By the time the clock finishes counting down, everyone except the shifty-eyed guy, and the lady with the hammer have groups. There’s a flash of light, and our group teleports to a large open field surrounded by a thick forest dotted with boulders. The field is extremely quiet compared to the noise in the stadium. In the middle of the field is a golden egg nestled on a red velvet pillow sitting on a pedestal.
Lillian, John, and I walk over to the pedestal and examine the egg. As we get within two feet of the egg, a screen appears above it.
Golden Egg of Aesop
Durability 5/5
The golden egg of Aesop holds the wisdom of the past. The legend says those who hold it are bestowed with insight into their parabolic problems. However, the egg is as delicate as fine china and must be handled with as much care. Can you protect it?
Wave 1 arrives in 10 minutes
Lillian and John start strategizing how to protect the golden egg best, but I recognize the scenario immediately. I walk over to the pedestal and place my hand on it hoping that my hunch is correct. A new window pops up before me.
Building supplies: Wood (100), Stone (75), Steel (50)
Building options level 1: Walls, Floors.
“It’s a castle defense game. Just like the one from before Halloween. Except now we have to build the castle.”
My two teammates turn to me and ask simultaneously, “What?”
That the two were even half paying attention to me is surprising. Usually, it’s the two of them that take the lead during these types of things. The combined weight of their gazes moves me to explain. “Yeah, it’s a castle defense scenario. We have to build fortifications that will let us mow down the monsters and still provide protection for the egg. Just touch the pedestal, and building options appear.”
The two look unsure. However, John, the team's tech guy, walks up to the pedestal and does as I say. His eyes light up at what he sees. He turns to Lillian with a grin on his face. “The kid’s right. There’s only a couple of options to build with right now though. Walls and floors.” He starts to tap the screens and continues, “We have limited resources to use in building our defenses, but I think those options will expand once we start killing monsters. It says level 1 building options. Which implies there’s a second level, and there’s probably more after, but we’ll have to wait and see. For now, we have to decide what resources we have to make defenses. We have lots of wood and stone, but not much steel. It costs ten units of material to make a floor or a wall. We the most wood, but it’s easier to break through; Steel is the toughest, but we only have a small supply of that. Stone is the middle between the two.”
Lillian is already doing the calculations in her head, and I try to follow along. “How big can we make the walls and floor?”
Instead of answering, John taps a screen and holds out his hand in front of him. A translucent square approximately 10 feet by 10 feet appears.
“Hmm. That means we can lay about 100 feet of wall or floor from the wood, 75 feet from stone, and only 50 from the steel.”
I realize we’re in the classic resource management dilemma. We’re trying to make the most out of what we have instead of just making stuff. “We don’t have a ton of time here, so let's just get to work with a basic defense system. We’ll use the steel to build a box around the egg for the last line of defense. Then we’ll use the other resources to build walls that the monsters have to break through. Then we stand on the roof of the box and shoot down at the monsters as they break through the walls.”
John looks up at the clock which is continuing to count down, then at Lillian. “Do you have a better plan?”
She shakes her head, and John gets to work. He drops four rusty steel walls and a roof around the delicate golden egg. A quick inspection of the steel wall reveals it has a durability of 50/50.
I expect John to start building more walls, but instead hear him yell, “Wait, I’m stuck inside the box. How do I get out?”
Lillian and I start to laugh but realize we don’t have time to make fun of John. Instead, I suggest, “How about you try touching the walls to see if you can change their shape or something?”
After a moment, one of the walls turns translucent again, and a door appears in the wire framework. When it solidifies again, a door with a window is now a part of the wall. John walks out and wipes his brow. “Phew. I thought I was going to be buried alive in a hot box for a minute there.” He walks around the outside of the metal box and quickly modifies each of the walls to add narrow eye slits that he can use to look out of so he can place the rest of the walls. He then goes inside the metal chicken coop. I know it’s a weird name, but that’s what I call it since it’s protecting an egg. Anyways, he goes inside the chicken coop and from there lays out the ten wooden wall squares around the coop in a square. Behind the wooden walls, he puts up stone walls on three sides. The space to the south of the coop only has the wooden walls. There’s a five-foot gap between the coop and the outer walls.
John finishes just in time for the clock to run out, and then horn blows and a portal opens to the north of the coop. A stream of short, hairy, half-reptile creatures pours out of the portal. The creatures carry a variety of weapons, including axes, swords, picks, and hammers. Once 50 or so exit the portal, it closes. The creatures stand around scratching their butts and picking their noses until one points at us standing on the roof of the coop watching them. The creature, slightly taller than the rest, also wears a hat and has a wispy beard. I use Inspect on the creature.
Kobold Foreman
Level 9
Kobolds are a naturally lazy bunch more likely to spend the day laying about unless someone makes them do something. Kobold Foremen are those somebodies. These leaders among Kobolds are the driving force that helps the species accomplish anything.
Abilities: Aura of Fear, Leadership
Oh, so these are Kobolds? I’ve been wondering when we’d get to those guys. I’ve seen a variety of Goblins but had not up to this point seen the other staple of fantasy, the humble Kobold.
The Kobold Foreman says something to the other kobolds, and at first, they ignore him. Then he starts to get mad and a red aura springs up around him. The kobolds all cower, then arrange themselves in groups of five and begin a slow march towards us. When they get in range, I pull the trigger on my weapon six times, launching the entire fire grenade payload. I’m not aiming for a particular kobold since the monsters are at the edge of my firing range. Instead, I focus on lining up my shots in a horizontal line. As each grenade hits, it doesn’t explode. Instead, the grenade sprays a combustible liquid in all directions. The kobolds in the radius of the grenades rear back and try to wipe off the pungent liquid, but that just spreads it around more. A second later, the grenades spark and a blaze erupts, quickly spreading to anything covered in the flammable liquid.
The fires don’t do a lot of damage all at once. Instead, they create a damage over time effect. Every second, a wave of red 5s float away from the burning kobolds. It doesn’t mean being on fire isn’t painful. Even from where we are, I can hear the screams of kobolds as they die in a burning inferno. After a minute, the fires die down and we can see that only half the kobolds were caught in the blaze. The other half look at their charred, dead comrades in horror. A bark from the Kobold Foreman turns that horror into anger, and the remaining kobolds rush towards us en masse.