Your party was killed...

Your party was killed, incapacitated or captured while fighting the BBEG; you managed to survive the battle relatively unharmed but it's imperative to finish your job. How do you proceed?

Sneak past anything I can and then hit the BBEG as hard as possible in the opening round. I'm the party's main source of damage so it should be manageable and since the DM uses somewhat realistic damage rules his injuries should even the playing field.

I have a related but similar story

It was the end of the session, and the rest of the party wanted to search for a direbat breeding ground in order to make a quick buck. We decided to continue this in the next session, which I had to miss, so me and the DM decided that my character thought that was a stupid plan and would instead go into town to get food and supplies for when they came back.

The party, save my character, died while looking for the breeding grounds. My character is slowly losing his grip as more party members join and die/get disappeared. He's losing face in the eyes of his benefactors as well as a result of the actions of the most recent iteration of the party, and wants to end things in a way that restores his honor as well as makes sure the only party member he likes anymore is put in a position to profit from his death.

judge the situation

if they are still alive and i deem it possible to get away with, make efforts to free any remaining party members

if it seems to be possible at the current state, relaunch the attack and use what we "gained" to our benefit (if we at the very least managed to attain precious intel and/or weaken the BBEG)

if it seems unlikely to be possible alone/with the freed remnants of the party and time isn't overtly precious; recruit a new party, train and plan everything out with the knowledge accumulated from the last attempt. come back with a vengeance
i almost always play very diplomatic and calculating people, in a similar vein as this, i kinda consider it to be one of my biggest RP flaws, but i think it's party because of the type of person that i am but also that the types of games i've played in has shifted me towards that.

For my old character? Same thing as the last three or so times, go back to his mountain and wait for a new crop of "Heros" to get attached to and then fall further into despair after they die.

Current character would probably crack like an egg and go on a magic fueled suicide mission.

> Party's mission was to be advance scouts for an army
> Scout out a port town where the army would land as well as surrounding region, make sure intel on area is correct and up to date
> End up in dungeon fighting ice golems
> Turns out there's a giant crystal (it functions as a ghost prison but we didn't know that) and we damaged it during the fight
> At the time we're running on initiative and grid as the crystal cracks, everyone holds ground
> My character takes a 5 foot step backwards
> Crystal breaks and over 9000 angry ghosts swoop down on the party
> I escape due to mechanics and literally that 5 foot step backwards saved my life and everyone else died
> Run away
> Run outside dungeon and hide in a tree
> The hills are now filled with ghosts
> The army arrives in a week
> The only way to contact them is dead in the dungeon
> DM looks bewildered, ends campaign

that's dopey

Lame. GM should have rolled with the consequences. That would have been a fantastic campaign if he'd just had the guts to carry through.

I usually play martials so my plan would be to try and sneak into the dungeons, which probably wouldn't work, at that point I would fight my way through to them, come what may. Then we would regroup and try and kill the BBEG.

It looks like it's time to call in all favors and pull out all stops. I didn't intend to squander my resources like this and it might very well take decades to build it all up again, but I am going to save the group and we are going to defeat the Villain for good.