Pathfinder: The Flying Giant

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Past the hounds is a door that opens to what must be "the boss chamber" but in its center is just a half naked giant female cook who throws things (like the kitchen sink) at the party and is easily brought down. The enraged giant boss Mokmurian (who I guess was having a thing with the cook) then appears, flying from up above and shielded up to the wazzoo with anti-fire/anti-magic missile and damage reduction spells while tossing out a huge variety of magic himself, my favorite being he inverts gravity and those who don't save take "fall damage". WTF?

This turns out to be a super long fight with Mokmurian enjoying the "untouchability" Valeros had before. Only Ezren can regularly damage the flying creep while he himself is almost disintegrated and briefly turned into stone. Kyra undoes that and keeps everyone alive to simply endure all of the giant's spells until he runs out of them and comes down into melee with his club. That proves to be his undoing and he is quickly put down when he does so.

His master "Karzoug" then uses the dead giant as a puppet to insult the heroes briefly, but they're kinda too tired to listen so they just go about looting the place and going to that off limits library which they find the key to. It's full of magically preserved ancient tomes and a helpful librarian bot who will no doubt throw the next quest hook at us... in the next chapter. :P

Pathfinder: Can't Touch This

[Part of the Party Time journal]

A pair of frost giants and the lap running mammoth from earlier confront the party as they leave the Black Tower, but are no match for the heroes. Even the pair of rocs nesting in the tower who were attracted by the sounds of battle only get themselves dead or wounded, with the last remaining giant bird retreating back to its high up nest.

Proceeding below the party then uses the passphrase they found to get through the shining door into the lower basement where a strangely constructed room has Valeros shrink to half his size! While this makes his attacks weaker it also makes him harder to hit so he intentionally stays small for now.

Everyone else is protected from the shrinking magic by Ezren's shield, and they go on to beat another runeslave giant, smash a cauldron bearing golem (mostly Razmus with Shoanti blessings and then Kyra sanctified the cauldron), and fireball nuke the hell out of a zombie statue room. "Undead Giants" are the key words for things this team excels at murdering. An annoying wall demon keeps popping in and out of the walls spewing fire at them though, and it is with great relief when they finally catch that beast (a scanderig apparently) and slay it in its silo.

Advancing to the next large hall they are ambushed by five giant maidens who luckily can't hit the shrunken Valeros who pins them while the rest of the group takes them down. Resting up back in the zombie room, Merisiel soon spots a sneaky group of five dire bears and five halberd ogres stalking them and once again, Valeros blocks their progress and is untouchable as the enemies are destroyed.

The next little chamber has three hounds of Tindalos (apparently they can jump games too) get the drop on the party but are easy prey as again, they can't hit Valeros while his blind fighting and the high perception of everyone else makes their "hiding" kinda useless.

Pathfinder: The Black Tower

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The party rushes the central pit ramp where Valeros and Razmus handle a dire bear trio while the everyone else slings spells and arrows at a four giant basket ball boulder throwing team, the captain of whom actually downs Ezren, but Kyra gets the mage right back up with a full heal and letting him disintegrate the giant captain in retaliation when he makes the mistake of advancing. 

Once clear the party poke their heads out in the courtyard. It is now dusk but due to watchful guards on the towers and another washing down a mammoth nearby, there doesn't seem to be a quiet way to their target: the Black Tower, so they opt to rush a lodge in the opposite direction first to get rooftop cover from any more thrown boulders. Inside is an ancient dire bear who is easily slain by a crit from Joe Gang, but its roar alerts the guards who are in no time trying to raid the place. Too bad for them they are funneled through the doors which negates their threat level as they are peppered with arrows, spells and other sharp objects.

With all the guards dead Kyra uses a wall of stone to help the team avoid the mammoth running laps around outside like a confused puppy, and they climb a tower to sneak a long way around - avoiding the gaze of the Rocs nestling high up in a central spire. A trio of harpies does spot them though, and their song convinces Valeros and the Shoanti Squad to walk off the wall and take what is insignificant fall damage (thanks to the dice roll). Apart from their opening song they aren't much of a threat, and the team reconvene (with some climbing) in the interior of a guard tower to rest undisturbed for a bit.

That's kind of weird, but the outer camps did seem busy and in disarray so maybe the forged letters Conna delivered were doing the trick! Another quick sneak lands them inside the Black Tower interior which is so cold it hurts. Kyra uses stone shape to make a vertical hole transform into rough steps and down below they awake an ancient mummy who focuses all its kung fu attacks (it must be Jet Li's mummy) on the cleric while freezing Merisiel, Ezren and Joe Gang with fear.

Ultimately its the combination of channeling positive energy, Kyra's flamestrike, Valeros' flamethrower and Razmus' blessed sledgehammer that smashes the undead thing back into dust, also smashing open a scroll case it was carrying. Among the contents is a paper with the passphrase to the shining door below.

Pathfinder: The Headless Child

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Following the voice the party comes across a chapel to Lamashtu (again?) within which are the four remaining missing people from Sandpoint: the adults tied to stakes and blades rigged with ropes being held up by the young boy Dario who looks like somethings been munching on pieces of him, missing an arm among other things. A laughing evil voice asks which one they want to save and Valeros uses his helm of teleportation to get right in there only to find it is mostly an illusion conjured by two half lion lamias! The first one smashes him decently while the second bites off and devours Dario's head, who alas, was not an illusion. 

The Lamia's mirror images are really the only thing keeping them safe as once those are removed they fall quickly, with the last one trying to retreat but being blocked by Kyra's wall of stone while Merisiel backstabs it to death. A patrol of four giant guards then storms in from behind them but Valeros' flame thrower and Razmus critical hammer blows erase them from existence before they can do much. 

After looting they proceed towards the next roaring sound they hear and find a pair of chained young red dragons who demand to be let free so they can eat the humans. Ezren responds by dropping an ice storm and cloud kill on them, and they respond by breathing fire which Merisiel dodges completely while Kyra heals those who don't. Shoanti archery and Valeros' dragon slaying blade end the weakened winged lizards soon after letting the team proceed around the corner to the prisoner preparation chamber where they find the remaining trio of tortured Sandpoint prisoners chained. 

A massive giant springs from hiding from the mud, smacking Merisiel hard but is taken down in one round with a combination of Joe Gang and Shay's archery and Ezren finally landing an empowered disintegrate spell. After freeing the captives and resting again they receive a magic message to meet with Conna at a nearby altar where she reveals that she's delivered the forged orders and advises them that the password for the shining door probably lies in the black tower above. She also mentions the giant defenders are massing a defense at the ramp though, and offers to try keep the prisoners (including the beardless dwarves) safe and hidden. 

Pathfinder: The Shining Child

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The explosion seals the cave passage behind the party, so they take the time to rest up until a very animated and friendly bat ushers them deeper in to its master, an equally suspiciously friendly giant named Conna who happens to be the mom of the current giant king Mokmurian who she says has been possessed by some evil and now must die. That's pretty dark, but we'll take it! Conna draws out a map of this lower level as best as she can along with the guards and traps within, and due to her hesitance to fight her kin Valeros asks her to deliver forged orders instead.

The rescue prisoner mission is switched to kill the king guy instead so the team makes their way along a quieter passage taking down a trio of ogre tanners and two stone giant smiths who were keeping half a dozen beardless dwarves prisoners. Merisiel sets them free and they join the team as they take out two giant trolls guarding the passage down to Mokmurian's lair but it is blocked by a huge, ancient and clearly trapped glowing door.

Razmus chucks a boulder at it but that just angers the spirit within, a screaming shining child that teleports right into the party's midst and blinds everyone but the Shoanti, Shay and Razmus. They, along with Kyra's summoned elephant and Valeros' blind fighting skill eventually smash the spirit but the door remains unchanged. The party takes cover to rest again and for Kyra to cure blindness when they hear a noise from a nearby tunnel. A call for help?

Pathfinder: Climbing up the Back Door

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Night falls as the team moves along the ravine to make it beneath some cliff facing caves that Razmus marked on the map, the lower one of which is a wyvern nest that he has a personal grudge against (since they were sent after him before) so the current best climber Valeros goes up to fix some ropes and then tosses one of his flamethrower alchemist fire fuel cans like a grenade to light up a pair of the winged bastards before five foot stepping off the cliff behind him - falling slowly thanks to the feather fall ability of the cape of the eagle (from Vault No. 3).

The wyvern pair fly out in a rage but fail to hit any of the team waiting below and are subsequently arrowed by the Shoanti Squad and back stabbed by Merisiel. A larger wyvern still waiting inside the nest is speared down by Joe Gang and then the team rests up to recover HP and spells before Valeros does a big climb to the next and much higher cave which contains giant undead spiders piloted by little spiders? Since this party is ultra-tuned to face undead the enemies are quickly obliterated by holy magic letting the team proceed through some narrow tunnels through which Razmus has to squeeze, though Valeros gives him the cape of the eagle so that he can just transform into a bird if it gets too tough.

He doesn't end up needing it as the cavern opens up a fair bit and a band of nine Redcaps (evil dwarves) ambush them! Their small size hides their toughness of -10 damage resistance which means taking them down heavily relies on the magics of Ezren and Kyra, Razmus' and Kyra's celestial elephant's brute force, Merisiel's sneak attacks, and Shay's frost bow while Valeros tanks the five in front as the Shoanti Squad nearly perishes doing the same with the four at the back. A suicide bomber kobold with a necklace of fireballs then shows up and pushes the party's HP even further towards zero but is not enough to down anyone yet (thanks to people making reflex saves)! 

Pathfinder: The ones at Storval

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Upon approaching the massive and guarded steps leading up to the Storval Plateau, Valeros plays the prisoner gambit (in this case Razmus pretending to be a prisoner) with long planned forged letters ready to go. Alas, Kyra's diplomacy roll of a natural one means the six giant guards immediately start throwing and rolling boulders down the giant steps like Donkey Kong! 

Ezran and Kyra fireball nuke the attentive guards, while a hasted Razmus (who can run up the giant steps as normal) gets right up to their face quickly and smacks down the weakened ones easily. With them dead, the team continue up and rest up near the mountains before attempting a stealth raid on the looming watch tower up ahead, which stands pretty far from the main castle and is used as an early warning system. Merisiel's stealth roll of a natural one means the warning signal is lit even before the squad reaches there.

They can annihilate the giant guards-woman and her two runeslaves pretty quickly then hide in the watch tower itself as a giant roc comes to investigate. They hope to ambush the bird when it lands but no - it instead hovers above squaking loudly for some time.  Luckily, it flies off before any investigators from the freaking army camped outside the giant castle approach (they're still forming ranks) so Razmus leads the team through the mountains he previously used to escape from while Ezren drops a wall of force to slow any pursuers.

Eventually they reach a long drop to a ravine below where they use collectively use their siege or regular engineering knowledge to construct a ladder-stair down to the narrow shore edge, but thanks to DL rolling super high on the percentile die a patrol of three stone giants and their giant dire bears show up at an awkward time and have to be put down and tossed in the drink before the team makes their descent.

Pathfinder: The Shoanti Squad

[Part of the Party Time journal]

From Ravenmoor the party continue North, crossing a deep chasm on a flimsy rope bridge guarded by four trolls and some annoying stirges. The fire weak trolls aren't burned due to the condition of the crossing so are instead downed and tossed in the ravine where they'll regenerate after... however many months or years. :P 

The team then meet five Shoanti tribesmen who are questing to rescue some captives of their own, and Valeros readily agrees to help them. They assemble outside a troll berserker camp which is easily torched by Ezren while Kyra's celestial elephant crushes most of the defenders underfoot. Merisiel frees the caged captives here, none of whom are from towns the party has been in, but at least the people the Shoanti wanted to save are here - including a Shoanti princess. Peach is that you?

In thanks the Shoanti escort the squad back to their village, which so happens to be under attack by a chimera who is slain in two quick turns. Meeting with the chieftain later, the party learns that the Shoanti and giants used to be more friendly to each other, they even used to trade goods. Now the chieftain shares a vision of a possible entry to the giant castle involving a dark cave with webs, and sends the five strong Shoanti squad with them to assist.

While they leave their mounts at the Shoanti village as the chief suggests, their party number still increases when they finally regroup with their old buddy Razmus the hill giant whom they magically "called" (seriously its almost like a telephone spell) some time ago (just after the raid on Sandpoint) as his knowledge of his old ex-buddies might come in handy. 

Pathfinder: Feast at Ravenmoor

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The party continues North and after a brief stop at the "ex"-werewolf village of Wolf's Ear, which humorously still uses lycan related naming for their townsfolk and businesses, they go through a swampy marsh, slaying half a dozen gross giant ticks and capturing a tamed stirge whom they return to its owner, a child from Ravenmoor. 

A lady clerk of Magnimar they ran into at Galduria had previously asked them to look into a missing red-bearded tax collector whose last known stop was Ravenmoor so they let the kid lead them to the Ferry and into the squalid village filled with shifty villagers who don't like giving straight answers and effigies to an unknown deity which everyone assumes is Desna (fairy like patron of travelers).

As there is a monthly celebratory feast taking place that very day, the party takes the opportunity to skip it and snoop around while everyone else is busy - locating a rundown shack guarded by an angry scarecrow, which is destroyed by Valeros and Merisiel before it can do anything, and an easy slimemold that Valeros accidentally wakes within. 

Among the corpses buried in the basement is the tax collector and just as they are about to leave a great number of mosquito mask wearing cultists with rusty sickles arrive but they have no chance with all the archery and AoE spells (plus Kyra's celestial elephant) that obliterate them and a handful of mongrel men in their number. Ezren even disintegrated one mook just for fun while Daygrace and the Joe-gang also slay a spider lady "tertiary" boss.  

The hasted elephant stamps out a path through to the center of the nearby rotting corn field where a few more cultists are making a sacrifice so Kyra casts a holy smite to "let Sarenrae sort them out" which will only harm non-good entities. Thus there are no bad feelings when the sacrifice is killed by the spell and Valeros comes in to one hit slay the cult leading mayor, only for a giant mosquito to pop out of his gut (because they worshiped Ghlaunder the gross instead) and launches a malaria carrying mozzie swarm around which only manages to affect the elephant!

The big bug doesn't manage to land its hit and is then promptly slammed and gored by the elephant, shot by a lot of arrows and hacked to pieces by Valeros and the faceless that ambushed Ezren in the corn soon regrets that after eating a fatal lightning bolt to the face. Having killed a third of the town the team then destroy all of the evil god's effigies, loot the mayor's house and tell the remaining villagers who are not cultists or are scared cultists to change their ways. Or else!

Pathfinder: Vault No. 3

[Part of the Party Time journal]

After a rest stop in the fortified town of Galduria where Valeros also buys mammoth hide as part of a legerdemain ploy he's preparing to use on the giants, the team almost dies investigating a nearby barn with mutilated animals and facing six giant mastiffs and their six ogre masters (who happen to be rolling really well this fight). Lucky no one dies, and the team returns to town to rest up before heading out again, taking a small diversion to follow a map that was in Uwu's possession.

It leads them to some ruins in the forest where they easily beat three black skeletons and a skele champ. Valeros being generous with 6 platinum dropped into a magic fountain opens some stairs down into the darkness where Ezren quickly guesses that everyone needs to keep their eyes closed or be trapped in a forever loop. 

At the bottom, a statue of Death with the inscription of "play dead for me" is easily solved by Valeros on the nearby piano (technically Lyrielle had to do it since Valeros isn't musical), followed by a five tomb puzzle (which DL later revealed he pinched from Neverwinter Online, something I haven't played for awhile!) that was solved by Merisiel. A statue holding a bloody cup is the last "puzzle" which creates a clone of Valeros when he puts a drop of his blood in.

Kyra hits it with half a fireball and Ezren whacks it with magic missile (both harming Valeros directly) before Valeros can just sprint at his doppelganger to "rejoin" ala the original Prince of Persia game. The statue then moves aside to reveal an ancient "Vault No.3" with some really nice magic gear that the team happily plunders!

Pathfinder: Uwu and the Joe Gang

[Part of the Party Time journal]

When Stolas returns with the location of the fleeing raiders the heroes go on the pursuit, finding a giant and half a dozen sinspawn feasting on a smashed caravan on the road. Surviving bard, Lyrielle, joins the "Joe Gang" (Valeros' followers) to smash them and proceed to Ravenroost to regroup with Shay to take down four more giants, their three giant bears, and eight more sinspawn popping out of a sinwell (where Kyra's new celestial elephant stomps through the trees and tramples them). 

They rescue one of the captives who was "dancing" for her life and return her to Sandpoint and advise the priests to sanctify the sinwell they just cleared, then follow leads to find the other captives, passing by Thistletop and its new goblin colony led by ally King Fat Mouth. Alas they're not up for joining in a fight against the giants.

The next encounter takes place at the desecrated town of Sarenburg where the team demolishes 20 ghouls and six ghoulwolves despite their sniper boss "Uwu" (his elvish name was too long to remember, so Valeros shortened it) taking Ezren down with a drow sleep bolt for most of the fight. Luckily this team is ultra-geared for undead, and it is an easy fight which rewards Kyra with bonus magic to her scimitar (now +4) and a dire wolf mount (after being cured of ghoul disease) for Shay.

Pathfinder: The Raiders of Sandpoint

[Part of the Party Time journal]    

Correspondence found on the defeated giant necromancer indicated a planned raid on Sandpoint sometime soon so the heroes send advance warning (via magical message) and sure enough giants attack the city before they arrive so this time DL has us playing the archers, guardsmen, and militia defending the town with new temporary roles of the resident sheriff and monk played by Juris, the berserker weapon smith lady played by Rose, local priest played by myself and bard Ameiko played by mom.

While the sheriff, monk, priest, and all guardsmen and militia were wiped out, they did kill six giant raiders, three giant bears and scared a red dragon away before the usual heroes arrive (Cleric Kyra [Rose], Wizard Ezren [Juris] and his owl familiar Stolas, Fighter Valeros [me], Ranger Shay [my NPC cohort - yay for leadership], and Elf Rogue Merisiel [mom] now mounted on a flying griffon [statuette pet we bought en route back]) to help take down the remaining three giant raiders and their boss who was after some rock at the possible ancient lighthouse called the "old light". 

We also manage to save a burning ships worth of badly timed reinforcements from five opportunistic reef claws and apart from a trio of spear men most are actually siege engineers that teach Kyra and Ezren siege machine building post-giant raid while Shay and Stolas track down the raiders that managed to kidnap people from the "noble" district which is quite out of town.

Said ballistas they create (and a celestial grizzly bear Kyra conjures) are super handy in gunning down a mercenary band of orcs and their undead fodder raised by the orc shamans who seemed to be paid to do a follow up attack. This time the heroes are aided by the halfling celestial (!?) "child" Daygrace who was kept hidden in the abbey and is functionally another cleric. When the coast is clear Valeros recruits her and the spear man trio into his service [because leadership is cool]. 

DL does a good job printing out all the maps and material that we all get to enjoy! :)

Pathfinder: Lamatar

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

The first two Kreeg guards at their cavernous mountain top fortress manage to KO Ezren, but are put down soon after by the rest of the team so for the next two guards who also have a hill giant assisting them, Ezren doesn't hesitate to hit them with ice storm which really messes them up. In the nearby mining and forge chamber with a dozne more ogres, Ezren and Kyra annihilate almost all of them with fireballs while Razmus helps(?) my throwing boulders but missing each time!

The next chamber has a trio of hags that manage to force cage Kyra and Ezren while also blocking Razmus and Shay, but are taken down by Valeros, Kyra's summoned bear, and Merisiel's ultra deadly backstabbing. Then the team finally comes across the remains of Black Arrow Captain Lamatar who is now a frost wight and absolutely the scariest foe they have faced so far. He's very fast, shoots three times and every time he hits drains a level! WTF!? As the team is only level 9 and reaching level 0 is death, they throw everything they have against this guy and finally succeed but only end with Ezren and Shay not being level drained.

Low on spells the team then rests at the entrance of the fortress just long enough to get spells back and heal but not recover lost levels before a returning patrol of ogres interrupts them, though Stolas gives early warning for the heroes to strike first. Ezren opens with cloud kill which basically ends the majority of the enemies, and once that's wrapped up the crew decide to press on to a huge throne room with two giants: a throne sitting necromancer and his guard.

Merisiel's giant-slaying bow and Razmus' hammer efficiently deal with the nameless guard while the necromancer hits the team with fireballs and magic missiles. Comedically Razmus finally lands a hit with a thrown boulder but the necromancer catches it and throws it back, smacking him in the face! Ultimately the bad guy, who was more of an HP sponge rather than a threat like Lamatar, is slain.

A note in his treasure pile suggests he too answered to someone else, but first the team return Lamatar's finger (as requested) to the undead nymph who revives him, restores everyone's missing levels, then fades away to the spirit realm making the forest a normal one again. Lamatar is unable to get over his failure and instead of returning to Fort Rannick decides to become the new protector of these woods.

Pathfinder: The Best Type of Friend

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

With the situation at the dam resolved, Eye Patch, Kibb and Shay return to Fort Rannick while the main party reports in back at Turtleback Ferry - passing by a wagon of criminals being sent there as new recruits, one of whom is Orik who apparently has the worst luck but Valeros is certain the Black Arrows will be happy to have him.

Back in town the team experiences some hag induced nightmares and are further interrupted by a little fairy guy who asks for help for his angry mistress. He leads the way to some evil twisted forest where they make quick work of tree blight enemies before finding said mistress, a now undead nymph who was once the main squeeze of the Black Arrow Captain Lamatar, and reduce her anger down to sadness by agreeing to find what's left of him up at the Kreeg fortress in the mountains.
 
Having heard tales of giants being active in that region, the team decides to make a detour to Claybottom lake to retrieve a giant-slaying bow of one Robin Cloakley, who went down with the gambling / pleasure barge everyone at Turtleback Ferry talks about. Ezren stays on the boat while Kyra, Merisiel and Valeros dive down using water breathing magic and collect the magic bow which involves Valeros being temporarily swallowed by a giant fish!

Now headed back up the mountain (again? seriously?) and passing Fort Rannick the Black Arrows are eager to join in to take the fight to the Kreegs but the team decides to only bring Shay (because more people = longer combat). As they continue the ascent they find an badly injured hill giant surrounded by the corpses of wyverns. Not wanting to fight an enemy who isn't at full strength, Valeros heals him up with potions and discovers this giant, Razmus, isn't a bad guy at all!

The big guy has claimed this section of the mountain for himself and is unhappy with recent competition that's moved in so he is more than willing to not only lead the team up the mountain to the Kreeg fortress (bypassing extra encounters), he is also willing to help smash them! Isn't that the best type of friend?

Pathfinder: Wet Skull

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

Almost immediately after clearing the fort the party hears the (magically audio boosted) alarm bell from Turtleback Ferry so they trek back there to find a third of the place now being consumed by flooding. Valeros and Merisiel ford the dangerous waters with ropes to save some kids and their teacher stuck in a turtle shell boat, dealing with a giant snake also being washed by the flood while they're at it. Once the civilians are saved they use the same boat to bring Kyra, Ezren and Shay forward to try save a church full of people stuck in the flood waters.

Also en route to the church is a giant water creature Loch Ness, the Black Maga, who the party manage to piss off enough so that it changes its focus to them. Ezren is the only one who saves against its confusing breath attack and basically the party is very much at the mercy of this ancient creature who has an easy time swatting them around (when they're not attacking each other lol). Inexplicably the beasty decides to not wipe out the party and instead leaves / gets washed away with the water.

Once they come to their senses the party saves the church goers (though, not really as the flood waters are subsiding by that point) and get to rest like heroes. Briefly. They are then tasked to check out the dam at Skull's Crossing (which is heavy on the Skull motif) as the flooding issue might be related so they head up there, parting ways with Baldy who takes some villagers to help clean up the Black Arrow fort.

At the dam the party discovers it being sabotaged by ogres so they get up there and slay them, including an ettin and a troll family living within (apart from a sea troll who manages to elude them by swimming away). In a side chamber Merisiel has a close call against a robot skull scorpion guarding the dam controls but they destroy it before anyone gets killed.

Ezren then works out the magical dam is powered by the life force of sacrificial summons, in this case a super weak pit fiend. To do a controlled flood and alleviate the danger, Kyra uses a summoned creature to help power it for emergency operations which Ezren handles - destroying the summon and the pit fiend in the process.

Pathfinder: The Real Ogres

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

With Ezren's owl, Stolas, providing "drone footage" information the heroes along with Shay and the Black Arrows eventually decide to try lure out the ogre guards from the fort via a flaming sphere that explodes the "blocked" Eastern gate of the place. Sure enough, ogres start pouring out from both of the fortress gates led by a tall red one DL likes to call "Carly"?

Half the ogres are handled by Valeros' flamethrower along with the Black Arrows and Kibb (who is the only one to take damage in this group), while the rest including Carly are dealt with with Kyra's AoEs and summoned bear and eagle (both destroyed by Carly), Ezren's AOEs and magic missiles, Merisiel's archery and javelin of lightning and Shay's archery, ending the first wave of fifteen. Apart from the animals none of the assaulters are damaged yet, but that changes quickly as Ezren sends forth a silent image to see if there are any more ogres lying in wait and five more spring from hiding.

Two of the five are special big boys though and they do manage to get into melee range with the first one slaying Baldy with a ridiculous one shot overkill. Kibb is also lucky to survive retreating against a free hit before Valeros finally gets into position to tank them down. Kyra uses the beginner ressurection scroll she's hanging onto to revive Baldy but semi-fails as the result is simply delayed an hour, which is fine as the team had retreated back to the forest to camp briefly to regain spells (Ezren only needs two hours now thanks to a magic ring bought in Magnimar).

With Stolas not finding any more movement the squad heads through a secret passage near a waterfall where they collect much needed arrows then ignore some cute lightning lizards and banish a ghost before looping around to the castle proper. Valeros smashes the door down... stealthily? And then Merisiel leads the team in pretty much ganking the individual rooms of ogres who are no match for them until they get upstairs to face the daddy ogre. This guy is nasty and survives lots of big attacks while also ganking Stamp with criticals (190-ish damage)?

The last major battle is with a lady in the basement, who turns out to also be an annoying lamia matriarch (and is the ogre's boss). Her six attacks are quite deadly at the start, but then Ezren lands a ray of enfeeblement on her which makes her much more manageable with party members able to risk the free hits to step into the room to surround her. Merisiel eventually finishes her off and DL announces we have officially cleared the fort! Too bad for Stamp, we found evidence that he was the traitor who helped the ogres in so he can stay dead.

Pathfinder: The Black Arrows

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

It takes a month before Pug completes the flamethrower for Valeros (me) and for Ezren (Juris) to learn his new spells, but soon they along with Kyra (Rose) and Merisiel (mom) are tasked by the governor to check upon the Night Watch Black Arrows, a group based out in the mountains defending against the wildlings(?) beyond. They take the already paid for Ferry where they meet up with Shay once more who is also headed to look for a Black Arrow of personal interest to her.

It's an uneventful trip up river apart from the incessant rain the gods have decided to inundate this area with just to screw over anyone bringing a flamethrower (lol). Soon the party gets to the village of Turtleback Ferry and get some random rumors about ogres and sunken ships they can do nothing about since their ride has already left. So, they decide to start the trek to the Black Arrow base of Fort Rannick on foot (the horses couldn't go on the ferry) and en route come across a big cat stuck in a trap about to become ogre and ogre dog food. The team defends the kitty and slays all the attackers to discover this wasn't an ogre but an ogre-kin (half-human half-ogre) hillbilly.

The freed cat then leads the team to the hillbilly's ramshackle home for some reason and the party just gets to work tearing up all the scum present starting with their home where traps and a surprise attack in the basement causes the most damage, followed by the barn where the fat necromancer matriarch fled to (via dimension door) after being defeated in the house. All foes including the zombie swarm and their pet giant ogre spider are easily handled with Valeros' cleave and flamer (indoors is fine? lol), Merisiel's new backstabby sword, Ezren's +50% spell attribute metamagic fireballs, and Kyra's new slew of holy magics and celestial bear.

Three captives are rescued from the homestead, all Black Arrows and one of whom is the one Shay is looking for - step daddy "Eye Patch" who is the owner of the cat (named "Kibb"). With him are "Baldy" and "Stamp" (not their actual names, Valeros just keeps giving nicknames to people). Stamp is a bit concerning as he has a sihedron tattoo on him, a mark usually left on victims of the previous bad guys (and similar tattoos were spotted on villagers of Turtleback). He claims it was just to get discounts at a now sunken pleasure barge which is good enough for the team but Eye Patch and Baldy also agree to keep an eye on him as their next stop is Fort Rannick, now fallen to real ogres.

Pathfinder: Missing in Magnimar

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

Following the clues, the team heads off to Magnimar to track down Aldern's boss and learn that this city too has been going through a spate of recent murders. Investigating Aldern's house here they are surprised to find both he and his wife alive and well, only for the pair to shapeshift into annoying faceless humanoids with a penchant for grabbing and a damage reduction quality that kind of draws out the fight. Once victorious, Merisiel locates a deed in a hidden place that details a shared purchase and to a local sawmill which the team checks out next.

The worker who answers the door is a bit iffy, but lets the party take a look around until they go upstairs at which point he and his colleagues don evil looking masks and outing themselves as bad guys! They and their boss have negative energy auras which Kyra basically balances out with heals, and while the regular scum are just fodder the boss himself is a bit problematic when he makes the party insane - except Valeros, who by all rights had the worst odds on that save. With Ezren and Merisiel just randomly attacking the closest target and Kyra idling while talking to a wall Valeros and Kyra's summoned eagle keeps everything busy enough until they are about to regain their senses. It's at this point he's hit by a drow poison bolt and falls asleep! At least his companions can take down the boss guy though... but he's not the BIG boss as messenger crows fly out to a distant clock tower.

After resting and picking up a pair of city guards as well as some new magic gear (mainly higher level magic missile wands) they head there next and, after getting hit by a falling bell, beat up a flesh golem on the ground floor, a trio more faceless things near the top and a lamia matriarch on the roof who is a SUPER annoying fight. Not only is she hard to hit, at one point she casts sanctuary which forces a will roll before even a "to-hit" roll while she heals herself. Kyra's eagles can do nothing and really, almost everyone needs a natural 20 to land a hit on her. Lucky Ezren's magic missiles always hit and after a really long and frustrating fight, she is defeated with no casualties for the good guys. The heroes then locate a letter from the lamia's brother nearby saying his method of sacrificial murdering is much better and invites her to see at some distant location.

Before going anywhere else, the heroes first report to the fat governor of the city who was actually mentioned as a target in the letter and after he faints and comes to again he gives the team a sizeable reward. A good portion of this Valeros gives to Morgamer Pug, the local halfling tinker, to create for him a flamethrower. Because screw rolling to hit!

Pathfinder: The Haunted Manor

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

While turning in the Sanitorium owner a ragged farmer arrives at the Sandpoint garrison asking for help at the outlying farms where scarecrows have started attacking the inhabitants. The party turns down the Sheriff's offer of two extra constables and riding quickly reach the farms at night where indeed, the scarecrows (or rather, ghouls dressed up as scarecrows) are hopping off their stands and lurking in the tall maize. They can't ambush the team though, not with Ezren's owl Stolas on recon. Valeros makes good use of his shield here, and while Merisiel's anti-undead rapier and Kyra's channeled energy naturally wreck these things, so does Kyra's warhorse Shadowmist who quickly proves to be the MVP in this outdoor setting.

A pair of not-yet ghouls are rescued and returned to town where they (along with Ezren and Kyra) are cured of ghoul fever disease by local priest, Father Zanthus whom Valeros buys a bunch of cure disease and holy water from, as well as a good number of oil flasks just for kicks. Discussing the evidence found at the farm with the Sheriff next leads them to the Foxglove manor, home of that noble Aldern who was saved during the goblin raid and was crushing hard on Merisiel. Isolated on a distant cliff face, the house is both rotten and haunted with numerous ghostly BS events kicking (mainly Valeros') ass while depicting what happened to the murderous family that lived here. After Kyra holy nukes a bunch of undead crows and Ezren eliminates a joke-boss battle blind, diseased rat in a tub, the next creature they find is a female revenant locked in the attic seeking revenge on Aldern (again good knowledge checks from Ezren and Kyra).

The team get out of her way and follow her back downstairs where she smashes open a secret staircase that leads below the basement and into a really foul smelling cave system where the squad beats even more ghouls and a giant ghoul bat (who is "holy eagled"). In a back room they find a badly beaten undead Aldern, finishing off the female revenant before Merisel one shots him with Kaydara (the holy rapier). This time the team are pretty sure they got the murderer, but correspondence found on him indicates that his ritualistic killings were at the behest of someone else at the next city of Magnimar.

Before doing anything else, Valeros douses a patch of evil fungi with holy water to turn "off" the haunts of the mansion then the team return to Sandpoint to update the authorities and borrow a monk priest to take back with them to the mansion for a more permanent cleansing (apparently all the other priests are busy healing wounded from a recent ghoul attack from the ocean).

Pathfinder: Smells like Murder!

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

Kyra (Rose), Merisiel (mom), Ezren (Juris) and Valeros (me) attend a celebratory dinner at the Scarnetti manor along side other town council members who are subjected to the insults of the asshat and patriarch Titus who takes credit for hiring the adventurers (despite storming off and calling us useless prior to Thistletop). When he and his family retire for the night the remainder discuss their plans to build a mill to at least compete with the Scarnetti mill - the only one in town as all the other mills have mysteriously burned down. Maybe they weren't paying their fire insurance? :P

The next day Sherriff dour comes to deputize the heroes again as he's short on man power and there's a murderer on the lose leaving love letters for Merisiel at his crime scenes.  At the scene of the latest murder Ezren and Kyra determine that the killer is some sort of undead ghast (acing their knowledge checks) and leaving a tell-tale stink. The man who found the scene is shook up and suspects Titus as one of the victims was cooking the books, but that is dismissed right away as that wouldn't make sense for Titus to do a ritualistic style murder. Nor did he have that stink.

Instead a similar MO is found on three corpses in the Garrison morgue days before, with the Sherriff stating that the suspected killer of these ones had been taken to a Sanitorium outside of town due to being a crazy person. He also has his child double agent drop hints that a gem Merisiel had stolen from her was spotted at the Fatman's Feedbag where the now dead trio had won it in a gambling game with a thief who possibly was lung cancer, due to all the black spit he leaves lying around. The party heads there next and confronts the thief with Ezren easily winning his dice game for info, but it soon becomes clear this guy also has nothing to do with the murders, and with no solid proof that he was the thief they prepare to depart but are ambushed by mercs in the tavern out for their blood for helping the "murderer" Orik. Wait till they find out about Fat Mouth!  

Two of the bruisers are particularly tough and down Merisiel but the team pulls through and kills the quartet in the feedbag before resting up and heading to the Sanitorium to check out this killer mad man who just keeps repeating something about "razors" and "he's coming". Kyra's attempt to cure him by giving him a restoration potion just makes him go mad and with the help of some tiefling orderlies he is restrained once more and gives Merisiel a message (which I don't remember, just that it was stalkery) before going back to his usual mumbling. Understandably the team is then kicked out but run into a necromancer and his zombies en route to the exit!? These are easily dealt with and the Sanitorium owner explains that the necromancer that had setup shop in the basement was just helping him pay rent (in exchange for having bodies to experiment with). Valeros arrests the guy, leaving the tiefling orderlies to care for the remaining crazies while the team brings him in. Unfortunately, it is clear none of the parties involved were the murderer they were looking for.