Gillian winces as the creature begins kicking up a ruckus from within its cell but there's nothing for it now - hopefully the cell will hold. Deciding to test her own luck, Gillian cautiously reaches out to pick up what is certainly an alchemical formula book...and providing it doesn't provoke the rat-thing to attack, she stows it in her pack.
"More evidence," she murmurs to no one in particular.
Cognizant that the caged creature's antics might draw attention from nearby, Gillian then attempts to duck into the shadows as she moves towards the other end of the lab where Scratch fiddles with the doors.
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"Similar to a wizard binding an elemental for a task," Gillian whispers to the others, nodding at the rat-elemental-thing. "It'll probably leave us alone if we just pass through but taking stuff from in here'll likely be a different story. Oh and don't get too close if you can help it, it gives off some pretty noxious fumes."
Gillian cautiously moves further into the laboratory and tries to have a look around at the books and other implements, hoping to maybe find something of use.
Presumably when/if Scratch and Celvi fall back and report what they've found in one of the empty cells, Gillian gives them both a look and nods vigorously as they suggest trying to lock the creature in.
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Gillian will Investigate. Relevant (trained) skills for Recall Knowledge: Arcana +9, Crafting +9, Medicine +8, Nature +8, Religion +8~
"More experiments..." Gillian murmurs, swallowing hard at the sight of the charred dwarf inside the cylinder. Noting that the fiery rat elemental thing doesn't seem immediately hostile, she tries to get an idea of what it is exactly and what it might be capable of.
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"Go left, first," Gillian whispers to Scratch as they're presented with multiple options on where to proceed. "I've heard it's lucky! Also, I'd rather not leave unopened doors at our backs. Or at least that's what I'd normally say but since it's barred from this side, going south first is probably safe for the moment."
"No takers then? Okay, more for me," Gillian shrugs as she scoops all of the lesser alchemical items up and places them into her pack for later.
"And going down seems as good a direction as any," she adds. Hefting her longspear she moves to follow Scratch, doing her best to be quiet.
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"Whew...I hope that's the last of those homunculi," Gillian remarks as Scratch has a turn at playing doctor and manages to largely cover what she couldn't. "We can't keep doing this all day..."
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If Scratch doesn't have any luck on the Craft ID then Gillian will try it when they switch off healing duties; +9 to hers.
"Well! They're not healing items but I'll take 'em," Gillian smiles widely as a search of the room yields the crate full of alchemical goodies. "Free is the best price of all, after all - and whoever they were supposed to go to in Cheliax probably doesn't need them anyway."
Though she's obviously pleased to find the small arsenal, Gillian isn't inclined to be greedy. She waits for anyone else who wants a few vials to grab them before collecting the rest.
"Yeah...I think we could all use some healing after that," she agrees when Celvi brings it up. "Here, let me see what I can do..."
Had to go back and check but it doesn't look like Gillian has used Treat Wounds on anyone since before our level up reset of daily supplies and such. Assuming we don't get interrupted...
^Take your time. If you feel especially motivated or have been jonesing for Plaguestone in particular, I'd gently suggest maybe finishing this one first and then jumping back into HR so that you're not working to try and restart multiple games at once.
Unless of course you've been missing HR and/or feeling primarily motivated to restart it first, in which case do that and worry about Plaguestone a little later.
Or maybe your enthusiasm is coming back but is still all over the place and you're feeling one game one day and then another game another day - in which case definitely just post as inspiration strikes :)
All of the above is, admittedly, totally unsolicited advice though so feel free to ignore it or tell me to MYOB.
Actually, if Blue went down before Gillian could act then she wouldn't have fallen back just yet. Here's her Round 6 Do-Over and Round 7.
Alternate Round 6
As Blue goes down Gillian breathes a sigh of relief. Three down, one to go. Rather than fall back like she'd planned she instead stows her longspear, draws out her sling, and loads it...
Interact, Interact, Re(load)~
...and now with her sling ready, she takes aim and lets a bullet fly at Red!
Strike vs. Red (Sling):1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20 Damage (Bludgeoning):1d6 ⇒ 3
Then she quickly reloads and sends another bullet flying!
Strike vs. Red (Sling):1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13 Damage (Bludgeoning):1d6 ⇒ 6
"Fall back, Ed!" Gillian calls out as she continues to try and perforate the homunculus that's up in their faces.
Strike vs. Blue (Longspear):1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 Damage (Piercing):1d8 ⇒ 8
Strike vs. Blue (Longspear):1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 Damage (Piercing):1d8 ⇒ 2
"Damn! They're harder to hit than you'd think," she huffs as she also falls back, hoping to put enough space between her and it to use another alchemist's fire.
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Hoping to maybe finish off at least Green without having to resort to using more of her limited resources Gillian steps back and attempts to deliver two quick spear thrusts into Green's belly!
Strike vs. Green (Longspear):1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20 Damage (Piercing):1d8 ⇒ 7
Strike vs. Green (Longspear):1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5 Damage (Piercing):1d8 ⇒ 8
Gillian manages to avoid the worst of the vomit but is still quick to take a step back and away from the puddle surrounding her feet.
"Geeze...we just can't catch a break, can we?"
With all of the homunculi now packed tightly together and no friendly fire of her own to worry about, Gillian quickly begins pulling out and throwing vials of fire and acid in rapid succession!
Strike vs. Green (Alchemist's Fire, Moderate):1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 Damage (Fire):2d8 ⇒ (5, 1) = 6+ 2 persistent fire + 3 splash fire
Finally, she stows her longspear in preparation to draw out her sling...
Gillian has the Quick Bomber & Calculated Splash class feats. Essentially she can interact to draw a bomb and then strike with it all as one action and her splash damage on bombs is equal to her Int modifier (+3) instead of the usual value.
Green *or* Yellow Falls Asleep, But Not Both:
Rather than throw bombs at point-blank range and suffer the splashback Gillian simply makes two quick jabs at the one homunculus that's still standing and within reach.
"Oooh...yeah, maybe let's let them come to us..." Gillian blinks as the four homunculi turn to stare at them. She takes cover as best as she can behind the door frame as she tries to recall any specific details about these things.
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Take Cover, Recall Knowledge: Arcana +9. And that's all.
"Not so sure about that..." Gillian mutters under her breath but otherwise doesn't comment on Ed's words. Instead, she sets about doing what she can to help canvas the two rooms for anything of use.
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"Yeah...looks like it was put together in a hurry. Probably wouldn't be hard to take down if we needed to but it could definitely send up another alert if we aren't careful," Gillian murmurs quietly as she too falls back from the kitchen door. "Let's check the doors to the north before we start worrying about taking stairs."
"And this is why the whole 'sins of the father' thing is a load of horse apples," Gillian mutters as the group peruses the diary. "No reason a child should've had to bear something like that. Doesn't make what she's done and doing now right, but...I can see why she wouldn't give a toss about a town that never cared a toss about her."
She glances up, startled, at the sudden sound of noise from the kitchen. Noticing that the rest of her friends are adopting stealthy stances she quickly attempts the same.
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"Yeah...maybe we should've tried to see if ANYONE back in town had any extra potions or something," Gillian agrees, still wincing in pain. "I'm about out of reagents, too. I can make one more elixir or something else and that's it."
Yeah, had to reread but I think I hit Dying 2 and then the potion brought me back round and put me at Wounded 1. I'm actually not sure if it's been an hour yet since the last time we rested and Treated Wounds.
"Ugh...thanks guys. Really wanted to save these for later, but doesn't look like I've got a choice," Gillian sighs as she pulls out some of her remaining infused reagents. Working quickly she whips together another healing elixir and drinks it down.
Thanks, Scratch! I think the Barkskin is probably faded by this point.
Gillian's eyes flutter open and she groans at the sight of everyone and everything hovering over her - including one of the hawk.
"Maybe I should've stayed in Mendev..." she mutters as she shakily grabs her longspear and climbs to her feet. Though she's closer than she'd like to be, she still attempts to make a stab at Green.
Strike vs. Green (Longspear):1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20 Damage (Piercing):1d8 ⇒ 7
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Interact, Stand, Strike! Also I'm so glad the PF1 'dead space' effect with reach weapons isn't a thing anymore!
As loathe as I am to point it out, that first attack against Gillian hits exactly.
"Ow! Stupid pests!"
With both hawks currently out of melee reach Gillian dips a hand into her pack and pulls out a vial of acid. She takes aim and heaves it upward at Red, already injured by Scratch's earlier hammer toss!
As the familiar sounds of trouble arise from the room ahead, Gillian grips her longspear tightly and slips past the others. When she catches sight of the strange air-hawks, her eyes widen.
"What."
She'd expected more orcs, not this. But now there's nothing for it; she continues advancing and tries to strike at Green while trying to recall if she's ever heard of such a beast.
Strike vs. Green (Longspear):1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15 Damage (Piercing):1d8 ⇒ 6
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"Wind...inside? That's surely not right," Gillian whispers to the others after they've made their way up the guard tower and then down through it and into the interior.
She tries to place what might make such a sound, whether it be natural or something more...sinister.
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"Alrighty, I think we can do that. Maybe we should at least go check out the main gate or something and make sure we've got a way out if push comes to shove, though."
With Scratch opining that the armor might be a better fit for her, Gillian sets about pulling it on, chucking her regular set of leather armor to the wayside.
Still in decent shape; I'll come back for it later, maybe.
"Well, those things'll help for sure but I dunno if we want to squat here for too terribly long - someone's going to miss Nar and those others and come looking for them," Gillian points out. "Then again...they might have the supplies inside to just hole up awhile and wait for something to happen."
She looks torn. "I'm not really sure what'd be best at this point."
"Sounds like a plan to me then," Gillian nods. She's quick to help Ed search the other orcs for any potential supplies or weapons, though she keeps one eye on the main structure ahead at all times. Once all the bodies have been searched she falls back into Lord Nar's hut with the others.
"Okay, okay...that can't be all of the orcs in this place," Gillian remarks as she quickly begins rifling through the nearest orc's (probably Green) possessions. "We need to either hole up somewhere or keep moving while we've got the chance, right?"
Although she's pretty sure that Green is well and truly done for now that the rest of their companions are turning their attention to him, Gillian still advances a bit closer to the action. She then snaps off another sling bullet...
Strike vs. Green (Sling):1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 Damage (Bludgeoning):1d6 ⇒ 3
...and then reloads.
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If Green does down before her turn comes up then Gillian will still move to her current map position and fire her bullet at sleeping Blue instead.
"Oy! Orc incoming," Gillian calls out as Green snaps awake and rushes past Ed and herself, clearly bent on helping his fearless leader. She quickly reloads her sling and whips off a shot at Green's melon...
Strike vs. Green (Sling):1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19 Damage (Bludgeoning):1d6 ⇒ 4
...and then loads up another bullet.
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Gillian takes a step up to put herself between Ed and another of the sleeping orcs before letting another sling bullet fly at the archer in the corner!
Not really liking leaving all three orcs to sleep but not seeing much other choice, Gillian stows her longspear again and moves up and around the Orc Logjam. She then draws out her sling...
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Gillian sees stars for a moment but as they clear she realizes that Ed's managed to put everyone to sleep except for the archer at the back. She quickly takes a step back and attempts to patch her own wounds a bit...
"Yeah, I think the doors are our best bet," Gillian agrees. "The longer we run around out in the open the more likely we are to be spotted. If we can slip inside and take out some of the goons in there then it'll be easier to take care of the ones outside and up in the guard tower later."
"Oh no, I can't do any actual magic," Gillian shakes her head. "If you want healing magic then you'll want to talk to a priest. What I do is healing science. There's a big difference!"
Realizing that they'll have to patch themselves up the 'old-fashioned' way, Gillian begins pulling out her bandages and antiseptics. "Still, I'm not going to complain that we found them. If we have to, maybe we can get someone in town to cast them when we get back. Or we can sell them; I bet they'd fetch some good coin."
"For being used to being on the front lines you're awful damn squeamish about stitches," Gillian sighs as her efforts fail to produce any useful results for the dwarf. "I've still got two more elixirs if you want them. In the meantime, I'm going to slap some ointment on the scrapes I got from climbing down earlier..."
"Don't forget to gag them," Gillian points out as Scratch sets about tying up the sleeping orcs and moves to do just that.
Assuming that grants us the time we need...is it 10 minutes per scroll or 10 minutes for the whole lot? If it's 10 minutes per scroll...
"Here, let me have that one, the alchemist says, gesturing to the first of the three scrolls. "Ed can probably make better headway on one or both of the others but this one looks sort of like it might be up my alley..."
"Hmm...I guess we can do that too," Gillian agrees. "At least it'll give us enough time to hopefully regather and nose around in here."
"And just because we tie them up doesn't mean we have to just leave them like that," she adds, lowering her voice. "Besides, we don't want anyone else wandering in here and turning them loose while we're off nosing around elsewhere."
"Yeah, let's get 'em further out of sight and then do the deed," Gillian agrees, ready to grab one of the sleeping orcs and help drag him into the sleeping quarters at the back.
"Healing? Sure, I whipped up some elixirs this morning before we set out," she adds, pausing to dig into her bag. "I got four with me and I can make up to four more - provided I don't need to use my gear to make anything else in the meantime."
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Gillian has Elixir of Life, Minor x4 already prepared and ready to go. They'll restore 1d6 HP. Feel free to use as many or as little as you feel that you need. Once we take care of the other two orcs maybe we'll have the time for Medicine checks?
With Ed already blocking the door there's not much else that Gillian can do to help except to continue trying to spear the struggling half-orc as he tries to flee...
