ENTERING THE GAME

Chapter Four

"The Favor"

"You want us to do you a favor?" Linda asked.

"What kind of favor?" Greg demanded.

"Perhaps we should speak in private," the younger priest suggested, looking over at Linda and Penny. "The women do not need to hear this."

"What do you mean the women don't need to hear this?!" Penny demanded. "We're part of the group too you know!"

"Yes, we're a team," Linda agreed. "If you can say something to one of us, you can say it to all of us!"

"Brother Haro merely wished to spare you knowledge of the unpleasantness of the favor," the old priest said. "This temple was built on the ruins of another temple, destroyed long ago in war. Beneath it is a sewer system that leads to the Adr Nast River a day's journey or so by foot. In recent years, we have had recurring difficulties with pests."

"Pests?" David repeated. "You mean like mice and bugs and…rats?"

"Quite so," the priest said. "We believe the rodents and insects are breeding down there. They are continually found in the corridors and chambers, and even in the pantry! Needless to say, the children of Pelor do not care for finding rats in the meat and beetles in the flour. But we are priests, and it is not proper for priests to go a-ratcatching." His eyebrows furrowed as he added, more firmly and quietly, "Nor would it be proper for the local populace to hear of our difficulties, if you grasp my meaning."

"You mean you don't want anybody knowing you've got rats," Greg said. Both priests glared at him, although the older one's expression quickly softened.

"We'll be leaving this town as soon as we can," David assured the priests. "We know no one here, and don't plan on making friends."

The old priest nodded at this. "That is well," he said, "for the good people in this community would not easily believe unpleasant comments made regarding such an illustrious order as the followers of Pelor the Sun God, or feel kindly towards prevaricators speaking against the order."

"And you want us to go down and clean out the sewers?" Greg asked, making a face. "That's not the kind of thing I joined this group for!"

"You will be provided with torches and some bottles of oil to set fire to their nests when you find them, of course," the priest assured them. "As well as a healing potion for each of those that enter the sewer."

"That sounds generous," David said. "We'll need a bit of time to get ready for this mission, of course."

"Brother Haro will show you to a place where you may rest and prepare for your adventure then," the old priest said, motioning to the younger one, who didn't seem at all happy.

Brother Haro didn't say a word as he led them through the temple. Not until he reached a small room. There were two cots inside. They didn't look very comfortable. "The men will remain here until they depart," he said. He led Linda and Penny to another, smaller place. There was only a single cot here. "This will be your room…ladies…" He looked at Penny's pointed ears and rolled his eyes, then hurried away without another word.

"Nice guy, isn't he?" Greg said, sitting on of the cots in the guys' room to test it out. "Feels like we'd be better off sleeping on the floor."

"I don't want to be here that long," Andy said, brushing his black hair out of his eyes.

"None of us do," Tom said, making a face as he sat on the other cot.

"I'm sure it won't be too hard," David assured the others. "We just find their nests and set them on fire and get out of there."

"Why are we here instead of getting this over with?" Greg demanded.

"Because we've already fought today and need to rest and regain our hit point," David pointed out.

"Rest how?" Greg complained, laying back on the cot. "On these things? They're lousy and there's only two of them for the four of us!"

"You said you'd rather sleep on the floor, so why don't you?" Andy asked, sitting down on the floor. He started to remove his armor, which wasn't easy since he had no idea how he'd gotten it put on in the first place. David did the same. To their embarrassment, they both soon realized they were wearing nothing but some weird kind of skirt under their armor.

Greg laughed. "You guys look like hula girls! All you're missing are flower necklaces!"

"Oh shut up," Andy said, putting the metal shorts, whatever they were called, back on.

"Want to make me?" Greg demanded, sitting up.

"Come on you guys, no fighting," David said. "We're going to have to work together if we ever want to get out of this place."

"If there is a way out," Tom added.

"Don't say that!" Greg said. "There has to be a way back home! There has to be."

"Let's just try to get some rest," David told the others. "We don't know how many pests we'll have to take care of before we can get out of here."

In the other room, Penny, struggling to get comfortable, had fallen asleep. Linda sat down on the floor and shut her eyes. She started to softly say her prayers, ending with, "Please, God, help us to find the way home again, and help our parents not to worry too much about us until we make it safely back. Amen."

She sighed then laid down, using her arms as a pillow.

All too soon Brother Haro was waking them. "You've slept long enough," he said, sounding disgusted in them. "Time to be on your way!" He was carrying a large box and looked like he was really being put out to help them. "Hurry and follow me." He stepped outside of the room, set the box down, and waited for them.

"Nice guy," Greg muttered, yawning and stretching. "Didn't even offer us breakfast! I'm gonna put his lights out before we get out of here!"

"We'll probably have to do so much fighting before then that even you'll be sick of it," Andy said, putting his armor back on. It wasn't easy, since he couldn't remember exactly how it had come off.

It wasn't until they started down the hallway that Linda and Penny hurried to join them.

"Hey! You didn't wake us!" Penny complained.

"Why didn't you call the girls?" David asked.

The acolyte shrugged. "It did not seem important," he said. As he walked along in front of them Penny stuck her tongue out at him.

The acolyte led them to a wooden door that opened with a squeak. They looked down a flight of winding stone steps with no handrail.

"Down there you will find the entrance to the sewer," Brother Haro said.

"Well, I guess we should go and get this over with," David said.

"Well, um…I guess I'll see you later," Andy said to his sister.

"Huh?" Penny said, her eyes wide. "You're just gonna leave me here?!" She didn't say it since the priests would hear her, but she didn't like the older one. He looked like Vincent Price. And the other one seemed kind of stupid, like the hunchback in the monster movies that would grab people for the mad scientist to experiment on. It was weird enough being an elf. Penny didn't want to wake up and find out she'd been turned into a gorilla!

"I'll be back," he told her. "Go pick flowers or something while you're waiting."

"We can't just leave her all alone," Linda said. "I think I should stay here with her."

"I want to stay with Andy!" Penny whined.

"You can't come with me, you're crippled!" Andy said, not sure what to do. He wanted to go with the guys but he didn't like leaving Penny. As annoying as she was, he knew he'd never forgive himself if something happened to her.

"The sewer is no place for women at any rate," Brother Haro said, setting down the box he had been carrying, removing items from it, and handing them to the four guys. "It is best that you decided that, since I only brought four of everything the master asked of me.

"The guys will need a fighter a lot more than a first level druid," Linda said, hating to agree with the guy but not wanting to leave Penny all alone. For priests of a supposedly good god, those two didn't exactly act all that good. He hadn't even planned to give her anything to take with her if she'd gone! This planet was sure chauvinistic! But she'd worry about that after she had another girl at full strength to help her. She turned to Penny's brother. "You're the strongest member of the team, Andy. Go on. Penny and me need some girl time together anyway."

"Don't you go and get into any trouble while I'm not around to get you out of it, you dumb dumb!" Penny shouted at Andy.

"Aw, you really love your big brother, don't you?" Linda asked her, grinning.

Penny looked away, but Linda noticed her cheeks were suddenly very pink. "No way!" she insisted. "It's just…you saw how he was in that fight. He stunk! He'll get his dumb self killed, and then I won't have anybody to drive up the wall anymore."

"I'm sure he'll be okay, honey," Linda assured the younger girl, trying to give Penny a hug without touching her bad arm.

"He'd better be," Penny said, rubbing at her eyes. "I'll kick his butt if he gets himself killed!"

"I don't know about this, guys," Andy said, wrinkling his nose as they walked through the sewer. "This place stinks, and we haven't exactly done a great job of fighting before."

"How hard can it be to get rid of a few mice?" Greg said with a laugh.

"Rats, not mice," David pointed out. "And in the game they have giant rats."

"Just how big are they?" Tom asked, looking about nervously.

"I'd say about…that big!" Andy said, pointing. The others turned to see several large, furry grey creatures watching them. They were as big as cats, and their eyes were red and wild looking and their teeth were long and looked very sharp.

"Four of them!" Greg said, waving his staff in the air. "One for each of us! Let's get 'em!"

"Wait!" David yelled as Greg rushed to the attack. But it was too late. As Greg ran towards them, the rats, making horribly squeaking sounds, leaped at the group, pink feet moving like blurs, naked pink tails flicking about wildly. David drew his sword with a sigh and hurried after him.

Andy managed to get his sword out of its scabbard without any trouble this time. He wasn't in much of a hurry to attack though. "Uh…what if they've got rabies?" he asked, looking at Tom.

"Good question," Tom said, holding his own staff at ready but not moving forward. "I wonder if there's some way I can switch classes? Illusionist spells are worthless here!"

Greg swung his staff, missing the rat he'd aimed at. He backed away as it leaped at him. "I knew I should've been a fighter!" he said as it snapped at him, jaws just missing. "Man, I need armor!"

David swung his sword at a rat. He made a choking sound as the rat was sliced into two uneven pieces. "I think I'm going to be sick…!" he murmured, pressing his free hand over his mouth.

"Be sick later!" Greg yelled, jumping about wildly as two rats tried again and again to leap onto him and bite him. He looked over at Andy and Tom. "Hey, you jerks! Don't just stand there! Do something!"

Andy waved his sword about him but didn't move forward very quickly. Tom waved his staff around but didn't move closer at all. "Hey, watch it!" Andy cried, ducking as Tom's staff flew over his head. "You almost clobbered me there!" That seemed to get the attention of the other rat, which started racing towards them. Andy clenched his teeth and waved his sword about. He made a worse sound than David had when his sword hacked the rat in two. He could feel his last meal starting to come up. He struggled to keep it down.

Greg shrieked as a rat ripped into his shoe. Luckily its teeth didn't sink deep enough to reach his foot. He waved his foot in the air, trying to knock it lose before it did. "Get off! Get off me!" he shrieked as the rat held on. The other rat leaped at his leg. Greg screamed as he felt its teeth. "It bit me! It bit me!"

David, looking kind of green, struck at the rat on Greg's leg. "Ahh! Its head came off!" he gagged. Unable to take anymore, David bent over and started to throw up.

"It bit me!" Greg was still shouting. "It bit me! I'm gonna get rabies!" He was still shaking the other rat, which was still hanging on like a bulldog, worrying his shoe.

Andy finally moved towards his friends and struck at the other rat, cutting off part of Greg's shoe as he hit it. He made choking sounds and turned away. If he saw David throwing up he'd start doing the same thing. He placed his hand on his stomach and took deep breaths. He was shaking from head to toe.

"You almost cut my foot off!" Greg complained. "My leg's on fire! I need a doctor!"

Tom finally joined the others. He looked very embarrassed for not having helped. "Sorry, guys," he said. "I…I just couldn't…"

"Look out!" Andy cried as a fifth rat leaped at Tom. Tom swung his staff, nearly missing, and just tapping it enough to knock it away from him. Andy forced himself to hit it, making a choking sound as he did. As the rat split open Andy finally lost it and started to throw up.

"Wow, you two did it all," Tom said. "Greg and me might as well have stayed home and watched on tv."

"I wish I did stay home!" Greg sobbed, trying to stop his leg from bleeding. "Do something!"

"Sorry," David said. "I already used lay on hands to heal Andy's shoulder." He was holding his stomach. "I feel sick!"

"You feel sick?!" Greg demanded. "I'm bleeding! And what if I've got rabies?!"

"Guess we'll have to go back and ask that priest for a cure disease spell," David said, looking for a place to sit down. His knees wobbled as he walked.

"We can't afford any spells from that guy!" Greg yelled. "I'm gonna die because a priest got greedy!"

"We need to keep going," David said once Andy had stopped vomiting.

"I can't keep going!" Greg pointed out. "I'm bleeding! And that thing bit me! I probably only got one hit point left!"

"You have a healing potion you can use," Tom pointed out, wrapping what was left of Greg's torn shoe, which was really kind of like a very thick sock, around the wound. With the big hole in it the monk couldn't have kept using it as a shoe anyway.

"Yeah, use up the only magic item I've got after one fight!" Greg complained. "This game sucks! Why the h*** are we first level?! You can't do nothing at first level!"

"I can't take this," Andy said shakily. "Those were just rats! What if we have to fight people?! I don't want to kill anybody!"

"Hopefully we won't have to fight any people," David said, looking for something to wipe the blood off his sword before he got nauseous again. "Maybe some goblins or kobolds."

"Those are practically people!" Andy pointed out. "Why did I think this game was cool? You play a thief going around killing things and stealing their money!"

"You're not supposed to think about that," David pointed out. "It ruins the game."

"And being bitten by a mad rat doesn't?!" Greg demanded. "I'm dying and you're talking about game

realism?!"

"Isn't there some way to end the game?" Tom asked.

"Maybe if we go back and finish off that fifth level cleric?" David suggested. "He was the most powerful enemy I made for our adventure."

"But he's probably not that powerful in this world," Andy said. "I mean, the priest we just talked to is a little higher, isn't he? So why would…whatever brought us here have done it just so we'd beat a middle level villain?"

"Well…" David started to say, then paused.

"You're still holding back things we should know?" Greg demanded. "I'm kicking your butt!"

"It's just that…one of the campaigns you can buy, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, leads to another, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, which leads to another, Hall of the Fire Giant King, which leads to another trilogy, which leads to…"

"So it's like we're in issue one of a comic book and we have to go on until the last issue?" Andy asked. He collected comics. "Comics don't come to an end unless they're cancelled! They keep going and going and going! Some of them have hundreds of issues!"

"I can't go on hundreds of adventures!" Tom insisted. "My parents will ground me until I'm fifty!"

"Hey, how many rats would they have down here?" Andy asked David, looking around.

"Well, in the game, there were sometimes as many as twenty or…twenty-four, I think in random encounters," David answered.

"So there could be at least twenty more of them hiding someplace around here?" Greg demanded. "That's just great! A few more attacks and I'll have zero hit points, and if I get killed I'm gonna knock your head in first for sending me here!"

"How was I supposed to know we'd end up here for real?" David asked. Despite his armor and better weapons, he was chubby and kind of a wimp while Greg was tall, tough, and kind of mean sometimes, so David was a bit scared of him.

"What was that?" Tom asked, looking around. "Did you guys hear anything?"

"Like what?" Andy asked, waving his sword about nervously. "More rats?"

"It sounded like scratching," Tom said.

The sound came again. This time all of them heard it.

"It sounds like it's coming from that tunnel up ahead," David suggested. "Watch out for that poo over there." He stepped around something brown that smelled really awful. "Ugh! And watch out for the cobwebs overhead too!"

"Gross!" Andy said, holding his nose as he avoided both obstacles.

"This adventure has been disgusting so far!" Greg said, careful not to touch the poo with his now half-bare foot and ducking his head to avoid the spider webs. "Tell me there aren't any monsters that eat crap!"

"The only one I can think of is pretty high level," David said. "If we see anything like that we turn and run!"

"Sure, expect the crippled guy to run!" Greg griped.

"Hey, did anybody else hear a hiss?" Tom asked.

"Snakes?!" Andy cried.

"We run if we see any of those too!" David added.

"I run if I see anything bigger than a rat!" Andy insisted.

"Me too," Tom agreed. "Or even a lot of rats! Four were bad enough! What if we run into a whole swarm of them?!"

"I heard a squeak!" Andy said. "It definitely came from that tunnel!"

They stopped about ten feet from the tunnel's entrance. It smelled horrible in there. But even more disturbing were the pinpoints of red light they could see in the darkness.

"What are those?" Greg demanded.

"They look like…like the eyes of those rats!" David said.

As if they understood him, the eyes started coming closer. The group barely had time to prepare their weapons before several more rats, at least five or six or maybe even more, came pouring out of the tunnel, streaking right towards them, teeth bared and chattering in fury!

The girls stepped out into the courtyard. It had been made so that it would get a lot of sunlight, which made sense since it was dedicated to a sun god. The grass was thick and green and soft under their bare feet. Linda was carrying a large plant called a gourd. It had been hollowed out and she'd filled it with water then taken it out to water the plants around the temple for something to do while they waited for the boys to come back. Penny, feeling lousy because her arm hurt all the time and made it impossible for her to get comfortable, had followed her, but hadn't felt in the mood to help her or anything.

Linda walked to a large patch of flowers and sat down in front of them. She lifted the gourd and began watering them, being careful not to give them too much water. She whistled happily as she worked. This was why she'd picked druid. It had disappointed her that so much about druids in the game was about animals. She didn't really care that much about animals except, of course, cats. Her family had six of them, and she was always getting in trouble for feeding strays. People told her if she wasn't careful she'd grow up to be some crazy old cat lady. But what was wrong with that? Cats were better than a lot of people were!

She whistled as she continued to water the plants, not even noticing when Penny had walked away back inside of the building.

She also didn't notice two eyes watching her from some bushes. Suddenly feeling strange, she looked over her shoulder. But whatever the eyes had belonged to had already moved away by then. Shrugging, she went back to her work.

"The druid appears somewhat simple-minded," the acolyte said to the priest.

"Most are," the older man said. "When they aren't sacrificing humans to their dark gods, that is. One day the followers of Pelor will smite them all for their wicked ways."

"But she and her friends are little more than children," the acolyte pointed out. "Surely they can be of no threat to the children of the sun god."

"But children grow up, and produce more children, and before you know it we could be overrun by blasphemers!" the old priest said. "The worship of Pelor has fallen upon sad times, my son. We are no longer so numerous and powerful as we once were. Look how the worship of St. Cuthbert has grown just in this last generation or two! Not even a true god, a long deceased priest that brought many to his side in life and far more when he was venerated after death. Many of his followers once followed Pelor. The dark ones enjoy seeing people of the light divided, you know. Fewer to stand together against the spread of Incabulos or Nerull the Reaper or Ius the Old!"

The acolyte shuddered at the later names, but also at the strange talk of his superior. Yes, certainly, St. Cuthbert wasn't a true god, although he'd never been able to discover exactly which deity the demigod had been a priest of. Many said Rao, although others mentioned a god with no known name that had come from another realm. But the followers of St. Cuthbert and the followers of Pelor had always been on good terms and often stood together heel and toe to defend the meek against the evils of Incabulos and Nerull and Ius, and others like the long vanquished Vecna.

Penny had sat down in the thick grass and watched Linda water for awhile, then finally gotten up and walked back inside. Doing gardening was too much like work, and Penny hated work. She was pro-lazy. The younger girl sat down on the little cot that had been offered to her while the guys were away with a sigh. She opened her backpack and dug through it with her good arm. It stunk having a broken arm! She hoped her brother and his dumb friends got back soon and got it fixed. She didn't want to be like this for weeks!

She pulled out a large, thick book. The cover was made of wood. It was difficult opening it and turning the pages with one hand. Her spell book! She noticed only the first few pages had any writing on them. The rest were blank. She looked at the spell she had already used. Shocking grasp. She had no idea what kind of language it was in, but somehow she understood the weird symbols. She looked at the other spells. Read magic. David had said she needed that spell to learn new ones. Write. That was so she could write down any new spells she found and learned. But where would she find these spells so she could learn them?!

There were only two more spells in her book. Shield. That should help if she got shot with arrows or something. She didn't know what the last one meant. Find familiar. Find something that was familiar? Huh? Then what? She tried reading the spell. It sounded like a familiar was an animal or something that followed wizards around and helped them somehow with their magic. Wait. Hadn't she heard someplace that a witch's cat was called a familiar? Wasn't a magic-user like a witch? She wondered how an animal could help her with magic. Maybe she should try it.

The problem was she'd been told she could only cast one spell a day at first level, and she'd already cast it. But she could cast another spell tomorrow. And it didn't look like she was going to be going adventuring again any time soon, so she wouldn't have to worry about which spell she picked. So she had nothing better to do, and it would be fun having an animal friend follow her around. Especially a kitty. She had two at home. Penny began to study the spell more carefully. It was complicated and she had to go over it again and again and again. Even then she really didn't understand much of it. She hoped it worked though.

And so, unknowingly, Penny had started down a road that, if she continued on it to the very end, would slowly but surely lead her, and the others, to a place that was very, very…hot.

To be continued