Hallucinations: Session Six

Last time... Zilya, Natskin, and Karel went down a well after a missing girl. They found her, but ran afoul of the security statues of the dungeon they had inadvertently found. Natskin's ribs and lantern were broken, Karel's napsack, with all his extra torches, were destroyed, the facility was put on lockdown, and they're now staring at five hungry ghouls, scared little girl in tow. What a time to be alive!

Yes, there were five ghouls staring at them. Karel did want to live. But he was very curious about the room. It was very similar to one of the rooms in the cube: a golden room, with glass tubes lining the walls. There could very well be a secret door on this floor, and Karel wanted to find out if there was one  before they were all eaten. He handed his torch to Natskin and made a break for it, hoping to get to the other side of the room to try and find something, anything! One of the ghouls lunged out and bit Karel as he ran; he almost threw up from the immediate nausea. Karel threw the ghoul off and got away. He was going to live, damnit! At the other end of the room he found the door he was looking for; it opened with a whoosh.

Natskin strode forward and dropped into a boxing stance. He was a beefy minotaur; it didn't take much to distract the ghouls from everything else. He lunged out and punched at them, daring them to take him on. They took him at his word.

Zilya grabbed the little girl, who could barely move from the terror, and dragged her away, hiding behind one of the glass tubes, trying to work out a plan of engagement. A small whisper, stately but sad, sighed over her shoulder: "You can use the tubes against them". The girl didn't react to the whisper. Karel yelled that he'd found another door.  They all made a break for it, torch guttering wildly. The stately but sad whisper voice told Zilya they'd meet again. No one else heard it but her. There was only one button in the elevator.

The doors closed on the charging ghouls just in time. But only just. They opened again on a rotting room: furniture barely held together against time, dampness, and a cracked ceiling, which let in just enough light.

Oh, and a sleeping black dragon. He's important too!

Everyone froze. Except Natskin. He wanted to fight the dragon, maybe even tame it and make it a pet! He tried to stride forward, but was restrained forcibly.

The dragon stirred.

It sat up.

They could see a door behind the dragon.  They were jamming the button to the elevator like mad. The doors whooshed shut, just in time.

They opened upon the snarling ghouls. Putting herself between the girl and the undead monsters, Zilya yelled at Natskin to get the ghouls in the elevator. Natskin yelled at the ghouls. They remembered him from before, so it didn't take too much work to get them into the elevator to feast on his enormous frame. But Natskin couldn't get out. Karel got himself next to the elevator door. Zilya tried to duck under a ghoul's reach, so she and the little girl could get out.

The doors closed before she could.

The torch went out. The girl screamed over the snarling of the ghouls.

Somehow nobody got bit before doors opened again. The four friends heard it: a deep breath, from something large. They hit the deck. A pillar of acid flew over them. The ghouls screamed in agony. And then they charged the dragon, falling apart as they did. They engaged the beast, biting and and clawing at it, as they disintegrated.

The crack in the ceiling looked too small for Natskin, so the group tried the door at the far end of the rotting room. It was locked. Pressing any next next to it resulted in a voice saying "Lockdown initiated. Access denied". They all charged the steel door, even the little girl, with Natskin in the lead.

KRUNCH

There was a hallway, ending in a room. In the room was a stone archway. They could hear the sounds of the fighting dying down, as the ghouls fell apart. Zilya tried running through the archway. Nothing happened. There was a control panel on an adjacent wall. They all pounded on the buttons. A voice, mechanical and cold, spoke: "Lockdown measures in effect. Only emergency destinations are authorized."

The archway sprang to life, a light crackling between the posts. They dove through. Natskin was the last to go through. He so desperately wanted a pet dragon...

It turned and saw him. And it took a deep breath.

The room Natskin entered was bitterly cold, even for him. Standing before the group were three blue humanoids, with pointy ears: the vinteralfen.

"How did you get an Ensivalen Arch to work...?" one of them asked after a second.

They looked startled. Not to mention confused.