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Pathfinding: An Adult Choose Your Own Adventure

Second Entry

By Gideon Kalve Jarvis

Vote Tallies

Main Character:

Rufus - 5

Spark - 2

Adel - 1

Jonna - 1

Class:

Warrior - 5

Bard - 1

Mage - 1

Cleric - 1

Rogue - 1

Path:

C - 4 - Stop the horde!

A - 3 - Kidnappers in the sewers

B - 2 - Dragon hunt

Companions:

4 human girls - 4

Marlene - 4

Spark - 3

Cassidy - 1

Skaeth the Minotaur - 1

Unlikely Pair (Furlis the wolf woman and Pania the half-orc woman) - 1

Additional votes/desired scenes:

Impregnation/Pregnancy - 3 (confirmed)

Make the boss of Path C a female or a herm - 1 (not confirmed - voting still open)

Author Notes

From here on out, I will start the next entry in this series once I either get 20 votes (unlikely, but it might happen) or at the end of a week after the last entry.

All votes count in some fashion, except on decisions where it is obvious that only one vote can count, such as choosing the main character or the adventure path. Hence, if you voted for a character to be the main protagonist, but didn't win the vote, then that character will appear at some point in the story, just not from the outset.

The votes are in, and the choice is clear: Rufus the warrior wolf (with a ranger-like focus) is our main character, setting out into the wilderness in pursuit of allies to bring down the Horde of the Dragonian Warlord. Will he succeed? Will he be able to stop the Horde from dominating the region? Will he bring peace to the area once more? Or is a guy like Rufus likely to start his own horde instead, complete with a harem of enslaved former companions and defeated foes? Only time (and votes) will tell.

Pathfinding Second Entry

The tavern wasn't really Rufus' normal sort of scene. For one, it was brightly-lit, which really didn't suit the winterlands-bred wolf at all, not when he was used to months of darkness at a time. That, and Rufus had spent some years away from his people now, among the humans, usually among their rougher and seedier members of society, where warriors, mercenaries, and outcastes with strong backs could find employment without too much trouble. Rufus' skills as a wilderness warrior and tracker had earned him a decent place in various armed companies, not all of them strictly legal in nature. That was how he could afford the chainmail cuirass he wore beneath his jerkin and leggings of fur and leather, mostly concealed from view, if not from hearing, as it tended to clink a little for those who were up close to the big, shaggy, grey-furred wolf man. It was also how he was able to afford the long-handled skeggox he wore over his back, which he frequently paired with the long knife on his belt when battle came around, as it usually did. As for the longbow he rested by his side as he sat on the bench in the tavern, well, that was something he'd picked up from an elven boy on one of his wanderings. He remembered the elfboy because he'd let the youngster go with his life...if not his virginity. That was the nice thing about elves: their males were just as fine as their females when it came to sex, and their figures really weren't that different from each other either.

The other thing that bothered Rufus about the tavern right then was his company. Sure, under most circumstances, he'd have been overjoyed to share a table with five fresh-faced, obviously fairly naïve and idealistic teenage girls, especially ones as hot as these five. Those other circumstances, though, would have involved a bit more ale and a lot more salacious talk that would likely end in someone's bedchambers. Right now, all these girls wanted to talk about was rallying some of the local tribes to stop some warlord or other from stirring up trouble. Sounded like a job for mercenaries or the local militias to Rufus, but hey, the blonde chick in charge of this whole shebang was obviously loaded - even if things didn't turn out right, Rufus wouldn't leave without something to show for his efforts. As far as a guy like Rufus was usually concerned, if you weren't strong enough to defend it, either alone or as a group, then you didn't really deserve it in the first place.

The blonde leader chick, Marlene (at least that's what she was calling herself) was presently bending over the table at the back of the mostly-empty tavern, pointing out places on a map of the area and talking about the various tribes that made their homes in the various places she indicated with her finger. While the four other girls at the table seemed to be paying pretty close attention, Rufus was paying a lot more attention to his potential future companions, the ones he'd likely be spending days with, alone in the wilderness, where just about anything could happen. Of course, that was Rufus' real interest in this group, though he had to admit, if Marlene was right, there was the potential for some major spoils of war here, enough for the wolf warrior to retire on...or at least have two or three really fun weekend benders, whichever came first.

Marlene, of course, was the first one on whom Rufus' eyes rested. More specifically, they rested first on her shapely rump, clearly visible through her cream-colored breeches, cut to hug her buns tightly while hanging more loosely past her knees, ending just above her ankles, making them both comfortable as well as practical, at least while the warmer weather of late spring lasted. The blonde cutie had a long ponytail and was wearing a halter of the same cream-colored material as her pants, leaving her taut midriff clearly exposed, her whole body toned and firm in a sexy, girlish way from hours spent in aristocratic pursuits like riding and playing tennis. Yeah, anybody who knew anything knew this girl wasn't really named Marlene. She was somebody more important than the merchant's daughter she passed herself off as, that was for sure, though Rufus wasn't quite sure who she really was, at least not yet. What was honest about her, though, was her desire to do good: "Marlene," which would do as a name for now, really was interested in bringing justice and order and peace to the people of the area. She really wanted to be a heroine, and she had the charisma and the intelligence to potentially pull it off, provided she could get good enough followers. For Rufus, that made her the most dangerous of the five companions he'd saddled himself with right then, and that meant, if he was going to have a chance of getting through all of this alive and in one piece, he was either going to have to back Marlene all the way, or get her to back him all the way, by force if necessary.

The other four girls weren't quite as interesting, at least in their obvious backstories. They were just four noble girls who'd decided to take a slightly longer spring vacation than usual from their upper-crust boarding schools or in-house tutors, and figured that spending the time adventuring would be fun as well as exciting. It was a pretty common practice, actually, among the younger upper-class folks to try their luck at an adventure or two. Not only were such adventures potentially very profitable, they also tended to add a little legendary flair to the auras of the ones who came back successful in their endeavors. To Rufus, that made them almost as dangerous as Marlene, and for very similar reasons, for those the four schoolgirls weren't rank novices, they weren't terribly seasoned either, and while that wouldn't be such a bad thing for a party that paced itself, for a bunch of young idealists going after a tall order like stopping a full-scale invasion...yeah, Rufus wasn't so sure how committed he was to their cause.

Ah well, at least the company was pretty fine to look at. The leader of the four girls who'd joined Marlene's party was a girl with short brown hair and a tight, fairly muscular figure, not much body fat allowed to collect. Her name was Lita, and she seemed to like wearing less, now that she was allowed to get out of the confining uniform for her school, choosing to wear a pair of cloth shorts and a short t-shirt, with some suspenders to let her wear the shorts loose, giving her maximum mobility. Of course, it also meant that sometimes they dropped down a bit, especially when she bent over or, like now, was sitting, showing off a nice bit of tight teen crack. Lita, who seemed to be adapting to the idea of being a second-in-command pretty well, paid pretty close attention to the words, when they came, of a nerdy-looking brunette named Regina, her hair worn in two long braids, her brown eyes hidden behind large round glasses with black metal rims, made sturdy, which was perfect for travel in the wilds. Rufus understood the cute little nerd was some sort of a mage or something, specializing in spells of flesh - despite Rufus' initial hope, sadly, this meant she was good at stuff like healing rather than anything more carnal in nature - and she continued to wear the fairly plain brown coat and skirt and cloth miter of her school, marking her as the extra-modest sort.

The other two members of their little party were pretty close in looks in some ways, while in others quite different, much like their personalities. While Lita seemed to be a stabilizing element for her little group, the social glue who held them all together, and Regina acted as the voice of caution and reason, blonde-haired Morgan and orange-haired Deriny were the sort of girls who seemed to thrive best on conflict, both of them quite outspoken, even interrupting Marlene several times with their commentary on her plans. Both wore their hair long, and both were wearing weapons openly. Morgan's weapon of choice was a clockwork pistol, one of the newer models of weapon, one less prone to misfiring, but which also tended to need extensive maintenance when it did foul up, which made her decision to also carry a dagger on her ankle a wise one, though this was about all that was visible of the rest of her body, since Morgan wore a long blue armored coat, of the sort that nobles might wear when they wanted to be ready for trouble, but didn't want to make it obvious they were expecting it, along with a blue beret that matched the color of her eyes. Deriny, on the other hand, was a more offense-oriented mage than Regina, and she wore a simple brown robe, which was close to the color of her amber eyes, as well as of almost the same color as Regina's uniform, obviously standard school attire for Deriny's more specialized studies into the fine arts of blowing things up.

"Well, those are our options," Marlene was finally summing up, before she turned to the towering, grey-furred wolf who only barely avoided letting her see him checking out her sweet buns again. "Rufus, you're the expert on traveling through the wilderness in these parts. Where do you suggest we go first?"

Hmm, now that was a decision, wasn't it? Ah well, might as well get into things, since it came time for him to be useful. But which way to lead these sexy ingénues? Now that was quite a question.

Path Choices

A) Marlene likes the idea of heading north and west, to the forests where the wolf folk that haven't sided with the Warlord lair, as well as many tribes of deer folk and cat folk and even centaurs and elves who would certainly be willing to join the cause, if only they could be united under a single banner. Of course, Rufus also has friends in that area, members of wolf tribes, though some of them aren't necessarily going to be opposed to the Warlord by any means. There's some pretty significant danger of gnolls in that region, though, as well as less-friendly wolf tribes.

B) Regina seems to think that trying their luck to the south, where the land gives way to swamp, would be a good starting place, getting the toughest bit done with first. There are reptile folk and frog folk in that region who would almost certainly be willing to listen to reason, since the Warlord threatens their lands as well. Of course, the dangers of the swamp are manifold, to say nothing of the toadlike bullywugs and savage lizardkin who are already serving the Warlord, or the trolls who live there and don't seem to care much who comes their way, as long as they taste good.

C) Morgan and Deriny like the idea of a more traditional adventuring activity: dungeon crawling. Almost straight to the north are hills that give way to mountains, and within those hills are gnomes and bear folk who might be persuaded to help, and in the mountains are dwarves and bat folk who would certainly be willing to aid any cause of good. But along with those potential allies are a much larger number of dangers, in the form of various giants, including ogres serving in the Warlord's armies, and pig-faced orcs by the score, to say nothing of the rumored realm of the minotaurs hidden within the depths where the light of day never shines.

D) Lita thinks heading to the plains to the west would be a good place to start gathering forces against the Warlord, since it's the closest to his main vanguard, and would certainly have those living there more on-edge and willing to unite against their common foe. Of course, that also means there's the danger of running into the Warlord's forces, though these would probably only be smaller patrols, probably out hunting for slaves and other booty, since it would be fairly easy to spot and avoid a full army out on the plains.

For now, just a choice of direction, so that I know what sorts of encounters to design for future entries. No sex this time, but that will change in the near future...and depending on the choices made, perhaps sooner than that.