Hekau's page

"I will go back to check on Khonnir Baine."

@GM, please remove me from the game. I do not wish to take direction from Khoran, as I have said before. I am done.

Hekau tries to identify the rotting odor.
Knowledge (Dungeoneering): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Given a few days, Hekau will try to research additional spells.
Are there wizards in town with spellbooks who will sell him access? Or does he normally have access to Khonnir Baine's spellbooks?

Typically in PFS the cost of access is half the cost of scribing.
So a 1st-level spell is 10 gp for scribing, plus 5 gp for access, total 15.
A 2nd-level spell is 40 + 20 = 60 gp.
It is up to you what the access cost is here.

The time required to learn and scribe a spell is not trivial: (1+level) in hours. So that is a limiting factor.

Hekau can Take 10 on Spellcraft for an 18, learning any 1st or 2nd-level spell.

General wish list (mostly for my future reference):
1: Alarm, Crafter’s Fortune, Detect Undead, Disguise Self, Endure Elements, Enlarge Person, Expeditious Construction, Heightened Awareness, Hydraulic Push, Magic Missile, Magic Weapon, Monkey Fish, Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Sickening, Secluded Grimoire, Silent Image, Sure Casting, Touch of the Sea

2: Alter Self, Blindness/Deafness, Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Command Undead, False Life, Fog Cloud, Force Sword, Gust of Wind, Invisibility, Levitate, Mirror Image, Scorching Ray, Shatter, Spider Climb, Touch of Idiocy

Priorities for now:
Enlarge Person, Heightened Awareness, Magic Missile, Touch of the Sea (60 gp, 8 hours)
Gust of Wind, Fog Cloud, Levitate, Scorching Ray, Shatter (300 gp, 15 hours)

Are these spells available in town?

Abstain. Either way is fine with me.

How many days of downtime are we taking?

As it is now being offered to him, Hekau will buy the Cloak of Resistance for 500 GP.

Have we lost Alyn?

"I can read this language," Hekau says.
"It identifies the purpose of the various levels of this structure. The phrasing lends credence to the hypothesis that it is a ship for traveling between planets. The levels are termed 'decks'.
Deck 4 is Engineering
Deck 3 is Science.
Deck 2 is Crew, presumably meaning crew quarters.
Deck 1 is Docking.
The transport between levels, the 'elevator', is currently nonfunctional.
I believe we are on Deck 3."

I will decline to contribute funds towards a communal purchase of an adamantine weapon, should one even be available.

I don't think it's necessary given the challenge level of the AP to date. If we start struggling more, then I may change my mind.

Because things can take so long in PbP, and some APs have many "filler" encounters that don't add much to the story, I am not generally a completionist myself.
I am, however, happy to go along with whatever the majority wishes to do.
Consider me an abstention on this.

Hekau will translate the Androffan where he can.

"Once we claim our reward, it is possible that we may wish to purchase items from Sanvil Trett. He may be interested in purchasing some of what we found as well, such as the four-armed creature's short swords."

"I believe Khonnir Baine will recover in time, Val, although such recovery may be accelerated by both magical and mundane assistance."

Heal checks to Prvoide Long-Term Care can speed up recover of ability score damage. Additionally, there is an inexpensive magic item that lets the Heal skill restore ability drain through Long-Term Care.

"I believe that Khonnir Baine's group made it considerably far into the interior of this space on their own before being slain or captured. We know from the Skulks that they made it through the door from the Skulk area. The continued existence of the Skulks (and the mites that we dispatched) suggest that nothing from within emerged to trouble them."

"We could fall back to near the entrance, an area that we have explored more thoroughly. As I said, once I have replenished my mystical energy reserves, I can summon a bubble of air to surround Khonnir Baine's head.
I consider it probable that creatures or robots deeper within do not emerge to the areas near the entrance."

"Should we take the time to rest, I can manifest magic to surround Khonnir Baine's head with breathable air. It should then be a simple matter to pull him through the water."

Hekau can sacrifice two spells to cast Air Bubble[/i, but he has already used his Spell Study ability today (for [i]Comprehend Languages). I don't think we've rested since then, although we did level-up, so if that resets 1/day then he could use it again today. Otherwise resting.

Hekau will attempt to distract the robot so that Grezzag's blow can land.
Aid Another for Grezzag's attack: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22

Hekau steps up, drawing his club, and prepares to interfere with the robot's attacks.

Readied Action to Aid Another on AC if it attacks Grezzag or Uwe.

Hekau delays, wanting to give Zelvin and Alyn clear shots.

Just to say that I am here, but want to go after they do.

Khoran will likely fail to beat the Hardness (assuming Hardness 10 for metal), needing a 6+ on 1d8 to do even 1 point of damage, whereas Grezzag will always do some damage if he hits. I should remember that we have free Power Attack and maybe have Hekau take a swing next round. At 1d6+6 he is about as likely to do damage as Khoran is.

Hekau will just use Total Defense, seeing no need to open the casket until the robot is defeated.

Hekau falls back, moving over to Khonnir Baine (Withdraw, no AOO).

Hekau moves up to where he has a clear shot and fires his crossbow at the remaining robot.

Crossbow: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24
Confirm?: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Crit Damage: 2d8 ⇒ (5, 7) = 12

Hekau tries to identify the second robot.
Knowledge (Engineering): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27
Whatever pieces of information you choose to give me are fine.

He draws and loads his crossbow.

Eh, Hekau doesn't feel bad about demolishing it, he merely recognizes that unnecessary fights will deplete our resources and carry a chance of irrecoverable losses (e.g. PC death). Seems like this is a necessary fight. Anyway, let's say Special Defenses, Special Attacks, and movement speed.

Initiative: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8
@GM, I find when I GM that it generally goes faster for me to roll initiative for the monsters and the PCs and then to post the order.

"Grezzag, it might not have been hostile. I suspect it is now."
There is neither reproach nor sadness in Hekau's voice - just some flat statements of fact.

Hekau tries to see if he can identify the robot's purpose by its design.
Knowledge (Engineering): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27

He will use Total Defense.

"I do not see any need to close doors remotely at a safe distance. Closing them does not present the same risk as opening them."

Anybody can close it, I think. Also vote to follow the blood trail.

All of the doors, aside from the one to the area with the bins, are locked, so Open/Close won't work. Tapping the access card to the panel, and then using Open/Close would work, however!

@Khoran, this clarification was already provided. And so that is what I proposed to do.

"I would suggest opening the doors from a distance, using magic, and at an oblique angle. That way, if something is on the other side waiting to ambush us, we are not immediately exposed to it."

I always suggest this approach with any character who has the intelligence to think of it and the ability to do it. Opening a door and placing yourself in melee range of whatever is on the other side is unnecessarily risky, I think.

"The mechanical creations through this door likely have some programmed function - some task to complete. It may be that they will attack us, but that is not certain. I would suggest taking a defensive posture. We will be more likely to accomplish our goals if we can proceed without suffering injury."

Hekau is prepared to open the doors with Open/Close, again from a safe distance and at an oblique angle after using the keycard, though he waits for confirmation of this plan.

Hekau waits to see what Zelvin has to say.

Knowledge (Nature): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

Hekau may have some knowledge of the fungus.

I think the 'rule of two' is a good practice. If two PCs are in favor of a course of action and none opposed, then the party does that thing. Rather than waiting for everyone to chime in with "I agree" at every intersection.

Hekau casts Detect Magic on the wand.
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23

"This is a wand of healing."

Hekau then opens the door as Zelvin describes.

"I would suggest opening the doors from a distance, using magic, and at an oblique angle. That way, if something is on the other side waiting to ambush us, we are not immediately exposed to it."

Hekau has Open/Close for that purpose. If that cantrip doesn't work, and what is needed is to touch the keycard to an access panel, then he will in the future prepare Mage Hand for that purpose.

Hekau has a mediocre Disable Device (+6), and the Technologist feat so he should take no penalty, but at present he lacks any Thieves' Tools.

"I suggest we attempt to open these cupboards at a later time."

Taking 20 on searching doors for traps would eventually get rather slow, as each door would take 1 minute off of Zelvin's 20-minute Heightened Awareness for example. And forget about min/level spells. It's not a huge problem this one time but I don't think we can afford to Take 20 on every door. There are others in the party with better Perception than Uwe's +7 (Khoran has a +10, Alyn and Zelvin +8) so as a general rule multiple simultaneous checks would likely do as well as a single Take 20 from Uwe. Again, Take 20 for one door is fine, but as standard operating procedure it could cause some problems once we start having min/level buffs active. It's also not a guarantee that traps are only on doors (they can be in the middle of hallways) so we should establish if we are actively searching (active check as a move action for every 10' square), relying on passive abilities (Find Traps spell, Trap Spotter rogue talent), or only checking doors.

"I would suggest using the newly discovered access card, the one with the black stripe."

The android introduces himself.

"Greetings. Were you send from Torch to join us in the search for Khonnir Baine? I am Hekau."

"Very well, Zelvin."

Hekau remains with Zelvin as he pushes the button, and watches for any changes.

I wasn't sure if Uwe might be found down here as a survivor of Khonnir Baine's group. Okay, back up it is... Kind of hard to justify IC but we shouldn't keep our new player waiting.

"I do believe this is worth activating to reveal more information about this vessel and its history. However, I would prefer to have the advice of Khonnir Baine on this matter. I would suggest we now try to head east. We can try to use this access card with the black stripe."

Hekau tries to provide a bit more clarity on the button's purpose. Perhaps taken together the configuration of controls and displays in this room will provide a hint.
Knowledge (Engineering): 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24

I believe that is +6 HP, Grezzag. Average for 1d10 is 5.5, rounded up is 6. I got that wrong on my last level-up (corrected now) so maybe I am wrong again, though.

Hekau's level-up:
Wizard 3
+1 Fort/Ref
HP 1d6 ⇒ 3 - so take instead the average rounded up, which is 4. +2 Con and +1 FCB, for a gain of 7, new total of 23.
Feat: Technologist
+2 spells known (Resist Energy, See Invisibility)
Skill Points (6): Disable Device *3, Perception *2, Knowledge (Engineering)

@Zelvin, Background Skills are not in use for this campaign. I saw your update and was confused, but then I checked the Recruitment thread.

"The repair robot we encountered stated that it's function was to repair damage to the ship.
It is a logical conclusion that this structure is one such sky-ship as Zelvin speaks of, somehow buried here in Numeria. Perhaps it arrived and was subsequently covered by a landslide.
Alternatively, a vessel might be designed to traverse the planes, such as arriving here from Axis or the Abyss. Such could also be considered 'other worlds'. While I believe this explanation is less likely, it is a remote possibility. In such a case, a mishap when plane-shifting might cause it to appear in the ground."

Hekau will translate both what was said and what is on the walls.

"By the creature's words, it seemed to believe it was not from this world. The worship of Zyphus must extend to other worlds, then, though perhaps in a different form as evidenced by these drawings."

Adamantine bypasses DR/adamantine and it bypasses hardness of less than 20. It does not bypass other kinds of DR (/silver, /good, or /slashing to name a few examples).

Pretty sure adamantine shouldn't have bypassed DR/slashing, which I think this guy had.

Knowledge (Religion): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
Hekau knows nothing about this creature.

He draws and reads a scroll of True Strike.

Hekau will sacrifice Liberating Command and Feather Fall to cast Comprehend Languages.

Can he understand the ranting voice?

Hekau has no strong preference. "I will follow. If desired, I could cast Comprehend Languages to understand those words and possibly inform one of you of the situation well enough that a diplomatic approach might avert conflict with the speaker."

Hekau has 3 1st-level spells prepared; he can sacrifice 2 of them to cast any 1st-level Bard, Cleric, or Druid spell, and Comprehend Languages would thus be an option.