Lord Vulder’s throne room was similar in design to the entry hall. Plants, open-air views of the city below, and more snakes than Jace was used to seeing decorated the room. An open floor stood before the literal throne, with a concentric pattern of wooden floorboards crisscrossed with precious materials. Strips of gold and silver ran horizontally at right angles beneath their feet in a massive chessboard. Lines of marble and ivory intersected this grid on the diagonal, creating hundreds of triangles. Jace noticed a large marble bath on one side of the room and a massive stone table on the other. He cast his Armor totem in the tub and his Damage Sink totem on the underside of the table. When he stepped on a line of marble, he could feel his connection to the magical icons, and he hoped it would be enough.
An enormous chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling, with mirrors above catching the sun’s light and cascading it through the thousands of crystals, giving the room a celestial feel. Behind the golden and silver throne were doors and curtains closing off rooms and ceremonial chambers. Jace guessed Vulder’s crew also lived up here.
The orc’s eyes turned to the waiting crowd, and he drew in a deep breath. In Delly’s cutscene, her companions had been roughly the same level as her. Now, they were all between 18 and 21. Pok and Kelrick stood close together, about twenty feet to the right of the throne, eyeing the newcomers with calculating intensity. Dreller had summoned the players to the room and now moved to stand to the left of the throne while Ferrick, the human fighter, stood on the right. Tensta, the half-orc archer, flanked the visitors on the far left side, holding her bow and watching Jace’s crew closely, especially Psycho. Paltine wasn’t there.
That left Lord Vulder. Jace had to applaud the module designer. It was an accurate representation of what he assumed Darth Vader would look like as a fantasy character. He wore black armor with magical red and yellow gems on his breastplate, complete with a black cape. He didn’t wear a helmet or face mask and looked remarkably like a young James Earl Jones, with his long black hair gathered in a ponytail down his back.
“Welcome, Jace Thorne,” the powerful character said, standing from his throne and descending a few steps to the wooden floor. Vulder was level 25, which wasn’t as high as Jace assumed he would be. Though, as a fighter who only focused on swordplay, he would be much better than a level 18 orc shaman could ever hope to be, even with Jace’s “cheat” tactics. He would have other weaknesses, but Paltine was designed to address those.
“Your reputation precedes you. I hope my Desert Children have treated you well. They are a bit protective of the privileges they possess, and I assume they resent your presence.”
Jace looked at Odalga, Jaheed, and Chago. The players had moved to their assigned spots in the room, equally spaced from each other and the throne. The area was designed to accommodate four groups, and Jace wondered if he should lead his team to the open spot. He decided against it. The players treated Vulder with the utmost respect, something uncommon for players to do when dealing with a hostile NPC. Jace decided to retain his standard irreverent play style.
“They were skeptical yet realistic. It seems you have whipped them into shape quite nicely. However, they are completely ignorant that you’ve changed the rules on them. I suspect they will be quite furious when they find out.”
If Jace’s insight caught Vulder off guard, he hid it well. The players did not. “I predict you are correct,” Vulder said, eyeing the others in the room and their sudden agitated posture. They knew well not to talk out of turn but desperately wanted to. “And the one absent will undoubtedly be the most irate of all.” He focused for a moment on the priest. “Though, I assume his partner is updating him as we speak.”
Vulder spun back to Jace. “So, you’ve come to watch me die. To see the transfer of power. To see this land gain a new ruler.”
Jace nodded. “It seemed fitting.”
“And how do you like my palace, my city, my kingdom?”
“To be honest,” Jace replied, “I prefer my snow-covered mountain. As do most of my friends.” Beside him, other than Psycho, his companions grew restless. Gromphy could feel the power in the room and knew that when the fighting started, he would be out of his league. Draya still hated the snakes and views out over the city. Snowy didn’t take to it much better. All the previous snakes they had encountered had regarded them passively, but this room had more than usual, and most of them stared at the winter wolf and bared their fangs.
“Your pet is out of her element,” Kelrick said, agreeing with Jace’s comment and drawing everyone’s eyes to the alchemist. He looked the same as in Delly’s memories; only Jace saw that he now wore the green medallion that had been on Paltine’s neck. He grasped it as he stepped toward the center of the room. “Perhaps I can give her something to calm her nerves.”
He pulled a green vial from his vest pocket and infused it with mana while the emerald in his other hand pulsed. He smiled at the group and tossed it toward Snowy.
“Tis not a pleasant elixir,” Gromphy declared, hastily running away from the flying potion and hiding behind Jace. Psycho and Draya also wisely retreated. Snowy tried, but Pok reached out to the wolf with a curled hand, locking the soul of the familiar in place.
The vial broke on the floor, the glass shattering into nothing as a thick, green mist rose to encircle Snowy. Jace hated the attack on his wolf but held his ground as he watched, knowing this was mainly done to test his resolve. At this point, he felt confident any of his companions that might be killed here would respawn at his stronghold. He just hoped their deaths wouldn’t be too painful.
Unfortunately, the potion wasn’t meant to kill Snowy. It was much worse.
The wolf growled and stamped as the tendrils of green smoke snaked their way into her nose and mouth. They curled around her fur and tightened around her legs. The transformation took one round. Her fur turned green and scally, and she fell to the floor and howled in agony. Her tail and rear legs merged and stretched backward to an impossible length. The wolf’s front paws folded up into her neck and similarly elongated forward. After six seconds, snowy had been transformed into an 18-foot anaconda.
Draya screamed until Kelrick hoisted another green potion in her direction. Psycho responded by swinging the bow of his shoulder. Tenesta did likewise, and Draya recovered enough to pull her dragon staff and activate it.
“Enough!” Vulder shouted before anyone struck. “Anyone who attacks will be killed instantly. You are hopelessly outnumbered and can not hope to prevail in a fight. I did not invite you here to kill you.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Jace hadn’t drawn his weapon or moved. Beside him, Snowy coiled into a tight ball, pressing up against his leg. If snakes could whimper, she was doing so now, as scared as she had ever been. The orc leader motioned with his hands for his companions to settle down. They lowered their weapons but did not put them away.
“Lord Vulder,” Chago said. “I think we deserve an answer as to what is going on. We have served you faithfully for months and have never betrayed you. What is this talk of you changing the rules? Surely, Delilah’s arrival changes nothing. She has foolishly come to kill you, but that obviously can not happen. Why not kill her and move on with your plan? You can not think to turn over the kingdom to this newcomer,” he indicated Jace, “who has done none of the trials. He has not been blessed by the land as we have.” The flamboyant player pulled a gold medallion out of his shirt, which was identical to the one Odalga had produced earlier. “We are the Children of the Desert, the rightful heirs to Kamora.”
Lord Vulder let him finish his impassioned speech before responding. “Jace Thorne will rule Kamora over my dead body.”
“But that is what you’ve said,” Odalga said. “That he is here to kill you.”
“That is not what I said,” Vulder corrected. “I said he is here to watch me die. Perhaps one of you has secretly planned my assassination?”
All three players bowed their heads and professed their continual loyalty to the Prime Regent. He accepted their allegiance and waited to see if any of them had further complaints. “Regardless,” he said, spinning around to return to his throne and sit down, “the rules have changed.”
All three players looked up with confusion but didn’t dare question their leader. “Perhaps you would like Jace to explain it to you since you have been so wrapped up in your own petty competition that you couldn’t see what is plain before you. Something that this ‘Newcomer’ could discern in minutes.”
All eyes went to Jace, and he shrugged. He didn’t think he had it all sorted yet but guessed the best way to reason it out was to talk it through. “In the original iteration of this module, the curse was a neutral third party cast by a group of unknown plague seekers from somewhere in the desert. It had no direct tie to Lord Vulder or his people. The goal of the module was to ascend as the most prominent challenger, take over after Lord Vulder stepped down, and use Sonan to end the curse, solving his quest and securing him as a companion and yourself as the ruler of a powerful kingdom. This you all know already.”
He exchanged glances with them, and they nodded. “But that all changed when I freed Delly. Gandhi created a backstory for her and merged her quest with this one. I assume you are all familiar with the story of Samson and Delilah from the Bible.” They nodded. “Sonan is now Delilah’s Samson. Gandhi tried to use existing lore and characters as much as possible, but some things had to change. You all noticed some of them but didn’t realize that the goalposts shifted. The curse is no longer some McGuffin but integral to Vulder’s power. If I had to guess, Pok cast the curse.”
Jace looked at the necromancer, who nodded his head. “But he’s a summoner,” Odalga said, shaking her head. “He controls the snakes throughout the city.”
“Did you not just see what happened a minute ago?” Chago said, pointing at Snowy’s new form and then the alchemist who had done it. “Their roles have swapped.”
“And Pok is no summoner,” Jaheed said, his eyes half-closed in a divination spell. “He’s a necromancer.” The priest opened his eyes completely. “I don’t know why we didn’t see it before.”
“Because you weren’t looking for it,” Jace said. “You were too concerned with each other. I imagine the rules of this module prevented you from killing one another.”
All three nodded. “That is how the last two finalists were disqualified,” Odalga said.
“But how does this change the curse?” Chago asked. “Do we need to kill Pok?”
The dark elf stiffened and readied a spell.
“Not that I know,” Jace said. “What I assume is that the spell divided the land’s power into two entities: light and dark.” He glanced at the medieval Darth Vader sitting on the throne and couldn’t help but appreciate the nuanced change. “Lord Vulder, Paltine, Pok, and the rest of his group use this dark energy, and they locked the life-giving power deep within the earth. But if they can wield the dark, then others can wield the light.”
“Sonan,” Odlaga reasoned.
Jace nodded. “Before, he was just a powerful barbarian; after my change, he wielded the full power of the land that once made it prosperous.”
“And then they trapped that power in Delilah,” Chago said. “If she is a threat to them, can’t we just kill her?”
Jace shook his head. “She isn’t a threat. The power is. If you kill Delly, the power goes back into the earth, and Sonan or anyone else can call upon it. I imagine, now that you all are ‘Children of the Desert,’ you will be able to call on it too. No, they need to lock it away in something more predictable than a character and send it away so they can complete their plan.”
“Which is?” Jaheed asked.
“Perpetual rule,” Jace said. “I didn’t get the prophecy wrong. I quoted you the new version. Ruled by one perpetually. Lord Vulder plans to turn himself into an undead king.” He turned to Vulder. “What will it be? A vampire? A lich?”
“A draugr,” Vulder replied.
“Then what are we doing here?” Odalga shouted. “I’ve spent most of my time the last two months on this quest. There better be a reward.”
“I will need a second in command,” Vulder said. “In my new form, I will not be able to enter the sunlight. This will impair my ability to rule. I will need someone to . . .”
“No!” Odolga said. “I will not play second fiddle to a mummy ruling over one small city in the middle of a desert. I was to be queen of an entire empire.”
“Silence!” Vulder shouted, standing and drawing his sword. The blade shone red, warping the air around it. “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”
Jace almost laughed out loud. The other three non-American players didn’t get the reference. Jace took the opportunity to wave his hands about, trying to signal Gracie. He needed an update on Esther’s situation. He had a bad feeling where Paltine was. Unfortunately, Gracie didn’t respond.
“So what do we do now?” Chago asked. “If we can’t kill Delly, but they need to get rid of the power, we are at an impasse.”
“I said it wasn’t as simple as YOU killing Delly,” Jace corrected. “The power goes back into the earth, or one of you absorbs it. Vulder doesn’t want that.”
“Then they will kill her,” Odalga said.
Jace shook his head. “I’m guessing as long as she has this power inside her, they can’t touch her. Or, at least, they can’t kill her. They would have done so already.”
“She’s level 10,” Chago argued. He motioned to the half dozen powerful characters on the other side of the room. “Any of them could squash her like a bug.”
Jace shook his head again. He remembered Paltine’s failed spell against Delly from the end of her cutscene. “This game has rules. How much darkness does it take to extinguish a candle? It doesn’t matter if it is 1:00 AM on a moonless night in a cave. The candle still produces light. No, they need a third party to do it, and they have to watch so they can trap the escaping power in some device.”
Across the room, Pok puled a six-foot obsidian staff from his cloak. It had a massive crystal at one end that looked like empty glass. “Your reputation is well-earned, orc,” the necromancer said. “But do you understand your role in all this? You aren’t just the expositor.”
Jace nodded. “Yes. I am the third party that has to kill Delly.”
{Jace,} Gracie interrupted to impart more bad news. {Esther’s been captured. She and Delly are on their way up to you with four more powerful characters to add to your party. Oh, and Esther let it slip that you work for the CIA. Ahbid knows I’m involved. Sorry.}
“Didn’t you come here to save her?” Odalga chided, appreciating the irony.
“What’s to keep you from walking out of here and forgetting the whole thing?” Chago added.
Jace looked down at Snowy, still quivering in fear. “I’m guessing that is why my familiar is now a snake. If I want her changed back, I need to cooperate.” Across the room, Kelrick smiled and nodded. “And,” Jace added, “there is this other part of my mission that you know nothing about that has me obligated to see this through.”
“Oh really?” Odalga said. “And what is that?”
Jace looked at the double doors behind them. “I believe Ahbid will arrive shortly and is undoubtedly dying to tell you.”
The group only needed to wait another minute.