Allence's Last Hope

Game Master sarpadian

"Join the club, buddy," Rhona says, clapping Det on the shoulder. "Maybe when we get to Alenk Town we can hit up a sauna or something. I'm feeling like a good, long foot massage is in order after all this marching."

Ready to head out whenever everybody else is. Let's rock!

"Next time we get to requisition free equipment and supplies, let's not forget to requisition horses.", Umash muses.
"Say, Drexel, I've been thinking of something, can I borrow your spell book at our next rest? I think I might be able to transcribe some of your spells into alchemical solutions."

Around noon, as the party is about six miles down the road, Sal keels over.

Correct me if I am wrong but it looks like Sal made his first save even though you rolled damage for him.

"My spells have cost me much, in time, money and pain. I would like a trade to occur if possible. But I will allow you to learn Endure Elements for the benefit of the group."

You're right. Umash is the one who failed the first save, but I rolled the damage in Sal's section for some reason. So, no passed out dog. Also, it was 8 miles--not 6. Remind me not to post at 2 a.m. again :).

The party continues on their merry way. About siesta time, Sal starts staggering around.

When Det notices that everyone is starting to look a little worn down he says, "We've made good time today, what do you guys think about taking break? I'll go take a look around." Then he looks at Rhona, "You're the one with the fancy spell cast on ya, care to join me?"

"I will tag along as well, as a learning experience if for no other reason, since I am immune to the heat today as well."

"The more the merrier. Come on then, maybe we'll get lucky and find a pot of gold or something. Though, with my luck, we'll just find more Kobolds."

-Posted with Wayfinder

"You have to ask?" Rhona says with a grin. "Let's make a party of it. Word Association time, fellas!"

Back from DragonCon!

"In that case I will wait for you and guard the equipment. Maybe also start copying some spells and making a list of potions I owe you, Drexel.", Umash is clearly not in the mood for a walk at this point. "How about you, Chantif? You also joining the communal patrol?"

"I... I guess." I have my spell book in my hands, you can tell that I am having a lot of trouble parting with it. "Just don't let anything happen to it, ok?" I say as I finally hand it over.

Right then! Well lets be off so the fun can begin! Then he looks over to Chantif, "You look a little out of it bud, still there's always room for one more if you feel like joining the party."

Umash looks at the battered book hanging from her belt and chuckles a little. "Don't worry. I know how to handle a book. This was already this way when I found it. It's from a time when I had to improvise a lot more. But I promise I'll be extra careful.", she pats her formula book with one hand and then takes Drexel's book.

I will come along, sure.

How far out would you like to patrol?

Not terribly far, I'd imagine. We don't want to leave Umash alone for too long. Quarter mile?

Quarter mile sounds good, and thanks for letting me know sarpadian, I didn't even think about that.

You hang tight, we shouldn't be long.Det says to Umash. Then he starts walking as he says to the group, "Shall we begin?"

"Aye." I follow along behind the rest of the group, looking about.

perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3 And promptly get sand in my eye...

As the others head out, Umash sits down laying her formula book and Drexel's spell book out in front of her. Getting her ink pen ready she begins leafing through the spell book to find the Endure Elements spell.
She begins studying it carefully.

FYI just like a wizard I need to stuy the spell for 1 hour per spell level, but alchemists don't need to decipher arcane magical writings.So at the end of one hour of study i do my spellcraft check DC 16.

Okay dicebot, don't disappoint me.
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

That went well. If I have the time i would also try to copy expeditious retreat and comprehend languages in that order.

The scouting party returns to the rest point having found nothing of interest. As they arrive, Umash is still hunched over the books copying the first spell. A little over ten minutes later, she has completed the first spell and looks rather pleased.

According to my math, a 1/4 mi. circle should take 47 min. to traverse for characters in medium armor who are stealthing. It is currently 3 PM. You've traveled for six hours today, so you have two hours of pre-forced march traveling left and three hours until you don't have to make heat saves. Additionally, I just read that you can hustle for 1 hr./day without penalty, so I'm going to add 4 mi. to the distance you've traveled yesterday and today. It makes the most sense to me that you'd do your hustling first thing in the morning while you're still fresh. Do y'all want to stay here until 5:00 PM and travel three hours, per usual, or try to make some extra headway via forced march?

Waiting for the ink to dry in her formua book, Umash carefully closes the spell book and hands it back to Drexel: "I should be able to concoct an extract with which to protect myself from the heat as well. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out how to make these work on anyone else, before this gets really useful. Thanks, Drexel, I think I owe you two potions for this."

"Thank you for taking care of it." I say, quickly tucking it back into my waterproof satchel.

Realizing what Umash has accomplished for herself, Rhona nods, impressed. "Nice work, Lady," she says. "See? We'll have this weather stuff whipped in no time. Anyway, shall we get back on the road, or do you need a little longer to rest up?"

I say we get as far as we can without going into forced-march territory. No need to cause undue damage to those of us who aren't protected from the elements.

I'm with Rhona.

Agreed

"Let's continue. The sooner we get to this mystical artifact the better.", Umash claps her book shut and gathers her writing equipment.

Sorry, reading back over my post from yesterday just now, I realized that it's a little confusing. I forgot that you guys had made better time today, so getting eight hours of travel in doesn't mean leaving at 5 PM. You have a couple of different options: 1) rest until 6 PM, and get your two hours of travel in, or 2)leave the rest point sometime between 3 and 6 to make extra headway. Option 2 would involve forced march checks and heat saves. If you leave at 5, there will be one heat save (Fort DC 19) and one forced march Con check (DC 10). For each additional hour of travel, the save DC goes up by one and the forced march check DC goes up by 2. I guess, technically, you have the option of leaving whenever and stopping early, but you're making extra heat saves for no reason if you do that. Anyway, for the time being, I'm going to operate off the apparent consensus that you didn't want to make a forced march. If that consensus was based on my poor explanation, let me know and we can retcon some extra movement in.

Once the heat of the day has slackened, the party is feeling much better and is ready to resume travel. The party continues walking with the sun at their back for a couple of hours. As the time to make camp draws near, the party reaches a bridge that spans a large stream. Looking to the north, the party can see that the stream empties into a large lake with a wide, sandy beach. Looking to the south, the party sees in the distance that the forest comes right up to the river, but close to the bridge it appears to have been cleared.

Seems like a good place to camp... Any objections?

Let's make camp on this side of the stream, between that beach and this bridge.

"Sounds fine to me, I grew up on a farm and in the tower I do not know much about camping."

As good a place as any. Right now I'd camp in a dragon's mouth if it meant getting out of this blasted heat!

The party makes camp. It seems peaceful and quiet here. Only the sounds of wildlife break the silence.

Anything you want to take care of before nightfall? Also, spells/extracts for tomorrow. I'm guessing you want to prepare an endure elements extract, Umash, but do you want to trade out for it? Same spells and targets as today, Drexel?

I'll prepare Endure Elements and Enlarge Person

Det lays his things on the ground beside him and he lays down in the sand? grass? I guess it doesn't really matter, he's tired. and underneath the fading sun. As he watches the sunset, images from his past start filling his mind. After a while he decides he can't take it anymore so he speaks to the party. "Has anyone ever heard the story of why the cricket sings at night? Then after a short pause he says, "Me neither, but I bet it's pretty cool story." He give a small chuckle at his own joke and sets his mind on getting the dirt off Krolik.

Prior to bedding down for the night I again cast Endure elements on Rhona.

Prepared Spells 0: Prestidigitation, Detect Magic, Mage Hand 1: Endure Elements, Mage Armor, Charm Person.

Chantif, please mark off another day of rations.
Nothing untoward happens during the night, and you all awake in the morning refreshed. As you go about your routine of breakfast and breaking camp, there is a pleasant breeze wafting off the lake. When everything is taken care of, the party resumes its journey eastward. For the first hour you move quite briskly and then you slow down to a normal walking pace. Even the party members who aren't mystically protected seem to be handling the heat fairly well. As the party pauses for lunch about 2 pm, only Sal seems to be noticeably affected by the heat. He is panting heavily but still walking normally (unlike this time yesterday when he was swaying like he was about to pass out).
Y'all have traveled for 6 hours straight. Do you want to wait until 6 PM or try to make some extra progress today. For what it's worth, Sal will be the only one with nonlethal damage left by 4 PM.

I'm okay with pressing forward since we're doing well today. Keep on keep-keepin' on, as they say.

Also in favor of keeping on moving.

The march is going well today. We'll need to keep an eye on Sal here, but I think we should be able to make extra time today, aye.

After lunch the party hits the road again. Chantif's warning proves prophetic when Sal passes out about an hour later. His breathing is shallow but still regular.

How much time have we made relative to previous days?

Discussion with players at a PFS game and previous reading had lead me to believe the Guard Dog was like a Riding Dog, but trained for Combat instead of riding. But now the only ruling I can find says it is just a Small dog (which is counter-intuitive, if you think about it). Just trying to figure out how much he weighs so we can figure out if it is possible to load him on a mule or not.

"Poor Sal," Rhona says. "If we have to, I might be able to carry him..."

Depending on how much he weighs, I s'pose.

The PFSRD lists guard dogs at 25 lbs. You've been traveling 8 hrs/day. You've only traveled 7 hrs today, but it is also only 5:00, which means you have 3 more hours before you need to start making camp.

EDIT: According to your nifty spreadsheet, putting Sal on a mule would put you .2 lbs over the party's light capacity. However, I think we can safely assume he's sweated off more than 3 1/3 oz. of water weight :)

Works for me. Want me to shuffle all the EQ around to make it work or can we just assume we make it work for the rest of the walk? I prefer the latter. :p

As long as the total number works out, I'm less concerned with the exact locations where things are. To be honest, I haven't been paying too much attention to where the items are.

After securing Sal to Hal, the party continues. After an hour, the heat slackens, but the party does begin to feel the strain of having already made a normal day's worth of progress. However, they grit their teeth and continue. Once it's time to start making camp, you are all ready to stop. You set up camp in a clearing just off the road. Sal's breathing is quite ragged and his pulse is thready at this point: you can tell that he needs some attention.
Y'all will want to try to help Sal out somehow; he's on death's door and won't make it through tomorrow if you don't do something. Also, feel free to post anything else you'd like to do with the last half-hour or so of daylight. Drexel and Umash, same spells and extracts?

Sal is not looking so well. He is barely conscious. Chantif pulls out a healing kit and pours some water in a pot for the dog to drink before setting to work...

So, I think I am "Treating Deadly Wounds" which takes one hour and has a DC 20. It will heal 1 HP. My Heal is +7 with the kit. If I get a 25 or higher, I can add my Wisdom Mod (+1) to the HP restored. I have three questions: 1) does anyone have a higher Wis Mod and a higher Heal skill who can heal the dog more? 2) does anyone want try to aid on the check for another +2? 3) Can I/we take 20? Or only take 10? Or neither?

"I knew the beasts would begin slowing us down at some point." Umash mutters as she settles down.

Not sure if Chantif heard that mutter, but I'll point out ooc here that we actually went further today than any previous day...