"You" are exploring the Arizona desert when you find a cave. Unfortunately, it's occupied by a spirit, and you've upset them. Now you must follow one of two paths in order to defeat the Cave Spirit in a fair fight.
The Curse of the Cave Creatures provides examples of:
- And I Must Scream: Getting defeated by the Cave Spirit as a Hunter will have you being turned into one of the cave's drawings, permanently. With the shaman who saved you early in the adventure finding your drawing, and sadly declaring the Cave Spirit have claimed another victim.
- Bears Are Bad News: As a Hunter, your final confrontation against the Cave Spirit will have him turning into a bear to battle against you.
- Bewitched Amphibians: One bad ending sees you cornered by a witch who turns you into a frog. You can try bargaining with her, but the other option turns you into a snake instead.
- Dem Bones: As a spellcaster, your first enemy is a skeleton sent by the Cave Spirit, who can turn your flesh into bones simply by touching. You'll need to use the right spell to defeat it.
- Exact Words: In this book you agree to help a witch if she promises not to turn you into a frog, and she agrees. You save her, and she turns you into a snake, since you never said she couldn't do that. Another possible path/choice in the same book also has you try to stop a skeleton by pointing your magic wand at him and shouting "Stop skeleton!" but you accidentally hold the wand the wrong way, causing you to be affected by the spell instead since you have a skeleton underneath your skin too.
- Face–Heel Turn: In this book, a certain choice during your battle with the Cave Spirit results in you becoming more powerful than him — causing you to switch bodies, because the Cave Spirit must always be the most powerful. You become evil and start plotting to kill him, as he is now in your human body.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Losing a duel against the Spirit as a Spellcaster will have... the Spirit swapping bodies with you. As it turns out, said Spirit is tired of being a spirit living in a cave for an eternity and wants to return to the mortal world, leaving you as the new Spirit. And thus the cycle continues, with you trying to find another victim who can someday defeat you so that you may return to the mortal world.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: As a Hunter, you can choose between a variety of weapons, but the Seeker's Sword is a compulsory pick-up.
- Ghost Town: As a spellcaster, you will inevitably run into a literal ghost town... and end up getting arrested by its sheriff, a ghost himself, who declares you're trespassing because the town is off-limit for ghosts only.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: This can happen to you in the Spellcaster path of this book; you're warned by a shaman that the spells you can cast can wind up backfiring on you. The spell that lets you shrink your enemies will shrink you instead if you use it at the wrong time, the spell that summons rain can cause a flood, etc.
- Inescapable Net: As a Hunter, one of the items you can pick is the Sticky Net which entangles your enemies in an instant. Subverted that the net ends up screwing you over in all opportunities you can use it, where it will entangle you instead of your enemies.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: After you choose to be a hunter or spellcaster in this book, you have the choice to pick several potential weapons or casting spells. One of the items will always be the default tool, though you can choose three others to aid you. Pick the wrong items or choose the worst time to use them, and you're dead.
- Morton's Fork: In this book, you can end up stranded in a Lost Land where the populace is being terrorized by a giant mastodon. If you choose to attack the mastodon with a heavy mace, it gets knocked out but you also end up crushed to death underneath its massive body. If you choose to attack it with a small knife that's said to inexplicably terrify him, it gets so terrified that it accidentally rams into its lair's entrance, completely caving it in — and a horrified onlooker from the lost civilization tells you that entrance was the only possible way for you and them to return to the outside world and it'd take them over a hundred years to clear it out.
- Red Herring: Regardless which path you choose, as a Spellcaster or a Hunter, there's one item in either path which is useless by default, and WILL screw you over the moment you chose to use it. Namely, the Sticky Net for the Hunter, the Stop Time Spell for the Spellcaster.
- Terror-dactyl: As a Hunter, your second-to-last confrontation against the Cave Spirit will have him transforming into a pterosaur, lifting you back to the cave where it all began, for one last confrontation.
- Thirsty Desert: As a Spellcaster, you will need to cross a desert — which contains a literal ghost town — in order to confront the Spirit.
- Time Stands Still: In this book, one of the talismans you can choose on the Spell Caster path is a watch that can stop time. However, it turns out to be the most useless talisman you can pick, because the only two times you can use it result in either the watch breaking and freezing you in time forever or it not solving your biggest problem of being trapped in a pit in the middle of the desert.
- Wizard Duel: As a spellcaster, the final confrontation between you and the Cave Spirit ends up like this. Woe betide if you got rid of your wand, because the Spirit can No-Sell all your magic spells...
