As the other OOC thread is getting close to the 1000 post limit, I'm opening a new OOC thread and closing the other.

Hmm, I can create illusions. Can we see enough of the tunnel for me to create an illusion of a group scurrying in another direction to mislead the locals?

The tunnel you are in, as far as you have seen, only goes in one direction. So if you want to create that kind of illusion, you would have to be close enough to the central room, and create an illusion there to have them go somewhere else.

We could still use an illusion for cover. Say, an illusion of a collapsed tunnel between us and the cultists, possibly with some rocks and sand still falling to explain away the noise and keep anyone from looking more closely. Assuming something like this is possible, of course.

Worse comes to worse, Gurth can play the tunnel monster.

In reply to Keira (msg # 4):

Hmm, I can try, but it won't hold up if the touch it.

I guess we could also try an illusion of some kind of an animal that would then run away down our tunnel? To explain away the noise? Hopefully they would not follow after it and find us instead.

It's that, or we leg it down the tunnel ourselves, or we fight. Or we pull the "How do you do, fellow cultists?"

In reply to Keira (msg # 7):

How about we leg it, and the animal moves towards them, sees them, then legs it? Aladin would know what sort of animals would believably be in this area and make that sort of noise...and he would advise. GM, open to player learning what character knows...

Unfortunately, Aladin does not have the skill to know what animals live in this area. And the noise was the noise of humans and camels coughing. And he does not have the skill to say what animal, if any, sounds like that naturally. Other than hoping that camels will be close enough to satisfy the worshippers.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 9):

Then perhaps a wild camel...though does it take skill to know about what animals are in your local area? You only mentioned camels coughing before...
This message was last edited by the player at 11:06, Tue 26 Sept 2023.

The skill to know about your local area is Area Knowledge. You do not have Area Knowledge for this area.

I said that both you and the animals were coughing.

"the group and the camels suddenly were caught in a coughing fit"
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:20, Tue 26 Sept 2023.

In retrospect, you do have Area Knowledge for another place. And based on the distance between that place and this place, you would have a -6 or -7 penalty to your skill to determine what you know about this area.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 12):

Ah, my bad. I understood that to be the group of camels...

-6 or -7 penalty? The desert there is so different? Ok. That would need pretty much a crit...what animals in my local area would fit that requirement?

Your AK is for a city, not for the desert. And this place is that far away from your stomping grounds.

You would have to ask that IC.

And Area Knowledge is knowing about your area, normally "This skill represents familiarity with the people, places, and politics of a given region." For rural neighborhoods, that includes animals, but only covers the specifics of the animals of that area, not general knowledge of animals. And the area is a few hundred acres.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:12, Tue 26 Sept 2023.

The skill you need to figure out what animals sound like is Biology.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:08, Tue 26 Sept 2023.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 16):

Not Naturalist? I have that, but not Biology. I thought biology was what the insides looked like, as opposed to details about the critter in nature.

Yes, Naturalist works too. It seems I was too stuck on the AK thing to notice that you had that.

Sorry about that.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 18):

Ah, rolled 2 under Naturalist then!

Put that in the IC thread please.

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 20):

Edited last post to reflect...

No. The camel was running away from you towards the worshipers and then turned away from them so that it wouldn't run into them. It didn't turn around and run back towards the group.

And please, if you are asking questions so that you as a player can understand what I have posted, please post them here, not in the IC thread.