First, pick a path

The smile that Lily directed at the camera was stunning, but there was no mistaking the hint of sadistic glee that simmered beneath the surface. The hostess was once more in her office, with a floating illusion in front of her relaying a slightly translucent image of the season’s contestants as they began to cautiously explore the first room of the dungeon past the entrance.

“Welcome, viewers, to the season’s first challenge. Our party of intrepid adventurers are finally venturing into the dungeon for the first time, and I wanted to take a moment to make sure you, the audience, knew what to expect.” The winged hostess leaned forward as she spoke, making sure to put the deep ‘v’ of cleavage revealed by her linen robe to good effect as she gestured towards the image before her.

“As with any season of Harem Hotel, each challenge is designed to ensure that there are winners and losers. Unlike most seasons, however, it’s entirely possible that every one of the contestants will lose some of their ‘HP’ as they progress. To help balance that out, instead of just having the usual poll to determine the audience’s favorite girl, this season we’re going to host two polls at the end of each week. The popularity poll will still let you vote for whichever member of Kevin’s harem you personally like best, while the ‘party participation poll’ is designed to let you vote for whichever member of the party contributed the most to their overall success for the week.”

The hostess’ eyes lit from within with a brief glow of golden energy which wisped away into translucent vapor as she concluded, “I won’t take up any more of your time now, but when they exit the dungeon I’ll come back and give you all the chance to place your votes. In the meantime, enjoy the show—I’ve been looking forward to this for a while.”

Just as Blue mentioned, the party encountered a set of three paths as soon as they exited the first room of the dungeon. The initial door opened onto what looked like an old storage chamber. Crates, barrels, and broken furniture were scattered around the room haphazardly, as though they’d been dumped and forgotten ages ago. The walls and floor were made of thick granite slabs that were surprisingly free of moss, mold, and moisture, and while there were no windows and the ceiling was rough stone, visibility was not a problem thanks to conveniently placed glowing crystals of various hues which ranged from bright yellow to orange-red.

The chamber was square and about forty feet on each side, with the four exits positioned in the center of each wall. The door to left opened onto a short hallway which turned a sharp corner to the right almost immediately, preventing further visibility. Opposite the starting room the doorway opened onto a cavernous chamber without visible features, save for a single large slab of rock in the center. To the right was another hallway, this one curving gently to the left.

“It looks like all three paths will converge eventually,” Elsie pointed out. “The one on the left turns right, the one on the right turns left, the one straight ahead goes straight. I’m pretty sure there’s a door on the far end of the big room.”

“There’s words carved into the floor in front of each door.” As Kevin spoke up, he walked over to the left door and read out the words aloud, “’The Path of Conviction.’ Well that’s not ominous or anything.”

“I’ve got you beat.” Penny’s voice still carried a hint of the outrage she’d shown when the full details of her transformation was revealed, but that only served to augment the siren’s obvious determination. “The one straight ahead is ‘The Path of Sacrifice.’”

“Great.” Kevin’s sarcasm was obvious.

“The one on the right is ‘The Path of Cooperation.” Tess had shaken herself free of her self-doubt enough to move in with the group, but it was obvious that the recent revelations were still weighing heavily on the selkie. “That’s the obvious one to take, right? I think—” She sniffed at the air for a moment, then added, “—I think I can smell water down this path.”

“I think cooperation is usually for the best.” Hazel’s voice made the words more of an offhand comment than a suggestion, as they lacked some of the nymph’s usual conviction.

“Oh, hey, what was your new description?” Blue’s lack of tact helped push through the awkwardness of revealing Lily’s handiwork, as the harpy showed no hesitation in bringing up the potentially sensitive topic.

Druid - Au Naturel - Harem Mother

(Passive) Nature provides you with a better outfit than any mortal garb. Your body is wreathed in plant life that comforts and protects you in all conditions, allowing you to endure even extremes of temperature without discomfort. Hazel’s presence causes everyone nearby, herself included, to be more accepting of nudity and sex of all flavors.

(Active) Take control of nearby plants and command them to bind and restrain someone.

“I didn’t think it was worth bringing up. Mine seemed mild compared to everyone else’s.”

“Like hell!” Hwa’s hiss practically sprayed venom as she disagreed with the vine-clad woman. “You’re making it harder to fight this just by being in the same room!” The kumiho’s red eyes glared at the nymph, and before anyone had the chance to object, she added, “Take the path of cooperation if you like. Play along. My conviction will see me through.” She then shoved past Kevin and Stheno as the corset-clad witch marched through the leftmost door.

“Well, so much for all of us going down the same path.” Kevin sighed, then let his eyes scan across the group. “Unless you all want to go through the left door?”

“Not a chance.” Penny shook her head. “We’ve already made sacrifices. ‘Cooperation’ is probably something like we all have to get in a big circle of oral sex for the audience to watch before we can open a door,” She tried hard not to let the wave of arousal that thought sparked impact her voice as she finished, “I say we all go down the obvious path.”

“I also vote sacrifice.” Stheno’s voice was quiet as she spoke, barely louder than the whisper of her scales against the floor as she slipped around to position herself behind Kevin. “But I will leave my path to the party’s leader.”

Kevin suppressed a nervous swallow as the serpent-woman positioned herself behind him. As devoted as she’d become in the scant few days that he’d known her, there was still something intimidating about a massive snake that could have, a week ago, killed him with a glance. “I’d rather hear everyone’s thoughts before I make my own suggestion, then. I think Penny might be right and sacrifice is the ‘obvious’ path, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right one. For all we know, Hwa just walked out of sight, walked down a hallway, and is already at the exit.”

Penny’s snort of derision let everyone know how likely she thought that possibility was, but she didn’t say anything on the topic. Instead, it was Elsie who spoke up next, “I think cooperation is the most likely to give us options, right? Sacrifice and conviction are both personal, but cooperation means we can work together to figure out the best path.”

“What’s with all the boxes?” Blue’s sudden interruption acted to throw everyone who was actually paying attention to the conversation off balance. The harpy jabbed out with one lightly feathered arm to indicate the nearest crate, a canvas-covered box about half as tall as she was.

“It’s—I don’t know, convention. Dungeons always have crates and boxes in them, otherwise they’re just big empty rooms.” Kevin’s explanation sounded weak even to him, and he quickly added, “I started doing it to make combat more interesting for my players by giving them terrain to work with, but then I had to justify what I was doing so I’d usually invent some kind of back-story for the room that explained what it had been used for originally. It looks like this was storage of some kind?”

Without another word, Blue leapt towards box and whipped off the canvas covering, then set to work prying it open. The fragile wood creaked in protest before the nails which held it shut gave up their grip and the lid popped off to reveal the heaps of neatly coiled thin hemp rope it contained.

Hwa bit her lower lip to keep the moan from escaping her as she rounded another corner and found herself facing another dead end.

That the Path of Conviction had turned out to be a maze of dark, twisting tunnels had not surprised the kumiho, but it had taken her longer than she was comfortable dwelling on to realize the effect of the shadowy magic which permeated it. Each footfall sent a jolt of arousal through her, and while the sensation had been tolerable at the beginning, it had only escalated since.

By now each of her strides caused her slick thighs to rub against each other, and the skirts of her costume did nothing to prevent the evidence of her own arousal from dripping down her legs. Hwa did her best to respond with fury as each wrong turn led her to backtrack and further compounded her dilemma, but the deep seated need which radiated from her cunt made that particular well difficult to draw on.

“No matter! They want conviction, I will show them conviction.” Red eyes narrowed as she returned to the most recent branch of the maze. She’d turned right to reach her most recent dead end, so she did so again. Marching off down the next hallway, her expression betrayed her shock when reached another hard turn only to find herself facing something other than endless stone.

The room before her was no more than twenty feet on each side, but was further distinguished from the rest of the maze by the presence of a few low divans. A table had been placed in the center of the room, atop which was arrayed a small selection of sex toys—including one which she couldn’t help but recognize as having been modeled after Kevin’s own dick.

Hwa felt another throb run through her core. Perhaps—perhaps she could pause to take the edge off—

“No!” The word escaped as a shout as she felt herself weaken. She scowled at the array of implements as though they had offended her personally, then turned and marched past them with her eyes focused deliberately forward.

The quiet whimper that escaped her lips as she stepped through the rightmost of the three doors which led away from the room was quiet enough that she was even able to convince herself that she imagined it.

Investigation: 18

Further investigation uncovered that while several of the containers were broken and empty, one of the barrels was filled to the brim with slick translucent liquid, a second crate full of various sizes of thick-soled boots, an oversized chest contained a trove of small silver devices that consisted of an egg-shaped nodule affixed to a rubber-coated clip, and a small case which contained a velvet-cushioned array of a dozen tiny corked vials.

There were also several scraps of parchment the party turned up, though it wasn’t immediately obvious whether any of them were relevant to the challenges at hand.

“’Self completion is incomplete.’ That sounds like something from an anti-masturbation fortune cookie.” Penny stood beside Kevin and Elsie as they looked over the papers arrayed on an empty crate they were using as a table.

“Could be relevant.” Kevin slid the paper to the right, where it joined a handful of other phrases that looked like they might be on-topic, including ‘Attack her weak point for massive damage!’, and ‘Slick is the easiest way to go deep.’ “I’m not sure how much use these are going to be without more information, though. It didn’t look like any doors closed behind Hwa when she left, so we may just need to scout out the paths and—”

“On it!” Before he could continue laying out his plan, Blue had darted over to the rightmost door which led to the path of Cooperation and zipped through it, feet barely touching the ground.

The harpy’s augmented speed meant she was already disappearing before anyone could respond, which left Kevin to finish, “We should all go through the same one Hwa did and see if we can find her.” He sighed, then explained, “She hasn’t come back, so either she’s still there and might have more information, or she’s already made it through and we’re just wasting time.”

A moment later, Tess perked up. The selkie’s silver outfit had shifted back to its short tunic form as soon as they entered the dungeon, and she showed off how easily she could move in it when she announced, “I hear something—Blue’s voice,” and immediately turned to sprint off down the hall after her.

After the college athlete’s footsteps faded to echoes, the room fell into a brief silence. It was broken a moment later as Penny announced, “I’m taking the obvious path.” The siren swept her gaze across the rest of the room, challenging anyone to gainsay her. When no one did, she nodded once, spun, and set off towards the door to the Path of Sacrifice at a saunter.

“Sire, your instructions?” Stheno’s voice snapped Kevin out of his daze and he turned to look up at the serpent woman. Her face was set in a serious expression, but the life he saw there was still an improvement over the despondent wreck she’d been when they first arrived.

It was enough to give him some hope of his own. He nodded, and gestured towards the departing siren. “Stheno, Elsie, you’re with me, we’re going to follow Penny. Hazel, can you try to make sure Blue and Tess aren’t in too much trouble?”

“Sure thing, sweetheart.” While the nymph’s response was as easygoing as ever, neither did she show any particular sense of urgency. Still, she turned and headed down the Path of Cooperation without further complaint, leaving Kevin, Elsie, and Stheno behind.

“Alright, I guess—I don’t know whether any of the stuff we found is going to be useful, but maybe grab some rope and those potions, and we’ll catch up with Penny in a mome—”

The season’s Master was cut off by the muffled sound of a woman crying out in ecstasy. His head spun in an attempt to locate the source, only to realize that it came not from any of the three marked paths—but from the room behind them from which they’d come. The door had swung shut on its own at some point, but it opened easily enough when Stheno slithered over and pulled.

Behind it was revealed the red faced and panting figure of Hwa. She was standing—barely—but had bent over and caught herself with her hands on her knees. The kumiho’s breathing was rapid, but she seemed no worse for the wear, right up until she raised her head, realized where she was standing, and let out a single loud, “Fuck!”

After several minutes of walking, Hazel had yet to catch up to the much faster Blue and Tess.

Not helping was sticky nature of the flagstones beneath her bare feet. Perhaps it would’ve taken longer for her to notice if she’d been wearing shoes, but the mostly naked nymph picked up immediately on the increasingly tacky sensation of each step. About fifty feet after the sensation started, she needed to pull each foot up with care before planting it in front of the next to make any progress.

The sensation wasn’t exactly pleasant, but neither was it painful—whatever substance covered the floor took some effort to escape, but didn’t pull at her skin once she began to break free. When she bent to examine the floor—unwilling to drop to her knees and risk being unable to break free—she discovered that whatever was causing the effect was spread in a thin translucent layer across the floor. Faintly green in hue, the color was subtle enough that she was only able to pick out the line behind her where it began once she knew what she was looking for.

The sound of Tess and Blue’s voices ahead sounded urgent enough to convince Hazel that further examinations could wait, and the vine-clad woman began to push forward down the tunnel. With each step requiring her to carefully extract one foot at a time, it took her a further couple of minutes to progress far enough that she could see what was happening.

When she did, she began to wonder if perhaps she should’ve held off on her examinations in favor of a little haste. Ahead, Blue and Tess were locked in a grapple with three other figures that seemed to be comprised of the same translucent blue substance that coated the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Their attackers were exaggeratedly feminine in shape, with hips and busts that rivaled those of Hazel herself, but they lacked definition. What features their faces held were only slightly more detailed than those of a gummy bear, with only the vague outline of a mouth, nose, and eyes.

Two had taken up position on either side of Tess, one of whom had latched onto the selkie’s hand with a pseudopod-like arm while the other had grabbed onto a well-muscled thigh. The other hung from the ceiling, and had managed to wrap its limbs around Blue’s waist to trap her horizontally in mid-air, with her feet braced against the left wall.

“What are those?” Despite the ongoing conflict, neither Blue nor Tess were showing any signs of pain. Though they had both worked themselves into a sweat in their struggled to free themselves, their expressions were more frustrated than afraid.

“Blue Glue Slimes.” Tess gave the answer without turning to look at Hazel, having apparently heard the nymph’s approach and recognized her voice. “This whole hallway is a nest of them. They’re—I don’t want to say harmless, exactly, but they don’t kill their victims. Instead, they’ve adapted to a low moisture environment by learning to siphon fluids from other creatures and then releasing them. Don’t come any closer—these ones popped out of the floor when I got here, and I’m guessing there’s more still in hiding.”

If Hazel were a less perceptive woman, she might have missed the edge of concern in the selkie ranger’s voice. Listening closely, though, she could tell that while Tess was obviously trying to remain calm as she tried to free herself, she was worried about the results should she fail. “What can I do to help?”

“Maybe get some of that rope and see if you can bring any of the others. This is the path of cooperation, maybe we’re meant to pull each other free with it?” Hazel nodded. “Got it. I’ll be back in a bit.”

The nymph turned and began to head down the hallway once more, leaving Blue and Tess behind. Only when she was out of earshot did the former ask, “Why didn’t you tell her they make you feel good?”

The harpy kicked against the wall in an attempt to pull herself free, but with the slime holding her firmly by the waist the effort was futile. Less immediately obvious were the tendrils that had begun to slowly but surely worm their way through her clothes, the questing tentacles gradually exploring their way across her magically crafted taut body.

Tess shuddered. “I didn’t want—” The slime which held her thigh had started quite close to its target, and she could feel the pseudopod which was working its way up her tunic beginning to brush against the already slick fabric of her panties, “—her to worry about—” Her words trailed off in a gasp gasped as the tendril suddenly slipped forward. It molded itself to the exterior of her sex as soon as it came in contact with the abundant source of moisture and began to undulate slowly.

Penny ignored the sound of voices behind her as she marched into the large chamber which appeared to be the entirety of ‘The Path of Sacrifice.’ She knew Kevin and the others were likely squabbling over what to do still, and while she wasn’t as impulsive as Blue, the siren was still feeling more than a little shaken by the revelation of the additional layers to the transformations Lily had imposed on her.

Not like I didn’t know something else was going on, but still—it’s one thing to know that someone is trying to manipulate it, and another to watch it happen and be unable to do anything about it.

The worst part, to her, was that she could still barely see the effects of Lily’s magic at work. Penny was approaching forty. As a siren, the inner workings of the mind were no mystery to her, and while she didn’t think of herself as particularly introspective she felt that she had a good handle on how her own thoughts worked.

And yet, when she let her mind drift to the implications of the transformation—allowed herself to envision getting fucked in public—she could feel the surge of arousal it brought. Her body yearned to be exhibited, her voice to be heard, and the thought of the countless members of the audience training their eyes on her when she finally succumbed—

Penny had to pull herself up short from the train of thought when she realized that she was once more losing focus. Every time she tried to feel out the part of her mind that Lily had changed she found herself slipping into those same thought patterns, and the only way to evade them was to never approach them in the first place.

Fat chance of that here. How likely is it that I’ll be able to avoid thinking about getting fucked in front of an audience while I’m on the ‘Get Fucked In Front of An Audience Show’?

She shook her head and did her best to focus on her surroundings. Her footsteps had carried her fifty feet into the room, with fifty more to go before she reached the ‘altar’ in the center and another hundred to reach the far side. From here, she could see that the opposite wall did hold an exit, but it was blocked by some kind of gate or portcullis.

Going to need to find out how to open that, I’m sure. Probably something to do with the sacrifice the sign was talking about. Only one place to look, though, so I guess—

The altar began to move. What had appeared to be a ten by ten foot block of stone resting on the floor suddenly shifted and roiled, then rose up into the air. The shape it took was crudely humanoid, with a torso, head, arms and legs, but lacked any features. The high ceiling of the room was vaulted, and studded with more glowing crystals to provide faint illumination, and when the figure finally rose to its full height its head nearly brushed the top.

“What in the—” Twin points of bright blue light blazed to life as the massive creature opened its eyes to look at her.

Penny screamed.