss telanthen otherwise wun xuil natha yin'xir'ziji, handheld, full-sized walrus . Ji, ph' dos aluin ulu jiala? Ol gumash tlu myar whol dosst afya

It's not my fault you caught me in a Silly Mood!:smalltongue:

X15lm204
2007-09-15, 12:16 AM
Not to go wrecking the fun with pedantics, but Drow speak Undercommon, not Drow. They do have Drow Sign Language as a bonus language though.

Yes, according to many sourcebooks they do use Undercommon, but since it would be ridiculously illogical for such a proud and xenophobic race to not have their own language, all fiction and many players give them at least one language of their own, often more.

Of course, this particular language is a fan creation centered around the few known words of Drow created by various FR authors. Whether it is anything like Drow would actually be is to a certain degree a matter of opinion.

Grim Greyscale
2007-09-15, 12:40 AM
Bah. sjek yth re yoscam ekess renthisj bvecko ooble, choose vi bensvelk ir, sjek wux shilta...

<_<

So it came out kinda strange. Oh well.

JackMage666
2007-09-15, 12:52 AM
Congratulate yourselfs, you have reached the pinnacle of geekiness. I will by each of your houses shortly to beat you up for your lunch money. Please stand by.

Raroy
2007-09-15, 01:37 AM
Congratulate yourselfs, you have reached the pinnacle of geekiness. I will by each of your houses shortly to beat you up for your lunch money. Please stand by.

Your on a forum for a stick figure webcomic about Dungeons and Dragons. You might want to think some things through. Don't beat your own kind, man.

How do even pronounce all this stuff? This is tougher then the Gurmurki scrip. :smallfrown:

Viscount Einstrauss
2007-09-15, 01:40 AM
How many Drow does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

None! They'll never get one up there because they keep breaking the damn things to cut themselves with!

JackMage666
2007-09-15, 11:11 AM
Your on a forum for a stick figure webcomic about Dungeons and Dragons. You might want to think some things through. Don't beat your own kind, man.

Hence why this is the pinnacle. I realize that I am a geek, and that I read a webcomic about stick figures playing D&D. However, I do not attempt to speak a fictional language. That's so geeky, nerds beat you up and take your lunch money. It reaches a point of geekiness that makes you invisible to bullies and such, so other nerds must perform the act of muggery, in order to keep a balance on the world.

John Campbell
2007-09-15, 08:41 PM
I'm an SCA heavy fighter. I've spent the last twelve years building up an immunity to blunt trauma, and I can crease steel plate with a wrist snap. Bring it. :smallbiggrin:

Brus pu âmbal. Shîk bûbarz, dâg!

(No, that's not Drow. Points to anyone who can tell me what it is. Extra credit if you can tell me what it means, too.)

Conners
2007-09-17, 02:29 AM
JackMage666: Oooh! Can you wait a while before coming to my house? We've ordered these practise swords (and possibly a real katana, my brother was thinking about it) and my seven family members were wondering how to test them. Shall we schedual it for next week :smallbiggrin:?

Zoraciel Ivtel
2007-09-17, 03:25 PM
Tel'gothrim naa saura. Lammen 'en Tel'Quessir naa ner vanima.

I've been driving my DM off the wall by speaking elven half the time. :smallamused:

Tobrian
2007-09-17, 04:54 PM
That is because drow is the language of emo.
:smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin:
I have to find a way to fit that into my sig line!
Seriously, I couldn't stop laughing.

People who claim they speak drow... worse geeks than people who speak Klingon.

Seriously, who can pronounce any name or sentence invented by the Forgotten Realms writers? It's like a monkey on crack fell on a computer keyboard.

But they still claim that drow speak Elvish as mother-tongue? Erm. Ok. I doubt any surface elf would understand a word of it.

Yes, I have the old official AD&D drow/english dictionary (somewhere on my hard drive). Whoever came up with that should be tarred and feathered. I mean when you try to design a bad language for a fictional race, a bit of grammar that is not like English grammar would be nice... but most importantly, try thinking about their cultural background, moron! Can someone tell me why a drow dictionary has entries for darkness and shadow (there's no "darkness" for a race with dark vision! Their word for blindness should be the same as for blinding light!! And how can you have shadows underground in lightless conditions??) but NOT for words that are part of a drow's everyday life, like rock, pebble, hunt, hunter, sacrifice?



Not to go wrecking the fun with pedantics, but Drow speak Undercommon, not Drow. They do have Drow Sign Language as a bonus language though.

Not to be pedantic either, but the Monster Manual lists as automatic languages for drow and driders: Elven, Common, Undercommon.
Races of Faerun or Forgotten Realms Players Guide or some supplement changed this to "Elven (drow), Undercommon, Drow Sign Language", with surface Common being a bonus (foreign) language for them, which makes a lot more sense IMO.

I mean, why would a drow who has lived all his life in the Underdark need Common? Why would he have learned it? To talk to slaves? pu-leez.

On the other hand, Drow Sign Language is a special super-secret language restricted to drow only ... and the writers make it a bonus language instead of an automatic language?? Which means those drow who need to use it most, who are the prime candidates of having it, like warriors, rangers and rogues, either need to have INT 12+ and spend their bonus language slot on a language they should have automatically, or they need to spend 2 skill points to learn it because Speak Language is cross-class for everyone except bards. Sorry, no.

That's like D&d 3.0 making special dwarf or special gnome weapons into exotic weapons and then not giving dwarf and gnome warriors proficiency with them... a real masterwork </sarcasm>. In 3.5., warriors of the race in question were auto-proficient with the special racial weapons. Or look at kender in Dragonlance... every kender regardless the class is proficient with the hoopak. That's what special racial weapons are for.

Tobrian
2007-09-17, 05:05 PM
--double post--

Renrik
2007-09-17, 05:21 PM
Udos ph' l' ilythiiri. Udos wear olath clothing lu' harventh udosstan p'wal udos ph' ji olath lu' dwalc lu' numl. Udos jal telanth udos phlith Drizzt, drill we're ou'tix jal copies d' ukta.

Is there a translator anywhere for Orc? Or Goblin?

Conners
2007-09-17, 06:22 PM
Yep: http://www.tilansia.com/langconvert.php

O us kb'ugok dr' Kupmo. :smallbiggrin:

Ditto
2007-09-17, 06:35 PM
I've played a character who learned all of the elven-rooted languages (Aquan was such a waste...), but it sort of surprised the Drow assassins he was consorting with.

Despite learning a few words for that game, I apparently missed some key vocab words: :smallbiggrin: ,:smallsmile: ,:smallamused: , and :smalltongue:. If I'm not mistaken, those words were in every one of your Drow posts, Mr. Conners.

:smallsmile: , abbil.

Krimm_Blackleaf
2007-09-17, 06:51 PM
Gneb oom ken moommooam! Ooneemmool'm bdana oog'm oog!