Episode 2 - Scene 7 "Your Friendly Neighbourhood Succubus"

When her mum had told her that they needed to consult a local succubus, Pri had barely believed it but now here they were, standing outside a brothel. Before they could enter, however, they had something important to do. Valentine had so far been unable to wield the Sword of Kings but they could no longer afford to wait. She had once again guided him through his meditations but, now, he needed to rise to the occasion. 'Are you ready?' she asked, extending the sword to him.

He breathed in deeply and she watched his chest puff out with interest. 'Yes,' he said, taking the sword. His fingers brushed against hers briefly and she felt a crackle of magical energy. The sword really seemed to want to test him and she was convinced she knew why. He seemed to focus so much of his energy on suppressing the beast within and, as much as she wanted him to cut loose and indulge himself, she imagined that the Beast was even more **** to be let out to play. Still, this time, it seemed that he'd won the battle as he stood, sword in hand, with a tranquil look having descended down his face. 'Right,' he said, 'let's go.'

'I'm staying out here,' Joshua called out, over his shoulder.

'Suit yourself,' he replied, with indifference. He seemed annoyed when his sister also announced her refusal to enter, then when her boyfriend did the same and most of their friends. In the end, it was just Valentine, herself and two of the boys she couldn't recall the names of. Nevertheless, they went in and were immediately struck by the atmosphere. The building, which was nestled into the bend of a suburban street and glamoured to look like an ordinary residential building, had teemed with magical energy even from the outside but, within its halls, the effect seemed to be turbocharged. The sights and sounds of carnality were all around them and those two boys could barely contain their arousal.

She kept a lid on things herself but Valentine did not even seem to notice. He seemed completely unbothered and it was another thing that made her worry about whether he was capable of having feelings for her. He'd been there when that wizard had called them fated lovers but he hadn't said anything. Fair enough, it's not as though she'd brought it up either but it still troubled her. She sometimes let herself believe that he was simply afraid of hurting her, since that drove her wild with desire, but she was usually more pessimistic.

In due time, the madam joined them, in her true form, making those boys' jaws drop. She was naked, with red skin, gorgeous full breasts, a long and lithe tail with a heart-shaped stinger, large scaled wings and a beautiful face holding sparkling pink eyes, framed by long slicked back shiny black hair. 'Hello, tiger,' she called to Valentine as she approached, 'or should that be pussycat?' Her smile was sexy and devious.

'We need your help,' the Lionheart said, apparently unmoved, 'the incubus Harnarax has kidnapped a number of women. We've tracked him down but he's made his lair inaccessible to us. Tanvi Patel sent us to you, she's an agent from the Royal Society of Demonologists.'

The succubus smiled again, at the mention of the Society, and came closer. 'That's an interesting story,' she said, reaching out and caressing Valentine's face. Pri burned at that. 'I can tell you how to break in but you're not going to like it,' she said, snatching a kiss from him, quick as a flash. Pri felt like crying but Valentine didn't respond. The succubus then leaned in once more and whispered something into his ear. 'Goodbye, now, beefcake. Don't be a stranger.'

With that, Valentine led them away. The boys needed some coaxing, of course, but she, for one, was glad to be free of the place. 'What did she say?' Pri demanded, letting more irritation slip than she'd really wanted.

'Demons are creatures of pure emotion, she said. In his case, as in hers, the emotion is lust or desire. So, someone with a strong sexual desire to be in his lair could enter as easily as they might enter any other building,' before Pri could follow up on that, he continued, 'of course she really meant that the Beast could enter. That was what the kiss was for, it brought the Beast to the fore, and let him know.'

'She's trying to corrupt you,' Joshua said, immediately, 'we have to find another way.'

Priyanshi was beyond torn. Her thoughts towards the succubus were filled with jealous anger but the thought of Valentine letting his horny Beast loose gave her chills. Valentine spoke too quickly for her to come to a conclusion, however. 'We can find another way,' he said, sounding defeated. 'Pri, can you think of a spell that would work?'

'Yes,' she said quickly before even fully processing the question, eager not to disappoint him, 'um, it'd take all of us, basically, but there's a ritual we could to nullify whatever enchantment he used.'

'Let's get to it, then.'

Notes:

I was happy that I could include this scene and it wouldn't have happened without the complication from the previous scene. Anyway, I set the expectation as, "the gang visits a succubus,' and rolled a 3, under the Chaos Factor, to get an altered scene. The location itself was something that I conjured up before the adventure with a 44 on the locations meaning table for, "helpful," and a 51 for, "lively." That immediately conjured the image of a brothel to me, one belonging to some kind of vaguely allied NPC.

The scene adjustment table gave me, "make two adjustments," after I rolled a 7. Then, a 6 told me to add an object - and I decided to make this the scene where Valentine finally learned to wield his sword - and a 1 asked me to remove a character. I decided that Joshua wouldn't want to enter a brothel or consort with a demon, so I, "removed," him from the scene. Afterwards, I moved the Chaos Factor up to 8. Again, I didn't really know which way to move it.