The D10

Penny rubbed her temples as she slumped forward over her makeup counter.

Tonight’s show had been a nightmare, starting with technical difficulties with the sound, leaping from there to a full on fight that had broken out at the bar, and culminating in a full on power outage. Her dressing room was lit by a couple of candles, and between them and the heat of a Miami summer she was practically dripping sweat.

She was also in her underwear, and was not made any more comfortable by the presence of her manager pacing back and forth behind her while he ranted.

“–ruined! I got everything tied up in this, baby, everything! If this place goes under, I’m out on the street.”

“You’ll be fine, Vinnie. The place isn’t going under.” The effort it required to put just the right amount of magic into her voice was yet another drain on her already struggling reserves, but the effect it had on Vinnie was immediate. He turned and put his meaty hands on her shoulders and squeezed.

It was meant to be a reassuring gesture, she was pretty sure, but since she was slowly broiling and in the middle of trying to remove her makeup, it mostly came across as obnoxiously pushy. She had to work hard to suppress a shudder. He was always doing this shit, and she knew he didn’t really mean anything by it, but by now it was long past having gotten old.

“Not while I got you. My golden girl. I don’t know how you do it, but your song keeps them coming back night after night. You’ve stuck with me, and I’ve stuck with you, and–”

Somehow, Vinnie’s voice started to grow fainter and fainter. He’d always been her biggest champion when she was just starting her career as a singer, but now it felt more like he was a weight around her neck. She couldn’t get rid of him, anymore than she could chase off the men who filled the seats in the seedy lounge he ran. Not that she could afford to do either, it was how she got paid, and she had some special needs that weren’t cheap.

It had started off so good, but it had been what—fifteen years now. Of nothing but this. Her vision began to blur, then went dark as Vinnie’s voice faded to nothing behind her.

“-right Penny? Uhh—Penny?” Vinnie spun around the small room looking for her, but Penelope was already gone.

* * *

One moment, Kevin was standing on top of the wall overlooking a town that was somehow his homebrew adventure setting’s starter area made manifest. The next, he was in the courtyard of a massive castle. High walls surrounded him and he could see various servants dressed in what looked like surprisingly detailed medieval peasant’s garb bustling about as they went about their tasks.

The music changed as he did so, becoming slower, more regal, with horns featuring prominently as though to announce the splendor of their surroundings.

Lily was still at his side, but in the blink between vanishing and appearing, her outfit had changed. Rather than her skimpy chain mail bikini, the succubus now wore a long black dress of some kind of velvet cloth which hugged her every curve and dipped in the front to reveal a deep valley of cleavage. Kevin’s surprise at the change was only amplified when he looked down to see that his own outfit had also changed—he was now wearing a waist-length royal purple cape complete with some kind of fur collar, over a sturdy tunic and trousers.

As he looked down, the golden crown that had adorned his head slipped off and nearly fell to the floor until Lily’s fingers snatched it out of the air.

“Careful there Kev. Don’t want to spoil your first impression.”

She placed the crown back on the dazzled man’s head, then gestured theatrically at one of the far doors. As if on cue, a woman emerged and blinked at the bright sunlight that practically blinded her.

Only an inch or so shorter than Kevin, she appeared to be in her mid thirties, with long straight blonde hair that reached past her shoulders. Her face was oval shaped and appealing, and while she wasn’t anywhere close to thin enough to grace the cover of a magazine, he had to admit that her zaftig figure was appealing. Said figure was also very much on display, since the only thing she was wearing was a set of heavy cotton panties and a reinforced bra.

As Penny drew herself upright and looked around, the yellow die in Kevin’s hand lit up with a golden glow and shot across the courtyard to hover above the new arrival’s head. “First to join us, the D10, Penelope Sierran!”

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Dee-ten?”

Both Penny and Kevin tried to interrupt Lily at the same time, but the succubus responded only by raising her hand and making a tutting gesture with a single clawed finger. “Shh. Penny, why don’t you introduce yourself.”

Again, both Kevin and Penny tried to respond, but while the former was unable to speak at all, the latter found words suddenly tumbling out of her lips. “My name is Penelope Sierran, I’m thirty-eight, and I work as a singer in a lounge club in Miami. No husband, no boyfriend.”

Lily nudged Kevin with her elbow again, then ignored the glare she received in response as she chimed in, “What none of Penny’s many fervent admirers realize is that Penelope herself is a siren, and the songs that they’re listening to are literally magical. They just can’t keep themselves from doing their best to smash themselves into the rock that Penny here calls a heart! Ain’t that right? You should give him a sample.”

Penny did her best to resist, but Lily’s command echoed through her head and she found herself tilting back, parting her lips, and singing. The music changed as she did, so that she was accompanied by a saxophone and piano.

You're just too good to be true

Can't take my eyes off of you

You'd be like Heaven to touch

I wanna hold you so much

The sound was rich, full, and throaty—perfectly suited to a lounge. Or, Kevin suddenly realized, a bedroom. One where she was singing it just to him. The fantasy crashed over him, then suddenly shattered a moment later as Lily snapped her fingers. The singing cut off, but the music continued to play in the background.

The siren charged over towards her, and shouted angrily, “Look, lady, I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but I’ve had a long day. A shitty one, too. I want to go home.”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that, Penny. Not yet, anyway, but look on the bright side, this could be your big break! We’ve got millions of viewers.”

“Do you think that somehow makes this better for me? Getting shoved in front of an audience? What the fuck is he for?”

A blast of golden magic hit Penny in the face a moment later, courtesy of Lily, and the siren’s expression went slack.

“There, now while she absorbs that information, Kevin, why don’t you tell our audience what you think of Penny?”

“I mean, she’s beautiful, and magical, but she doesn’t want to be here, so–”

“Oh, you leave that to us, Kevin. After all, every good party needs a reason to stick together, right?”

“I mean, yeah, but–”

His response was interrupted by the sudden onslaught of Penny, who charged across the yard to stand in front of Lily, her expression furious. She drew a breath, visibly took control of herself, and icily accused, “You think you can just bring me here like some kind of performing pony after you dragged me here in my underwear, and make me compete for the privilege of sleeping with this guy? This guy here?”

She flashed a quick glance at Kevin and added, “No offense.”

Kevin held up his hands in front of him. “None taken. I didn’t ask to be here either.”

The siren paused to actually take in her surroundings for a moment, then blinked in surprise. “Why are you dressed like a king?”

“A very good point!” Lily snapped her fingers and layers of fabric wafted in from the various hallways and doors of the castle. It draped itself around the siren’s frame, shaping and squeezing her alluringly mature form into a slightly more exaggerated hourglass. It formed into an absurdly oversexed parody of a queen’s royal gown. Fine velvet coated her from her upper arms to her ankles, but it left a substantial amount of the upper slopes of her breasts visible and it was slit up the side all the way to her waist. A wide belt of metal panels set into yellow leather held it together, at the front of which was a large buckle fashioned into the shape of a ten-sided die.

Penny looked down at the outfit, calmed herself again, and drew herself to her full height. Which was still the shortest one in the room by a few inches, but she did a decent job of looking regal as she declared, “If I had wanted to fuck my way to fame, I would have done it.”

“Grr, fiery!” Lily teased gently, clearly unconcerned with the woman’s defiance. “I like it. Now, I think it’s time we moved on, let’s introduce our next contestant. Kevin, if you would?”

She held out the bag of dice to Kevin, who shrugged. There didn’t seem to be any point to resisting, so he reached in and plucked out one of the dice at random.

He held it up towards Lily, who leaned in to examine it, then cheerily announced,