Allence's Last Hope

Game Master sarpadian

I didn't even think of that

I didn't even think of that

Not to worry. Little hints like that make me sleep better when I throw extra encounters at you. Mwaaaha.

With a scowl, Det replies "No luck, little booger's too fast to bother chasing." He then plops down on the ground, obviously agitated with the circumstances, "Anything interesting happen while we were gone?

Rhona's jaw is clenched tightly as she and Detskiye return empty-handed. Judging from the look on her face, she's in little mood to talk. She paces about irritably, avoiding eye contact with her comrades.

She's gone into angry lockdown mode.

No, nothing interesting happened. We should move quickly if you did not catch him then. The little devil said he would be bringing his clan after us, and we do not know if that means five or fifty. We shall have to keep a watch tonight. Chantif pauses, crinkling his eyebrows. Should we leave the road, do you think? The going will be much slower, but we might be able to hide our trail and lose them.

"Rhona, I would feel more comfortable if you were in armor if they attacked, please come here, I have a spell that could help."

Still stinging over losing track of the kobold, Rhona cocks an eyebrow and turns sharply toward the wizard. "What kind of a spell are we talking about here?" She meanders over toward Drexel, still fuming, but curious as to what sort of trick Drexel has up his sleeve. "No funny business."

That'll be the first time I'm in a game where someone actually casts endure elements.

"We should definitely stick together. I find it difficult to be intimidated by a kobold running crying home to mommy but its best to be at full strength if he does happen to have a big family. Also I need to prepare some things."

How many potions have I made so far anyway?

Umash, you only had raw materials for two, to the best of my knowledge.

Umash, you only had raw materials for two, to the best of my knowledge.

Thanks, yeah I wasn't really aware of how much i had gotten at all, then I'm going to fix up a new Strength mutagen.

Still stinging over losing track of the kobold, Rhona cocks an eyebrow and turns sharply toward the wizard. "What kind of a spell are we talking about here?" She meanders over toward Drexel, still fuming, but curious as to what sort of trick Drexel has up his sleeve. "No funny business."

"This will make it so that the effects of heat or cold weather will not affect you, fire will still burn you though. It will last 24hrs so I will have to recast it every day."

After my explanation I chant a short phrase in Draconic and then lay a hand on Rhona's shoulder.

"There you shouldn't be affected by the heat until this time tomorrow. I would rather use it for myself but I feel it will be more beneficial to everyone if one of our heavy hitters utilizes it. Need some help with your armor?"

Interestingly, this is also my first time actually seeing Endure Elements in action!

Feeling the lingering fatigue from the day's heat fading away, Rhona's dark mood seems to lift. "Wow. Thanks, Drexel." A vague hint of a smile forms on her lips. "Fine. Let's get that scalemail on me. This getup makes me feel like a bumpkin."

Regarding Chantif and Umash, Rhona offers unhelpfully: "Road, no road, doesn't matter to me. Let's try to keep together from hereon. If we do end up with kobolds chasing after us, we'll need to have each others' backs. If they can catch one of us alone, kobold or not, they have the advantage. Chantif did well for himself earlier, but it could have gone a lot worse. So... yeah, I'm with you, 'Mash."

No one cares either way? Det?

"We can make better time on the road and there are less spaces for ambush.I believe we should stay on the road."

"I agree, if we do end up meeting fifty of those lizards, then I would rather fight them on the road where we have an advantage. "

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I disagree--the road makes one long lane of easy and predictable ambush. But I see the vote is against me and so I will not press. I will suggest that we take at least one step towards controlling the engagement. Let Rhona walk ahead of us in her armor and we will follow behind at one or two hundred feet. If we are lucky, she will trigger the ambush--her armor will protect her--and we will still control the fight. She can withdraw to our position if it is superior, or we can charge at her attackers and catch them from behind if that ground is better for us.

If they have any range, the foliage by the road offers them concealment from us... roads like that are ideal ground for ambush, because the ambusher knows we will pass through and so we cannot avoid it. Going through the wilderness they would have to find us and then sneak up on us, which is harder than laying silent in wait at a place you know your quarry will eventually pass through.

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We have a donkey and noisy fighter in armor, moving half speed through heavy growth where they would also have concealment seems like a worse idea.

They will hear us within so many feet no matter what. But if they have to find us first, geographically, they may never get close enough to hear us.

EDIT: furthermore, at least if we went off road both parties would have concealment instead of just our opponents

-Posted with Wayfinder

You guys have made 6 miles of progress since you set back out, assuming the rest of the party was matching themselves to Rhona's walking speed. You can make camp here, or keep going, but you only have about 15 minutes before you'll have to start making forced march checks.

Camping out sounds good to me. How long is it until dark? Also, maybe we should take a look at those wagons back there and make sure they're friendly.

Rhona takes a quick survey of the scene. Afterwards, she heads back to her comrades and shrugs. "What do you guys think? Seems like a good enough place to hunker down for the night to me."

"I like it. Let's take a look inside those wagons, to see if it's really safe.", drawing her falchion Umash heads over to check the wagons from left to right.

perception 1: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11
perception 2: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
perception 3: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13

About an hour and a half until dark, and it should be 30 minutes until forced march checks, not 15.
As Umash gets about 50 ft. from the wagons, a light crossbow bolt hits the ground in front of her. A soft, high-pitched voice yells, "Hold it right there, greenskin!"

Umash sighs and carefully lowers her falchion to the ground and puts her hands up: "We're not here to hurt you. We are simply looking for a safe place to spend the night. I did not mean to frighten you, it looked as though the site was abandoned."

diplomacy: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

Umash sees a halfling poke his head around a wheel of one of the wagons. He looks past Umash towards the rest of the party, looks at Umash's falchion on the ground, and says: "Yeah, we like to make it look that way to discourage Taloths, Rimescales, and other miscreants from bothering us. OK, it's obvious you aren't Taloth raiders because there's humans in your party, but I still don't have any reason to trust you. If you want to camp, go ahead, but stay over there," he says, pointing to the other side of the enclosed area (about 500 ft. away).

4 non-leathal out of 6HP

Sweat streaming down my face, completely exhausted, I take a long drink from my water skin. I make my way over to where the Halfling pointed and practically collapse to the ground. "I am going to just rest here for a min."

Chantif follows Umash as she approaches the wagons. He is surprised she does not hail them. As he opens his mouth and lifts his arm to do so himself, the crossbow bolt stops him.

After the halflings instructions he offers, Thank you for permitting us to stay in your palisade, good halfling. Might I point out that I believe there to be a clan of Kobolds on the roam nearby? Perhaps it might be mutually beneficial for us to camp together, to better join our strength should they come and attack this camp. They ambushed us on the road earlier and seem quite bloodthirsty.

Good call.

"It's true," Rhona says. "We can watch each others' backs. And if you're not happy with that, then keep an eye out for those scaly little creepers anyway. If one shows up, give a holler and I'll come right over."

Rhona, not suffering the effects of the squelching heat any longer, presents herself as gracefully as possible in hopes of impressing the halfling. "Us travelers have to stick together, right?"

The halfling grimaces. "Met the Rimescales already, have you? I hope you haven't led them here. You bet I'll yell if they show up. Just don't expect us to do much; we're just merchants." With that, he heads out of sight, behind the wagon, leaving you to your own devices as you set up camp.

Umash already said she wanted to craft another mutagen when you stopped. Is there anything else y'all would like to do before you turn in? Also, have you decided on a watch schedule, or are you satisfied with just the guard dog?

So is that a yes on camping closer together?

I prefer the 10-hour night I proposed in the discussion thread. Chantif will also want to spend an hour to apply the Healing Kit to Treat Deadly Wounds and recover another hit point. If enough of the party can succeed at an aid check then he'll take 10 to beat the DC20, otherwise he'll roll at +7 (the +2 is from the kit).

And we are just travelers, good sir, but we know which way our weapons point and will lend aid if they show their snouts. More than a few of us want to get back at them after they ambushed us.

No, that was a "Go over there, but I'll holler if I hear something." If you go with the 10 hour night, Drexel needs to take either the first or last watch. Other than that, I leave it up to y'all. We'll take care of the treatment after everybody has a chance to post their actions, since that will determine how many people can Aid Another.

I want to sleep 8 hrs to rid myself of the nonlethal damage and then study my spells.

Once somewhat recovered I state.
"I will take last watch, I have always been an early riser."

I'll take second watch, I need to recover from my heat damage.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Does breaking 8 hours of sleep up into segments interfere with recovering from nonlethal damage and/or other aspects of sleep? Or just spellcasting? I didn't think it would interfere even with that.

Breaking up sleep doesn't interfere with recovering nonlethal damage, just spellcasting. And even there, it's not so much that the sleep is being broken up as it is that whatever it's being broken up for will interfere:

To prepare his daily spells, a wizard must first sleep for 8 hours. The wizard does not have to slumber for every minute of the time, but he must refrain from movement, combat, spellcasting, skill use, conversation, or any other fairly demanding physical or mental task during the rest period. If his rest is interrupted, each interruption adds 1 hour to the total amount of time he has to rest in order to clear his mind, and he must have at least 1 hour of uninterrupted rest immediately prior to preparing his spells. If the character does not need to sleep for some reason, he still must have 8 hours of restful calm before preparing any spells.

I would argue that standing watch--assuming it's being done well--would qualify as "fairly demanding."

OK, everyone except for Rhona has posted, and I can't imagine her having anything too pressing to do with the hour or so of daylight left. There isn't enough time with decent light left for Umash to craft a mutagen and Aid Another on Chantif's Heal check, but everybody else's actions allow for them to roll one. Drexel, the rules for rest indicate that preparing spells happens after sleep, so I'm going to assume that "study my spells" is a vague, fluff action.

Chantif attempts to patch himself up, but (even with the party's help, it doesn't seem to help. Mark off two uses of your healing kit, and one day of rations for the party, please, O Keeper of Equipment :). You all bed down for the night, taking watches in turn. Chantif, Det, Umash, and Rhona, your watches proceed uneventfully. Drexel, about 5 minutes after Rhona wakes you and goes back to get a couple more hours of shut-eye, the guard dog (He needs a name, btw) starts barking loudly. You don't hear anything yet yourself, though.

My intention was to help set up camp, sleep for 8 hrs and then study my spells during my watch. Looks like I will have to study them after we deal with something however.

As soon as the guard dog starts barking I look in the direction he is facing closely and look for movement of any sort.
Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

Still not noticing anything I quickly move over to Rhona, expecting her to not have fallen asleep so quickly.
"Rhona, something seems to have spooked the dog, I can't see anything yet and I don't want anything to sneak up on me. Care to back me up a bit?" I pull out my light crossbow and load it as I am moving to talk to Rhona.

I've been assuming that y'all would want to get underway as soon after sunup as possible in order to maximize the time before you have to start making heat saves. If so, your watch ends at sunrise, so you wouldn't really have enough light to read your spellbook by until the second hour of your watch, if then. On a related note, Chantif, I gave you the first watch, so you've had 8 hours of sleep; you get 1 HP back for natural healing. Everybody's nonlethal damage should have worn off as well.

Sorry, long work day.

Rhona's eyes pop open at Drexel's prodding. "Ugh. Great. Just my luck... I was just nodding off." She drags herself up from her bedroll and grabs up her equipment.

GM, I'm not sure what the rules are for donning armor hastily if you have help. I know that normal donning can be cut in half by having help, but the rules don't really indicate whether you can cut the "don hastily" time similarly- if so, it'd only take thirty seconds to get my scalemail on with someone's help and that'd put me at 20 AC. What's the word?

Since the footnote about halving the time with help occurs in both the "don" and "remove" columns, but not the "don hastily" column, I'm going to rule that you don't get any benefit from having help donning hastily. However, you can sleep in light armor without penalty, and you have the studded leather you got from the quartermaster. Somehow, I find the idea of studded leather pajamas amusing...

would it be fair to say the dog barking woke me up? Also, if someone would be so kind as to help me, I would start putting on my armor as soon as I woke up.

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Det and Umash, you guys wake up to the sound of the dog barking. Chantif, you're out like a rock.

FYI, Det, putting your armor on will take 2 minutes with help and 1 minute if you don it hastily (no benefit for donning hastily with help). Umash, you wear light armor, so you can already have yours on. It's also worth noting that it's still almost two hours before dawn and Det is the only one with darkvision, so y'all need to get a light source ready.

If you're okay with it, then sure, let's say Rhona sleeps in her Studded Leather Pajamas. No footies, that would just be silly. I should be at 19 AC in that case.

Also, how far away is the guard dog? If Rhona can see it, she'll want to take note of what direction the dog is barking in.

Rhona looks at Drexel. "Got any good magic methods of producing light? I've got sunrods and torches, but I want to keep my hands free." With this, she draws her sword and picks up her shield, and begins cautiously approaching the yapping dog. She keeps her shield raised.

"What's going on?", Umash's hand wanders instinctively to the flachion next to her bedroll as she starts to rise up, while the other grabs her belt. As she sees Rhona apporaching the dog she dons the belt hastily and catches up "Hold on, no reason to go investigating alone."

"Thanks," Rhona says, nodding to Umash. "I could use your eyes. I get the feeling we'll be needing 'em in a minute here." Glancing over her shoulder, she says to Drexel, "Is Chantif still sleeping? Wake him up. We need everybody in fighting condition if those kobolds are back."

I assume Detskiye will be joining us?

I move over to wake Chantif. Shaking him once I get to him. "Hey, trouble."

Chantif's eyes blink open. Eh? Oh, aye. He quietly rolls out of his bedroll and picks up his gear, then cocks his ear and tries to hear what the dog was barking about.

Take 10 on Stealth for 16, take 10 on Perception for 15.

Wouldn't the dog be pretty near Drexel and the tent?

"You should probably know, I don't have the ability to see in darkness, that other half-orcs do. But,", she draws a rod from her belt. "I still know my alchemy.", she strikes the sunrod against the ground and it lights up.

Chantif can't tell what's bothering the dog.

Yep, he's just outside the tent to the south, but he rolled a natural 20 on his Perception check, and y'all didn't--not to mention that he has low-light vision.

Yeah, I was addressing all the "approaching the dog" business. He's already right next to us. Seems we should be trying to figure out which direction he is barking in.

"Wow. Well, shows what I know- I just figured you could see in the dark, too." When the sunrod lights up, Rhona grins. "Nonetheless, glad to have you along."

Approaching the dog cautiously.