Reactions and Rooms

The room Kevin and Lily emerged into was more of an antechamber than anything else. He could see that there were doors opposite the one through which he’d come in, which led to some kind of throne room, but before he could get a good look at it the succubus guided him to the side. There, framed by dark oak, was a shimmering portal in the shape of a door.

It glowed with the same golden energy that the succubus had used when she imparted the rules to him earlier and he tried to slow down to study it, only for her to give him a gentle shove that somehow sent him stumbling forward. The moment his hand touched it, he found himself half falling onto a massive bed. It was in the center of a grand bedroom fit for a medieval king, and could easily sleep five or six people without requiring them to get overly cozy.

It was exactly as he had pictured it, when he’d designed the royal bedroom in his head, so that he could describe it to his players when he ran his first campaign at the age of twelve. Only—more. Like they had taken the idea that he’d had, and brought it to life. Two massive window panes overlooked the city below, their elevation at the top of the enchanted tower giving them an incredible view.

He had to fight back a shiver of excitement.

This was—basically exactly what he’d wished for. Except, when he was twelve, he had no idea what made girls so interesting yet, so his initial fantasy had been shockingly and earnestly pure. He’d wanted to explore a fantasy world of magical adventures, and explore ancient ruins and solve mysteries.

He had channeled that into his love of tabletop games, and let his sense of adventure guide his players through one scenario after another. Watched grown men and women get emotional about made up people, because their stories mattered to them, and they were invested in them.

But he’d always felt as though he was excluded from all of that. He had to see everything behind the scenes. To know how the sausage was made. He knew when trials were coming to a character because he was the one who put them there, and a lot of the time he knew how likely it was they were going to defeat them.

It made the lots predictable, but no one else seemed to want to invest the time to figure out how to run the games. And now they were telling him that he was going to live in one.

He had to fight down a surge of glee. He had a responsibility, to those women. One that he was going to adhere to, to the absolute best of his ability. Only–

He could feel the results of his class transformation. It pulsed at the edge of his senses in a way that was disconcertingly familiar. He’d had a sense, when he was running a campaign, about when to fudge the numbers. It wasn’t often, because he liked to let players feel like they had a sense of agency about the outcome of the game, but sometimes a bad guy had a few dozen fewer hit points than you originally thought, because their nemesis could get a cool killing blow that way.

Or their arch-rival had one last gasp of power in him that got him that much closer to his goal, and set up some consequences for the party to deal with, but he hoped that example wouldn’t apply as much here.

He could feel the rules of this place, and could sense that they were—flexible. If he could push them the right way, he could exert his influence on how the game went, and guide things their way.

He just needed to make sure he understood the rules enough–

“Over there, on the bookshelf.” Lily’s voice came from directly behind Kevin, and he nearly collided with the bedpost as he whirled to meet her. He realized he’d been lost in thought since he started staring out over the city, and was startled to find that the succubus had joined him in his room.

“What are?”

“The rule books. Everything I could get for you. Every season of Harem Hotel, ever.” Lily gestured to the book shelf built into the desk that was placed on the wall between the windows. It was massive, towered well up towards the vaulted ceiling and featured a short ladder which could be climbed to reach the upper shelves.

“There’s also a copy of all of your campaign notes. And a dossier on each of your players that is accessible only by you and anyone that you choose. You can also use the scry spell on your character sheet with that crystal ball as your focus if you wish to check in on your party throughout the day.”

Kevin blinked in surprise at the deluge of information. “That’s–”

“I wanted to make sure you were as prepared as possible for your role as Dungeon Master. I’m taking my own role very seriously, and I fully intend for you to succeed. To be forged into a cooperative party that will successfully clear all of the levels of the dungeon and claim the scroll. And I want you to be the one who guides them through it.”

She beamed her smile once more. Kevin couldn’t help but shiver as he thought back to the black energy that had engulfed the others. His own transformation had been far gentler, and seemed to come from that same golden magic. There was something going on there, but he couldn’t quite get a feel for what it was yet.

“I’ll—Look, what I want is for them to get out of this unchanged. If you tell me that we’re going to clear the dungeon and you’re going to be changing them until we can, then my goal is going to be to get there with the least amount of transformation for anyone. Including myself. Just–”

He sighed. “I know you’re not going to let them go. Or me. Just go easy on them, if you can. When you can. Please.”

“Of course, Kevin. Now, I’ll leave you to it. You’ve been given some additional spells that you’re welcome to use to make your stay here comfortable, in addition to the ones you got as part of your class. The portal can take you to any of the rooms of the castle, and you’re free to explore as much as you like. Please keep in mind that as party leader you are expected to form a close bond with your party, to ensure that you are in touch with them and their capabilities. That includes spending the night with them when they are in your quarters, but more than that—get to know them.”

When he blinked in surprise, her expression turned uncharacteristically serious. “I mean it. get to know them. You’re going to have to, in order to accomplish your goal. Most hosts of Harem Hotel bring in people the Master already knows, in some function or another. I didn’t. I brought in the people that I thought were the right fit for your party. If you get to know them, maybe you’ll find out that they are.”

Kevin nodded slowly. “I—right. No, I take your point. I’m not—look before you showed up, I was just thinking that this was basically exactly what I wished for when I was twelve. Except then the women that my seventeen year old self dreamed up in a fit of hormones got sprinkled into it, and I was told by the porn fairy that they’re going to become my not-officially-calling-it-a-harem.”

He took a deep breath as he tried to center himself. “I don’t—I can feel the rules. I know that there’s no way I can get out of this, I’m just–”

“Shh. Kevin, it’s okay. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself. You are expected to. And I very much expect that they will too.”

“I don’t know that I can accept that.”

Lily shrugged. “I’ll let you make that call, then. Make no mistake, though, you are going to participate. There are some rules that even I can’t change. Now, I’ll let you get on with your thoughts. I’m afraid you aren’t going to get as much time to yourself at night as you’re used to, but I think you’ll find ways to cope.”

“I’m sure.”

Kevin’s tone was dry, and the succubus smiled once more. “I’ll leave you to it. Good night, Kevin. I’m sure I’ll see you some time tomorrow.”

And then she vanished into the shadows beneath his massive bed.

“Fuck me.” Kevin swore. Then he walked over to the desk and sat down in the chair, and pulled up his character sheet.

At the bottom were a number of new spells. Most of them seemed themed around getting his needs taken care of at the castle—he could call for magical servants, or real ones, order food and drink, and even order some kinds of entertainment.

Those he decided to check out later, because the first thing he wanted to do was find out what was happening to the rest of the party.

Scry: 2nd Level Spell

Gold Cost: None

Activation: Stare into an enchanted crystal ball and speak the name of an individual.

Effect: Magically extend your senses to another location in the vicinity of the named individual. Magically sensitive individuals may notice they are being observed.

Cooldown: None.

“And now I have to either hide the fact that I can spy on them at any time from everyone else, and hope they never find out, or tell them up front and have them wondering if I’m perving on them or whatever all the time.”

He leaned forward, put his elbows on the desk, and buried his face in his hands.

Then he peeked between his fingers into the crystal ball. “I should at least see how Penny and Elsie are doing. Those two seemed—a little more grounded than the others and I’m not sure how well they’re handling things.”

His vision swam for a moment as he spoke the names, before resolving into a completely different scene.

“I cannot believe you all simply rolled over and played along with her. In what possible world am I the only one not happy to lie down for this shit?”

The words left Hwa’s mouth within seconds of the door closing behind Lily and Kevin.

“What exactly do you think any of us were going to do about it?” Penny’s rebuttal was instantaneous.

“Get angry if you want, Hwa, but save it for the person who brought us here, yeah?” The siren gestured around the courtyard as she added, “Instead of your fellow victims?”

Tess’ expression was haunted as she muttered, “That woman is the devil. Those eyes…”

She trailed off when she found herself as the center of attention again, only for Elsie to chime in and support her, “It’s like she was looking for an excuse.”

The athletic white-haired woman and the brownie were dissimilar physically, but their faces held haunted expressions that spoke of the trauma they had shared.

“Think of yourselves as victims as you like, but I intend to do something about my circumstances.” Hwa didn’t wait for further discussion before turning and striding towards the castle gate. Her show of independence was somewhat spoiled by the fact that the chains which trailed from the cuffs around her ankles clinked quietly against the flagstones to provide an audible reminder of the power she’d been helpless to resist, but the kumiho held her head high as she walked out onto the streets.

Blue followed shortly after. She offered no explanation, and the moment the harpy was outside of the castle gates she flexed her newly transformed legs and launched herself into the air.

The fact that the party was shrinking rapidly seemed to pull Stheno out of her thoughts. She glanced around at the remaining other party members, and commented, “We should spend our time learning more about this place. Whatever Lily’s plans for us, it is obvious they will not be over quickly. If these are to be the trials I overcome to spite the gods, I would step into them with my eyes open.”

Tess, Elsie, and Penny all nodded slowly, while Hazel simply shrugged. The nymph’s transformation was more subtle than that of the harpy or the gorgon, who had been granted entirely different bodies, but unlike the other party members, hers continued to draw attention towards her. The vines that wrapped around her put her on display at all times, but she showed no sign of being self-conscious as she bent down to pick up her old outfit from where she’d placed it prior to her class assignment.

She straightened, and the vines that wrapped around her shifted and writhed around her body briefly to get back in position and ensure the mostly naked nymph was fully on display. “We should look at our rooms. We’re all going to be seeing a lot of each other, from the sound of things, we may as well make the best of it.”

Penny shook her head. “Not that I disagree with the sentiment, but I need another drink first.”

“You aren’t looking forward to rooming with Hwa.” Elsie’s words were a statement, not a question.

The siren frowned. “You don’t have to see the future to know she’s going to be trouble.”

Elsie nodded. “You don’t. But I think after Lily’s little demonstration, she might not be impossible to work with. She needs some time to cool off, now, but we should give her a chance.” The English woman’s expression grew distant for a moment, before she seemed to shake herself. She focused on Penny once more, and offered her a quick smile. “I will take you up on that drink, though. You look like you could use the company.”

It was only when Penny led Tess, Hazel, Elsie, and Stheno to the tavern that she’d visited earlier that they realized it was located on the ground floor of the very building that housed their rooms.

“So this is The Long Rest, eh? Doesn’t seem very restful to me.” Elsie was doing her best to keep herself under control. Between exhaustion from having been **** at the end of a long day, Penny didn’t seem to be doing much better, but at least the siren’s treatment at the hands of Lily had seemed somewhat gentle.

After the brownie was subjected to an apparently arbitrary triple change, her mind was racing in what felt like all directions. The crowd that filled the tavern wasn’t overflowing, but she saw elves, some kind of draconic humanoids with tails, some others without tails, and a woman who looked like an anthropomorphic rabbit—and that was at a single oversized table.

She had to resist the urge to abandon her fellow party members and just run around talking to everyone.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” If Hazel felt at all self-conscious about walking into a highly public venue while effectively naked, there was no trace of it on her face. If anything, the nymph looked vaguely distracted. Her eyes swept across the room but didn’t seem to really settle on anything as she instead stared off through one of the many well polished windows that let through the early evening sun.

“Come on, there’s a table over there big enough for us.”

Penny led the charge through the room to claim a seat, and a moment later all five women were seated around a well polished circular table while an elven woman in a barmaid’s outfit stood to the side taking orders for drinks.

“Alright, so that’s two fire-whiskeys, a summer ale, and two Aqua Vitae for the adventurers. I’ll be right back with those while you figure out what you want to eat.”

The table itself was enchanted with some kind of magical interface that seemed to run on the same golden energy that Lily had been using to reveal the class results. It showed that not only were there an astonishing variety of food dishes and drinks available for free to the ‘adventurers’, but also several options which cost GP.

None of them had been willing to try the 1 GP ‘Gutter Brew’ that promised they wouldn’t remember the events of the rest of the night, and while the ‘Feast of the Heroine’ promised a variety of helpful magical effects, the 1500 GP price tag was well outside of anyone’s reach for the night.

Before the elven barmaid could depart, Elsie reached out and snagged her sleeve. An expression of fear crossed the woman’s face at the sudden contact, but only the brownie who was already looking at her caught it before the customer service smile was back on her delicate lips. “Something else you need, hon?”

“I was just wondering—what were you doing last week?” While Stheno and Tess looked confused by the brownie’s question, Penny’s face showed immediate comprehension.

“I was—well, I was working here, of course.” The elf’s smile faltered slightly, but she made no move to pull away from the hand that still held her.

“And before that?”

“I’ve—it’s–” She glanced around. There were a few sets of eyes around the room looking at her, but seeing no sign of Lily herself, the elf leaned in and whispered, “Look, I’m not supposed to break character. I’m a barmaid, alright? I’m here to serve drinks and act frisky when someone flirts with me.”

Elsie’s fingers relaxed and the elf straightened. “I’ll get your drinks for you now. My advice, try the rack of lamb—we’ve got the biggest racks in town!” Despite the woman’s claim, her figure was quite modest in comparison to Hazel, or even Penny. If she cared that her statement didn’t match her words, though, she was far more concerned about taking the opportunity to escape the attention of the adventurers, as she swiftly ducked into the kitchen once released.

“Good thinking.”

Penny’s words were quiet, and Tess glanced between her and the brownie for a moment curiously. “What—am I missing?”

“Well, we were just kidnapped and shoved into these roles. Sure, the people around us look like they’re, well, exactly what you would expect from a bustling fantasy city, but when I started thinking about it–”

Penny cut in over Elsie, “–you realized that they probably had the same thing happen to them that we did. They just got plucked from somewhere and told to behave in a certain way.”

Stheno’s eyes grew wide as she muttered, “Such power, though, to shape so many to her will.”

“I’m not sure.” Four sets of eyes turned towards Hazel. The new druid hadn’t yet expressed much in terms of dissent, so to hear a negative out of her caused a little surprise. “If you had enough time, you could use a little bit of power over and over to achieve the same thing. I don’t think we’ll get an answer anytime soon, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this whole thing is a performance.”

“The question is, will the cracks in the facade work for us, or against us?” Penny did her best not to let the ominous implications of an entire city’s worth of people being set up as mere extras for a performance in which she was expected to star.

Kevin inhaled in a gasp as he felt himself return to his body. The spell had been overwhelming as he had found his senses abruptly transported to a location. It was as though his senses had been transported into another world, leaving only his touch in the form of the chair beneath him. Even that began to fade as his senses had been transported to The Last Rest in time to catch Elsie’s revelation about the ‘NPCs’ of the season.

None had seemed to sense his presence, but it was as though he’d been hovering in the tavern in person. He could even smell the food and drink that had been served, and it left his stomach rumbling as he realized he hadn’t had anything since breakfast.

Summon Servants: 1st Level Spell

Gold Cost: None

Activation: Stand in front of any portal connected to the castle portal network and command ‘Servants, attend me!’

Effect: Call forth up to half a dozen castle servants. Summoned servants will obey your commands, and can be dispatched to run minor errands, including delivering food and drink from the castle kitchens.

Cooldown: 15 minutes.

“Servants, attend me?” When Kevin walked over to the portal that led to the master’s quarters and tried to activate the spell, his first attempt produced no results. Only when he repeated the words with more emphasis did the portal shift. While it continued to glow the same golden color in the center, the outer ring where it met the doorway turned a slowly blinking red.

Thirty seconds later, a dark skinned young woman wearing something akin to a milkmaid’s dress emerged and the blinking around the portal stopped. “What would you have of me, my lord?”

It took a moment for Kevin to realize that she wasn’t human, as he’d first assumed. While her skin tone existed in the spectrum of humans he’d encountered in his life, the summoned servant’s delicately pointed ears which poked through her white-blonde hair told a different story. “A dark elf?”

“Yes, my lord. Would you prefer I fetch a different servant to attend to your needs?” The woman showed no sign of offense, and looked almost eager to leap to obey his commands.

Kevin thought back to the information Elsie had uncovered and felt sick. This was someone else who had been **** somehow—a real person, **** to play the role of servant. He swiftly shook his head. “No, I just—can you please bring me some food? And something to drink?”

“Of course, my lord! I’ll fetch something immediately. Do you have any preference, or shall I inform the chefs that they have the opportunity to impress?”

“No, just—whatever they come up with will be fine, I’m sure.”

“As you say, my lord. I’ll return in a few moments.” The dark elf slipped back through the portal a moment later, leaving Kevin to sigh and wander back towards his desk.