She's occupied, so you'll bring the party to her

Finding Pike was easy enough; you only needed to follow the trail of unwanted adventurer spoils to figure out where she was. Your brain slowly began to put together the pieces of the puzzle as you approached... she'd cleared out all of the adventurers with plenty of time left over, then she'd decided to take a nice soak in the castle's baths. The only question was how she'd avoided hearing you up to this point... You were worried about what the answer might be, given the number of menacing remarks about you and your party's safety you'd heard as of late.

The bathroom area was huge-- way oversized for your cult, like everything in this castle. You saw a communal bath that would probably fit about 16 adventurers comfortably, then, to the side, another bunch of private, curtained baths and even those wooden stalls that adventurers used to drop their feces some-times. You weren't the type of person who worried about feces... that was just part of your superior plant physiology. Then again, you didn't get to eat things either, so there was always a tradeoff.

You boomed her name once more. You'd really been hoping that 3x length modifier on her bathing actions was what had her, not only for the obvious reason that you'd like to watch her bathe, but also, because she'd be much easier to spot there. It was going to take a while to look through all of these stalls and time was currently only available at a premium...

With no answer, you realized that this was an occasion where having lots of vine tendrils instead of dexterous hands could come in useful. After slithering into the bathroom, you used your specialty technique: Ickibod's Multi-Door Flipping! Shamelessly, you began to flip open every door, including both private baths and toilets. The baths were all empty, which meant...

Pike was perched upon one of the toilets, her freckled face glowing red and looking shocked as you barged in on her with her bikini bottom around her legs and her cape on a hook near the door. It was impossible to imagine why, at such an important moment, she was staying quiet in here instead of yelling "just a minute!" or "I'm taking a dump!" Angrily, she threw a roll of toilet paper at your head, which connected, sending a book flying into her stall and onto the stone floor. You shook off the dizziness, then slithered further inside and closed the door behind you. "Ickyyy! This is one of those private things that monsters aren't supposed to watch!" she told you urgently.

You told her you'd been worried... the situation had just escalated big-time!

She wore a guilty frown for just a moment... then clutched her stomach and clenched her teeth with an expression like she was having abdominal pains. "Ooooh, dude! I've gotta be cursed...!"

Remembering the time you'd analyzed her status earlier, you remembered that she was actually very, very cursed. She might be even more cursed since you last looked. You asked her what she'd been doing that messed her up like this.

"Well, I uh... I was owning all these adventurers inside castle, like you said I could, so after I beat them I went through all of their food and chowed down. I find adventurers get real salty when you do that-- use their stolen consumables in front of them. So I ate and ate and it was super fun... but then...!"

You patted her shoulder sympathetically and asked: cheese?

"How'd you know?" She raised one eyebrow, before going wide-eyed again and shaking her head rapidly. "Duuude! You can't be around for this! Leeeave!" Although you still didn't get why dropping fertilizer was such a big deal-- as a plant, you saw that sort of thing as healthy, though you didn't personally partake-- you finally obliged her, then slithered back out to catch up with your party and tell them what you'd found.

With one crisis averted, the larger one was still ahead of you. You felt **** to get it out and let the party decide where they stood on your plan... but the party didn't share that sense of urgency yet. When they saw that giant bathroom, Winnifred spoke up: "I see now why you just had to had this haunted castle, vile pumpkin! Like all perverts and scoundrels, you wish for a lavish communist bath orgy!" She accused you of this, pointing one finger forward, but you noticed she'd already begun untying her bikini's top.

As great as that would ordinarily be, you needed them to focus-

"I could use a bath, actually. I'm still covered in your filthy sap. Keep your eyes to yourself for once, though... I don't want you leering at me," Evilward pitched in, surprisingly on-board with Winnifred, at least as far as getting naked and bathing together went.

... That sounded pretty great to see, but still-!

"I've never actually used the bath before! It's usually too dangerous around here. I'll hop in too!" your Trickster agreed with the others, floating past your shoulder to join them as they went toward a small changing room in the back, presumably to grab towels. This was actually one situation where she'd read wrong in terms of sucking up to you!

... And her presence in there just made you want to join them even more! You had to focus! Desperately, you turned back to Pike as she exited the bathroom.

"I-I think I need a soak too..." Pike grumbled, stumbling uncomfortably towards the back area.

You wrapped your tendrils around her legs impatiently, begging her to reconsider. You had something really important to talk about!

"I've got something really important too... a dang lactose-intolerance rash or something..." she murmured to herself, kicking your vines off and looking immediately embarrassed, as though she regretted telling you that.

In the end, you were left behind, with just your Ghost for company. As he moaned eerily, you sighed, finally submitting to join the others in the tub and yanking off various pieces of equipment using your Phantom Hands.

As you waited for the others, sinking into the water up to your pumpkin with a carved smile that didn't match the sense of dread Noah's words had imparted, you desperately tried to think about the positives in your life. For starters: this bath felt fantastic! You'd always subsisted on a very simple diet of mere droplets of cave-water, but now that you'd tried sticking your roots into a whole bath full of steamy water, with fancy minerals and everything, it was going to be hard to go back. You could feel your vines gorging themselves... you wondered if it would gross the girls out to know that you eat with the same body part you spooge with?

Speaking of which, the castle seemed to be well in hand. Claimant crystals had been coming a dime a dozen; the rookie adventurers picked up a ton of them but never used them. You pulled one out and started to fiddle with the menu... Dammit. Right, you can't actually claim it until adventurers clear out. That was all the more reason you needed to wrap this meeting up quickly.

And as a final note, while your cult may be pretty disobedient sometimes, they were all gorgeous women who, for whatever reason, resisted their nature as adventurers to **** you and instead tried to help you. You just hoped the situation was going to stay that way...

Finally, the girls re-emerged, each with towels wrapped around their nakedness. First was Pike; the last one to enter was the first to come out, darting into the bath and throwing the towel to the side so quickly that you didn't get to see a thing! She was mean-spirited when she wanted to be. The elf stuck out her tongue and pulled down one eye, like a taunting child. "Didn't pass that perception check, huh, Icky?" You gave her a big splash of water with your tendrils in response, thinking to yourself that you could just ask her to stand up out of the water if you wanted to and she'd probably have **** but to obey.

Winnifred the White came next, walking with dignity and poise that didn't match the excitement you knew she felt to slowly unwrap herself in front of all of you. For a moment, you feasted your eyes on her fair skin and luscious pink nipples, tipping her bouncy, soft cleric body. In response, the woman bit her lip and turned her head, her eyes sparkling with indignant tears. "To think that I'd be **** to bare myself to a monster in this why... The shame is unbearable! I can only dare imagine what else he attends to do with my body!" Right now, the answer was just stare at it. You were having plenty of fun doing just that.

After that came your Trickster. She floated in, a bit chubbier than the others, but with a nice, healthy figure-- especially considering she was a ghost. When she caught your candles staring, she bashfully covered herself with her hands. "Um... I can't wear towels. I can only wear clothes that are designated grave-clothes for an apparition," she clarified, perhaps wondering if you thought she was being especially bold, coming out completely in the nude. Still, given her whole form was a faded green color all the time, clothed or not, you had to admit, seeing her naked didn't have the impact on you she probably thought it did.

Finally, Evilward came out, with her towel strained against that intense, overqualified bosom of hers. Her tan skin made a nice contrast with the hem of that fluffy white towel. Every step made her breasts jiggle... it was hard to take your eyes off of them. Still, she demanded: "Turn around..." You obliged her, spinning your pumpkin 180 degrees to watch behind yourself. Ordinarily, you'd like to tease her, but there simply wasn't time right now. "... Thank you," she begrudgingly ended, reclining in the bath with both arms out to her sides. It was a pose that would make her look cool, if she was still a guy, but in this scenario... it raised her chest too much out of the water and actually let you see a bit of her nipples. Not that you were complaining.

In a panicked bellow, you discarded all of the cutesy, flirtatious eroticism that had just happened, laying out everything: your encounter with Noah, the event you'd learned about, the maps you'd found, and the plans you had made so far to contact the other monsters. You watched as everyone's faces went from relaxation to panic.

"Wait, wait! Hold up! So you don't come back if you die?" Pike questioned, shooting out of the water for a moment, far enough to reveal her brown, wood-elf-natural pubic hair before remembering she was nude and plunging back in. Red-faced, she shook her head. "Wh-Why?! Monsters on all of the other servers respawn!"

"I don't want to die!" the Trickster sobbed; those had to be tears on her face, because she wasn't actually capable of getting wet, it seemed.

You explained that you'd given that some thought... if you 'died' here, the likely outcome was that you'd be put on the backburner until Halloween came around. It wasn't as bad as being killed forever, but still... after experiencing how much the world had to offer, the last thing you wanted to do was hibernate until the worst time of the year for Pumpkin Heads again. You felt your mission to save all of the Halloween monsters more strongly now than ever.

"And you're telling me to pass up both my quest for vengeance against you and one-of-a-kind LR gear to protect you?" Evilward questioned, raising one eyebrow and crossing her arms in front of those huge tits. "As well as a cash prize?"

You nodded your head again. You'd given this matter some thought as well and you couldn't resist spelling it out for her... If she followed you in this quest, she'd be one of a small handful of adventurers to do so. Forget LR weapons-- those could be introduced again later! This was the only chance she'd ever get to join a monster resistance against an entire server full of adventurers.

Shivering, the Justiciar sunk deeper into the bath to hide her expression. She peeked out just for a moment, then nodded her head. "That does sound... fairly unique."

It seemed you'd crossed one bridge rather quickly: none of the others seemed eager to turn on you, now that they knew the situation. Still, there were others out there-- the Crowmaster and Dick, for instance, along with the newcomers Noah had mentioned-- who'd be sure to come after you. Noah herself wasn't likely to let you get away with living through her one-of-a-kind event, either. She'd promised you would die and you doubted she was going to let you break free from that prophecy without intervening as well. Still, she hadn't seemed very powerful... did you really need to worry about her? You asked the others.

Winnifred gulped, her round eyes bulging even rounder. "I-Icky, that person was a GM... You remember that we ticked about gods earlier, right? How there's the very tip-top with real power? She's govern by one of those... She's a personal who can enact change on a world scale..."

Crap! It was hard to make out what Winnnifred was saying, as always, but it didn't sound good.

"It's not as though she's simply wiping you out either, though," Pike pointed out, cupping one hand to her chin and watching the ceiling with a thoughtful expression. "You said she called it an innovative emergent gameplay experience or something like that, right? I think she was saying there actually is a chance for the monsters to beat the adventurers in this."

You tilted your head. Then why'd she say all of that spooky stuff about how there was no way to overcome it and you'd die for sure?

Evilward smirked. "This is a role-play server these days... Who do you suppose is the biggest role-player on it?"

So... she'd kept on role-playing, even when you smashed her spine in your tentacles? That was some serious dedication to character. You thought to yourself that you might have to give her another chance if you found her again... You didn't want to turn your back on a girl with boobs like that, just because she had an unlikeable role-play character.

Okay... so the situation wasn't as bad as it had seemed a moment ago. You still had all of your cultists. **** wasn't permanent, just really unfavorable. Noah had the backing of a powerful god and was quite a bitch, however, she hadn't put you in a game you had no chance of winning. With the help of your cult, you might grasp the light at the end of the tunnel: a way not to just survive for the rest of the week, but the whole year around. An ever-green plant, if you will. As always, consulting with your cult had made you feel a lot better. Friends were wonderful things... and being able to see all of their naked bodies just made it that much more wonderful! Dang. The bath had gotten really low...

Noticing this at the same time you did, Evilward covered her sensitive areas and glowered. "Ickibod, you rotten waste of fertilizer...!"

"Lewd!" Winnifred gasped, mimicking Evilward's stance but turning so you got an unobstructed view of her cute, naked bottom.

"... You uh... You put on some weight there, buddy," Pike pointed out, joining the others in covering herself while also wearing a sarcastic smile.

"I-It's fine! It's okay to have a bit of a rounded figure..." your chubby Trickster reassured you while pushing her fingers together, perhaps trying to win your favor by being the only one to compliment you while also leaving her naughty parts exposed.

Still not understanding, you dragged yourself up and out of the bath... It was a huge effort! You felt like your body had somehow become even less dexterous and weighed a ton! Finally, seeing one of your massive, balloon-like tendrils, you understood... You'd absorbed all of the water in the bath into your vines. The stuff was leaking out of your pores, mixed with your sap. It was all terribly unsightly; your body had become a giant tangle of plump, gooey green vines with a regular-sized pumpkin up top. The others had a good laugh at your expense while you rolled yourself out of the room, leaking onto the stone floor the whole way.

Alone now except for your Ghost, who seemed to have a way of hanging around when nobody else was, you turned your attention back to the castle. This place needed a lot of upgrading. Luckily, you'd just netted a ton of fame, as you and your cult had essentially driven off a sizable portion of the server's population from the fanciest place in the server. The others knew exactly who was behind it and the same name was on everyone's lips: Ickibod, the Pumpkin Lord! You doubted there was anyone else more famous in the server. In fact, by now, your fame had shot up to a staggering 6660! Triple sixes! That was good luck for a Halloween monster, right?

It was a good thing that you'd collected so much, because you were going to need it. This castle didn't have a roof on the second floor, for Pete's sake! It was literally uninhabitable by the vampires it had originally been designed for, whose portraits hung on the upper floor. You had a looot of sprucing up to do...

You toured the halls, leaking out more liquid for the sake of returning to your usual, functional form and leaving gooey sap everywhere. You couldn't enact changes just yet-- you didn't even own the castle-- but at least you could plan out where everything should go.

Oh! And you had a class change coming your way too. The next hour or so, spending the fruits of your labor, ought to be very interesting indeed.