Results 151 to 180 of 190
-
2019-09-24, 03:01 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- Texas
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
It's been with the game since the early 80's, AD&D 1e era. I have a few old dragon mags. The first one I find Sage advice in was #37(May 1980), and the #24 I have from 1979 does not have it, so I'll guess that somewhere around #30 (1980ish?) is when Sage Advice began ... and I don't think it has stopped being a thing.
Avatar by linklele. How Teleport Worksa. Malifice (paraphrased):
Rulings are not 'House Rules.' Rulings are a DM doing what DMs are supposed to do.
b. greenstone (paraphrased):
Agency means that they {players} control their character's actions; you control the world's reactions to the character's actions.
Second known member of the Greyview Appreciation Society
-
2019-09-24, 03:17 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
- Location
- Magrathea
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Of course, Sage advice also dates back millennia if you are talking about the right kind.
Last edited by Squire Doodad; 2019-09-24 at 03:17 PM.
An explanation of why MitD being any larger than Huge is implausible.
See my extended signature here! May contain wit, candor, and somewhere from 52 to 8127 walruses.
Purple is humorous descriptions made up on the fly
Green is serious talk about hypothetical
Blue is irony and sarcasm
"I think, therefore I am,
I walk, therefore I stand,
I sleep, therefore I dream;
I joke, therefore I meme."
-Squire Doodad
-
2019-09-25, 05:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Hmm....Now I'm wondering: Was it encrypted/encoded/etc. when she first wrote on it; or is the diary a copy of the original diary with encryption/encoding/etc. added on the relevant parts?
It could make a difference: The existence of a copy would make it less likely that Serini kept it on her person (as opposed to the original...or if she destroyed the original to hamper attempts to locate the diary through divination, she might have started a new diary)...which would increase the chance of Xykon getting it without killing Serini in the process.FeytouchedBanana eldritch disciple avatar by...me!
The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas
-
2019-09-25, 05:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2014
- Gender
-
2019-09-25, 06:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2015
- Gender
-
2019-09-25, 07:06 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2014
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
-
2019-09-25, 07:17 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2015
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Yes, but would she then go on to write them down again? That would be a certain level of deliberately deceitful headstrongness which I'm not sure she possesses/ed. Granted, we know next to nothing about her, but still, speaking from a strictly personal point of view I don't see it.
Last edited by hroşila; 2019-09-25 at 07:19 PM.
ungelic is us
-
2019-09-25, 07:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
- Location
- Magrathea
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
I feel like she felt the need to have the locations, even if heavily encrypted, as her last resort in case something bad happened and she had to pass on the notebook to someone so they can help the rifts. She probably just left them in the tower as she went to go take care of something immensely important.
Ironic, no?An explanation of why MitD being any larger than Huge is implausible.
See my extended signature here! May contain wit, candor, and somewhere from 52 to 8127 walruses.
Purple is humorous descriptions made up on the fly
Green is serious talk about hypothetical
Blue is irony and sarcasm
"I think, therefore I am,
I walk, therefore I stand,
I sleep, therefore I dream;
I joke, therefore I meme."
-Squire Doodad
-
2019-09-25, 08:48 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
While true, nearly the entire diary scenario is comprised of "could"s right now. There's few points that have a really high likelihood of being fact:
- Lirian saying there were four other Gates, guarded by her friends, was enough information for Xykon to eventually find Serini's diary (this is what made me think of divinations)
- Xykon was able to "translate" the location of Dorukan's Gate by working backwards from a "translation" of Lirian's Gate's location
- Xykon was able to "decipher" locations for Soon's Gate and Girard's Gate from the diary (at this point, Kragoor's Gate is a bit lower down on the likelihood scale).
Also, the monitoring devices lose a lot of utility without the other Scribblers having a way to locate the other Gates if they go down. That's how the Order got involved, after all.FeytouchedBanana eldritch disciple avatar by...me!
The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas
-
2019-09-25, 08:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
- Location
- Magrathea
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
I'd imagine Dorukan rigged a spell so that in the event a gate collapses, it broadcasts the location to the other people protecting the gates. So that would be how Shojo knew where to look (including when Lirian's gate blew), and Girard's family would have probably held their ground regardless to protect their own gates.
An explanation of why MitD being any larger than Huge is implausible.
See my extended signature here! May contain wit, candor, and somewhere from 52 to 8127 walruses.
Purple is humorous descriptions made up on the fly
Green is serious talk about hypothetical
Blue is irony and sarcasm
"I think, therefore I am,
I walk, therefore I stand,
I sleep, therefore I dream;
I joke, therefore I meme."
-Squire Doodad
-
2019-09-25, 09:01 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2014
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Honestly, I don't buy that knowing the location of Lirian's gate would help Xykon break the code. Cribs are really helpful when deciphering things, but that's part of the problem. It took Xykon years to break the code, and if you have a crib as big as literally 1/5th of what you're deciphering, there's very few codes that you couldn't break much, much sooner than that and the ones you couldn't you'd never break because they require a different strategy altogether.
As for the location itself, Xykon would 1: Have to know what coordinate system Serini was using (which might be one she made up and included in the encrypted section). 2: Know the coordinates of Lirian's gate in that system. And 3: Know where in the ciphertext the information he knew was (trial and error can help a little bit with this step, if you otherwise know what you're doing).
-
2019-09-25, 09:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
I did notice he used "translate" instead of "decipher" in Start of Darkness. My theory is that the diary's actual entries didn't pinpoint the rifts but did contain the occasional passing reference to a geographical feature or landmark or something, such that Xykon was able to very slowly piece together very vague ranges...and if the Order of the Scribble went from Dorukan's Gate to Lirian's Gate, Xykon would have to follow the steps backwards to get to Dorukan's Gate.
Which, you know, is still just a big mountain of "could"s that sounds nice.
I tend to agree...as hilarious as it would be, the diary probably did not have "ziggerfau-gerrrnuf, ah-ah, pahoy-hoy" scribbled in a margin.
Oddly enough, Rogar may have the answer here: If Xykon deciphered the locations via a Decipher Script check as outlined in the 3.5 Complete Adventurer, he would have been unable to do so before the conversion to 3.5 in strip 1...which is why he was only able to determine one location in Start of Darkness, which as a prequel was still 3.0 .FeytouchedBanana eldritch disciple avatar by...me!
The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas
-
2019-09-25, 09:24 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
- Location
- Magrathea
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Last edited by Squire Doodad; 2019-09-25 at 09:25 PM.
An explanation of why MitD being any larger than Huge is implausible.
See my extended signature here! May contain wit, candor, and somewhere from 52 to 8127 walruses.
Purple is humorous descriptions made up on the fly
Green is serious talk about hypothetical
Blue is irony and sarcasm
"I think, therefore I am,
I walk, therefore I stand,
I sleep, therefore I dream;
I joke, therefore I meme."
-Squire Doodad
-
2019-09-25, 11:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2014
- Gender
-
2019-09-25, 11:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Exactly o_o
FeytouchedBanana eldritch disciple avatar by...me!
The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas
-
2019-09-26, 08:15 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- Texas
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Maybe she was old enough that when she went to the market, she got distracted and forgot how to get home? (Happened to my father in law in his mid 70's. Left the house for a hair cut and could not find his way home for half of a day).
Xykon is a Sorcerer, not a Wizard. As is shown in SoD, he's not big on the INT, is big on the CHA. Code breaking would seem to me to be an kind of Intelligence based skill check, or a specialty needing skill points in it to succeed. One of the ways that Redcloack is a complementary character to him on their team is Redcloak's intelligence (and of course Wisdom, being a Cleric).
But I like Rogar's estimate better.Last edited by KorvinStarmast; 2019-09-26 at 08:17 AM.
Avatar by linklele. How Teleport Worksa. Malifice (paraphrased):
Rulings are not 'House Rules.' Rulings are a DM doing what DMs are supposed to do.
b. greenstone (paraphrased):
Agency means that they {players} control their character's actions; you control the world's reactions to the character's actions.
Second known member of the Greyview Appreciation Society
-
2019-09-26, 09:06 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- Valencia, Spain
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Historically, it took three years for a profesional military cryptanalyst to break the Grand Chiffre. After figuring out a small sequence of words. Previously, no one had been able to break it for two and a half centuries.
Sure, Serini's code will probably be nowere as complicated as the Grand Chiffre. But neither is Xykon a professional cryptanalyst, or someone particullary well suited for it.Last edited by The Pilgrim; 2019-09-26 at 10:51 AM.
-
2019-09-26, 09:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2015
- Location
- Brazil
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Xykon is smarter than he looks.
Each one of us, alone, is but a drop in the sea
Our powers pale compared with the great heroes
Our battles don’t hit theheadlines or shake the earth
But they are few, can’t be everywhere, and we, many
So, when the world or universe needs saving, they come
But when people needs saving, we are the ones to appear
We're underdogs, but we rise up to the challenge to be heroes.
(Wishing Joe, a low-powered superhero)
"I really like the Geek Math'ology we do here"
-
2019-09-26, 10:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- Germany
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
"If it lives it can be killed.
If it is dead it can be eaten."
Ronkong Coma "the way of the bookhunter" III Catacombium
(Walter Moers "Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher")
-
2019-09-26, 06:31 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
I was thinking maybe everything wasn't encoded, but each article's first word (maybe each word's first letter?) was an entry for a diagraphic...something or other, and each pair was the encoding for a piece of the coordinate you chose. Perhaps it's more interesting than really practical, but it should evade detection enough that, when mixed with actual diary segments...you'd be hard-pressed, absent some clue or other, to identify that your coordinates could be there at all.
FeytouchedBanana eldritch disciple avatar by...me!
The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas
-
2019-09-26, 09:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
- Location
- Magrathea
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
An explanation of why MitD being any larger than Huge is implausible.
See my extended signature here! May contain wit, candor, and somewhere from 52 to 8127 walruses.
Purple is humorous descriptions made up on the fly
Green is serious talk about hypothetical
Blue is irony and sarcasm
"I think, therefore I am,
I walk, therefore I stand,
I sleep, therefore I dream;
I joke, therefore I meme."
-Squire Doodad
-
2019-09-26, 09:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Well, maybe you can't keep it safe personally, barring some drastic action; but Soon had the Sapphire Guard, Girard had his family....It's unclear who Serini would have intended to pass the diary and code on to, especially after Xykon eliminated Lirian (who'd have easily outlived Serini in terms of natural lifespan), but it's entirely possible.
FeytouchedBanana eldritch disciple avatar by...me!
The Index of the Giant's Comments VI―Making Dogma from Zapped Bananas
-
2019-09-27, 02:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2017
- Location
- France
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Thats’s probably why she made her dungeon complex so that, according to Oona, unless you kill too many of them the monsters come back even after some died. Shojo said that Serininfilled the tombs with monsters and then, unlike her comrades went back to adventure so it seems that Kraagor’s Tomb does not need anyone to oversee it in order to be defended.
Forum Wisdom
Mage avatar by smutmulch & linklele.
-
2019-09-27, 04:44 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2014
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Dorukan's seems to be the only one that was contingent on its guardian surviving forever. But, as a wizard, Dorukan was also the only one in a position to actually pull that off, there's ways to slow the aging process using epic magic, and in pathfinder at least ways for wizards in particular to stop the aging process altogether, might be something similar in 3.5.
-
2019-09-27, 04:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2015
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Really? What do Pathfinder wizards get to do to stave off aging?
-
2019-09-27, 05:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- Valencia, Spain
- Gender
-
2019-09-27, 06:48 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2015
- Gender
-
2019-09-27, 08:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- Valencia, Spain
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Given the visible aging effects on Dorukan, it means he had no means available to stop aging. Even though he was an epic wizard dating an epic druid. (And yes, I take for granted that he would have wanted to remain youth, if only to match his elven lover's apparent age).
Last edited by The Pilgrim; 2019-09-27 at 08:13 AM.
-
2019-09-27, 08:17 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2015
- Location
- Brazil
- Gender
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Each one of us, alone, is but a drop in the sea
Our powers pale compared with the great heroes
Our battles don’t hit theheadlines or shake the earth
But they are few, can’t be everywhere, and we, many
So, when the world or universe needs saving, they come
But when people needs saving, we are the ones to appear
We're underdogs, but we rise up to the challenge to be heroes.
(Wishing Joe, a low-powered superhero)
"I really like the Geek Math'ology we do here"
-
2019-09-27, 10:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
Re: Could Belkar be descended from Serini?
Potions of longevity work too.