Allence's Last Hope

Game Master sarpadian

Just to clarify, Sal fell unconscious from nonlethal heat damage and then took almost enough lethal heat damage to disable him. Chantif, you have the highest Heal skill and may take 10. The problem with taking 20 is that it takes 20 times as long, which in this case would be 20 hours. You'd be better off giving long-term care. Also, just as another puzzle to be figuring out, Sal still has to make heat saves (but not forced march checks, obviously), even if he's on a mule, unless you find a way to shelter him on the mule.

"Well... I suppose we could use a healing potion on Sal. It would save us a good deal of worrying about his health in the future." Rhona glances around at her companions. "What? I like Sal. It hurts me to see him like this."

She makes her best puppy-dog expression at Umash. Considering her general demeanor, it's not the best effort of all time, but it's about all that could be expected of Rhona.

"These potions heal wounds, not exhaustion. What the mule needs is some proper rest, not an expensive potion.", Umash states coldly, "And even if it did help, I'm not about to waste a potion that might save one of our lives in the future on a pack beast because it is out of breath."

It's the dog, not that I think that will change your opinion, Umash. You'll pass out long before one of the mules do :).

Let's chalk it up to umash not even having looked at which one of the animals is showing exhaustion symptoms, and not really knowing their names either, because she really doesn't care about the animals.

Rhona folds her arms and says quietly, "Man, that's cold."

Wow, this blew up a little while I wasn't able to get on.

"Speaking logically, she is right. Though there is no reason for the animal to suffer, I will see what I can do about rigging my 'parasol' to work for the dog while it is carried by the donkey."

untrained craft: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 Since the parasol is already crafted and all I am trying to do is attach it so it shades the dog while on the donkey I am not sure what the DC is, hopefully that will meet it

Drexel wedges the handle of his makeshift parasol in between Hal's body and his tack. He thinks it looks secure.
So, who wants to aid another on Chantif's Heal check? Based on the attitudes revealed so far, I'm guessing Rhona and Drexel are "yes"'s and Umash is a "no." Det, how about you? Also, Drexel and Umash should let me know if they want to change spells/extracts for tomorrow.

Det is a definite yes on that
[b]"As much as I like animals, I'm looking from a tactical perspective too. Sal may have already saved our life with the Kobolds. It wouldn't be in anyone's best interest to leave Sal unattended. Let's take a break, at least until Sal isn't on the verge of death.

-Posted with Wayfinder

-Posted with Wayfinder

aid another, untrained heal: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Heal, aid another (Rhona): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16
Heal, aid another (Det): 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
Only 1 aid another succeeded, so you're currently at 19 taking 10. You can try to convince Umash to make an aid another attempt or roll.

Chantif looks up from his work to look Umash straight in the eyes Umash, be so kind as to come over here and help us cool Sal down. You may not care whether he lives or dies, but you must at least acknowledge that his scent is a useful tool for us in detecting approaching foes.

"Very well," Umash sighs as she gets up and trudges over to the others "I also don't want to be the one who killed the puppy. What should I do?"

untrained heal, aid another: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 1 = 12

Thankee. Now just put your hand here...

Hahaha... I have no idea what we're actually, physically doing. Haha. I believe that is a 21 with Taking 10. I'll mark off the two uses from the Healing Kit. By the way, have I recovered any more HP yet?

Working together, the party manages to ameliorate the worst of Sal's heat exhaustion. As they finish working on him, the sun is getting low in the sky, and they have to rush in order to get the tents pitched and rations eaten before black dark. The normal watches are set, with the exception that Sal is out like a rock, but nothing untoward happens. The party goes about their normal morning routine. Sal has recovered consciousness, but he seems to be moving somewhat stiffly--like he's badly sunburned. Strapping him onto Hal (complete with makeshift parasol mount), the party takes off towards Alenk Town.

Another day of rations to mark off. You've had three nights of natural healing since the last combat, so Chantif should be at 11/13 and Rhona should be at full. With Treat Deadly Wounds and sleep Sal recovered 2 HP, so he's at 3 HP.

Good. Will Sal be able to get his 8 hours of rest/sleep from the back of the mule so he can stand guard tonight?

He'd definitely be able to sleep for the first couple of hours. Once it starts getting hot it might be difficult for him to sleep, but he would be able to sleep again once it cools off and while y'all are setting up camp. So, he'll definitely get 5 hours of sleep during the day, which means he would need to sleep through 1.5 guard shifts during the night. If he does well on his saves, though, I can justify him sleeping during the heat of the day.

Sounds great. Good to be back at full health again, to boot. Glad Sal's going to make it through the night!

Rhona can't help but smirk at the sight of Sal strapped to the back of the mule with a parasol clumsily set up for him. "Just... this visual, guys. Just look at it. This is just precious."

At the risk of having to go backwards if I'm wrong, I'm going to prove that I can notice a pattern and assume Drexel and Umash are keeping the same spells (including endure elements for themselves) and that Drexel cast endure elements on Rhona before he slept.

The forest along the shoulders of the River Road, which has been your almost constant companion ever since you left New Allence, begins opening up. It becomes more and more sparse; by the time the party has traveled five miles, forest has completely given way to grassland. Not long after this transition, the party notices movement in the tall grass to the north of the road.

"Charming," Rhona grumbles as she sees the two creatures and their unfortunate lunch. "The hell are those?"

Anything I recognize? I've got Dungeoneering and Engineering skills. Also, does it look like they're scavenging a horse that already died or did these things bring it down themselves...?

Rhona cautiously draws her longsword and shield in case the creatures make a move, but tries to keep her distance and not look threatening.

I smell a fight coming... >:)

I'm going to go have a closer look. Chantif begins quietly approaching the fighting creatures.

Currently unarmored, since I don't have Endure Elements.

"Just be careful," Rhona says, noting that Chantif isn't exactly well-protected. After a moment, she makes a resigned grunt and heads after him as quietly as she can, trying to keep back about 15 feet.

Umash draws her sword and readies her mutagen vial. "I can see only one creature. What's going on?"

The creatures are about 120 ft. away. How close do you want to get to them? Rhona, it's hard to tell whether or not they killed the horse themselves; the carcass is pretty far gone. The appropriate skill to identify the creatures is Knowledge (nature).

Det sees the creature and grunts, "He'll probably smell you coming before you get close," he whispers to Chantif and Rhona,"Still, it is strange to a lone hyena out in the open...watch your backs guys, and don't get too close. There's no telling what could be out there." Det hunkers down and grabs Krolik with both hands as he watches them sneak towards the hyena.

Which way is the wind blowing? Are we upwind?

wind direction: 1d8 ⇒ 4 wind force: 1d100 ⇒ 32

The wind is a slight breeze coming out of the south, i.e. perpendicular to the road, so you're neither upwind nor downwind.

Seeing everyone else pulling out weapons I pull out my light crossbow and load it. Looking around to see what is going on as I do so.

wait. Wait. Chantif stops. Det. Did you just say those are hyenas? My old mentor... He always said Gnolls looked like big hyenas. I don't like the smell of this at all. Let them have their carcass. I say we make a wide berth.

-Posted with Wayfinder

"Uh... yeah. That might be a good idea. We don't need to draw the attention of that spellcaster who's supposed to be leading them, either."

Rhona fully supports not approaching the hyenas in this case.

How far off the road do you want to go? North or south?

Det shakes his head,"No, these don't look like guard hyenas, no leather barding. Still, going over there would cause one of two things to happen: One-we piss of a couple of hyenas; and two-we get burned alive and eaten by gnolls. I'm with you guys let's go, quickly."

I wouldn't say we go too far off the road. Maybe about 30ft south if any at all.

Agreed. Let's not get too far off the beaten path.

how about 100 feet? That's still not too far off the road.

-Posted with Wayfinder

100ft. seems reasonable.

apologies for disappearing, work has been crazy hectic, but it's over now and I will be back to my usual at least once daily posting schedule.

I hold my crossbow listening to the talk, not knowing anything useful about gnolls or hyenas I keep my mouth shut and follow the group.

100ft wouldn't hurt, when can still get to the road quickly, so it sounds good to me.

The grasslands south of the road are difficult to get through, but the party manages to make their way through it slowly. After about ten minutes, y'all seem to be a little further east of the hyenas than you were west of them when you first spotted them. There's no sign that they noticed you passing. In front of you, the ground slopes down steeply to a creek.

Y'all are currently 100 ft. south of the road and about 150 ft. east of the hyenas. You can try to jump across the creek (DC 15 Acrobatics check and a Handle Animal check to get the mules to cross), head back up to the road, or come up with another option.

How hard do we think it would be to get the Mules across?

Now that I look at it, it's practically impossible. The DC to push an animal is 25. None of you are trained in Handle Animal, and Drexel is the only one with a positive CHA mod. He's rolling at +2, which means he would need two of you to succeed on aid another checks, even if he takes 20. On top of that, the time penalty for taking 20 would put you past time for the first heat save, and the DC goes up by 2 if the animal has taken nonlethal damage. It's not all that likely that the mules would fail their saves, but it's possible. You can try, but you might want to think about another option.

...Back to the road? I personally might be able to make the Acrobatics check if I ditched my armor, but I don't know about the rest of you guys. Seems the safest.

Yeah I'm up for the road, it's not worth waiting a ridiculous amount of time just to end up drowning Walt.

Aye, back to the road.

The party makes it back to the road with no incident. Once the day heats up, the weather is brutal. Despite his makeshift parasol, Sal slumps against Hal's back about noon--clearly unconscious.

Sal has 3/3 nonlethal and 3/6 lethal? does lethal go to death?

Following the others with my crossbow out, still not really sure what is going on I follow through the grass and back to the road.

Yep. Once you pass out from nonlethal heat damage, any further heat damage is treated as lethal damage. He almost died yesterday (he was at 1 HP); a night of rest and Chantif's Treat Deadly Wounds brought him up to 3 HP. Today, since his current HP is 3, he passed out at 3 nonlethal damage, i.e. it's based on his current HP--not max HP.

On a different note, I noticed when I was doing the Fort saves last night that nobody seems to have the cloak of resistance +1 counted in their stats. Who has it? My recollection was that Drexel gave it to Chantif when he started casting endure elements on himself, but I could be wrong.

Ah, I forgot the dog only recovered to 3 Hp, Yes I gave the cloak to Chantif. If he gave it to someone else I don't know.

"Our poor dog!" Rhona groans when she sees the sorry state Sal is in. "This weather is ridiculous. Can't it rain or something? Drexel, do some wizardy stuff and whip us up a light rain. I have absolute faith in you." She says this, of course, knowing full well that such a spell might be above Drexel's current abilities, but it never hurt to try. "Think we should park our butts for a while and rest? It's up to you guys."