got another text from Maryann regarding the unconscious people. “Was there anything else about the Knights? Anything unusual?”
“Besides the fact I think the GM has been the same guy for thirty-five years?”
“Seriously?”
“Well,” he said nervously, “that would be ridiculous, right? But I stopped playing twenty-five years ago and I swear that guy hasn't aged. I played with other GMs before the Knights and I can tell you that it is completely different. I always felt like I'd run a marathon after a session with the Knights.”
Isabella looked at his bulging belly and doubted he had any idea what it was like to run a marathon but she said nothing.
“It was just really intense and draining. And, well, there was the curse.”
“Curse?” she asked. “I thought I heard some rumor about that from those people,” she said, pointing at a booth. “I thought it was just some story to make people want to join that much more.”
“Yep, so did I when I joined. Yep, even at that time there were rumors going around. But I have to say, our group did have a run of some bad luck. Not in the game, but life in general. In the four years I played, there was a steady group of six, not including the GM. Over that time period, there were seventeen broken bones, and I mean different people breaking different bones at different times, not someone who had a really bad accident, five lost wallets, three transmission failures on three different cars, six burglaries, thirteen fender-benders, and my roommate, who was also playing, just lost the first three chapters of his thesis. This was the days before everyone had computers. The pages just disappeared. So maybe it wasn't a bad thing I got burnt out,” he said with a laugh.
“Can you tell me where the GM would have his try-out game?”
“He probably rented a conference room. I have no idea which one, though. I don’t recommend just barging in. That's really a rude thing to do.”
“Oh, I just want to know where to meet my friend when she's done,” she lied. “Thanks for the info.”
“Glad to help.”
“Oh, and I have a question.”
“Fire away,” he said amiably.
“Why Wolverine?”
He blinked at her in disbelief. “You must be new. Why Wolverine? Because it's Wolverine,” he said, as though this should be sufficient reason.
She headed away from the main area looking for the hallways that lead to conference rooms. At this point she just called Maryann. “What's the status?”
“Something is definitely happening to them. They keep twitching and wincing like they just got hit,” she said in a low voice. “And the nurse is just reading magazines.”
“That's just great,” Isabella said dryly. “I got some leads on this GM. Something is definitely off with his gaming groups. If the nurse isn't paying attention, start casting spells of protection. I'll be right there to help out. Then I'm going to try to find that conference room and get a hold of Leah.”
“Will do.”
In a few minutes, Isabella had returned to the nurse's station. The nurse barely lifted her eyes from the magazine. Isabella pulled out some evil spirit charms from her purse while telling Maryann the whole story. She tucked these in the hands of each unconscious person. “Well?”
“My spells are on too. I'm not sure how much that will help,” Maryann said.
“Me neither. I think the others are probably safe, well, safe-ish anyway, but since Leah can't join the game long-term I'm really worried about Nora.”
“You are the worst rogue over,” Blaine said as Mike triggered yet another dart trap.
“I really hope Ryan's just rolling badly with these traps,” Mike said, pulling the dart out of his hand, “and not forgetting to have me look for traps to begin with. Hey, that's weird,” he said.
“What could possibly be weirder than anything that is happening right now?” Blaine replied.
“There's writing on my hand. Look,” he said, and held up his hand. “Is that Japanese or Chinese maybe?”
“It's all Greek to me,” Blaine said.
“Well, it's really obvious why you picked a Deadpool costume,” Sakura said sourly. “Actually, that's Japanese. I think it says, 'Be gone, evil spirit.' I don't think that has anything to do with Ryan's character description.”
Nora pulled off her gloves. “Look, I've got it too,” she said, holding up her hand.
Blaine and Jen pulled off their gloves. Sure enough, they also had the marking. Sakura looked at her vambraces and sighed. “Yeah, I'm not getting this off without some tools so I'm going to guess I've got the same thing. So what's this about?”
“I think I know, and I hope this helps us,” Nora said. “I have a friend who is good with spirit magic and charms. This probably means we're all together and hopefully safe.”
They continued exploring the dark labyrinthine tunnels beneath the ruined castle. Soon they came to another door.
“Come on, Ryan, search for traps. Search for traps,” Mike said.
The GM frowned almost imperceptibly.
“Hey, wait, you know what,” Ryan said, before he moved his token on the board forward. “I think I'd better search for traps first.”
The other players rolled their eyes. “About damn time,” Leah and everyone else at the table were thinking.
He pulled out his die and rolled it.
“Hey, you know what, I think I see like a dart or something embedded in the lock,” Mike said. He carefully peered inside. “Yeah, the tip is metal and must have reflected the torchlight. Okay, now let's see if I can actually disarm this thing. I am really tired of getting hit by darts.”
Isabella tried to text Leah, but Leah had put her phone on vibrate at the GM's request and was so caught up in the game she didn't notice it. When that failed, she went in search of the conference room.
Once Isabella and Leah's protection spells took hold, the group started to fare better. The characters in the game could see details in the world that the players could overlook, and soon realized that on some level they could be understood. Ryan no longer forgot to check for traps. Jerome remembered his fighter had a ring of minor healing. Rich switched up the type of arrows in the ranger's bow. Gary started to use some of the cleric's offensive spells. Leah took advantage of the barbarian's rage to do more damage in combats. The GM's frown got a little more noticeable.
Isabella circled the outer perimeter of the conference center three times had no luck finding the room. She even used spirit sight but could not find the right door. She returned to the nurse's station. “I hope Leah is good at that game,” she sighed.
“Well, let's help just a little bit more,” Maryann said. “They roll die, right? I think I've got some lucky charms in my purse. I'd wish I'd given one to Leah, but I can't now.”
“Well, I guess it's the best we can do,” she replied.
They put a lucky charm in everyone's open hand and waited anxiously.
“Tell me we are almost done with this game,” Nora said.
“Well, we've explored most of the castle and the underground tunnels, and now we're at a big, scary door,” Mike replied. “I'm pretty sure the big boss is behind this door.”
“Totally,” Sakura agreed.
“Probably a lich,” Blaine said.
“Okay, then if anyone has extra protection spells they can cast for the day, they'd better do it,” Mike said.
“Yeah, Gary,” Blaine added. “Oh, here we go.” The cleric cast a spell of protection against undead.
Mike found no traps on the door, and found the door was not even locked. “Boss fight,” he said in a low voice. He carefully pushed the door open just enough to see inside. “Lich.”
“Told you,” Blaine said.
“Anyone else?” Sakura asked.
“Skeletons, a few zombies, possibly a vampire or two.”
“Then let's try to draw some away from the main boss so we don't get overwhelmed, Jerome,
” she said. They took up positions, and Jen fired an arrow through the narrow crack into the dark room. The final fight began.
“Critical success, again!” Leah said happily.
“How are we doing?” Sakura yelled, lopping off a zombie head.
“Not dead yet,” Blaine replied, casting a spell that fired a beam of holy light at the vampire.
“Critical hit!” Jerome yelled.
“This strategy is really working,” Ryan said.
Finally the players and characters destroyed the lich and played through the post-battle wrap-up.
“Thank you for playing,” the GM said. “I will need to review your game play and I will let you know if you receive admission, need to participate in another trial game, or will be rejected altogether. Good day.”
The unconscious people in the nurse's station woke up.
“What the hell is going on?” Nora asked.
Maryann and Isabella rushed to her.
“Hey, what's this thing in my hand?” they heard Sakura say.
“Oops, better get that,” Maryann said, and collected the lucky charms and evil spirit charms from the confused people.
“Did I pass out or something?” Mike asked.
“You all just got too excited and didn't drink enough,” the nurse said, finally taking charge. “Here, drink up and eat some crackers,” she said, holding out a tray.
“What do you remember?” Isabella asked in a low voice.
“I was in the game,” Nora ventured hesitantly.
“Yes, so were they, but judging by their reactions, they don't remember. Come on, we need to find Leah.”
They got