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The last of the sorcerers have been slain by the gargoyle (in quite a gruesome fashion, I might add) and the ritual has been stopped. Bolg's bloated body lies dead on the ground. But, the battle rages on. Nibenwen and Laurel working together manage to take out one particularly nasty grunt, though Laurel is wounded. Morgaue's icy undead do not fair as well, however. Two invisible rulers of the Depraved corner most of the "frost knights' between them, and a succession of energy blasts reduces the servants to charred bone. The invisible Depraved hum a sort of funeral dirge while they work their magic and it makes the hair on your neck stand up. We'll assume any other PCS who have not acted have been trying to free the prisoners, a process that hasn't gone so well.

Everyone may take another set of combat rounds (just start at round one again). There are 4 Depraved grunts left and also 4 Depraved kings/queens. Everyone has +2 to this set of rounds from Khorvalis's sage buff.

Morgause sees one of the slaves take down the remaining sorcerers with ice magic and she is impressed. She saunters by the liberated prisoner and coyly smiles at him before saying, "Nice work... for an elf."

Not to be outdone, the Winter Witch begins another spell. She remembers Khorvalis' advice to follow Zandron's lead and scours the cavern floor for signs of movement. The bustle of footprints in the gravel to her left gives away the position of a pair of invisible Depraved. Immediately, Morgause's forehead gem shines with a cold and ominous light. The Seer utters the last words of her spell and slowly brings her hands to her soft lips. Seductively, the Valkin'vi blows a kiss in the direction of the invisible creatures and glittering snowflakes interspersed with a chilling fog erupt from her mouth and rush toward her targets. The delicate flecks of snow grow and transform into daggers of ice, striking two of the Depraved Kings with what seems like a thousand beautiful cuts. The Depraved turn visible and putrid ichor begins to spurt from their grievous wounds. Before they even have time to scream in agony, their life essence is drained from their bodies and their frozen corpses fall limp to the ground. (Triangulated Spell: 2 Invisible Kings DEFEATED)

Content with her handiwork, the Winter Witch glances at the magic-using slave once more. Then Morgause looks to see what devastation her Frost Knights have been up to. She spies some attacking a handful of Grunts and the others retrieving the mystic tomes from the now slain Depraved sorcerers. As she starts to approach the first Frost Knight, book in-tow, Morgause hears the sound of gravel stirring behind her. Another invisible Depraved approaches!

The Seer turns her head around in a quick motion, her raven locks dramatically swinging over her shoulders. Horrified, she screams upon seeing many of her Frost Knights shattered on the ground. What... who could have done this?

Enraged, Morgause tries to collect her thoughts and focuses her senses. She sees footprints fast approaching. Bernie bolts in front of Morgause and the invisible Depraved stops the invisible monster in its tracks, obviously startled by the wisp's light. Then, the sound of thunder fills the cavern. A bolt of energy shoots from Morgause's eyes and strikes the invisible Depraved.

"Now let's see how ugly you are... Show yourself to me, monster!" Morgause commands the Depraved.

Instantly, the creature materializes before the Valkin'vi as it removes a green metal tiara from its furrowed brow. It is a horrid sight. Obviously once a woman, the creature is now covered in countless boils and warts, it's eyes bloodshot and hands now transformed into gnarled claws because of the jade metal. The Depraved Queen looks on at Morgause with a blank stare.

"Revolting... with a face only a mother could love." Morgause scowls as she looks at the dominated monster. "Too bad I'm not your mother!"

The Winter Witch laughs as she gestures at the Depraved Queen. "Your repulsiveness offends me, be gone from my presence.. forever!" Morgause points to a one of the stalagmites further in the cavern and then snaps her fingers. Without hesitation, the Depraved Queen runs toward it and impales itself on the stalagmite. It dies instantly. (Cast Spell: 1 Depraved Queen DEFEATED)

Seeing one of its queens slain so ruthlessly, one of the Depraved Grunts lashes out at Morgause with its yellowed claws. The Winter Witch deftly dodges the attack, but not before flinging an orb of magical frost at the Grunt. Her spell hits its target and the Grunt begins to shiver uncontrollably as a black miasma starts to swirl about him. Overcome by an unnatural terror, the Depraved flees, screaming at the top of its puss-filled lungs. (Cause Fear, automatic success: 1 Grunt DEFEATED)

Morgause resumes her retrieval of the Depraved's ritual books.

Khorvalis sees another set of prisoners chained to one of the stalagmites beyond the Gargoyle and hobbles his way over to free them. Again he claps his hands together and lights emanates from the druid, shattering the chains of the elven slaves. (Free 3 more prisoners: SUCCESS)

"Freedom is yours!" Khorvalis points to the chute leading back to Lord Kaylan and the other freed captives. "You will find your friends down that tunnel. Make haste and run to safety!"

The elves do as they are told and Khorvalis makes his way to what he thinks are the last remaining slaves at the next stalagmite. The old man once more shatters their chains and instructs the elves to flee, but not before being attacked by a Depraved Grunt hiding in the shadows. Khorvalis is slashed by the monster but manages to channel a mote of fiery sunlight from his golden sun medallion. The distraction is enough for the druid to outrun the Grunt who is dazzled by the bright light. (Free 2 more prisoners, but take WOUND)

Ignoring his injury and remembering his vow as Hierophant of the Circle of the Sun, Khorvalis looks about the cavern to check the status of his ship-mates. He sees Mahto who is also wounded but knows that their Ga'vin blood will soon mend their wounds. The druid looks for the Redwind's Master Craftsman, Gondowon, but his friend is nowhere to be found... most likely hidden in the fray of battle. Then Khorvalis makes out the outline of a foppish feathered hat in the distance.

"Captain!" Khorvalis yells as he runs toward Zandron. The druid sees blood dripping from beneath the elf's long coat which spells of spilled ale. Without hesitation, the old man extends his hand and begins a recitation. Zandron's wound starts to heal. (Heal Ally: SUCCESS)

"The forces of darkness will not fell any crew of the Redwind... especially not you, Captain! Not while the Light of the Sun is here to guide us." Khorvalis nods at Zandron before looking once again for Gondowon.

As Morgause comments and saunters by the Man seems to feel one of his ears with a hand, it is indeed an elf ear, and he himself appears to be incredibly pale and has purple eyes, bits of black tribal marking creep out from under his clothes up his neck and onto his hands and he has shoulder length black hair. with the other hand he points and snaps a finger at a nearby grunt and purple white lightning viciously lashes at it with a mind of its own disintegrating it where it stood:
(2d6[3,2] = +5, disenchant = +4, martial training = +1, sage buff = +2, Result = 12 grunt defeated)

The dozen or so crackling portals in the air around him move to find their own target and unleash another violent barrage of ice weapons into it until its lifeless body is impaled on the ground:
(2d6[1,3] = +4, channel = +2, martial training = +1, sage buff = +2, Result = 9 grunt defeated)

He leans over and after a brief exchange with one of the prisoners he had been standing over looks around the room before noticing another grunt near the back of the room, but was more interested in what was near it. from his relatively calm and standing position he breaks out into a full sprint straight towards the grunt, the portals in the air following with him. much to the confusion to the grunt as it takes a swing at him he runs straight past it towards the rusted iron door that was close behind it. he wrenches the door open and satisfied with what is on the other side moves to step through, he stops halfway to look back over the large room and seems satisfied with what he sees.

. . .the grunt at this point had recovered its composure and had moved to attack him. . .it was torn apart by another vicious assault of purple white lightning and the chunks that were left were impaled on the surrounding area by weapons made of ice.
(2d6[5,4] = +9, recall = +2, martial training = +1, sage buff = +2, Result = 14 grunt defeated)

after this the weapons receded back into there portals before the portals themselves also sparked into non existence, the man too, disappeared behind the door.

Mahto turns when he hears Khorvalis' remark,
"Speak for yourself Khorvalis, your 'light' may protect but it isn't the same for Zandron or I...or the Redwind."
He stares down Khorvalis for a moment before turning to his left. The sound of an enemy approaching reaches his ears. Clearly trained by Zandron he looks to the footsteps on he ground on the invisible royalty. Mahto leaps at the footprints, tackling the invisible creature into the dust. Pulling a dagger from his belt, unfortunately, his downward swing misses it's target. (Dice=6 +2 Buff +1 Martial Training +1 wep spec +1 tackle = 11 - 5 invisible = nothing)

Mahto's eyes flash fire and his dagger glows in blue flame. He plunges it down into the depraved's invisible neck. (Roll=7 +2 buff +1 wep spec +1 martial training +4 scorch -5 invisible = 10 = defeated)

Mahto stands definitely as the creature dies. He walks over to his sword and picks it up and begins cleaning the blood of of it obsessively.

Zandron lunges forward with a battle cry, leaping through the air after his own blade--

--only to realize, halfway through his leap, that all the enemies have been felled. He cuts off his blood-curdling scream mid-flight, drops into a roll, and stumbles to his feet.

The elf sheathes both blades, tips his hat to his allies, then turns and unceremoniously empties his stomach once more.

"Шell," he coughs, steady for the moment. "Tнat шas good figнt."

Phinkis wanders around the battlefield checking the corpses of the fallen Depraved and making sure they are actually dead. He takes extra caution when he find Bolg's corpse, remembering how he healed before, the wizard hacks what is left of his head from his shoulders. "Well done everyone!"

Phinkis turns to Morgause, "Thank you for gathering those. I have a feeling there is a group of book worms that will want to study them and keep them safe."

"Is everyone ok? If there are any that need healing please let those that can help know. Anyone else who can help free prisoners, please do so. Those with keen eyes should probably take a look around for anything valuable and possibly a way out of here."

Finally Phinkis turns to Nibenwen and Laurel, "Do you think you two could find your way back to the room with the forge and let the people we left there know the way is clear?"

The battle draws to a close. The invisible creatures, once slain, reveal themselves. Old and wrinkled, horribly disfigured after years of transformation; the eldest of the Depraved.

You are able to free the prisoners. There is a loud cheer from them once the Depraved are dead. Someone goes back to retrieve Kaylan and the others that stayed behind, and you witness, again, as prisoner embraces prisoner; families finding each other again after so long apart.

At the back of the room there is an iron door, and beyond is a tunnel that leads back to the surface. You start to ferry prisoners out that way. As for the mysterious man who assisted in the battle, there is no sign of him. One prisoner, though, reveals a piece of paper he was given by him: a list of names. “Apparently, the mystery man was looking for missing villagers; got himself captured on purpose. Before running off he said you folks would save me. Guess he was right.”

Nellie consults her own lists, and finds that the majority of those names are here as well.

Nibenwen/Alea brings Laurel over to Khorvalis to be healed, her arm around his shoulder to help him walk. Something has passed between the two of them. You aren’t certain what, but they seem more at ease.

“You never did learn to look behind you for trouble,” she says, setting him down.

“I never stopped looking back for you,” says Laurel, with a boyish grin.

“Ugh, what a sappy line! Do you really expect that to work?” There is a pleased twinkle in her eye, none the less.

“You know, I don’t care what you look like; you’re still you.”

“Yeah, yeah...” she says, waving him off. She takes a moment to contemplate a job finally done, then reaches a glowing hand up to the collar around her neck. The metal shatters and falls to the ground. “I don’t think I need that anymore. Forgive me, my love, for not returning sooner, but these people down here needed help. And by the time I had the strength to remove that collar, it was too late to do anything about this,” she waves a hand at her appearance. “But I could play spy… Still,” she turns to the group of you, “sneaking one or two people out every few years was nothing compared this! Thank you! You have landed a serious blow to the Depraved today. I do not think they will be troubling anyone for some time to come...”

She turns back to Laurel. “And, I will find a way to reverse these effects, someday, my love. Don’t lie and say you find the boils and blisters charming, now! I know you don’t mean it. But, I promise I will, if only to stop the constant itching…For now, I want to go home.”

There is a long road ahead for the both of them, you know, but you believe her determination. Maybe she really will find a cure, someday.

One last mystery confronts you before you go. Two prisoners have been badly wounded beyond the aid of any healing or resurrection. One passes away instantly, but the next, a dwarf by the name of Dwegin, lingers. Khorvalis comforts him in his last moments. In his death throws he reveals, guiltily, that he was working with the Depraved, bringing them prisoners for many years, before they turned on him and made him a slave also. Until then, he was getting a cut of the green metal, which he calls ‘Malachite.’. “Ah, It’s powerful stuff. I knew the Depraved had always been interested in it for its transformative powers. Ran into ‘em a few times down here, me and my crew. Saw a few of the ugly buggers wearing it round their necks. I need the stuff, see. Gots to transform my king into something else. There’s a terrible prophecy about the King of Nightmares and the King of Dreams meeting, and it causing the fall of all dwarves. Can’t kill neither dwarf king, neither. No good. But transforming…” He coughs, then continues. “I thought the metal would be a way to circumvent the prophecy…but, I’m not so sure now.” You are not certain which king he is referring to, or what prophecy. “I helped the Depraved find the most recent cache of their old artifacts. I shouldn’t have. It was a mistake to help these twisted things…” He dies before he can say more.

A mystery for another time.

You look around, and there is little more to do here. Well, unless you want to go sledding again.

Otherwise, after gathering a few odds and ends around the room (if anyone takes books or bits of green metal, etc., they can get tags from me at the next event), you head out the exit tunnel. It takes you to the surface, with just a few twists and turns. You discover you are a few days travel from Brennondale. You help the rest of the prisoners on their way to safety, then start the trek home yourselves across the wintery landscape, this time above ground.

{So ends the 'Captured!" online adventure, though you may still roleplay amongst yourselves, of course, the exit from the underground and the journey home.}

During the last battle the silent Valkin'Vi stands behind Phinkis - until he charges forward with his sword. She retreats from the battle, taking protection behind whatever nearby cave structure she can find. She watches the fight. Her eyes pass from Phinkis, to Paer'An to Nel. The people of Brennondale make quick work of the depraved.

When all the depraved have been dispatched (with the exception of Laurel's wife), she emerges from her safe spot. When attention is drawn to it, she inspects Laurel's wife's collar (but at a very socially safe distance).

As the others leave the caverns, the silent Valkin'Vi trails behind.

Feedback

Thank you VERY much for putting the thought, time and effort into doing this Brad. I would vote for another (if you have it in you) some time this off season. I'm quite pleased with the amount of people we had turn up for this! I'm sad we somehow lost a few during the course though - Dan, Troy, Brian, Robin, Gondowan (sorry, I don't know your RL name), but I guess things happen and the holiday season can be demanding for time.

As for the plot, I really like how Brad thought of a way for ANYONE to join in - and at any time during the adventure. I think that some may have thought it was a little slow to get the ball rolling, but getting initial players on board, introduced and interacting do take a bit of time. For this, I think the beginning is the slowest going - but it should be as we accumulate our player base.

I do feel there were some points where we were rushed out of rooms/areas where players were either still role playing, or looking into other things. Primary example - The room with the bell and murals in which we left Kaylan and the others. There seemed to be a good deal of player interest in these items, and no interest in building fortifications. It's very possible that the bell and murals were really just flavor, and had nothing to do with anything - but again, that's where the player interest seemed to be. I feel we were rushed out of the room with fortifications built (probably by freed prisoners?) and our attention taken away from the other objects in the room (however, it's entirely possible that the sage/craftsmen type got their answers through PMs, and players did not discuss their findings - entirely possible). To a lesser degree, I felt this happened again in "Bernie's" room (but I was knee deep in exams/term papers/final projects at this time and didn't have much time to post, so I feel I can't really complain much.) Overall, these things made the pacing of the adventure feel GM driven rather than by the players. However, this may be in part due to no one taking the reins to be a decisive leader in the player group.

Again, thank you Brad, and thank you to everyone who participated!

(everyone should try to post feedback)

^^^ Great idea.

I want to thank Brad for running this and being obliging enough to let me get in on it so close to the end. I didn't realize that it was literally the end and would have attempted to join sooner but had not really been keeping up with the boards. though in hindsight it was probably better that I did not and when it seemed like I might have caused a problem I was quick to exit the adventure. I was not going to derail Brads epic adventure with other matters. I look forward to getting in on the next one hopefully a lot sooner and under better conditions ^_^

That said I love these as I find it much more easy to RP on the boards then I do at an event, the suspension of disbelief is better cause its like reading a book and everyone's description of actions are really cool and interesting. and kudos for Brads tabs, options, management of skill use, and incorporation of combat and everything. I was a little confused at first (that's why I wrote everything out, so he could catch if I had done something wrong) but found it very fun once I got it down. (I'm visual, I need to SEE something done)

Oh, as a side note - if any players wish to initiate a "The journey home" type of thread for general interactions/role playing, I will happily join in. You may wish to add the disclaimer stating that it takes place in the wilderness a few days from Brennondale following the online adventure, etc. Also, the "homecoming" at the inn would be cool too...

Generally, I'd love to see some forum role playing. Over the last few years it has drastically declined, which saddens me.

Again, thank you everyone!

Glad you guys had fun. And thanks for the feedback too. This style of forum roleplay is still an experiment, so I appreciate the suggestions. Keep 'em coming. I think the holidays distracted people a little (I know I got busy there), and I apologize if it took a while for me to respond to people's posts and PM's. I was so worried about it lagging that I didn't even stop to consider lingering, Angie, but I think you make a solid point.

As for another one...maybe in March. We'll see. Thanks for participating, you guys. Loved reading some of your posts! In many ways, you guys write just as much of the story as I do.

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Thank you Brad for putting together such a fun online adventure. Perfect medicine for those of us experiencing larp withdrawal during the off season. Also, kudos to all the players for making the story as enriching as it was. I loved seeing how each of us put their minds to creating such a vivid and entertaining mindscape for this encounter with the Depraved.

Now with classes about to resume, I'm still looking forward to any online adventure that you can post, Brad. You put so much time and effort into the last one, I'm certain that the next will be just as cool.

I agree with Angie/Zydana/Kami... it would be great to keep the roleplaying going in the forums. Let's see if we can start something for the journey back to Brennondale. (Brad... do Laurel and Lea return with us to Brennondale or do they go their separate ways? If we get the basic info, I'll start a post in the Continuing Adventures part of the forum. Pls PM me with whatever details I should include to set the story and then the rest of the players can chime in and take it from there.) I bet more people will have the time to join in on the RP since the holiday rush is over and we're settling in to our usual schedules.

I enjoy roleplaying with everyone on the forums, especially since it's tough to get to know all the players over the larp weekends. There's just so much more to learn about the intricacies of our characters and how we envision/RP them. Yeah, some of the parts in the Online Adventure might have been rushed but I still enjoyed. It would've been nice to know more about those murals and such. Also the ancient ruins in the last room as well as the hidden building at the bottom of the chasm that Fibble spotted. Can we PM you Brad if we wanted to take some time to explore these things? I dunno if they are integral or not to the plot or future encounters with the Depraved. (Either way, I'll make sure to shoot you a message as to what my characters want to do before they finally leave the underground caverns.)

Thanks again everyone and do take care, always!

JOE