Yeah let's continue on to Teacher Ot's office. I'll say that Jenk got distracted for a while and we'll go from there.

Heading to the teacher works for me yeah

I'm fine with either, depending on whether Digi wants to roleplay out the baker bit!

Sorry for being mia, came back from the trip on Sunday but been sick as a dog since. Will start my catch up round when I can.

I'm fine with moving on! Seems like most of the group is leaning to moving on, and I've got no qualms with that. Saur's thing can be kind of rushed through/done off-screen in a single post and we can move right on to our way back to Teacher Ot~

I'll get a post up to move us to Teacher Ot soon!

Appropriately, Ele is not eager to touch those bugs; got a (nat) 1.

@clanjos@Digizel Waiting on you two!

Well, that's an initiative roll of 7, otherwise known as "ouch."

@wanderingwolf Ah whoops, sorry about that, I've been suddenly really swamped for the last week and my writing motivation just TANKED. But I should be good to go again here shortly. I'll run some quick catch up and get in what I need to.

I'd be lying if I said the delay probably didn't have something to do with it, but xD

EDIT: JFC, perhaps thematically appropriate, but Saur waltzes in here with a Nat 20 for a total of 28. His actively perceptive tendencies and Bloodscale instincts kicked him into hyperdrive all of a sudden xD

would've rather that have been on an attack or check or something, but y'know whatever whatever~ xP

I read over the initiative rules, and it says by default, you use your Perception skill, right? As opposed to how D&D 5e uses the raw Dex modifier? I noticed some of the initiatives above were unmodified so I figured it might be worth clarifying xD

I read over the initiative rules, and it says by default, you use your Perception skill, right? As opposed to how D&D 5e uses the raw Dex modifier? I noticed some of the initiatives above were unmodified so I figured it might be worth clarifying xD

Also curious about that, because I also assumed we'd use Perception as that's how it was the one other time I played Pf2E, but then the sheet has a separate field for "Initiative", which has a different value (that's not based on Dex either, apparently...?)

If we do use Perception, it's a 6 instead of 1, so I doubt it matters either way in this case.

<Snipped quote by Digizel>
Also curious about that, because I also assumed we'd use Perception as that's how it was the one other time I played Pf2E, but then the sheet has a separate field for "Initiative", which has a different value (that's not based on Dex either, apparently...?)

If we do use Perception, it's a 6 instead of 1, so I doubt it matters either way in this case.

I saw that on my CS too, but according to Initiative rules I read over, the DM can call for an initiative roll using one of many different skills (like I think one of the examples was if you're starting an encounter while sneaking, you could initiate with Stealth). So I am under the impression that that's an ongoing modifier to ALL initiative rolls you make. Like if you had a feat that gave you a +1 ongoing to Initiative or something, it would show a +1 there and you roll a Perception-based initiative, then it would be "1d20 + Perception + 1"

But ofc, I'm completely new to Pathfinder in general, let alone PF2e, so people more experienced than me, feel free to correct me if I am wrong!

@Digizel@Vertigo Initiative in P2e is interesting in contrast to DND for that reason! As you say, if Saur was sneaking before an encounter, he could use his Stealth modifier rather than Perception. Normally, Perception is the go-to for initiative, but cases can be made for other modifiers as well! It puts a bit of flavor on rolling initiative so that players can have some added control and flair over how the enter the fray.

Thanks everyone for rolling up! I'll get a post up tomorrow for the beginning of battle!

Also, Vertigo don't worry: you can't critically fail an initiative roll :D. We'll take your modifier on top.

That's a good clarification for everyone though! I'm not going to chase you to make sure you added your modifiers for things. That's up to you! Make sure you're getting those bonuses!

@wanderingwolf Okay, so before my first turn starts, I do have a question. This entire office is in disarray, there's blood in the water, Teacher Ot nowhere in sight, stuff is broken and this is a decent amount of enemies that had to have come from somewhere. There's a lot they have to look into and Saur is now in "end this as soon as possible" mode.

So, Saur is immediately going to jump forward to put himself as between the beetles and his companions as possible and get ready to draw his close quarters weaponry. But he'd rather not have to kill them if he doesn't have to; he is going to look at these creatures and see if he can recognize them enough to know if it's possible to pacify them, or if they're, like...feral hunter bugs or something.

tl;dr, I'm guessing Saur's first action is probably going to be to study these things and probably use Recall Knowledge (Nature) to see if he knows anything about these bugs, specifically if there's a way to pacify them when agitated like this.

He's a ranger trained in Nature, so maybe he might know something xD

I'd preemptively roll the check to get a result right away, but I'd like to ask to see if I can even possibly succeed the check before I commit to the action, if that makes sense?

@Digizel Give me his nature modifier and I'll roll a recall knowledge for Saur.

@Digizel Give me his mature modifier and I'll roll a recall knowledge for Saur.

Roger that! His Nature mod is +6

@Digizel Apologies for fat fingering that! I'll get a reply up tomorrow morning.

@Digizel Saur doesn't need to use his first action for this; this one's a freebie.

Saur recognizes that these beetles are known as Flash Beetles. Not only do they have the ability to shine brightly, but they can, when frightened, actually shine so bright that they dazzle those around themselves. More importantly, Saur remembers that these beetles subsist almost exclusively on a special ichor, which pacifies them. Saur realizes that Teacher Ot must have had such an ichor in his possession to keep these beetles to heel. With a quick glance across the room, and with his good sense of smell, he spends no time at all locating the broken bottle of ichor whose contents coat the top of Teacher Ot's desk in a pile of thick, viscous fluid.

The beetles seem surprised at the presence of the group, and do not appear to be aware of the presence of the ichor.

@Digizel Saur doesn't need to use his first action for this; this one's a freebie.

Saur recognizes that these beetles are known as Flash Beetles. Not only do they have the ability to shine brightly, but they can, when frightened, actually shine so bright that they dazzle those around themselves. More importantly, Saur remembers that these beetles subsist almost exclusively on a special ichor, which pacifies them. Saur realizes that Teacher Ot must have had such an ichor in his possession to keep these beetles to heel. With a quick glance across the room, and with his good sense of smell, he spends no time at all locating the broken bottle of ichor whose contents coat the top of Teacher Ot's desk in a pile of thick, viscous fluid.

The beetles seem surprised at the presence of the group, and do not appear to be aware of the presence of the ichor.

Ah excellent. So then here's one more important question for you before I can get my post done: Would attempting to present it potentially pacify the whole group, or would I have to, like...present it to one. Related, if the latter, then what's the action economy at play here? I know I have to use a move action to get there, leaving me with 2 left. Would taking and offering some of the ichor count as one action or are they two separate actions? One action would mean pacifying two of them, but two means I can only pacify one. Either way, I know he'll be relaying his knowledge to the rest of the group as he figures this out.

EDIT: Oh, less important extra question: is the desk the kind that's completely hollow underneath, allowing you to pass under it? I presume it's more like what I usually expect to see in a school office setting and it's got a solid side to it facing the door. Do you know what I mean? Not actually important and entirely flavor since Saur would prefer to use his size to go under the desk rather than vault or climb over it during his movement. xD