Back to the inn to find a periwinkle present.

Everyone, especially Heian, was shocked to find not only did Setsuka have ten platinum coins on her person but was willing to spend it on the platinum membership. I did panic a little then, realizing perhaps too late that someone brand-spanking new to adventuring ought to have a pretty damn good reason for walking around with a thousand gold in their pocket. I was actually impressed with the excuse I ended up using, as I didn’t even need to freeze time to think it up. Basically, I told them that the Yasuhiko clan did a lot of very shady and questionable things for money, I even used the term “blood money” for added emphasis. Setsuka decided that she wanted to turn over a new leaf, and what better way to spend that ill-gotten coin than on a solid foundation for the whole party?

And this worked out well, because as it happened, being a platinum member came with a lot of perks that were useful to a whole adventuring party, not just the member themselves. Setsuka would still have exclusive right to any of the benefits, but there were no rules against sharing them. These benefits included not just Celia as my personal secretary, but access to a guild wagon with a mule to keep all of our gear on as we traversed the countryside, the money I deposited in the guild’s bank would actually accrue interest, and I, as well as up to five other individuals I designated, would be granted a 25% discount in guild-owned shops and services. I was granted a signet ring made of platinum and was told that it was enchanted so only myself and guild enforcers would be able to remove it, and only willingly. This ring proved my status as a platinum member. I was honestly pretty excited about this whole deal.

I had to temper my excitement, though. While I considered checking out the mission and bounty boards tonight, I figured it would be best if everyone did at once. Ultimately, Heian was the one who decided for the group, saying we should come back tomorrow, and Celia agreed, claiming that having the night to do some back-end work for my platinum membership would be helpful. To top it all off, we were all pretty tired, even me. Not just physically, but mentally, and by the time we got through the line and each of us got signed up, it was getting close to nightfall.

In the end, Syvana and I returned to The Demon & The Dunce by ourselves. Tyvhoran and Heian both had other things they wanted to do in town before the day was over.

“All right Ms. Moneybags,” Syvana began as we reentered the tavern, her impressive shelf of breasts jiggling pleasantly as she turned to me, “pretty eventful day. I’m gonna turn in; see you tomorrow, or whatever.”

“Good night,” I said and did a little bow, trying my best to roleplay Setsuka. It was a very strange feeling. I had never done any live-action role-playing before, I’d always kind of thought it was just a step above the dorkiness level I was comfortable with and wondered if this was anything like it. There were obvious differences, chiefly that all of this was actually real as far as my senses were concerned. I couldn’t deny that it was kind of fun, though.

I watched as Syvana walked away and couldn’t help but notice she had a fair amount of junk in her trunk. Though mostly concealed by her tattered and torn skirt, I could see the general shape of her rear underneath it, and it was glorious. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would look like uncovered. I had to admit, I’d always had a thing for goth girls. This line of thinking was making me horny again, though, so I tried to distract myself.

Syvana was interesting, irrespective of her badonk. Out of the whole group she seemed like the one doing the least amount of… well… let’s say she was the one convincing me the most that actual players may have been behind the characters here. She didn’t seem like she was roleplaying at all, and there was always one player in the group who was like that, just playing themselves under a different name.

But the fact that this group did include someone like that also lent credence to the idea that they weren’t real. It was too perfect a representation of an actual D&D group. I couldn’t discount the possibility that whatever weird powers at play that stuck me here were just doing a good job of trying to convince me that this was, other than the obvious, a typical D&D game.

Still, it may have been worth it to keep an eye on her, out of everyone here, she seemed the most likely to break character by accident if she were a real person. Tonight, however, I should follow in her footsteps and go to bed. Only one problem, I didn’t have a room.

I walked over to the dwarven bartender, Gorn, “Hello, I’m afraid I can’t remember if I rented a room for the evening or not.”

He shrugged indifferently, not even making eye contact as he wiped one of the mugs with a cloth, “Talk to Katherine, she’s in charge of the inn. I just tend the bar.”

“Oh,” I turned and looked around, trying to spot the redhead. She was wiping down a vacant table, leaning forward and making her cleavage-line even more prominent, but once she saw me looking at her, she stood up straight and walked over.

“Welcome back,” she greeted, smiling wide. I noticed she had a missing tooth, but this fact actually made her somehow even cuter to me.

“Hey, do you know if I’ve already rented a room or not? I had a bit too much of the elven wine earlier.”

“What’s your name?”

“Setsuka Yasuhiko.”

“Oh! Your friend, the tiefling lady, already took care of it for you,” she then fished around in her cleavage for something and finally pulled out a slightly rusty iron key. “Here you are. It’ll be the first door on your right when you go up the stairs.”

I took the key, pleasantly warmed by her boobflesh, and smiled at her, “Thank you.” I gave her a small bow as well.

When I came back up from the gesture, she had leaned forward to press her lips against mine in another deep and frankly spicy kiss. When she pulled away again, she was grinning and blushing.

I was happy but confused. I hadn’t tipped her this time.

She had to have read the confusion on my face because she giggled, “Three gold coins is enough to get you kisses for a month. You just come get me if you want any more, okay? Sleep well.” Then she winked and turned to go back to her duties.

Wow. I was beginning to really like Katherine. This also served as a decent indicator of just how much a gold piece was worth in this world. There were probably common folk who couldn’t even imagine the value of ten platinum.

Full of a bit of extra pep in my step from that encounter, I went up the stairs with gusto, interested to see what a real fantasy inn room was like. When I unlocked and stepped through the door, I was met with a cozy-looking, albeit small, room. There was simple indigo linen rug on the wooden floor, clearly hand-crafted. The walls were covered in neatly lined wooden panels, but each of the four corners of the room had a standing log pillar going all the way up to the angled ceiling. Hanging from the pillars on the far wall, on either side of both the window and the bed, were a pair of brass lanterns illuminating the room with their soft glow.

Everything was very homey, and it didn’t take me too long to realize why. Nothing here was perfect. One of the nightstands that flanked the queen-size bed was leaning slightly. The panels on the walls were mostly even, but if you looked long enough you could see imperfections or slight angles. A long and shallow chest at the foot of the bed looked uneven and slightly off-center. And of course this would be the case, none of this stuff was made by an assembly line in some factory somewhere using machines with precise tools. It was probably some carpenter or smith that made most of this stuff by hand, possibly even the innkeeper himself, he was a dwarf after all.

But none of this was what immediately struck me about this room. All of that occurred to me much later because what my attention was drawn to immediately was the other person in my room. And why shouldn’t that be a shock to me? I was told this was my room and I even had to unlock the door to get in. Not only that, but the person was also making no effort at all to hide their presence, and probably wouldn’t do a good job even if she tried because her natural periwinkle skin-tone contrasted very obviously against the otherwise earthy tones of the décor, and her eerie red eyes practically sparkled with mischief.

Finally, she was completely and totally stark naked. This was obviously Menhat, but her revealing outfit was nowhere to be seen, and I could see her large breasts with perfect clarity. In fact, given Setsuka’s exceptional perception bonus of plus 8, being the result of her 14 wisdom as well as the skill being one of her Expertise choices, meant that she was seeing everything with an almost maddening level of detail. Thanks to this, not only could I see Menhat’s lovely figure on display, but I was also quickly aware of every single erotic feature almost at once. It was absolutely glorious.

“Uh, wh-wha…?” I stammered.

“Heya Setsy,” she greeted and gave me a little wave, making pointed eye contact and making no effort to cover herself. Her nipples were large and a lovely deep purple color that I was finding difficult to look away from. Her nethers appeared to be completely shaved, or perhaps tieflings didn’t always grow pubic hair, I had no idea which and now wasn’t the time to ask.

I tried to ask two different questions at once, both to inquire about why she was in my room and also her state of undress, resulting in the following garble of nonsense, “Where are you in my room?”

Her composure broke and she let out a burst of sudden laughter, “Did you just try to ask me where my clothes are and why I’m in your room at the same time?”

Even I couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle, “I guess, yeah.”

After wiping an errant tear from her eye, her grin was wider than ever when she replied, “My clothes are in the chest at the foot of the bed, along with our armor and supplies.”

“Okay, but then why are you naked?” I asked. I realized only afterward that I really shouldn’t have been looking so closely at the gaping maw of literally the greatest gift horse I could have been given.

Luckily, the question didn’t seem to upset her, “What do you think I am, some high-class noble bimbo who has the wealth and comfort to afford a well-tailored silken nightgown?” she asked in feigned contempt. “Absolutely not, I am a very low-class and dirt-poor bimbo… who frankly just happens to be a bit of a nudist.”

“O-oh,” that was a detail about Menhat I was not aware of, though given that her casual outfit was basically just a skimpy swimsuit, I supposed I shouldn’t have been all that shocked.

“And as for what I’m doing in ‘your’ room, well, it’s my room too. I managed to get us all three rooms. You and I share a room and so does Syvana and Tyv. Heian gets his own because he’s a stick in the mud.” She giggled. I noted that the reason wasn’t because he was a guy, implying that it didn’t even figure into the equation. Then again, I imagined that adventurers couldn’t always be picky for the sake of decency.

“Oh, I see, well, I guess I’ll sleep in the chair then,” I nodded to the armchair tucked in one corner of the room, currently with our weapons propped against it.

“Oi,” she replied sternly, “you think I went and specifically asked for a room with a double-wide bed so I could make you sleep in a chair? What kind of cruel woman do you think I am? Get yourself out of those clothes and get your cute butt on this bed with me, Setsy.”

That was an interesting proposition.