We have an extra horse, BTW.  The one that Lucy bought for Yawgo.

I decided to try and uncloud things.  For the sake of my mind at least.

So, looks to me as though two moorbounders fled directly north.  (One of them with Kursak's dead horse.)  The one that we are interested in initially fled south with the Tiefling's body.  Since, then, however, we have information that this moorbounder with the tiefling in its mouth, has circled from south to the Northeast.

This puts all three moorbounders headed in a similar general direction.  it is particularly telling to me that the Moorbounder with Tiefling is circling around to nearly 180 degrees from the direction from which it had initially escaped.   It is in that general direction in which I think we should head.

The problem that I have is that the only one who knows about the Moorbounder with Tiefling is Frilia's Yukiko.  For this reason, I cannot have Lucidity act on this information.

---

Moorbounder 1: Dead
Moorbounder 2: Has Kursak's horse.  Went out of sight headed north.
Moorbounder 3: Has Tiefling.  Went out of sight headed south.
Moorbounder 4: Fled north.

I think the "tiefling's moorbounder" that Yukiko saw was its mount, not the one that is carrying the tiefling's corpse

You're right.  In that case, looks like following the moorbounder with the horse may be the wrong direction.  The one with the tiefling went south.  I'll post on that in a bit.

BTW, thanks for the catch.

You're very welcome  ;)

Sometimes my hardest job is keeping my mouth shut...  :D

Would an Investigation check help us start moving in the right direction?

No, this would more accurately be governed by Survival -- it's still a tracking exercise.

Rain spotted the trail heading south, but there've been no specific movements to head up the southern ridge and follow the trail.

Just for that, tomorrow you're getting this on the violetta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsX3sPbzWy8

Don't you threaten me with a good time!

I love stringed instruments, thought I cannot play them.  One of my favourite artists is Lindsey Stirling.  Electric violin dubstep... *drool*

That's appropriate.  Given that you were the first one to show concern.

Concerning exhaustion on revive:

Generally, I hate exhaustion in 5E. For this case, I think it sounds good. The concern that I have is that the stacks get out of hand real quick and then force an element of downtime into the game. It's more realistic and crunchy as a mechanic, so that part is actually kind of good. I have a little concern about the downtime, as it's a "stop playing the game for a while and play this mechanic instead" thing, which I hate in most games. But, we know that it's there and how to avoid it, so it shouldn't happen often. And, when it does happen, then it should theoretically be fitting from an RP standpoint of we just got our asses kicked, win or loose, lets take a few days to recover.

TLDR; I like it. Tiny bit concerned, but more from a worst case standpoint than a general sense.

Some of the recent effects that bring Exhaustion back into the mix include something like, "When the character finishes a short or long rest, they lose every level of exhaustion gained from this feature." Some variation of that would put off the potential for forced downtime lasting several days in a row. Having a short rest remove 1 level of the exhaustion and long rests restoring all, or multiple, levels could also work.

I did consider a variation on that.  Specifically, casting Lesser Restoration on an Exhausted person removes one level of Exhaustion.  Casting its bigger cousin Greater Restoration would remove all levels of Exhaustion.

At the end of the day I am trying to walk a line between gritty realism and pure fantasy.  I want to avoid situations where a character doesn't hesitate to charge into battle when they're on 5 hit points (because the cleric will just heal them) -- and I want to give the clerics and healers a chance to do more than just heal the front-line.  Kinda sucks to have all of those awesome powers, but you can't use them because you have to save room for healing spells.

I hate how almost formulaic dndcombat has become.  It's gotten so bad that it's actually invaded our language.  Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins are "tanks" and their job is to hold the line.  Rangers, Rogues, and Warlocks are generally "dps" and their job is to deal as much damage in as short a time as possible (as if that's not the goal of every fighter).  Then you have "controllers" and "supports" and "healers".

I blame video games, which are built a certain way because people are unpredictable.  Game developers cannot predict every way that a person might act, but that is literally their job.  Predict the actions so you can script the responses.  You can track the evolution over time.  it started with the silent protagonist -- the main character of a game who never speaks and is only spoken to.  From there, it moved into conversation trees where you could only select from four or five things your character might say, and the conversation develops from there.  I get it; this is born out of the need to deliver a finished game: something that starts at point A and ends at Point B.  it's a necessary evil for video games.  But it's bled over into tabletop games and tabletop game development.

So I look for ways to disrupt the formula.  Underwater combat and exploration (Emerald Grotto)... a fight at long range (the encounter with the moornounders)... and things like making unconsciousness more than a "miss a turn getting healed" inconvenience.

Exhaustion is brutal from a game mechanic perspective.  Dying is brutal from a roleplay perspective.  It should be.

</rant>

I think they're either all running away.  Or everyone is running into an ambush.  Be ready.

I think I'd like to try running the next combat this way, just to see how it works out for us.

I'm looking ahead to things like lair actions and legendary actions -- which could absolutely change the battlefield.  I also think that breaking things up like this might mean I have less to focus on for the post, which means I can be a bit more flavourful with my narration (right now, it seems dry in combat rounds).

Any thoughts?

sounds good. can always revert if it doesn't work out

Sounds like a good experiment to me as well.  Might I ask, though, what are Legendary Actions?  Lair Actions, I assume would be in close quarters?

Certain monsters have lairs.  Dragons or Beholders, for instance.  When *in* those lairs, special things -- usually not good things for the party -- can happen.

Day-um.  That's new for me.  Cool rule.

Does that count for badgers too?  I'm betting that it does.

For that you need at least three badgers, two mushrooms, and a snake.  Make a wisdom saving throw or suffer 2d8 psychic damage.  :)

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL6CDFn2i3I

---

Rolled 19 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 14.  Wisdom Save.

Honey badger don't give a shit.

What's really nasty are Legendary Resistances.  Generally limited to a number of time per (time period), they simply state:

Sorry, apologies for not posting sooner.  Lucy wasn't going to return to the campsite.  Rather, she was going to send the others back and continue on to figure out what Rain had stumbled on.  That's the reason for the light.  Is it possible to retcon those last couple of paragraphs?

Yes, I know it's rash.  And it's risky.  But, I can't help thinking that we're giving up some sorts of rewards at the ends of these encounters.  Something in the way that Go on / Or Go Back has been offered to us both times that makes me feel that we're missing out on something.

I'm open to someone convincing me that I'm wrong.  Because it is rash, and it is risky.  But I also think that Lucy is the only one fast enough to run away should things get dicey.