Event Finding Nina

[Odd]

Spoiler

d20 + 0 insight + 2 proficiency

19 total

Having thought it over for a long time you reach the conclusion that the way in involved some sort of word puzzle and that the numbers 3,3 are telling you how long the answer is and it’s two three letter words your looking for, probably have to say them out loud to trigger the entrance.

You’re 100% sure on this and also 100% sure that there’s nothing else to be found so whatever the trick is involves the four words somehow carved out of the indestructible blackstone

Begone
Elfin
Excess
Decay

You get the feeling that the answer is close and you’ll soon breach the fortress walls. Also your squire is starting to piss you off with his constant attention seeking all day, you should go kill him, or don’t, I think that’s the sword talking.

 

[Sigismund]

"Even after thinking it over, I still have no idea"

 

[Odd]

"Even after thinking it over, I still have no idea"

You have a +6 to investigation, try an investigation roll. You don’t have to know shit for Shahem to know shit. Throw d20’s at all of your problems

 

[Odd]

You can use your Inspiration dice to get a boost to your Invest check

 

[Odd]

We’re going to have to sort out what your robes, hat and staff can do @Sigismund

 

[Sigismund]

You have a +6 to investigation, try an investigation roll. You don’t have to know shit for Shahem to know shit. Throw d20’s at all of your problems

alrightly Ill roll investigation

 

[Odd]

alrightly Ill roll investigation

Would you like to use your inspiration dice to increase your roll?

 

[Sigismund]

Would you like to use your inspiration dice to increase your roll?

nah, Ill save those for later

 

[Odd]

nah, Ill save those for later

What do your robes, hat and staff do?

 

[Sigismund]

What do your robes, hat and staff do?

Robe: Adds 1 AC to armor total
Hat: gives a -1 to all saving rolls from the casters spells
Staff: Extra Spell Slot

 

[Odd]

Robe: Adds 1 AC to armor total
Hat: gives a -1 to all saving rolls from the casters spells
Staff: Extra Spell Slot

You roll a 10 for investigation, you have no further insight as to what the answer is but you think that casting the Comprehend Languages spell might help you out here

 

[Sigismund]

You roll a 10 for investigation, you have no further insight as to what the answer is but you think that casting the Comprehend Languages spell might help you out here

Ill cast Comprehend Languages then

 

[Ral]

Need some real forum games on this ish.

Hate to see this one whither away

 

[Odd]

Need some real forum games on this ish.

Hate to see this one whither away

It’s a cryptic crossword with dnd slapped on it. It isn’t the right adventure for our intrepid heroes.

I made it for the cryptic crossword community and was using these guys as guinea pigs

 

[Odd]

15 across: The entrance is blackstone, the words begone, elfin, decay, excess carved out of it. (3,3)

The definition part of the clue is ‘The entrance’.

The wordplay part of the clue is that the carved out words are removalisms, they indicate that certain letters need to be removed from a word in order to form the answer proper.

Begone - remove the letter b, b is gone
Elfin - remove the letter l, l is fin and here fin is short for finished
Decay - remove the letter k, the answer must be de-K’d. The prefix ‘de’ is most commonly used this way (Detox, degrease, derail, etc)
Excess - remove the letter s, here it is the ex-s as in the former s but no longer. Like an ex-president

These are all carved out of blackstone and when you remove b, l, k and s from blackstone you are left with actone. The 3,3 is enumeration for the clue and ‘Act one’ is the answer.

The entrance to a play for example would be act one.


It’s a devious clue even by cryptic crossword standards, in this crossword it didn’t even make the top 5 of most difficult clues to solve.

 

[Odd]

You need to love cryptic crosswords for this adventure to flourish, it’s 100% based around solving cryptic clues and jam packed full of cryptic crossword references. Cruciverbius and Nina for instance are both references to the hobby

 

[Odd]

Does the Comprehend Languages spell work for decrypting wordplay? As it’s written in the DnD 5e rules it wouldn’t, wordplay isn’t a language. It’s similar to how AI’s like ChatGPT are absolutely terrible at solving cryptic clues.