Surla, hopefully you'll see this in time to edit your post, but I made a gameplay post noting who can see what from where.
I know this is a relaxed pace game anyway, but heads up that I'm in a busy period through April 7.
Noted.
Hu, no item bonuses, stat?
That means even if the familiar is wearing barding/armor custom-made for them, that's just fancy dress-up? :)
@Pfil: I had to do a bit of searching, but from what I found, it seems that Pfil's wings negate the need to spend an action to move around within her space in certain ways (like climbing to a higher point that a Medium character could otherwise reach without effort).
So I'm ruling that the Leap was unnecessary--the railing is easily within a Medium character's reach--and Pfil still has an action left to spend.
However, the DM giveth and the DM taketh, and the "taketh" in this case is that this handrail's surface isn't terribly wide, even at Pfil's size. Running down its length is therefore something that requires a bit of finesse on her part, and I'm going to need an Acrobatics (Balance) check against a DC of 15 for her movement. Assuming she doesn't get a failure or a critical success on the first check, she'll probably have to spend that regained action--with a second Acrobatics check against the same DC--to complete her run to her current position.
Also note that while she's on that handrail, Pfil counts as flat-footed.
Because of the changed movement and all, I'm only responding to the actual attack portion of your posted round, I'll address the movement portion following your check results.
Well, rats started out strong, especially against Inva, but the party seems to be hitting its stride now, with half the ROUS quite dead. Once Pfil takes care of the required skill checks and Inva takes her action, we'll see what the rat in the barrel is going to do, and then it's a whole new round!
Also, Eser, we both screwed up on your action :D. Your initiative result should have had you acting after everyone and everything else in the round. But I didn't notice it at the time either, and it didn't materially affect your splattered ratty's chances to survive (:D), so it stands as posted.
Well, the GM should also consider that lore-wise, my wings make a great balancing-tool.
Mechanics-wise, my origin in the Puddles district provides me with the Feat: Steady Balance
So yeah, still need that Balance, but it's a critical success and I'm not flat footed I believe :D
Duly noted :D. You still have an action left to spend, however, so you can do something else at the end of your run down the handrail.
I'm not near my books at the moment, so I don't off-hand recall if there's any issue with or barrier to making multiple ranged strikes. But if you're able to do so, the rat on the far side of Inva has lesser cover, the rat in the barrel has greater cover, and the last rat has no cover.
You get a stacking -5 for every extra attack taken per turn. -4 if it is an agile weapon :)
Sorry to keep you waiting. Got a got that's completely flattened me for a week now.
Sorry to keep you waiting. Got a got that's completely flattened me for a week now.
Well, those gots are certainly a problem. I hope the one that you got gets ungot soon :D.
AIR EVOCATION IMPULSE KINETICIST OVERFLOW PRIMAL
A blade of shearing wind races away from you in a 60-foot line. Each creature in the area takes 2d4 slashing damage with a basic Reflex save against your class DC. In the final square of the line, the boomerang whirls in place. Any creature that ends its turn in that square has to save against the boomerang.
At the start of your next turn, the boomerang returns in a line from its square to your current location, with the same effect as the initial line. If the boomerang doesn’t have line of effect to you at the time, it disperses instead.Level (+2) The damage increases by 1d4.
For reference. Also in my sheet :)
Now I'm not quite sure if it'll actually return. Usually, in 1e, the rules of things like that specified what happened when it hit barriers. Some poofed out of existence, some stopped.
This one has a line about line of effect - but for that to make it invalid Hellewen would either have to move after throwing it (reasonable, not the case this time) or have the boomerang blade end up on the other side of the wall (less reasonable. But pretty cool if useless/hilariously dangerous).
Agreed. I hope things work out. The last bits of got wasn't great, so I understand your flattening :p
Oh and Hellewen's token was getting buried underneath a rat corpse so I moved it. And made a nice arrow.
Sorry to keep you waiting. Got a got that's completely flattened me for a week now.Well, those gots are certainly a problem. I hope the one that you got gets ungot soon :D.
Ugh, got a cold I mean. An epic and long one. It's been about a week and I'm maybe at 55% normal.
Now I'm not quite sure if it'll actually return. Usually, in 1e, the rules of things like that specified what happened when it hit barriers. Some poofed out of existence, some stopped.
This one has a line about line of effect - but for that to make it invalid Hellewen would either have to move after throwing it (reasonable, not the case this time) or have the boomerang blade end up on the other side of the wall (less reasonable. But pretty cool if useless/hilariously dangerous).
In absence of anything official to the contrary on this--and I did go looking but my Google-fu also sucks--I'll rule that 60 feet is the maximum distance that the line can have, barring any class abilities that modify that, but the user can choose the actual distance that the boomerang travels when the ability is used. Otherwise, IMO, the boomerang effect would be a lot less valuable in actual use. Make note of that in your character sheet somewhere for future use.
As with all aspects of the kineticist, this is subject to revision pending whatever the official rules will be.
Oh and Hellewen's token was getting buried underneath a rat corpse so I moved it. And made a nice arrow.
I fixed that, the corpse is still there, but your token is at the top of the stack.
I have added a note! I have also groaned at the ninja rats :p
In the interest of fairness I'll have to point out that the spinning boomerang blade only deals damage to the rats again on either 1) Hellewen's turn or 2) if they end their turn there.
But yes I suspect there'll be quite a few changes on the final product. Sliiightly more damage on the "spells" maybe, if only because they're advertising more Con focus.
I have added a note! I have also groaned at the ninja rats :p
In the interest of fairness I'll have to point out that the spinning boomerang blade only deals damage to the rats again on either 1) Hellewen's turn or 2) if they end their turn there.
But yes I suspect there'll be quite a few changes on the final product. Sliiightly more damage on the "spells" maybe, if only because they're advertising more Con focus.
Well, it's just over the wire for an edit, so that's that. If I erred in thinking that spending an entire turn in a square with an active effect won't do something, then at least it's an error in the players' favor rather than the other way :D.
@Surla: If you only stride once...don't forget that most spells take 2 actions, out of the 3 you get. So you could definitely throw another Brrrzt at some rats again if you'd like.
Also, consider getting a second or even third of the damage cantrips - if my Sorcerer experience was anything to go by, you'll see a lot of them...some variation was welcome :)
I would need another stride to get somewhere with LoS dropping me to one. I think the entire party can handle one rat before it gets to act.
Hum, according to the map, there's 3 rats left, and two bloodied ones are ahead of you and should be in view. If it's light thats missing, I can provide that.
Or I can try and kill either red or green, but figured I'd give you a chance to try and fry them some more :D
(Plus I do think yellow is hiding IN the barrel currently, so not even sure if we can just plain smack that one.)
Yellow rat has greater cover--it hasn't managed to eat a sufficiently large enough pocket in the contents to contain it entirely--but it's definitely making a valiant effort to get as far in there as it can.
With regards to lighting, I default assumed that Pfil was lit up and shining like a torch from the moment you all came down the stairs (because nobody actually specified that they otherwise had a torch out and ready :D). From Pfil's initial position that would have kicked out enough light (barely), even with the intervening barrels and pillar, not to hamper Rik'tik, Grasz, and Eser at either their starting or current positions.
From her current position at the end of stairs, Pfil is lighting up almost the entirely of the basement's central lane, and the rats with the green and red borders around their tokens are readily within Surla's LOS, though both have lesser cover from her as well. So, yes, Surla can make whatever attacks she has sufficient actions for, there are two valid targets available.
Wow, I thought there was only one left and I couldn't see it, I'm really interpretting the map wrong I guess.
Oh, I guess that line through the two rats isn't signifying they're dead, but something else?
Wow, I thought there was only one left and I couldn't see it, I'm really interpretting the map wrong I guess.
Oh, I guess that line through the two rats isn't signifying they're dead, but something else?
The line used by Hellewen's attack. Dead rats are marked off with a red 'X' on the token. Note that some of the dead rats are obscured by other tokens at the moment.
So that's our first encounter, and I've learned a few things from it now that I'm on doing this from the other side of the table, so to speak. In no particular order of importance.
1) Mark multiple enemies of the same type in some way to make attacks from or against them easier to track.
2) Know what the party is doing for lighting so I don't have to handwave or assume something.
3) Initiative tracking so everyone knows where they are in the sequence. Eser is such a bloodthirsty beast of a bird that she jumped the line twice :P. No big deal for this intro fight, that last rat was screwed no matter what. But it might have been able to go out with its teeth sunk into a tasty leg instead further soiling the smoked fish with terror-induced voiding :D.
I could go with either per-round tracking or track it more actively in each combat post I make. It's copy/paste either way, so no actual work involved.
I think I did a usable job of describing things and judging LOS on the fly for some things like the barrels and racks between the pillars. Hellewen going parkour through the racks was pretty awesome use of the detail, I'll admit.
But what are your thoughts, what could have been better, what (if anything) did I mess up?
In hindsight maybe the barrels weren't intended to be just difficult terrain, but it seemed reasonable. Plus I really wanted to catch at least two people with the line "spell". Got to get value out of that :D (But I'm fairly sure that yeah that information was communicated properly! Even if I'm now assuming rather then checking back.)
Letting people act in a block is definitely the way to go, so that was nice. It gets way too drawn-out otherwise in a pbp. I feel that we got through this fight quite swiftly. That's a good thing imo.
Coloured borders and or numbers are really handy. I prefer the borders myself - but it is worth checking - can everyone tell them apart? Colour blindness, small screens and so on happens. For the record, I haven't noticed any such issues yet :)
As for things you could do better. Hmm. Fail the proper reflex saves maybe :p?
In hindsight maybe the barrels weren't intended to be just difficult terrain, but it seemed reasonable. Plus I really wanted to catch at least two people with the line "spell". Got to get value out of that :D (But I'm fairly sure that yeah that information was communicated properly! Even if I'm now assuming rather then checking back.)
Letting people act in a block is definitely the way to go, so that was nice. It gets way too drawn-out otherwise in a pbp. I feel that we got through this fight quite swiftly. That's a good thing imo.
Coloured borders and or numbers are really handy. I prefer the borders myself - but it is worth checking - can everyone tell them apart? Colour blindness, small screens and so on happens. For the record, I haven't noticed any such issues yet :)
As for things you could do better. Hmm. Fail the proper reflex saves maybe :p?
Actually, I hadn't even considered that someone might go over the barrels at all. I threw out the detail about there being empty racks above them for additional barrels purely as a cosmetic element. If I'd prepared for that possibility ahead of time? Probably would have needed a check to get up the racks--average DC, on an untrained skill--and difficult terrain as well, but easily doable for anyone but Grasz (he doesn't strike me as much of a climber, lol).
Good reminder that what a player and DM see on a map might be two different things.
I will say I have never seen a GM do individual initiatives well with a group larger than 2 players in PBP.
Usually I see the players divided into "people who get to go before the enemy" and "people who get to go after the enemy" and then a free for all among those groups.
Making everyone wait to post in exact proper initiative order drastically slows down combat when doing PBP.
Eser is such a bloodthirsty beast of a bird that she jumped the line twice :P. No big deal for this intro fight, that last rat was screwed no matter what. But it might have been able to go out with its teeth sunk into a tasty leg instead further soiling the smoked fish with terror-induced voiding :D.
Ah, I misunderstood and thought that we were just going with where in the order I had posted on mistake the first time. Apologies for that, I should not have inferred and instead asked.
I am also in favor of block initiative in PBP.
Actually, I hadn't even considered that someone might go over the barrels at all. I threw out the detail about there being empty racks above them for additional barrels purely as a cosmetic element. If I'd prepared for that possibility ahead of time? Probably would have needed a check to get up the racks--average DC, on an untrained skill--and difficult terrain as well, but easily doable for anyone but Grasz (he doesn't strike me as much of a climber, lol).
Good reminder that what a player and DM see on a map might be two different things.
I just want to pick up on that - interestingly, it was one aspect of being Tiny that intrigued me - that I would be able to make use of non-standard mobility aspects(such as getting on top of those barrels despite the racks. Or using a cat door to enter somewhere. Or a chimney too narrow for medium creatures. Being able to squeeze into a teapot and hide there, or ducking behind a vase. Running "under" a table that would otherwise be difficult terrain, or shooting at people's knees from under a bed(where they essentially have to go prone to even see me.).
So yeah, I'll be guilty of that part.
Besides that, I think you handled it very nicely. With light, I was unsure myself. And Block Init is de-facto standard in pbp for a reason, so yeah - before baddies, baddies, everybody. Deviation possible during boss fights or three-way combat.
The comments regarding block initiative are well taken. However, I also think that Inva maybe wouldn't have gotten mauled so much if there had been individual initiative and some of the rats maybe got picked off before they could act at all.
I've been reading various opinions on the initiative thing, and it seems as if that's the most common issue with block-style; someone gets just utterly wrecked by a congaline of enemies (unless those enemies are played pants-on-head stupid). Or, on the flip side, a fight gets rendered trivial because the players are the ones running the congaline and the baddies never get a single attack off. Don't get me wrong, the goal is to win fights against the NPCs, but if every fight is a curbstomp for one side or other other, that doesn't sound too exciting.
I'm definitely going to keeping that in mind for future fights, most likely adjusting which version gets used based on enemy numbers, type, and such.
Anyway, I notice that Inva is (IC) balking at the going further into the caves, so now I'm going to have to come up with something to urge her forward :D.
Re motivating the rogue - have you considered money :p
I'm thinking something along the lines of "surely there's loot in here!". Will drop something about the man-madeness of things once I get my ducks in a row.
Re block initiative - to counteract this you can split the enemy into multiple blocks. Maybe this fight could be two blocks of rats? And make sure they're spread around a bit so they can't all gang up on someone :)
No worries, I've got things to tease and coax Inva into those caves, it's more a matter of presenting them in a way doesn't seem railroad-y :D.
I'm OOC balking as well. I laid down my icon, posted a statement and the next thing I know I'm down 1/3 of HP and having to make fort saves. By the end of the 2nd round I'm down 2/3 HP with a failed fort save.
Now I'm at just better than 1/2 HP and will be doing a jig back and forth on the disease progression continuum and probably taking debilitations. Inva is leaving, willing to return when she's 100%.
Look, I haven't seen anything about 2e that impresses me so far. I'm not going to the trouble of creating a new character again right out of the gate.
I'm OOC balking as well. I laid down my icon, posted a statement and the next thing I know I'm down 1/3 of HP and having to make fort saves. By the end of the 2nd round I'm down 2/3 HP with a failed fort save.
Now I'm at just better than 1/2 HP and will be doing a jig back and forth on the disease progression continuum and probably taking debilitations. Inva is leaving, willing to return when she's 100%.
Look, I haven't seen anything about 2e that impresses me so far. I'm not going to the trouble of creating a new character again right out of the gate.
I'm very sorry about that. I honestly didn't expect to roll like that on the first two attacks, and it was why I had the third rat go for Eser (as well as deliberately moving in ways that would restrict their number of attacks). But if you're not having a good time with it, then that's entirely understandable.
There's little enough I can do about the dice, obviously, but I'm willing to run the fights a little less "smart" on the NPC side of things until you (and everyone else) get a bit better set on your end (in terms of equipment, class abilities, etc.). I can also go back to the somewhat stripped down BB version of the remaining monsters instead of their full-up Bestiary versions.
To be fair, GM did ask if we want to go "all in" or run with the "reduced starter box stats" that may not have had the Fort Saves.
I did mention I had healing - 1d10+4 HP, but was unsure how far down you were. Aside from that disease, we can get you back to 100% instantly.
I mean, so far thats not really much different from PF1, where a single good hit or two would drop a first-level PC.
But if Starfinder is anything to go by, they seriously buffed AC and to hit-values for lower CR encounters.
Don't get me wrong, but you were far from having to create a new char...especially due to the "dying" failsafe 2e offers, imho one of the best changes and one I often houseruled in some form in my PF1 games or asked to houserule(so that the amount of negative HP you die at increases with level)...
So in combination I think it's somewhat expected that some PC's are "downed" even in the early skirmishes, maybe as a result of their inexperience.
But as was said, it's of course your decision to make, but I did want to point out that the balancing seems to be targetted at a slightly different experience than low-level PF1 despite certain similarities.
@GM: Regarding Block Init and Congaline, all true to some extent, but also why things like optimized Control-Casters with serious Initiative-Boni are such a strong meta in PF1. If you do things right, you can almost assure that you get to go first, and being able to shape the battlefield to your advantage, with a wall of force cutting enemies in half, some black tentacles, or even just a web or pit-spell at a strategic position, you could basically ensure most fights turned trivial no matter what everybody else rolled.
A piece of advice on that matter: It helps to combine some encounters, or skip some and strenghten others, then spread them out a bit.
If done right, the enemy is split up enough and numerous enough that the players can't alpha-strike all of them, but take out priority targets - the side effect of being a bit spread is that non-smart enemies will not focus a single person down.
Smart enemies? May, in PF2, but then, they are unlikely to go for the actual kill as long as someone else is resisting, so whoever is brought low is just on a generous timer while the others go to town.
Re going splat - aye. Getting double smacked would suck in 1e too. This time we've got twice the hp at least :p
Re 1e vs 2e - Mhm. I'm not sure how many in-game differences I can sense just yet. Having 3 vs 2 actions certainly was something. But I'm fairly sure the playtest Kineticist is quite conservative on action flinging early, with there being a gather element action requirement at the start. Probably the price to pay for infinite "spells".
Character creation was certain different though.
I will say, a death via surprise enemy conga line, for me, is far prefer to a death via "Oh, that person didn't post for two days, so this person next in initiative got tired of waiting and stopped checking in, so when that person finally posts, we're going to wait another three days for this person to check in again, causing the next person to lose their patience..." A death in battle is far better than the quest grinding to a halt under logistical weight.
Also, I'm frankly bewildered that Inva's reaction to taking a third of your health in damage is "now my character should retire", when you are one 10 minute Medicine DC15 check from healing 2d8 HP.
And we can do that as many times as we want, over and over, until we succeed and get you to full HP.
The "CLW until you're at full health after every fight" meta starts at level 1 in PF2e and consumes no resources.
Just to clarify one thing, the IC reaction is entirely, well, in-character for Inva. It hasn't been added to the character sheet (yet), but the background that rdknight and I worked out has her current part in the party not quite what she's actually in town for, and this job for Tamily being taken as a potential shortcut to what she's trying to accomplish in Otari. So getting mauled by ROUS is/was (from my POV) a sharp reminder to her of that, hence why she'd be drawing back.
I'm OOC balking as well.
@PF_GM_23: I certainly don't blame you for your dice rolls, or anything else. But, I'm not interested in essentially starting with a gimped character who needs to be swathed in bubble wrap to manage continuing immediately.
I will say, a death via surprise enemy conga line, for me, is far prefer to a death via "Oh, that person didn't post for two days, so this person next in initiative got tired of waiting and stopped checking in, so when that person finally posts, we're going to wait another three days for this person to check in again, causing the next person to lose their patience..." A death in battle is far better than the quest grinding to a halt under logistical weight.
Also, I'm frankly bewildered that Inva's reaction to taking a third of your health in damage is "now my character should retire", when you are one 10 minute Medicine DC15 check from healing 2d8 HP.
@Surla: I don't know what this even has to do with anything. I didn't ask about your preferences and frankly don't care what they are. I suppose I should thank my stars there are so many buckets of HP healing available to keep Inva chugging along like your good little bot until she dies of disease?
I will note here that I did not vote for full "all in" to start.
Inva has now exited and will be available again when she has recovered, unless she dies of disease, in which case she will not be available again.
If this is a major problem, I will withdraw from the game so that you will not be inconvenienced.
Um, no need for the high tensions. I think we are just trying to understand your motivations better.
The Disease would only come to haunt you in about 3 hours of time, which would be enough to clear things out.
Also the balking OOC seemed like you wanted to withdraw from the game based on that initial fight, I did not fully understand you only wanted to recover.
In which case the "bring you along since HP damage is not an issue" is more to keep you in the loop, to keep you playing and interacting with us, not to put you in danger.
I am not sure on the effects of the disease, I would have expected there to be an onset, and that it would not be lethal - but admittedly I know little of the PF2 diseases.
It would still seem desirable to have a healer take care of you, certainly there's some circumstance bonus for that to the rolls you'll have to make.
Again, I think nobody wanted to create any problem here, only try and understand your motivation and/or give you an option or incentive to stay with the party rather than take a timeout.
To me, at least, it was not clear that it was by choice rather than necessity - so apologies if you felt pushed towards a certain curse of action - I assure you my intentions were only to provide you with options, no more.
I'm going to chill a bit on an IC post. A deep breath may be helpful :)
Let's deal with the filth fever and take it from there. (Which is present in 1e; where it would be even more annoying!)
So it seems poor Inva failed the initial save. She'll step onto the 1st stage of the disease and become an unaffected carrier. Sad womp.
The rules for afflictions/diseases in 2e is that at the end of each stage you take a fort save. Success decreases the stage by 1 and failure advances by 1. Critical is 2.
If Inva finds no medical aid until the 1st stage is complete - the 1d4 something hours - she would either shake the disease on a success or move to stage 2 depending on her roll.
If she sticks with that 6, it'll be stage 2 and she'll have to wait another day to test again. Unless nat 1s are even sadder; I think she's safe from a critical failure.
Now some sad news. Mundane "treat disease" action seems to take 8 hours of chicken souping so that'll be tough!
Unless someone has something shiny. Hellewen might have something mildly helpful, but I'll need to double check.
The "Also" is where I switch from one topic to another different topic, Inva. But, I feel like we're starting to take this as personal attacks for some reason, so I'll back off. I didn't mean it as an attack on your character, I thought you just didn't know we could heal you.
No, I don't know how much healing other characters can do. I barely know what my character can do. But I made my final decision based on the disease. Here it is:
Filth Fever (disease) The sickened and unconscious conditions from filth fever don’t improve on their own until the disease is cured. Saving Throw DC 14 Fortitude; Stage 1 carrier with no ill effect (1d4 hours), Stage 2 sickened 1 (1 day), Stage 3 sickened 1 and slowed 1 (1 day), Stage 4 unconscious (1 day), Stage 5 dead
Inva has failed the 1st and 2nd saves. I went ahead and rolled to 2nd early to see if she would be affected to decide. In around 2-3 hours she will progress to stage 2 sickened, taking penalties on essentially everything, until/if she recovers by making it to 0.
I don't know how long the current area would take to finish, and I'm not going to play it sickened.
Understood.
But until you will be affected by the disease, in 3 hours of time, there would be no ill effects, correct?
So if we top up your HP, you COULD continue with us until such time as the 3 hours passed, you fail the safe, and feel unwell and retreat, fighting off the disease?
Again, no pushing, just options/asking - in 3 hours I think we could do a lot down here - not sure if we manage to finish the area, but there's no reason to sit it out just yet?
Also, there's this gem:
You can spend a single action retching in an attempt to recover, which lets you immediately attempt a Fortitude save against the DC of the effect that made you sickened. On a success, you reduce your sickened value by 1 (or by 2 on a critical success).
So you can try and vomit, and if you succeed on that roll, you won't have any ill effects from sickened, either - worth a shot, maybe?
As mentioned, I totally understand if IC or OOC you want to take a step back and try to recover - I'd just very much like for you to be with us, as a player and IC, until such time as the reason to withdraw actually manifests.
But I'll respect your decision either way.
Nope, failed the retch as well. I've already rolled on sickened so that's a foregone conclusion. I appreciate it, but I will be staying out until this has run its course for better or worse.
Okay, thanks for considering that.
One last thought before I head to sleep: IC you will only notice the disease in 3 hours time, right?
A possible compromise could be that for these 3 hours, you come along with us, checking out what else is down here, then, even if we are not done with the area, we call it a day(also on the basis that clearly one or more of us caught some illness down here, which we'd know about by then), return to the surface and report to Tamily what we found so far.
Maybe we can have a few days of downtime for you guys to overcome that disease, then proceed together again.
(But we'd best make sure there's no rats in the next room over while it won't make much of a difference :) Wouldn't want to wait a couple days
only for 1-2 others to be infected in the next rat fight-)
I mean, ideally, in that scenario, you could tag along with us before any penalties kick in, then avoid doing stuff while diseased, and we'd still potentially get something done down here without excluding any characters or players.
As said before, whatever you decide, but figured I may as well throw that option on the table, too.
Goodness, went away for a few hours and come back to a whole bunch of stuff.
@Inva: It seems like there's a been a bunch of options offered to keep you with the party in a way that doesn't affect your enjoyment or character survival. I'm not sure what you'll go with, but it helps matters any, I'll offer you this: I didn't call for any rolls on your disease progression or related effects, so those utterly s%&% rolls you made in the player thread don't count.
Secondly, the party can briefly knock off from what Tamily hired them to do--and hearing that Inva got mauled by rats and knowing full well what rat bites are capable of, Tamily would certainly understand and even insist on such--and head over to the Dawnflower Library. The cleric who runs it, Vandy Banderdash, offers spellcasting services and remove disease is specially called out in the location services brief, in fact. While the 18gp cost of the spell is a stiff price for a 1st-level character to pay, Vandy isn't completely hardnosed about cash in hand (especially with a plague case on hand) and the party could potentially get a bit of help from Tamily as well. The latter won't eat the cost of the spell directly, but some roleplay (and, potentially, a bit of rollplay) could induce her to offer something along the lines of a personal request to Vandy to help out more than she otherwise would. Depending on how things go, you'd most likely end up owing a combination of service to the church as a whole and Vandy personally.
Thirdly, and while I do hate to toss out spoilers, there is not too far further on in this level--and this is definitely reachable within your 3-hour progression window--something that will, if reported on, earn the party as a whole considerable favor with Mayor Menhemes. It won't run to the level of official ignorance on criminal behavior or anything, but covering some spellcasting costs as part of the reward is definitely on the table. Further, it's something that Vandy will be called in to have a look at as well.
The point of all that is, I know you put a lot of work in on Inva (I was part of your background creation idea swapping, remember :D) and I also know what frustration it is to have a character you want to play potentially ended before you can even get started. So I'm very willing to work on ways to keep Inva (and you as her player) in the game.
Alright, if we can complete the area in under 3 hours, Inva will continue and and make the saving throws when they come up.