Drow's Dilemma Ep. 101: Paladins

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.

*****

Episode 101: Paladins

It had been several cycles since Abanonda had begun keeping watch on Duskhaven Manor. In that time, she had gathered a lot more information. Mostly about the coup and noticing that there seemed to be only males among the leadership of the manor. Which she understood to be very odd.

She had considered at several points simply barging into the Manor to see what Varas/Vlondae was up to, but decided against it. According to further information she had gathered, the enigmatic mercenary/mercenaries was/were reputed to be unbeatable, and though she had contempt for the fighting abilities of most of the Underdark, some inner intuition had told her that she should treat this particular person with more caution.

So, she watched and waited until her patience paid off and the tall male drow with the strange stride and closed-eye smug smile emerged from the estate. Well, by reputation he had a strange smug smile. Right now he was not smiling, instead looking a bit strained. Abanonda gasped a bit: the Evil aura rolling off him was intense. She prepared to accost him from her hiding place on the cavern floor when the man stopped.

"Daughter of Blackdawn, I see you there," he said in a serene voice.

Her adrenaline spiking after having been both perceived and identified, Abanonda emerged. Once more, she was wearing a long, loose robe.

"Are you Varas, Vlondae, or both?" she asked.

'Varas' smiled slightly, his face returning to a more typical expression for him. "Both, but neither. What seek ye with me, daughter of Blackdawn?"

"The idea that either of those were your true name never warranted serious consideration," Abanonda said dryly. She took a fighting posture, though more defensively than normal. "I am looking for my kinsman: Caleldir Blackdawn."

"The old Master Librarian of the Monastery of Eternity is only adopted kin of yours, daughter of Blackdawn. And I am not about to tell you where he is. Not without sufficient payment. And you could hardly afford my services."

Abanonda narrowed her eyes. "So, you know where he is."

"Of course. The Ghost-King is not as good at hiding as he believes himself to be. I have always known who and where he is. Nothing escapes my notice in my cavern."

"Your cavern? I thought this place belonged to House Duskhaven?"

'Varas' scoffed. "I was here long before those destructive usurpers."

Abanonda took a deep breath. That was not encouraging to hear. "I will make you tell me where he is if you will not do so willingly."

This was greeted with a laugh. "You are welcome to try, daughter of Blackdawn. If you can defeat me, I will tell you everything you want to know and more." Varas slipped into his own easy posture, gesturing at her. "So, come at me."

Abanonda did. With blinding speed, she moved right out of her robe and struck at the mercenary with conjured blades, one in each hand. Varas seemed taken aback by the sheer speed and savagery of the attack. Though he parried with his own blade, it was not enough to completely deflect her. She drew green-tinted blood from his arm. He leaped back from her, but she immediately closed the gap, following up her first attack with several more, not letting him catch his breath.

After several seconds of this, Varas had enough. Acidic green 'flames' erupted from his breath in a massive explosion, singeing Abanonda enough to force the agile Blackdawn to retreat herself, catching herself on the side of the cavern wall and hanging off it, her bare chest rising and falling as she caught her breath.

Varas sighed. "I see I underestimated you, Blackdawn." He opened his eyes. Far too large, far too green. For the first time, he 'smiled' with his mouth open, extremely pronounced fangs showing. "You fight naked, Blackdawn. An interesting choice."

"It is our philosophy to never allow our strength to rely on anything that can be taken away," Abanonda explained, eyeing the strange creature with dawning realization. "Things like weapons, armor, tools, and clothing. We instead refine ourselves into the perfect tools, the perfect weapons."

This brought a genuine smile from Varas. "Ah! Such an admirable philosophy indeed! I had not realized that Blackdawn had come so far! Young Nirza had such a magnificent effect on you all!"

Abanonda kept on her guard but did not attack just yet. "Which Nirza Blackdawn are you talking about?"

The green-eyed mercenary grinned again. "You are looking for her Master right now. Nirza Blackdawn: student of Caleldir Hissael. Who was the student of Fedwyn Birchborn, my rival long, long ago."

This revelation made Abanonda's eyes go very wide indeed, and she swallowed. "Then, you are-"

"Ah! I should introduce myself, Daughter of Blackdawn. But before I do so, I will see if you are worthy of my identity. So I shall test your mettle. See how far this pursuit of perfection has taken your house. See if you are worth more than all these other worthless scions of Aralolth." 'Varas' dropped his material weapons and struck his own martial pose, gesturing Abanonda towards him once more. "Again."

So, Abanonda attacked again, one conjured blade in each hand. Varas met her blades with his own conjured weapons, matching her blow for blow. Each strike sent shockwaves out, blowing the loose stones across the cavern floor. Sparks of mana-against-mana lit the dim cavern for brief moments with each hit.

After the two traded blows for several moments, Varas began to get the better of Abanonda. He caught both her blades with one of his and used his free sword to slash at her stomach. Abanonda saw the blow coming before it disemboweled her, disengaging and leaping back, but she still found herself with a nasty gash across her midsection. While still in the air, she cast a healing spell on herself, closing the wound before she hit the ground. She was breathing hard when her bare feet landed on the hard stone.

Varas did not let her catch her breath, leaping forward with acidic mist swirling around him. Abanonda cartwheeled back as he approached. As she leapt and twisted, her lips moved swiftly with incantations. With every few seconds, she grew faster and more agile as her magic began reinforcing her again and again. Her entire body began to glow and shimmer, warping the space around her with the concentration of power. Varas got four more blows in, but her wards soaked up the blows.

Finally, she leaped up far higher than before, clinging to the side of the cavern wall with one hand and one foot. "Rainbow beams of silver night, strike my foe with prismatic might!" she intoned. Her free hand shot forth a Prismatic Spray, all beams but the Orange one focused on Varas.

But the mercenary had heard the incantation and met the rainbow attack with his own. The two spells canceled each other out. Varas followed his counterspell up with a massive barrage of Magic Missiles. Abanonda paled when she saw that there were ten of them. The missiles honed in on her with unerring precision, and though she managed to get off an emergency Dispel to negate some of them, the rest punched right through her Shield spell and knocked her off the wall.

The Dark Elf caught herself on the way down, using the momentum of her fall to propel herself far across the cavern and onto a particularly large fungal growth. She grit her teeth, healed herself with force of will, and cast another spell on herself.

She launched off of the fungi with blinding speed, closing in on Varas faster than the mercenary could properly react and kicking him in the stomach, nearly bowling him over. She hit with blade after blade, kick after kick, closing the gap and not giving him time to reorient himself. Bits of green blood spattered out of the man's wounds, hissing and burning like acid where they fell on the floor.

"Enough!" Varas said in frustration. Power ripped out of him, shredding the cavern around, sending cracks through the stone of the floor. The underground shuddered and groaned. Abanonda launched herself into the air, landing back on one of the fungi, keeping her stance as the earth swayed drunkenly.

Varas took in huge lungfuls of breath. His smile was almost mad with glee now. "You are strong, Dark Elf." His(?) voice had changed. Deeper, mightier, but more with an unmistakably feminine quality to it. The mercenary's body cracked and shifted, and she doubled in height, nearly shredding her clothing and showing her newly female body. Her now-brilliantly emerald green hair cascaded down her dark shoulders, covering over her massive breasts. Her still too-large-for-her-body Eyes glittered malevolently. "But you are not strong enough." Acid welled up around her, boiling from the ground and swirling outward. And upward, infusing her body with a sickly green glow.

The woman skated across the acidic floor as if it were ice, swiftly closing the gap between her and Abanonda. Abanonda barely had time to reinforce her elemental resistance against acid before the giant green-haired black-skinned elf-thing was upon her. Now towering massively over the smaller Dark Elf, the woman-who-was-Varas beat down on her, forcing Abanonda into the acid where the caustic liquid began to eat through her magical shields and into her naked flesh.

Abanonda slammed her hands together to make a magical sign and slipped through space to get behind her oversized foe. The giant elf whirled around far faster than anything her size had any right too, but as she looked on the Blackdawn, a pang of horror crossed her face.

"Goddess of the Moon," Abanonda began, her hair glowing forth silver light. "I beg thee this my boon." Her fists glowed and she dodged Varas-Vlondae's blows. "Throw the wicked into upheaval, Guide my blows to Smite the Evil!"

Her very aura burning with holy light, Abanonda punched right through her foe's own strike, hitting her square in the gut. Shockwaves from the strike blew the acid away and sent Varas-Vlondae back thirty feet with a scream of pain.

But Varas-Vlondae kept her feet all the way through the blow. When she met Abanonda's eyes, her smile was gone. Now grim anger masked her face, and she snarled, her mouth full of carnivorously sharp, oversized teeth. "How. Dare. You." The woman sputtered. "You dare to Smite ME? You use the power of your cowardly Moon Goddess against ME? What means your self-reliance, Blackdawn, if you receive power from the jumped-up charlatans and harlots who call themselves divine?"

"It means that I have a weapon to use against such as you," Abanonda said coldly. She tightened her fists and began walking towards the other woman. "Now, tell me, foul one, where is Caleldir Hissael? I know you know! Tell me, or I beat your draconic ass into your own acid-burned stone!"

Varas-Vlondae scoffed. "So, you finally acknowledge what I am. And yet you think you can threaten me? You have no idea what kind of Dragon you have come across. I am Varyndaevyrress the Empress of Ten Thousand Emeralds, and I had achieved Great Wyrm status centuries before your Caleldir Hissael-Blackdawn was born!" She raised a hand, and a dozen orbs of stone, fire, and acid formed above her head. "I created the forest that used to fill this cavern, before such a woman as Ashnathyr Duskhaven ever emerged screaming from her mother's womb!" The acidic meteors slammed into the stone around Abanonda, forcing the paladin to leap and dodge out of their path. "This cavern has always been mine, whatever these filthy drow usurpers believe. And you are nothing more than some arrogant little interloper propped up by her whore goddess. Your Moon-addled mistress may have removed your very ability to feel fear, but if one rational bone remained in your succubus-bewildered body You. Would. Know. Terror!"

Varyndaevyrress's eyes were fully draconic now. She took in a deep breath, and let out the maelstrom. The very world around them melted.

But when the acid tsunami ended, Varyndaevyrress saw with horror and delight Abanonda's frame mere yards away, her melted flesh knitting itself together even as she struck. The paladin hit the dragon with another kick, stronger than the last.

But Varyndaevyrress caught her foot in her hand. The dragon's humanoid arm cracked, her flesh boiling open with the force of holy power pumped through her. But she caught Abanonda's foot. And squeezed. Abanonda screamed as her foot was crushed, the very bones turned to pulp in the dragon's incalculably strong grip.

Abanonda did not let the pain stop her for more than a second. No sooner had she finished her scream of pain than she shouted out the words for a Sunburst spell. Varyndaevyrress was forced to close her eyes against the blinding rays.

But Varyndaevyrress never needed eyes anyway. She caught Abanonda's next punch, though it half-shattered her other arm, and crushed the Dark-Elf's right hand. She hurled Abanonda away with enough force to bury her in the bedrock wall.

Embedded in the stone, Abanonda nearly lost consciousness, but somehow managed to hold on. Varyndaevyrress walked up to her, losing size and changing form until he was once more Varas, but his eyes opened, and face solemn. "Dog of the Gods or not, I have not been challenged like that in more than a thousand years," he said sincerely. "You are magnificent mage, a canny strategist, and an amazing fighter all at once. Your House should be Proud of the results of their search for Perfection. But though you were a shark devouring whatever fish you ran into, there are still Leviathans behind your comprehension lurking in the Deep places of the world."

"My hubris is amply punished," Abanonda said weakly. "Finish me off now, dragon. I will not beg you for mercy."

Varyndaevyrress shook his (her?) head. "Kill you? I would sooner destroy one of my most prized treasures. You are a work of Art. You and your House have honed your body and mind to degrees I did not think possible for any creation of Aralolth. I would never forgive myself if I pointlessly destroyed anything that comes so close to Perfection as you!

The dragon turned its back to Abanonda. "While I have no interest in telling you where the Ghost-King sleeps, I will tell you something else that might assist you. I have ended my contract with the Duskhaven males. I never liked any of the Duskhavens ever since the cursed Ashnathyr cut down my lovely underground forest and built her city in my cavern, but I have always enjoyed toying with them. But these men are different. They are involved with dark forces that I do not like. And they have sent one Ashyr Duskhaven to their foul, foul patron. You should rescue her. Who knows? You might run into your precious Caleldir in the process. He is no doubt on his way there now. And this 'Patron' irks me mightily. Makes my scales crawl. He deserves a few paladins running through his demesne, ruining his plans."

A pause from Varyndaevyrress, then she turned towards Abanonda once more, tossing her a potion and a scroll that she pulled from seeming nowhere. "Drink this and get back on your feet. The scroll has the coordinates for the planar home of the Duskhaven male's foul patron. A mage of your power will be able to do the rest."

A last smile, not unfriendly. "Have fun in Hell."

--

Dahlia was never going to call a halt to the foursome that had begun in order to her power up - not even when she was back to full energy. It was Selene who decided that they were all done when she suspected the succubus of carrying on the situation longer than it needed to go. The older drow curled against Caleldir to enjoy the intimate contact of bare skin to bare skin. Sidhriia took her spot on his other side. Dahlia, however, stayed at the edge of the bed.

Finally, Risa walked into the room dressed in her usual scanty clothing and sat down in a chair, looking exhausted. "Thank you for that," she yawned. "That little scene powered me up enough to regain consciousness. Later today, I would like to have a personal moment with just Caleldir, if you all do not mind, but for now I am too tired for sex," she yawned again. The woman looked almost as drained as Dahlia had coming out of the portal. "In the meantime, I would like a report on everything you can tell us about this realm Ashyr is trapped in, Dahlia."

"It was Hell," Dahlia said with a grimace. "A particularly bad part, mind, but pretty standard for the bad parts of hell. Lava pools, falling stalactites, heat vents. Those sorts of things. Right up until you get to the heart of the domain. Then things get... fleshy. And not in the good way. The floors will just... gape open and swallow you without warning. There are guards, too: stitched-together undead abominations. They also eat people, by the way. The whole place was voracious. Gluttonous."

"I had heard of the Flesh Gardens of Hell," Risa observed, distaste on her expression and tone alike. "Multiple ones, in fact. Ranging from the curiously pleasant (yet still horrifying) ones where powerful Succubi Pornocracies have organized the environment to their taste, to some places associated with necromancers that are... well, objectionable."

"A bit of an understatement, that," Caleldir said dryly.

Risa shuddered. "Sounds like this place is a bit more towards the latter category than the former for horrifying wrongness. Flesh Abominations are something I find especially loathsome. Just... everything about them."

"I feel pretty much the same way. Anyway, in the end, all of my sisters were eaten by various things. I was eaten by what I think was a giant at one point before a necromancer got to it. I wasn't consumed, as you see. No, I was taken to some sort of prison. My sisters must have been taken to similar places, but we were separated. I got out of my bonds but probably would not have gotten far if I wasn't able to teleport to you. They weren't expecting one of the captured succubi to be a familiar. I was going to try to find a way out of the caves I was trapped in before porting to you, but I was seen by the damned thing that ate me in the first place. Before that happened, though, I saw a drow that fit Ashyr's description. She was sleeping in a cage like mine. Probably. She didn't have the look of death about her, but she didn't exactly look healthy, either."

Her description finished, Dahlia let out a heavy sigh. "I would declare that I never want to go back there... but my Seduction is there. And Ashyr, too. I've only briefly seen her, but I think I would feel as lost without her as I would without my Seduction. I guess I have you to blame for that, master."

"They ate you? Was that necessary to be taken to this place? Like if there were portals in their stomachs or something?" Risa drew a deep breath and shook her head.

"I certainly hope not." Caleldir wrinkled his mouth in distaste. "That sounds unpleasant beyond unpleasant." He closed his eyes, and let out a long exhale. "Well, so. You will have to guide us there. We should think about what sorts of preparations we should make once this time dilation is over." He communicated deep feelings of sympathy to Dahlia over their link.

"And we will definitely rescue any of your Seduction still alive," Risa added. She grinned. "Maybe on the condition that they work for me. I could use some inhabitants to live in my dimension. I could even build you your own separate realm here...