"Sure! Can't pass up a deal like that! If it's not a proprietary blend, do you mind sharing what you used? They look a bit different from those I've made in the past."

((He'd like to take a closer look at them, since you said they look different. INT + herbalism prof?: 16))

((Alton and Ralfaen, feel free to interact with Bubbles. Gotur, you can by all means finish your transaction and talk with her more if you want. I will just make the next post since I have time.))

After the day's travel is complete, the professor suggests that the party stops to camp for the night just on the forest outskirts. She frequently makes this trip from Neverwinter to the ruins, and has almost had no issues camping in this location. I have updated the smiley face to show exactly where you are. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JMcWkjg_2bADKFk72NcYqCT9q6iqli_XAHA77ojzLz0/edit#gid=404487610

Please consume some type of food, and/or make survivalchecks to find some. The professor is quite content to simply sleep under the stars using her bedroll. Feel free to pitch a tent if you'd like, though. Professor Landy starts a fire and eats some dried meats she had in her pocket. "You got food, right?" The professor talks about some of her crazy digs and some of the things she's found in her lifetime. You all likely get to know her better as she likely talks too much during the evening at the campsite. "Blah blah blah artifacts! Blah blah blah interesting rocks blah blah blah ancient creatures! bones! blah blah blah"

Any conversation or downtime activities during the evening hours at camp you want to do, go ahead.

Will one or more of you be keeping watch over night? The area is relatively safe, although there is still a risk of something happening in the night. You are right beside a forest. If one or more of you decide to keep watch, please roll a perception check.

Gotur, Bubbles responds "Ah, perfect! Deal!" She reaches out, takes the coins, gives you the 3 bottles, and offers to shake your huge hand with her petite hand, if you will allow it. 

She replies "Oh, you know, the normal ingredients! I've been able to find some gorgeous red amanita mushrooms closer to the sea which go along way in the healing properties. And of course the magical mixing agents."

Gotur, you take a good look at the potions. They do in fact look different than the standard healing potions you've seen in the past. Although, most potions don't look identical. These don't look odd though or anything like that. Just perhaps slightly different than others you've consumed. She is, after all, a homebrewer and not a mass producer :)

"Ah! I'm more of a 'forest dweller' myself, so I'm less familiar some of the seaside ingredients." Gotur says, shaking her little hand as he hands over the gold.

As they are getting around and making camp, Gotur will look for any available forage for his mule (who he has dubbed Zhoggab), as well as any suitable edibles to stretch their rations.

Survival: 19

Not finding much, he'll portion out some feed for Zhoggab and get out some rations for himself.

Bubbles chuckles. "Thanks again, good sir! Now, any of you others want any potions?"

If not, she would skip away along the road, pushing her little cart as she goes. 

Gotur, even with the abundant food and water sources around, you come up empty. Both for the mule and for yourself and the others.

The professor might snicker at this a bit. "Hey, you want some jerkey?!? Don't go giving it to the mule though! he he he!"

Alton will eat one set of his 5 rations and is content sitting around the fire and making small talk with others merrily. 

"Is it mule jerky?", Gotur asks in a loud whisper after clamping his hands over Zhoggab's ears.

 Ralfaen talks to the party as they are setting up camp and eating. "Originally, hire you for one reason, I was going to.  Heard stories of your encounters in the sewers, I have. The most popular in Neverwinter, my cemetery is, but gone awry, things have.  Gone missing from their graves, people have.  Started attacking the establishment from the inside, zombies have.  Learned abjuration magic in order to protect it, have I.  However, getting past both my physical and magical barriers, something is. Hmmm... kept this a secret so far in order to avoid mass panic, have I.  But, since accomplished adventurers, you are, get to the bottom of this, I want you to. Information about the sewers, you also have, which like to have, I also would. Pay you for doing these things, I would. Undecided as of right now, the amount is.   

Translation: (I was originally going to hire you for one reason. I have heard stories of your encounters in the sewers. My cemetery is the most popular in Neverwinter, but things have gone awry. People have gone missing from their graves. Zombies have started attacking the establishment from the inside. I have learned abjuration magic in order to protect it. However, something is getting past both my physical and magical barriers. We have kept this a secret so far in order to avoid mass panic. But, since you are accomplished adventurers, I want you to get to the bottom of this. You also have information about the sewers, which I would also like to have. I would pay you for doing these things. The amount is undecided as of right now.)

"Ho ho! One more thing! Create sensors that will alert us to hostile creatures, I can. Like me to make some audible alarms that alert everyone, would you? Or perhaps silent ones that mentally alert me, hmm?" About 55 minutes before everybody goes to sleep, Ralfaen will use that time to cast Alarm as a ritual 5 times (which will not use spell slots), with one in the center of the camp, and the rest in each of the four directions (North, East, South, West.) The central alarm is a 20 by 20 ft cube, and the rest will be cast 10 feet apart from the border, extending the general alarm radius to 40 feet North, East, South, and West. 

Translation: (Ho ho! One more thing! I can create sensors that will alert us to hostile creatures. Would you like me to make some audible alarms that alert everyone? Or perhaps silent ones that mentally alert me, hmm?)

"Also, keep watch for the first part of the night, can I."

Translation: (Also, I can keep watch for the first part of the night.)

The professor replies to Gotur: "Bah! Mule jerky my foot! This is the finest jerky in Neverwinter! At least that's what the nice merchant said to me. Can't say he's lyin' either. It's delish!"

Ralfaen, you cast your alarm spell, and after some relaxed cheerful conversation from Alton as well as hearing Ralfaen's potential quest proposal, you all tuck yourselves into your bedrolls to get some rest for the night as the fire slowly flickers away... 1 and the night is one of the most peaceful nights you've experienced. A perfect light breeze keeps you all comfortable throughout the night as Ralfaen's alarm spell keeps all of your minds at ease for the long rest.

((Of course feel free to respond to Ralfaen's quest proposal, or say/do anything else you would've done that night. In the meantime, I will move forward the next day now))

 Having had a great sleep, you all rise, eat breakfast if you want (consume a ration or survival for food) and clean up the campsite as you prepare for day 2 of travel. "Well lads, shall we get to the road? Seems like another beauty of a day! Tee-hee! Giggle giggle!" the professor is getting more and more giddy as you get closer to the destination. Like she said, it is another gorgeous day. Warm but not too warm. Nice breeze. Clear skies... 33

...you are almost at the end of day 2's travel. Everything has been normal so far. You see the same types of people on the road. Merchants, travelers and even some lost folk. As the late afternoon draws near, the roads get quiet and no one is really around. You press on, and then eventually come up to a young human knight in full plate armor with paladin-like symbols engraved on it. He is totally blocking the road. Standing alongside him is a smaller man, who you would assume is his squire. (both of these NPC's have been added to the NPC tab: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JMcWkjg_2bADKFk72NcYqCT9q6iqli_XAHA77ojzLz0/edit#gid=167607424)

The bratty-looking knight stands tall and shouts out in a pretentious manner at you all, but is staring at Gotur: "HALT! I am Carl the Cleanser. I cleanse the land of vile barbaric evil beings. Like HIM!" the knight points at Gotur. "I demand a trial by combat, NOW! I shall rid the land of vile beings like YOU!"

The knight removes his cloak and throws it to the ground, and you see the squire is also slowly starting to take out a greatsword which he is about to give to the knight. 

We are on the verge of combat, but not yet in this exact moment. You all have time to react to what has happened, which will determine if initiative is required.

The professor is cowering behind Gotur. "Holy hell, is this guy mad?! What do we do?"

What do you all do?

((just to confirm, the paladin-knight is only calling out Gotur for the trial by combat because he is a half-orc. The knight hasn't made any hostile movements towards any of the other party members, and doesn't plan to. He wants him 1 on 1.))

"Oh ho ho! Knight, to this old saying, listen. 'Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger… anger leads to hate… hate leads to suffering.  No need to be afraid, you are riddled with fear even though there is.' Unnecessary, your hate for my friend is, and your feelings cloud your true path as a paladin, hmm?  Paladins care and help others, but harm innocents, do not."  He then waves his hand and says "Fight him, you shall not. Move along." and casts Charm Person at 2nd level, targeting the knight and his squire (DC 13 Wisdom save). 

"I don't know  how much you heard, but there was a necromancer raising dead down there, there were at least two victims... well, Venovar's Mom got brought back, so not a casualty in the end. Do you think the necromancer was getting into your crypts? He had an ogre with him... you buried any ogres lately?"

((Rations are for the day, do you want us to deduct that in the evening if we don't manage to find fresh throughout the day?))

As they are confronted by the knight, Gotur sighs. "Great... usually these bigots only have three talking points they can remember, if you let them talk, they run out of new things to say, get confused and go away... and if not... well..."

"Look... Carl was it? I'm not evil, I'm a traveler minding my own business. It would be evil to lie in wait along the road and attack travelers, so maybe it's your view of the world that's evil, you ever think about that?"

Persuasion: 7

"I'm sure there's a stable somewhere that needs cleansing, maybe you can put yourself to work there, most stablemen are happy to have someone help muck out the stalls."

((That's about how I expected his persuasion at a -1 to go. He's better at intimidation, but I feel like that's not his go to in most situations. Is the way passable to either side of the road? He's blocking it, but is it thick vegetation on either side? I'm considering casting something on the road between us assuming he's pursuing his bigotry, but don't want him to just be able to walk around it.))

As Gotur is talking to Carl, Alton will be slowly inching his way along the side of the path hiding behind trees to flank Carl and his squire. He pulls out his dagger of venom and quietly approaches the two, waiting to see if he needs to strike. 

Stealth: 24

((My bad about the rations, yep the ones from last night will be just fine still for the morning.))

((I did a bit of research about Charm Person and how obvious it is to the target that the spell is happening. This is crucial to this particular moment as the knight will react differently depending on what happens, and especially if he notices you trying to cast a spell on him. From what I found, unless a spell has a perceptible effect, a creature might not know it was targeted by a spell at all. Also, the description of the spell seems to assume that the target does not know they are charmed until after it is over. Also, I assume Ralfaen will wave his arm jedi mind trick-style quite subtly, and so all of this being said, the knight does not know you are casting the spell.))

Ralfaen, you say your piece and cast your spell... Knight: 19         Squire: 5

The knight is headstrong. He says to Ralfaen "Listen to me, creature of the deep. There is but no fear in my blood. My creed demands that I cleanse the world of vile barbaric beings like that one, and now is the time for his trial by combat. Should he succeed, than he shall be freed of his blasphemies and considered whole once again. Talk to me when you actually start practicing an oath, you non-hero in a half-shell!"

The squire (named Peewee) is charmed. He says: "Carl.... come now... I am sure he's alright..... Let's leave our friends be....."

The knight says: "Peewee, give me my sword, NOW! What in the blue devils is wrong with you?"

Carl the knight then says to Gotur: "LIAR! Respect the trial of combat! If you shall not defend yourself, then I shall strike you down." he again calls out to the squire for his sword. "PEEWEE! SWORD! NOW!" The squire doesn't give it.

((The road is definitely passable. It's just him and the squire. There is little to no vegetation on the side of the road. You'd have to go a few hundred feet east for the forest, or the same distance west for the coast.))

Alton, there is really nothing much to hide behind on this road as per above. However, given your extremely stealthy actions and small stature, you are actually able to slink your way around the action while the heated conversation is going on, with your dagger at the ready, maybe 5 or 10 feet behind the knight and the squire. They do not notice you at all since they are very engaged in what is going on in the moment with the heated conversation!

The knight is about to figure out that the squire is charmed.

You have a moment to make any final non-combat actions before the knight realizes what is going on and engages Gotur in combat, sparking an initiative roll. Alton remains unseen so far by the knight and squire. 

(a rough map has been added on the Road tab to give you an idea of positioning. It isn't an actual combat map, persay. If combat happens, we will just use this map and estimate the distances if need be for movement. Also, assume that the professor is behind Gotur. I forgot to add her in!)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JMcWkjg_2bADKFk72NcYqCT9q6iqli_XAHA77ojzLz0/edit#gid=782996410

Gotur bellows his frustration at racist bigots and slams his staff into the ground, casting spike growth, causing sharp spines to jut out in a circle around them. 

"If you stay put, you won't come to harm, but try to follow us and you'll regret it!"

Alton will use his precombat action to cause the dagger of venom to become coated in posion. He then draws a second dagger in his other hand and waits for Carl to make a move. 

Initiative (If Needed): 7 

((Oh. ... I didn't realize they were that close, I don't think Gotur would have allowed someone obnoxiously hostile to approach that close, I thought we were yelling from at least some distance away.))

((You are totally right. How far do you think a reasonable distance would be before the talking started? 15 feet?))

((If he was visibly blocking the way from a distance, I think we would have slowed, and have halted when he called Gotur out. Mechanically, Gotur knows the range on his spike growth, so if things were looking south, he'd have wanted to keep himself and the party outside that 20 ft radius, ideally a bit further, since targeting a spot a bit in front of an approaching enemy means they have to move through more of the spiked area. I'd like 25 or 30, but will deal with being closer if need be....))