When we made it back to camp the situation wasn’t exactly promising. You could tell the building crew hadn’t been standing idle. There were at least a dozen good-sized lean-to’s that had been built in the area around the door. Joe had picked strategically placed tree’s as the uprights, run a ridge beam between them, and then rafters up from the ground on one side in kind of a cocked A shape. Unfortunately, that was about it. I could just imagine drifting off to sleep underneath one while a crabidillo came clicking on up, wandered in and nipped off whatever body part struck his fancy. I tabled that thought while I looked for Jeff so I could report in.

Debbie and I found him on the far side of camp playing in the dirt with a couple of other guys. When I got close enough to see what they were doing I realized it was pure genius. Jeff was using the reports from the explorers to build a sand table. He had a scale terrain map on the ground in front of him and I walked up and squatted down to try and figure it out. He finished the piece he was working on and walked over to hunker down next to me.

“Those stick things are the shelter’s we’ve built. The gray pebbles are every place that somebody has either killed or run from some kind of lobster armadillo hybrid.”

“They’re called crabadillos.”

He gave me a weird look from the side of his face but just grunted.

“Okay, the pebbles are crabadillos. Remember that wolf beast asshole from the intro? The little pieces of bark represent a pack of those. The guys who found them just respawned from the door without their stuff, so death isn’t permanent here, just like the intro.”

I didn’t bother telling him not everybody died the first time around. It felt kind of like bragging. Instead, I just focused on the sand table.

“What’s that solid line and the dotted line carved in the dirt?”

.” Solid line is a stream. Folks saw it here and here. We’re guessing it’s just one and it bends around, but nobody has actually come back from over there yet, that’s why it’s dotted. What can you add?”

I leaned forward and dropped one of the pebbles into place.

“My partner and I killed a crabadillo right in there. You’re also gonna need another symbol.”

He held up a twig that had been stripped of all its leaves, apparently he’d been expecting something new for a while now.

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“What’d you find and where?”

“It was mostly animate vines. . .” before I could answer Debbie spoke up from over my shoulder.

“It’s a Venus Man Trap. Basically a giant plant monster.”

I looked back and made eye contact with her and she shrugged, unphased that she’d interrupted me.

“Sorry, didn’t want another dumb name like crabadillo.”

“How many times do I have to say that was Tim not me.”

“Can you two please focus. Where was the Venus Man Trap at?”

“Right hereish, and you definitely wanna let people know. I don’t think it’s able to relocate, so it’s gonna be there till we go back and burn it out or whatever.”

“We’ll take care of it. Are you two up for going back out again before dark, or do you want to join the builder crew?”

I shot a questioning look over at Debbie and got an indifferent shrug in return. That left it up to me, and I had a definite preference. I leaned forward and tapped a spot on the sandtable.

“I’m thirsty as hell. We’ll bounce up to here and follow the water back up this direction before looping around. Confirm your dotted line just in case.”

Jeff nodded at me before he turned and started talking to one of the other guys kneeling around the sand table. It took a second before I realized that meant he was done with us. It wasn’t much formality but it worked for me. I stuck out my hand and Debbie ignored it so I ended up lurching to my feet unassisted.

“A little harsh there, Debs.”

“It’s not Debs, my name is Debbie. Hold my bow for a second, Jack.”

I took the bow she handed me and followed her as she walked ahead and entered that creepy doorway. I stood there feeling like an idiot, and decided to check out the bow while I waited for her to return. Now that I was holding it, the risers felt like carbon fiber and the cam’s were aluminum, or some kind of alloy. It felt light but when I tried the draw it took a lot more oomph than I had expected. Debbie’s curves gave the impression of softness but she had to be packing a lot more muscle than I realized to have made that shot on the crabadillo. I had the bow up sighting at a tree in the distance trying to get a feel for it when I heard Debbie’s voice.

“Don’t get too attached to that, slick. I want it back.”

I turned around to see that she’d already made it back out of the door. It turned out later that there was some kind of time dilation effect. No matter how long you stayed in the shop, you returned just seconds later. Apparently she’d spent her XP from killing the crabadillo and the fight with the venus man trap, because she had on clothes now. I’m not sure if it was a dress or a long sleeve t-shirt with with an extra long tail. It was camouflage colored, which I thought was smart, and she had a fanny pack on around her waist.

“Nice threads. I especially like the fanny pack, very 80’s soccer mom.”

“I was inspired by your man purse. Don’t think I didn’t notice you fit an entire axe in that thing. Real live game inventory, I spent most of my points on this one. I got you something this time, though.”

She dipped her hand into the fanny pack and pulled out an old school leather water skin like the kind you would see in a spaghetti western.

“What, they didn’t have any Yetis?”

“I think the phrase you’re looking for is thank you, Jack. Have you not figured out how the prices in the store work? Natural materials are cheaper than synthetic, and technology affects it too, but not the cost in the real world. This dress is gingham and hand dyed. Think a couple hundred bucks at some hippy boutique and it was half the price in XP of a modern T-shirt with machine stitching.”

I suddenly realized I had messed up not taking more time in the store to check out my options before I made my purchases. I made a mental note not to take anything else for granted in this new world. The old rules of reality I’d become so used to no longer applied. Debbie didn’t have time to watch me struggle with buyer’s remorse, instead she started off into the woods. I slid the empty waterskin into my messenger bag and hustled after her.