Drow's Dilemma Ep. 122: Again

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 122: Again

With Ciearaela's information delivered through Dahlia to the Duskhavens and their allies (minus Caleldir, who was incapable of learning it), it was time to launch the assault on the Monastery and purify the corruption of the country at its very source.

With Caleldir being necessarily locked out of the loop, it fell to Ashyr and Selene to assemble the team needed for the assault. There wasn't much debate over who should go on the expedition. The choices were clear even if they (Selene) didn't relish the idea of spending a lot of time with a couple of the ultimate members. Selene (with Ylene) and Ashyr (with Bard) chose to go. Their offspring were well-guarded by Risa. Who, they decided, should not try to manifest and join their party; they didn't want to attract the attention of the Unborn sooner than they needed to. They had ample divine magic anyway; both Althaia and the High Priestess Hadlyn agreed to go with them. Not that they could keep either away, as determined as they were to join. The next member to join them had to be Abanonda. She was needed for her knowledge in Deusterra technology and to subdue 'Caleldra.' Once the mad fetch was overcome and partially cleansed, it was assumed that she would make a sixth to the party (not counting the familiars). Otherwise, the part about Goelon wouldn't make any sense.

Those were the people with whom they planned to clear the Monastery. They were still able to travel with Caleldir and his familiar. It was assumed by all that there would be a repeat of the events of last time; Caleldir would be taken away and of course Dahlia would go with him. She was, after all, just as much Goelon's familiar as she was Caleldir's. She brightly promised that she would fulfill her role to the best of her abilities. It was unclear what she meant by that.

Naliira knew how to 'restore Fedwyn's connection to the Green' and worked with Caleldir (who helped enthusiastically even while not knowing the true purpose) to create a seed of mixed technology and nature infused with primordial and divine magic that, when ingested, would purify her daughter. Subduing the mad archmage and making her eat it was still a very potent challenge, but they would deal with that when they confronted her.

As for the Abbot's vows, well, Caleldir explained that the Abbot had vowed to protect the monastery, to serve his superiors, to not own any valuable personal property, and to stay chaste, foreswearing marriage, sex, and children. He was unable to offer more advice on that topic. Hadlyn seemed to have a plan for that Abbot's ridiculous vows.

And so, the preparations and plans had been made. The journey to the Monastery had to be undertaken again. Due to the agitation of the local flora and fauna (most of it hostile) from the invasion, it was an even more brutally difficult journey than before. Or would have been, had the group not massively increased in power. And had access to several machines to do the walking for them. A small constituent of the most powerful of the troops traveled with them to hunker down and wait at the town near the foot of the Monastery while the main party set out.

It took about four hours of fighting to get to the Monastery. Caleldir parked the Spider-Tank in front of the grimly imposing, ever swellingly massive structure. "Well, we are back," he said after a deep breath. "We ready?"

"Ready," Althaia said grimly.

Abanonda seemed rather excited, for her part. Some might say a little too excited. "I have just one thing to do before I am ready to enter."

"That would be..." Caleldir began.

Abanonda stifled a bit of a smirk. She shrugged out of her clothing, then stretched and twisted like a cat, showing off her perfectly unmarred, cleanly grey, soft-looking flesh. "I fight better - and more protected - naked."

Althaia blinked. "Huh.' The nymph, who was clad in ordinary silver armor, grinned brightly. "That makes plenty of sense to me. Hmm... should I..."

"Not necessary," Caleldir grumbled, not looking at Abanonda.

The nymph shrugged. "My armor is just aesthetic. Has no effect to help or hinder. We can take it to a vote: should I follow Abanonda's example here and fight naked?"

Ashyr, Dahlia, and Hadlyn couldn't hide their brief noises of amusement, though the High Priestess was much more dignified about it. Selene looked on with a sparkle of amusement in her eye - mostly due to Caleldir's reaction. How could he be around so many naked women all the time and still find it embarrassing when he saw another one without her clothes on?

"As a priestess of Eilistraee, I heartily approve of going into battle naked if it's at all practical," Hadlyn said with a sage nod. "In fact..." She shrugged out of her already revealing robe and folded it away in a necklace of holding she wore. This left her with mere enchanted jewelry to adorn her otherwise exposed figure. "There is no difference for me either. The extra cloth does sometimes get in the way."

Ashyr's grin continued to grow. But she sighed in good-natured regret. "I cannot choose to shed everything. A ranger and her gear grow in power together." She gave the nymph a bit of a lecherous grin. "For you, Althaia... what would be more natural than a nymph fighting nude?"

"Indeed. Most nymphs are like Abanonda here, stronger and more durable when naked. My magical items are enchanted so that I can wear them without penalty to my armor or my senses. So it would be very natural indeed to fight naked. Still need to wield my sword and shield, though, I cannot fight as well as Abanonda weaponless."

"I can offer you some lessons!" Abanonda said cheerfully.

"I may take you up on that when things calm down. We can do some wrestling." Althaia replied sagely. Her clothing melted away.

Now hiding her amusement, Selene sniffed. "Just don't everyone get distracted by each other. And put everything back on if it angers the enemies inside more than necessary" She said as she folded her arms firmly under her breasts. Though, like Hadlyn, the only actually functional things she wore were her jewelry. The rest could have been safely discarded. Not that she was going to stoop to that indignity. Instead, she focused on Caleldir, offered him a soft smile, then pulled his face down to give him an affectionate but brief kiss on his lips. Ashyr followed suit with a less brief but equally affectionate kiss.

"Now that that's settled, shall we step inside?" Hadlyn asked, forgoing a goodbye kiss.

Caleldir seemed nonplussed, but just shook his head and turned towards the door. "Well, it is time. Let us make directly for the Geneforge this time. I think I can use it to purify the Neverborn at her source. I have done a lot of research with Risa on how to do so. I just hope that I can avoid getting snatched by her this time." He took a deep breath. "Yes, Hadlyn. Let us be inside."

With that, he led the way up to the imposing doors, opening it in much the same way as last time. This time, though, he let the others go through first, following gingerly, eyes darting around. He took Dahlia's hand with one hand, and Althaia's with the other.

Then, what everyone was expecting would happen, happened. The portal opened up, the voice welcomed Caleldir back, and tendrils of darkness dragged him in. Caleldir tried to fight back, but Althaia let go of him with an apologetic expression and let him be taken without struggle on her part.

"I am sorry, Caleldir, but this is how the curse will be broken," the paladin said rather miserably.

And he was gone.

The drow did not look quite miserable when they watched Caleldir get taken away, and Dahlia with him. Indeed, that had fully expected that to happen even before they knew how to break the curse, even if he was optimistic about getting away that time. Both had said their goodbyes; all that there was to do was to follow the plan. If they didn't all die horribly, they would see him again.

"Well," Ashyr said in a resigned tone. "I think I can remember the way to the Brewmaster." She squinted out at the building, which she knew to be a chaotic maze of confusion and corruption. "Let's hurry through and get this over with."

Not in a very talkative mood, Selene and Hadlyn merely nodded. The latter cast a couple of protection and buff spells on the party before they all set off, ready for the gradual slog through the cursed denizens of the Monastery.

As it turned out, Ashyr did remember the way to the Brewmaster. The ghostly monks between them and the stairs down to the Choked Cellars were mostly rather weak and generally retreated quickly after a few half-hearted attacks. The Monastery itself seemed to lack conviction in its mental assaults, showing off traumas already overcome, or attempting to pick at strengths rather than properly take advantage of weaknesses. All in all, the dungeon almost seemed tired, as if it had exhausted itself on its malice and was growing weak and apathetic.

That said, the whispers in the shadows were still quite unnerving. The shadows moved to grasp and grab but retreated when looked at. Hadlyn was almost strangled by a tendril of darkness once, but even that was resolved long before there was any real danger.

The stairs were before them. Time to descend.

"That aside, this is nowhere near as difficult as you Duskhavens made it out to be," Hadlyn said in a soft (slightly hoarse, due to being choked) voice after they managed to get the dark tendril off of her. She rubbed at her neck but didn't look too disturbed by her brush with danger. "I find myself hoping that the major players will give us more trouble than their monks are currently promising."

Selene gave her a flat look. "I find this lack of difficulty perfectly acceptable. Unless it's some sort of trap or ploy by the curse to lure us into a false sense of security..." She gazed about herself with additional suspicion, and her eyes flashed with detection magicks. Usually, though, such spells in the Monastery confirmed that the place itself was as evil and haunted as the abyss, and the intensity of it made it difficult to distinguish individuals.

"I think that the Monastery is just tired," Ashyr said with more optimism than her cousin. "Probably fights us because it has to, but wants us to win."

That seemed strange to Hadlyn and Selene, but they didn't argue.

"Generally, it is considered to be tempting fate to state that something does not seem as difficult as you expected it to be." Althaia chided. "Especially when that thing is an alien, angry, sapient, listening, very malicious genius loci."

"A false sense of security might indeed be at play here," Abanonda said with a frown. "I am not sure that this place wants us to win. Certain people might, but not the whole entity."

They kept on down the stairs. Their progress was slow, steady, and cautious despite their 'leader's' optimism. Ashyr let Althaia lead the way, while the ranger (with Bard at her side) brought up the rear. The rest walked in random order s.

As if to prove the pessimists' words prophetic, as the party was descending the stairs there could be heard the sound of malicious laughter, like that of a devil-possessed she-child. The stairwell spun and twisted.

"Sometimes I do not like being right..." Selene grumbled

As she said this. space warped around them and they found themselves in a large room that had not been there before. It was then that they heard skittering and scraping, and a massive spider-octopus-like entity made of half-melted bones and shooting inky webs of solidified acid was upon them.

Immediately, Selene took a defensive stance and quick-cast a devastating fireball before the close-combat fighters had a chance to get in range of the area of effect. Because that thing needed to be killed with fire.

The monstrosity was not immune to fire, but neither did the fire itself slow the thing down. It mostly lit the melted bones on fire. Which made the thing look even more terrifying and dangerous, but weakened it.

Hadlyn stood guard in front of the mage, throwing up a temporary magic barrier to keep the acid from splashing on herself and Selene.

The rest of the party scattered to dodge the acidic attacks. Ylene went into stealth mode and tried to find a nice sheltered area to take potshots at the attacking monster. Then Ashyr drew her black and white dual weapons and readied herself to jump into the fray at the earliest opportunity. Meanwhile, Bard leaped and dashed around the outer edge of the room to attempt a flank on the weird octopus girl.

Althaia and Abanonda, not fearing acid or flames, leaped into conflict pretty quickly, slashing and punching along with Ashyr.

The fight was hard and most of the party got knocked around a bit, but in the end, the healing was well able to keep up and the abomination fell into a melted puddle. With a scream, she faded away.

The room warped back into the bottom of the stairwell with the large doorway into the Brewmaster's Cellar before them.

"Alright, alright," Ashyr panted. "I'll try not to tempt fate with my optimism again." A grin twitched across her face. "Not unless things get boring for a while."

This only got an exasperated sigh from Selene. "Dearest," she said with some distress. "Boring is good. We have children to take care of now, in case you forgot. For their sake, we need things to go as smoothly as possible." For emphasis, Selene brushed her hand against Ashyr's stomach.

The ranger sighed. "You're right, of course. I guess I'm just a little too excited to be adventuring again." But somehow, her contrition didn't seem to fully satisfy Selene. It was probably that twinkle of mirth and general energy that gave a bounce to Ashyr's step. Finally! Something obviously strong that she could defeat with effort and cunning! This was what she needed to finally make that full recovery her mind still needed.

Althaia and Abanonda did not seem to take much interest in the conversation. Well, except for Althaia chuckling at Ashyr's tempting of fate.

"I will do my best not to tempt fate as well," Hadlyn added with a similar air of excitement. "Shall we enter before something else awful notices us?" This was addressed to Althaia, the designated frontwoman of the party.

Althaia nodded. "Time for the moment of truth. If we can purify Brewmaster Tokkler by forcing him to drink his old beer, then we can purify this monastery. If that does not work, well we will have to make a beeline for Caleldir and try his plan. Which, no offense to him, does not seem likely to work." She gripped her sword more tightly. "Let us advance."

With that, she opened the massive door.

Like before, they were immediately swarmed by ghost-monks, although the monks did seem to be notably disturbed by the three naked women and missed a lot more of their attacks. They were dispatched soon enough.

And it was just the absolutely massive Brewmaster left. If anything, he was larger than before: nearly fourteen feet tall. Unlike his minions, he seemed angered by the wanton display of sexuality rather than disturbed by it and did not hesitate at all to lunge forward in an attack.

With an aggressive, manic grin, Ashyr dove into battle with the Brewmaster. Her blades twirled and blurred in her hands with a literal mind of their own; she barely had to think of the correct places to hack at her foe while she dodged away from his attacks. Both she and Selene were far more powerful than they had been when they first encountered this enemy. With that power came both more confidence and caution. Ashyr's blades were more impressive, and Selene's spells were augmented by her artifact-given psionic abilities.

Hadlyn seemed to be amused by his offense towards their nudity. But, though she was tempted, she resolved not to tease him with it further and potentially sacrifice power for amusement. Instead, she provided the necessary protection and healing spells to her more offense-based party members. The occasional bursts of holy fire were just for fun, or for turning the big guy's attention back to where they wanted it to be.

Though the party put up a pretty decent fight, Tokkler the Brewmaster seemed invincible. The most they could get from him ended up being to stop the giant solid ghost from advancing too much. But whether it was Ashyr's sword or Abanonda's fists, the creature seemed to not be taking much damage. If not for Althaia and Hadlyn's healing, they would have been done for even with their increased power. The thesis that the monastery had weakened seemed to be pretty conclusively disproved.

But they were merely the distraction. The most important action was being carried out by the silent, invisible Ylene who was tasked with finding some of the Brewmaster's ale. With her perception and Selene's intelligence, they figured that they could find some way to force something alcoholic down their enemy's throat once they assessed the room. Ylene was able to pretty quickly find the ale. It was nearly everywhere, and obvious.

The difficulty would be in getting him to drink it.

Ylene sniffed at the bottles of alcohol she found, amazed that they would keep for so many hundreds of years. Of course, they had had stasis spells put on them way back when they had reached the Brewmaster's idea of perfection. The fact that they were not all smashed and the spells held was a source of temporary wonder. Not that she could wonder at it for long; a quick look back at the battle raging in the same room seemed to prove that they weren't going to defeat the Brewmaster on their power alone.

Now that the bottles had been identified (mostly they had to make sure that they weren't feeding Tokkler non-alcoholic poison), Selene's attention shifted to the booze. She figured that the easiest way to get their enemy to drink some was to surreptitiously float an open bottle behind him, then quickly jam it into his mouth. Some had to make it down his throat at that point, especially if she could keep the bottle jammed there. So, strafing to the side to hopefully avoid the Brewmaster's direct attention, she tried to enact her plan.

Ashyr and Hadlyn continued their battle. The ranger did her best to draw Tokkler's attention away from Selene and her familiar while they worked. Hadlyn simply kept her area and ranged heals up and going. She didn't want to get too close to the raging Brewmaster.

While the team ably coordinated the maneuver to try to force the bottle down the throat of the mad brewmaster, it did little good. The massive monk was too fast. It took several minutes of coordinated effort to get the bottle near him, only to have Tokkler swat it away.

But it was very noticeable that he had been exceptionally careful in doing so. It was obvious that the brewmaster did not want his bottles broken. Once he swatted the bottle out of the air, he grabbed it and returned it to its place on the shelf.

Then went into an even angrier berserk rage.

Selene swore under her breath. She only hoped that he was angry about the situation because he was confused and treasured the bottles and not because he was catching on to what they were doing. Not that either option would change their ultimate goal. It did give Selene an idea, though; if he was that careful with one bottle, how would he be with as many as she could telekinetically lift? And would he be able to catch them all before one made it into his mouth?