Rowana & Azzie Read "Running the Gauntlet" by Wrynn, Part 1

Somewhere, far above the plains of Mordor, the Elf in the Moon looked down. There, miles from the dark ribbon of highway that crossed the wilderness, was a Hobbit-style house. Inside that house, a mixed-race couple was preparing to read yet another story...

Azh Nazg the Uruk-Hai set the pregnancy test aside. She had been wringing Bebe dry right through the middle of her cycle, and was hopeful that this time things would work. Her human wife, Rowana, enormously pregnant with their first two children, took the green-skinned woman by the hand and guided her to the kitchen.

None of Rowana's clothes fit. Her breasts rested on her enormous belly, the spine curved as the massive front-centered weight had turned the ex-Ranger's once strong stride into an awkward waddle. The belly had dropped, which according ot everything they had read on the Matrix meant labor could be imminent—and they both needed something to get their mind off of upcoming events.

"The last time we read something by Wrynn," Rowana said, as she tapped at her multiversal Matrix tablet. "It was 'The Devil's Throne.' But Wrynn also did a branch in the Waifu Catalog Beta Testers story, and we also reviewed a branch of that, 'Well At Least I’m a Magic Pirate Now' by Jerynboe. So this story, 'Running the Gauntlet' by Wrynn, should be an interesting comparison between both Jerynboe's story and Wrynn's other work."

"Provided you can remember any of it with your pregnancy brain," Azzie teased.

"Don't knock it until you've tried it, green genes," Rowana shot back. "Anyway, Wrynn sticks close to the original remit. It's a kind of isekai gamer setup, with optional harem. Wrynn adds a little twist: his nameless protagonist needs to survive ten consecutive worlds at increasing difficulty level."

So a pretty fucking big deal. But first, I'd have to survive a run of ten worlds from danger level one all the way to ten. With nothing but what I could find or earn on the way. Except for one thing, I'd be bringing my experience from countless worlds with me. Possibly as much hindrance as benefit in some situations, as too much information can also bite you in the ass, but this was a test of my skills as a beta tester, not blind luck.

"They're Disney worlds, so at least some of the world-building is taken care of and the characters recognizable," Azzie said, rubbing her stomach with one green hand. "Not that we have Disney in Middle-Earth."

"So begins the epic erotic adventures of...Prince Guy of Fawkes," Rowana said.

Main Quest: Princess Quest, capture 5 or more Disney Princesses. Rewards granted for each capture as key quest milestones.

"As we've commented before, Wrynn is competent as a writer, so there's not much to comment about as far as complete sentences, punctuation, etc.," the Uruk-Hair said, tapping at the screen. "But 'capture' is giving all kinds of sex **** vibes. Or I guess, since this is using magical jewelry, more like Princess Pokémon?"

"If Wrynn uses an enslaved princess to fight someone else's enslaved princess, they win this review," Rowana said flatly. "But yeah, I did notice it's 'capture' rather than 'seduce' or something. We'll see how that plays out in practice."

Back on my horse.

"If this is a Disney world, there's a better-than-even chance the horse is sentient," Azzie said. "And I kind hope it becomes his perverted sidekick."

"I don't think Wrynn is perverted enough for that," Rowana said.

"So you get that I own you now, right?" Another sad nod. "Now I also own my horse, does she look well cared for? Happy? Or does she look neglected, dirty, and dressed in rags?"

"Let's hope Guy eventually rides Ella harder than his horse," Azzie mumbled.

"It is a bit sexless so far. I mean, the whole point of this branch is that this is just a job for Guy, but Guy doesn't seem to love his job exactly," Rowana said. "I'm not saying we have to have a sex scene when we're only five chapters in, but if you're going to make sex slavery your main theme-and-or-kink, it would be kinda better to actually get off on the sex slavery. I mean, what does Wrynn think this is, Harem Hotel?"

I could feel her tears on my arm as she quietly cried. "Guy, I think I love you."

Disney virgins, I tell you. "Think or do?"

"I get the vibe," Azzie said. "Guy is a bastard. He's a corporate slaver. He's preying on Disney girls, who are the definition of innocent and gullible, and there's a certain sick fascination with that, which is thankfully less creepy as the corporation makes sure they're all 18-and-up. But can I just say that the sex scene feels...inadequate?"

"I'd call it perfunctory," Rowana admitted. "It's part of the narrative, there's a progression, Wrynn's not using cartoon logic where Guy's womb-scraping cock is piercing Cinderella with enough **** to cause internal bleeding, and he isn't knocking her up immediately. But it lacks style. We skip past blowjobs to the defloration, and she has multiple orgasms right out of the proverbial gate. It lacks a certain versimilitude."

Who the fuck was Ruby Lucas?

"Oh fuck no," Azzie groaned.

"Wrynn, your spirit is weak and will not find the hall of your fathers," Rowana said. "You set up a Disney **** harem story, not an every-shitty-fairytale pop culture adaptation kitchen sink **** harem story. Manifest some standards. What next, Grimm? At least steal from Descendants or the Disney Afternoon cartoons or the direct-to-video movies."

Azzie pondered that last one. "Now getting a weird image of an 18-year-old Ducky with boobs."

At least I now knew enough about Ruby Lucas to know her presence here seemed like an anomaly, something I really didn't like seeing while running a test this fucking important to me.

"Calling out your own bullshit and making it a plot point will not make me forgive you," Azzie growled at the tablet.

Rowana sighed. "Look, there has to be some level of difficulty or this would just be a series of easy enslavements and sexual conquests, and nobody wants to read that. Let's just accept Wrynn has a point in subverting the premise of their own story within the first ten chapters."

Queen Grimhilde 57 hours.

"I was going to make a joke about impregnating the MILF, but the next chapter is literally titled 'Breeding the Queen,'" Azzie said. "Did Wrynn do a branch on Harem Hotel?"

"Yes," Rowana confirmed. "Although we haven't reviewed that yet. But I agree with what you're getting at, there's a certain familiarity of style in both stories as far as collecting slaves—or waifus, if you don't like the s-word—although the interest in most cases seems to be on the act of obtaining ownership rather than enjoying the spoils."

It turned out she was wearing nothing under that gown but a smile, and she looked damn good. It had been some days since I was free to use Ella, so I was more than ready to ravish the Queen. I concentrated on making her feel good by hand and mouth before mounting her. She bade me cum deep inside her, telling me she had potions to take care of such things, so I did. Several times in fact. Little did she know that it would be my decision if she took such potions or not.

"Let's just be honest: sexytimes are not Wrynn's strong suit," the Uruk Hai said. One finger rubbed at her slit. "And I was really looking forward to some serious breeding porn."

"Wrynn is a competent writer, and they're good at what they're interested in and focus on," the pregnant human said, one hand absently rubbing at her own distended abdomen. "And what they're interested on is clearly not five to ten chapters of meticulously crafted breeding porn where you can almost feel the sperm penetrate the egg. If anyone was hoping for that...well, not going to happen."

Hidden Quest Found! Blindside a Precog: Capture someone with the Divination tag without them seeing it coming.
Hidden Quest Complete! Blindside a Precog: Reward +1 level of Trace Defense . [ ](http://Defense.So) So hidden quests were a thing in the Gauntlet, good to know.

"There was a time when we would bitch about the hidden game mechanics," Azzie mused. "But with the whole Harem Hotel thing and Jerynboe's Waifu Catalog story, I think we've just accepted them as a literary style for a certain subset of CHYOA stories."

"Is it weird to say that Wrynn gets more detailed in sex descriptions when it involves a guy forcing an enthralled character to do something against their will?" Rowana said. "I think we've found their real kink."

"My servants get a number of perks, one of which is that you will never grow old. You will stay looking twenty-five as long as I keep you."

"I take back everything I said about MILFs," Azzie said, rolling her eyes. "Wrynn apparently uses Hollywood logic where 35 is GILF territory."

Rowana played with her navel. "I mean. Technically, you could be a GILF by 36. Assuming our kids are as aggressively into breeding as you are."

The Urak-Hai's ears perked up. "New. Life. Goal."

Great, work on making a potion that would greatly increase the size of a woman's breasts.

"I'm not upset," Rowana said, reaching down and hefting one of her own overflowing milk tanks, "But I'm not surprised either. It's not that I have anything against bigger breasts, but moving straight into breast expansion after enslavement is a very Harem Hotel move. It makes me wonder if Wrynn didn't want to basically do a mini-season without all the trappings and formatting."

Ella was as enthusiastic in bed as always, and thanks to the Tempest Jewelry, Snow was so in love with me now that she joined her new friend in eagerly as well. Ella spent a great deal of time, once she'd gotten off first, in showing Snow just what I liked. The three of us spent several exhausting hours together in my bed and afterwards I lay back enjoying my victory with a beautiful Princess cuddled up on each side.

"What I don't get about these harem stories," Azzie said after reading the paragraph twice, as if she could ring more details from it with her dark eyes if she just stared hard enough, "Is why so many of the writers seem to skimp over the group sex. Like, that's the entire point of a harem, right? If you just wanted a series of monogamous encounters, that's sort of lazy. Is it wrong that I want to see Snow White taste Cinderella's pussy for the first time, to read descriptions about how the soft, pale breasts heaved, faster and faster, as her friend gently made love to her tender sex for the first time in her life?"

"Again, this is Wrynn," Rowana said dryly. "Hot lesbian sex is two sentences in a paragraph before we get back to the important matter of enslaving another fairytale character. But yeah, I get the point; a lot of the focus on these stories seems to be on obtaining the women and making them do things, but not necessarily taking any joy in the interactions or possibilities."

Snow got used to her new, much larger breasts, and I spent a lot of time putting all three women through their paces in bed.

"See, this pisses me off!" Azzie complained. "We don't know how small her tits were before. We don't know how big the tits are now. In one chapter, he orders Grimhilde to start working on a potion, the next chapter potion's done, consumed, and the breast expansion has already happened. It has all the interest of reading the turn report on a 4X game. I want to see tits balloon, dammit! I want a description of the psychological impact! Bubbling flasks! Ripping bodices! Drama! Action!"

"It is rather anticlimactic," Rowana admitted, leaning forward to lay her own girls on the table. Something she couldn't have done easily almost forty weeks ago. Now, her swollen udders wobbled gently, the dark nipples hard, the skin stretched and marked by prominent blue veins like a fine cheese. "But again, that's sort of characteristic. The idea of big breasts is sexy, the idea of breast expansion is sexy, modifying your slaves to please you is sexy, but the actual events are rather more telling than showing."

"Oh, you're going to do it now, we'll be escorting you to the tower. And be warned, we don't need to climb a rope made of hair to get inside."

"Oh, he's going to get inside," Azzie said wearily. The Uruk-Hai stared across the table at her wife's breasts. "Think mine will be as big as yours, when the milk comes in?"

"Probably bigger. You're much larger than I am to start with," Rowana said. "I suppose it's worth mentioning that there's a lot of setup followed by quick resolution; this is following much the same narrative path as the previous Wrynn story we reviewed, minus the pregnancies. It's not a bad thing to have a favorite plot, and it's not like they don't vary the details, but the arc is much the same. No major setbacks, lot of leveraging assets without sacrifice. So far."

"Please no, Master, I can and will serve you well as your bride. I know the role better than Snow. I will be your most devoted wife."

"Want to make a joke about Grimhilde being a slut, but now that I think about it she technically never gave birth, so we have no idea what her level of sexual experience is. And she's only like seven years older than Snow White in this continuity. What a strange world," Azzie said.

"I think it might be more interesting to do a version of one of these stories without magic, where the woman is being held by **** or debt bondage or some other threat instead of magically compelled to submit," Rowana said. "But if wishes were horses, Silver would turn out to be a centaur princess from Fantasia and ride Guy harder than tha the rest of this lot."

"I could just loot your corpse."

"Not very good at playing a Disney prince, is he?" Azzie observed.

"It's been a long time since I've been with my late husband, and truth to tell he wasn't very good in bed. You light a fire in me that I cannot quench."

"I like this characterization," Rowana said. "It's the lack of seduction that undercuts it. This is the kind of thing that would have been more appropriate about six chapters ago, from someone who required more than a promise to get them to put on an enchanted bracelet. Grimhilde gave it up easier than a soccer mom during an open bar on a field trip."

"What I do with my retinue will now appear normal to outsiders. If I choose to have you suck my dick on the ballroom floor no one will bat an eye. Though they may still applaud your skill."

"We still have no way to judge Grimhilde's skill at fellatio," the Uruk-Hai bemoaned. "Because you won't show it!"

"Once again, Wrynn describes a scene more interesting than the actual action in the chapter," Rowana added. "But seriously, if we harp on the erotic elements being a bit lackluster, it's only because the majority of the stories on here are erotic, and so the relative absence is notable. We're not saying Wrynn should pen sex scenes for the audience just because they want him to..."

"Sez you," Azzie muttered.

"...but again, you've got Guy treating them more like employees-with-benefits rather than waifus. Case in point:"

"Ella here declared her love for me which made her mine. Anyways you are part of my crew now and I'll be keeping you. As a bonus, you and Ruby can stop sneaking looks at each other now and just have some fun."

"So the tritagonist is bi," Rowana said. "Didn't see that coming."

Hilde grimaced. "I was loath to let her practice emotional manipulation on the girls, my Lord, you don't want them damaged after all." That was a good point, and props to Hilde for thinking that way.

"Grimhilde has the best dynamic with Guy so far," Azzie said. "Why?"

"Because she's the most useful," Rowana said. "That's what Wrynn tends to value in female characters. Not beauty, not the size of their tits or their skill in bed, but their utility for the next stage in the inevitable series of conquests. She won't have any competition until Guy lays the dragon, and even then, she'll have seniority."

Then bringing up Rapunzel's profile on the app I started the process of reducing her hair to a manageable length. For the hell of it I decided to give her a much larger set of breasts as well. The mass had to go somewhere...

"Well, of course," Azzie said with a sigh. "Girl's going to have a chest fit for a herd of cows."

By the time we had breakfast and got everything packed up and ready to move on Rapunzel's hair was still ten to twelve feet long. I could have just had her wrap that around herself for the trip but we were traveling through dangerous woods, so just to be sure I stashed her in my pocket space along with all the stuff Gothel and her wanted to keep from the tower.

"While I appreciate the logistical challenges, I have to say: Congratulations, Punny, you've traded a tower for a portable hole," Rowana said.

Ariel had been wearing her bracelet for days now and should be feeling its effects rather strongly. She'd certainly quieted down a lot the last day while traveling.

"This would be actually funny if it was a plot point about Ariel's missing voice and needing to enslave Ursula," Azzie said. Then she sighed. "Alas."

Ariel was still sucking my dick. How long had she been at that?

Azzie mused. "Is it weird that the thought of sucking a dick until I look pregnant sounds really sexy?"

"No," Rowana said. "But you are broody. Maybe you can suck Bebe off when we're done with the review. He's still asleep, so you'll have to be gentle."

There is what Guy plans, and then there is what the gods (most likely Hades) are/is planning.

"I should point out," the Uruk-Hai said. "That while we snark and critique, the commentary on this branch is pretty robust. Wrynn had some fans invested in the story. Credit where it's due."

Are you Fae or Dragon?

"This is an interesting lore point, but I can't help but feel it's like the boss onboarding a new employee and trying to get a better handle of their skills than what's just on their resume," Rowana said.

Maleficent seemed pretty shocked at all the open sex

"See, in a Disney world, this makes sense," Azzie said. "They should be treating sex like the best invention since sliced bread. Does Disney have sliced bread?"

"Disney absolutely has sliced bread," Rowana assured her.

Capturing Maleficent did indeed not take the remaining twenty-four hours. If I'd had Aggressive Negotiations it wouldn't have taken twenty-four minutes.

"You know what this is?" Azzie said after a moment's consideration. "A speed run. Guy isn't playing the game to enjoy it. He's hitting the goals and keeps on moving."

"Pithy, but not entirely inaccurate," Rowana said. "Or else Wrynn really doesn't have the patience for a slower, more considered quest to obtain a harem of Disney hotties."

Well gender swapping really wasn't my thing, so I sold off Princess Phillip

"Boo, hiss," Azzie said. "And who the hell did Guy sell her off to? How does that work?"

"But honest," Rowana said. "And kind of goes with what happened during his last story. Really, though, the question is: if you're not particularly interested in genderbending, why bring it up at all? Chekov's blunderbuss?"

The pregnant woman gave an eloquent shrug that almost lifted her breasts off the kitchen table.

"Anyway, that's halfway through. Let's check your pregnancy test and then finish this review..."