Eros Trap Dungeon: The Path of GLORY!

Chloe and Aubrey had reached the idol chamber first. They had agreed that they would all wait until everyone was here to do anything. Aubrey just sat down and leaned against a wall, waiting for everyone else. They pulled out some sandwiches and had a nice lunch while leaning against each other.

About twenty minutes later, Hilde and Merida came into the chamber. Chloe and Aubrey got up to greet them, but noticed something was wrong with Merida. Hilde had Merida sit against a wall and stopped Chloe and Aubrey from bothering her. “Just let her be okay… stuff happened and she’s… well, I think she’ll end up okay in the end, but she’ll need time.”

Chloe said in a low voice. “Hilde, you need to give us more than that. I can see that Merida either is or has recently been crying.”

“Like I said, stuff happened. It isn’t your business. She just needs to talk with her girlfriend.”

Chloe sighed, “Fine, but if she still looks like this tomorrow, I’m asking her about what happened, understand?”

“Fine by me.” Hilde said, with a slight nod. “How was your path?”

Aubrey said, “Annoying. We essentially just had that initial hallway to go through, but eleven copies of it, that then split in two.”

Hilde looked confused and envious. “Wouldn’t that have been really easy for you then, Aubrey. You handled the first hall easily.”

“The tiles weren’t pink this time. At least mostly.”

“Ah, that would make it tougher for you. Wish Merida and I had gone down that path instead. It would have been trivial for us.”

Chloe said, “Well, it was very profitable for me at least. I collected most of the dildos and a large amount of the needle darts to make weapons out of. What was your path like?”

Hilde looked like she wasn’t going to answer, but then said, “There was this moving walkway, with a spike wall that was coming up from behind us, go too slow and the wall would catch us, but the faster you moved, the faster the wall behind us would move. The walkway was five miles long.”

“Ooph, that sucks.”

“That wasn’t so bad. Merigold came up with an idea that resulted in us getting through that in a few minutes. We then essentially fought puppets of everyone but only two at a time. Last room we were trapped in on a timer, and we had to solve this cube puzzle.”

“A Rubik’s cube?”

“Maybe, not sure what you call them. Merida said Mark was into them as a kid. But it was 5x5x5 and the idea was clearly to get each side one color.”

“Then yes. That would have been easy for me.” Chloe said. “I’ve done those before. It would have taken me maybe a minute or two for a larger one, but still.” Chloe furrowed her brow, “If that’s what you had to do, why is Merida so distraught? What aren’t you telling us?”

Aubrey had a suspicion and checked the VP totals. As soon as she did, she said, “Chloe, drop this line of questioning right now.”

“What? Why?”

“Because Merida is hurting, and she is our friend and teammate. Drop it. Right BAA!”

Hilde looked embarrassed. “I take it you have an idea what happened then.”

Aubrey nodded. “Yes, and I want to make this clear. Don’t get us involved. Don’t make us get involved either. I don’t know the specifics but fix this Hilde.”

Hilde nodded. “Like I said, Merida needs to talk with her girlfriend.”

Aubrey nodded and pulled Chloe away before she could ask more questions. Hilde went and sat next to Merida, resting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

Another twenty minutes passed, and Mary, Flora, and Lucia entered the chamber. Mary immediately noticed Chloe and Aubrey resting on one wall, and then noticed that Merida had her face buried in her knees and Hilde was clearly consoling her. Flora noticed the situation too.

Mary turned to Lucia, “Mind giving us a minute to check on Merida?”

“Sure, I’ll go wait with Chloe and Aubrey.”

Mary and Flora walked over and knelt beside Merida, who wouldn’t look up at them. Flora said, “Meow?” Which just caused Merida to tremble slightly.

Mary asked, “Merida, what’s wrong? Did something happen?” Not getting a response from Merida, Mary turned to Hilde. “What happened?”

“Merida will tell you when she is ready. It really needs to come from her. Is there a reason Flora only meowed?”

“Her collar, it’s cursed, and she can’t speak. She can only make cat noises.”

Hilde passed Merida’s staff to Mary. “I can’t use this, maybe you can, though, since you’re a healer. It can remove debuffs, including curses.”

“That’s great news.”

“Yeah…” Hilde said a little bitterly. “Wish we had it earlier though.” Hilde got out the collar Merida had removed earlier. “Maybe this wouldn’t have been such a problem. I’ve been thinking about things, and this is your fault, isn’t it, Mistress?” Hilde passed the collar to Mary.

Mary hung her head, “Yeah. I screwed up during a puzzle, and it offered me a choice to pass it along to a party member.”

“Why?” Hilde said with rather a lot of heat in her voice.

“Give me a second, then I’ll answer you.” Mary focused on the staff and found she could use the item, but it cost quite a bit of her mana pool to remove a curse. She removed the collar so Flora could speak normally and put the collar into her backpack. “First, Flora, are you good?”

“Yes, though I probably wouldn’t be if not for the hypnosis. Right now, I just want to finish up this dungeon and then go spend some quality time with Merida.” Flora’s words elicited a pained sob from Merida. “Merida? What’s wrong?”

Hilde cut in, “Mistress, please answer my question. Why inflict that on Merida?”

“I didn’t get to choose who it went to; it was random. I assume you know what the item is called. I and Ellen were both worried about what I might do if I had that on me. I already know I made mistakes when I took those corrupting caramels. We were concerned that without inhibitions at all, I might turn Flora into my hypno ****, maybe Ellen as well. There are so many ways that could go poorly, I realized it might mess with someone, but I thought I was the bigger danger.”

Hilde nodded, “Okay, that’s fair, I suppose.”

Merida finally brought her head up from her knees and stared at Flora with teary eyes. She weakly said with a cracking voice. “Flora… I’m so, so sorry, Flora. I…”

Flora extended a soft hand and cupped Merida’s cheek. “It’s okay, Merida. I forgive you.”

“But… I… ye dinnae even ken… whit… hoo I betrayed ye…”

“Doesn’t matter, Merida. I forgive you. Merida, I love you and I trust you. I know that whatever you did wasn’t you, but a side effect of the collar. You are clearly distressed by whatever happened, which shows me that you do care. I can’t promise that whatever happened won’t hurt me, but I can promise you that I forgive you and won’t hold it against you.”

Merida looked like she wouldn’t be able to admit what she did, but she eked out, “I… Hilde an' I… we… we were intimate wi' each ither. Sexually intimate. I… I cheated on ye, Flora.” Merida looked at Flora and saw her expression shift. Merida could tell Flora was most definitely hurt, but she held no anger in her eyes, only sadness and sympathy.

“I already told you, Merida. I forgive you.” Flora then turned to Hilde with heat in her eyes, and Hilde, Mary, and Merida could all see she was now visibly angry. “You, on the other hand, had best have a damn good explanation as tae why you were with my girlfriend. Because that collar wasn’t on you.” Mary noticed that Flora’s claws were digging into her palms.

Merida tried to speak, but Flora cut her off. Hilde sighed, “So there was a chamber with aphrodisiac gas.”

“Being horny isn’t a good enough reason for me not tae be pissed with you.” Flora retorted, with venom in her voice.

“I agree.” Hilde nodded. “If that was all, I wouldn’t blame you for hating me. Merida messed with my bonds with her. Using her boon.”

“Wait!” Mary exclaimed, “But that’s permanent. Why don’t I feel like I can punish Merida for that? Because I don’t think you would have consented.”

Hilde responded. “I didn’t consent, and Merida didn’t break the rule because you added the rule that the other rules are suspended during a challenge unless stated otherwise. The entire LARP is a challenge. I also agree that the rules should be suspended or significantly relaxed at least during a challenge. That isn’t a mistake, Mistress.”

Flora was still glaring at Hilde, but then flicked her eyes back to Merida. “Merida… Is that true? Did you mess with Hilde’s bonds tae you?” Merida nodded, closing her eyes, clearly ashamed. Flora sighed, “Fine, I guess I can’t be too angry with you then, either Hilde.” Flora stood up. “Let’s finish this place up and head back. We could use some rest.” Flora extended a hand down to Merida to help her up. Merida reluctantly took it, causing Flora to have a shiver of pleasure run through her body and the contact.

The party reassembled, and Aubrey asked, “So now what? Just grab the idol?” I don’t really see a way out of here.” No one really had any idea, so Lucia approached the idol and scanned it for traps. Finding none, she took it. When she did the pedestal, it was on, transformed into gold coins, while the wall behind it slid to the side to reveal a door. The group picked up the coins while Mary went and read the plaque on the door aloud.

“You have overcome the challenges to pursue true glory. Will you step through to continue your story? Should you feel like your strength can't abide. Go out the emerald arch, to step outside.”

Flora said, “Well, there is absolutely no fucking way we aren’t doing the final room after the shit we’ve gone through today.” Flora saw Lucia make a face and said, “Lucia, shove it. I’m not in the mood right now. I’m really hoping there is an enemy to shoot behind this door.”

Lucia let the matter go, seeing that Flora really was quite upset. Lucia transformed into Aubrey, and the pair of Aubreys took the lead as they went through the double doors. Flora was about to get her wish.

They walked down a short hallway and found themselves in a large circular room that looked sort of like an arena. Inside stood a singular armour-clad figure standing a little over six feet tall. Behind the figure were seven gleaming sets of equipment, but each also had a sinister aura about it. The group readied themselves for a fight, but the figure did not move. Instead, Mary said, “Hello? I assume you are here to tell us what to do in this room.”

The armored figure nodded. She spoke, and Mary immediately recognized it as Slevia by her voice. “Indeed, fair maiden. The armor behind me is yours for the taking. I will not stop you from simply leaving with it or leaving empty-handed. Though I am certain you can feel the malevolence coming from them.”

Chloe asked, “Then why are you here?”

“I am a spirit of glory. If you can best me in a solo trial, I will purge the malevolence from an item for you.”

“What sort of trial?” Chloe asked, feeling like it was a trap to participate.

“The trial is dependent on which set of equipment you wish to take.”

Flora stepped up and immediately asked with a clear desire to hit something, “Which of them can be taken through a trial by combat?”

Slevia looked down at Flora. She said, “Three. One by brawn, one by fist and foot, one by finesse.”

Flora pulled out the magical staff that she was sent by Tina and Josie in the last round of fan mail. “I’ll do the one by brawn first.”

Slevia nodded. Slevia picked up a large sword and shield. She swung at Flora. Flora dodged and then vanished. The party looked on in confusion as Slevia took blow after blow. Slevia had her feet knocked out from under her and was incapacitated in around thirty seconds. Flora appeared again. “Sorry, Slevia, but are you ready to go again?”

Slevia was enveloped in a golden light and stood up. She rubbed her neck. “Ow… What happened?”

Flora whispered to her, “I’m taking my frustration from this dungeon out on you. Again, sorry, but I need something to hit. Fist and foot next, okay?”

“Sure.” Slevia’s armor vanished, and so did Flora and Slevia’s felt punch after punch land on her face from nowhere. She wound up on her back and felt a weight on top of her, and punches to her chest repeatedly knocked her back down. Slevia quickly came from the repeated pounding.

Flora appeared again and helped Slevia to her feet. “I assume for finesse, I can shoot you with arrows.”

“Yeah, or melee finesse weapons.” Slevia picked up a rapier. “Let’s begin.” This time it took even less time as Flora vanished and just shot Slevia at point-blank range, twice, in the back of the head. After the light enveloped Slevia again, Flora helped her up. “Okay, I’m good. I assume you will cleanse the malevolence from those sets.”

“Of course.” Slevia nodded. “Even if I don’t know how you beat me.”

Everyone else looked on in confusion as well, not able to tell that it was Flora beating on Slevia. Everyone except for Mary, whom Flora didn’t exclude. Mary watched as Flora went to sit down against a wall. Flora said, “I’ll let the rest of you figure out how to get the other four sets of equipment.”

Chloe walked up and said, “What’s the challenge for that set?” Chloe was pointing to the set of equipment that was clearly designed for her.

Slevia summoned a table and chairs, sitting down in one. Chloe sat in the other. On the table appeared two bottles of mead. Both were equally distant from each of them. Slevia said, “One laced with poison. The other is just mead.” Slevia pushed one bottle towards Chloe and moved the other one towards herself. “Pick one to drink. I drink the other.”

Hilde walked up behind Chloe and tapped her shoulder. “Mind if I tap in?” Chloe noticed Slevia’s face momentarily flicker with concern.

“Sure.” Chloe stood up and let Hilde sit down.

Hilde smiled across the table at her sister. “Hi, little sis. How are you doing?” Hilde waggled her eyebrows.

“Um… I’m good. Little spent after orgasming three times so quickly. Which drink do you want?”

Hilde grabbed both of them. She examined the bottles closely. She sniffed each bottle. “Can I open them to smell them?” Slevia shook her head. Hilde started to swap them around so fast that it became a blur. She then sat one down in front of Slevia and one in front of herself. “I can pick whichever drink I want, right, little sis?”

“Yes…” Slevia said through gritted teeth. “Just tell me which you want to drink.”

“I have a question: what is the actual requirement for you to cleanse the malevolence from the equipment? Like, do I have to get you to drink the poison? Or do I simply have to be okay after drinking? Like, say I drink the poison and I’m perfectly okay afterwards. The details are important.”

“The poison will cause you to climax. You must not climax after drinking your mead.”

“Then I chose the drink you don’t pick up.” Hilde said smugly.

“That isn’t a choice.”

“Yes, it is. Whichever drink you don’t grab is the drink I will drink. I have selected my drink. So let’s drink. I assume you have a bottle opener or something.” Slevia put a bottle opener on the table. Hilde grabbed the bottle opener and popped the tops. “Okay, bottoms up.” Hilde waited for Slevia to grab her drink. Slevia glared at Hilde but was informed it was a valid decision by Maja telepathically. Slevia reached out to grab the bottle in front of Hilde but hesitated. “Oh… wondering if I swapped them on you, or that I’m just messing with you?”

Slevia’s eyes twitched in annoyance, and she continued to grab the bottle in front of Hilde. At the very last second, Hilde swapped the bottles with blinding speed, causing Slevia to pick up the other bottle. Hilde then reached across the table and picked up the bottle she had just put down in front of Slevia and drank it. A faint hum came from Hilde’s mouth as she examined her empty bottle.

“Damn it, Hilde. This is so unfair.” Slevia drank her drink. Slevia expected to be rocked by an orgasm but wasn’t. “Hilde, you have to actually swallow your drink.”

Hilde nodded but held up a finger. There was still a hum coming from Hilde. Hilde walked over to Chloe and grabbed an empty vial from her satchel. Hilde spat a black liquid into the vial and showed that her mouth was empty. “There I drank all the mead. Chloe here is apparently a ‘poison’ that causes instant orgasms.” Hilde was about to hand over the vial to Chloe.

Slevia glared at Hilde, “You have to finish the full contents of your bottle.”

“Nu-uh,” Hilde said, wagging her finger. “Or were you lying to me? You said I had to drink all the mead. This,” Hilde waggled the vial. “Isn’t mead.”

Slevia looked at it. The liquid was most definitely solid black. “How did you even separate it?”

“Oh, I used my mouth like a centrifuge. I used the advantages of the TF that improved my talent, giving me far greater control. I slowly just siphoned the mead down my throat after I had it fully separated. You’re welcome, by the way, little sis. I realized you thought I had been screwing with you and placed the drink you had placed in front of me back in front of me, and that it was the safe one. I had in fact put the drink that was in front of me in front of you, which is why I swapped them.”

“You… you deliberately took the poisoned one?”

“Yeah. Wanted to spare you from your fourth orgasm in about four minutes, but only because you said I only need to drink the mead and that I just need to not orgasm, not get you to drink the poison. Otherwise, I would have totally let you drink the poison.”

“Well… Maja is saying you passed. Guess that makes four of seven.”

Lucia walked up and pointed to the set meant for her. “What’s the challenge?”

“Simple.” Slevia put fourteen pictures, one of each person in the LARP. “Point out the one that has an error and rip it up.”

Lucia asked, “What if I get it wrong. Do we lose our chance?”

“No, just penalties. You will also be given a new set of photos.”

“And the others can’t help me?”

“Correct.” Slevia gave a single firm nod.

Ellen looked over each photo. She set her own photo aside immediately since she could change her appearance. “Slevia, when you say error, is that compared to how they look right now?”

“The photos were taken this morning at the gathering in town.”

“Okay, that helps.” Lucia and Ellen both looked over each photo and looked at their teammates.

Ellen told Lucia, It is probably someone on the other team, otherwise we would just be able to compare.

Lucia nodded their head, True, but it could also be something as stupid as an extra button, a buckle backwards, or the slightly wrong hue of color.

As she said that to Ellen, she got caught on something. Lucia got up and walked over to Mary and stared into Mary’s eyes. Lucia looked at how the light caught and reflected on them. Lucia then went back over and ripped up Mary’s photo. Nothing happened. Slevia gave a slow clap.

Mary said, “Wait, you really noticed that my eyes were a different color?” Mary picked up the photo and examined the eye color. “I mean, these are definitely green in the picture, just like mine.”

Lucia shook her head. “Not the issue. The issue is that eye color changes slightly based on lighting when taking a picture. In the picture, you are right next to the fountain. You have the slightest hint of blue in your eyes, even if they are green. The light reflected from the water should make that pop a little bit more. Your eyes in the picture are exactly the same color as they are right now, and we are in a flame-lit room. They should definitely be at least slightly different in the picture.”

Slevia said, “She’s correct. For doppelgangers, details are important to mimic.”

Merida wasn’t moving to ask about her equipment set. Aubrey, seeing that, said, “What about that set?”

Slevia gestured to the seat across from her. Aubrey sat down, and Slevia said, “Riddles. First to stump the other wins. You lose, you get a penalty. Ready?” Aubrey nodded. “Two in a corner. One in a room. Zero in a house, but one in a shelter. What am I?”

Aubrey considered for a moment. “The letter ‘R’.” Slevia nodded. “What is seen in the middle of March and April that can’t be seen at the beginning or end of either month?”

Slevia looked deep in thought. “Wait… did you really just… Also, the letter ‘R’.” Aubrey chuckled and nodded. “I swear you did that just to mess with me. I am taken from a mine, and shut up in a wooden case, which is never opened. Yet, I am used by almost everyone. What am I?”

“Pencil lead,” Aubrey said after just a moment of thought. The two sparred back and forth for nearly an hour.

Eventually, Aubrey finally made a mistake when Slevia asked, “I travel without moving, shine in darkness, and whisper secrets to those who listen. What am I?”

Aubrey thought and said, “The truth?” Slevia shook her head, “No, a star in the sky.”

Aubrey was about to object when her breast expanded. “What baa? Oh baaaa. Don’t baaa me. B’a baaaaaa, how, baaaaaaa.” Aubrey stood up and moved to the side, realizing she wouldn’t be able to attempt doing riddles a second time if her breasts were full of milk.

Merida sat down next. She did not look great but wasn’t going to do nothing. “Can I stairt?” Slevia nodded. “Broken often, but time will mend. Al' hae one. An' many want someone else’s. Whit am I?” Slevia thought long enough that Merida got impatient. “Cannae figure it oot?”

“A heart.” Slevia said. Merida sighed and nodded. “A man builds a house with four sides. Each side faces south. A bear walks by. What color is the bear?”

“White.” Merida responds immediately. “Gleamin' gowd, but ance fiery orange. A tale o' sadness, frae a sacrifice o' love. Gowd forever pairted frae the red fire o' passion.” Slevia considered, and again Merida got impatient as Slevia had taken more than four minutes already. “Ye cannae get it, can ye?”

Slevia responded. “I have an answer. I’m not sure if it’s correct or not. Just know if you lie about the answer, you will be punished.” Merida just nodded. “A sunset.”

Merida shook her head, “The answer is Merigold. She used tae look jist like me. Noo she’s gowd because she took the fa' for her Flora. I’m keepin' her here, permanently. I’ve a'ready decided that.” To punctuate her point, Merida grew a fourth tail. For a moment, one of her tails turned golden but reverted to match the others rather quickly. Merida could feel Merigold stir in her mind but Merigold kept quiet.

Slevia nodded her defeat. “Fair enough.” Slevia turned to Mary, “Only one more.”

Mary replied, “What’s the challenge for my set?”

“Very simple, serve me something that I enjoy the taste of.”

Hilde immediately winced. “Mistress… I think we should abandon your gear.”

Mary turned to Hilde, “Why?”

“Uh… Slevia’s sense of taste… is… essentially non-existent. She doesn’t really enjoy most foods or drinks at all. This is a trap, Mistress.”

Mary rolled her eyes. “Hilde, I can’t believe you are missing the most obvious answer.” Mary walked over to Slevia. Mary climbed on Slevia’s lap, straddling her and started to make out with Slevia, shoving her tongue deep into Slevia’s mouth. Mary continued to make out with Slevia until she heard Slevia let out a slight moan of pleasure. At which point she pulled back, and as she was getting off Slevia, said with a smirk, “How did you like the taste of that?”

Slevia snapped her fingers, and all seven sets of equipment glowed with a holy light, and the malevolent aura disappeared. “Congrats on passing the trial. May these treasures serve you well.” A moment later, Slevia vanished as if she were a spirit moving on to the afterlife.

A portal opened up behind their spoils. They each took their new equipment and stepped through the portal. They found it to be nearly evening and started to make their way back to the base.