[PFS2] 2-14 Lost in Flames (GM Watery Soup) (Inactive)

Game Master Watery Soup

The young kellid scholar settles for a solid, stable and unadventurous beast of burden. With solid, padded, and unadventurous saddle. The stirrups are strong, well made, and perhaps a little on the "new" side, but overall give an impression of workmanship without being flashy. Especially without being flashy.

"Okay... Penelope..." says Teja, naming her own pony.
"Time to see how we are going to get along together."

Gritting her teeth, she carefully mounts up. Carefully.

nature: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

"Well, that went well. Okay, Penelope, we have a plan. Provided by the wonderful planner... Zabu. Lets hope we are not all about to die."

Heading the opposite direction of the stables, Fumbus looks for a run down building on the edge of the encampment. Glancing about, he finds what he is looking for- a lone goblin on lookout duty.

Greenskin always watch longshanks. I know one is here!

He calls out to Goblin "I have shiny. Need goblin dog. You bring dog, I give shiny. Hurry, else I make you burn!" The creature disappears into the woods and returns about 10 minutes later- a giant flaky, dandruff laden, rat ROUS. He tosses 4 coins to the creature, who quickly disappears back into the woods.

Hoping on the creature, he rides back into the encampment to join his fellow pathfinders.

Meet Licemaster. Finest dog in all of Findar! Ready to go now"

And he rides off, signing to himself.
"Licemaster comes and treks beside
Pathfinders near and wide
Better than stupid pony or horse
Cause it would eat them, of course of course!"

Hopper looks at Wolfie as he observes the new ponies, cart, and the Licemaster.

Hopper pats his wolf on his neck as he makes sure that all of his belongings are stuffed in the saddlebags or his backpack.

The group is able to move southeast. Three days elapse; the group has foraged enough food to supply themselves for 2.5 days.

Days elapsed: 3
Food remaining: 39.5

Gonna post this in case I get disconnected.

As the group walks by the river, Dr. Lazarus notices some deep gouges on several nearby trees. Zabu immediately identifies them as owlbear claws.

As the Pathfinders make their way up to a river crossing, Dr. Lazarus spots the owlbears.

Entering Encounter Mode, See Slide 6. You can begin anywhere in the yellow box.

Round 1!

Dr. Lazarus
Red Owlbear
Blue Owlbear
Hopper
Zabu
Fumbus
Jayma
Teja

Since speaking need no action ;)

Hopper on wolfie go around the tree and Hopper looks at the marks.

"Owlbear can grab you and try to rip your guts out with their beak. Both slowing and sickening you. This is one of the things that I read in the books that I hope to not experience myself."

Feel free to open the Hopper spoiler if the above was not enough.

Hopper looks around still not seeing the foe yet...

Apologies for the long post. Lots of Investigator stuff. I'll omit most of the details on future attacks, but Investigator features/feats are new to most ppl, so I'm spelling it out this first time.

Dr. Lazarus is enjoying the ride through the forest. Until he sees the claw marks on the trees. He is pleasantly surprised at Zabu's knowledge, but concerned that they belong to Owlbears. "Most impressive, my dear boy. I do believe you're right."

Lazarus Pursues a Lead on the owlbears.

He calls out, "I suggest we all have weapons drawn as they are quite dangerous." He readies his throwing hammer.

When he approaches the edge of the river, the Doctor spots two of the beasts in the distance. He immediately hops down off his cart. He surveys the situation and quickly devises an attack strategy with Devise a Stratagem.
Devise a Stratagem: 1d20 ⇒ 19 (Roll is used for subsequent attack roll.)

With Known Weaknesses, the Doctor studies the beast to gain any further information.
This is a free Recall Knowledge action, included with Devise a Strategem. Nature +10. On crit-success, the investigator and all allies get a +1 circumstance bonus on their next attack roll.

The investigator deduces that he has a clean shot at the large owlbear, even from this range. Gripping his throwing hammer, he hurls it twice at the nearest blue enemy.
-2 penalty for 2nd range increment with the throwing hammer

+1 Striking Returning Grabthar's Hammer (w/ Stratagem): (19) + 14 -2 = 31
Damage + 2d6 Strategic Strike: 2d6 + 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (3, 1) + (3, 1) + 3 = 11
+1 Striking Returning Grabthar's Hammer 2nd attack: 1d20 + 12 - 4 - 2 ⇒ (15) + 12 - 4 - 2 = 21
Damage: 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (6, 4) + 3 = 13

With his hammer safely returned from the second attempt, Lazarus readies himself as best he can.

Actions: Interact (hop down off cart or draw weapon if we couldn't have them ready), Devise a Stratagem (free action when Pursuing a Lead), Strike, Strike.

Dr. Lazarus sends a devastating hammer at the first owlbear crit! - and then a second less devastating strike.

The owlbear with blue eyes screeches with terror and charges, as does the owlbear with red eyes. Everyone needs to make two DC 20 Will saves.

Round 1!

Dr. Lazarus (Will save, Will save)
Red Owlbear
Blue Owlbear (-35 hp)
Hopper (Will save, Will save)
Zabu (Will save, Will save)
Fumbus (Will save, Will save)
Jayma (Will save, Will save)
Teja (Will save, Will save)

will#1: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24
will#2: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

Teja quakes a little at the fearsome noise that comes from the mighty owlbears. Frozen in place for a moment, Teja quickly dismounts and ties up Penelope, not wanting her to run away.

Finally she considers what she knows about the horrid things.

action1: dismount; action 2: interact (tie up pony); action 3: recall knowledge;

Expecting danger Hopper would have Quicksilver Mutagen in his hand

Will save, DC20: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
Will save, DC20: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22 So Frightened 2

Hopper is terrified by the creatures, they look big and ugly. Finally he wakes to action hearing the growl of the Wolfie.

Hopper drinks the mutagen, black and silver liquid flows down his throat. He drops the bottle and leans forwards on the saddle. Soon he begins to yell in pain as his hands and feet grow longer. His fingers are stretching at odd angles.
Drinking Quicksilver mutagen getting -8 HP.

His eyes look at the problem at hand

"I think I have a bottle to solve that problem"

He takes out a bomb that he made earlier and throws it at the Owlbear

Throw blight bomb@red, quicksilver, frightened 2: 1d20 + 9 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (13) + 9 + 2 - 2 = 22
Damage, blight bomb, poison: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 4) = 8 +2 splash poison damage to both red and blue if hit. +2d4 persistent poison damage if hit

Then Hopper urges Wolfie to run towards the river and make a jump

So:
1st: Drink Moderate Quicksilver Mutagen
2nd: Quickbomber and throw Blight Bomb(moderate) @ red
3rd: Command animal (move and leap), Wolfie has a speed of 40 ft which means that he can leap up to 15 ft Leap please let me know if I can do that move (marked on the map with dotted line).

"Oh good! I was beginning to think this trip was going to be boring. Watch out for their scr..." Zabu's warning is interrupted by the very thing he was going to warn everyone about.

Will: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

Will: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

He has to admit, the sound even gets to him...oh no, wait...no he doesn't. He just has to cut up the things that made the sounds.

Zabu's face and hands transform, the former becoming a muzzle featuring canine teeth that protrude from his lips and extend to below his jaw, the latter growing fierce claws.

He starts with a swipe at the nearest beast's stubby little legs to knock it down then follows up with a swipe of his claws.

Athletics (Trip) minus Frightened: 1d20 + 10 - 1 ⇒ (18) + 10 - 1 = 27

Claw minus MAP minus Frightened: 1d20 + 9 - 5 - 1 ⇒ (1) + 9 - 5 - 1 = 4
Slashing: 1d6 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 3 + 1 = 6

Actions: 1 Rage, 2 Trip, 3 Strike (Claw)

If the trip is a crit the owlbear takes 1d6 Bludgeoning Damage.

Before Jayma really knows what's going on, two of the most bloodcurdling screeches she's ever heard make her jump in her saddle in fright.

Will Save vs DC 20: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24
Will Save vs DC 20: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (7) + 9 = 16

Frightened 2 it is.

"What in the name of The Many was that?" But despite a momentary feeling of panic, the frisson of the scare excites her and she cranes her neck to see what made the awful sound. She places a calming hand on the shivering Princess. "There there, Princess. Everything's fine. I won't let them hurt you." She's come to appreciate the extra height that riding Princess provides her and finally manages to spot the creatures at the river. "Ah, so that's what an owlbear looks like. I see now why it's named that."

She watches as the others fly into action and prepares her own response to the attack. Standing up in her stirrups, Jayma tightens her grip on the reins; points to the nearest (red) owlbear to get its attention; and gives it the kind of stare that would freeze a river of molten lava in its tracks. "These two messed with the wrong gnome."

Action 1: Demoralize vs Red Owlbear

Intimidation (Demoralize) & Frightened 2: 1d20 + 10 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 10 - 2 = 16

Note: Jayma has the Intimidating Glare Feat, so doesn't need to speak to Demoralize and thus doesn't take a -4 penalty for not using their language. An icy glare is all that's required.

She then proceeds to move her arms in a complicated swirling motion, increasing the tempo until her hands are practically blurring. A section of the river rises slowly into the air and forms into a large wave. She then shouts out, "outburst ousts owlbear," and thrusts her hands in the direction of the creature.

Instantaneously, the wave travels along the river (from NW to SW) and smashes into the (red) owlbear.

Actions 2 & 3: Cast a Spell: Hydraulic Push (heightened to 2nd Level) vs Red Owlbear

Hydraulic Push (L2) Attack & Frightened 2: 1d20 + 10 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 10 - 2 = 28
Hydraulic Push (L2) Damage: 5d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 6, 6, 2) = 26 bludgeoning damage vs Red Owlbear

Yay! A crit. Target takes an extra 3d6 and is knocked back 10 feet.

Hydraulic Push (L2) Crit Damage: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 3) = 8 bludgeoning damage vs Red Owlbear

Seeing the wave knock the owlbear off the bridge and into the water, Jayma's fear seems to subside slightly. "They're not all that tough after all."

Ends turn at Frightened 1.

Twyl had draped himself across his mistress's shoulders and was snoozing pleasantly when suddenly an unholy screech from the depths of hell causes him to practically jump out of his skin.

Will Save vs DC 20: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15
Will Save vs DC 20: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

Frightened 2 it is.

He feels his mistress jump too, which terrifies him even more. Normally nothing scared his mistress, so this must be something truly horrific. Without thinking twice, Twyl dives into her backpack and finds a nice dark corner to hide in. He was sure that his mistress would take care of everything in her usual noisy way.

Ends turn at Frightened 1.

Fresh air. The great outdoors. A good saddle. A beautiful mistress; and light too; she's oh so light. It's like she's not even there sometimes. Lots of yummy grass and trees and berries to eat. None of that stale straw the feeding man used to give me. I'm so happy. Soooo happy.

Oh my. What was that sound? That's not a good sound. I don't like that sound at all. I think I'll leave now to avoid the sound; to avoid whatever made the sound.

Will Save vs DC 20: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Will Save vs DC 20: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

Ooo. so close. Frightened 2 it is.

My mistress is ok. She says everything's fine. She's patting me. I like it when she pats me. I won't run. Everything will be ok. My mistress will take care of me. I hope. I mean, of course. Of course she will.

"Neigh!"

Ends turn at Frightened 1.

Will #1, DC20: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Will #2, DC20: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

Frightened, 2

The screams pierce Fumbus' ears, and his hands instinctually reach up to cover them. "Bad sound! Go away. Out of my head. La de da de da". However, despite his best efforts, the eery sound embeds itself in his mind.

From the back of his Goblin dog mount, Fumbus pulls two small vials of a swirling red liquid. "Eat this! Fire on fur! Fire on Fur! HAHAHA"

Alchemist Fire, Moderate: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9 Fire: 2d8 ⇒ (6, 3) = 9 plus 2 persistent fire

Alchemist Fire, Moderate: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10 Fire: 2d8 ⇒ (6, 6) = 12 plus 2 persistent fire

He lobs each at the back corner of the red owlbear.
Splash should hit both targets. Critical Miss: Nothing. Miss: 2 fire, splash

Even though Lazarus isn't bolded above, I figure it's okay to post since everyone else has gone.

Will DC 20: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (9) + 12 = 21
Will DC 20: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
Frightened 1, I believe

Hearing the piercing shriek, Dr. Lazarus covers his ears and calls out to the barbarian, "Zabu, my dear boy, you warned us, but you didn't do it justice." The Doctor thinks he covered his ears just quick enough to avoid the worst of it.

As before, Lazarus studies the battlefield and, specifically, his nearest blue opponent to determine the best attack strategy.

Devise a Stratagem: 1d20 ⇒ 6 (Roll is used for subsequent attack roll.)

Not seeing any opening in its defenses, Dr. Lazarus concludes he'd be best served by backing away and preparing a new plan. He moves back, out of the beasts' immediate range, stows his hammer, and draws his elven curve blade.

Actions: Devise Stratagem (free), Stride, Interact (stow weapon), Interact (draw weapon).
No longer Frightened after this turn.

Teja doesn't Recall anything about the owlbears. She ties up her horse.

Hopper drinks some silvery liquid. He tosses a bomb at Red, which explodes with a green goo all over Red and a little bit on Blue. Then Wolfie and Hopper jump across the river.

Zabu trips the owlbear, but can't claw it. Zabu, you were Frightened 2 during your turn (it goes to Frightened 1 at the end of your turn), so the Trip was a 26 and the claw was ... still a nat 1. :)

Jayma tries to threaten the owlbear with a scowl, but it is unimpressed. It was merely a diversion, though, as a wall of water smashes it from its blind side.

Won't track Princess the Pony - she will just run off and you can catch her later.

Fumbus tries to throw at Red, but Jayma's blast throws off his timing. A few dribbles hit Red, though. As a bomber, Fumbus has the option of containing his splash to just the target. Fumbus can allow splash, but unlike PF1, the splash can't be directed - Zabu would have taken the splash as well.

Dr. Lazarus thinks for a bit, and then switches weapons.

---

The red owlbear stands up in the river, and then lashes out at Hopper with a talon.

Talon: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18
Piercing: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 plus Grab

Unable to grab the alchemist, it pecks.

Beak, MAP: 1d20 + 14 - 5 ⇒ (18) + 14 - 5 = 27
Piercing: 1d12 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

It gouges Hopper good. But it continues burning from the poison.

Persistent Poison: 2d4 ⇒ (2, 3) = 5
Flat Check: 1d20 ⇒ 5

Blue hops across the river and lands next to Zabu.

Athletics, DC 10: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30

It sticks the landing and attacks.

Talon: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16
Piercing: 1d10 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11 plus Grab

Beak, MAP: 1d20 + 14 - 5 ⇒ (4) + 14 - 5 = 13
Piercing: 1d12 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17

Round 2/3!

Dr. Lazarus
Red Owlbear (-53 hp, 2d4 persistent poison)
Blue Owlbear (-37 hp)
Hopper (-21 hp, -8 max hp, Frightened 1)
Zabu (Frightened 1)
Fumbus (Frightened 1)
Jayma (Frightened 1) / Twyl (Frightened 1)
Teja

Teja draws her rapier and dagger, advancing through the woods toward the horrid owlbear.
stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (15) + 9 = 24

"You think you scare me?! You should be the ones who are scared! I'm going to turn you into rugs!" Zabu shouts.

He glares and, by sheer force of will, forces himself to stop being scared.

Then, he gives the blue eyed one some of what the first one got, going for the legs to unbalance it then swiping with his claws.

Athletics (Trip): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25

Claw minus MAP: 1d20 + 9 - 5 ⇒ (19) + 9 - 5 = 23
Slashing plus Rage: 1d6 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 3 + 1 = 5

Actions- 1: Shake It Off, 2: Trip, 3: Strike (Claw)

The battlefield is chaotic, but Dr. Lazarus is thankful that the screeching has stopped and he's able to survey the situation strategically. When he hears Zabu shouting about a rug, the Doctor calls over, "An excellent idea, my boy. I could use a small throw rug back in my office at the University." With the nearest owlbear focused on grabbing the barbarian, Lazarus looks for an opening with his blade.

Devise a Stratagem: 1d20 ⇒ 13 (Roll is used for subsequent attack roll.)

Seeing a way through the blue owlbear's defenses, Lazarus steps forward and slices into the beast, twice in graceful succession, with his elven curve blade.

+1 Striking Elven Curve Blade (w/ Stratagem): (13) + 14 = 27
Damage + Strategic Strike: 2d8 + 2d6 + 3 ⇒ (2, 1) + (1, 1) + 3 = 8
well, damn, three 1's and a 2 ??? sigh...
+1 Striking Elven Curve Blade 2nd attack: 1d20 + 13 - 5 ⇒ (16) + 13 - 5 = 24
Damage + Forceful: 2d8 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (5, 6) + 3 + 2 = 16

Actions: Devise (free), Stride, Strike, Strike

Jayma was usually a fire and explosions sort of girl, but as they'd been warned against igniting any of the local conifers, she'd sadly decided to stick to using the less flammable elements if at all possible. The success of her river wave had been very exciting stuff to watch; seeing the owlbear get battered and pushed around like that was most satisfying; she saw no reason to let up.

Jayma was a little irritated that the first (red) owlbear had totally ignored her patented Stare-of-Death™. So turning to the other (blue) owlbear, she yips to get its attention and once again tries the stare; this time she simultaneously lifts her open hand where the creature can see it and snaps it closed it into a fist as if she were crushing an egg. "Try ignoring that, big boy!"

Action 1: Demoralize vs Blue Owlbear

Intimidation (Demoralize) & Frightened 1: 1d20 + 10 - 1 ⇒ (6) + 10 - 1 = 15

But her efforts seem to have no effect on the other (blue) owlbear either. Jayma pouts prettily at her failure. "Stupid owlbears!". Recovering quickly, she turns back to the first (red) owlbear and says, "Fine! Let's see you ignore this!"

As before, she starts moving her arms and hands in a steadily quickening sequence of swirling motions. This time, a different section of the river slowly rises into the air and forms into a large wave. Shouting out, "birdy bear be bathed," she points her staff at the creature. Instantaneously, the wave races along the river (from W to E) and smashes into the (red) owlbear.

Actions 2 & 3: Cast a Spell: Hydraulic Push (heightened to 2nd Level) vs Red Owlbear

Hydraulic Push (L2) Attack & Frightened 1: 1d20 + 10 - 1 ⇒ (17) + 10 - 1 = 26
Hydraulic Push (L2) Damage: 5d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 2, 6, 6) = 23 bludgeoning damage vs Red Owlbear

Assuming it isn't a crit, the target is only knocked back 5 feet.

Watching the owlbear once again get smacked and tossed about by her spell, the last of her fear vanishes. "That'll teach them not to frighten my Princess." She pats her pony again to keep it calm.

Frightened condition removed.

"Gah! Owlbear no burn! Why no burn Mr Bear? Try again! Try again!"

Staying put, the goblin finds and releases another of the red vials at the owlbear.

Frightened 1

Mod A.F.: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12 Fire!: 2d8 ⇒ (2, 2) = 4

"Licemaster mess with throw! Cannot hit bear with Licemaster!" as he jumps off the sorry creature.

No third action

Optional exta, given discussion
Having slipped through the woods, Teja the proceeds to attempt to slip her rapier into the side of the owlbear.

attack, FF: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17
P damage?: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5
sneak damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1

But the horrid creatures tough hide makes the scholar's blade turn aside.

Hopper would yell in pain after being hit by the owlbear. His face shows surprise

"What? How did you get here? Did you jumped after us?" clearly this goblin hasn't seen the beast being smacked by the water.

Feint, frightened 1: 1d20 + 7 - 1 ⇒ (4) + 7 - 1 = 10 Hopper feints an attack hoping to grab some of the attention while with the other hand he reaches for alchemist fire and throws it at closer range.

Alchemists fire@red, quicksilver mutagen, frightened1: 1d20 + 9 + 2 - 1 ⇒ (2) + 9 + 2 - 1 = 12
Damage, fire, burn it!: 2d8 + 1 ⇒ (1, 3) + 1 = 5 +2 splash damage restricted to target, +3 persistent fire damage if hit (due to burn it!)

Feint, attack, command animal (Wolfie attack + move)

Wolfie knows what to do, with ears lying on his head he shows his teeth and growls. Then when the goblin is done with his shenanigans Wolfie tries to bite the hideus Owlbear

Jaws@red, MAP, frightened 1: 1d20 + 10 - 5 - 1 ⇒ (19) + 10 - 5 - 1 = 23
Damage, piercing: 2d8 + 3 ⇒ (2, 6) + 3 = 11

And then Wolfie turns around and rides off south. Following the hit and run technique that Hopper was practicing so often.

40 ft move: 2 square difficult terrain and 4 squares of road.

Zabu trips the owlbear in front of him, and then brings down a claw.

Dr. Lazarus steps up and slashes the owlbear twice.

Jayma sends another wave into Red, plunging it beneath the waves. It does not resurface.

Fumbus throws a vial at redirecting Blue. It splashes nearby, singing its fur.

Teja slips through the woods and attacks, but misses.

Hopper tries to feint but can't grab its attention. It dodges the vial, but the splash catches it from behind, and the owlbear collapses.

End of combat!

Dr. Lazarus
Red Owlbear (-79 hp)
Blue Owlbear (-70 hp)
Hopper (-21 hp, -8 max hp)
Zabu
Fumbus
Jayma / Twyl
Teja

Let me know if you'd like to alter your route, otherwise, you can rest for the night and move on the next day.

Just as Dr. Lazarus is preparing to defend the owlbear's attack, the alchemist bombs finish off the beast. Lazarus cleans off his blade and sheathes it. He says, "Well done. Well done. Good show." Seeing Jayma back at the path, "And you, my dear lady ... your water attacks were most effective." He continues looking around for his halfling driver and calls out, "Chauncey? Where did you run off to? It's safe now. Oh do come out, won't you? And bring the cart. That's a good lad. Thank you."

He looks around, "Is everyone okay? Does anyone require healing?" When he sees Hopper, he raises an eyebrow, "My dear boy, allow me to have a look." As he's about to treat him, the Doctor says, "Wait ... you took one of those Quicksilver potions, didn't you? Yes, yes, I can tell from your elongated bones." When Hopper explains it was the Moderate version, Lazarus nods, "With your permission, I'll treat what I can now, and then in 10mins, I'll complete the process."

Taking 10mins now...(Assurance => 19)
Treat Wounds: 2d8 ⇒ (3, 7) = 10

10min later, when the mutagen wears off...(Assurance => 19)
Battle Medicine: 2d8 + 5 ⇒ (7, 5) + 5 = 17 (Forensics Investigator +5)

In 10 mins, with Hopper at full strength, Lazarus helps search the area, especially the bodies of the beasts. He turns to the barbarian, "Zabu, my boy, were you serious about those rugs?" Very much wanting an owlbear throw rug for his office, Lazarus will help Zabu cut out some pelts.

@GM: If this requires a Survival or Crafting check, let me know. To be clear, this is of course just for flavor, so maybe an actual check isn't necessary.

Teja sighs, examining the dead beast in front of her.
"Sorry, never really liked face to face combat. Battle with books is another thing entirely."

She shakes her head as she works her way around the dead body. "Rumour tells of these being created by a mad wizard. But really, from that I have heard of the mystic arts, being made would not be helpful to ones studies."

Hopper rides back to the party from around the corner. He feels the burn on his back

"Well one more experience that the books can describe vividly enough. Why did this monster jump after us into the river, I did not expect that."

His movement feels different, Hopper body and face look different. When doctor offers the aid he nods and stands on the ground.

He looks at Wolfie and nods

"You did well there Wolfie, come let me take out some of the fur from your teeth."

"Doctor, in thanks for your aid I have a poison that would work well with the elven blade that you carry."

Turning to the scholar

"Teja, can I spice up your weapon too?"

Hopper makes 2 batches of Cytilesh Oil that he can apply every day on Lazarus weapon. It stays on the blade for the day, until he hurts someone or critically misses with the sword. I would offer one to Zabu, but given that he uses claws I don't know how it would work ;) Eating would be troublesome to say the least.

Teja eyes up the oil.

"I take it, I really don't want that on my hands. Still, if we are facing more of those creatures out here, any help might be the difference between living and becoming food."

She offers her rapier to Hopper. "That would be most welcome. Thank you"

Before he reverts back to his ordinary form, Zabu picks up the arm of one of the owlbears. He sticks it's toe into his mouth and there comes from within the sound of cracking and crunching while the gnome moves his head from side to side in a gnawing motion.

Finally, he drops the arm then spits out a shiny black object. He holds it up for all to see with a bloody grin. "Owlbear Claw," he says before tying it to the handwraps that he wears. Handwraps that are so covered in both old and new blood that it is hard to see the runes on them.

Only then does he nod to the doctor's question. "It'd be a waste to just leave them, wouldn't it?"

Jayma is elated when her second wave washes the owlbear from the field of battle. She claps excitedly for a moment and yells, "Woo-hoo!" After the euphoria dies down, her mood turns a little sad. She was generally fond of animals and didn't enjoy seeing them getting hurt, but in the grand scheme of things, when it came down to a choice between them or her, it was they that had to make way.

She urges Princess on and after reaching the edge of the river, climbs down from her mount and joins the others. When Lazarus compliments her spells, Jayma replies, "Why thank you doctor, it was my pleasure. I noticed that you didn't do so badly there yourself. You have no idea the comfort I feel knowing that I have you and Zabu for my capable defenders." She glances at Zabu and noticing him chewing on the owlbear's foot, scrunches her nose in distaste. "Really, Mr Creed? Hasn't the poor creature suffered enough already?"

Now that the danger has passed, Princess seems far more relaxed. While Lazarus treats the wounded, Jayma takes a little time to commune with her more plant and animal learned ancestors. And though Princess seems to have a pretty good sense for such things already, they help her identify the safer and tastier plants for her pony to munch on. Twyl also comes out of hiding once all the noise has died down and returns to his post on Princess's back. On this excursion, he'd taken to riding on Princess's withers or rump and using his little hands to scratch itches and keep the flies off her; activities which she apparently appreciated.

When he finishes patching up Hopper's wounds, Dr. Lazarus nods to the goblin. "Interesting. Cytillesh Oil, hmm? I've read about this..." He looks pointedly to Zabu, adding "...in a book." Turning back to Hopper, "Yes, yes, thank you, my boy. This will give us a much-needed edge. Shall we apply it in the morning then?"

Is it true we're stopping to rest for the night before continuing? Same route seems fine with me.

I revised our planned path, since I think we were going to follow the river. I put what I guess to be the path of the river on the map but if it takes a turn, I vote that we continue to follow the river until we find the camp rather than the path I put on the map.

I revised our planned path, since I think we were going to follow the river. I put what I guess to be the path of the river on the map but if it takes a turn, I vote that we continue to follow the river until we find the camp rather than the path I put on the map.

As absolutely amazing as this new plan is, perhaps it might be best to be a little more systematic about covering the hexes. If we are going to end up visiting every one of these hexes, then it would behoove us to do it in such a way that we are not forced to go through a particular hex more then once. The new plan it seems would likely put us in a situation where we will be forced to backtrack over one or more previously explored hexes, an unnecessary expenditure of a half-day for each such hex.

My inclination would be to stick with the original plan and work through the hexes in such a way that we end up back at base camp without going through a hex more than once. I've dropped a small version of the type of path I'm talking about on the map planning slide.

Please note that I am not married to such an approach and will happily go with whichever plan the majority decides upon.

I'm really hoping we don't have to go through every hex on the map and that we'll find clues along the way that take us to what's important. But, if we are planning to hit every hex, Jayma's plan looks good to me.

I will take that as an agreement to stick with the original path / Jayma's route.

The Pathfinders come across a clearing near the banks of the river that shows signs of recent habitation. A cold fire pit stands near the remnants of a lean-to, in the lee of a large boulder. A wide, flat stone, several meters across, stands knee-high in the center of the clearing. Scorch marks mar the stone, and a large circle circumscribed around a triangle with strange markings at each point cover its surface.

See Slide 9.

As soon as the Pathfinders approach ...

With a blinding flash and a crack like thunder, the stone bursts into flames. A single black point appears within the smoke, growing quickly into the form of a hooded figure. The figure silently screams, then breaks apart into two shadowy figures, fiercely attack each other before their forms once again merge, leaving only a single hooded figure, featureless but for a single glowing red eye. The burning red light cuts through the smoke, growing in intensity until it is unbearably bright before both the figure and the flames suddenly disappear.

When the group reaches the clearing, Dr. Lazarus turns to his driver, "Chauncey, my lad, let's stop here. This could be the strange campsite that Gorm mentioned. " Lazarus hops down to investigate the odd-shaped stone. "I say ... isn't this curious?" Immediately after the fireworks, he rummages through his pack.

Arcana DC 20: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24
Society DC 18: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (2) + 11 = 13

"Ah, yes, yes. Here it is!" Lazarus holds up a tome, Secrets of the Abyss: The Untold Story, and flips to find what he's looking for. He points to pictures of similar symbols and explains, "These markings represent an ancient demonic ritual to channel abyssal energy in this region." He continues reading and adds, "Yes, this is likely one of the ritual sites that we were sent to disable." After reading a bit more, he frowns, "Unfortunately, this has no information about disrupting such rituals." He offers the book to anyone who wishes to study it.

When Zabu grabs it, presumably to look at the pictures, Lazarus shakes his head and flips the book right-side-up for the barbarian.

Teja eyes up the symbols
occultism: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26
society: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30

She nods to the doctor. "I agree. I'm sure I can still feel the foul energies from whatever happened here. Look..."

She points to the eastern symbol "That represents flowing water, and that one..." she points south "Flame" Finally pointing to the northern symbol she adds "Pyramid... stepped pyramid such as Min-Khadaim."

As the figures appear, split, fight, merge and vanish she looks on in ashtonishment.

"Now that you don't see every day."

Hopper rides closer to Wolfie catching a glimpse from the book held by Lazarus. He remembers scanning through it, given the amount of information that Hopper had to learn in the short amount of time that he had, he could not allow himself to read every book.

He rides around the place

"Ok, I do remember hearing on the briefing that we were supposed to disable the sites. Anyone have any idea how to do it?"

As they observe the spectacle of shadowy figures Hopper looks at it saying nothing...

We could do the 5th element here, and put some elements on the symbols: water, fire, etc. But what should we throw at the Pyramid? And also if I recall the movie it activated the thing and not disabled it :D

Jayma sees the clearing and the signs of habitation and says, "Presumably this is the strange campsite that Eando mentioned in his mission preparative. Looks like someone was here not all that long ago."

After the interesting display from the stone, Jayma sits there a little stunned before saying, "Well, that was certainly um... I think interesting is the word I'm looking for here. I wonder what it all means."

Arcana: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25
Society: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26

When Lazarus gives his studied opinion of the situation, Jayma responds in a rather pompous voice that is uncannily similar to the way Lazarus speaks. "Indeed, doctor, I concur with your studied opinion on the matter. And Teja does indeed appear to have properly evaluated the meanings of these strange symbolic markings."

Finding it tiresome to continue her impression of Lazarus, she switches back to her usual voice. "My guess is that these three symbols may well represent three of the ritual sites that Gorm and Eando mentioned are powering the demonic ritual. Or maybe the stepped pyramid symbol refers to the pyramid at Min-Khadaim - the possible focal point of the ritual - and the other two refer to the abyssal batteries in the region. Doubtless time will tell."

She listens to the others discuss how to disable the sites, and emits a small tinkly laugh in response. "I suspect that disabling the ritual sites will require using the timeworn method of hitting them hard and repeatedly until they stop working. This approach has generally worked well for me in the past."

"Well...THAT probably meant something. What it means to me is that I don't want to step into that circle. If those guys were flesh and blood, no problem, but ghosts are just annoying."

Zabu does not protest when the book is snatched away from him. There weren't even any good pictures in it.

"Aren't I the one whose supposed to just suggest we smash it?" he asks when that's the best solution the others can come up with in short time.

"So...maybe the symbols are the sites, right? We're at flowing water. If we go one way, we'll find something associated with flame. If we go another, we'll find a pyramid. And when we get to them, there'll be more sites like this that we can deal with.

"We'll have you home before you need a new manicure," he says to Jayma.

To be clear, the markings are magically inert - you can smash the stone if you wish, but there's no magic flowing through this site right now.

Continue discussing and let me know if you'd like to do anything at this site, or change your route, or move on, or anything.

---

Three small pots of bruorsivi resin sit on the ground beside the stone in the center of the clearing along with some mostly decayed food preserves that include a rotted cabbage.

When Zabu mentions her manicure, Jayma can't help but take a quick glance at her fingers just to make sure. Then, without any mirth whatsoever, she says, "Oh, ha ha. Very funny Mr Creed." Turning away from Zabu, she surreptitiously takes a closer look at her fingernails to make sure her manicure is indeed still intact. "Phew."

Completely oblivious to the fact that Jayma is mocking him, Dr. Lazarus nods to the sorceress, quite impressed with her line of reasoning.

When he sees the bruorsivi resin, he's about to ignore it. But then he sees the goblins. He sighs, rolls his eyes, and reminds them, "Bruorsivi resin ... you recall from our briefing that it's highly flammable. Oh do be careful." He decides to stand a healthy distance away from the pots, just in case.

Lazarus approaches the flat stone and studies it further. He casts Detect Magic to make sure it's no longer radiating any magical auras. He suggests, "Since there's no magic radiating it from it now, perhaps we should leave it be." He rubs his chin and adds, "As our colleague Jayma surmised, this is likely a clue to find other ritual sites. Furthermore, if this is a map, perhaps a water-based ritual site is further east, while a fire-based site is to the south." The Doctor hops back into the cart next to Chauncey and is ready to continue with the original exploration plan.

crafting: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (2) + 9 = 11

Teja nods at the words of the doctor. "No sense in courting trouble. I hear the capital of Taldor is the place for that..".

She looks around the camp sight. "If the energies are tied to the place, mere physical destruction might not be enough to disrupt them. We might need a ritual of some type. " She points at the marking.

"Or at the very least.. to disrupt that pattern."

occultism for an idea about how to disrupt the battery?: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18

Crafting: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

"Everything is flammable doctor Lazarus. You know that saying: patient goblin can make a stone to burn. But these, oh these are practically bombs. How wonderful."

They count as 3 moderate alchemist fires (martial weapon), given that Hopper makes his own I am fine with someone else taking them.

Hopper jumps towards the pots and begins to secure them so that they can be used safely

"Oh, goodie, goodie, goodie!"

I don't think we need to do anything with this place. If there is not magic in it, it is as good as any other place.

Zabu takes one of the pots. He gives it a toss, letting it flip a couple times in the air before catching it and slotting it away. "You never know when you're going to run into a swarm of something," he comments.

"So, maybe this isn't really part of the ritual. Maybe it's a map of the ritual. If someone was here checking it out, that means they've already seen the map and are probably following it. We need to hustle to keep up with them. We're on a river so that's probably the flowing water symbol. We can keep following it down until we find...whatever it is we're looking for then take care of it and use it as a starting point to figure out where the other sites are."

Please let me know who ends up with the extra alchemist's fires.

---

The Pathfinders travel eastward for a few days, and the forest gives way to hills. Foraging becomes more difficult, but the Pathfinders are still reasonably successful in finding about half their food from foraging. Reaching the edge of their designated search territory, they turn south and then west.

Days elapsed: 13
Food remaining: 33

As the group begins exploring on Day 14, they find much of the terrain sodden and washed away where the water has overflowed its banks. The flooding already exacerbated by driving rain and gusts of wind, every few minutes the swollen river surges, the water suddenly rising and becoming more violent before retreating just as quickly. This behavior is clearly unnatural, suggesting the likely presence of a ritual site nearby.

The swollen river, overflowing its natural banks, rises several feet up an embankment. The swirling water rises and grows more violent with each surge before quickly subsiding. The source of this flooding is obvious, each pulse flowing out of a short monolith that rises from atop a stony plinth hewn from a large boulder. Wreathed in flames despite the driving rain and the water swirling around its base, glowing runes cover the monolith’s surface.

Please place yourselves in the yellow box on Slide 7.

Terrain note #1: The low areas on the map on either side of the stream are flooded to a depth of 3 feet. Treat these areas as bogs that function as difficult terrain for Medium or larger creatures and greater difficult terrain for Small creatures.

Terrain note #2: The plinth at the base of obelisk rises to just above the surface of the water, allowing the monolith to stand above the flood.

Terrain note #3: The embankment walls are muddy and slick, and climbing down from the embankment is simply a matter of a controlled slide to the water below (no Athletics check required). The slick, muddy embankment walls, however, make ascending difficult, requiring a successful DC 15 Athletics check to Climb.

"Well...I haven't read too many books and I'm not a scholar, but even I know THAT's one of the things we're looking for," Zabu says as they find the elemental lashed area.

Nature: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

He looks at the muddy banks then grins at Jayma. "Better get that cleaning spell loaded up."

Excellent point, Hopper. Given that ...

It's time for us to slot boons, yes? I only have 3 boons slotted, so I have room for a Hireling boon. It would seem that Lazarus would appreciate (and expect) a hireling to pilot a horse and cart for such a journey. I've never used Hirelings in PFS-2e. But with 50 reputation, he should be able to hire an Expert Hireling.

WaterySoup, let me know if that's okay. If so, he'll pay the going rate for a Cart (3gp), and a horse to pull it (would that be a pack horse vs. a riding horse)?

I considered getting him an actual covered Carriage to be pulled around in. But that is 100gp and requires 2 horses. Perhaps when he's on holiday, but he can't be spending all his mision earnings on transportation. After all, he needs some leftover for his brandy.

Once I get GM confirmation, I'll post in Gameplay.

---------------------------

Enough about me ... Zabu suggested a path. Is that based on the strange camp to the east? They said it's along a river. Is there anyway to know where rivers are on that hex map? If not, if our goal is to head east, that's a fine plan.

I would vote that, once we hit the river, we follow it south for a stretch. Otherwise, I think that is an appropriate start based on what we know.

I'm good with Zabu's plan. We head east until we find the river and the camp. Once we deal with them, we can see if the plan needs updating.

Sounds good to me. Head east and then follow the first river we find.

I also think Zabu is a genius and that we should follow his plan and head east until we find the river and/or camp.

I don't know about Zabu. He seems mean... Mean, mean, mean! But dang if he doesn't have a great plan. I think we should follow his great plan. We can't possibly go wrong by following his great plan. I'm so happy.

Twyl eyes the strange little fellow with the sharp teeth rather warily. He'd seen him hanging around his mistress a little to often for comfort. He looked dangerous and Twyl wasn't at all sure he could be trusted in mixed company.

But when it came to plans. Maaaan! He was a prodigy. Twyl couldn't see a flaw in it. He'd follow that plan right off the edge of the world it was so good.

How many votes for the plan is that now?

Thurston, you no longer need to slot boons. They are all slotted.

Starting season 2, there are just fewer boons. So ... yeah. Expert Hireling is great.

Sorry, the Internet is pretty bad here and I'm having difficulty loading the slides so I can't see the proposed path. I will try again tomorrow.

No worries @GM - the route is going theough the top line of hexes from left to right.

/\/\/\/\/\ - like that :D (heading north-east, heading south-east, north-east, SE, NE, SE - until the end of map)

A reminder that everyone starts with 1 Hero Point. Any extras (glyphs, coins, etc.)?

@GM: If we're dealing with possible crit fails on some of those Survival and Forest Lores, we don't all have to try them, right?

Regarding rations, did the Society provide rations for the pack mules, or are they expected to forage on their own (grass etc, should be plentiful in a forest). Mainly asking to make sure we don't need to consider extra rations for our mounts.

Speaking of which, the good Doctor would need to feed Chauncey, his new halfling driver. For the record, he purchased 5 weeks of rations (4sp/week=2gp) while he was in town.

For foraging, there is no downside to crit failures - the penalty for crit failure is a circumstance bonus, and it doesn't stack with the circumstance bonus for foraging after traveling.

For reconnoiter, there is no penalty for crit failure at all. Only one team member needs to succeed.

You do not need to consider food for mounts or hirelings. I don't have a rulebook citation - that's just the way it was ruled in my game. Or, if you prefer a more in-game reason, the Society provided food for 40 days, not 240 person-days. But mostly, unless it's really important to someone, I'm trying to keep the accounting straightforward, and it's easiest if we just stick to PCs.

Thanks for the info on rations!

2 quick things:

When Lazarus first sees the claw marks and Zabu identifies them as Owlbear, the Investigator would like to take a minute to Pursue a Lead on the Owlbears. Since the description indicated we later made our way to the river crossing, I'm guessing he had plenty of time to do this. Is that okay?

Also, since we're expecting owlbears, is it reasonable to assume we had weapons drawn?

Yes to both.

Regarding Lazarus' Nature check:

1) If it was a success, is there any more information you can provide that we haven't gotten already?

2) If it was a crit success, Lazarus points out weaknesses to the team so that everyone receives a +1 circumstance bonus on their 1st attack roll this turn.

Regarding the screeches, the Frightened conditions don't stack, do they? We just take the worse of the two results?

Lastly, looks like Lazarus is surrounded and possibly being attacked. There's a Lazarus spoiler, but it's not clear whether he was hit, whether he took damage, etc. Can you clarify when you get a chance?

In case it isn't clear which way Jayma was sending the Hydraulic Push against the Red Owlbear, I have placed an arrow indicating the direction of the wave in question.

Lazarus's check was a success but not crit success. The spoilers were their attacks - I don't have a whole lot more, these are pretty simple creatures. Forgive me, I forgot there was an investigator so I gave the special attacks to Zabu and Hopper for their Nature checks earlier.

Frightened does not stack, so correct, take the worse result only.

Teja -- You meant to do more than just Stealth right? Maybe your post got cut off?

In the first round, you spent an action tying your horse, but the GM said we didn't really need to worry about keeping track of our mounts (as far as actions). And he also said that once we saw the owlbears tracks, we would have weapons drawn. So I don't think you need to spend actions drawing them now. Maybe at least one was drawn?

I'm sure our GM would allow you at least 1 action if you wish to attack in the current round. Worth a shot since you're already in melee, right?

Sorry, been a busy weekend. Stealth (moving through forest to base-base contact with owlbear).

I missed that we didn't need to secure our horses or draw weapons, so I could have drawn a weapon last round and got an attack in this round. If the DM is happy with me having a weapon in hand/or not losing an action tying up Penelope then I'm happy to try and cut that owlbear.

Nice try, Teja.

Oof ... damage dice are killing us. Other than Jayma, for this round, the rest of us rolled 1s or 2s on 9 out of 12 total damage dice! Yikes! I know some didn't hit anyway, but those are some unfortunate rolls.

Figured I'd take the discussion here...

To make sure we all understand this hexploration map, can our benevolent GM give us any guidance? Would we know if it's important to cover every hex (Jayma's plan) or if it's sufficient to follow the river and make educated guesses along the way (Zabu's plan)?

If we're not sure, I guess we should plan for every hex so we don't miss plot advancements or treasure bundles.

Figured I'd take the discussion here...

Dang it! Sorry about that. I should have double-checked which thread I was on before posting what was clearly an OOC to gameplay. I hate it when that happens.

I was kind of assuming we were supposed to do the whole map. It has 40 hexes to explore, which "coincidently" is the number of days' provisions we were given. I'd hate to miss anything and have to tell Gorm that we didn't actually explore all the area we were given to explore.

I will only say this: I'm pretty benevolent, and wouldn't let you commit to any irreversible error without some sort of warning.

I'm not giving any warning. :)

Which route you take matters, but you're not in any danger above the baseline danger right now.

I think we were told to find the camp and it was somewhere in this area near the river. I suggest we start with the river and if we fail to find the rituals then ... expand our search.

We could do the 5th element here, and put some elements on the symbols: water, fire, etc. But what should we throw at the Pyramid? And also if I recall the movie it activated the thing and not disabled it :D

Haha. Excellent. I was thinking the same thing. Figured the pyramid represented 'earth'. We could try initiating a repeat performance, if anyone missed the first viewing. :)

Zabu Daggertooth multipass.

Away for a few days, back after the weekend. Please bot me as required.

I think I know the answer but since I've never run into greater difficult terrain before -

If I stride twice with 25' of movement, is that two 25's or 1 50?

If it's two 25's then I can only move 2 squares (5 + 10 = 15 leaving only 10 which is not enough for another square twice.)

If it's one 50 then I can move 3 squares (5 + 10 + 5 + 10 + 5 + 10 = 45 with 5 feet leftover.)

Background: Whenever I've been the player, it's always been ruled that each movement is separate action. I Stride, end Stride, then Stride. At the far extreme, there's a PFS scenario where a standard creature can get their speed halved on greater difficult terrain, meaning they can't move.

I think that ruling was mountain oysters, and in the GMG, GMs are specifically given the discretion to combine movements (I believe the example given was allowing a Stride and Leap to constitute 2 actions no matter where the Leap was within the Stride) so long as it was one fluid motion (e.g., Stride and Climb couldn't be combined). As the GM, I choose to allow Stride and Stride to be combined, unless someone can point me to a rule or ruling where this is specifically forbidden. Just understand other GMs clearly feel differently about it.

In the Grid Movement rules it says that: You track your total diagonal movement across all your movement during your turn, but reset your count at the end of your turn.

So if all your Strides in a turn count as one long movement when it comes to counting diagonals, it seems only reasonable that the difficult terrain calculation also apply to all your Strides in a turn as a whole.

BTW, a few posts up, it says Teja's puppeteer is out of town through the end of the weekend, and that Teja should be botted till then.

I believe we're waiting on Teja now.

If I might make a recommendation: perhaps have her delay until there's something for Teja to act upon. If not, have her use Stealth now to get her closer to the action.

I will bot Teja when Dr. Lazarus's actions are finalized. Unless there's an outcry, I won't delay - I think a combination of Seeking and Pointing Out will be more valuable since her Perception is good (relative to the group except Dr. Lazarus, hehe).

Now, where have I recently learned about Hydraulic Push and Grab? :D

Ha ha. I didn't know that bit of research would come in so handy, or so often.

BTW, your current damage count for the Red Otter (-11hp) doesn't seem to include the damage from Jayma's Hydraulic Push. Unless it does... and we're in a whole lot more trouble than I thought.

Ok, made the drawing of 30ft cone - which ends up being too short :( On my phone, I must have miscalculated squares :(

Sorry to press the point, GM Watery Soup, but I am still confused by the Red Otter's current damage total. Barring the last few unprocessed posts, the red otter appears to have taken the following damage:

Hopper: 11 +2d4 persistent
Jayma: 16 +5 ft of knock-back
Zabu: 8
Persistent Damage: 6 (recovery check made)

Which to me adds up to 41 hp of damage. Yet, the round counter has the red otter at:

Red Otter (-17 hp, grabber)

With nothing in the GM posts to suggest any resistances or anything that could explain the discrepancy. Jayma's targeting of her spells is based on how badly beaten up the creatures she's facing appear to be, so getting an accurate damage count is somewhat important to figuring out what she's going to do.

@Jayma - I think WaterySoup did not add Jayma's and Zabu's damage. As 17 is 11 (from the bomb) and 6 from persistent damage. So let us see what he writes. It might change the situation a bit if 41 damage takes the otter down.

Either way, I think we need to prepare differently for the upcoming days since we have no proper healer... And a lvl 3 barbarian, who usually are not famous for the safe, range plays ;)

I'll have to do an audit (later - I'm out of time right now), but it's very possible that I forgot to add some damage to the tracker.

You would be able to tell the otter does not have any resistances to any of the damage you've done so far (it may not have resistances at all, but you don't know that), so all the damage should add up face value. -17 feels low, -41 feels right, and -41 does not drop it.

Audit:

Hopper vs Red -11, -2d4 persistent <-- seems to have been included
Jayma vs Red -16, push 5' <-- damage omitted, but icon moved

Friday's post should have reflected Red -27 hp, 2d4 persistent poison, no grab; Blue undamaged

Fumbus vs Blue -2 <-- damage omitted
Fumbus vs Blue 0 (crit fail)

Sunday's post should have reflected Red -27 hp, 2d4 persistent poison, no grab; Blue -2

Lazarus
Zabu vs Blue -8 <-- damage omitted
Red -6 persistent, made flat check <-- included

Monday's post should have reflected Red -33 hp, no persistent, no grab; Blue -10

Jayma vs Blue -14
Fumbus vs Red -2
Fumbus vs Red -2
Hopper vs Blue -30, 3 persistent fire

Today's post (not yet composed) should reflect Red -37 hp, no persistent, no grab; Blue -54 hp, 3 persistent fire.

And a realization came to me, we have no healer. And I don't mean, no cleric. But no one with any heal spells. Ok, the next day I will change the type of potions that Hopper creates.

I wasn't sure whether to make a comment on this at the beginning of the scenario, and you guys ended up defeating the owlbears so quickly that I wasn't sure whether you all thought it was okay ... or nobody realized it.

On one hand, you don't really need a dedicated healer in 2E, and I've been part of a party that just had my alchemist's Battle Medicine as the sole in-combat healing. It was fine.

On the other hand, it is something to be aware of, and you guys may want to have a discussion about it after this fight.

You guys are doing fine, if you decide against making any changes, I'm not going to kibitz. :)

The Mad Hoppper wrote:

And a realization came to me, we have no healer. And I don't mean, no cleric. But no one with any heal spells. Ok, the next day I will change the type of potions that Hopper creates.

I wasn't sure whether to make a comment on this at the beginning of the scenario, and you guys ended up defeating the owlbears so quickly that I wasn't sure whether you all thought it was okay ... or nobody realized it.

On one hand, you don't really need a dedicated healer in 2E, and I've been part of a party that just had my alchemist's Battle Medicine as the sole in-combat healing. It was fine.

On the other hand, it is something to be aware of, and you guys may want to have a discussion about it after this fight.

You guys are doing fine, if you decide against making any changes, I'm not going to kibitz. :)

I can't be fated.

I didn't notice that either... otherwise I could have easily just brought a different pregen.

I can't immediately find the answer to this - a L2 Hydraulic Push crit does 8d6 (3d6 doubled, then plus 2d6) damage and not 10d6 (3d6 plus 2d6, then doubled)? The text says Heightened adds 2d6 to "the" damage (not the damages) so I would normally assume that's +2d6 to the base damage and +4d6 to the crit.

From reading the text, it doesn't follow the normal rules of doubling damage on a Crit. It's just saying that the damage goes up to 6d6 (which happens to be double the success level) and each Heightening adds 2d6 to the damage in general.

So 8d6 = 6d6 for the crit plus 2d6 for the Heightening.

That does seem to be RAW, but I'm questioning RAI.

If that's the way the spell works, the crit damage doesn't scale well. At L3, it's 7d6 damage on a success (still very good), and 10d6 on a crit (average). At L4, it's 9d6 on a success (still very good), and 12d6 on a crit (probably bordering on mediocre). You still do get the 10' push, which is universally great, so maybe it is intended.

Just making sure this hasn't been errataed or clarified.

I think that RAW matches RAI. It is generally understood that Hydraulic Push isn't that great a damage dealer to begin with, and starts getting steadily worse relatively-speaking after spellcaster level 4 or 5, with Fireball taking over as the big damage dealer. A lot of that is due to HP's decreasing returns from crit damage. When she goes up a level, Jayma will probably switch her Level 1 signature spell from Hydraulic Push to Magic Missile and pick up Fireball as her Level 3 signature spell. A level or two later and Hydraulic Push essentially becomes useless... except for the Push part, which is situationally quite strong at times (like with grabby creatures). This is a feature that doesn't improve with heightening. It is a good Level 1 spell to have for those uncommon times that you need to push creatures around at a distance.

If you look closely at Jayma's rolls in her last post you'd have noticed that if she'd cast an auto-heightened Telekinetic Projectile cantrip, she'd have done the same 30 hp of damage as HP. But as she wanted the Push part of HP to get Hopper free, she burned a slot to get it. At even higher levels, Telekinetic Projectile becomes better faster that HP.

At Jayma's level right now, Hydraulic Push is probably as good as it will ever be, so expect her to continue using it throughout this adventure; especially since fire-based blasting in this forest appears to be frowned upon.

Yeah, the Hydraulic Push scaling is iffy to me. But man, is Jayma not hitting each and every one of those? (with two Crits on this table alone?). I think I've cast that spell-like 3 times in total and missed each and every one of those.

Wow, we seem to be lacking a bit on the front of focusing one enemy down ;) We dealt almost the same amount of dmg to both otters

Jayma's damage would have been overkill on the Blue Otter, so she picked the Red Otter to make it all count. Also, she wanted to get Hopper free of at least one of the critters holding him, so that he wouldn't need to use an extra action to do so himself. Based on my experience with other +13 attack critters for our PC level, my guesstimate is that the otters have <= about 75 hp (by comparison, the owlbears with +14 attacks had <=70 hp), so it shouldn't take much more to finish them off.

The leeches at +10 attack probably have an hp count in the 30s, maybe as high as 40. My firsthand knowledge of leeches (ugh!) is that they don't do so well on land, but are great in the water. So if we can get everyone out of the water and away from the edge of the river to someplace they can't reach us, then maybe we can finish them off at range. On second thoughts, perhaps we should just leave Zabu in the water to act as juicy bait and keep the leeches where we can see them :)

Yeah, the Hydraulic Push scaling is iffy to me. But man, is Jayma not hitting each and every one of those? (with two Crits on this table alone?). I think I've cast that spell-like 3 times in total and missed each and every one of those.

Jayma is getting some lucky rolls, but that tends to even out in the long run, so I wouldn't bet my life on that continuing. But regardless of the rolls she gets, Jayma always tries to make the most efficient use of the resources available to her.

Just to be clear, we are waiting for the GM right?

Yes. I'm on my phone so it's not easy to make a GM post. Will update later today.