Ezra was an elven rogue, slender, tall and dark-skinned. He lived on the outskirts of Kano, Nigeria. He took a bus every morning into the city where his mother thought he worked at an architectural firm since that was what he had studied in college, but he had been recruited into the game two months ago and enjoyed this much better. This was his first run through the game.
He was a rogue specializing in pick-pocketing, trap detection, disarming, and moving about silently. He came from the same squad as the first fight Lexi and Pieter had walked in on. The paladin and rogue who had killed their lieutenant and then fought each other had been teammates. It didn’t make sense to have two rogues in a squad of five players, and Lexi better understood the lengths to which Julia had mismanaged her players. Still, the rogue she had seen fight in the arena had specialized in sword combat, while Ezra carried a bow, so their skill sets didn’t wholly overlap.
Kaylee was a plump halfling. She had a similar background to Ezra, though she lived in Dharavi, just outside Mumbai, India. She was also a college graduate with a teaching degree specializing in math. When her school had closed due to monsoon flooding, one of the Admiral’s recruiters found her and invited her to play. Her school had reopened, but she hadn’t gone back. This was her third life in the game.
Kaylee played as an offensive priest and aligned herself with a succubus demon, allowing her to drain life and mana from her targets and cast various offensive spells. She would get access to Demon Fire at level 15 and hoped that this alternative quest would mean she wouldn’t be killed at level 12 like usual.
Pieter still insisted that Lexi lead their group, and, for a change, she knew where they were going now. She had researched the Cave of Wonder but had spent most of her time focused on the fourth stage. The first three stages were easy enough to pass: sacrifice one of your PCs and move on. Some players debated that there must be an alternate way to proceed, and if you did find another way, that might open up further possibilities for the final stage. Lexi didn’t think so. Gaining a lamp that would grant three wishes was powerful enough to require sacrificing party members.
While she hadn’t studied all aspects of the module equally, she knew enough about the early stages to navigate the group successfully to the proper location. They traveled to Agrabah, a place designed as a stereotypical Middle Eastern city from hundreds of years ago set in the desert. It had drastic wealth inequality, with a massive palace and oasis-style gardens in the middle surrounded by one-story huts and shacks filled with market stalls and street urchins. Dozens of mini-quests accommodated any player's style and desire, and Kaylee was especially eager to pursue them. Since this was Ezra’s first play through the game, everything was new to him, but squads working for the Admiral were typically kept away from public areas like this.
Lexi squashed her dreams of exploration, saying they could return here after their mission, but time was of the essence, and she escorted them around the southern edge and to the east, away from the setting sun. They were a few kilometers into the desert when the sun finally sunk below the horizon. One of the reasons Lexi had decided to play as a half-elf was for the night vision. The elf rogue and halfling thief shared that ability, but the human mage lit a magical torch.
“I don’t know the nest's exact location,” Lexi said.
{I can tell you,} James said in her head but then quieted as he realized she wanted Pieter to start making decisions. Lexi and James had discussed this plan before today, and they both agreed it was important for the mage to feel essential to the success of this mission. In a way, he was.
“Not too much further,” Pieter said, the excitement in his voice evident. Lexi knew this module had been the player's passion for some time, and she hoped that eagerness would inspire him to act rashly. He had certainly been over-cautious up till now.
“You’ve done this before?” Kaylee asked. She held a medium shield on one arm but kept the other hand empty for spell casting. “What should we expect?”
It had already been established that neither of the players had seen the movie Aladin, and the module varied so much from the Disney account that watching the movie hardly helped.
“Soon, we will encounter a nest of giant scarabs,” Pieter advised. “Given our levels, there will be at least three. We need to kill two. I recommend Lexi take on one while we handle the others.”
Ezra looked at the level 18 character. “What are you going to fight it with?” The inexperienced player had the most equipment of all of them. In addition to his bow and arrows, he had several knives strapped to his legs, a short sword on his hip, and several pouches on his belt. Lexi guessed they were for potions, gems, scrolls, and other magical items. That was in addition to the armor, boots, gauntlets, helmet, cloak, and jewelry he wore. Lexi looked naked by comparison.
“I’ll fight it with my teeth and nails,” she said playfully, curling her fingers at him and growling like a cat while still in human form.
“She’s a druid,” Kaylee said. “Don’t worry about her. She’ll be fine. What about you?” The priest and rogue had not been in the same squad. “How are you going to fight one? Those arrows don’t look powerful enough to pierce an armored shell.”
“At least I have a weapon; you don’t even . . .”
“Silence, fools!” Pieter scolded in a harsh whisper, but it was too late. The sand around them quivered and shook as three massive bodies, each the size of a compact car, rose from the desert floor. Sand flowed off their hardened shells like water off a turtle’s back. Their blue-black carapace blended into the night sky, and their pincers snapped like claps of thunder in the still air. The group was surrounded, the result of approaching the nest too noisily. Getting a sneak attack on the beasts was possible, but the grunts had blown it.
“Lexi, take the one . . .” Pieter started, turning toward the druid. All he saw was a pile of white fabric and a streak of spots and fur racing beneath one of the giant beetles.
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The druid loved fighting as a fully transformed cat, and since these creatures didn’t have magical attacks, she didn’t need to maintain any of her human qualities to access her Wisdom’s saving throws. The scarab she targeted snapped down at her but had no chance of hitting the elusive leopard. Instead, Lexi sped directly under the creature, her low profile fitting below its armored abdomen. The beetle shifted its six feet, trying to scamper about to keep the cat from getting behind it, but Lexi was already through to the other side, pivoted, and jumped onto its back.
The scarab rocked and bucked, dipping its legs to one side and then the other, trying to throw the heavy cat from its back, but Lexi utilized her Grip ability and maintained her balance perfectly. She dug her claws into the crack just above the main shell and held on, knowing the violent ride wouldn’t last long. While waiting, she cast a Strength boon, her muscles tightened, and her grip on the beast below increased.
When the beetle settled for a moment, she buried her claws even deeper under the edge of the exoskeleton and heaved back with all her strength. The scarab cracked open like a freshly boiled lobster, revealing a slimy, grayish interior. Her leopard appetite wasn’t picky, and her face dove down, jaws open. The game simulated the strategy by reducing the scarab’s armor to zero, and the bite attack plummeted the monster’s health below half, slumping it to the ground in a death spiral.
Lexi restrained her animal instincts and halted her gory feast to look up and check on her companions. They weren’t doing as well. Pieter might be a veteran in the game with easily twice as much play time as Lexi, but he was only level 13 right now. The scarabs had miserable Wisdom scores, so their Magic Defense was terrible, but they made up for it with massive bonuses to Damage Reduction. Kaylee hit the first beetle with fire and lightning, but each spell did minor damage. Ezra’s arrows bounced off the beast’s armored plating, and he carelessly got too close to the second scarab and was crushed for a round before being tossed through the air.
Pieter kept his distance, letting the fodder play their role perfectly, but he did pull a green wand from his robes and cast acid on the nearest monster. It didn’t do much damage, but it pulsed each round afterward as the creature continued to fail the saving throw and ate away the insect’s shell.
Kaylee pulled a single-use item from her pouch and summoned a meteor the size of a soccer ball from the sky that exploded into the back of the injured scarab. Its armor cracked in half, and the flaming stone buried into soft flesh beneath. It was still on its feet, but Ezra shook the cobwebs from his head, pulled himself from a dune, and found his arrows now did damage.
Lexi ignored the injured creature and turned her attention to the final monster. Within seconds, she was atop its back and executing the same devastating attack as on the first. Her foe was dying in the sand before the other trio felled their opponent. However, they fully killed the scarab, its body dissolving into magic and sinking into the sand, leaving behind a single golden orb the size of a tennis ball.
To their left, Lexi’s first kill finally expired and did the same thing, leaving an identical jewel behind. Pieter collected the items and began to move away from the battle scene. “What about the third one?” Kaylee asked, turning to watch the last beetle’s health drop. Ezra stood off to the side, drinking a healing potion.
“We only need two,” Pieter advised. The excitement of the battle made him momentarily careless, and he started tracking toward the next module stage before he searched out Lexi. The druid had transformed slightly, remaining 75% leopard, but she stood upright and had a more human face. The rest of her body was covered in fur and spots. She paused momentarily to retrieve her discarded clothing and placed it in her inventory.
“You make a better scout,” Pieter said, waiving his arm forward in the traditional gesture that meant “After you.”
Ezra wanted to say something since he usually filled the scout role in his squad, but he was too entranced by the lithe form of the leopard woman walking toward the head of the group. Plus, he didn’t know where they were going.
“I’ve never actually played this module,” Lexi said.
“That should only be an issue if your operator is a fool,” Pieter replied.
The druid winced as she realized she had played that angle a little too hard. It was easy enough to plead ignorance while they had been in the Admiral’s domain. No walkthroughs existed of that city. Luckily, her moment of regret was masked through her feline features. Instead, she only shrugged and led the group along. Kaylee was last in line as she had waited for the final scarab to die and snagged the orb.
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After another 15 minutes, they arrived in a deep valley before an impressive sand dune. As they drew closer, the golden gems in Pieter’s hand began pulsing with energy. Without an operator to guide you, the orbs acted as locating devices, coming alive as you approached the cave. It required a little mana to initiate, and after Pieter filled them, they rose out of his hand, spiraled up into the air, and flew forward, imbedding themselves into the dune.
Kaylee trailed the group, finding it hard to keep up with her short legs. Once the mage activated his pair of orbs, hers disappeared from her hand.
The sand shuddered before them, cascading down the slope as a much larger beast than the scarabs rose from the desert floor. The glowing orbs became its eyes as the sphinxlike head emerged, stretched to an impressive height, and settled down before them, its mouth agape with golden light pouring out. It was a tiger head as large as a building, the rest of its body still hidden beneath the sand. The group could see stone steps angling down the creature’s throat but nothing further.
“What is it?” Ezra asked.
“The Cave of Wonders,” Pieter said, his pulse quickening.
“Is it safe?” Kaylee asked. “Will this creature eat us if we go inside?”
“Only four may enter,” the mage explained. “Any more or less than that, and it will reject you. We will be fine.” He turned to Lexi. “Especially with a cat in the lead.”
“This is a tiger head, not a leopard,” Lexi said.
“Oh?” Pieter said. “I had always thought it was a panther.”
She couldn’t tell if he was lying, and it didn’t matter anyway. She was going in regardless. Resuming her role as lead scout, Lexi moved up to the massive mouth and gingerly stepped inside.
She couldn’t.
[Incompatible Settings.]
{It looks like you need to crank all your settings to maximum,} James advised. {No mercy in this module.}
Why hadn’t she seen that in the research she had done? Of course, she had been focused on the last trial.
“What’s wrong?” Kaylee asked, seeing the struggle on the druid’s face as she tried to step inside the tiger’s mouth.
Lexi didn’t answer right away and looked toward Pieter. The mage’s eyes were just rolling out of his inventory. He had taken this distraction to change his settings safely. He smiled at her, obviously knowing what type of game alert she had received and what her operator was likely telling her. When the Admiral had asked if his players would feel pain, Pieter had responded with, “A little.” The big fighter had laughed. Now Lexi knew why.
She sighed, changed her settings, and relayed the information to the two grunts. They were smart enough to understand the gravity of the situation but were here under the Admiral’s direction and had learned to obey his orders.
Once she was finished, Lexi tried again, and her pawed foot broke the plane of the stone cat’s lower lip and came to rest inside its mouth. Nothing happened. The teeth remained motionless on either side of her, rising from the ground and hanging from the ceiling. She took another step inside, and nothing continued to happen. She breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded downward. The rest of the group followed.