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Chapter 10:  A Diamond in the Rough

The next cat head was a lion, a male lion. Its billowing main was exquisitely carved in high relief against the cavern wall.

Pieter and Lexi paused, knowing the portal was another threshold. They could turn back now. Enough pedestals remained above the lava for them to traverse the pool, and each head they had passed through should be open for them. Some players had even said they’d been able to snag a few gold coins from the initial treasure piles on the way out before the tiger head snapped shut and trapped them inside.

Lexi didn’t know what Pieter was thinking. She guessed he was trying to figure out the right time to double-cross her. He was a control mage. He specialized in summoning minions or controlling other characters to do what he wanted. He relied on pumping his Spell Difficulty to maximum. The problem was that Lexi was five levels above him and had an immense Magic Defense. He wouldn’t be able to charm her with his magic, or if he tried, it would only be for one round.

He had the control wand, and Lexi knew it would defeat her. But it was an item that could only be used once per day. He needed to save it for the right moment. The only time that made sense to her was after she passed the final stage and had the lamp. If she wasn’t fast enough, he could control her, force her to give him the lamp, and then have her jump into the bottomless pit. But to cast a spell on her any sooner than that would be stupid.

Then she wouldn’t pass the final level for him; she would kill him if he didn’t kill her.

Lexi didn’t know what the mage was thinking, but she knew the thoughts that ran through her mind.

Perhaps she was the only one who saw the connections with the cat heads. This was a male lion. Male lions didn’t hunt; the females did. The male only ate once the prey was killed. In the next room, you only got the prize once the other player died.

Male lions did fight; they protected pride against rogue lions and other single predators. At this point in the module, the party would always comprise two people. And once you knew the room’s secret, they often fought to the death, or at least to submission, to decide who got the prize.

Lexi didn’t know which aspect of a male lion the stage best fit, but she was willing to credit the module designer with either one. She glanced at Pieter and guessed he might not be thinking about anything other than waiting for Lexi to enter first. She did.

This area didn’t glow; instead, it was a large circular room with a high ceiling. It reminded Lexi of the Arena, only smaller. A closed cat head sat at the 2 o’clock position, waiting to be opened. Opposite, at the 10 o’clock position, was a much smaller adjoining circular room fifteen feet in diameter. In the center of the chamber was a large bowl of sand sitting on a pedestal resembling a bird bath.

Lexi moved into the center of the room and waited for Pieter to join her. Once the mage stepped inside, the lion’s head closed its mouth.

The cat head within their room came to life and spoke with the cavern’s deep voice. “Only one may enter here. One whose worth lies far within. Seek ye out the diamond in the rough.”

The head grew still, and the players shifted their gaze to the small adjoining chamber. The sand in the bowl shimmered and flowed apart in the familiar image of something rising into view. It was a diamond, larger than any in the real world, about the size of a grapefruit. The task seemed simple enough. Enter the small room, retrieve the diamond, and pass through the last portal. But it was a trap.

The first few players who had attempted this module had fought over the right to get the diamond and proceed. Later players who understood the trap fought to see which would be forced to get the diamond.

Pieter looked at Lexi carefully, both hands hovering over pockets in his robe where he kept defensive items. Lexi would have the initiative here and could attack first, but the game would give Pieter a chance to defend himself. The standard defenses of Dodge, Parry, and Raise a Shield wouldn’t work with the mage not having skill in any of those, but he could cast a defensive spell like Stone Skin or Mirror Image. Her attack would fail, and then he would use the control wand.

But the druid didn’t attack.

Instead, she became vulnerable by going into her inventory and producing the two essential items. She placed the goblin figurine on the floor, filled it with mana, and stepped back. Magical green and yellow sparkles swirled above the statute as it grew and came alive. After six seconds, the lights fell, revealing a goblin in a hula skirt, covered in tattoos, and holding a spear. The creature emerged from a daze, looked around until he found Lexi, and bowed before her. “My Mistress, what do you desire?”

Lexi took the necklace she had acquired from the Torrintank Keep module and placed it on the goblin’s head.

Then she stepped back and muttered to James. “Is it working?”

{You know it isn’t going to work,} he responded. {What do you want me to say?}

“It’s hard to fake a conversation with your operator,” she whispered in reply. “Experienced players see right through it. So, I thought we’d have a real talk.”

{Alright. What do you want to talk about? You’ve been amazing so far. The way you fed that halfling to the demon was top-notch. Bloody brilliant. Way to go. Oh, and you look smashingly beautiful.}

“That should be enough, dear.” Lexi turned her gaze to Pieter and smiled. “It’s working. This will work.”

“The game sees him as a PC now?” Pieter asked. His eyes flitted between Lexi, the closed mouth behind her, the goblin kneeling on the ground, and the diamond resting on the sand to his left. If the game thought there were three PCs in the room now, how would it react? Would the mouth scold them? Would the diamond sink back into the sand?

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“Rise, my servant,” Lexi commanded the goblin, not allowing Pieter to think through the situation. “Retrieve that diamond and bring it to me.”

The goblin stood, turned to see where his master pointed and nodded. “My pleasure.” He walked toward the chamber.

“No,” Pieter said. “Wait! Are you sure it’s working?”

“Yes,” Lexi said. “My operator can see his character sheet. He is listed as a PC. Would you like to join my party so you can see?” Lexi went so far as to invite him to her party formally.

Pieter was assaulted with too much information at once. He stood at the room’s 9 o’clock position, directly in front of the diamond’s chamber, while Lexi was closer to 5 o’clock. It looked like his operator was talking to him non-stop, probably saying they couldn’t confirm anything. His eyes circled around the room, looking for signs that the game was alerted to the trickery. And now, an alert flashed before his vision that Lexi was inviting him to her party.

He quickly dismissed it and saw that the goblin was almost to the chamber. He’d seen what happened to PCs that entered that room and wanted nothing to do with it. He stepped toward the center of the room but kept his eyes on the goblin.

He turned his back on Lexi.

The leopard pounced.

The druid was fully transformed into a cat when her front paws hit the mage’s back high on his shoulder blades. Pieter was thrown from his feet and smashed face-first into the stone floor. He instinctively struggled against the leopard's weight, but it was a foolish move. He failed miserably, giving Lexi several critical successes to work with.

“I knew it,” Pieter said, blood running down his face. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you, stupid bitch.”

“A bitch is a female dog,” Lexi quipped, transforming her mouth into a human to talk. “And I am not the stupid one here.”

“Does the medallion even work?”

Lexi shifted her mouth back, bit a tuft of the mage’s unkempt hair, and pulled his head unnaturally back so he could look forward. The goblin walked into the chamber, and . . . nothing happened. He wrestled with the diamond, but it didn’t budge.

It wouldn’t move until a PC touched it.

Lexi released Pieter’s hair so she could talk. His face slammed back into the floor, and he broke his nose.

“I’m sure it works if you code it for the right character. It is coded for Gromphy. My goblin isn’t Gromphy. Plus, you need to charge it with mana, and we couldn’t figure out how to do that.”

“When I start over, I will hunt you down,” Pieter said, blood running down his lips. “I’ll come back as a ranger just so I can fill your body with arrows. I’ll find the most powerful canine companion out there and . . .”

“What?” she asked.

“Are you going to forget about Jace?”

The mage growled, and she laughed. He continued to curse her, but Lexi ignored it. She had about 30 seconds of Pieter in a Helpless condition and didn’t want to waste it bantering. Once the time was over, he would be upgraded to only Grappled, allowing him to do things that took one action. All his wands required an entire round so he would still be defenseless, but she didn’t want to underestimate his resourcefulness.

Lexi opened up his inventory. As expected, it was filled with items she couldn’t use: wands, scrolls, and magical items that needed to be out of your inventory to be helpful. As a leopard, she couldn’t wear pouches or pockets, and going into your inventory during battle was a bad idea. There were two things she wanted, though. She took the cat’s eye necklace that would give her control of his mine and the obsidian ring that allowed access to Overton.

Everything else could be deleted with the mage.

She left his inventory and bit down on the back of his collar. The leopard hoisted his body off the ground like a mother carrying a kitten.

She dragged the man toward the chamber and tossed his body inside. As Pieter crossed the curved threshold of the smaller room, adamantium bars slammed down over the opening. The mage regained mobility as soon as he was released, but instead of trying to cast a spell or pull a wand, he crawled over to the goblin and took the necklace from him.

The small room took two rounds to activate. First, it dispelled all magic in the chamber. If Pieter had a defensive spell active, it ended. Then, it cast an anti-magic shield, preventing any further spells from being released. Other players reported each were level 99 spells preventing anyone from defeating them.

Pieter got to his feet, walked over to the impenetrable bars, and gripped them tightly, preparing himself for what lay ahead. Lexi saw the strange amulet around his neck and wondered what he was up to. She took a step back but forced herself to watch till the end.

Slender spikes the diameter of pencils shot out from the wall randomly, skewering both occupants. The goblin cried in pain, but Pieter gritted his teeth and refused to break. One of the metal shafts took him in the side, while another had exploded his kneecap. Two more penetrated his ribs.

Each did eight damage. The damage could not be resisted or absorbed into another device like a ring or totem. Pieter had 195 hit points. This was going to take a while.

The spikes retracted into the walls, then shot out from entirely different angles. He was hit in the foot, elbow, thigh and wrist.

He didn’t lose his grip on the bars or his smoldering gaze at Lexi. Thankfully, the goblin took a hit to the neck, and his high-pitched screaming ended.

Round after round, it continued. Blood poured from the open wounds as his health dropped by 32 every six seconds. After the sixth round, he tried to talk, but a spike had already hit him in the throat, so it came out in a hoarse whisper.

“I . . . will . . . find . . .” A steel shaft slammed down through the center of his skull, and he fell to the ground dead.

Lexi shuddered. The sight of the human pincushion would have likely haunted her dreams for years, except this is how she spent her nights,

This game already was her dream. And she didn’t have “years” left.

The goblin had died several rounds earlier, and when the chamber detected that both characters were dead, a swirl of black mist filled the circular room, disintegrating everything until the space was empty. Empty except for the diamond sitting on a pile of undisturbed sand.

The adamantium bars lifted into the ceiling, and the chamber was open again.

“Sacrifice accepted.”

Taking a deep breath, Lexi returned her body to a 50/50 mix, stood erect, and walked into the room.

Nothing happened. She reached out with both hands and took the massive diamond.

Still nothing. She exhaled.

“Being greedy does not make one worthy,” the cave’s voice said.

{Right,} James mocked. {You’re as generous as Mother Theresa.}

“I do believe most of this was your plan,” she said. “Recruiting Pieter was your idea.”

{Touche, dear.}

Lexi didn’t want to argue; she was just happy it worked. She stepped out of the chamber before the module changed its mind and moved to the center of the larger room. The lion’s head was open behind her, and she could see the distant glow of the lava field.

She could leave now but couldn’t take the diamond with her. It was a level 20 item, and some players had tried to quit while they were ahead, but the game wouldn’t let you walk back through the lion's mouth with the diamond in your inventory. You could drop it on the floor and leave, but nobody wanted that. No, she turned instead to move further into the module.

She walked up to the closed mouth and raised the diamond before it. The jaws opened wide, and she stepped through.

It was a leopard’s mouth.