2017 - Roll20 group chat - Capture and Escape from the Dracolich lair.
Our group finally hiked all the way to the entrance of the caves, and in the growing twilight we make camp. Everyone is trying to catch some shut eye, and Hikaru is nodding off, keeping watch.
Mason: Hikaru mumbles. “Mneeeeh… I wanna sleep.”
DM: A chill darkness settles over the group. Armella, half asleep, hears a yelp in the silence. She feels arms roughly grab her, and she fights against them in the blackness. Her armor begins glowing brightly, lighting up the area around her. The arms let her go and she stands, grabbing her weapon.
Ruby’s eyes bolt open as she is grabbed—a gag in her mouth muffling her scream. Through the darkness, she can see the faint glow of Armella and she struggles in vain to get away.
Hikaru jolts, and stares in shock—before being grabbed as well. Tight ropes wind around him, and a gag finds its way into his mouth as well.
The others wake enough from the noise that they are not taken captive, but can hardly see though the strange blackness.
Nick: Thorin mutters sleepily, “Feels just like home... WAIT... NOT HOME...NOT HOME!!”
Jessi: Ruby’s eyes grow wider, trying to turn and see who has a hold of her.
Mason: Muffled cursing.
Jessi: Muffled crying.
Mason: Hikaru begins squirming relentlessly, but is dragged away into the caves with Ruby.
DM: Rodrick hears Hikaru fighting to free himself. He is enraged, but does not revert into his old self. He knows that Hikaru would not want him to do that, so he holds his wrath in check, but only just…
Chantry: Rodrick manages to keep his rage in check, but not without first lighting his flamethrower and lowering his face shield; the eyes flickering before igniting their fiery orange glow.
Jessi: Ruby struggles a bit more before they smack her, and she finally goes limp, forcing her captures to drag her along as dead weight. She tries to kick off her boots without being noticed, one at a time, at an interval of about 15-30 seconds each. She hopes someone might be able to follow those.
DM: The person holding Hikaru pulls him close. “Better settle down… uncle says hello.”
Mason: Hikaru continues to emit muffled screaming, cursing and swearing.
DM: The assailant slams something hard into the back of your head with a crack, knocking you unconscious.
Chantry: Not far behind, Rodrick and the others struggle to follow after. He also emits muffled cursing and swearing, but only muffled because of the helmet. Mutters to himself, “I don't have time for this crap...”
Jessi: Ruby tries to listen carefully. She hears dozens of footfalls, wondering if everyone got captured. All she can hear above the steps is Hikaru’s muffled voice, which stops abruptly. She suddenly realizes she doesn’t have her purse or her weapons. She tries to tell if she has her small hummingbird derringer on her leg or not, or if they took it.
The others follow after, coming into a room relatively devoid of anything. There’s some bones scattered across the floor, and one treasure chest against the wall, left by Chatsworth. It’s apparent why, there’s a dead body atop it.
From holes in the ceiling drop strange humans, but decayed behind recognition. The zombies rush forward to attack, and after beating them, the team finds the monsters have strange head wounds in their scalps. Even the dead body on the chest seems to have been one of the same. During the fight, a strange shadow appeared and dragged Rodrick away into nothingness. Before he disappeared, he called out to Armella to take his flamethrower to Hikaru, and tossed it to her. The others continued forward (Thorin “rescuing” the treasure in the chest on the way).
Hikaru wakes painfully, finding they were brought to a large antechamber. A huge crystal sits in the middle of the cave, and the Wuxian attackers speak to a deep, demonic voice coming from it.
Mason: Hikaru glances over at Ruby, and begins aggressively trying to escape. But at the voice, he stops and looks frightened, his ears down like a dog.
At that point, the rest of the group catches up. Seeing the kidnappers they open fire. The crystal moves aside, and another entrance opens up. They retreat down into an even larger cave, with extremely high ceilings and mounds of trinkets. A ginormous lizard-like beast, a great dragon, moves toward them. As it approaches, it is easy to see the rotting flesh and bones of the monster. With fierce glowing eyes and acrid breath, he stops. The kidnappers say they brought Hikaru and Ruby as a tasty sacrifice.
The others enter as well, and the dracolich spies Thorin. In a moment, he crushes the Wuxians under a decaying claw. Ruby lets out a muffled scream.
Nick: “By Voidscales Beard; it's a Dragon. A ZOMBIE Dragon!”
Mason: Hikaru blinks up at the massive beast. He looks at Ruby and he's pale.
Jessi: Ruby can't break her eye contact from the dracolich, and is breathing in ragged breaths.
Mason: He looks back at it breaking out in a very, very cold sweat. He begins squirming aggressively to show himself.
Jessi: She hears you squirming and glances your way like she's in a trance, trying to break from it. She keeps blinking at you to clear her vision.
Riley: Seeing Hikaru struggling, he hurriedly makes his way over and unties him.
Mason: Now free, the two help to untie Ruby. He whispers gently, “It’s ok… it’s ok… it’s ok,” but he looks frightened. He has a vacant look in his eyes.
Jessi: “Haa..haaa.. I..” Her raspy breaths become more normal and it looks like her eyes unglazed a bit.
Mason: Hikaru pulls you to your feet and while trembling, kind of steps half in front of you, between you and the dragon.
Jessi: Finally able to speak, Ruby says, “This has to be a nightmare? Are... is this really happening?”
Mason: “It must be, there's.... no way.” He’s shaking like the dickens, trying to be brave, but all he can bare to do is stand.
The others stand back, and Thorin steps forward, talking to the dragon. It seems interested in him somehow, and starts showing him a particular piece of treasure.
Mason: “Are…are you ok? Considerin’?”
Jessi: “I...” She gives a shuddering breath. “I think so...” Since the dragon is now talking to the others, she's coming to her senses more.
Mason: Hikaru nods, like he’s glad the attention isn’t on them.
Jessi: “Definitely didn't mean to be dragged this far in, did we... Those… those men—“ She shudders, and stares around at the bloodstains on the ground, of what remains of them.
Mason: He nods again, clearly nervous.
Jessi: She tears her eyes away, trying to regain her bearings. “We need a distraction…. To get out of here.” She looks around in the dim light.
Mason: Hikaru nods again, his eyes glued to dragon.
Jessi: Ruby’s eyes stop on Armella, who's carrying a giant flamethrower—it looks like Rodrick’s.
She takes a few steps toward her. “Where'd you get that?” Ruby hisses in a loud whisper.
Emily: She looks down at it. “I don't know how to use this thing.” She looks at Hikaru, “Do you?”
Mason: “I mean, kind of?”
Emily: “Okay, yes,” she puts it in Hikaru’s hands.
Jessi: “Thorin is making a good distraction for us... can we make this thing explode? And get back out? I don't have any of my things with me...” Frantically looks around, fretting.
Mason: Hikaru looks down at his pistols, which were trapped under his coat during the struggle. Hmm.
Jessi: “Does this have fuel in it..?” Ruby kneels next to the flamethrower. “Can we throw it and shoot it? Will it explode?”
She looks up at the ceiling. “Maybe we can cave in part of this place. It's so well built, but ancient looking too… Will that work? If we can make part of the ceiling cave in and crash on the dragon, we can run out through the same tunnel. I dunno if he will fit through that openin’… we might be able to escape.”
Emily: “Sooo… are we really trying to get away? Or are we fighting?” She looks over at Thorin, and it seems like things are turning sour.
Jessi: Ruby looks nervous. “We stand a chance in here about as well as an ice cube in a hot pot. A giant decaying monster, bloody ancient gold, no thank you. I… I don't want to lose any of you…” Ruby's face screws up in terror.
At that moment the dragon rears back and takes a deep breath. Thorin scrambles away, barely avoiding the acrid green fire that erupts from his maw. The burning heat brushes Thorin’s hand in searing pain, a strange essence wrapping around it.
Armella grabs the flamethrower again, rears back, and chucks it as hard as she can toward the ceiling. As it arcs through the air right up near the top, Hikaru lets off all the bullets from his revolvers, hoping one hits. The shots ring out in the cave, and the flamethrower explodes. BOOM. Everyone scatters toward the cave exit.
Mason: Hikaru runs, taking Ruby’s hand and keeping a firm grip on it “Let's get the hell outta dodge, hon!"
Jessi: She startles and stumbles after. Ruby runs as fast as she can without her boots, letting you guide her since she can't see very well in the dim corridors. It’s dizzying trying to keep up with the twists and turns.
Mason: Hikaru squeezes her hand reassuringly, as they all flee to safety.