(PF2 - Gameday XIV) @ “Claws of the Tyrant” part one “Gravelands Survivors”

Game Master rainzax

Not sure if it's possible to forage without leaving the safety of the group, but if it is, I'd like to do so. And I also have the Forager feat, as discussed at the start of this adventure. If it's not possible, ignore the spoilered roll.

Subsist

(As "after 8 hours or less or exploration" vs "typical village" adding Danger Points [3] to the DC)

=)

Ah, I misread that. Let's do it.

This game is reported.

However, to meet the deadline (tonight!), I had to put my email address instead of yours', because I forgot to ask.

Please put your email on the Contact Sheet, and I will forward them to everyone when I get the chronicles in my box.

We are at the Halfway point now, so I am assuming you are all in it for the long haul. If not, we can find a suitable way for your character's brains to be eaten at the next combat...

As I detailed in the Recruitment Thread, "wasteland survival" will be a central theme in the second half of this Adventure. If that is not something you are interested in continuing on with, it's okay to bail now, no hard feelings.

The Summary of how we will use Exploration Mode during this segment is in the "Campaign Info" Tab!

Day 1 Food Status

12 rations (each ration feeds 1 person for 1 week, or, 7 people for one day).

Food acquired: 7 x 12 = 84 daily servings of rations

11 NPCs + 5 PCs = 16 survivors
Garaag & Squishy do not need food, so only 14 survivors need food.

Malendyl manages to find some scavengables (Success), while Marius brings home something that get's everyone sick (Critical Failure)!

Based on the Subsist rules and the Forager feat they both have, I believe Malendyl's success gives enough food for 5 people (doesn't seem to be Survival expert yet) and Marius' critical failure becomes a success, feeding himself.

Squishy's Lastwall Soup won't (I assume) be completed in time to feed anyone today.

14 - 5 - 1 = 8 survivors eating a daily portion of rations on Day 1.

Remaining Rations: 84 - 8 = 76 daily servings of rations

Let me know if any of my above assumptions are incorrect.

Thank for getting this ball rolling.

Squishy, for Lastwall Soup, I'm going to rule that if you use Quick Alchemy to make it, the concomitant Infused trait will negate it's ability to count as food. However, if you instead use Advanced Alchemy, it counts as food as normal.

So 2 questions:

1) How did you make it yesterday?
2) And, how many servings did you make yesterday?

And again, the same questions for today!

I decide against using Quick Alchemy to make the soup. Instead, I’ll wait until tomorrow to cook it properly as food. I can prepare up to eight servings, perhaps making five for the PCs so the rations can be saved for the NPCs.

It is Tomorrow!

How many Advanced Alchemy points will you commit to it? 5?

I will spend five for the group.

Are there any locations we have not explored in Yua's Hope? If none, maybe we can get out to go into the bridge.

Also, for Marius, I have Inoculation feat, but we will need to spend 8 hours to treat your disease just in case you fail the save and show obvious signs of the disease.

It looks like having to spend 8 hours is solidly out-of-phase with helping Marius' fortitude save tonight.

But maybe tomorrow!

(And, it is now the morning of tomorrow!)

I will spend five for the group.

Barlespin, it looks like no Soup this night. But tomorrow evening, Squishy will have 5 rations to alchemically provide!

Squishy - Are you making soup for yourself, as well?

Makes no difference to the math, but I'd give my serving to Jystolo. I don't typically roll Stealth (unless I'd be following an expert) ... and maybe the Stealth benefit will help Jystolo stay quiet and unnoticed. ;)

Checking the Lastwall soup again, a +2 item bonus is nice. I will add another soup instead of the ghost charge.

Now that the item's been identified, some background info I recall (might not be 100% accurate, but this is what I remember from my Tyrant's Grasp AP):

Arazni was a demigod and herald of Aroden. She got killed, and later raised by Geb as an unwilling lich, and had to serve as a ruler (again, unwilling). Her internal organs still possess the powers of a demigod and could be very powerful items, or indeed, artifacts, and have been spread apart to keep out of the wrong hands. Followers of Geb or the Whispering Way would be very interested in one of these items, for example.
Not sure what that all means now that she's alive and kicking again, but apparently the organs still hold great power.

I don't know if this is common knowledge or knowledge that is available to us after we've pieced those bits of information together, but I thought it was cool to share and might add some depth to the adventure.

Let's go with the fun option: Someone in the party knows - perhaps Malendyl the Mastermind, Marus the Cleric, or Barlespin the Thaumaturge - and shares this information with everyone!

Assuming six years under a rock wouldn't preclude this information from being known...!?

I'm not 100% sure when Arazni became a Core 20 deity. I think it was during the whole Godsrain shakeup, which we wouldn't know of. And even if we fudge that and say it happened during the transition from 1e to 2e, that's when we went underground, so still a bit of a gap in our information. I'm not even sure we know Arazni is an actual deity now. For all we know, she's still ruling as a lich in Geb.

That's all beside the point I guess, but fun to think about.

I, too, am unclear on the exact timeline. I will ask in the forums of this AP using a different alias, to crowdsource the information.

Either way, even if we don't do the "fun" version, it's safe to say that everyone becomes aware that the artifact is very important, and that should serve our purposes.

=)

"Between my weapon and my implements and esoterica, I'm afraid I don't have an extra hand to hold it during a fight when it would come in useful." Being something of a hoarder of interesting esoterica, though, you can see it pains him somewhat to not claim the exotic artifact.

I'll allow our Thaumaturge to hold the Lung in the same hand as he holds his Implement and/or Esoterica, breaking the rules a little.

Also as a "thank you" for stepping up to track our food!

=)

Barlespin wrote:

"Between my weapon and my implements and esoterica, I'm afraid I don't have an extra hand to hold it during a fight when it would come in useful." Being something of a hoarder of interesting esoterica, though, you can see it pains him somewhat to not claim the exotic artifact.

I'll allow our Thaumaturge to hold the Lung in the same hand as he holds his Implement and/or Esoterica, breaking the rules a little.

=)

Woo! Holding a deity's organs would definitely count as "esoterica", I'd say. :)

Malendyl Sarmaris wrote:

I don't know if this is common knowledge or knowledge that is available to us after we've pieced those bits of information together, but I thought it was cool to share and might add some depth to the adventure.

Let's go with the fun option: Someone in the party knows - perhaps Malendyl the Mastermind, Marus the Cleric, or Barlespin the Thaumaturge - and shares this information with everyone!

I agree, I think Barlespin's the most likely to know about divine doodads. Or maybe Marius got some divine whispers in his sleep. But yeah, regardless, we can puzzle together that this thing's important. :)

Barlespin, you ninja'd me (or me you) - check the Gameplay again, I think I answered your question.

Yeah I see how it works now. Before I do my turn though do want to confirm I do not need to Watch Jystolo as my third action. If not I will go w/ Deception.

Jystolo has graduated to cooperative now - no more "Watch Jystolo" exploration mode.

I'll put up a "real" post later this weekend, but my count has you resoundingly outfoxing the Zombear. Feel free to describe your definitive escape with all Survivors in the meantime.

And to expedite, think about what Exploration Mode you will do on the upcoming Overland Travel phase of the game. The mechanics of which are HERE.

I am untrained in Survival and have a poor Wisdom modifier, so won't be doing the Sense Direction activity.

My best modifier at something is probably Perception, and since I assume Malendyl will be focusing on Scouting, I'll just do Searching.

Looks like we'll be moving at 16 miles per day, as long as we succeed at the Sense Direction activity. How many miles to the next town?

Also, if I recall, the band had some sort of marching tune benefit, but I can't find the exact specifics for their boon. Does that push our overland speed up a bit?

Looking at character skills, Squishy has a +5 Survival, I'm at +6, Marius at +8. I can chip in if you'd like, but indeed I'd rather be Scouting.

Food @ Barlespin / Squishy:

Have you accounted for yesterday? (evening meal)
Have you accounted for today? (morning meal, 5 or 6 of which was Lastwall Soup)
Be prepared to account for tomorrow and subsequent days!

We'll call these Day 0 (first meal w/o Constan aka "yesterday"), Day 1 (second meal w/o Constan aka "today"), and future days will be 2, 3, 4...

I accounted for "yesterday" (although I labelled it as Day 1 in the post). Going into today we had 76 daily servings of rations.

With 5 of the people eating having Lastwall Soup, we have to feed 9 people today (Day 1 in new system).

Marius & Malendyl: Can you make your Survival Subsist rolls for Forager ... go ahead and roll days 1-5, I guess, so we have a good sense of how things are going until we know how long it takes us to get to the next village.

Squishy: Are you planning to stick with six Lastwall Soups a day as the default?

Marius & Malendyl: Can you make your Survival Subsist rolls for Forager ... go ahead and roll days 1-5, I guess, so we have a good sense of how things are going until we know how long it takes us to get to the next village.

Actually don't roll those. I will prepare Macros for you once we have a SOP.

Then I will roll multiple days all at once between events...

...unless we reach the end of our rations...

...in which case we might go day-to-day...

I am awaiting a response from italic players. So far I got:

◆) Travel
Barlespin w/ ✋✋ amulet, lung, buckler, hand x-bow @ ??, in Middle (Jystolo cooperates now)
Malendyl w/ ✋s empty @ Avoid Notice / Scout (+2), in Back
Marius w/ ✋ shield @ Search, in Back
Red w/ ✋ shortsword @ Search, in Front
Squishy w/ ✋ sickle @ Evade Undead, in Front (Yes, Evade Undead is still in play)

◆) Camp
Barlespin @ ??
Malendyl @ Subsist
Marius @ Subsist
Red @ ??
Squishy @ ?? (And: how many daily Lastwall Soups? 5 or 6?)

Please read the Overland Rules in the Campaign Tab for more info

◆) Rest (Watch)
1st @ Agnes
2nd @ Malendyl
3rd @ Barlespin
4th @ Squishy
5th @ Marius

Once I have this info I will build Macros and we Go!

Squishy will "Subsist" by preparing six Lastwall soups for the group (including Squishy) every day.

Squishy has trained Survival +5, if no one is going to Set Camp.

I'm dealing with a family emergency. Might be unavailable in the short-term.

Marius, sorry to hear about your family emergency. I hope everything gets straightened out OK.

◆) Travel
Evade Undead (+8 Deception vs moderate DC 15)

Given Malendyl's earlier post, I'd suggest that Marius handle the Sense Direction during the Travel phase. I'd note that Sense Direction does not require us to move at half speed (unlike most Exploration Activities). It looks to me like Evade Undead also does not have that restriction, so I would recommend the following Exploration Activities during overland travel:

Malendyl: Scout
Marius: Sense Direction (+8)
Everyone Else: Evade Undead (or, if someone really has concerns they'll crit fail, they could Aid Sense Direction ... or just not do any formal activity)

This means we'll be able to move at full speed instead of half speed overland. It should both reduce Danger Points and cut our travel time in half.

◆) Camp
I am not trained in Survival, so I think it makes the most sense for Squishy to Set Camp. My camp activity will be handing out rations & setting up my snares. It seems like so long as we have one person to Set Camp the camp gets set up successfully, if I read the description right, so there's no need for others to do the Untrained Survival check.

Additional thoughts on the food situation: After Day 1 (when we leave town), I'd recommend to everyone that we not hog the Lastwall Soup and alternate who gets it. I realize that mechanically it makes sense for the PCs to get the Stealth bonus, but from an RP perspective if we're eating a bowl of soup, but everyone is getting foraged berries or 6-year-old rations, it is likely to engender resentment among the group eventually.

Since in general I get no specific benefit from a Stealth bonus (and will only use it in cases like getting across the bridge where I had no alternative), I'll choose to forego my Lastwall Soup and distribute it to other people until everyone has had it at least once. I would encourage others to do so as well (although someone who uses Stealth for initiative, at least, would do well to keep eating it).

If Squishy makes 6 Lastwall Soups each day (and they eat one), then that means 9 people we have to feed daily. Malendyl & Marius each are guaranteed to forage enough for 1 person ... so even if they fail at their Survival Subsist roll, we're feeding at most 7 people a day out of rations. On days they both succeed at Subsist rolls, no one is fed out of rations, but on the average day when one succeeds and the other doesn't we'd be feeding 3 people out of rations ... which means our 76 rations would be expected to last over 25 days (unless something happens that we have really bad Survival rolls for a string of days).

Also, I want to confirm: Is everyone free from the Zombie Rot at this time? If anyone is still making saves against it, Squishy should be making that person an antiplague each morning.

With six Lastwall soups, I have two spare from Daily Preparations to create antiplagues.

Slowly coming together. So far I got:

◆) Travel
Barlespin w/ ✋✋ amulet, lung, buckler, hand x-bow @ ??, in Middle
Malendyl w/ ✋s empty @ Avoid Notice / Scout (+2), in Back
Marius w/ ✋ shield @ Sense Direction, in Back
Red w/ ✋ shortsword @ ???, in Front
Squishy w/ ✋ sickle @ Evade Undead, in Front

◆) Camp
Barlespin @ ??
Malendyl @ Subsist
Marius @ Subsist
Red @ Set Camp
Squishy @ ??

Please read the Overland Rules in the Campaign Tab for more info

◆) Rest (Watch)
1st @ Agnes
2nd @ Malendyl
3rd @ Barlespin
4th @ Squishy
5th @ Marius

Still need my italics folk to weigh in!

I’m thinking of using Downtime to make more Lastwall soups, but I’m not sure if that’s possible. And if it is, how many could I produce in four hours per day?

I’ll be out of town from December 22 to December 29, so my posting will be intermittent during that time. Please feel free to bot my character if needed. I may also be quite busy from December 30 to January 1, though I expect many of us will be as well.

◆) Travel

Evade Undead (+8 Deception vs moderate DC 15)

◆) Camp
I am not trained in Survival, so I think it makes the most sense for Squishy to Set Camp. My camp activity will be handing out rations & setting up my snares. It seems like so long as we have one person to Set Camp the camp gets set up successfully, if I read the description right, so there's no need for others to do the Untrained Survival check.

Also, in related to "Travel" - Since I'm no longer Watching Jystolo, then I'll be in the front (I'd be happy to swap w/ Squishy, unless they really want to be in front) and have my battle axe out.

I suspect my earlier "Camp" reply may be unclear: From what I can tell, there is no useful formal Camp/Downtime activity for me to perform in this situation. If anyone can think of anything that is eluding me, feel free to let me know. I guess "Subsist" in the sense that I'm handing out and tracking food, but I am not making an Untrained Survival roll to look for food.

I’m thinking of using Downtime to make more Lastwall soups, but I’m not sure if that’s possible. And if it is, how many could I produce in four hours per day?

I think Downtime is based on 8 hour workday, so, if that is true, you would proceed at half the rate.

If I remember correctly, to Evade Undead needs Squishy to be at the front.

As for Camp, Squishy will do Downtime creating additional Lastwall soups for the group, then. That's batch of two for four hours a day. If needed, I can push it to eight hours and pray to the dice gods that Squishy will not be Fatigued.

Doesn't crafting require spending 50% of the resources? If there's a way to Craft without spending money, then I might use the evenings to construct some additional snares.

We will play it by the book.

Quickly checking in to let you know that there was a death in my family. I won't be available much for the next week or so.

Take your time, game will be here when you get your affairs sorted.

=)

I’m back from traveling, but the next few days will be busy again.

Marius, my condolences to you and your family. Please take all the time you need.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

I'm still less available than normal with children on break and being away from work. But, I should be able to keep up.

@rainzax: I believe Marius is all set on actions, etc. If I've missed something, please let me know.

Let's see where we left off:

Slowly coming together. So far I got:

◆) Travel
Barlespin w/ ✋✋ amulet, lung, buckler, hand x-bow @ ??, in Middle
Malendyl w/ ✋s empty @ Avoid Notice / Scout (+2), in Back
Marius w/ ✋ shield @ Sense Direction, in Back
Red w/ ✋ shortsword @ ???, in Front
Squishy w/ ✋ sickle @ Evade Undead, in Front

◆) Camp
Barlespin @ ??
Malendyl @ Subsist
Marius @ Subsist
Red @ Set Camp
Squishy @ ??

Please read the Overland Rules in the Campaign Tab for more info

◆) Rest (Watch)
1st @ Agnes
2nd @ Malendyl
3rd @ Barlespin
4th @ Squishy
5th @ Marius

Still need my italics folk to weigh in!

Unless I missed something, I am missing four entries.

I'm reading some posts that say "if / then" but am awaiting more definitive declarations.

Happy New Year, everyone! I’m back and will slowly catch up and post updates in all the games I’m in and GM.

Squishy will be doing Downtime for ◆) Camp.

Red Agnes is in front with Sir Karl's bastard sword in hand.

Happy New Year, everyone! I’m back and will slowly catch up and post updates in all the games I’m in and GM.

Squishy will be doing Downtime for ◆) Camp.

What will you be doing for Downtime?

Once we got this 100% assembled, we can begin our Journey.

◆) Travel
Barlespin w/ ✋✋ amulet, lung, buckler, battle axe @ ??, in Front
Malendyl w/ ✋s empty @ Avoid Notice / Scout (+2), in Back
Marius w/ ✋ shield @ Sense Direction, in Back
Red w/ ✋✋ bastard sword @ ???, in Front
Squishy w/ ✋ sickle @ Evade Undead, in Front

◆) Camp
Barlespin @ Maybe Subsist?
Malendyl @ Subsist
Marius @ Subsist
Red @ Set Camp
Squishy @ Some kind of Downtime?

Please read the Overland Rules in the Campaign Tab for more info

◆) Rest (Watch)
1st @ Red
2nd @ Malendyl
3rd @ Barlespin
4th @ Squishy
5th @ Marius

Barlespin, Red, Squishy - awaiting your decisions before finalizing (see above)!

Barlespin wrote:

◆) Travel

Evade Undead (+8 Deception vs moderate DC 15)

◆) Camp
I am not trained in Survival, so I think it makes the most sense for Squishy to Set Camp. My camp activity will be handing out rations & setting up my snares. It seems like so long as we have one person to Set Camp the camp gets set up successfully, if I read the description right, so there's no need for others to do the Untrained Survival check.

Also, in related to "Travel" - Since I'm no longer Watching Jystolo, then I'll be in the front (I'd be happy to swap w/ Squishy, unless they really want to be in front) and have my battle axe out.

I suspect my earlier "Camp" reply may be unclear: From what I can tell, there is no useful formal Camp/Downtime activity for me to perform in this situation. If anyone can think of anything that is eluding me, feel free to let me know. I guess "Subsist" in the sense that I'm handing out and tracking food, but I am not making an Untrained Survival roll to look for food.

I honestly don't know how to make my Travel response more clear than above, so let me know what is confusing about it and I'd be happy to clarify.

As for what I'm doing in camp, I think I pretty clearly said that I am *not* going to risk a crit fail on a Subsist roll, and I don't think there's any other defined activity for me to do in Camp. If I'm missing an option let me know.

Still need responses from italics(?) characters: Barlespin, Red, Squishy.

◆) Travel
Barlespin w/ ✋✋ amulet, lung, buckler, battle axe @ ???, in Front
Malendyl w/ ✋s empty @ Avoid Notice / Scout (+2), in Back
Marius w/ ✋ shield @ Sense Direction, in Back
Red w/ ✋✋ bastard sword @ ???, in Front
Squishy w/ ✋ sickle @ Evade Undead, in Front

◆) Camp
Barlespin @ Non-rolling Subsist
Malendyl @ Subsist
Marius @ Subsist
Red @ Set Camp
Squishy @ Some kind of Downtime???

Please read the Overland Rules in the Campaign Tab for more info

◆) Rest (Watch)
1st @ Red
2nd @ Malendyl
3rd @ Barlespin
4th @ Squishy
5th @ Marius