India, Nov. 21 -- It is a Friday evening, and seven people have gathered on a Zoom call. Eerie, mystical music is echoing from the screen, which glows with the horrifying image of a humanoid statue tied down by barbed wire, its eyes nailed open, and an expression of ecstasy on its face. Seven tiny dots move along the screen on a map - several elves, a Tabaxi (cat-headed humanoid creature) and a Firbolg (a character from Irish mythology) walk along the interior of a temple.

"You have woken from a deep slumber, when you hear what sounds like the wails of a man from the depths of the temple," says a woman - her name is Swarnaa Chakraborty, but she is better known as Shana. "What do you do?" she asks the party of seven. This is an online gam...