>>25795259

First things first, we decided to go examine some of the crime scenes. Given that two of our party were devout followers of Pelor, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where we went first. So half an hour later we were standing outside the temple of Pelor as a rather junior cleric let us in. The cleric, who seemed to have difficulty deciding if he was eternally indebted to us for helping or infuriated they needed our help at all, eventually showed us back to where the actual crime had taken place, the coffers being raided before they could be sent off to fund an orphanage somewhere.

All in all it was rather disappointing as crime scenes go. There were no dramatic messages left to taunt us, no large gaping holes or broken windows, just conspicuously empty spaces where money should be.

“Has the scene been disturbed?” Sloane asks, evidently as surprised as I that the scene is in such neat condition.

“No sir it has not.” Says the junior cleric, in a tone of voice that implies he is offended that we would think he would disturb evidence.

Sloane grimaces and starts looking around. “Blake, I want you to think about how you would get in here, try to act out a similar incursion so that we can picture how it may have unfolded.”

Whilst my companions are listening to the small rogue talk about lock picks and rappelling, I start sniffing around, tongue flickering. I can detect the scents of dozens of people, all muddled together into one great hodgepodge of humanity, at least presumably. There is something else though, faint and indistinct, something unidentifiable. I have never smelled anything like it, and I don’t know what it means, intriguing. I slither around the room, investigating various objects to try and get a more solid idea of what it could be, Sloane eventually looking over to me.

“Solaron, why are you… licking the doorknob?”

>>25795683

I glance over at him, trying to maintain concentration. There it is again, that strange unidentifiable scent of whatever-it-is on the doorknob. I put my nose to the floor and follow the scent, ignoring Sloane’s words of concern and the cleric’s outrage at my impertinence. The scent goes over to where the money was stored, and then stops. I sniff around a bit, but detect nothing, then it hits me. It didn’t stop, it backtracks out the way it came. I follow the scent out of the back room, the rest of the party following along in concerned interest. I manage to track the scent out into the main hall, then lose it, the sheer number of people who come through here drowning out the one strange scent.

“Solaron, mind cluing us in?” Sloane asks, and I turn back to give him a grin. “I found a scent, something new, never smelled it before. It came in through the door, over to the money, and then went back out into the main hall.”

I feel quite pleased with myself.

“That’s it?” Blake asks, “A smell?”

I frown at him. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘just’ to describe a Yuan Ti’s sense of smell.”

“Can you identify this, scent?” Sloane asks.

“Well, no.” I say, feeling a little less confident.

“Can you be certain it is from our thief?”

“No…” I say, feeling rather silly.

Sloane nods, disappointed. “Well, keep looking for something we can identify, perhaps we will find something more useful at one of the other crime scenes.”

>>25795952

This is me, forgot tag.

Yes! My favorite part of the day is here! I can't wait to see the hijinks Soloaron and friends wil get themselves into

>>25795973

Fair warning, I am dead tired from the week, and may end up falling asleep mid thread.

Just a heads up.

>>25796180
I understand. Your only human lol.

>>25796180

Actually, I am to tired to write right now. Should be able to write more later.

In the meantime, discussion time if anybody wants to.

Ask the author anything.

>>25796569

Set in D&D like realm, therefore /tg/ related.

Plus, this is based on a D&D character concept I want to play.

Also, I know /tg/ would enjoy it, therefore I want to make my homeboard happy.

>>25796569
troll harder
1/10, I responded

>>25796688

My preferred method for dealing with trolls is to politely answer their questions and remain perfectly civil.

Seems to be working so far.

>>25796768

Bumping with news of my continued presence, but I cannot brain right now.

>>25797405
Rest your wonderful brain. We understand.

>>25795952

The next location is an auction house, where a few valuable jewels were stolen. Records indicated that the jewels were of high value yet easily transported, being small rings and necklaces. Evidently the thief had known their target well enough to come for exactly the right items to make an easy getaway. The story here seemed largely the same, no damage to the structure, no signs of forced entry, just missing valuables and no real clues. Sloane is standing over with the proprietor of the auction house, assuring him repeatedly that we will do all we can to solve the case and return his property.

“You simply must understand,” the proprietor is saying, “that those stolen pieces do not belong to me, they belong to my patrons and suppliers, and they are going to come down on my head if they do not get them back.”

“I assure you that we are on the case,” Sloane says, “and we will do all in our power to return your patron’s property to them.”

“Thank you sir, I am sure a paladins word will go a long… why is your serpent licking the jewel case? Stop him at once!”

I look up from my investigations. “Okay, firstly, I am not the paladin’s anything. Well, I like to think I’m his friend, but that’s beside the point. And secondly, I was trying to trace that smell from the other crime scene.”

“And, did you?” Sloane asks impatiently.

“Yes,” I say smiling, “Actually, I did.”

>>25799019

So, I'm back, but I must now go walk my dog.

So, discussion time, and probably for the rest of the thread as I post more story.

Serious question to you guys, and I will probably ask it again, just to be sure.

Thing is, Sol is eventually going to figure out what sex is, and being a bard, will have it.

I just am wondering how you care to see this aspect of the story portrayed.

Options include (but are not limited to)

fade to black, no description but could include some brief memory, discussion about.

Minimal description, narration of the scene but with no real description of the acts themselves.

More description, some description of the acts themselves, but still focusing on character interaction and dialogue.

Or other options you could come up with.

I just want to get this clarified with the readers before we go further, and value your input.

Right, be back in a few.

>>25799104
fade to black is the classic.

>>25799104
Being disgusted by my own and other people's sexual thoughts/actions, I would vote for minimal description.

However, realizing I'm the minority here, I'll get the hell over it and deal with whatever you decide you want to do.

>>25799104
Minimal seems good to me. No real mention of the acts, but the characters dialogue+interaction shown. Would like plot, not porn

>>25799104

I'd say a mixture of more description becuase I'd say considering it's Solaron it'd be too funny to pass up. And a brief memory where after he remembers trying to eat either Buri or Blake.

>>25799104

Wow, that was a lot of replies for such a little time.

And just to clarify, 'more description' is not a full on porn scene, but there would be some description of what is physically going on, something along the lines of.

(dialogue dialogue)

So we start by doing this

(Dialogue dialogue dialogue)

Then things change and we do this

(Dialogue hilarious joke dialogue)

Then things wrap up and we do this

(dialogue dialogue d'awww)

Just FYI.

Also, this would not mean that this is something that would start to happen often, but it would happen sometimes. Though he will still likely remain oblivious to his powers of seduction for some time. IE, he will be content with knowing he has a little going, nice relationships, and true friends, not understanding that people are literally throwing themselves at him.

>>25799424
Sounds good to me

>>25799424
I'm cool with this.

>>25799019

“You did?” Sloane asks, evidently surprised I was able to do it.

“Yes.” I say, smiling proudly. “Still no idea what it is mind you, but I am sure it is the same scent here as well. Never smelled it before in my life.”

Buri looks at me dubiously. “Any idea what manner of thing it could be? A garment, perfume, food or drink, anything?”

I shake my head, “Not a single clue I am afraid, only that I have never smelled this before. Can’t say exactly what.”

Buri shrugs, but nods. More than he had been expecting to come of my investigations. I wipe off the display case and return it to its place on the shelf. Thanking the indignant proprietor for his time, we set out for the next crime scene.

We examined half a dozen other crime scenes that day, but none of them turned up anything more than the originals. The thief had bypassed security without doing any permanent damage to the location, the worst impact possible was a picked lock or two, and made off with the item in question. The thief always seemed to know exactly where to go and what to take, and there were never witnesses that remembered seeing any suspicious individuals accessing the scene of the crime.

But, at every single scene, I always detected that same strange scent, ever-present but unidentifiable. Most vexing.

>>25799882

At the end of the day we all head back to the tavern, feeling a little defeated by the lack of progress. Except for me, mind you, I pulled my weight today. We group up around our usual table and start talking about how to continue our pursuit.

“Well we can’t just sit around and do nothing.” Sloane says, “This thief or thieves are out there right now, probably planning their next heist.”

“Aye lad,” Says Buri, “But how do we go about it? We cannot simply continue to follow the trail, what little of it there is, we have no leads. Nay, if we wish to corner our prey we must hunt it, we must be the active party here, we cannot simply wait for them to strike again.”

“But how do we do so?” Galen asks quietly.

“Easy,” Blake says, “Money, purest draw for a rogue. You want to draw this thief in, you give him what he’s looking for, a sweet pot and lax security. Just lax enough to let him slip in, not enough to make him suspicious.”

Sloane nods, “We let our thief walk into our trap, and then we catch him in the act. But how do we identify him, we have no description.”

“I can smell him out,” I say, “He always has that one weird scent on him, so I can identify him with that.”

“It’s settled then.” Sloane says, “We lay a trap for our wayward burglar, and when the movement is right,” He slams his goblet on the table, “We slam it shut.”

>>25800562

sorry guys, but this is all I have in me for tonight.

Will still be here for discussion or questions or comments.

And thank you for being reasonable with the whole sex scene issue, I was dreading asking about this, but everything went better than expected.

On a related note...

In some of the previous threads, some people kept calling for Sol to let loose in various scenes where he 'seduces' someone. On a level of one to ten, how serious or sincere were these? Just wondering here.

>>25800919

Again, I'm sorry, but I am completely burned out. I've been getting like 3-4 hours of sleep ever since I started writing this.

>>25801001
Don't worry about it. Quality is vastly more important than quantity. Rest if you need to, we understand.

Concerning Solaron "letting loose", as long as he's in character, it'll be a fun ride in my opinion.

>>25801063

I'll try to keep him in character as best I can.

I intend to have him retain his naive obliviousness for at least the first few instances, at least as far as this goes. He also has his whole perfect gentleman thing to stick to, and his utter lack of experience in relationships. As I said before, it will take something very drastic to shake him up enough to understand what is happening.

>>25801278

Still here, just want to keep this alive.

If anyone has anything to say I will chat until I pass out.

A bit off-topic, but do you have any advice for someone who aspires to write for fun? My group wants somebody to write about what we do in-game, and I thought I'd give it a go.

>>25803413

Would be glad to help.

What are you thinking about writing?

>>25803413

right nevermind, advice inbound.

>>25799104
maximum description
research snake genitalia and work out in detail the physics of using it on a humanoid

>>25803431
My group's gm does a good job, but most of the time he has to gloss over stuff to save time. One day, somebody suggested we get somebody to go more in-depth and write a story. Since most of us didn't know anybody with both free time and a knack for writing, I volunteered.

>>25803413

If you're going to write a novelisation of your ingame actions, these are actually quite simple to do. I was planning on doing the same for my eclipse phase group, but then other /tg/ projects distracted me.

When you write, try and put yourself back in the same state of mind you were when you played the scene you are writing, remember how you thought and felt back when you were there and playing.

Conjure up the image of how you saw the scene, and then put it into words on the page. Doesn't have to be perfect the first go through, just get your thoughts down.

Then, read the scene you just wrote aloud, see if it flows well and sounds good, change as needed.

That is the only real general advice I can give, feel free to ask more.

>>25803515

What kind of feel are you going for in your campaign.

Setting? Major themes?

I need details for specific advice if that is what you want.

>>25803470

I will say this now, I'm not going to objectively say no. That is one of my pet peeves when someone writing to a direct audience, like a quest master or writefag just says NO, and if you don't like it GTFO!

I won't do that.

That said, you appear to be in the minority here. One wanted fade to black, a few wanted moderate detail, and then there is you.

I will try to please as many people as I can.

Or you were posting in jest, in which case I laughed a bit, so mission accomplished.

>>25803555
Most of the time in our games, it's semi-serious with a comedic undertone. Our current party consists of an alcoholic necromancer, a murderhobo cleric, a "strong but silent" barbarian, a clumsy ranger, and a not stealthy rogue.

>>25803597
I was posting in jest, worry not

>>25803621

Jest recognized and appreciated.

>>25803605

Hmm.

What kind of a storyline are you intending writing?

>>25803654
Mostly what's going on in-game, but more in-depth. I'm also going to write some scenes where the group dynamic is more prevalent, like where they're sitting around the campfire or drinking in a bar.

>>25803706

Well, you know the characters involved far better than I.

Personally, I don't plan out very much of what I write. I simply put the cast of characters in a situation, put the obstacles in place ahead of them, and then tell them to solve the problem while I sit back and take notes.

Honestly, the best advice I can give I have already said. Put your characters in a scene together. Think about their personalities, think about what makes them work together as a team. If you want to write banter then think about the things they have done in the past and how they might work their past accomplishments into dialogue with each other.

And, this really is very useful, read it aloud, to see if it feels natural.

>>25803791
Thanks for the advice, and sorry if I was difficult. I'm not the best at getting points across is conversations.

>>25803831

No problem, glad to help.

Feel free to ask again if you need any advice, I'll do what I can.

Bump for tracking down thieves.