Some take it better than others

Perhaps due to the addition of five bodies to the mix, the courtyard was quite a bit noisier than it had after the first set of transformations. The party drifted slowly towards the front entrance, breaking up into a few smaller groups as it did so.

Hazel and her disciples represented the largest faction on their own, the four elves orbiting around the vine-clad nymph like moons.

Tess and Abby had pulled in on each other, with Penny remaining protectively close to the two college athletes. The siren’s eyes kept drifting towards Kevin, but in the end the three wound up following after Hazel’s crew as they headed towards the Long Rest.

Hwa seemed at first as though she might head off alone again, but after a moment of coolly scanning across the party to take in everyone’s relative positions, she turned and trailed after the departing groups.

Left behind were Stheno, Elsie, and Blue. From the way all three had positioned themselves by Kevin—with Blue not having yet relinquished her grip on the DM while Elsie and Stheno stood a few feet apart in front of him—it was obvious that all three wanted to talk to the man.

It was the gorgon who was the most bold, though—Stheno willing to make her voice heard even in front of the other two. “My liege—I would join you in your bed tonight if you would have me. I would—I can sense the memories of our former life together, and would explore them with you if you’ll allow it.”

The expression Kevin wore as he considered was complex, as several responses warred within. Ultimately, though, he shook his head. “I—no, I’m sorry, but I need time to sort out everything. I’m already dealing with three new sets of memories, and my head is swimming.”

Stheno stiffened for a moment, but then bowed her head in acceptance. “As you wish. I remain at your service, and hope that you will indulge your champion soon.” Dark hair shifted in hue as the Gorgon spun, her legs shifting to a serpentine tail so smoothly that her stride did not break as she assumed her monstrous form to catch up with the rest of the party.

Kevin glanced between Elsie and Blue for a few moments longer, neither willing to speak while the other was present. In the end, he reached down and gently wrapped his arms around the shoulders of the woman still clinging to him. The harpy squeezed her feathered arms more tightly, then seemed to relax into the DM’s embrace until he was able to gently disentangle himself. “Blue—I want to spend time with you and talk to you, but just like I told Stheno, I need some time first. We’ll find time to talk soon—”

“Her evening with you is tomorrow.” Elsie checked the schedule on her character sheet, her wrist held up to display the week to come.

Week 2 Evening Schedule:

Day 1 - Blue

Day 2 - Hwa

Day 3 - Penny

Day 4 - Tess

Day 5 - Elsie

Day 6 - Hazel

Day 7 - Stheno

Kevin nodded. “Tomorrow, Blue. Just let me—let me get my head on straight tonight.” The harpy seemed slightly mollified by the man’s promise, though her hawkish yellow eyes did peer up at him for long enough to study his face for signs of sincerity before she nodded. “Better not forget me again.”

“I didn’t—” Kevin’s attempt to protest died on his lips as he realized the faint smirk on Blue’s lips meant she was teasing him. The harpy surprised him by darting forward, and soft lips covered his as she kissed him with a passion that caught him off guard and took his breath away. Then he nearly fell on his ass when the shirt-clad woman pushed off of his chest to build some momentum in the opposite direction and half ran, half flew in the direction of the inn.

Then, only Elsie was left behind. The brownie bit her lower lip as she stared at Kevin, obviously hesitating to speak, until the season’s master finally prompted, “You have something to talk about?”

“I want to—I want to share, I don’t want you to feel like I’m keeping things from you, but after all—” Elsie waved a hand vaguely at the now empty space where Lily had stood as she wielded the magic which had transformed the party yet again, “—that, I don’t want to overwhelm you.”

Kevin nodded. “My first instinct is to say to tell me anyway, but I think I do need some time. You—I don’t have any new memories of you.” He paused to consider for a moment, then instructed, “Come with me. You’ll spend the night with me, we can have dinner and relax and then you can share whatever you need to.”

Elsie’s head bobbed up and down immediately, and she stepped in to follow in Kevin’s wake as he turned and headed towards the door which led to the Master’s Suite.

The interior of the Long Rest was filled with sound as voices conspired to drown out the omnipresent background music that permeated Adventuria. Around the large table the party normally claimed, Abby sat between Penny and Tess, as the former did her best to reassure the eighteen-year old. Stheno had claimed the spot beside Blue and was doing her best to convince the harpy to embrace her new bond with Kevin, while Hazel demonstrated her endless patience as she listened to Hwa rant.

“Is it not enough for Lily that I must be taken from my home to serve in this farce of entertainment for the gods, but I must do so while I look like a— a—”

“A sex toy?” Jennifer supplied. Hazel’s disciples had dragged a smaller table nearby to sit behind their grove mother, and while they were conversing amongst each other they were obviously also listening in on the kumiho’s rant.

“A sex toy!” Hwa exclaimed, her fist causing a clatter as she banged it against the surface of the table and sent cutlery and glasses sliding. The act earned her a glare from Stheno as her wine nearly spilled, but the Korean woman showed no sign of remorse. “My appearance was already crafted to lure men to their doom, flawless and elegant. Now I look like a thing! A toy to be played with!”

Hazel’s smile flickered for only a moment when the kumiho again struck the table. While Hwa’s form certainly didn’t look like it was built for combat, it was apparent that whatever magic flowed through the fox spirit was still present, and her limbs carried more **** than her appearance suggested. She rallied swiftly, though, and suggested, “I’m sure Kevin won’t see you that way. He’s always been a sweet boy, and he’s never shown you anything other than consideration and respect.”

Hwa sneered. “As though his opinion matters. I have him eating out of the palm of my hand. It is the rest of the world that concerns me! How am I to stand atop a mountain of the skulls of my enemies looking like this!?”

Across the table, Penny shot a glare at Hwa’s outburst, then turned back to Abby. “You’re really okay with being brought here? You heard what Lily said—she’s not even pretending we aren’t here to be a part of Kevin’s harem.” A flash of something passed over the siren’s expression for a moment as she caught a stray memory, but she **** herself to focus on the conversation at hand. There would be time enough for unpacking the new memories later.

“Really, I’m fine. I can’t say that I’m thrilled about not having a choice, but—” The silver-haired selkie’s gaze swept the table, then the room at large as she took in the incredibly diverse customers of the Long Rest. Only a handful looked human, and some were more exotic by far. “—it’s not like Kevin himself seems to be out to **** me to sleep with him. He seems nice! And if being here and putting up with whatever Lily is doing a couple of times a week is the price for not having to hide what I am, it seems like a decent deal.”

Beside them, Stheno struggled to split her attention between food and proselytizing. As devoted as the gorgon had clearly become to the cause of Lily and Kevin, the slender Greek woman was still obviously doing her best to make up for lost time as she rediscovered the culinary advances that had been made in the last few thousand years. Piled in front of her were an array of dishes, from a porous flatbread with reddish meat and vegetables piled in the center to an oversized burger which dripped cheese, the bun kept from touching the meat thanks to an onion ring which contained a fried egg.

“It is obvious that Kevin cares for us. He was not a leader of men before he was summoned to be Lily’s champion but a lack of experience can be remedied. It will be up to us to ensure that he becomes the leader we wish to serve.” Stheno’s somewhat grand tone might have been spoiled by the dark brown sauce which clung to the corner of her mouth, but Blue appeared to give it no notice. The harpy’s food sat untouched as she instead stole bites off of the gorgon’s plate as she listened.

Kevin let out a groan as he rubbed at his eyes and tried to make sense of the swirling vortex of memories which had just been shoved into his head. He was sprawled back in the middle of the massively oversized bed which dominated much of the master’s suite, but for once his circumstances and surroundings weren’t the focus of his attention. Instead, he was barely aware of what was going on around him, lost in a whirlpool of events that seemed to have come flooding back—as though they’d always been there, and he was the one who had somehow forgotten.

“We didn’t even go to Europe when I was a kid. My parents always talked about it, but at the last minute my dad’s manager got a better job offer. He left, and his replacement decided to make the department budget look good by cutting everyone’s bonuses.” Even as Kevin spoke the words, though, he began to doubt their veracity. What was already a somewhat hazy memory as his dad tried his best to keep the bitterness from his voice as he explained why they wouldn’t be going as planned was replaced by images of his mom laughing as she unpacked the suitcase full of toys he’d thrown together to replace them with clothes.

He became distantly aware of hands moving in his lap and his hips raised on instinct to allow his pants to slide down with a gentle tug from Elsie. “And Hazel— the ripple effects of that one summer are— I—” Not only did Kevin’s mind now contain memories as an eighteen year old working his first job, the exposure to the nymph’s commune had altered the way he saw relationships. While his dating life still wasn’t a full one, when he thought back on his relationships now, they included dating some of the players of his games that he hadn’t ever been confident enough to ask out. Some of them had been in other relationships at the time, but that didn’t seem to matter—just the time he’d spent with them.

Kevin’s mind’s wandering came to a sudden end as he snapped to focus as Elsie’s fingers wrapped around his dick. The English girl had positioned herself between his legs, and was staring up across his body as she worked him to hardness, but she waited until his eyes made contact with hers before making a sound. “Hush, now. Plenty of time to sort that out later. Let me take care of you tonight. Take your mind off things.”

Kevin’s protests died before he could voice them as Elsie’s hands began to stroke his length. Her movements were sure and unhurried, and the expression she wore was confident. Content, even. He let his head drop back, memories from years past fading as he allowed the brownie to pamper his body. After a few minutes, the deft touch of her hands was joined by the occasional warm, wet lick of a delicate tongue. Just when he’d started to get used to that, he felt her lips wrap around his crown, accompanied by the light pressure of gentle suction.

Elsie’s pace was patient, deliberate, and inexorable, and after he finally erupted in her mouth, had to admit to himself that he felt better for the attention. “I—I think I needed that.”

She smiled up at him. “I know. I also know you aren’t done yet.” The yellow bikini top of her outfit slipped off of Elsie’s shoulders a moment later, revealing breasts that—while the smallest in the party—were still mouth wateringly pert. He found his hands sliding up to cup them, felt the stiff little nubs of her nipples press into his palms as she straddled his hips. Whatever thoughts he might have had about the new memories Lily had implanted—or about the events of the day’s challenge—faded into Elsie’s molten depths as she lined herself up and slowly sank down on his shaft.

The pace she set while riding him was no more hurried than when she’d taken him into her mouth—slow, deliberate, apparently designed to eke out every iota of pleasure the two of them could share from the act. When he felt her lay her body down atop his—when he felt her hot breath against his ear as she whispered, “Let me take care of you, Kevin. You’ve nothing to worry about tonight,” he believed her.

Hazel sat back against the mass of pillows piled behind her and watched the four elves as they figured out how best to arrange themselves. The two beds which had featured when Tess was the sole occupant of the room had merged and expanded, but the resulting single mattress wasn’t large enough for five people to each claim a spot uncontested.

That was fine. Some snuggling would help bring everyone closer together. Hazel reached out a hand and beckoned, and Summer shifted up to snuggle in against her side. That left Winter and Autumn spooning together, while Jennifer got a corner of the bed to herself. It would do for the night. She’d just need to make sure that the girls shifted their positions—some amount of pecking order was inevitable any time you got enough people together, but it wouldn’t do to have things get too stratified and she really didn’t want any of the girls to feel like they were an outsider.

Her hand reached down to stroke Summer’s honey blonde hair. She and her disciples had largely shed the vine garb which came with their druidic calling in Lily’s world, but the skinship was far more fond than sexual. Not that Hazel didn’t think all of her girls were attractive, but after the day she’d had, she was more eager to relax than to have sex.

Kevin was going to be a problem. Not because the Dungeon Master was trying to be obstinate, but the hesitation he’d shown in the dungeon wasn’t acceptable in a leader. Hazel was going to need to do something about that—help him break through whatever walls remained that caused him to hold back.

She had some ideas for how to accomplish that. Some of them, her disciples would be enough for. Some of them—well, she’d see what she could do to recruit the rest of the party to the effort over the coming week.

One way or another, their next dive into the dungeon needed to be more effective. At the rate Lily was changing things, if they only conquered a floor of the dungeon per week, they’d be unrecognizable by the time they got out. As it was—

Kevin was a sweet boy. Always had been. Hazel would just need to make sure she finished what she started and turned him into the man she could see just below the surface.

While the room Penny and Tess shared had two beds, that wasn’t enough for the three people assigned to it to each take their own. The siren eyed the sisters as they scoped out their sleeping arrangements, their garb magically shifting from the tunics they’d worn for dinner into opaque silken nighties that clung to their every curve and muscle. “I—I’m guessing you two will want to share a bed, but I’ll make the offer now that if one of you needs a bed to herself to get to sleep, I don’t bite.”

It would be a tight fit either way, but Penny was happier knowing that she’d made the offer. She could sense the effects of her new Bard class ability at work and was a little surprised to learn that of the selkie sisters, while Tess had some reservations about the whole situation, Abby was—turned on by it?

“We’ll be fine tonight.” The younger Joenson’s voice was quiet, but clear. “Maybe tomorrow, though?”

Penny nodded. In her rush to reassure the 18-year old, she hadn’t actually taken much time to assess how the young woman was reacting to their situation. Now that they were alone in their room, though—there were forces at work that she’d need to unpack later.

First, though, she had a new set of memories to work through.

Memories—and an opportunity lost before she’d ever had the chance to seize it.

Alone and away from the watchful eyes of others, Stheno felt free to be more direct. “Your actions today were not befitting a servant of our Master.”

She and Blue each had their own beds, and while the Gorgon was looking forward to using her ability to shift forms to sleep in a bed as a full human for the first time since her last blissful night in Kevin’s arms, there were other things which needed to take priority. “He said! He said to scout, so I scouted!”

There was a petulant tone to the harpy’s voice as she complained—a simplicity which spoke to the direct and almost childish way Blue’s mind tended to work. Stheno knew she wasn’t slow, but the children of Thaumas and Elektra were not put on this Earth for their advanced logic or discerning eye. They were here to steal, to torment, and to abduct, and Blue’s behavior was a cut above what the Gorgon would have expected from a member of Ocypete’s flock.

It was the only reason the bird-woman was still free to move about, rather than being lectured as an immobile statue.

“Your desire to help Kevin is admirable. That is the foundation on which we will build your devotion, but if you are to be worthy of service to him, you must learn to wait. To listen. To obey.” Stheno watched Blue’s face fall. She could tell the other woman was not looking forward to this, but it was necessary. For the party. For Kevin. For Lily. Her new Goddess had commanded her to bring Blue into line, and she would obey.

“Lesson one: order, and the importance of hierarchy.”

Hwa lounged back in her room, enjoying a rare moment of solitude since her new roommate had chosen to seek shelter in the arms of the Dungeon Master. The kumiho had shed her ridiculous corset and skirt as soon as she could, and while the robe she donned in its place only did a marginally better job of covering her newly expanded assets, it was at least more comfortable. Granted, the cloth tied around her waist to hold it closed kept slipping as it tried to hold back the titanic overflow of breasts several sizes larger than she’d had when she first acquired the garment, but with no one else in the room the fox spirit was willing to let herself relax.

A little.

Today had been an embarrassment. Hwa was proud, but not so proud that she was unable to admit her mistakes. To herself, at least. She had charged off without taking the time to assess the situation, and it had cost her. The next time, she needed to be more judicious—it mattered not how she had come to be in the dungeon, once she was there she needed to allow the lesser creatures around her to fulfill their purpose as bodies to throw onto the spears that Lily arranged. Literally if possible, though given the nature of the show, Hwa suspected any spears they faced would be metaphorical and blunted rather than designed to draw blood.

Worse, she had allowed her emotions—her frustration—to govern her. When she’d failed the first time, rather than stopping to assess, she had left again and failed the exact same way. Had she followed the siren, she could easily have escaped with her dignity intact.

The only good thing to have come out of the day was the boon Lily had granted her. It rankled Hwa to have been so blessed, but she was proud, not stupid. Any sources of power were acceptable, provided they could be turned to her own ends.

Competitive (Lily's Boon) To The Victor - Insatiable

(Passive) Any time Hwa engages in a sexual encounter, all participants grow steadily more sensitive to pleasure until all but one have yielded or become incapacitated.

(Active) At the end of a sexual encounter, the participant who was orgasmed the lowest number of times is deemed the winner and granted Xd8 GP, where X is the total number of orgasms achieved throughout the encounter. Hwa is given access to an underworld connection who can sell her tools and temporary boons to help her win these encounters. Hwa will find herself driven to defeat any other individuals who have previously bested her by these rules. She will be unable to recognize this addendum to the boon, and will rationalize her own behavior to herself and others.

She read through the boon once more, a plan already germinating in her head. Elsie might have won today, but next time—next time I will bring the brownie low.