Re: Chat Based Pathfinder
Second session:
Apart from the weird creature the night went uneventfully. In the morning it was decided that Keats and Xavier, being the ones with aerial capacity, should try to find the missing people. After spotting a trail leading to a nearby forest, Xavier continues to follow the trail(we'll return to that later) and Keats returns back to the camp, just in time to meet the new arrivals, Redhand and Azieru. Keats immediately recruits them to help with finding the lost ones and after a brief conversation, it's decided that five will go forth, while Petunia acts responsibly and guards the camp in case something will decide to attack again and Byzat goes to wrestle a bear, then kills it, takes the meat and makes a new coat out of its fur. Or so I assume.
And so the merry quintet consisting of Azieru, Isidien, Islona, Keats and Redhand go on their way towards the forest without hurry, all but Keats without mounts, so the going is rather slow. In the idle chatter Keats aims to keep going to entertain herself and the others nothing much comes up, except that Azieru has no experience outside cities, but has certainly read about forests, is a librarian and carries traps around. Oh, and Redhand is certainly nothing but a nickname. Nothing mystical about it. At all. Introductions get made, too. Oh, and Azieru hopes for excitement. You know, the life threatening kind. Keats is a little more cynical about that(or at least pretends to be). Eventually everyone (except Keats, who's more interested in imagining everyone else naked) notices something strange about the lightning. The kind of strange that suggests trouble. Keats and Redhand pick up the pace, leaving everyone else behind. Eventually they arrive at the clearing surrounding a village...
Meanwhile, Xavier has gone ahead and followed the tracks, arriving at the village(same village, about twenty minutes ago). Seeing his (ex-)companions unconscious and tied to a huge tree. Xavier gets mad at the tree for imprisoning his friends and challenges the tree to a duel. He actually starts well, or at least scores the first blood(sap?). But of course, as was shown last session, things are rarely that simple. You see, the village isn't empty. It's full of ogres. One of whom is a quite powerful shaman. So Xavier and his mount get a face full of lightning. Xavier, with his honor so far up his ass that it intersects with his brains, decides to take on the entire ogre village, with maybe a little help from his unconscious friends. He gets two more hits of lightning and manages to score a solid hit himself against the shaman. The shaman casts a spell dropping him out of air. Realizing that maybe he isn't winning after all, Xavier decides to try a sneaky getaway. Apparently he isn't so good at sneaky, though, as both he and his bird get a face full of clubs. Xavier gets to join his unconscious friends and the roc is confined, too.
Redhand and Keats see the situation and decide to observe until others arrive. Redhand catches parts of a conversation, hinting at the power of the shaman as well as involvement of some other power¹. Keats manages to hear the shaman casting healing spells inside a tent.
The others arrive, and a whispered planning session takes place. A plan emerges. Keats and Redhand are to distract the ogres while the other three free prisoners. Afterwards, everyone still alive presumably runs and hopes that the ogres don't follow. Or the ogres are slaughtered, possibly. Somehow the plan didn't include that part.
Everyone gets in their places and Keats starts the planned distraction. Being the coward she is, she decides that she'd rather not have the ogres attack her, so she makes some illusionary chanting come from elsewhere. That happens to be where he moments earlier conveniently told Azieru to place some traps. Majority of the ogres charge in but unfortunately that's not enough, as seven out of 18 still remain. Redhand gets two more to come after him by using a smokestick. Meanwhile, Islona waits for an opportune moment and the sneaks get closer. As the shaman has come out of his tent, Keats decides that he might make a nice tentacles, so she summons some. The tentacles also catch three( or possibly four?) other ogres, leaving one free. Isidien backstabs the remaining ogre and Azieru follows up by attacking the shaman, having drawn her own conclusions from the plan...
And that's where we left. We gained two new party members, but one got captured. He's not dead(yet), though, so...qualified success?
¹ Exact words, in case it's of importance: "The ogres seemed to be talking about a meal they were preparing, and how good hunting had been since their new shaman had taken over, and made a deal with someone whom Redhand couldn't quite catch the name of"
