Elsie and Evenings (3/3)

“I must… debase myself so, before each member of my party.”

Hwa’s explanation was made only after she finished the third of the drinks that Penny bought for her.

TongueLoosener

**** has long been used to lower inhibitions, but the aftermath of a heavy drinking session can be hard to handle. The effects of this distilled spirit have been concentrated and rebalanced to improve its ability to perform in that area.

• Inhibition Reduction +75%
• **** Toxicity -75%
• Physical Impairment -75%

“If I do, I will receive not only the ‘HP’ that the gathering of the berries cost me, but a further bonus. And, of course, if I do not, I will continue to lose one HP a day thanks to the accursed poisoned pie.”

After some poking around in her character sheet, Penny had realized that there was a ‘party’ section which included some basic information on everyone else. It wasn’t nearly as detailed as what she could pull up for herself, but it meant that she could see how well everyone was doing.

The fact that she, Tess, and Hazel were above 10, which was apparently the starting point across the board, was the result of their actions in their first two meetings and the points they’d gotten for stripping down—or arriving that way.

What shocked her was how far Elsie had risen—she hadn’t seen the shy young woman in several hours, and while the schedule she’d stumbled across gave her a clue about where she’d gone, it didn’t answer the many questions that it raised about what she was doing with their new ‘Dungeon Master’.

And, in the meantime, Hwa had been upset enough about the results of her expedition outside of the city—and the consequences thereof—that the normally prickly woman had been willing to accept a drink or three.

It just happened that earlier, while Penny had been trying to convince some of the locals to tell her a little more about what was going on, she discovered that for 10 GP a drink she could buy a glass of golden liquid that she suspected would become one of her best friends in the days ahead. Of course, if Hwa ever realized what she was doing, there would probably be hell to pay, but in the meantime–

“And the, the, the fucking outfit I got–” Hwa gestured down at where her breasts were overflowing the corset top of her new outfit. While it was true that, as promised, the outfit wasn’t as slinky as the dress Lily had initially given her, the fact that the new one exposed more of both her legs and her tits was not one of the advertised features.

Token of Defiance (Outfit)

Wear this to show that you intend to act out! Increases the wearer’s resistance to charm and enchantment effects by 50%.

Hwa had shown Penny the description after the second tongueloosener, followed immediately by the other effects she was suffering under.

Humble Pie

Traditionally eaten as a demonstration of sincerity and reconciliation, Humble Pie ensures that even the most prideful will bend.

Humility (x6)(Poison)

Once per day, when given the opportunity, subject will be compelled to give a sincere and heartfelt apology to one person they have wronged. If the subject has not done so by midnight, they will lose HP equal to their current instances of humility. Accepted apologies remove a stack of humility.

The kumiho had started with seven stacks, which Penny assumed was not a coincidence given the size of their party, but one had gone away when she’d accepted Hwa’s apology. Still, that left her stuck needing to find and apologize to everyone else or very swiftly drop below 0 HP. Lily hadn’t told them exactly what would happen at that point aside from the vague threat of being ‘eliminated’ in the dungeon, but it didn’t sound good.

Compared to that, the hidden effect of her new outfit seemed practically benign.

Token Gesture

When the wearer is subjected to an outside compulsion and fails to resist, the compulsion will have a stronger effect on her behavior.

The combination of the two was bad. Hwa was obviously upset about being **** to apologize for behavior which she still found perfectly reasonable, but Penny was more concerned about what effect the new outfit would have in the future.

“–it’s just as bad as the one before. Worse, even. My, my breasts are out like I am a common prostitute!”

“Yeah, I gotta admit, it’s pretty bad.”

It was, too. Penny gave up on side-eying the woman’s tits and instead gave them a frank examination. “Though I’d be pretty comfortable showing them off too, if they looked like that.”

Hwa was momentarily pulled from her mildly slurred rant by the American woman’s statement. “A kumiho’s body is meant to be admired. To tempt men.”

As shocked as Penny was by the admission, she was doubly so when she realized something. “You’re telling the truth. Huh. I can actually sense it.”

The fox spirit hissed, “So that they will lower their guard and we can consume them.”

Then she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the bard. “This drink you have purchased for me. What is in it?”

Penny shrugged. “I have literally no idea. It tastes a little like apricots though, right?”

“Hey.”

“Mmm.” Elsie let out a quiet happy sound of acknowledgment.

“So, now that I’ve, you know–”

“Fucked my mouth.”

“–Yes, fucked your mouth, would you care to explain your reasoning a little better?”

“My reasoning for what? Having you use me like a useful little tool?”

Kevin nodded. “Yes. That.”

“First, and simplest explanation is the sensate class that Lily saddled me with.” Elsie sounded surprisingly matter of fact as she explained, “I think it’s why I’m not emotionally freaking out or anything. I probably should be freaking out, but instead I’m just generally okay with things. Like I’ve already come to terms with my fate and embraced it.”

“That seems like an ethically dubious ability to have **** on you.”

“You think ethics have much to do with Lily’s decisions?”

“I don’t, no.”

“Doesn’t particularly matter to me now, though, because, well, it is what it is. I might as well enjoy it.” She shrugged. “I’ll get to that part later, though. First, I need to tell you a story about a Hazel—not our Hazel, I knew this one from volleyball in High School—anyway, it’s a long story, the point is there was this terrible DM. A complete asshole, power tripping, railroading, all that.”

“Ugh, fuck those guys. They’re the main reason I never got to actually play.”

“Right!? Anyway, most of the time the power tripping only comes in when you don’t play along. If you just go with it, they’re not that bad.”

Kevin could start to see where Elsie was going with this. “And you think Lily is one of them.”

She nodded. “I mean, that’s not all there is to it, either.”

“Like what?”

“I think I’ll actually enjoy it. There’s magic, and adventure and new sensations. You’re not going to go out of your way to **** us or anything, right?”

Kevin shook his head. “I mean—you just begged me to literally throat fuck you, does that not count as ****?”

“Kevin, I’ve been–” Elsie blushed furiously. “–I’ve been looking forward to that part all day, I couldn’t help myself. The effect of the temporary magic item—that was some of the best sex I’ve ever had, and it was your dick in my throat. It was incredible.”

She blinked away her briefly dreamy tone, then shook herself and admitted, “Okay, not that I have a ton of good experience in that front either, but it was better than any orgasm I’ve had at my hands or anyone else’s. As bribes to go along with Lily’s BDSM sex **** game go, it’s a pretty good one. It’s very–” She shivered, then eyed his hardening dick “–motivating.”

“I doubt the others will be as willing to just play along.”

Elsie shrugged. “I mean, I’ll do my best to persuade them, but ultimately they’re on their own. I doubt Lily is going to stop until you’re fucking all seven of us regularly. Hwa could probably use her warlock level one ability to prohibit you from taking advantage of her just by asking, right?”

Kevin nodded. “Obviously. I’d happily promise that.”

“But she won’t. She’s going to, I don’t know, assume that she’s too good to come ask the human for anything, except then she’ll find herself obligated to do something sexual with you instead.”

“But I would never agree to **** her–”

“What if the alternative was that her mind was gone. Entirely. Just a living puppet. They can do that, you know–” Elsie shivered as she gestured over to the desk still covered with descriptions of previous seasons of Harem Hotel. “You were reading it all too. I don’t want that, Kevin. I don’t want to be the girl who got turned into a sex puppet, I want to be the girl who went on adventures, and had good sex and triumphs over bad guys. That sounds a lot more fun than the alternative.”

She brightened again. “So, how about it, DM? Let me play the role of your useful little tool, while we figure out how to win at Harem Hotel?”

“When you put it like that, it almost sounds possible. So you’re saying, what—might as well have fun?”

“I’m going to try to, yes. I’ll try to bring everyone around to my way of thinking, if you’ll let me.”

Kevin hesitated at that, “Do you really think that Stheno is going to be that easy to bring around?”

“Stheno’s not the one I’m worried about. I have a basic plan for talking to her tomorrow lined up in my head. It’s the night after that I’m worried about. Penny.”

“She’s an American, like me, and she doesn’t seem that far removed from human. Like—she seems pretty normal. I somehow doubt she’s going to immediately agree to be a part of some harem, even if you can convince her that’s what Lily is aiming for. Not to mention most of the others.”

“Except Hazel. She’s easy too.”

“I mean, when you put it like that–”

“What? Oh, no, I meant she’s easy to convince, I think. Not necessarily that she’s an easy lay. I mean, I think she is, but that’s not what I meant at the time.”

Kevin privately had to agree. The nymph had not seemed resistant to her change in circumstances at all, and actually already seemed like she was having a good time. Far be it from him to keep her from maintaining her groove, or whatever it was she had going on, though.

“I mean, yeah, okay, but still, Hwa? No way. You saw those shackles Lily put on her. There’s no way she’s going to volunteer to get chained to the floor of my dungeon–”

“–or bedroom–”

“–or bedroom, voluntarily!”

“Well, then that’s her making a choice too. I think it’s my responsibility to make sure she makes it with her eyes as open as possible.” Elsie shrugged. “But I can’t make that decision for her, any more than you can. Lily is the one who’s going to set up the abilities we all get at each level. I’d much rather my visions be something like ‘sexy fun ooze monsters get extra frisky’ and less ‘tentacle horror violation.’”

Kevin’s expression looked troubled for a moment as he realized that both options Elsie mentioned seemed entirely plausible, given what Lily had said and done already. The brownie continued, “If Hwa wants to choose dungeon bondage porn instead, or whatever Lily cooks up if she doesn’t play along, that’s not your fault.”

Kevin shook his head. “I don’t have Lily’s magic in my head telling me to get used to things super fast, I’m not so sure I’ll adapt that quickly.”

“Let me help you with that too. I’d rather do what I can to help you get to know everyone wherever possible, if you’ll let me tag along for a while.”

“I’m surprised Lily isn’t here trying to do exactly that.”

Elsie froze. Then she narrowed her eyes. “Is she trying to turn me into some kind of fucking tutorial fairy? Oh my god. I think she is. Brownie. A helpful fairy.”

Her voice rose to a squeak as she called, “Hey! Listen!” then burst into giggles.

She fell back onto the massive mattress and Kevin couldn’t suppress his smile. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad.

“I wonder if she’ll give me fairy wings. That would be cool.”

“Oh, fuck!” Elsie sat bolt upright.

“I almost forgot the quest!”

“What quest?”

“The one I got this morning. I figured it had two different meanings, but given the vision that I had, what we did was probably one of them.”

The topless brownie suddenly pulled herself forward and crawled back across the mattress. She hopped off the edge of the bed and walked over to pick up her smock, then dipped her hand into one of the pouches. When she pulled it back out, it was wrapped around the base of a short metal baton.

“I made you something, for the other meaning. Just in case.” She pulled on both ends of the baton and it unfolded from its default length of one foot into a three-foot long device that resembled an extending security baton.

“Elsie, what was the quest?” Kevin eyed the device suspiciously as she walked back, flipped it around, and held the handle out for him.

Quest: The Dungeon Master’s Weapon (Part 1)(Weekly Quest)

Objective: Take care of the Dungeon Master’s Weapon for him. (0/1)

“I assumed that what Lily really meant was that I should take care of the erection you’ve been failing to fight off for the last day, but just in case the vision was a coincidence, I thought it would be safer to take care of you from a more literal angle as well. Here.”

Rod of Mastery (Lesser Magic Item)(Permanent)

Inflicts 1d20 stacks of Pleasure (debuff) per strike.

Pleasure (Debuff)(Stacking)

Percentage increase to the pleasurable feedback of the sensation of being struck.

“You think this is what I need to get through Lily’s adventure?”

Elsie watched Kevin read through the item’s description with a single raised eyebrow, and giggled at his obviously skeptical expression. “Maybe. Like I said, I’m genuinely hoping we can keep things light hearted. Maybe it’s sexy slime girls and we have to hold them off you while we rescue a princess, or something. That sounds way more fun than like—were-rat girls in the sewer.”

She shook her head. “Maybe I should stop talking, I’m probably giving her ideas. Anyway, you get the point. Plus, even if it’s actually wolves or something, if you can whack them a couple of times they’re probably not gonna keep trying to bite you. Might have an awkward moment when you ask the staff to dry clean your royal armor later, or whatever, but better that than, you know, dying.”

Kevin winced. “I’m not entirely sure I’m convinced, but—thanks. For all of this. You’re right, I am freaking out less. Maybe—like, help keep me in line, please, but maybe we can actually figure out how to make this not horrible for everyone?”

“That’s my hope, and my plan. You with me?”

“I mean, fuck, why not? I’m with you.”