Dungeon Party Zulu: The Start!
 

Cold wet rock pressed against faces, heavy air clogged lungs, presence slowly filtered into mind and gritty eyes slowly dragged open. A salty tang on a stiff breeze pushes back some of the oppressive atmosphere. As you regain the ability to distinguish your surroundings, you find yourself in what appears to be a large rough pen built against a small outcropping in a massive cliff. There are beings of all types around you, most look like they have seen better days and all the ones awake before you are huddled tight under the outcrop.

Hurmm. Humm, hammm. A new crop I see.: A massive shadow blocked out the wind and a smell like two week old death pervaded the enclosure.
"Listen here little beasties, know your fate lies in our hands. Do as you are told and you'll live to serve another day, disagree and..."
A large brownish purple appendage snaked its way over the corral fence. A hulking minotaur roared and threw itself at the giant tentacle, lashing out with a rock torn from the cliff wall, one mighty blow landed... The tentacle swiftly enveloped the minotaurs head, twisting it from its body with a loud pop! The tentacle drew the corpse over the fence, blood and gore pooling on the other side. The shadow grew into darkness and the minotaur's head began screaming.
"This is your only warning, follow the Melibe Bucephala's wishes and your life goes on"
The shadow lifted and the shrieking died out.

((OK, this place has been constructed by previous prisoners, so it is pretty escapable. The nasties are giant sea slugs that are can manifest tentacles like the one that killed the minotaur at great effort. Just about anything physical is impossible for them, which is why they use their slaves to gather up newcomers to serve them. There are 3 Melibe Bucephala in this cove, but almost unlimited slaves that are loyal to them. The thing that keeps the slaves in line is the fear of the mental and supernatural abilities of the giant slugs, they can read thoughts and tear the soul from a living being, consuming it right away or slowly savoring the soul's destruction for years.
The slaves can be of any ability or race, just usually weak willed or cowardly. There are 5 slaves per slug who were once strong willed people like you, they have been completely dominated by the Slugs and are essentially drones to their will, they are you equals.

You guys want out. This place will be you death if you stay, you are certain of that. Those of you who had material possessions are SOL unless specifically mentioned in your PM. Your crap is here, just in the hands of your enemy, and not an enemy that is in your view. The Slugs have learned that the items retained by new arrivals tend to be very useful to their owners, and they don't want you having anything to help you out until you are under their control.

So have at it, the Slug is gone for now and you are under the watch of slave guards.))

Li awakened with a start. His body feeling better than it had in almost 10 years. The aches and pains were gone from his joints. Not to mention the exhaustion he felt from a lifetime of wandering. The pain that had come with entering the portal seemed to be but a small remembrance. Then of course the scene played out. Li had never seen a minotaur but he could tell it was powerful. Watching it being slain so easily was not something that particularly concerned Li. Neither however was it something to be dismissed.

When it was over Li flipped up onto his feet nimbly. He stumbled a bit in doing this. His balance was a bit off. It was understandable however after the trip he had taken. He looked around the cove, seeing the vast population of slaves he knew he was likely in for a stay. That is until he found a way out. Li began to walk chipperly around the enclosure. Saying hello's to the humanoid creatures in various languages he knew. The creatures came in many forms. Lots of Humans of different shapes and sizes as well as beasts totally alien to him.

Li felt very spry today, spry but thirsty. He walked over to a bucket of water that looked fresh. Leaning over it to take a sip he stopped. The face looking back at him in the still water was not his own face. Well that was not entirely true. It was his own face after a sort, now however he was much younger. He looked more like how he envisioned his son would look. Had he ever taken the time to father one. Li stuck his hands out in front of him. They were young and free of veins and lines. Pulling back the sleeves of his shirt he saw his arms too were young, and more alarmingly, not quite as well muscled. His legs too, he saw after pulling up his pant legs, were smooth and skinnier.

Anger and dismay began to enter into Li's mind. He wondered how this could have happened. Then he remembered the portal. It had felt as though he were being pulled out of his body. This must have been the result. "Very clever!" He shouted to the heavens in Chinese. "I'll best you either way!"

Li then sat down very quietly. He began to flex and relax his muscles. One muscle at a time. This new body responded much like his old one did. Though it seemed to lack the precision and strength his old one had. He would have to use his time here wisely. Training his body to react swiftly and nimbly. Strength could come later. For not he would train himself in agility. Train and look for a chance to escape.

Through it all Li had taken no real notice of the other newly arrived prisoners. Now however he was totally absorbed in his stationary exorcise. Nothing short of tapping him on the shoulder would get his attention. Li had to admit one thing however. It felt good to have a young body again.

Arem awoke to many aches and pains in his entire body. Not only that, but something they had used to get info out of him was making him drowsy and disoriented. He sat up to watch a tentacle pull in what appeared to be half beast half man.

"Goddamn..." Arem closed his eyes and felt his body for his gear. Nothing but that sword they had given him. "I hope to god this just part of a training exercise." He stood up only to find his balance was still a bit off. Soon on his knees again he looked forward to see things he had only heard of. Arem attempted to stand up again, successful this time but still a little shaky.

"Where the hell am I?" He looked around once more, still not able to believe his eyes. "What am I suppose to do here?" Arem stumbled a bit around the area, trying to walk off the effect of the drugs and some massive beating he received.

Arem heard something... a different language, but surely one he recognized. 'Chinese, must be one of the operatives.' He didn't know where it came and wondered if they could understand English. Agents were trained in tons of languages and it was rare if someone didn't know agency specified languages. "Who is it? Where are we?" Arem shouted in his best Chinese... or Korean... one of them, which would probably be in vain if the person couldn't understand him.

"DAAAAAAAD!!!" Tilt woke up screaming. As the voice began speaking, he instinctually started to reach for his shotgun, however, he found it wasn't there. As a matter of fact, he had nothing except for the clothes on his back.
"Well, sonuva bitch."
Tilt heard someone yell, and then a response, but he had no clue what they could be saying. He slowly, painfully began to sit up and then stand.
After he succeeded(and fell twice), he began to make his way towards the voices, hoping that maybe he would be able to find someone who could understand English.

Howl awoke to find himself partly submerged in a murky pool of water, his last few moments made life a blur. He watched the minotaur being torn asunder as if he was miles away and it could not affect him one way or the other. In actuallity his mind was further away then that.

Had it really happened, was it a dream, was this a dream. He took a good look at his reflection, his hair was long, ragged and whiter then he recalled. Even his teeth seemed sharper and his bright golden eyes looked back at him with the intent to kill. Then his reflection growled.

Before he could even speak out his 'other-half' had latched his clawed hands around Howl's neck, raising his arms up and driving his elbows out Howl broke the grip and followed it with a cross to the jaw. As the hagrid alternate version of itself came out of the water almost as quickly as it went in Howl ran a hand down the side of his neck.

The trickle of blood that ran down Howl's neck would have been far more severe had it not been for his gigantic collar, his rival however was still hungry for more.

"Damn you foul wizard, what trickery have you cursed me with?" It asked as it bared it's teeth menacingly.

It was a deep gravelly voice filled with fury that had echoed deep from within Howl more then once. "Gregory?!" Howl was so taken aback he barely felt the heat on his eye, nor the blood dripping from Gregory's neck.

Gregory was oblivious to these as well, he drew his arms out to his side and let out another growl of a speech. "By the gods of Arcanus I will have your head sorcerer!"

"Not if I take your head first you damn dog." Jagged claws of ice formed on Howl's fingers, both creatures saw this as the chance to free themselves of an unwanted burden.

Neither knew in doing so they would end their own life.

As the two tussled and struggled to kill one another Howl managed to land a swift kick on Gregory knocking him upon the formerly wizened old karate master. "Damn you!" He rose to his feet angrily with his usual angry growl.

Li was totally focused on his body. Slowly breathing in and out, feeling the way the muscles worked with each other. Isolating specific muscles and then relaxing them. Suddenly a large form landed atop him. Knocking the martial artist flat. The hairy man stood back up and cursed in an unknown language, growling viciously. Li lashed out instinctively. His foot finding the legs of his assailant. The swift blow knocked the pale man back onto his back.

Li was swiftly back onto his feet and glaring down at the man. "What do you think you were doing?" He asked in very angry Chinese. When the man gave no sign of recognition he changed languages to English on account of the mans pale skin. "What are you doing?"

Gregory stopped, a look of surprise locked upon his face. Howl stopped as well, not knowing what was said he wasn't sure if continuing his act would prove prudent or violate this new mans code of honor, if even he knew what honor was. Howl decided to try and capitalize on Gregory's surprise, he might receive an honest answer. "What did he say?" Howl hoped it had been something that drew Gregory's ire, he needed to fell that monster quickly and get on with his life.

"You speak the language of old? How do you know these words old man?" It had been a long time since Gregory heard the English language, let alone speak it. Though he scarcely remember the world he once called home, he had managed to cling to his language. The words spoken were heavenly, like the sound of a familiar patch of forest or the scent of a loved one.

But Gregory was a long way from home.

((Feel free to fill in your PC's actions during this time, as always PM me if you have questions))

In the two months since arriving on the beach the number of surviving slaves has dropped dramatically. Some were killed in escape attempts; turned in by fellow slaves seeking a spot out of the pens and in the favor of their new masters. Those who openly fought against their Masters had been pulled aside almost immedietly and had not been heard from since. Days had been filled with carrying out menial tasks, farming in fields above the beach, working in a quarry or continuing the construction of a monstrous building. Nights were wet and cold, occasionally examples would be made of slaves that had not yet made an attempt to escape but had been planning on it. All in all this was not a two week vacation on the beach, and times did not look to be improving.

Li used his 2 month stay to the best of his abilities. He worked hard, taking on quarry work when ever he could over the far easier farming. He spent his days breaking and cutting rocks. Hauling them around to build up his muscles. At night he would go through exercises toning his muscles. Though he never made an attempt at escape he did quite get punished a few times. The monstrous creatures noticed that he was becoming stronger and began to assume that he was indeed planning escape.

While he was planning escape he still had not found a way that he felt was fool proof. Often he could make notes, in passing, on possible ways to escape to others he knew were wanting too. Then of course he would watch as they attempted and see the results. It was a cruel thing to do, but if they were smarter they would be doing to same thing.

Li was careful never to directly practice his martial arts abilities. Just move through the most basic motions, learning to control and manipulate his body. The slave labor combined with the exercises did wonders on the young body he was given. He knew if given the chance, he could take on most any creature that came at him. This fact only strengthened his resolve. He had a knew life given to him, and he did not intend to use it imprisoned.

In the two months he had been in this hellhole, Tilt had been tortured nearly to the breaking point. He had no clue why, he simply took his beatings and went on with his boring life down here. As time went on and more and more of the people down there perished, he swore to himself he would not be one of those unfortunates. He still had to find his father.