Nope

We have a destination in mind and have been there before, so we simply use Greater Plane Shift to go directly from the Mansion to the bordello front door.

The Madam recognizes us immediately, “Ah, the Cardinal Heroes! It's a little early to be asking for your cut… Slut has only been here for a week or so.”

She seems nervous, I wonder why? “We're just here to spend some time with her,” Charles chuckles, “Talking, not working. We think she has some information we want.”

“She's currently with a client,” the Madam shrugs, “and is not available.”

Impeccable Intuition from the Hierophant path tells me she's withholding information, “What are you hiding?” I glare at her.

“Ah…” the Madam swallows, “they took her in lieu of protection money…”

Eh, easily solved… but that doesn't mean I should make it easy on the madam, “I was quite clear that she's a rental, right?” I continue glaring.

“They… they didn't give me a choice…” she stutters, “I'm not set up to fight them off…”

I sigh, “Fine. We’ll take care of retreival… but we're not going to trust you with our property again.”

“Also… we'll take our cut…” Alice grins evilly.

The woman in front of us stammers a moment and goes and fetches a bag of coins, handing it over, “This should cover it…”

Alice takes the bag, and answers, “It's been a business doing pleasure with you.”

Brian groans at the atrocious **** of the language as we leave, Greater Plane Shifting back to the Magnificent Mansion.

“So… retreival…” I consider, “I'll start with Scrying…” I cast Greater Scrying, noting that my three party mates are doing the same, and see the scene:

The ex-king is on her back, one man between her legs thrusting furiously while another is sticking it in her mouth, while she gives two more hand jobs and… ah, she's got a fifth underneath her pounding her disposal chute. And of course, due to orders, she's screaming in pleasure.

I idly note that someone replaced the tattoo on her chest… heh, like I was really using that to control her. Smiling, I chuckle, and cast Message, “Cancel prior orders and any descendant orders from various flavors of ‘obey this person’. Don't attempt to communicate intelligibly with anyone besides myself until I give a contradicting order. Bite that rod in your mouth all the way off, and then do your best to kill everyone who is currently within ten feet of you immediately, yourself.” Given that she was taken by a gang, it's probably fine.

We watch as she follows orders… badly. Yes, she bites off the one man's baby baster… but under the skin she's a fit old guy vs. four active combatants (the now dickless wonder bleeding out fairly quickly), but the tattoo flares to painful life and they soon have her **** on the ground… at which point, they slit her throat. I choose that moment to to cast Call Planar Creature to retreive her…so the gang is left with a puddle of blood, while we get the girl.

I take a moment to erase the tattoo (with the spell Erase), and cast Heal to speed up the awakening. When she does, I issue another order: “Cancel all currently active orders.”

The woman opens her eyes slowly. “So. Umm. Can I not do that again?”

I chuckle, “I do plan on essentially letting you go after a point. The point wasn't to **** you, not really…”

Charles blinks, “It wasn't?”

I shake my head, not that he can see, “No. It was to show him what he'd been putting other people through.”

“Does that mean you're going to change me back?” He looks so hopeful.

“Not for at least a year or two, no…” Charles grins, “After all, you need to have, and wean, the baby.”

“So the orders….” he begins.

“One of the spells I put on you ensured conception the next time you slept with someone,” I chuckle, “so the were very relevant. Congratulations, you're going to be a mommy. Which reminds me: You will be a good mother to your child. You will not spill any of the royal secrets. You will not inform anyone of how you used to be king, nor of how you came to be a woman.”

He considers, “Not going to stop me from seeking ****?”

Alice laughs out loud at that, “Why bother? Tell me: What happens if any of us get angry with you? You're legally a ****. You don't have access to the royal finances, and can't order guards around. You're methods of reprisal are limited. Ours not so much.”

“Here…” I cast a quick Major Creation to cover Anthony, “...have some clothes. Oh, and the reason we looked you up: Answer all of our questions honestly, do not leave out relevant details, do not give falsehoods, and do not hide the relevant data with irrelevant data.”

“You've done this before, then…” the deposed ruler frowns in my general direction.

“Alice can be really clever sometimes,” I chuckle.

“On to business…” my old DM chuckles as well, “We're pretty sure you're weren't pulling the strings, but were enough in the game to have information. Who was really pulling the strings to summon us?”

“Merlin,” the outrageously proportioned woman answers, "at least that's what his messengers called him. He bought your bodies, got them good and addicted, had his gangs arrange the summoning. Gave them some orders about ensuring you all ended up pregnant as well.” He pauses, looking at Alice, “my soldiers got to the ‘rescue’ early in your case. So you might not be.”

“I like this body too much…” Alice chuckles, “so that plan is intact. Why's he want us all to have a child?”

“Too many contingency plans,” Slut shrugs, “He was planning on making his move when you were all eight months along. Let's see… **** tats and **** addictions to keep you under control, weak and overly hormonal bodies to keep you distracted, pregnancy so you'd have trouble interfering if the rest fails. So that was contingency three or five, depending on how you count. Oh, and all nonhumans in a human-supremicist city, can't forget that.”

“And what's his plan?” Charles asks, as if it isn't obvious.

“To rule the world,” the ex king laughs, “Upend society, put himself at the top. He knows he'll need governors, I was going to rule here, with everyone who ever slighted me beneath me.” He shakes his head, “Now I'm the mattress….”

“Did you actually believe he'd succeed?” Brian rolls his eyes.

“Eh, not really,” the mind **** admits, “I was hedging my bets. If he turns into just another emperor, I'd have a seat at his table and rule over my witch of a wife. If he actually wins, same. If he lost, my part was to be a secret anyway: No harm done.”

Alice raises an eyebrow, “What do you mean, ‘No harm done’?”

“To me,” comes the instant answer. “Didn't work out.”

“When's he planning the big move?” Brian is closing his eyes and shaking his head. Given the reason…

“At the eight month mark from your summoning, when the four of you are expected to be barely mobile,” the mind controlled **** gives the answer I expect.

“So what's his plan, and where do we find him?” Charles asks an obvious question.

Anthony Essex takes a breath to answer….