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The Multiplayer Classroom
The Multiplayer Classroom
­

Second Edition

Lee Sheldon
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2020 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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 For Graham and Emma
With all my love, my gentle, courageous children.
Contents

Preface, xvii
Acknowledgments, xxvii
Author, xxix

Section 1 Introduction

QueSt 1 ◾ Good Morning. You All Have an F. 3

OPENING: THE SLIDE 4
MIDDLE GAME: THE SHIFT 7
ENDGAME: THE BOOK 7
QUEST 1 WALKTHROUGH 10
REFERENCES 10

QueSt 2 ◾ Games in the Classroom 11

EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE 13
EDUCATION VERSUS ENTERTAINMENT 14
QUEST TO LEARN 17
GAME-BASED LEARNING SOFTWARE 18
QUEST 2 WALKTHROUGH 20
REFERENCE 20

vii
viii   ◾    Contents

Section 2 Multiplayer Classrooms

QueSt 3 ◾ IU Theory and Practice of Game Design 23

FLASHBACK: SUMMER OF 2009 23
STAY FLEXIBLE 24
SYLLABUS 29
GRADING PROCEDURE 33
CLASS 34
ZONES 34
AVATARS 37
PEER REVIEW 40
PEER REVIEW SECRET BALLOT 40
QUEST 3 WALKTHROUGH 44
CASE STUDIES INTRODUCTION 45
CASE STUDY 1 46
Waunakee High School 46
Introduction 46
Alliances, Nations, and Guilds 47
XPs and Levels 47
Assignments 48
Challenges 48
Boss Fights 49
Tokens50
Side Quests 52
Achievements 52
Outcomes 52
Next Year 52
REFERENCES 53

QueSt 4 ◾ IU Multiplayer Game Design 55

GRADING AND ATTENDANCE 56
SYLLABUS 57
 Contents   ◾    ix

ROLES 62
MMOS AND COMMUNITY 62
MOTIVATION 63
MIDTERM EXAM 64
QUEST 4 WALKTHROUGH 67
CASE STUDY 2 68
Blend English Institute 68
Introduction 68
Core Philosophy 68
Rewards 69
Procedure 70
Results71
Positives 71
Negatives 71
Other Classes 72
Other Thoughts 72
Year 4 and the Future 72
REFERENCES 74

QueSt 5 ◾ RPI Introduction to Game Design 75

THEORY AND DESIGN 75
2010 FALL SYLLABUS 76
BRAND NEW PARTS TO THE SYLLABUS 81
CLASS 84
THE PROTOTYPE 93
QUEST 5 WALKTHROUGH 95
INTERMEZZO 96
Observations from Marie-Pierre Huguet 96
Beyond the Game 96
REFERENCES 101
CASE STUDY 3 102
St Patrick’s Fine Arts Elementary School 102
x   ◾    Contents

About the Classroom 102

How Quest Ion VI Came to Be 103
Rules of the Game 104
Permeating the Classroom 105
Saving the King 106
Results107

QueSt 6 ◾ RPI Designing Interactive Characters (Valeria 1) 109

A NEW SYLLABUS FOR A NEW GAME 109
USING BACKSTORIES 116
DESIGN CONSISTENCY 118
HOME SWEET HOME 118
THE GEOGRAPHY OF VALERIA 119
MESSAGES FROM THE UNKNOWN 122
PREPARATION FOR THE FINAL PROJECT 123
PRESENTATION QUESTS 123
ANOTHER MESSAGE FROM THE UNKNOWN 124
MIDTERM PREP PVP 125
MIDTERM BOSS MOB (FROST LIZARD) 127
THE PROBLEM WITH THE SNOW LEOPARD 128
QUEST 6 WALKTHROUGH 131
CASE STUDY 4 132
Solent University 132
Introduction 132
Implementing a Game System for an HE Unit 133
Running the RP Sessions 136
Postmortem and Data 138
Conclusions, Final Impact 139
REFERENCE 140
 Contents   ◾    xi

QueSt 7 ◾ More RPI Quests: Interactive Characters & Narrative

(Archipelago 1) 141
SYLLABUS 142
GAME: ETHOS 143
Guild: Average Americans 143
GAME: LOST FRONTIER 143
Guild: Project Louder 143
GAME: MYSTIC ISLANDS 143
Guild: The Island of Misfit Toys 143
GAME: THE NEWCOMERS 143
Guild: God Tier 143
GAME: SHADES OF GRAY 144
Guild: Dai Lobster 144
GAME: WATERBOUND 144
Guild: Segfault 144
CLASS 146
RPI SPRING 2012 148
Writing for Games I 148
RPI FALL 2012 148
Writing for Games II 148
RPI SPRING 2013 149
Video Game Level Design 149
RPI FALL 2013 150
Character and Story for Games (Archipelago 2) 150
RPI SPRING 2014 152
Writing for Games I 152
RPI FALL 2014 153
Character and Story for Games (Victorian London) 153
RPI SPRING 2015 154
xii   ◾    Contents

Video Game Level Design 154

QUEST 7 WALKTHROUGH 155
CASE STUDY 5 156
Azay-le-Rideau Rural Community School 156
Introduction 156
Operating System and Requirements 157
The Players 157
Project: Multiplayer 158
Before the Game 158
Mechanics 158
Feedback 163
Conclusion 164

QueSt 8 ◾ WPI Writing for Games I: Characters (Valeria 2) 165

WRITING FOR GAMES I: CHARACTERS (VALERIA 2) 166
The Syllabus 166
Raid Strategies 168
CLASS 171
QUEST 8 WALKTHROUGH 173
CASE STUDY 6 174
Valentine High School 174
Introduction 174
What I Learned from Early Iterations 175
Socialization through Team Building 178
Choice179
Learning through Games 180
Conclusion 181

QueSt 9 ◾ WPI Writing Characters for Interactive Media &

Games (Sanctuary of the Sun) 183
SYLLABUS 184
Sanctuary of the Sun 185
 Contents   ◾    xiii

QUEST 9 WALKTHROUGH 193

CASE STUDY 7 194
Florida Gateway College 194
Introduction 194
Learning Activities 198
Results198
Future Thoughts 200
CASE STUDY 8 201
Columbusskolen 201
Introduction 201
Humble Beginnings 202
Transition 204
The Social Space as a Game 204
Curriculum as a Game 205
Results208
The Road from Here 209
REFERENCE 209

Section 3 Game Design and Development 101

QueSt 10 ◾ Identifying Learning Objectives and Student Needs 213

HOW STUDENTS LEARN 213
HOW GAMERS LEARN 214
QUEST 10 WALKTHROUGH 218
REFERENCES 218

QueSt 11 ◾ Student Demographics 221

AGE221
GENDER 223
INCOME LEVEL 224
QUEST 11 WALKTHROUGH 225
REFERENCE 225
xiv   ◾    Contents

QueSt 12 ◾ How Games Are Designed 227

THE TEACHER AS GAME MASTER 228
PREPRODUCTION 230
BEGIN WITH THE THEME 232
THE GAME’S STORY 233
QUEST 12 WALKTHROUGH 236
REFERENCE 236

QueSt 13 ◾ Production 237

PREP238
DESIGN 239
COLLECTING ASSETS 243
ALPHA TESTING 245
BETA TESTING 245
QUEST 13 WALKTHROUGH 246

Section 4 After the Launch

QueSt 14 ◾ Playing the Game 249

LORE250
RULES 251
SCORING 251
STAYING FLEXIBLE 252
POSTMORTEM 254
QUEST 14 WALKTHROUGH 255

Section 5 After This Book

QueSt 15 ◾ Designing the Future 259

REFERENCES 264
 Contents   ◾    xv

QueSt 16 ◾ Resources 265

GAME-BASED LEARNING 265
HOW TO SUCCEED IN GAME DESIGN 265
APPLIED GAMES (AKA SERIOUS GAMES) 266
RELATED TO GAME DESIGN (GAME DESIGNERS READ THESE BOOKS) 266
WRITING GAMES 266
ABOUT GAMES 266
ABOUT THE FUTURE 267
CONFERENCES 267
ORGANIZATIONS 267

QUEST 16 WALKTHROUGH 268

Appendix First Edition Case Studies

APPENDIX A ◾ FIRST EDITION CASE STUDY 1, 271

APPENDIX B ◾ FIRST EDITION CASE STUDY 2, 279

APPENDIX C ◾ FIRST EDITION CASE STUDY 3, 289

APPENDIX D ◾ FIRST EDITION CASE STUDY 4, 295

APPENDIX E ◾ FIRST EDITION CASE STUDY 5, 303

APPENDIX F ◾ FIRST EDITION CASE STUDY 6, 311

APPENDIX G ◾ FIRST EDITION CASE STUDY 7, 317

APPENDIX H ◾ FIRST EDITION CASE STUDY 8, 323

INDEX, 329
Preface

S ome of the terminology used in this book,

while familiar to professional game developers, DEFINITIONS
may not be as familiar to educators, even those who I will separate definitions like
may have introduced a video game into a class or this throughout the text to spare
grown up playing them. So, with the forbearance of readers from having to continu-
my fellow game designers, I'm going to define the ally thumb through a glossary at
terminology we use on a daily basis. the back or an eBook to find the
Now for three warnings. First, this book is a meaning of the word far removed
memoir, a voyage of discovery, and an introduc- from its context. Hopefully, in this
tion to a method of teaching based on game design way both author and reader will
principles and developed over time. This book is figuratively and literally remain on
intended for anyone to read. It is not an academic the same page.
paper only for other academics. It is the story of a
quest I have been on for over a decade. You will wit-
ness concepts evolve from class to class as I explore and experiment.
Second, if at any time you want to skip directly to designing your own multiplayer
classroom, head straight to Section Three: Game Design and Development 101. However,
you run the risk of achieving the same result as the parable of the three blind men and
the elephant. Your elephant might turn out looking like a snake. I urge you to study the
underlying concepts first. Up to you!
Third, if you have picked up this book with the idea that it will help you to include video
games in your curriculum, put it down now. Walk away.
The class is the game, and the classroom is the game board. A multiplayer classroom can
be created without buying software. It can be played without computers. It doesn’t need
electricity or textbooks or a desk. It can be played anywhere. If teachers have never played
a video game in their lives, they can design a course as a multiplayer classroom.

xvii
xviii   ◾    Preface

Still, multiplayer classrooms can get very involved, so first of all heed this advice: when
you are ready to experiment on your own, you do not have to leap into the deep end with
a class that is a full on multiplayer classroom like Sanctuary of the Sun (Quest 9). It took
me a decade to get there. Try as much or as little of the multiplayer classroom techniques
as you feel comfortable with. If all you do is wade in and change your grading system and
allow students to only acquire points, never lose them, you will see results. You can always
add more as you grow more confident. Look for another easy and sneaky tip in Quest 3.
I have been asked many times if a multiplayer classroom might only work to teach about
games or would only work at the college level. Many of my classes are meant to teach vari-
ous aspects of game production and game studies, and all are at the college level. That’s
what I do. As you will see from the case studies, however, the multiplayer classroom is not
only for teaching about games and the post-secondary courses are outnumbered by K-12.
At the time the first edition of this book was published there was little scholarly research
on the efficacy of game-based learning. In the beginning I had to rely on my own experi-
ence and anecdotal evidence when I gave talks on the multiplayer classroom. But soon
Chris Haskell and Liz Dawley at Boise State University, co-inventors of 3D GameLab (now
Rezzly), published findings of a wide-ranging study of what they called quest-based learn-
ing with some eye-opening statistics. Here are a few:

• The study involved over 13,000 students and over 900 teachers in 15 countries.
• Traditional approach to education success rate: 71% of students received an A, B, or C.
• Game-based approach success rate: 93% of students received an A. 93% without a B,
C, or D.
• Students completed 2X the curriculum in 30% of the time.

Other early explorers in this space include Dr. Bob De Schutter, a game design professor
from Miami University (who has a fascinating new game out called Brukel); professors
Andrew Stott and Carmen Neustaedter from Simon Fraser University and David Leach at
the University of Victoria, both schools in British Columbia, Canada, and Paul Darvasi,
a high school teacher at Royal St. George’s College in Toronto, Canada. In 2016 “Game-
Based Learning and 21st Century Skills: A Review of Recent Research” by Meihua Qian
and Karen B. Clark cited 137 papers. It’s not so lonely out there anymore.
Today, multiplayer classrooms can be found at any grade level from kindergarten to grad-
uate school, as well as in adult education, in the corporate world, the military and govern-
ment. Will it work for every subject? There is no reason not to think so. Give it a try.
I began writing the first edition of this book over nine years ago. Game-based learning and
its problematic cousin, gamification, were only beginning to catch the attention of educators.
 Preface   ◾    xix

Why do I differentiate between game-based learning and gamification? Most people

consider them synonymous, and certainly gamification has polished its act somewhat,
if not the awkward word that defines it. Gamification began, and often continues today
as simply appearing to mimic game-like structures and borrowing game terminology.
However underneath, it is little more than a textbook often complete with multiple choice
questions thinly disguised in its digital incarnation today.
This is not to say that some aspects of old-style
gamification are not worth including in game- LEADERBOARD
based learning. You’ll notice as you read this book A scoreboard used to keep track
that my first classes were little more than obvious of and display the standing of
gamification. Experience points (XP) are a per- competitors in a sports contest.
fectly acceptable way to track player progress. I will It’s most often associated with
highlight others. Leaderboards, as you will see, are golf. PvP (Player vs. Player) video
more problematic. games such as e-Sports often post
In 2015 Steven Isaacs, a middle school teacher the results of competitions online.
in New Jersey, published a lucid article on the
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) In Service website
called The Difference between Gamification and Game-Based Learning. It includes an
easy-to-understand chart with a side-by-side comparison of gamification and game-based
learning. It is worth a look.
I have continued to design classes as multiplayer games in those nine years and have
learned so much that a new edition of this book became a necessity. In the first edition
I included eight case studies from educators who taught multiplayer classrooms from ele-
mentary school to college and from Louisiana to Hawaii. In this edition I have included
eight more recent examples of multiplayer classrooms that teach a host of topics at all edu-
cational levels in the United States and abroad. The multiplayer classroom has gone inter-
national. The original eight case studies can be found in the appendix.
Another belief, difficult to shake, is that at best games are frivolous time wasters,
and at worst they, especially video games, are a dangerous influence on society today.
This idea stems from how cultures often view new arrivals as alien invaders that sud-
denly appear on the horizon and grow ever larger until they are among us, challeng-
ing our complacent lives. These may be anything from people to technology to ideas.
Technology has seen many such aliens invade us over the centuries. These include print-
ing, photography, electricity, the telephone, radio, movies, television, and the Internet
to name just a few.
This is not to say new technologies are without their darker side. Can you say
“Robocalls?” Eventually, even with inevitable dangers, a general acceptance occurs that
can overcome fear and become tolerance and ultimately enthusiasm as the new arrival’s
xx   ◾    Preface

merit becomes clear. This will never be true of all video games any more than it’s true of
any media. Some books, movies, plays, and television remain outliers. But video games
have become a huge slice of our entertainment and our culture and have shown themselves
worthy enough to add an entirely new dimension to learning. The admonition to storytell-
ers for generations has been “Show, don’t tell.” Video games have turned that on its head.
Today we can say, “Do, don’t show or tell.” That third dimension of immersion is courtesy
of games, and, not so strangely, education.
Remember that while multiplayer classrooms may have their roots in, they can be played
anywhere. A flower-studded field on a hill beneath a poetically blue sky can serve as the
place where the game is played, and learning can be found.
In September of 2009, I had no idea I would be
compelled to write a book called The Multiplayer MMO: MASSIVELY
Classroom. I was teaching my first class as a mul- MULTIPLAYER ONLINE
tiplayer game in the style of a commercial MMO A game played over the Internet
(Massively Multiplayer Online). by many players in any part of
At the time of the first edition of this book, the world. MMO is a shortened
World of Warcraft was the most successful MMO, version of MMOG (Massively
so that game inspired me while I looked for how to Multiplayer Online Game),
describe my new way to teach. Since my first class- which is a shortened version of
room game would be played by no more than 40 MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer
students, the word “massively” didn't really apply. Online Role-Playing Game). It is
Since it was played in the real world instead of over a type of game still in search of a
the Internet, the word “online” was out of place reasonable acronym. MMO has
as well. That would leave me with the totally use- now been joined by multiplayer
less acronym of “M.” This book is not named after video games with a new acronym:
James Bond’s boss. So, I added a “C” and called it MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle
The Multiplayer Classroom. Arena). These include League of
As that semester progressed, I began to see the Legends, DOTA, and Fortnite.
fun of learning the students were experiencing
and how much more fun teaching felt to me. When grades improved and class attendance
headed toward a record high, I began to ask myself, “Why haven't we been designing classes
as video games for a long time now?”
After all, anyone born after the mid-1970s is of the gamer generation; in the same way
I was of the television generation. They grew up with video games already established as
viable commercial products, and as products capable of teaching as we will see in Quest 2.
When players were ready to go online, the Internet magically appeared. When they wanted
to expand their social networking, Facebook arrived. And when they wanted to carry their
 Preface   ◾    xxi

FIGURE P.1 Beyond Facebook: The future of pervasive games.

games in their pockets and purses along with their cell phone and an Internet connection,
smartphones made what was already possible...fun.
This generation sees games all around them. As Jesse Schell points out in his talk,
“Beyond Facebook: The Future of Pervasive Games” (2010), there are games everywhere
we turn (Figure P.1).
The gamer generation is part of a society used to collecting points for airline mileage,
points for using a particular gasoline brand, Open
Table dining points, and so on; in the same way PERVASIVE GAME
they collected gold stars in kindergarten. The idea A game where the line between
here is simply that the gamer generation takes these game and reality blurs to the point
things in stride. They expect it even if they aren't where it is difficult to distinguish
hardcore gamers themselves. The aliens are settling one from the other.
in fine on Maple Street.
xxii   ◾    Preface

What got me to this point? Why was I personally moved to design a class as a game? I
started out in Hollywood and New York writing and producing television. In 1982, I was
preparing to write a pilot for a potential TV series that involved a family able to travel
through video games on their big screen TV to other planes of existence. I had never played
a video game in my life. Interested in collaboration, the production companies involved,
Tomorrow Entertainment and Procter and Gamble, sent me to Atari, the most successful
maker of video games at that time, to learn more about them.
Their game console, the 2600, was a runaway success. They gave me one and a stack of
games to play. In the interests of research of course, I decided to give them a try.
That TV show was never made, but soon after using a dedicated word processor on a TV
show I wrote for called Tucker's Witch, I bought my first IBM PC, word processing software
called Wordstar, and a handful of the first computer games including Microsoft Adventure,
a rebranded text adventure originally known as Colossal Cave, and Ulysses and the Golden
Fleece, another adventure with graphics and a rather jumbled view of mythology!
In 1994, I left Hollywood and became a professional game writer and designer. In 2006,
while still making commercial video games, I accepted a position as an assistant professor
at Indiana University, teaching students how to make them.
One other significant event occurred at IU. In
2008 I began to design the first of a series of alter- ALTERNATE REALITY
nate reality games (ARGs): The Skeleton Chase, GAME (ARG)
Skeleton Chase 2: The Psychic (Figure P.2), and A type of pervasive game that
Skeleton Chase 3: Warp Speed. uses the real world as a platform,
The first two games in the series were funded by a often involving multiple media
grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. and game elements, to tell a story
The third was funded by Coca Cola. I condensed that may be affected by partici-
the seven weeks of gameplay from the second game pants’ ideas or actions.
into two and half days to provide a new approach
to team building and learning new technologies for
Coca Cola executives from North Africa.
For the RWJ grant, we tested the efficacy of using a game as a fitness intervention.
At a time when many “fitness” game grant proposals were focused on Dance Dance
Revolution and the Wii Fit balance board, we created a reason for students to get out
into the sunshine (sometimes rain) in large numbers and to run around while they were
doing it. For two seven-week periods, we sent students racing all over the huge IU cam-
pus and surrounding town of Bloomington. We connected this physical activity to going
on quests, solving puzzles, races and other competitions, and even a full-fledged narra-
tive. I did not know it then, but we were creating the seeds from which the multiplayer
classroom would grow.
 Preface   ◾    xxiii

FIGURE P.2 Skeleton Chase 2: The Psychic.

The designing and running of these games immediately taught me two important
lessons:

• Games as compelling as video games can be designed to be played in the real world
• Games played in the real world in real time
demand a tremendous flexibility, just like NPC
teaching. You can't program real people to An NPC is a non-player character,
do what you want them to do; in the same a fictional character designed to
way you can program NPCs (non-player inhabit the world of the game.
characters) in a video game, and you can't
depend on bending things like the weather to match your design. You must be
ready for all the little surprises real life can throw at you, and write and design on
the fly.
xxiv   ◾    Preface

I think the experience with the ARGs, the last of which concluded the summer I began
designing my first class as a game, is what finally made me realize that since anywhere can
be a game board, why not a classroom? It’s fitting that the companion book to this one,
The Multiplayer Classroom: Game Plans, begins with the design document for Skeleton
Chase 2: The Psychic, and concludes with the design document for Sanctuary of the Sun, the
most recent multiplayer classroom.
Back to this book. What are the major changes
from the first edition? I have learned much more COLLATERAL LEARNING
about designing a multiplayer classroom in the Collateral learning occurs at the
ensuing years. The classrooms have ripened from convergence of two distinct and
those explored in the first edition. The biggest undeniable forces: gameplay and
change by far is my focus in later classes on narra- storytelling, and the human attri-
tive as much as gameplay and the process I now call butes of curiosity and imagination.
collateral learning. It’s learning that occurs while you
It seems peculiar to me that it took me so long to are so caught up in something
figure out the importance of narrative considering else—like characters in a book or
I’ve been a professional writer my entire adult life, first a suspenseful film—you almost
in Hollywood, then video games, and now books. don’t realize you are learning.
I have made plenty of mistakes in the ensuing Students learn because they want
years. So have others creating their own multi- to find out what happens next.
player classrooms, whatever they decide to call
them. I do not intend to hide those mistakes. In fact, much like those intrepid volunteers
in the dunking tank at school fairs, my falls from grace will be in plain view. In this way,
hopefully, you can avoid your own. Look for them. They’ll be impossible to miss. I’ll be
dripping wet.
I will leave you with two final thoughts before we begin. First, I have added a new feature
throughout this edition of the book. Called Your Classroom, it will help you to translate
what you read here to your own class. Some ideas you may already be using in a form that
fits the subject you are teaching.
Second, you are on a quest to discover more about the multiplayer classroom so in
this book chapters will be called Quests. A list of hints on how to solve quests in games
is called a walkthrough. So, you will find a walkthrough at the end of each chapter
to remind you of the most important steps in your quest. This will be familiar as a
listing of key concepts found at the end of chapters in many textbooks. Here is your
first walkthrough!
 Preface   ◾    xxv

PREFACE QUEST WALKTHROUGH

• Definitions for terms used are in the body of the book, not separated in a glossary at
the end.
• The class is the game, and the classroom is the game board. (Fundamental Concept)
• Gamification and game-based learning are not necessarily synonymous.
• This book is a voyage of discovery, detailing the process of how the multiplayer class-
room was born and grew and the mistakes I learned from.
• In this book the emphasis is on the classes I taught. All were post-secondary classes
on games.
• Today, multiplayer classrooms can be found at any grade level from kindergarten to
graduate school, as well as in adult education, in the corporate world, and the mili-
tary and government.
• Games have been used to teach for centuries.
• In video games, the primary way players learn is from making mistakes. (Fundamental
Concept)
• Games as compelling as video games can be designed to be played in the real world.
(Fundamental Concept)
• Games played in the real world in real time demand a tremendous flexibility, just like
teaching. (Fundamental Concept)
• Collateral learning is learning that occurs while you are so caught up in something
else, you almost don’t realize you are learning. Students learn because they want to
find out what happens next. (Fundamental Concept)

REFERENCES
Isaacs, S. (2015) The Difference between Gamification and Game-Based Learning. Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) In Service website. https://inservice.ascd.
org/the-difference-between-gamification-and-game-based-learning/
Qian, M., Clark, K. R. (2016). Game-based learning and 21st century skills: A review of recent
research. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 50–58.
Schell, J. (2010). Beyond Facebook: The Future of Pervasive Games. Design Innovate Communicate
Entertain Summit (DICE).
Acknowledgments

M any people helped take these multiplayer classrooms from the virtual world to
the real. From the first edition I’d like to thank Jurie Horneman who asked the
question in the Game Design Workshop that caused me to share my syllabus with, among
others, Jesse Schell. Jesse mentioned the XP instead of grades idea in his DICE Summit
talk that winter. The resulting publicity prompted educators from around the world to
deluge me with questions about designing coursework as a game. Ted Castronova was
an early supporter. Jenna Hoffstein set up the first blog and forums so we could share
our experiences. For this edition, Matthew Farber offered advice on game-based learn-
ing research and gamification enthusiasts. Liz Lawley at RIT provided data on Just Press
Play. Taft Farms in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, allowed me to take pictures of their
amazing property, and Peter Nikitas posed as a student in Quest 13. It was Matt Rolph who
introduced me to the quotes from John Locke and Plato. They were a revelation to me!
The eight case stories in the first edition were contributed by visitors to the forums, or
educators who wrote to me directly to share their stories. These were Matthew Baylor (with
Charles Souza), Jessica Broussard, Denishia Buchanan, Carl Creasman, David Grimes,
Stacy Jacob, Max Lieberman (with Connie Hackathorn and Wayne Brent), and Aaron
Pavao.
Marie-Pierre Huguet, at the time Senior Course Developer, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute Innovation and Research in Teaching and Learning, provided support on many
levels, including her observations in Quest 5, editing both text and video, and generally
terrific advice. Her Course Development student team worked on the LMS websites and
videotaped.
The eight new case studies in this edition were contributed by members of our Facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/MultiplayerClassroom. They are Jean-Baptiste Brosset,
Kostos Dokos, Denise Gross, Tore Kjellow, Caryn Lix, Evan McKinney, Aaron Pavao, and
Melissa Pilakowski.
I want to also pay tribute to my brave student assistants at IU, RPI, and WPI without
whom teaching would have been much more of a chore. I’m especially indebted to Leo

xxvii
xxviii   ◾    Acknowledgments

Bunyea who enthusiastically dove into both of my multiplayer classrooms at WPI and the
Global Classroom with Skövde University. Without his contributions to these classes and
other projects they would never have succeeded as well as they did.
And last, but by no stretch of the imagination least, I’m delighted to extend a very spe-
cial thank you to Erin Glasheen-Sheldon, who had both me and this project suddenly drop
from the clear blue sky into the middle of her life. She faced this disruption with support,
encouragement, and faith that kept me going through what seemed at times an impossible
task; even at the expense of her own writing, which I have no doubt will one day be found
alongside this volume on our bookcase.
To everyone who aided and abetted this undertaking over the past decade: you are all
l33t hax0rs!
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Rhodes declared that it was the most beautiful name he had ever
heard in all his life!
It was about four o'clock when we issued from that passage, steep to
the last, and found ourselves in a great broken cavern. The rock was
granite, the place jagged and savage-looking as though seen in
some strange and awful dream.
Here we rested for a while, and I, for one, was glad enough to do so.
I was tired, sore and stiff from head to foot—especially to foot.
Just by the tunnel's mouth, there was some writing on the wall.
Before this, Drorathusa and the older man (his name, we had
learned, was Ondonarkus) stood for some moments. This
examination, and the short dialogue which followed it, left them, I
noticed even more grave of aspect and demeanor than we had ever
seen them.
I wondered what it could mean. I felt a vague uneasiness; a
nameless foreboding was creeping over me.
It was futile to think and wonder what it meant, and yet I could not
help doing it. Glad had I been to stop, but, strangely enough, glad I
was to get under way once more. For 'twas only so that we could
hope to get the answer.
Well, we got it—an answer that I wish never to know again.
 Chapter 25
THE LABYRINTH—LOST
We soon saw that we had entered not a cavern but a perfect
labyrinth of caverns. I could never have imagined a place like that. It
was bewildering, dreadful, forsooth, in the possibilities that it limned
on the canvas of one's imagination. How in the world could any one
ever have found his way through it? But somebody had, for there
were the inscriptions and signs on the wall. For these the Dromans
kept a keen watch, and the relief evinced whenever one was sighted
showed what a frightful thing it might be to lose the way.
An hour passed, another, and still we were moving in that awful
maze.
"Great Erebus," said I, "but this is confusion worse confounded. Do
you think that we can ever find our way back through this?"
"I've got it all down here, Bill," returned Rhodes, tapping his
notebook. "The angel, the leader now, is finding her way through it:
what she can do can't we do also?"
"She isn't through it yet! It is some time, too, since we saw one of
those directions on the wall. The fact is, unless I am greatly
mistaken, our Dromans are becoming uneasy right now."
"Think so, Bill? I confess that I thought something of the kind myself,
but I was not sure that it wasn't only a fancy."
"I wish that I could believe so."
As Rhodes had remarked, Drorathusa was the leader now. And a
striking sight it was—her tall white figure leading the way, the
shadows quivering, swaying, rushing over the broken, savage walls
and deepening to inky blackness in the secret places as we passed.
Farther and farther we went, deeper and deeper; but never another
inscription was seen. The advance became broken, irresolute. Then
suddenly there was a halt.
And at that instant the last vestige of uncertainty vanished:
Drorathusa had lost the way.
There was a sudden panicky fear in the eyes of the girls, but it soon
was gone. The little party met this most unpleasant truth with
exemplary philosophy. There was a short consultation, and then we
began to retrace our way. The object was, of course, to return to the
last mark on the wall. If we missed it, then Heaven help us!
"Perhaps," I thought, "it will be Heaven help us, anyway!"
And it was.
We reached our objective without misadventure, and then a new
start was made. Rhodes and I were greatly puzzled, for it was patent
that neither the angel nor any one else knew how we had gone
astray. And, not knowing that, how could any one tell which way to
go?
"Better get it clear in that notebook," I admonished Rhodes. "Maybe
this new start will end up in something more unpleasant than the
other did. It's a queer business, and I don't pretend to understand
any of it at all."
We went along for a half-mile or so, carefully and with no little
apprehension, and then, hurrah, there was a sign on the wall! The
route to Drome again! But for how long?
Drorathusa quickened her pace. She was moving along now as
though in confidence, certitude even. I have never been able to
explain what followed. For a time, an hour or more, that confidence
of hers certainly was fully justified. Then came the change. Suddenly
we became aware of an unpleasant fact—there was something
wrong again. Not that we remained in doubt as to what that
something was which was wrong. A few minutes, and we had a fact
even more unpleasant presented to our contemplation and
incidentally cogitation—again we had gone astray.
Once more there was a consultation, and once more we retraced our
steps—I mean we started to retrace them. Neither I nor any one else
could tell how it happened. Not that I marveled at our failure to
return, even though I could not explain just how we had missed the
way. However, it was no longer possible to blink the fact that we
were lost, utterly lost in this maze of passages, caverns and
chambers.
I raised my canteen and shook it; my heart sank at that feeble wish-
wash sound. The canteen was almost empty. Nor was any one of the
others, in this respect, much more fortunate than myself.
Our position was a most unpleasant one—appalling even in the
grisly possibilities which it presented to the mind.
 Chapter 26
THROUGH THE HEWN PASSAGE
I could set down no adequate record of those hours which followed.
It was late now, and yet on and on we went, mile after mile, deeper
and deeper but only, it seemed, to involve ourselves the more
hopelessly in the dread mysteries of that fearsome place. I wondered
if it was my imagination that made it so, but certainly the confusion of
those chambers and caverns seemed to become only confusion and
the worse confounded.
At last and suddenly came the discovery.
We had entered a long and narrow chamber and were drawing near
the end, Rhodes and I wondering if we should find an exit there. Of a
sudden there was a sharp exclamation from the lips of Drorathusa,
who was some little distance in advance—an exclamation that
fetched me up on the instant.
She had stopped and was pointing towards the left-hand wall, her
attitude and the look upon her face such that I started and a sudden
fear shot through me.
"What in the world can it be?" I said. "I see nothing but rock and
shadows and blackness. What has she found?"
Milton Rhodes made no answer. He was moving forward. I followed.
A moment, and he was beside the Dromans, his light turned full
upon the wall.
"Look at that, Bill!" said he.
I moved to his side, and we stood there gazing, for some moments
motionless and silent.
"Well, Bill," he queried at last, "what do you think of that? We are not
the first human beings to stand in this spot."
"But probably many centuries have passed since any human being
stood here," I said, "and gazed upon that entrance—went into it. I
wonder what it leads to. Why should men have cut that passage into
the living rock? In such a horrible place. And how do we know that it
was made by men? In this underground world, there may be
intelligent beings that are not men."
"Well, that is possible, of course," Milton nodded.
The entrance was about four feet in width by eight in height. Above
it, there was some striking sculpturing, evidently work of a mystical
character. Its meaning was an utter mystery to Rhodes and me, but
not, I thought, to our Dromans. Very little dust had accumulated,
though, as I have good reason to believe, many, many centuries had
passed since that spot was abandoned to unbroken blackness and
silence.
Many were the pictures that came and went as we stood there and
looked and wondered. Who had cut this passage into the living rock?
In what lost age of a people now perhaps lost as well? And for what
purpose had they hewn it?
"Well," I said to myself, "possibly the answer to that question awaits
us there within."
Rhodes and I moved over to the entrance, and he sent the strong
rays of his electric light into the passage.
"About fifty feet long," he observed, "and evidently it enters another
chamber."
We started in. We had taken but a few steps, however, when we
stopped and turned our look back to the Dromans.
"Not coming," said Rhodes.
Why did they stand hesitant, with that strange look in their eyes and
upon their faces? Even the angel was affected. Affected by what? By
the mere mystery of the place?
"I wonder what is the matter with them," I said. "Why are they staying
out there? I tell you, Milton, I don't like this at all. What's the matter
with them?"
"Superstitious dread or something, I suppose," returned Rhodes.
"Well, it ill becomes a scientist to let superstition stay his steps, to
turn back even if a black cat crosses his path; and so on we go."
And on we went into the passage. When we were nearly through it, I
glanced back. The Dromans had not moved.
"Look here!" I said, coming to an abrupt stop.
"What is it now, Bill?"
"Maybe this is a trap."
"A trap? How can it be a trap?"
"How in the world do I know that? But to me the whole business has
a queer and suspicious look, I tell you."
"How so?"
"How so? Why, maybe they brought us to this hole. We don't know
what's in there."
"Neither do they," Milton said.
"Maybe they do," I told him. "Maybe they aren't lost at all. Maybe it's
all make-believe. Why don't they come in, too? What are they
standing out there for, standing and waiting—waiting? What are they
waiting for? Probably for their chance to steal away and leave us to
our fate!"
"My gosh, Bill," said Milton Rhodes, "your imagination goes like a
jumping-jack!"
"Heaven help us if that's what you think when a man would be
cautious and watchful!"
"Cautious and watchful. Yes, certainly we want to be cautious and
watchful. After all, there may be something in what you say.
"But," he added the next moment, "not much, I think. No, Bill. This is
not a trap. There is no faking about it: the Dromans are lost."
"I don't like it," I told him. "Why don't they come on in?"
"Goodness knows, Bill. Why won't some people sit down to a table if
the party numbers thirteen? And why should we stand hesitant?
Suppose that they do plan to steal away from us. I don't believe it,
but suppose that they do. What then? Are we going to run after
them, like lambs after little Bopeep? Not I, old tillicum. If they are as
treacherous a lot as that, the quicker we part company the better.
For, sooner or later, their chance would come."
"There may be something in that," I admitted. "Lead on, Macduff."
A moment or two, and we had stepped from the passage and out
into a great and lofty chamber.
"Great Heaven!" I cried, my right hand going to my revolver. "What—
what is that thing?"
Rhodes made no answer. He stood peering intently.
"Look out!" I cried, pulling out my weapon and drawing back towards
the entrance. "It's moving!"
 Chapter 27
THE MONSTER
Rhodes made no response. Still he stood there, peering towards the
end of the chamber. Then of a sudden, to my inexpressible surprise,
he began moving forward—moving towards that monstrous thing
which reared itself up out of the gloom and the shadows, up and up,
almost to the very roof itself.
"What are you doing?" I cried. "I tell you, I saw it move!"
Rhodes paused, but he did not look back.
"It didn't move," he said. "How could it move? It must have been only
the shadows that you saw, Bill."
"Shadows?"
"Just so—shadows."
He moved his light slowly back and forth.
"See that. A certain way you look at it, that thing up there seems to
be moving instead of the shadows."
"But what on earth can it be?" I asked, slowly advancing to his side.
"And what is that white which, though so faint, yet gleams so
horribly? It looks like teeth."
"It is teeth," said Milton, whose eyes were better than mine. "But the
thing, of course, is not animate. You just thought that you saw it
move. The thing is simply a man-made monster, like the great
Sphinx of the Pyramids, like the Colossi of Thebes."
We were moving toward it now.
"And look at all those horrors along the walls," I said, "dragons,
serpents, horrors never seen on land, in the air or in the sea—at any
rate, in that world we have left. And look there. There is a demon—I
mean a sculptured demon. And that's what the colossus itself is—a
monstrous ape-bat."
"Not so, Bill. See, it is becoming plainer and plainer, and it is
unequivocally a dragon."
Yes; it was a dragon. And I wondered if a monster more horrible than
this thing before us ever had been fashioned by the wildest
imagination of artist or madman.
The dragon (not carven from the rock but made of bronze) crouched
upon a high rock, its wings outspread. At the base of this rock, upon
which base rested the hind claws of the monster, was a platform
some twenty feet square and raised five or six feet above the floor of
the cavern. In the front and on either side of this platform, there were
steps, and, in the center of it, a stone of curious shape—a stone that
sent a shudder through me.
And up above rose the colossal dragon itself, its scaly foreclaws
gripping the edge of the rock, twenty-five feet or so above the
platform. The neck curved forward and down. The head hung over
the platform, thirty feet or more up in the air—the great jaws wide
open, the forked tongue protruding hungrily, the huge teeth and the
huge eyes sending back the rays from our lights in demonical,
indescribably horrible gleams.
"Talk about Gorgons, Chimeras and Hydras dire!" I exclaimed, and it
was as though unseen things, phantom beings, so eerie were the
echoes, repeated the words in mockery and in gloating. "Why should
men create such a Gorgonic nightmare? And worship it—worship the
monster of their own creating? Look at that stone there in the center
of the platform. Ugh! The things that must have taken place in that
spot! The thought makes the flesh creep and the blood itself turn
cold in one's veins!"
"What a dark and fearsome cavern, after all, is the skull of man,"
said Milton Rhodes, "a place where bats flit and blind shapes creep
and crawl!"
I turned toward him with a look of surprise.
"That from the man whom I have so often heard sing the Song of the
Mind; that from a scientist, one who has so great an admiration for
Aristotle, Hipparchus, Archimedes, Galileo, Newton and Darwin;
from one who so often has said that the only wonderful thing about
man is his mind and that that mind, in its possibilities, is simply
godlike."
"And so say I again, Bill, and so, I am sure, I shall always say. In its
possibilities, remember. But you shouldn't have had scientists only
on your list; you should have added these at least: Homer, Plato,
Saint Augustine, Cicero, Dante and Shakespeare, and, yes, poor old
Job in his Land of Uz. But man is a sort of dual creature, a creature
that achieves the impossible by being in two places at the same
time: his body is in this the Twentieth Century, his mind is still back
there in the Pliocene, with cave-bears, hyenas and saber-toothed
tigers."
I uttered a vehement dissent.
"But 'tis so, Bill," said Milton Rhodes, "or at least back there beyond
the year 1492. The world knows but one Aristotle, one Newton, one
Archimedes, one Galileo, one Darwin, one Edison; but Heaven has
sent the world thousands."
"I don't believe it. There are no mute, inglorious—Shakespeares."
"No; there are no mute, inglorious Shakespeares, no mute,
inglorious Newtons: the world, this glorious mind that we hear so
much about destroyed them."
"Or," said I, "they destroyed themselves."
"You are not making the mind's case any brighter, Bill, by putting it
that way. Yes, the mind, the glorious human mind destroyed them
and turned forthwith to grovel in the dust before monsters like this
one before us—before Prejudice, Ignorance, Superstition and
Worse."
"What a horrible piece of work, then, is man!"
"Take the average of the human mind," went on Milton Rhodes, "not
the exceptions and those so brilliant and so wonderful, but the
average of all the human minds in all the world today, from our
Newtons—if we have any now—to your savage groveling in the dust
before some fetish or idol made of mud; do that, and the skull of man
is found to be just what I said—a dark and fearsome cavern, a
habitat for bats and ghostly nameless things."
"What a strange, a horrible idea!" I exclaimed.
"The world is proud of its Newtons now," said Rhodes. "But was it
proud of them when they came? Whenever I see a man going into
ecstasy over the wonders and the beauties and the glories of the
human mind—remember, Dante was driven from his country—then I
think of these words, written by the Philosopher of Ferney:
"When we reflect that Newton, Locke, Clarke, and Liebnitz, would
have been persecuted in France, imprisoned at Rome, and burned
at Lisbon, what are we to think of human reason?"
"Alas, you poor, poor humans," said I, "you are only a breed of vile
Yahoos!"
"Oh, don't misunderstand me, Bill. The mind of man is a fearful thing,
but it is wonderful too, as wonderful as it is dreadful; and the more
wonderful, perhaps, than it intrinsically is because of the very
grossness and the very sordidness that it has to conquer. We are
prone, some of us, to think the record of the intellect a shabby one;
but, after all, the record is not, all things considered, so bad as it may
seem at a first glance to be. It might have been better, much better;
but we should rejoice that it is not worse, much worse; that the mind,
the hope of the world, has made even the slightest advance that it
has. Man, however, is on his way at last. And, with Science on his
right hand and Invention on his left, he can not fail to conquer the
ape and the tiger, to win to a future brighter even than the most
beautiful of our brightest dreams."
"Well," said I, turning and seating myself on one of the steps, up
which steps perhaps many victims had been dragged to sacrifice,
"this is a fine time truly and a fine place indeed in which to discuss
man and the glorious destiny that may await him, in view of the fact
that some spot in these cursed caverns may soon be our tomb.
"And," I added, "there come the Dromans."
Never shall I forget that look of awe and horror upon their white
faces when at last they stood there in a huddled group before,
almost under, the great dragon. Rhodes had seated himself beside
me, and it was obvious that this temerity on our part was a source of
astonishment to the Dromans. What dread powers they feared the
monster might possess, I can only conjecture; but I do know that we
could never have induced even Drorathusa herself to thus, on the
very steps of his altar, hazard the wrath of an offended deity.
 Chapter 28
I ABANDON HOPE
At last Milton and I arose and proceeded to examine carefully this
chamber of carven horrors. By the altar, another passage was
discovered. Like the great chamber itself and the passage by which
we had entered, this tunnel had been hewn out of the living rock by
the hand of man. It was some sixty feet in length and conducted us
into a small but most remarkable grotto, or rather a series of
grottoes. We advanced, however, but a little way there; a few
minutes, and we were again in the hall of the dragon.
We continued, and finished, our examination of the place. Another
passage was discovered, in the roof and leading, of course, to we
knew not where. Then there were those stone horrors ranged along
either wall; but I shall not attempt to describe those nightmare-
monstrosities, some of which, by the way, had two heads.[10]
The Dromans had drawn back some distance from the altar, and all
had sunk down to a seat upon the floor, all save Drorathusa.
Our examination ended, we moved toward the little group. Milton
looked at his watch.
"Midnight," he said.
As we drew near, Drorathusa suddenly raised a hand and made a
significant motion toward the entrance. Those seated rose from the
floor with an alacrity that astonished me. Evidently they were very
anxious to quit this chamber of horrors. Well, I confess that I was not
sorry to do so myself.
"Shades of the great Ulysses," said I as we moved along in the rear,
"are we going to keep up this wandering until we drop?"
"Just what I was wondering myself, Bill. I fancy, though, that our
Dromans are beginning to think that a rest would not be
inexpedient."
Inexpedient!
Shortly after issuing from the passage, the party came to a halt, and
Drorathusa, to my profound thankfulness, announced that the time
for rest and sleep had come.
"Sleep?" said I to myself. "Who can sleep in such a place and at
such a time?"
From his pack, Ondonarkus took a small silk-like bundle; like the tent
that Captain Amundsen left at the South Pole,[11] one could have put
it into a fair-sized pocket. The white-haired girl handed Ondonarkus
the sort of alpenstock which she carried, and, lo and presto, there
was a tent for the ladies!
Rhodes and I betook ourselves off to a hollow in the wall, where we
halted and disposed ourselves for rest. This disposition, however,
was a very simple affair: we simply removed our packs and sat down
on the floor, the softness of which by no means vied with that of
swan's-down.
I drank a little water, but it seemed to augment rather than to
assuage my burning thirst. For a time I sat there, my aching body
leaning back against the rock-wall, my fevered, tortured mind
revolving the grisly possibilities that confronted us. Meditation,
however, only served to make our situation the more appalling. With
an exclamation of despair, I lay down, longing for sleep's sweet
oblivion. At this moment Ondonarkus and the young man—whose
name, by the way, was Zenvothunbro—were seen approaching.
They laid themselves down nearby, their lanterns extinguished. We
had shut off the electric lights, but our phosphorus-lamps, and those
of the Dromans, shed their pale and ghostly light around.
Rhodes was sitting up, engaged in bringing his journal forward, as
carefully and cooly as though he were in his library at home, instead
of in this mysterious and fearful abode of blackness and silence,
thousands of feet below the surface of the earth, far—though how far
we could only guess—below the level of the sea itself.
When I closed my eyes, pictures came and went in a stream,
pictures swaying, flashing, fading. The amazing, the incredible things
that had happened, the things that probably were to happen—oh,
was it all only a dream?
I opened my eyes and raised myself up on an elbow. I saw Milton
Rhodes bent over his book, writing, writing; I saw the recumbent
forms of the two Dromans, whose heavy breathing told me that
already they slept; over there was the tent, in it the beautiful, the
Sibylline Drorathusa and her lovely companions—and I knew, alas,
that it was not a dream.
I sank back with an inward groan and closed my eyes again. Oh,
those thoughts that came thronging! If I could only go to sleep! A
vision of treachery came, but it was not to trouble me now. No;
Rhodes was right: our Dromans were lost. If only those other visions
could be as easily banished as that one!
Ere long, however, those thronging thoughts and visions became
hazy, confused, began to fade; and then suddenly they were blended
with the monsters and the horrors of dreams.
It was six o'clock when I awoke. Rhodes was sitting up. He had, he
told me, just awakened. One of the Dromans was stirring in his sleep
and muttering something in cavernous and horrible tones. As I sat
there and listened, a chill passed through me, so terrible were the
sounds.
"I can't stand that!" I exclaimed. "I'm going to wake him up. It's time
that we were moving, anyway."
"Yes," nodded Milton. "Surely, though, we'll find water today."
"Today? Where is your day in this place? It's night eternal. And for
us, I'm afraid, it is good night with a vengeance."
"Aw, Bill, quit your kidding," was Rhodes' answer.
Now, the thing that I want to know is this: what can you do with a
man like that?
Ere long we were again under way. My canteen was now as dry as a
bone, and I tell you that I felt mighty sad. However, I endeavored to
mask, since I could not banish them, those dark and dire
forebodings. When we set forth, it was with the hope that we might
find, and be conducted by it to safety, the road by which those old
worshippers had journeyed to and from that hall of the dragon. But
not a vestige of such a route could we discover.
Hours passed. On and on we went, deeper and deeper. Noon came.
No change. No one had a drop of water now. Rhodes and I
estimated the distance traveled since quitting the temple of the
dragon at ten miles and the descent at something like four thousand
feet. This estimate, or rather guess, may, however, have been wide
of the truth. We were still involved in the maddening intricacies of the
labyrinth.
I confess that our situation began to assume an aspect that made
my very soul turn sick and cold. Rhodes, however, divining perhaps
what was in my mind, pointed out that we had not been lost very
long! and that surely we would find water some place. A man, said
he, in the equable temperature of this subterranean world, could live
for quite a time without water. I have no doubt that a man could—if
he were lying in bed. But we were not doing that; we were in
constant motion. The arduous exercise that we were undergoing, our
fatigue, the anxieties and fears that preyed upon the mind—each
was contributing its quota to the dire and steady work of enervation.
No, I would fight against despair; but certainly I could imbibe no
consolation, no strength, either mental or physical, from a deliberate
blinking of facts. And one of the facts was that, unless we soon
found water, ours would be that fate which has overtaken so many of
those who have gone forth to search out the secrets of mysterious
places.
During that halt for lunch—and what an awful lunch that was—Milton
brought forward his journal, and Drorathusa, by means of pictures
drawn in the book, made it clear to us that they would never have
missed the route had it not been for the loss of their beloved demon.
That, of course, made Rhodes and me very sorry; but, if the demon
had not been killed, we certainly should have been even more sorry
—and, I'm afraid, in a worse place than this in which we now found
ourselves.
This strange intelligence, too, reminded me of grandfather
Scranton's wonder as to how his angel and her demon had
journeyed over rock, snowfield and glacier to the Tamahnowis Rocks
through that dense, blinding vapor. I understood that now; they were
guided by the wonderful instinct of the ape-bat. How truly wonderful
that instinct is, we were yet to learn. Little wonder that Drorathusa
mourned the loss of her dear, beloved, her hideous demon!
The bat has in all ages been the personification of repulsiveness,
gloom and horror; and yet it is in many ways a very wonderful
creature. For instance, it can fly through intricate passages with ease
and certitude when blinded, avoiding any obstacle in or across its
way as though in possession of perfect vision. No marvel, therefore,
that some scientists have declared that the bat must possess a sixth
sense. The accepted explanation, however, is that the creature
discovers the objects, in the words of the great Cuvier, "by the sole
diversity of aerial impressions."
However that may be, this wonderful faculty is possessed by the
great ape-bats of Drome. Not that it is for this that they are valued by
the Dromans. It is because it is impossible for the ape-bat to get lost.
It matters not how long, how devious, how broken, savage,
mysterious the way; the demon is never uncertain for one single
moment. And a singular feature of this most singular fact is that the
creature does not have to retrace the route itself, and it does not
matter what time has elapsed. It may be a month, years; it is all the
same to the demon. He may return to the point of departure by the
outward trail, or he may go back in a bee-line or in a line as closely
resembling a bee-line as the circumstances will permit.
From this it may easily be inferred how greatly the Dromans value
these dreadful, repulsive creatures. When venturing out into the
"lands of shadows" or into the caverns of utter darkness, these
beasts are simply invaluable. In the "lands of shadows," they never
fail to give warning of the approach of the wild ape-bats, those
wolves of the air, or of other monsters; whilst, in the dark caverns—
into which the wild bats sometimes wander for considerable
distances—a man, though he may be utterly lost himself, knows that
his demon will guide him safely back to the world of light.
In other ways, however, save as veritable Cerberi, they are of little
use, are, indeed, objects of distrust and not a little dread. For they
are, as a rule, of a most savage and uncertain temper. Not that the
owner fears attack upon himself, though instances are not wanting in
which master or mistress has been set upon. To its owner, a demon
is truly doglike; but other people had better be careful.
"Since the loss of a demon on such a journey as this may spell
disaster, I wonder," I said, "why they didn't bring along more than
one."
"Food, Bill, food," returned Rhodes. "I am no authority, of course, on
demonian dietetics, but I don't imagine that they fed the monster on
canary-bird seed."
On we went, blindly and in desperation, on and on and deeper and
deeper into the earth. At length there was a change, whether for
good or ill we could not know; but we welcomed it, nevertheless—
simply because it was a change. At last we were emerging from the
labyrinth. But what lay ahead?
Yes, soon we were no longer in a maze of caverns, grottoes,
passages, but in a wide and lofty tunnel. We had made our way
down it but a little distance when an inscription was discovered on
the right-hand wall. The discovery was made by Rhodes, who
happened to be in the rear. A rectangular space, perhaps three feet
by six, had been hewn perfectly smooth, and upon this rock-tablet
were many chiseled characters, characters utterly unlike any we had
seen. Before this spot, we clustered in hope and questioning. It was
at once patent, however, that our Dromans could make nothing
whatever of the writing.
But we regarded this discovery as a happy augury, and we pressed
on with a lighter step.
On to bitter disappointment.
Hours passed. We were still toiling down that awful tunnel.
At last—it was then nine o'clock—the way became very difficult. The
rock has been broken, rent, smashed by some terrible convulsion.
The scene was indescribably weird and savage. And there we
halted, sank down upon the rocky floor. Rhodes and Drorathusa
evinced an admirable nonchalance, but in the eyes of the others
burned the dull light of despair. And perhaps, too, in my own. I tried
to hide it, but I could not disguise it from myself—the numbing,
maddening fact that I had abandoned hope.
For a time I lay watching Rhodes, who was writing, writing in his
journal. How could he do it? Who could ever find the record? At any
rate, even though found, it could never be read, for the finder would
be a Droman. It made me angry to see a man doing a thing so
absurd. But I bridled speech, curbed that rising and insensate anger
of mine, rolled over, closed my eyes and, strange to say, was soon
asleep.
But that sleep of mine was an unbroken succession of horrors,
horrors at last ended by an awakening as horrible.
Once more I was in that hewn chamber, once more I stood before
the great dragon. But we had been wrong: the monster was alive.
Down he sprang as I turned to flee, sank his teeth into my shoulder,
raised his head high into the air and shook me as a cat shakes a
mouse.
Then suddenly I knew that it was not all a dream.
Teeth had sunk into my shoulder. I struggled madly, but the jaws only
closed the harder. And, horror of horrors, the spot in which I had lain
down was now in utter blackness.
Then I was wide awake: the teeth were Rhodes' fingers, and I heard
his voice above me in the darkness:
"Not a word, Bill—unless guarded."
"What is it?" I whispered, sitting up. "And where are our phosphorus-
lamps?"