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My group has an alchemist, cleric, rogue and druid. After their (successful) show they investigated the body and found tracks which I said headed toward both Bardolph's wagon and Myron's Wagon. I didn't give them that specifically, just that they headed toward the part of camp NW of the stream and toward the bridge. Knowing what lay in wait at each location, I was surprised when they decided to split the group and half follow one set and the other half follow the other. Especially since these players make jokes all the time about not splitting the group. Luckily (for them), Myron's wagon was locked and the rogue went toward Bardolph's. So when the cleric shouted for the rogue to come unlock Myron's wagon they hadn't yet disturbed Bardolph.

Whether due to the difficulty of some of these encounters or due to poor rolls, the perception thus far has been that EC and Plaguestone are extremely difficult. All of my players are veterans of Pathfinder 1E, having migrated to Pathfinder from 3.5 back in the day. But we have nearly wiped almost every encounter so far in both stories.

So in the first salvo, before she could even act, the pods had the rogue at 1 HP. The group survived, but burned a lot of resources. Then the cleric took The Great Fortunato's cloak and the group went to Bardolph's wagon. I had not choice :) I dropped the cleric to dying. Obviously that was a lot of resources to get her back in order. Once they started trying to figure out where to go next, I had the woodchoppers tell them about the snakes. Even though by RAW you can't do this, I let the druid 'diplomacy' the giant viper (mostly because I played a 1E druid and found it annoying that you get this ability to use diplomacy with animals, but every animal Paizo puts before you is in combat so the ability doesn't get used). Anyway, they did fine at the camp and mephits.

That was the end of that session, so before the next session I could take stock. I immediately decided that the cockatrice was too great a level difference (1 vs. 3) especially when they were essentially out of resources. So I didn't give them any hints to go there. Instead they heard the music playing as they left the forest for the grig encounter. I 'steered' them toward the resolution to join the music and guide it to conclusion. Luckily, the rogue made some excellent Performance checks, so this solution turned out to be no problem.

Between sessions I'd already examined the grigs and since they looked similar to a bard kit I gave them each a tiny wand of Soothe. So when the party kicked off combat with Nemmia, there was 2 extra heals they didn't know about... which is a good thing because it probably would have been a TPK without the grigs' assistance (both healing and damage). Normally I wouldn't upstage the heroes by doing damage with a support NPC, but in this case the players already felt desperate enough and that Paizo and the dice were against them that they didn't mind the aid at all. I had also prepped for Bardolph to come to their aid also. I'd decided the trigger was if any party member went down to dying and they squeaked by so I didn't end up needing him.

They were all extremely happy when I let them level to 2 after all that and they seem more hopeful... that will be until next session and they go in the church...

As I was preparing Muminofrah's chariot race in Book 3 Part 1, I was not entirely happy with even the modified chase mechanics. The legs sounded interesting and if you run it as described the only way to win would be to skip legs. So I completely reworked the whole thing. I just ran this event with my group tonight and it was a hit... the highlight of the entire session. Everyone got really involved and they really enjoyed it. So I thought I'd post what changes I made and how I ran this event.

First a little additional information: We use Roll20 for maps and combat and Hero Lab for characters. So first I took the map of Tephu in Roll20 and on the GM layer drew lines for each leg of the route so that I could move them to the Token layer each time they hit a new leg. I also put a text number in a small circle on each leg just to label them. In order to get 13 legs and for some of the legs to match what was described vs. where the leg actually went I used the following route:

Leg 1 and 2: Depart point 15 on the map (Palace of Gentle Reeds) and follow the canal south and south-east
Leg 3: cross the canal heading north across the southernmost bridge
Leg 4: Follow the road from the bridge north to around the border of New City
Leg 5: straight shot north on the road through the market at point 20
Leg 6: From point 20 snake east (following the road) closer to the reed fields then north to the northern border of New City
Leg 7: Drop back south of the New City border 1 block then follow the road west to near point 13, then sharp turn on the border to go around point 13 and follow the road north toward the canal.
Leg 8: Straight shot north to the edge of the city, then follow the road west around the edge of the city
Leg 9: Follow the road southwest straight through the middle of the plaza at point 17.
Leg 10: Follow the roads SW from point 17 then 90 degree turn SE through the camel souk at Point 3
Leg 11: Follow the road south of point 3 on the edge of the city then turn east to follow the road to eventually come from the south through point 22
Leg 12: Continue north from point 22, cut WSW on the road just south of where it says "Wadjet's Walk" on the map and follow the road heading straight for point 11. Just before point 11, turn west then make the sharp turn back east to follow the road just north of point 11.
Leg 13: Straight shot from there back to the Palace of Gentle Reeds.

I then used Hero Lab to create statblocks for 12 NPCs from various levels and backgrounds. Some were crafters, some were farmers, some were nobles, some were retired adventurers. I made a token in Roll20 for each of them so that I could add all of them and the PCs to the Roll20 combat tracker. To make figuring out their checks easier, I made a spreadsheet with their applicable skill checks that would calculate all 12 NPC results at the same time.

So here are the rules I used:
- Every player and NPC needed to make a check at every leg.
- At each leg I could describe the challenge then give them a choice of what check they would like to make (without telling them the DC of said check). Example (Leg 3): "As you charge down the road next to the canal, you see ahead that the bridge you were supposed to cross is under construction. You can either make a Handle Animal check or a Knowledge (local) check". I would then describe the results of that check depending on their result vs. the DC: "You use your knowledge of Tephu to find an alternate route around the bridge. You are able to charge ahead a bit"
- For each check they either gain or lose 'points' depending on their roll.:
Success = 0
Success 5-9 over = +1
Success 10-14 over = +2
Success 15-19 over = +3
Success 20-24 over = +4
Success 25+ = +5
Fail 1-4 = -1
Fail 5-9 = -2
Fail 10+ = make Handle Animal DC 15 check or crash (10d6 dmg; Refl DC 20 for half)
- I would keep track of the point totals in Roll20's combat track where it would normally display the initiative. that way the players could see the standings on the screen at all times.
- They could still go solo or double up
- If they doubled up, certain checks (where it made sense) I allowed them to aid eachother

I believe I kept the obstacles the same as described in the AP, but adding more descriptive flair to make it interesting. At the end of it the players talked about some other AP that had a chase mechanic in it that they all thought didn't work very well, but that they really enjoyed the above described method.

A couple of points of feedback from this:
- They suggested capping the success gain at +2 or maybe +3 to keep things tighter in the standings. After around leg 6 the PCs had started to get so far ahead of the NPCs that the only threat was that they would fail their own checks so bad they would crash... but none of the NPCs were contenders anymore.
- Because our players are using Gestalt rules, they are a bit more powerful than normal, so I adjusted up most of the DCs of the checks to give them more of a challenge. This resulted in the NPCs, which were already poorly suited to the challenges, having a great deal of trouble making the checks. By the end of the race EVERY NPC had crashed so it was only the 3 PC chariots. If the challenge of the checks was to be increased, the NPCs would need to be artificially buffed to provide a better challenge for the PCs (and not all crash before leg 8).

Anyway, like I said, this was a hit and one of the better moments for the group in the last 2-3 sessions. I thought I'd share in case it helps someone else.