What follows contains spoilers to the end of Book 2 of Rise of the RuneLords: The Skinsaw Murders
So as the title suggests, the rest of my party is most likely to die in the next session, while my character has no inclination of what is transpiring
Let me first introduce the characters, then the events that led to this point
Human Sorcerer Arcane Trickster - Myself
Dwarvern Warpriest
Human Paladin
Wayang Oracle
So we launch our assault on the Seven SawMill where after a long hard slog eventually corner and capture Justice Ironbriar, who "confesses" and comes peacefully. While we were in there we got a lot of loot but the two key pieces for the story are Ironbriars Ciphered Journal, and three messenger Ravens
Once we leave however we are taken in by the town guard who became aware of events in the SawMill, and Justice Ironbriar quickly turned on us. Fast forward to the Fort, where we end up killing Ironbriar and are given five days by the guard commander to provide proof of his treachery or we would be sentenced to his crimes.
My character immediately formulated a plan, I would begin to decipher the Journal, a predicted three days of work, while the others would release and track the Ravens, then stake out wherever they end up.
I learn about the Shadow Clock, and you guessed it, that is where they ended up. At no point did their characters ever contact me, so I don't know where they are, what they are doing, how it went. They decide to skip any sort of recon on this place, and just kick the door down.
Inside they are immediately faced with the Scarecrow and promptly dispatch it but not before burning through a lot of spells and a smite from the Paladin. They then proceed upstairs and that is where we ended the session.
What is awaiting them is something horrifyingly powerful, Xanesha, and they are going in unprepared, without max resources, and one person down.
How I am feeling
As a Player, I am disappointed, as I have talked about this gung ho attitude leaving players behind. I will now miss the final boss fight of this book but, on the other hand, I am glad my character isn't in a situation of dying
As a Character who is all about family, if I lose anybody or everyone, my characters world is rocked. Disappointed as well because he thinks he is gathering intelligence to help his friends (As the only one with some languages, and can roll Linguistics) but they forgot about him. He has discussed being okay with killing, and breaking the rules but, always insists on proper intelligence gathering and recon
So there we have it, while my character is sat in the tavern working hard to gather information and intelligence to clear our names as well as prepare for the final fight, my party have entered the final fight, unprepared, lacking resources, and down a man
RANTish Post over, thank you for reading
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This is a situation that I would both love and hate to be in, to be perfectly honest. On the one hand, "Yay! I get to live!!!". On the other hand, "What do I have to live forrrr?!" That, and a part of me finds it more realistic when the party gets split up and has to tackle things from multiple angles, because IRL, sometimes there isn't enough time to go running through town to grab your friend before you start a tavern brawl.
You know what the danger is, but not the where. And at best, you'll probably only be able to arrive at the clean-up phase. :(
Since I don't like metagaming and try to discourage it whenever possible, I see only a very few options your character would have:
1) Ask the nearest guard where your friends are (this might allow the GM to get you back in quick, since I would sincerely hope that the guards are keeping the party under surveillance of some sort...) and rushing with all haste to share your discoveries.
2) Go looking for them and use up a lot of time with Diplomacy to gather information and see if anyone's spotted them around town. Then head on over there to eventually try to get their remains.
3) Grab some of the town guard and head out after them. Alternatively, the players will roll up temporary or permanent replacement characters and be sent to find and bring back "the rogue criminals that assaulted Justice Ironbriar and vandalized a sawmill".
All three follow a basic thread, but the last two are more "attempt to retrieve their bodies to get them brought back" (even just a simple Reincarnate scroll is about 1280 GP). From a roleplaying standpoint, retrieving their bodies, regardless of whether you bring them back from the dead, can give your character closure. Bringing them back from the dead also allows your character (and you as a player) to take the high ground and lecture them that "THIS is exactly why we need to use our heads and not just rush in! Do you want this to happen again?"
So what happened? (or need we ask? :)