The Royal Artificery Society - OOC

[DeTess]

And just to clarify with the rules:

We can't use magic tools, but...

We can use magic abilities ourselves, if we possess them?

The final product can be magical in nature, provided we followed all the other rules?

Yes, you can use your own magical abilities and create a magical device for the competition, and if creating your magical device requires the use of magical tools that's fine as long as you create them using the resources provided by the competition.

[Prehysterical]

Would Bolten be able to make a Craft check in either clockwork, armorsmithing, or weaponsmithing to find decent metal? I have to imagine that part of the skill is being able to parse good metal from bad when it comes to shaping it.

Fortitude save: (1d20+5)[20]

[DeTess]

Would Bolten be able to make a Craft check in either clockwork, armorsmithing, or weaponsmithing to find decent metal? I have to imagine that part of the skill is being able to parse good metal from bad when it comes to shaping it.

Hmmm, you know what, roll me your craft check of choice and a perception check then.

[Prehysterical]

Craft (clockwork): (1d20+17)[32]

Perception: (1d20+1)[3]

[DeTess]

You're about half an hour into the competition now.

Bolten has found the following: 1 badly rusted crowbar, the ship's compass (about 4 pounds of pristine brass, iron and bronze, but it'll take some work to disassemble), and if Bolten stopped he could have salvaged about 4 pounds of badly rusted iron from door fittings and the like during his search.

Shandara: 3 small lead pipes (about 2 pounds of material all told), a pouch containing 2 ounces of a mystery but very shiny dust, and a pouch containing 4 gold, 22 silver and 15 copper coins, all badly tarnished.

You all can continue search around if you wish (roll me another perception and a skill appropriate to the stuff you're looking for if you're looking for something in particular), or you could return outside to try and regroup and start making a plan. It definitely seems to the both of you that it's getting less busy in the ship, though there do seem to be plenty of stuff left.

[Prehysterical]

If Shandara is going to keep looking, Bolten will too, since he's not sure what he can do with those things just yet.

Fortitude: (1d20+5)[11]

Craft (Armor): (1d20+13)[32]

Perception: (1d20+1)[21]

[DeTess]

Further search cost you another half an hour, so the competition ahs been going for an hour by now.

@windstruck, could you roll me an appraise at some point for that jewelry to determine what parts are useful gemstones, and what parts are fake?

@prehysterical, You didn't mention it specifically, but obviously it's fine if you join the rest as well. You could continue searching, but you're reaching the upper limit of what you can easily carry (maybe not in raw carry weight, but definitely in volume), unless you have a solution for that, of course.

[WindStruck]

Okay, first, let's use investigative mind!

Then I'll make appraise for jewelry:
(1d20+10)[25]
or (1d20+10)[15]

and then I could detect magic and spellcraft to see what kind of residual enchantment used to be on this grate:
(1d20+16)[18]
or (1d20+16)[30]

[DeTess]

@windstruck,

For the jewelry, you end up determining that you've got about 3 ounces of actual silver, a sizeable amethyst and aquamarine stone, and 2 small rubies. All other parts of the jewelry is colored glass or cheap metal covered in the thinnest possible layer of gold or silver

For the grate, you're fairly certain that it was once part of a device meant to turn seawater into drinkable water. The grate itself is enchanted to simply attract salt, which is why it's encrusted with salt. This would pull the salt out of the water, though it'd likely take several passes, or several such grates, to make the water completely drinkable.

[WindStruck]

I think you've been doing a great job DeTess. Not sure how you are coming up with things, random or otherwise, but there is still a nice amount of detail with the IC posts!

[WindStruck]

Ah one last thing. Could I check out the mystery/shiny dust with detect magic? Does that show up as anything?

...I guess not though. Seeing as it's just dust.

But I guess the next part of that is figuring out just what exactly the dust is. Reading the description of finding it again, perhaps we'd get a better clue in slightly better light (but not too much better ) and using one of those jeweler monocles that magnify things.

[WindStruck]

I've got some general questions regarding the enchantment process. Let me know if you actually want some rolls. (could still use investigative mind if I find it necessary)

Would separating out the dust into pure diamond, pure glass, and pure quartz components improve their effects? As in, do they operate better mixed together, or without impurities?

Second would be, how difficult is it to modify an enchantment that has already been placed? For example, instead of drawing out salt, we draw out bacteria and viruses?

[DeTess]

Would separating out the dust into pure diamond, pure glass, and pure quartz components improve their effects? As in, do they operate better mixed together, or without impurities?

The glass is useless, it just ads volume. Quartz is used for enchantments, but it can't carry much power at all. As mentioned before the diamond dust is very very useful and can carry just about any enchantment, but probably only a small part of the dust is actually diamond. Filtering out the glass would definitely help, separating the diamond and quartz might leave you with too little diamond, meaning the mix might be more useful, depending on how you want to use it

Second would be, how difficult is it to modify an enchantment that has already been placed? For example, instead of drawing out salt, we draw out bacteria and viruses?

Modifying or piggybacking onto an existing enchantment is difficult in terms of skill, but you'd need fairly few resources to do so as you could use portions and of the existing enchantments web of runes rather than needing to draw new ones, but you would need to figure out how to twist what's there into what you want it to be.

[WindStruck]

Modifying or piggybacking onto an existing enchantment is difficult in terms of skill, but you'd need fairly few resources to do so as you could use portions and of the existing enchantments web of runes rather than needing to draw new ones, but you would need to figure out how to twist what's there into what you want it to be.

Ok, I'll see if Shandara can figure out how to do this.

Spellcraft: (1d20+16)[24]

or (1d20+16)[30]

Also need to take into account the fact that we do have limited resources to work with. If it's possible, then it would also be good to know what other sort of materials we might need to find, or alternatives, if we are lacking.

[DeTess]

Okay, so both pieces of the grate your recovered are damaged, but with the silver from the jewelry a skilled smith or jeweler should be able to patch it without needing to melt down the entire thing (which, as you surmised, would wreck the existing enchantment). Silver could carry most of the power for the enchantment without trouble, but there are some holes in the enchantment's framework that'll need patching and filling in (think of teh enchantment is a sequence of runes around the grate's outer edge, where that edge is missing the enchantment is gone too).

You know of two ways to change the current enchantment. One is to selectively erase parts of the enchantment, and put in new parts there that do what you need it to do. This is easier, but a bit more resource intensive. The other is to convince the enchantment that its actually supposed to do what you want without changing the enchantment itself, which is harder but less resource intensive.

To explain the above a bit more, the enchantment is essentially a rune sequence with the instruction 'attract all salt in the passing liquid'. Method 1 is erasing the runes explaining 'salt' and replacing them with the substance you want to pull out of the water. Your replacement runes would be an integral structural part of the enchantment and would have to carry a decent amount of magical power. Method 2 is using the fact that salt has been fairly loosely defined for this enchantment (the enchanter was either not skilled enough, or didn't want to write what would amount to a three-paragraph essay to explain what salt was) to create an addendum that changes the meaning of 'salt' into whatever you need it to be. This'd be a lot more tricky, but your addendum wouldn't be part of the main enchantment (it'd generally consist of a small plate with a kind of sub-enchantment attached to the grate, and could therefore be made with far worse materials).

I hope that's somewhat clear, but I'll happily try explaining it more if it isn't.

For method 1 you're a bit short on materials. For best result you'd need to purify the diamond/quartz mixture a bit and use that to fix the enchantment on the grate, but that'd leave you short on materials to edit the enchantment. You could grind up some of the gems you've found, but you'd likely need those to function as the enchantment's power source. You reckon you could lay this enchantment in about 2 hours if nothing unusual happens and you have all the materials you need (not including time to physically fix the grates) (DC25 spellcraft to get it in 2 hours, 1 hour extra for every 5 below, half an hour less for every five above to a minimum of 1 hour).

For method 2 you have everything you need. You'd still need to purify the quartz/diamond mixture to fix the overall enchantment, but you could use the quartz left over for your addendum plate, and turn a section of the lead pipe you'd found into the plate in question. You'd reckon this'd take you at least 3 hours though to figure out how to 'word' your arguments for salt being something else (not including time to physically fix the grates) (DC30 spellcraft to get it in 3 hours, 1 hour extra for every 5 below, half an hour less for every 3 above to a minimum of 1.5 hours).

For both DC's, if you're less than 5 below the target, it'd take half an hour longer.

I'll also have an IC post sometime tomorrow.

[DeTess]

Next post will likely be on thursday. @prehysterical, are you accompanying Shandara?

@windstruck, adapting the enchantment to draw heat is possible, but using method 1 you'll need more material as you need to rewrite more material, while the dc for the second method goes up by 5, as you're really going to be stretching the limits of this enchantment.
You'd also need some way to cool it (could be magical, but could be a physical heat-sink as well), as otherwise it'll keep drawing heat untill it melts.

[WindStruck]

Oh, I was almost expecting the questions Shandara had would be glossed over, but I guess having a little RP encounter with the judge(s) also works.

[DeTess]

Oh, I was almost expecting the questions Shandara had would be glossed over, but I guess having a little RP encounter with the judge(s) also works.

Yeah, for reasons I do want to make it a little RP encounter.

[Prehysterical]

@prehysterical, are you accompanying Shandara?

Yes... for reasons. *thunder cracks and organ music plays in the background*

[DeTess]

@windstruck:

But whatever the enchantment pulled into it, it only had so much range. Perhaps far more range above ground, though there wasn't likely to be much of anything for it to find up here. It certainly was not going to pull anything out of a living creature.

This thought will probably keep nagging at Shandara for a bit. Just how certain is she that it wouldn't do that? The definition for what sewage was for the enchantment would be precise enough that it's unlike to take anything out of a living creature that the creature needs (it shouldn't cause any harm), but did she remember to include any other fail-safes to exclude the bowels of living creatures?

[WindStruck]

@windstruck:



This thought will probably keep nagging at Shandara for a bit. Just how certain is she that it wouldn't do that? The definition for what sewage was for the enchantment would be precise enough that it's unlike to take anything out of a living creature that the creature needs (it shouldn't cause any harm), but did she remember to include any other fail-safes to exclude the bowels of living creatures?

I'm pretty sure.

Note the OOC spoiler in that post:

Qualities I'd be interested in (and I am probably not thinking of some things):
Maximum range of the spell
Maximum volume or weight that can be transferred
basic constraints like (no living things, nothing inside a container, not inside a living creature)
Fine-tuning what counts as "sewage"
Other constraints (ordered from what I think is easiest to hardest):
limiting range of the spell
restricting sewage summoning to only "below ground"
excluding some specific substances
setting up boundaries that may block the effect
targeting certain areas
(anything else?)

This was something I did consider beforehand. It would probably be very jarring, uncomfortable, and probably even unhealthy for the crap to be sucked right out of someone's bowels.

[DeTess]

Whelp, completely forgot about that -_-

Okay, nevermind on that minor glitch/complication then. Good thing this came by before I made anything canon then.

[WindStruck]

Well, uh, sorry if I ruined the fun. But poop jokes kind of stink anyway.

[DeTess]

Well, uh, sorry if I ruined the fun. But poop jokes kind of stink anyway.

Nah, it was a small background detail I'd planned for later, not much more than that, so no big loss.

[WindStruck]

On the other hand, you could always say they tried making a few modifications to Shandara's original enchantment.

For example, the thing about only searching underground... that's not really going to work if the enchantment is above ground is it? or at least, it may have unexpected results if left as is.

[WindStruck]

I kind of like the idea of trying to barter with other teams. It's probably allowed in the rules, right?

I wonder, would Bolten be up for the challenge of trying to negotiate a deal?

And meanwhile, Shandara could probably go back to the ship for another search. She does have the Locate Object spell, so perhaps she may be able to use it for trying to locate any type of gemstone?

---

edit: And I forgot. She also has the Mending spell, which would probably be superb for finishing off anything else wrong with the grate. After she finishes patching it up and modifying the enchantment, she could cast Mending and this grate should be in pristine condition!

[DeTess]

I kind of like the idea of trying to barter with other teams. It's probably allowed in the rules, right?

I wonder, would Bolten be up for the challenge of trying to negotiate a deal?

Yeah, that's definitely allowed.

And meanwhile, Shandara could probably go back to the ship for another search. She does have the Locate Object spell, so perhaps she may be able to use it for trying to locate any type of gemstone?

I think that could work, if you're going for the general object option.

Also, for your rolls, which of the two suggested methods for adjusting the enchantment are you using (or are you coming up with a third option?), that way I can properly resolve the result of your rolls.

[WindStruck]

I was going with the first method you listed. Takes a shorter amount of time, and has a lower DC, but it needs more materials.

Also, see the edit I made above about Mending. Though I'm not sure how much effect that would have.. Fluff if anything. At least, since I would be saving that for the end, there may be a better application for it.

[Prehysterical]

How are we bargaining, exactly? Bolten is not a good negotiator (0 in Diplomacy). Are we trading items or are we trading labor for different contraptions?

[WindStruck]

I don't think it's right to be trading labor. But items/materials, yeah.

Hmm...

I mean... Shandara does have some ranks in diplomacy, and charisma. I just thought.. people might be more willing to negotiate with a dwarf, rather than a drow...

Then again, it's not like I've had too much trouble with people in the city.

In any case, it may involve trading extra materials we may have. Or scrounging around for something else useful on the ship. Perhaps, even if we don't find what we need, it'll be something that someone else wants?