Chapter 4: Chapter 4: The Orc Shaman

Now Jason looked to the right of the TV, where an elaborate dentist chair sat.  He guessed it wasn’t for oral exams.  Jason took a seat gingerly in the chair, and Conor made a few adjustments to account for Jason’s size and propped his head up a bit.  Then he produced a helmet that looked like an upturned mixing bowl with a rubber rim.  Dozens of wires protruded from it and gathered into a single cable that disappeared into the wall.

“Lay back and relax. As this is your first time, it will take longer for your body to adjust, maybe a few minutes.  But we have to time it right.  We want you to enter after the paladin has killed the orc but before he enters the final cavern.”

Jason wanted to ask why they couldn’t just tell the AI-controlled player character to wait, but Conor had already placed the helmet on his head, and a tingling sensation in his body distracted him.  He gradually felt his limbs going numb, and his mouth wouldn’t respond to the standard mental commands to make it speak.  He could still see through his eyes and hear through his ears and wondered when the system would suck those senses into the virtual world too.

But some sixth sense kept him in that basement for a few more seconds.  The sounds were muffled now, but one rose above the others: a scream.  It was high-pitched and loud, though, in Jason’s condition, it felt like he was underwater in the ocean and someone on the beach was screaming.  Then two more sounds that he knew well from the range rang out clear in his head: gunshots.

Jason’s eyes were unfocused, and he tried to sit up to look around, but his physical movements had been the first to leave.  He thought he saw a struggle involving many more than just the two people he left behind, but those images were gone now, replaced by miles of computer code streaming past him.  Soon an image resolved behind the data, and he saw the paladin again, standing on a wintery landscape fending off one remaining winter wolf while the shaman threw exploding snowballs at him.

As each snowball hit, a burst of code appeared.  And each time the knight swung his sword or the wolf leaped to attack, more text flashed before him.  The text looked like a reflection off a TV screen, while the action behind it was the actual image.  It was like holding your finger too close to your eyes and seeing the things past it so your finger looked transparent.  Jason tried to focus his eyes, and soon the code and the action resolved into two distinct images.

Now that Jason could see both images clearly, he could focus on the code and begin to understand it.  The paladin swung his sword at the wolf:

[Attack: 15+6+3+5+d20:15=45]

[Wolf AC: 10+5+Dodge(20)=35]

[Hit.  Difference: 10 Critical]

[Damage: 10+14+3=28 Crit selection: Multiplier X2.  Total Damage: 56]

Jason understood this clearly.  He didn’t know where all the numbers came from, but he understood the basic attack/damage scenario.  The wolf took the hit and whimpered.  Jason couldn’t help feeling sorry for it but didn’t have time to contemplate how his love for dogs should play into this scenario.  Instead, he watched the shaman move his arms about in a spell.  Jason remembered Gracie saying that the orc had one last hex to cast.

[Spell: Stun. Difficulty 15+25+10=50]

[Saving throw: 12+35+d20:1=48]

[Critical failure]

[Stun Protection cancels critical: Still Failure.  Target stunned for three rounds.]

Jason didn’t think that could be good.  It looked like the paladin had rolled a 1 in defense.  The knight stood stock still, and the orc brandished a wicked halberd.  The wolf also recovered from the massive strike it had received and retaliated.  Both attacked the stunned warrior, and Jason watched hit after hit land on the defenseless player.

Jason had a hard time watching both the text and the action, having to turn his disembodied head back and forth as the images became further apart.  He soon realized they weren’t moving apart, but he was zooming in on the action, and the code was now entirely on his left-hand side instead of in front of him.  He knew he was supposed to inhabit the paladin’s body, but he wanted nothing to do with the punishment the knight was taking now.  The code to his left informed him that the player was only a few hit points from dying, and with one vicious bite from the wolf that tore the man’s throat out, he was killed.

Now what, Jason thought.  He was in limbo, programmed to inhabit the knight’s body, but that wasn’t possible anymore.  He waited for the screen to go blank and log him off.  He hoped that would be the case because he was sure he had heard gunshots back in the room.  He assumed his brain would be affected if he had been shot, but he didn’t feel anything.  Since his mind was disconnected from his nervous system, he supposed someone could be slapping him in the face, and he wouldn’t know it.

Instead of the screen turning black, he kept zooming in on the action.  It felt like he was fifty feet above the orc and his wolf, and he was getting closer every second.  He didn’t have eyelids to close at this point, so he was forced to watch as the victor moved over to the dead body and pillaged it.  The orc reached into the paladin’s shirt and pulled out a strange-looking amulet.  It didn’t appear to fit in this fantasy world.  It was a silver CD with a blue LED light in the middle.  Or, at least, that is what it looked like.  The orc didn’t seem to think it looked strange and unceremoniously put it around his neck.  Once he had it on, it transformed into something more appropriate, taking on the appearance of a demonic eye carved out of stone.

Jason felt his trajectory shift as the creature stepped away from the dead body.  He had been so far away before that his direction had been vague, and he could only tell he was moving toward the action.  Now, a mere 20 feet away, he could see that he was no longer aimed at the paladin.  He was zooming in on the orc.

No, Jason thought, not the orc.  The amulet.  That must be the cheat Gracie is using.

[Player Sync complete.  Loading now. . .]

This message did not appear on the code page, which was now so far to his left that he felt he had to turn around to see it.  This latest message appeared in his mind.  It wasn’t on the view before him but somehow written in his mind’s eye, so he just knew it.  Either way, as soon as this text appeared, he accelerated toward the orc in a flash and suddenly felt cold.

Jason stumbled a bit before he could get his balance.  Balance?  What was he balancing on?  Jason looked down and saw his feet.  Well, his boots, which he assumed his feet were in.  He wiggled his toes.  The tops of the boots flexed. Excellent attention to detail.  As his eyes traced up a set of powerful, pale legs and a knee-length fur kilt.  It didn’t take him much longer to figure out what was happening.  He dropped the halberd and reached his fingers up to his face.  He was an orc.  Two large tusks, three inches in length, extended up from his lower jaw past the bottom of his huge, flat nose.  He had two smaller upper fangs that extended over his lower lip, and he practiced opening and closing his mouth without cutting himself.

He felt taller than he was used to and walked around, testing out the length of his legs and getting used to the unique feeling.  His body was strong, and he could easily leap and run despite his massive bulk.  He inspected his attire and saw that his boots and leather arm protectors were trimmed in white fur.  He also wore chainmail stretched to its limit across his massive chest.  Pressure at his side made him look down and behind him, and he saw the wolf nuzzling up to him, blood still dripping from its jaws and wounds.

Jason dared to crouch down in front of the animal, his face inches from the vicious teeth, but the wolf only howled in glee and nuzzled further into its master.  Jason ruffed it behind the ears, not worrying about how hard he scratched it despite his enormous strength.  The wolf loved the attention.  Eventually, he stood back up and looked around.

This was obviously not what was supposed to happen, but he was here now, and until Gracie told him what the backup plan was, he might as well make the best of it.  He was at the top of the mountain, wind whipping snow all about the jagged rocks and few bare trees.  Though he felt cold, his bare arms and legs should have been freezing in this weather, but it only felt like a cool spring day.  The sky was dark, but the moon and stars were out, and Jason could see perfectly.  He thought orcs could see pretty well in the dark and wondered if the game accounted for that.

He turned around and saw a small camp next to a large cliff face that rose another 30 feet into the air.  Two smaller dwellings flanked a large round tent, and a fire pit sat before them with meat on a stick ready to be roasted.  Jason bent down to pick his halberd back up.  Not his preferred weapon, but not too different from the two-handed sword his characters usually used or the two-handed lightsabers he was more familiar with in the real world.

Now, what about his character?  How could he look at his stats or inventory or the equipment he was using?  There must be a way to-

{Jason!  Jason, are you okay?  What happened!}

“Gracie, is that you?”

Jason could hear the voice, but the sound wasn’t coming through his gigantic, thrice-pierced ears.  Instead, the sound was in his head, almost like the text he had seen before, only definitely not written words.

{Yes, you can hear me okay?  What happened?  We had a bit of a problem up here.  I’m so sorry we got you into this. Things have gone horribly wrong.}

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“I thought I heard you scream and gunshots.  Is everyone okay up there?”

{Not exactly.  Conor’s been shot.  I think he will be okay.  They shot him in the leg.}  Jason then heard her voice get muffled as if she was pulling her mouth away from the microphone to talk to someone else.  {I need to tell him what is going on.  Calm down!  I know what you want, but you have to give us some leeway.  This is his first time in the game.}  Jason heard an even more distant voice that was male, and then Gracie was back at normal volume.  {I’m sorry, but some friends from Germany showed up, and they are insisting we continue with the mission.}

“Can they hear me?” Jason asked.

{Well, you know how noisy it was up here before you logged in.}

That line didn’t make any sense, but then she might be speaking in code since gunmen were listening.  It hadn’t been noisy in the room before he logged in.  The TV showed the game, but it hadn’t been making any sound.  Ahh, they couldn't hear him talk with the volume down on the TV.

“Those rumors you heard about the German gun runners getting close to solving the riddle probably only meant that they were close to finding someone who could do it for them, and they were able to track your location somehow and are now holding the two of you at gunpoint until I get the gem.”

{Something like that.}  Her voice was remarkably calm for what Jason assumed she was going through.  {But we need to get you settled and trained on how to play this if we are ever going to get through this in one piece.  So, you are an orc.  How did that happen?}

“I watched the paladin roll a one against the stun attack.  I assume that was a critical failure, so he was stunned, and it was over.”

Gracie sighed.  {That was the only chance.  Even a two would have gotten him past that.  He had stun protection, but a one is a double fail.  But how did the game assign you to the orc?  Orcs are not playable characters.}

“It’s the amulet.  You guys must have used that to let your AI play on the VR settings.  After the paladin died, the orc took it, and I went into the orc.”

{Well, let’s look under the hood and see what we are working with.  Have you figured out how to access your character sheet or inventory yet?}

Jason shook his head but guessed that she couldn’t see that.  “No.  I was going to try and figure it out, but I don’t know where to start.  Everything feels so real here that I can’t find a ‘fake’ part to prod.”

{Roll your eyes into the top of your head, like you are trying to look behind your eyebrows.  You should see a silver bar up there.}

Jason did as he was told and saw the bar.

{It should be like a setting bar on your phone,} Gracie continued.  {Now “grab” it with your eyes and pull it down.}

Grab it with my eyes?  It sounded impossible, but Jason tried it and found he was partially successful.  It was like trying to pull a shade on a window that kept slipping out of your hand and rolling back up.  Eventually, he figured out how to secure it firmly enough so that it pulled all the way down and stayed there when his eyes looked back forward.  Now he saw a bunch of numbers and stats and a spinning isometric of his orc body wearing all his equipment.

He started looking around and noticed that if he stared too hard at something, the game selected it for him, and he could see what it was.  He also saw that his stats were being highlighted and examined.

{It looks like I can manipulate things too,} Gracie said.  {I didn’t expect the amulet to allow that.  It was coded for the paladin and shouldn’t work with anyone else.  I’ll have to look into it.  But for now, this is incredible.  Your stats are through the roof.  If you can somehow keep this character after this is done, that would be remarkable.}

“What does it all mean?”  Jason saw Strength and Dexterity and several other vital stats along with over a dozen skills, but then suddenly, it was all gone, and he was looking at an inventory screen with 20 slots, several of which were filled.  He saw an axe, a shield, a bow, and several other items.

{These are all legendary items.}  Gracie’s voice was hushed again, but he was pretty sure it was because she was in awe, not because she was talking to someone else.  {It would typically take months to acquire these kinds of weapons.  How is this possible?  No NPC should have this kind of loot.}  Soon, the inventory screen disappeared, and a page of text replaced it, including backstory, bio information, height, weight, and several other things.  Gracie navigated to a button that said script and clicked it, but Jason didn’t see anything.

{Ahh, it’s disabled since you are controlling him now, but I wonder what it said.}  Jason heard furious typing on the other end and then silence as he assumed Gracie was reading what she uncovered.  {That makes sense,} she said after a few moments.  {Each time the orc won a battle, he would take the best magical item from his victim for something he didn’t already have.  So if the adventurer's most powerful item was a sword, but the orc already had a better one-handed weapon, he would take the next magical item.}

“That way, as players fought and lost, the orc would become more powerful and unpredictable,” Jason added.  “Clever.”

{It also explains why he took the amulet,} Gracie added.  {Because we kept failing and thus losing all our loot, we started sending the paladin in with just enough equipment to get through the module, but the amulet was a must.  There aren’t too many powerful necklaces in the game, so it makes sense that the orc would take it since it was the most magical item we had, and he wouldn’t have one yet.}

Gracie exited the script screen and took another moment to inspect the character.  {Well, everything looks in order; the only problem I see is that you have six Intelligence.  I don’t know what kind of gem puzzle awaits you, but it better not require you to identify things or perceive anything in the game.  Hopefully, your real-world IQ can handle it, and the game won’t handicap you.  I wish I had known the orc was that bad at perception.  I could have had a rogue sneak through the whole level.  I thought we needed the magic protection and combat skills.}

“So, what do I do now?”  Gracie had dismissed the inventory screen, and he was looking at the windswept arctic landscape again.

{Go through that tunnel over there.}

Jason turned back toward the camp along the cliff wall and saw a dark, foreboding opening in the rock.  “Just like that, no more information.  But what about this module that I didn’t actually play?  In every complex game riddle I’ve ever been a part of, what happens earlier in the level impacts what comes next.  What were the other stages like?  I saw him climbing the cliff and fighting the birds, and I am familiar with this snowy wasteland, but what about the three I didn’t see.”

Gracie paused as she thought of how to summarize what he missed.  {This module starts by having you trek through a forest.  There are trees and lots of animals to kill or avoid.  Then you get to the base of this mountain, and there is a massive lake with a waterfall.  You must swim through the lake and avoid or kill the watcher inside.  That thing killed so many of my earlier players.  Behind the waterfall is a cave entrance, and you enter the base of the mountain and have to run through a lava-filled gauntlet with all kinds of fire creatures and demons hurling damage at you.  Once you get high enough inside the mountain, you must climb up outside, which is where you came in.  The rest, I think you know.}

Jason absorbed all that, able to picture the scenes of what happened but didn’t know how many clues there might have been along the way.  Did a mysterious shaped rock appear multiple times on the journey?  Were there any specific colors that repeated themselves?  Did any of the monsters that attacked him say anything?  Jason knew he wasn’t going to get this information.  But he also knew that the worst-case scenario was that this orc shaman he was possessing would die, and he would wake up in the dentist chair in the basement and hopefully be able to go home.

Jason started toward the dark hole in the wall and stopped.  “Gracie, Conor said something about this last section being private; what does that mean?”

{When you play this game, people can follow you.  Not just your operator but anyone on the internet.  Some players have quite the following.  Some modules are wide open, meaning anyone can watch what you are doing.  Others are semi-private, meaning only people you invite can see what happens.  Others are exclusively private, so there is no chance of watching.  Not only will we not be able to watch you on the screen, but my data feeds will also go dark, and I will have no idea what you are experiencing.  I’m sure Gandhi insisted this be the case, or people would be able to watch others fail at this final level and figure out what to do.}

Jason didn’t like the idea that he would be alone but understood.  “All right.  Wish me luck.”

{Good luck and hurry.  I’ll be waiting for you when you get out.}

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