A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 33: Dangerous

Author's Note:

A Drow's Dilemma began as a one-on-one roleplaying project and has been converted into a chapter-by-chapter format for weekly posting with the permission and assistance from my partner. It will contain a considerable amount of sexual themes such as femdom, lesbian, straight, 'reverse' rape, BDSM, group sex, romance, and other themes. The main goal of the story, however, is to tell an epic tale of adventures, gods and goddesses, fae, and nymphomaniacs. This episode and every episode to come will be available for free on Literotica for the foreseeable future. All characters that engage in sexual or suggestive situations are mentally and sexually mature: the human equivalent of 18 for their race.

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Episode 33: Dangerous Roads

Caleldir looked with resignation at the large mecha-scorpion that stopped them in their tracks. "A security device that has malfunctioned, of course. An odd design, this one had. Well, we will have to disable it. Use blunt attacks: elemental magics are useless against it, but blows to the joints will disable it."

The drow looked up at the giant autonomous metal scorpion... thing with surprise and fascination. They probably should have been at least a little bit afraid of the contraption - it shot lightning from its godsdamn tail - but mostly they looked interested. After all, they were no strangers to giant spider-like creatures. Selene wondered briefly what kind of magic went into creating something so dangerous-looking that could last for over a thousand years and marveled at the skill of the long-dead civilization. As she wondered this, she ducked behind the cover of a nearby building. Then she began to summon her own creatures to fight - this time in the form of two dire boars at least as large as the metal scorpion. They hit the ground charging at the thing from opposite sides. If it was blunt damage the thing needed, blunt damage was what it was going to get.

In the meantime, Ashyr and her wolf fell back. The ranger didn't really have a blunt damage weapon and therefore decided that she wouldn't be too useful in this fight. Instead, they positioned themselves next to Selene in case anything else that decided to malfunction or be generally hostile near the younger drow. At least now they knew the smell they had to look out for in the future. Unless the half-nymph had an extraordinary nose, Bard would be able to smell it much sooner than Caleldir and perhaps give warning soon enough that the party could just avoid the fight all together.

Continuing on the trend that he had set ever since entering his home country of being surprisingly competent, Caleldir manifested a heavy hammer in each hand. "Selene! Have your boars focus their attacks on the contraption's limbs! Blunt force will knock them loose. Then we can shoot acid into the body to rot it out from the inside." Running forward, he dodged the sprays of lighting and fire with mechanical precision. It was obvious that he had dealt with this sort of machine before. A lot. The boars did exactly as they were supposed to do and seemed to have a fun time doing it - as much as a dire boar could appear to enjoy anything. Mostly they just liked to smash. With the help of the boars, and Selene's own acidic spells, he finally dislodged several of the joints, and sprayed acid into the inside of the creature. Then, he shot sprays of ice, and a burst of fire to melt said ice. Ashyr watched this happen with shining amusement in her eyes. In this particular instance, Selene and Cal worked together surprisingly well, especially considering how they'd originally met.

With a pop and a sizzle, the machine collapsed to the ground. A warning light came on, and the mechanical voice began speaking again in that vanished language. "'Repair sequence initiated.'" Caleldir translated. "It will be about three hours before it fixes itself well enough to return to its maintenance pod. No need to completely demolish this thing. Scares away trespassers." He brushed the dust off his hands. "At least we only had to deal with a Scorpion, and not one of the really dangerous machines. Well, shall we be on our way?"

"Any way we can get a few of those things to defend Duskhaven?" Selene asked as she also brushed away the dust and debris that the mechanical arachnid kicked up. "Those are - what was the surface term?" She signed something with her hand to her older cousin as she asked for the word in common.

"Badass." Ashyr responded with a grin.

"Yeah." Selene agreed, "Badass. Though I would rather not stick around to fight more of those. I'm ready to go if you two are."

"Yup. Let's get out of here."

"Perhaps we can steal the plans for their construction in the monastery." Caleldir stated as they continued their journey. "Or, alternately, one you have the money to hire artificers and buy materials. I could build you a few. I have most of the designs memorized. Except the really powerful ones, which were kept secret as opposed to freely available in the library where I read them. So if you want the best machines, we will have to loot the Archmage's quarters. Mind the smell of wine."

With that, the party left the little town, and continued on the ruined road. The attacks by weak nuisances continued, posing no real threat, but wearing down patience with sheer number of assaults. And so the day wore on, and turned gradually into evening. Just as the light was fading, they came to a massive chasm. There had been a once impressive-looking bridge across it, but it was shattered. Caleldir looked frustrated. "Great, the Stone Oaks bridge was destroyed. Maliciously so. This bridge was supposed to be self-repairing, but it seems that someone wanted to prevent anyone from going this route." He pointed across the chasm to a set of gates and a wall on the other side, magnificent even in ruins. It was becoming abundantly clear that Caleldir's civilization had been very overactive builders. "Well, we would want to go around Stone Oaks City anyway, so I suppose we have little choice but to go northward until we reach Bridgetown."

"I'm sure I could figure out a way to get ourselves across magically... Althaia might be a problem though." Selene said thoughtfully with her arms crossed under her breasts. "Avoiding cities when we can seems an excellent idea, though. As much as I'd like to see the defenses they use for such places, I'd rather stay away from bigger dangers for now." She looked down either way of their side of the chasm. "How much will that put us back?"

"We can reach Bridgetown by morning." Caleldir replied. "It would extend our total travel time by about a day, but the other ways across the chasm... actually, a magical method might work. Hmm..."

"Did all your monks get bored in their celibacy and decide to erect buildings instead?" Ashyr asked with a soft laugh in the pause that Caleldir took to think. The buildings certainly were impressive. She gazed across the chasm to look at the gates Caleldir pointed at. The older drow didn't seem to concerned with how long the journey would take them after such a setback. She was quite enjoying herself so far even with the growing annoyance of random but weak attacks. After all, once they were done with all this, it would be back to the Underdark for them with all its cramped halls, lack of forests, and devious people.

Caleldir smiled at Ashyr's words. "We had a lot of monks, that is true, but our civilization was definitely not just monks. But yeah, we had a tendency to build everything a lot larger than strictly needed. It was a way of showing off how superior our philosophies were to all the 'false gods of this world'. But our building of structures and machines alike was what doomed us in the end. We boasted of our power and technology and utterly despised the gods. I was aware of at least seven different Deicidal projects that my people were nearing completion on when our destruction came. My own life was quiet and peaceful - and at home so were my people - but we had made it very clear that our goal was nothing less than the subjugation of earth, hell, and heaven itself in the name of our 'heretical' unknown deity. So, yeah, our destruction was not surprising. We were too dangerous to allow to live."

"That seems... really evil, actually." Ashyr said in response. "Like, exactly something my people might decide to do if they got bored enough." Not that the knowledge of their hostility towards other deities bothered Ashyr. She didn't really care either way, child of Lolth or not. Sometimes she had a hard time understanding the difference between good and evil. Militant good and passive evil could look identical in some lights. "No wonder the gods took action. That would warrant good and evil to team up if they were afraid enough."

"Well, some of us were drow." Caleldir replied with a twinkle in his eye. "We were a philosophy, not a race, after all. We had little bits of every group." He let the topic go after that though. It was in the past, after all. Really far in the past.

All the while, Caleldir was thinking about the chasm. "Anyway, we have four options, the way I see it. We can try to repair the bridge by facing and defeating whatever hostile power is keeping it from repairing itself, go around to Bridgetown, raid one of the storehouses nearby for materials to build a temporary Levitator, or journey through the tunnels and see what horrors of my people had been storing down there."

A delicate finger brushed against soft lips as Selene thought about the possible solutions to the problem. An idea occurred to her then, something that seemed rather obvious now that she thought of it. "Or I could summon a few dire bats and fly us across. They probably won't try to hurt you good folk... too badly." A wicked smile spread across her face. Any creature that Selene summoned would be evil, and dire bats were especially fiendish as evil summons go. Of course they wouldn't attack Althaia and Caleldir unless she directed them to. She was mostly just teasing Caleldir. "It's not that hard a spell for me, either. Not like the hellhounds."

Selene's suggestion took Caleldir by surprise. He slapped his forehead. "Of course! The simple solution. Yeah, that seems like the most logical course of action. I can come back and indulge my bridge-fixing desires at a later date. A shame though. It was a really nice bridge. I wonder who broke it, instead of merely retracting the thing like it was designed?" He shrugged. "Well, I have no argument against bat-summoning, evil or otherwise. Unless your bats have cold-iron teeth, they would no do me much harm anyway."

"Got it: find a way to give my bats cold iron teeth and claws." Selene responded with deadpan humor.

"I could give them a magical attack. Well, one of them, anyway." Ashyr added in a helpful tone.

"Maybe next time." Selene said with a shrug. The only indication that either drow were joking was the amused squint at the corners of their eyes.

An unnecessarily loud, put-upon sigh escaped Caleldir's lips. "Next thing you will be giving them ghost-touch attacks too, so that you can really mess up my day." It was obvious from his theatrical response that he understood the joke though.

"Anyway, no need to give our tails an easy way to follow us." The older drow said more quietly than she had been talking before. "That's assuming they didn't get killed by one of your autonomous defenses." She was tempted to look around to see if she could catch of glimpse of them, but that would have been too obvious. "Perhaps when we've put things right in our home world, we can try to fix yours. If that's what you want." A caressing hand slid down Caleldir's elbow in a show of absent affection.

"Do we want to cross here or somewhere else?" Selene asked. She wasn't sure she liked the thought of meeting whatever didn't want people to cross the ravine.

Caleldir peered further down the ravine. "Yeah, we should probably move down about a mile to avoid whatever power rules here."

Selene did her summon of four dire bats, each easily as large as a cart horse. Ashyr held Bard to get both ranger and animal companion across at once. They had to move somewhat quickly, as they didn't want the spell's power running out while in the middle of being flown over. And so, they crossed the chasm without incident. The only problem that they had now was that they were way far away from the road, and the cursed, semi-rotted forest hemmed in around them. Caleldir looked at the dense growth ahead of them. "Well..." he said slowly. "There should be another road coming south of of Stone Oaks about a mile west. If we can make it through the forest without getting lost, then we should be good." He thought a moment. "Here is my idea: if I keep my eyes open, then the forest can cause me to lose my sense of direction, but if I keep them closed, I will be able to sense the exact location of the monastery. So, I will blindfold myself, and rely on you two to keep me from stumbling over roots or something, while you use me as a compass. Sound like a plan?"

"Blindfold you, eh?" Ashyr said in a decidedly naughty tone. There was some instances in which Selene and Ashyr were obviously related. The identical smirks on their faces made this one of those times. "Tripping might become the least of your worries- I'm joking, Selene." Ashyr said hurriedly after catching the look on Selene's face. "It's getting on towards night and too dangerous for those sorts of games."

"Fine." Selene said with a heavy sigh. She already had a bit of cloth in her hand to prepare for Caleldir's suggestion. That little bit of fabric seemed to have come out of her pack just a little too quickly and eagerly. It had obviously been quite a while since Selene was able to express her less... vanilla tastes in sexual pleasure. She handed the cloth to Caleldir while looking at Ashyr with an almost petulant frown.

The hungry looks on the two drow's faces did not escape Caleldir's notice. His eyes darted from one to the other. Huh, if he did not know better, he would think that... actually, no he did know better, and his thoughts were exactly right. "That blindfold excites you two that much, eh? Well, if we can find a safe place to make camp once we reach the road again, perhaps you two can train me in how to properly resist getting captured and interrogated by drow warriors. Or something of that nature."

"That's an idea." Ashyr grinned naughtily. "But for now, keep a hand on my shoulder. I'll keep you from falling." The older drow promised as the bit of fabric was being passed.

After he was blindfolded, Caleldir did as he was asked. "Okay, do not let me trip over anything. Or get eaten by shadows or something." He pointed forward. "That way. If we move quickly, we should avoid running into anything too difficult to fight."

"Yes, let's get going." Ashyr agreed. And so the little party continued on through the dense woods. There was something wrong with these particular trees. Well, more wrong. Many of them seemed frozen in a dying state, in a perpetual state of decay without ever actually decaying. Ashyr began to walk more quickly, though it wasn't the promise of the sexual application of the blindfold that hurried her steps. She didn't like the feel of the area. Her ranger sensibilities hated the sight of the trees so strangely half-sickly. Her thoughts fell back to the tales of the dryad and her diseased forest, something that she had dismissed outright at the time. But now... A hand fell to one of her blades as she was directed through the forest by her blinded mate. Bard walked very close to his mistress to avoid him getting caught by whatever unfavorable thing was bound to lurk in this part of the forest.

Selene, on the other hand, cared a little less about the trees that seemed wrong. It was a bit of a worry, sure, but there seemed to be some fun in store when they finally were able to stop. If they were ever able to stop. Finding a safe place in these blighted lands might be quite some trouble. Selene vaugely wished that Althaia would wake up. Then someone could act as lookout. She cast her gaze behind the party to where the motionless nymph floated on magical disk. Wind caught some brush as the younger drow's gaze turned. She thought nothing of it.

Even to a ranger's senses, the forest played tricks with the mind, crowding in and blocking out the light from the moon and stars until it was impossible to tell north from south, or east from west. Add to the that the tendency of some of the trees to shift when no one was looking, and it was easy to become completely disoriented. Fortunately, Caleldir, the living compass, could not see any of that. "That way." He pointed again. It seemed at times that he was pointing in random directions, but the party still kept moving, the unconscious Althaia, still wrapped in her blanket, floating behind.

A low growling could be heard coming from in front of them. "Sounds like a wooden bear." Caleldir commented. "Right in front of us. Let's adjust our direction for a bit..."

For a while, Selene steps were strong and eager to get going to safer places with exciting things in mind. But soon the exciting prospect morphed into her largely looking forward to simply getting off her aching feet and sleeping. The week previous had not served her well to prepare for a hard and dangerous trek through the forest. She began to grumble softly to herself about moving trees and roots that she swore came up from the ground just to trip her - whether there were such roots in existence or not.

And so it went. A few very minor things attacked, but nothing actually dangerous seemed to be aggressive enough to want to attack them. And so, after an hour, they arrived at the ruined road. Caleldir took the blindfold off once he felt the paving stones beneath his feet. "Well, that could have gone way worse." He commented. He gave Ashyr a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for guiding me so well." He told her.

Ashyr she smiled. It was a genuine thing not colored by mischief or wickedness. She grabbed at his head for a moment to kiss him properly on the mouth. "Happy to be of service." Ashyr responded once their lips separated. She hadn't forgotten about Caleldir's suggestion earlier when he'd blindfolded himself.

"So, do we keep walking until morning, or do you think we can find a safe enough place to rest for a couple hours?" Ashyr asked. She was looking at the obviously flagging Selene and definitely didn't have dirtier things in mind. Nope. That would be ridiculous.

Although Ashyr and Selene had not forgotten about his musings about the blindfold, Caleldir had. For the most part. The forest had crowded out that sort of thought. "I think that we can find a good place to hole up the rest of the night and tomorrow." He said. "Probably a farmhouse just off the road, once I exorcise any minor ghosts, should they be there. This was a heavily populated country, after all." With that in mind, they continued along the road, taking a junction west about a mile later. There were a few houses on the junction, but Caleldir shied away from them. "Defended," was all he said on the matter.

About an hour after they had exited the dense woods, Caleldir pried some overgrowth off of a path leading away from the road. "This looks promising." He observed.

Selene let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. For a while after that, her energy seemed renewed with the promise of stopping sometime soon. She didn't complain as much either. Near the end of the path, though, she was grumbling under her breath again and looked sorely tempted to start informing the party of her aches and pains again. Ashyr looked to her cousin with muted amusement. The older drow knew how close the younger was to being at the end of her patience. Selene was acting every bit the noble drow at the moment. The ranger held out the crook of her elbow to the flagging Selene, who took it and leaned on it gratefully.