Calamity (Noun)

  Meaning:

  1) An unforeseeable event that brings great loss.

  2) Dire distress caused by a great reckoning.

  In the heat of August of 2023, amid lightning storms and unnatural draughts, The Calamity happened.

  After several years that could have been considered chock-full of calamities, Earth was changed forever with the sudden appearance of fantastical wonders and dangers.

  Later, the world would learn that another universe had merged with our own, displacing magic and mystery into the empty spaces of Earth.

  One such empty space was in the middle of the ocean, where an archipelago of islands charged with elemental energy appeared. At the core of those islands was a storm, and in that storm, was the Odyssey Vault.

  On a stormy sea, an old fishing boat rocked from side to side with each wave. A minimal crew ran across the deck, pulling rope and trimming sails. In the belly of the old fishing boat, an electric light hummed and crackled to cast light on a dozen full bunks.

  An old television played a video on repeat. On the half-warped screen, a man dressed in a fanciful suit delivered a speech from behind a podium. The blocky logo of EA sprawled behind him. The words rang out from a tin-can loudspeaker a half second after the fuzzy video feed of the too-well-dressed man spoke.

  He said, "The challenges you are about to face will not only test your physicality, but also your spirit. There is no guide, no path previously walked that can help you. Your creativity, your cunning, and your strength are the only tools that you can truly rely on. Are you going to be the one to reach the Odyssey Vault?"

  Half-accurate captions closed out the bottom of the screen. Most of the passengers on the old fishing boat had stopped paying attention. The video was on a loop. This was the tenth time that it had played since Parker woke up from a nap.

  If it had been storming, they would have left the belly of the ship to look out over the horizon. Parker was closest to the television and had the hardest time ignoring it. Some of the others had gone back to sleep despite the noise and the rocking of the storm. Others had found a way to ignore it by reading a book or double-checking their packs.

  Parker looked past the television to the porthole window where the deep water of the ocean splashed up every few seconds to wash away the dark horizon. They almost caught a glimpse of a giant metal building on a rocky island but then it was lost to another ocean wave.

  The storm would soon clear and the passengers would make their way to the deck to look out over the water as the clouds broke. For now, they hunched in the belly of the old fishing boat waiting for their chance to Gamble for greatness. The Elemental Archipelago had promised them fame, fortune, and magic.

  "The challenges you are about to face will not only test your spirit but also your luck."

  The words were eerily close to the president's speech in the video that played during the voyage. Parker now sat at the back of an auditorium with nearly a hundred other Gamblers ahead of them. At the front, where everyone's eyes were fixed, was the president of EA.

  He looked older than he did in the video but only in a way that distinguished him more. On the fuzzy screen, the president had looked too well dressed. Now, with a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and graying hair, he looked more like the business magnate that he was. When he spoke now, unlike in the video, everyone listened.

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  "Some of you have been here for mere moments. You were shuffled into this auditorium as soon as you arrived. The adventure and the adrenaline still fresh in your blood. Others have been waiting for much longer, waiting for this ceremony, waiting for the doors before you to open. We, at EA... I understand that desire and the patience that you have shown. I, too, have a desire. I, too, have been patient. Are one of you going to fulfill my dream? Will you achieve your goal? Will you die along the path or turn back when it gets too dangerous?"

  The President of EA paused at that and let the murmurs grow among the Gamblers gathered in the auditorium. They were adventurers, mercenaries, and soldiers who had left behind their normal lives to risk everything on this gamble.

  As the President talked, a digital screen behind them showed off the goal of the Gamble. A set of stone circles set into a rough cave wall. There were several elemental symbols and various basketball-sized gems set into the stone. It was the Odyssey Vault.

  "The Odyssey Vault has tempted more Gamblers than just you all gathered here. Thousands have walked through the halls of this nexus. Hundreds have come back with heads hung in defeat. Some showed real promise, going so far as to tame the powers of these islands. Yet none have reached the end, none have found the key, none have cracked the Odyssey Vault."

  A cloud of dread seemed to hang over the auditorium. Parker had been expecting some grand commencement speech. They expected honeyed words but the President only offered harsh realities. Going even further as he continued...

  "The Gamble of the Elemental Archipelago is greatly stacked against you. My company has been studying it since the calamity and even with all of our advancements, we have not cracked the Odyssey Vault. The difficulty does not lie only in the size of the archipelago, or the multitudes of monsters that you will face, but also in the unknown."

  The digital screen had started to show off some of the simpler dangers of the Elemental Archipelago. There was a quick drone-captured video fly-over of a jungle. The view dipped down between the trees and showed off a pair of mercenaries with longswords facing off against some kind of acid-breathing horse-sized lizard.

  As a splash of acid caught the drone, the view shifted to a vast desert where a single traveler started to stumble amid the nothing and fall to the sand. As soon as the traveler fell, the sands shifted and large scorpions started to descend on them. Then the view shifted again to a satellite view of the archipelago.

  At the core there was some kind of chaotic storm, at the top was the nexus island where they all sat watching now. A red line connected the neutral island to the next few like a shipping lane. As it wrapped around the islands, a blue line and a green line also appeared before merging back into a single purple line that went from the last of the islands back to the nexus at the top.

  "The mapped ring that weaves the core of the islands, the ones that seem the most connected to the Odyssey Vault, only represent a quarter of the land out there. The rest of it is uncharted. Like the maps explorers of old traded, here there be dragons, but also things worse than dragons. Death will be your constant companion through these waters. It comes from monsters, storms, and..."

  The President paused and looked over the large group of Gamblers. Parker wondered what exactly he was looking for. Parker tried to follow the President's gaze, but it seemed to just sweep the room in general. After a moment, the President cleared his throat and continued.

  "And even your fellow Gamblers. While the archipelago is not lawless, it is a set of wild lands. Several groups have formed to target successful Gamblers and steal rather than earn their way to the Odyssey Vault."

  Parker had read the advisory, but hearing it from the President of EA was different. It was a direct acknowledgment of the chaos that lay before. Then the mood shifted from doom to clerical.

  "Due to these dangers, EA has implemented several changes to the commencement process. Rather than allowing any willing Gambler, all will be subjected to several evaluations. These evaluations are designed to increase the survival ratio and hopefully increase the chance of success. They will be physical, mental, and material. Only after receiving a passing evaluation from an assigned auditor will anyone be allowed into the archipelago."

  Parker could see that some of the Gamblers who had been waiting for weeks for this started to shift toward anger. After all this time, EA was going to gatekeep. The President seemed to notice the shift and, with one soft raised hand, quieted it.

  "It would be in my financial interest to allow all in since you already paid to be here. If you forget, these lands were granted by the United Nations to my company for research into the calamity. There is no law making us implement these requirements, no fines that we must pay if you die, and no external body is forcing me to implement this safety mechanism. This is not about finances, it is about your safety."

  The President paused to see if any of the anger returned. When it didn't, he continued his explanation. At that, the digital screen snapped from the view of the archipelago to the giant block logo of EA.

  "Any who do not pass will be well compensated and advised on how to pass the evaluations next time. One last note about safety before you are all assigned to the auditors... EA has contracted several teams of professional adventurers from all over the world to help keep peace in the archipelago. This includes both mercenaries and some of the largest guilds. So anyone coming here for malicious or nefarious purposes should book their ticket home now."