“Everything is ready?” A rich voice clearly trained in oratory asked. She said it in a low tone, but it echoed through the empty receiving room. Only the shuffling of her lifeguard behind the great chair broke the silence.

“It is milady.” The well-dressed gnome bowed low, his long nose nearly touching the ground. As he bowed, he swept the ornate cloth of gold knit cap he wore off his head. Standing back erect and keeping the cap in his hand, he told her, “We’ve tracked all the players to their homes. The snatches should happen as we speak. They will be brought to the castle where your training cadre is ready to turn them into assassins.”

“Very good Mingelt,” her patrician head nodded in respect. “I’m curious about this project of yours. If it bears fruit, I shall richly reward you.”

“My thanks, milady.” The noble waved him away, and the gnome backed out of the room. When he straightened, the double doors had been closed by the chamber guard who held their halberds close and eyed the little fellow. He paid them no mind at all as he walked to the carriage house, whistling a sprightly tune.

Our side of the portal:

“Alright Jaxxon, tank those adds. They’re coming your way.” Mike said into his headset. He’d been glued to the monitor for hours and his guild, The Flaming Chamberpots, was close to winning the boss fight of this dungeon. “Niobe bring your group and help out Jaxxon. Burn ‘em down quick, then back on the boss.”

Most of them were a well-oiled machine, having played together for years. They’d recently added a couple of more damage dealers to handle this dungeon, but they probably wouldn’t be kept around.

“Movin’” Jaxxon’s laconic southern accent answered. He played a dwarf axe and board tank that knew his business. The adds would be stopped from sweeping that flank. He taunted the slug monsters and they all charged, spitting acid.

“You got it, boss.” Niobe was a ranged damage dealer and a good one. She’d bring them down once Jax stopped them. She tagged “her” damage dealers in the group chat. “Alright team, let’s smoke these fools!” Three of them moved with her, but Fistandantilus517 just stood there, looking frozen. “Hey Fist, you coming?” No response. She shrugged and engaged her Hail of Arrows special ability. She fired a single clothyard shaft and a dozen extra arrows appeared around it, all raining down on the slug creatures. One of them curled up, twisted around the arrows in its side, and died. “YES! Pour it on.” She cried.

WendyWonder cast a quick heal at Jaxxon. He was the only one that needed it so far. “Okay, I’ve a boon if you’ll get a few feet closer to Jax, Elyse.” She quick cast it. “That’s grea…” her character froze. Then she started whirling in place, not doing anything but spinning.

“Wendy, are you okay? What’s going on?” Niobe asked the group chat.

“I don’t know. She healed me and stopped responding.” Elyse answered. She loosed an ice lance spell that rebounded off the boss monster’s shell. It seemed to have a magic reflections ability if you hit its shell rather than its fleshy foot or head.

“Conan, get on the boss. Jax has the adds. We need you to keep doing damage.” Mike told Conan, who was the newest player in the guild and was a little out of control. His biggest attacks as a melee damage dealer were on cooldown but his greatsword could keep putting the hurt on the boss rather than killing the smaller add on monsters.

“Okay, okay.” Conan2U69 grumbled. He turned away from the small slugs, spitting acid onto the group and back to the big snail beast. Raising his sword, the ogre charged in yelling.

Marko took a swipe from the monster’s gargantuan foot on his shield. The ogre slid back and activated another taunt. “Your father is a hamster and your mother smells of elderberries!” The heavily armored ogre screamed. Laughter rang out over the raid chat. It was an old reference, but a good one. He swiped with his hammer, bonging the hit off the critter’s shell and doing minimal damage.

“Healing Marko, then Jax.” Isandra their priest, called out. Marko was tanking the boss and was burning health potions and spells to try and stay up.

“Marko, you’re losing aggro!” Mike told the tank. The massive ogre with his oversized body shield just spun in place. “Marko! Okay, I think he lost connection or something. Tomaz, I need you to take the big bad until Jax can take care of the adds and get over there.”

Silence.

“Tomaz?” Mike loosed a hellblast at the big bad and looked around. Most of the guild’s characters were just spinning in place. They weren’t responding or acting in any way. “Guys, what’s going on with everyone?”

“I’m not sure.” Isandra sounded worried, “People just started dropping, URK…” Isandra froze and then her character started spinning in place, seeming to mimic the others.

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The boss of this dungeon was a snail monster. It wasn’t fast but hit incredibly hard. Marko didn’t even try to absorb the hit as it crushed his character. Deniz the rogue stood like a statue as the creature’s giant foot descended on her. She didn’t make a sound or even complain in group chat, and she was a complainer.

“Isandra? What was that? I didn’t catch the end of that sentence.” Mike downed a mana potion and cast Jet of Flame. The long spear of fire cooked one side of the snail. He was glad no one had invented a game where you could smell what was going on. Burning mollusk probably wouldn’t enhance your appetite. “Izzy, are you there? Comcheck, comchek.” Mike reverted to Army radio procedure under stress. That was normally something his guildies teased him about. No one made a joke this time.

“I need some heals over here.” Conan yelled into the raid chat. “I’m about to rage. Somebody heal me!” The barbarian’s fur clad ogre shimmered red. His eyes turned black and he started hacking at the snail’s neck at a frantic pace, the greatsword creating huge rents in its side, roaring all the while.

Slime leaked down from under the shell and covered the burns and tears in its body. We had the boss’s hit points down to 25% but weren’t doing enough to keep it that low. So many of the group had dropped out of the fight.

“Damage dealers. Who is still online?” Mike asked, getting frustrated. They HAD this monster and something was messing up people’s connections, so they were getting offline with no warning. He put his hand over the microphone and growled.

Niobe chimed in, “I’m cleaning up the adds on this side.”

Elyse shouted, “Here and drinking a mana potion!”. She chugged the potion and cast an ice storm. It had a huge effect on the slugs, allowing Jaxxon to bust up the ones attacking him while they were slowed.

Zeke420, “You’re falling back into that army talk, boss. I’m here.” You could hear his smile over the raid chat as he struck with both short blades and went back into the shadow realm.

“I got the adds cleaned up on my side. Moving to tank the boss now.” Hera716 yelled. She was a paladin that got used as an off tank but was the best we had that was responding. She ran past raid member after member that was standing in place spinning around. “Where is everyone?”

“Don’t know,” Zeke420 yelled. “I think it’s down to us now. Maybe something’s wrong with their connection?” He pulled out a wand and shot glowing blue balls at the huge snail creature. His character had just evolved into a shadow dancer from a normal rogue. His Use Magic Device skill went up off the charts. He slipped back into the shadow realm.

The boss monster raised its head up and down a couple of times. Zeke appeared behind the immense creature but didn’t move, just spun in place. “Mass attack everyone! Drink those acid resistance potions and get behind a shield!” Mike shouted. He cast an acid neutralizing spray into the air. The damage dealers right around him were hit by a mist of rain rather than a storm of acid.

The burning green goop did hit huge numbers of their raiding party as it rained down, covering the entire map. They didn’t even try to avoid it. Most of the still characters got melted where they stood.

Niobe yelled over the raid chat, “That’s it for this side. My damage dealer’s switch back to the boss monster. We’ll…” Silence.

“Niobe?” Mike asked. “Where are you?”

Conan2U69 screamed, “I need some support up here! We can take this thing if ANYBODY will help!” He kept hacking at the snail creature, whose health was down to 10% but slowly increasing. Mike quick cast a magic missile then began the longer casting for a dreadstorm.

“Hey Niobe, you there?” Jaxxon drawled. No response. “Alrighty, I’m moving over to off tank the boss. Hera, you got him for now?” Silence. “What the hayull is going on? I swear I just…”

The boss monster head butted Hera716. She flew through the air to land in a crumpled pile on the ground. The paladin didn’t heal herself or even stand up. The monster chomped down, its sharklike teeth the least snail-like thing about this creature. It trilled in triumph, then smashed Zeke, who also didn’t defend himself.

“Jaxx, Hera just went down. She didn’t move to defend herself or use her aura ability or anything. She just…” Elyse’s voice cut off in mid-comment.

The dreadstorm went off. It was an energetic spell that only effected foes. The whirling black energy prevented healing and the lightning bolt per round carved off the monster’s health. The cooldown on this one was insane so it was effectively a one use per fight spell.

Conan howled and dove back in. His two-handed sword kept cutting chunks out of the boss monster. They were going to do it! The barbarian was screaming over the raid chat, then he suddenly went quiet. No conversation on the chat at all.

Mike’s vision suddenly went black.

I froze for a moment, then realized I hadn't gone blind, there was a bag on my head. That was long enough for whoever was in the room him to grab my arms. I'd been in fights back when I was in the army, but it had been a long time. Not too long to reflexively slam my head back into the guy's nose. I heard the crunch of a bone breaking. Stars erupted in my vision. I blinked to clear it. Whatever I hit was solid like a rock.

The hands released my wrists with a cry. I quickly pulled the cloth off his head and stood up from the gaming chair. I gasped at what I saw.

A dwarf. It was an actual dwarf in my home office. Chain mail armor with plates hanging from his shoulder, axe on a belt loop type of dwarf. Like from Tolkien or a thousand stories derived from his work. Short, bearded and oddly pale. His skin was like alabaster with red seams all through it, and his eyes were like solid gemstones with no iris. His beard, that magnificent beard that spread all over his broad chest, looked like it was made of golden wires rather than human hair.

He grinned up at me and sniffed, adjusting his nose back and forth. “Nice hit. My turn.” The fist that rocketed towards me was about the size of a lunchbox. It fit the thick, powerful arm it was attached to.

My next memory is of me lying on the floor dazed. The dwarf had my hand, holding a pencil in it. The creature forced my hand to make a mark on a character record sheet. It then put the sheet into a thick encyclopedia sized book.

The dwarf grinned at me, his broad teeth nearly translucent with lots of inclusions like quartz. That was the last thing I saw before everything went black again.