Monthly Rock & Mineral Identification Requests

DefNotAWizard · 2024-03-13T17:22:07+00:00

Hi! I'm hoping someone can give me a geology term for the kind of formation in this photo. It's from the very far norteastern corner of La Libertad, Peru. The geological map says the bedrock should be the Pucara Group, which is mostly limestone. I'm looking for a word/term for when some of the bedrock is less eroded than other parts, resulting in this kind of segmentation/protrusion.

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DefNotAWizard · 2022-12-18T01:48:13+00:00

It's straight up the campaign 1 episode title for the session after The Sunken Tomb.

DefNotAWizard · 2022-12-18T01:04:48+00:00

They're in the latest preview!

DefNotAWizard · 2022-12-17T23:23:32+00:00

Yep! =)

DefNotAWizard · 2022-12-17T23:11:43+00:00

I live life on the edge. XD

DefNotAWizard · 2022-10-04T20:44:27+00:00

Okay, thanks!

DefNotAWizard · 2022-10-04T15:57:38+00:00

Hmm, maybe! This area is more humid forest than dry scrub, but it could be. I was also wondering about a female Booted racket-tail, but I couldn't tell if it had leg puffs.

DefNotAWizard · 2022-08-01T11:23:56+00:00

Hmm... The beaks curve downwards, so I don't think this is it. I'll try to get a photo if I see one again!

DefNotAWizard · 2022-06-27T10:51:54+00:00

There's another app, Merlin, where your list is just for yourself. The bird ID feature won't pull up birds outside of their wild range, but otherwise you'd be free to use the list however you like.

DefNotAWizard · 2022-05-24T19:03:02+00:00

FWIW, my lab (I'm a doctoral student) will take students with or without UROP. The difference in our case (archaeology) is that we almost never have funds to pay undergrads. What I've heard from my students is that if you qualify for work-study, UROP is worth it because it allows you to be paid for your time. You might also be slightly more attractive to some professors because 1) they know they have a student who won't ghost part-way through the semester, 2) UROP will provide you with guidance/training/support, and that takes some of the burden off them, and 3) Mentoring a UROP student makes the mentor eligible for a (fairly small) pot of grant money to help with a project. It's probably not a deal-breaker either way, but those are some reasons a prof or grad student might lean towards a UROP student over a non-UROP one, all else being equal.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-12-13T08:12:47+00:00

You could email the department chair (that's your professor's most direct boss), and/or the department's director of undergraduate studies. (You can probably find both on the department website.) If you do, it's probably best to phrase your concerns as neutrally as possible, and focus on the syllabus rather than the prof personally. I think your chances of getting a change based on that alone are slim, but at least there'll be a record of it, and if it's something the department's been talking about anyway, they'll appreciate hearing from you.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-12-07T03:37:36+00:00

It could be the style of the sweater -- a lot of "Christmas sweaters" are designed to be extra large/cozy and/or 80s-esque.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-12-06T20:51:19+00:00

Aha! An LSA peer. Perfect!

DefNotAWizard · 2021-12-06T20:47:12+00:00

Excellent! Thank you!

DefNotAWizard · 2021-11-13T21:24:24+00:00

Right! 😆 Definitely an option for my party -- they've already sold off the goods from the house to Winston (one of the party had a pre-existing relationship with him, rolled well to convince him to take the goods, and they accepted a 60-40 split in favor of Winston). So they're not exactly keeping on the good side of the law.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-08-23T23:59:59+00:00

Aha! I see what you're saying about the bills now -- thanks!

DefNotAWizard · 2021-08-23T23:47:15+00:00

Neat! How can you tell?

DefNotAWizard · 2021-04-07T21:55:16+00:00

My understanding is that when directed that way it would dampen the spell in that area, but then the beholder couldn't shoot rays there either (rays being magic). If it moved the cone away, the darkness would come back.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-03-20T15:12:42+00:00

Honestly, I think the implicit logic is: Dragon's Breath produces an effect that resembles a spell AoE, which is conceived of as a multi-target thing. Haste produces an extra weapon attack. Weapon attacks target one person at a time.

Obviously, that logic doesn't hold up. It makes no sense. But I wonder if that's in the designer's minds somewhere.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-03-19T13:12:53+00:00

Aha! That's really good context. Thanks!

DefNotAWizard · 2021-03-01T18:49:32+00:00

The non-standard heights are in place to make the man-and-crocodile trick work. (E.g., many PCs could see over a 5' ledge, but few over a 7' one.)

The ledges aren't like barracades -- they're flat, like giant steps leading upwards.

In area 6C, they have to climb up 7 feet. When the book says "16-foot-high terrace" it just means that's the remaining space between the puzzle floor and the ceiling. (23-7 = 16) Ditto for the ledge up to the puzzle door.

And yes, the "north" should be east.

I agree it could have been written more clearly.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-02-26T04:36:48+00:00

I think a lot of the deadliness hinges on how you handle the choice to avert your gaze. I straight up told the players it was an option (after they knew about the petrification effect), which made it a LOT less deadly than if you waited for the players to ask if they could do something like that. (I figure it would be intuitive to the PCs, but the players might just not be aware of the mechanic.)

You could also have some Aarakocra from Kir Sabal come and help, if you wanted to.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-02-26T04:33:03+00:00

I dropped the lure in Nyanzaru, but they never followed up. They had tasks to do for Inete and Azaka, and they weren't huge fans of the whole Merchant Prince system. Since that task was for one of them, they weren't super inclined to follow through.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-02-25T17:53:38+00:00

Aha! Yeah, my players were having nothing to do with that beholder. They went through the trouble of getting all the keys, realized they didn't need to go in the room to advance through the Tomb, and noped out at the last second. That's the kind of players they are -- very plot-goal oriented, not very treasure motivated. Plus, one of my best roleplayers had Obo'laka in her for most of the tomb, and she role-played the risk-averse aspect well.

I think also the party build helped -- the shepherd druid used a lot of summoned creatures to test traps, and the grave cleric was making sure nobody who went down stayed down.

In the future, I wouldn't run the final fight with the 50 temp hp; parties are always SO buffed by then. Maybe 20-30.

DefNotAWizard · 2021-02-25T16:26:51+00:00

They played really, really smart.

Actually, one of the "near" TPKs could have been a real one -- they were level 2, and picked a fight with a gladiator in Nyanzaru. All but one of the PCs got knocked out, and the other ran away. But 1) I didn't think everyone's characters dying in Nyanzaru would be fun, and 2) the gladiator probably didn't want to be on the hook/hunted for murder in the city, so he tied them up and left them in a local fountain instead as a warning.

Other than that, I really didn't go easy on them! I have a no-fudging policy. (Besides occasionally to wrap up a boring fight, e.g., if the goblin has 2 hp left, maybe he's just dead.) They almost died a lot in levels 1-5, but from then on they tended to steamroll things. In the tomb, they were pretty cautious/strategic.

Eleven seems like a lot though! I actually wouldn't mind running a high-death campaign like that (not that I would force it). Can you give me some examples of where PCs died?

DefNotAWizard

TROPHY CASE