Between the four of them, they hauled the table out of the store room and into the basement, putting aside their usual table and placing the
game in the centre of the room. After that, all they could do was stare at it.
"What now?" Lee asked.
Matt shrugged. James took initiative and opened the book in the centre. It naturally fell open on the central page. Which was blank.
"So how do we play?" sighed Ted.
Suddenly, the page sprung into life as words flickered into existence across the paper.
"Awesome!" Ted grinned, "Epaper! That's awesome!"
"Hmmm," Matt agreed, though was troubled. He couldn't tell where the table was drawing its electricity from.
The heading read 'The Rules of the Game'. James began to read them aloud.
"The Challenge of the Nightmare King is the ultimate test of friendship. To beat the game, you must prove your worth as a team and your
loyalty to those loyal to you. The Nightmare King will do his best to disrupt the group and create enemies in the confusion, so vigilance is key.
"The main objective is for every player to reach space 100 at the same time, at which point the game ends and the players receive their reward.
If any player arrives at the final space before the others, he will be able to keep the reward to himself, at the cost of sacrificing his team-mates
to an eternal punishment.
"At the beginning of every turn, the Nightmare King will issue a task for the team to perform. If this task is completed before the next turn
begins, every player advances one space. If not, a penalty will be issued.
"The Nightmare King may also decide to issue certain players with individual tasks. It is in the best interest of the group to forfeit these tasks,
because if they are completed the player will advance ahead of the group. Yet failure to complete them will also result in a penalty for the
group.
"Each penalty only affects one player. It is up to the group to decide which player must suffer the penalty, though the penalty can be transferred
to any player at any time so long as somebody carries the penalty until its duration has been fulfilled. Failure to assign a penalty will result in
the penalty being assigned at random and an additional penalty will be issued.
"The Nightmare King rewards chivalry and punishes treachery. His power knows no bounds and he reserves the right to invent rules if he
wishes. Dare you to challenge him? All players must now write their names below."
Once he'd finished, James looked around at the group. "Well?"
"We've lugged the thing up here now," said Matt, "We might as well play."
"I think it sounds fun," Lee smiled, glancing at Ted, "We're pretty close friends, right?"
"Yeah...whatever," Ted shrugged. Lee looked a little hurt.
"Alright," Matt nodded, "Who has a pen?"
After finding a biro, the four took it in turns to scrawl their full names on the book. Once they'd finished, the ink vanished, the book slammed
shut and the table began to make mechanical whirring noises.
"Awesome!" Ted grinned, "It's completely motorized!"
One by one, out of the slots on four of the corners, small notebooks began to appear. Matt saw that the one nearest him bore his name, just as
he'd written it. He picked up and looked inside. To his surprise, the first page listed his name, age, gender, height and weight. Beneath that
was a large number 1. The others thought this was an amazing feat of technology but he was a bit unsettled by it. He said nothing, though.
Looking at the table, he noticed four playing pieces had appeared on square 1. He tried to pick his up but found it stuck fast to the spot.
"Magnets," Ted explained, "The pieces must move by themselves."
The book opened again and more words began to appear.
"Four players have taken the Challenge," James read, "The game has begun at thirty-four minutes past seven in the evening. The first turn will
end in twenty-four hours."
"Twenty-four hours?" Ted repeated, "Each turn lasts a day?"
"That must be in-game time," James decided, "Not real-world time."
More whirring ensued and a small card emerged from a slot beside the book. Matt picked up and read it aloud.
"Your task for Turn 1 is...