The Royal Artificery Society - OOC II: electric boogaloo

[WindStruck]

My thoughts on the wood invisibility spell: So a normal invisibility spell is an illusion that pretty much affects everyone in the vicinity, more or less.

Is there a way to cut costs or increase efficiency to that only the caster is affected by the illusion?

[DeTess]

Yeah, that would work. It would be a bit less illusion and a bit closer to divination then. Something like using magic to mark the wood and casting a spell on your eyes that makes the marked wood see-through to you.

[DeTess]

new IC thread is up: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...2#post25970392
@Mrabdiel, what will you be doing next? You can start working on the harp and still have some free time for other things you might need to look into.

@prehysterical, what are your next plans?

[DeTess]

@windstruck, can you roll me the lower of your knoweldge(nature) and knoweldge(arcana)?

[WindStruck]

The lowest is nature, which is +8.

nature: (1d20+8)[21]

Any chance to use investigative mind on that? Should have plenty of time to prepare. If so...

again: (1d20+8)[26]

[DeTess]

Investigative mind is fine,

Based on what you saw it seems some property of the wood is interfering with the spell a little. You can tell that the wood itself is faintly magical, so that might be it. You could adjust your spell to take that interference into account (would take about a day of adjusting and testing to get it right, no further rolls required as you've got a decent enough grasp on what's going on), or increase the power put in.

[WindStruck]

So, Shandara's already got a nice little "make wood objects translucent spell" in the works. Could probably just refine that to affecting spirit wood only, such that it works better on the unique composition of spirit wood, but less so on ordinary wood. That might help a little.

[DeTess]

That'll work just fine.

[WindStruck]

Are there any more rolls to make?

[DeTess]

No, as I mentioned before before you're set, just need to spend some time fine-tuning things. The spell or spelle if you keep them separate work out to first level and last 10 minutes per caster level.

[MrAbdiel]

new IC thread is up: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...2#post25970392
@Mrabdiel, what will you be doing next? You can start working on the harp and still have some free time for other things you might need to look into.

@prehysterical, what are your next plans?

Okay! Well, the Harp’s high priority. But alongside that, he has some longstanding things that he is supposed to do/check on/finish. Some combination of…

- help the boys complete their boat so they can start fishing but see how interested they are in apprenticing at woodcraft formally
- perform at that party for the artsy crowd as he promised the gent who drew his shop’s icon
- check in with the lads he spent time designing and demonstrating the rescue ship models and prototypes for, since… I’m not sure that ever “paid out” or was formally adopted or knocked back by the bigwigs we pitched it to.
- do a little research about the Lyre of Building in the hopes of being able to make one as a Banjo of Building
- similarly for Amazing Tools of Manufacture, though both these magic items are so expensive it will be a few projects before he can consider either seriously.

Also, he’s going to start/continue trying to charm and endear himself to everyone in the storm drains one at a time, doing helpful little jobs where he can and making particular note of homes that are very run down and need significant reconstruction and repair, and the resources required for those tasks. The minutia that the people living in these houses might not own them is not foremost on his mind.

[DeTess]

I think the performance happened in the background somewhere. For the rescue ship, I think a meeting for that was kicked up a month or so up the road (I'd check IC but site is almost unusable right now), so that's coming up in another week. The boat you're working on with the kids should be almost done at this point. I can se that up once the site is less slow as I'll need to reread some stuff.

[DeTess]

@mrabdiel, you have a meeting coming up with the shipyards around the time you finish with the harp.

Regarding the boys' skills at woodworking, they'd need a slightly longer apprenticeship to really be able to work on their own, but under supervision they can do quite a bit already, especially where rougher stuff is concerned (ships, obviously, but you reckon they could make rougher furniture as well, and do some housebuilding as well). Finer stuff like making bows or instruments or the like is beyond them right now, but especially Markel might get there sooner rather than later if he's taught in the matter.

[WindStruck]

Shandara is still busy trying to unravel the mysteries of how the spirit wood worked. Reconfirming that the light magic lingers for much longer while affecting the spirit wood, she decides she wants to test the theory out from a few other angles.

First she'll want to go out and see if she can find some scrolls of Lighten Object and Grease. She would choose these spells because first of all, she didn't want to do anything drastic to the wood that might damage it. And second, it could be argued that the Lighten Object spell would be much more improved either in effect, duration, or both seeing as the magic was supposed to encompass all of the wood, where as Grease would only affect the outside. Though Shandara could not really say for certain what would happen, which is why she wanted to experiment.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

let me know if there's any issue or RP involved with getting these spells. There will be a monetary cost as well...

There's another thing to consider: Lighten Object is affected by spell resistance and Grease isn't.

Also if you'd like to skip up to the next part, Shandara would try casting Grease and Lighten Object on the chunk of spirit wood and see how it differs from expectation. In other words, lighten object is supposed to last only 1 min/level, and halves the weight. Shandara would measure how much the weight differs, and how long it lasts.

Grease also is supposed to last 1/min per level, but I'm curious if the effect lasts longer, there is much more grease than expected, or if it is more slippery than expected.

The idea is to also use a control chunk of normal wood to compare against as well.

[DeTess]

Did you intent to post this in OOC?

You can get the spells without issue as scrolls or similar.

Assuming you went with a scroll for lighten object at the base caster level:

(1d20+1)[20]

[DeTess]

Grease lasts as long as it usually does with no apparent extra effects. Lighten object lasts 10 times as long.

What kind of weighing apparatus do you have?

[WindStruck]

Oh.. It was supposed to be IC. I'll copy the IC stuff over. As for weighing, I imagine Shandara has a very crude scale of some sort at home. Nothing fancy, or all that accurate, and might even max out before it reaches the full weight of the spirit wood on it. Alternatively, could just be one of those things with a pan on either side and a varying amount of small weights. Either way, it's not super accurate, but it should give a good idea for what magnitude of weight reduction there is.

[DeTess]

Allright. It still halves the weight, as normal. Nothing else about the weight before, during or after the experiment stands out.

[WindStruck]

One question I have about the divination spell that Shandara created is: can it be cast on others, or is it only something you can cast on yourself?

But alternatively: you could modify it to cast on others if that wasn't the case, right?

[DeTess]

To save you some headaches down the line I'll say you can cast it on others.

[DeTess]

@windstruck, so regarding wands. In theory an ordinary stick could be turned into a wand. However, you'd still need to find a way to apply the right reagents and store the charges in the wand, so in practice most wands have either a core of some material that easily holds magical power, or a big crystal is set at either end to have that function. Magical circuits would then ether be carved in the outside for the enchantment and filled with some conductive mineral/gem powder or metal, or carved into an internal core made from some special material running the length oft he wand

For making a wand out of spiritwood, the obvious approach would be to find someone to carve out a wand-shape around one of the larger veins, though wands for simpler spells could use a spiritwood core inserted in some other material. You could probably do both, using one method for higher power wands and the other to process leftover pieces into lower power wands.

[Prehysterical]

Sorry for the long quiet. Been spinning a bunch of financial plates lately.

As for my plan, so as not to make Aiden wait any longer, Bolten would do what he said he would and go do some research at the Society's archives to learn what he can about the "science" of teleportation magic. I'm guessing that it would function as a masterwork tool for the Knowledge checks? Also, would he be limited in how many checks he can perform?

[DeTess]

Sorry for the long quiet. Been spinning a bunch of financial plates lately.

As for my plan, so as not to make Aiden wait any longer, Bolten would do what he said he would and go do some research at the Society's archives to learn what he can about the "science" of teleportation magic. I'm guessing that it would function as a masterwork tool for the Knowledge checks? Also, would he be limited in how many checks he can perform?

You're not limited in the amount of tries (in this case) as the library has answers if you can find them, but is also big, so let's say it's a day per check if you need more then one.

Edit: yeah, you can count it as a masterwork tool. You can roll knowledge arcana or knowledge history, or another one if you can make a good argument.

[WindStruck]

Alright. Hmm. Well it seems that MrAbdiel is busy in real life, and Aiden has a TON of promises to fulfill and other projects he is working on.

I think I should have Shandara seek out another woodcutter. Though I could RP her trying to go to the Fiddle and Saw once, meekly knocking on the door and getting no reply, and then.. giving up. She probably thinks Aiden didn't want to talk to her, but he might have just been out getting a croissant.

Then again, I wonder if he even locks the front door of the Fiddle and Saw. That would probably be a very prudent thing to do in the storm drains district.

[DeTess]

Then again, I wonder if he even locks the front door of the Fiddle and Saw. That would probably be a very prudent thing to do in the storm drains district.

Pretty sure he mentioned he doesn't at some point...

He also has a housekeeper there and does do some work there, so a visit with no one there might be a little tricky to justify.

edit: yeah, finding another woodcutter shouldn't be too hard. Could you roll me a diplomacy check for gather information, or suggest an alternative way of finding a suitable woodcutter

[WindStruck]

Oh! I forgot about the housekeeper! Well either way, it was just a means of trying to incorporate an absence of activity by some IC means. Maybe we'll figure something out. Could cast it as Shandara being paranoid... or ignore the issue entirely and hope for the best.

Well I do have an idea for an alternative means of finding a woodcutter. Do you remember Ulrik, big guy, who's a ship builder? I wonder if he could recommend someone who's skilled with wood.

[DeTess]

Trying to meet up with Ulrik is perfectly fine. You don't know his home adress, so where will you try to find him?

[WindStruck]

Shandara could try going to that restaurant they went to before and ask about where she might find him?

[DeTess]

Sounds like a plan. At what time do you intend to go? I'll set it up then.

[WindStruck]

I think early afternoon, after she wakes up one of these days.