Drow's Dilemma Ep. 147: Outpost

"Ugh, that too. Why do they seem to think adding more bodies improves the situation? Four is about the maximum I will tolerate." Selene settled back into Caleldir's lap, deciding to let go of the great insult of being compared to Dahlia. Her hands went back to caressing Caleldir, gentle but insistent while her soft breasts contrasted with hard nipples pillowed into his chest.

"Dahlia feeds off of the ambient erotic energy," Caleldir explained. "Ashyr is just... unusually lustful for a non-succubus." He paused, brows furrowing. "When you say four is the maximum, do you mean yourself and three others, or yourself and four others?"

"Myself included, of course," Selene said. Her lips brushed against his neck, her hot breath tickling his neck.

"Noted," Caleldir replied. He did not react much to Selene's kisses. Normally, even if he was 'not in the mood' for some reason, he would at least blush, squirm, have interesting expressions, and by now have a massive erection. But... his manhood had not responded, his heart rate remained the same, and his cheeks had not heated up.

Selene made an annoyed sound. Usually, Caleldir would be responding by the point no matter how tired he was. She cast one of their old favorite spells: Pleasure. Then her fingertips massaged erotic energy down Caleldir's spine. Willing his cock to rise to meet her dripping womanhood.

The spell seemed to restore some of Caleldir's libido. But not enough yet. There was a mere twitch in his dick, and his attention seemed more on the magic itself than on the eroticness of it. "Your Pleasure spell is different than before," he observed, narrowing his eyes. "It is no longer a spell, actually. It is a spell-like ability. And much more potent. Could you cast it again? I would like to analyze it further..."

"What, really?" Selene asked in a tone partially distracted by arousal. It did make her curious, though. She cast the spell again, focusing on her desire to finally get Caleldir hard again.

Some of the familiar signs of arousal were working their way back to Caleldir's body, though his attention remained focused squarely on the magic. "I... I admit, I had thought that you had been turned into a succubus," he admitted. "But... that is untrue. It is clear however that you have been transformed. I can see it in your spells. It shows a very different signature."

"I told you that I was Drow. I am still Drow, just immortal and more powerful. The next step past Noble. Aster sort of knows how it works. Enough to suggest it when Dahlia was trying to get me to become one of her kind," Selene admitted. "You thought I would give in to Dahlia's prodding?" she asked in an annoyed tone.

"Your soul signature is different. It looked almost succubized, but not quite," Caleldir replied, his focus still on the magic more than anything else. His eyes were beginning to shine with curiosity. "Originally, I felt the best explanation was that you had been succubized, but were concealing it imperfectly with soul-magic. But that is clearly not the case." He let out a long breath. "You might as well take your true form now, Selene. Drow you may be, but not any sort of drow that has been seen in this world for thousands of years."

"My true form?" Selene asked. "Hmm. I would consider my current appearance 'veiled' as you are." Her skin deepened into a more brilliant obsidian, her platinum hair began to almost shine like the moon, her subtly enlarged eyes grew into a richer crimson-purple and took on a soft glow, her lips more full. She was absolute perfection in drow form.

Then silvery markings pulsed across her body as she pressed more erotic energy into his skin. "The only problem is that I require energy from sexual interaction and am much hornier now. Not as bad as a newborn succubus, but it is still quite undignified."

"So... it is a technique by which magical power is vastly increased, even over the normal succubus boosts, but you stay drow. Just with a need for soul energy, and increased libido." Caleldir let out a long breath, then let his own veil go down. The erotic energy flowing into his skin was having some effect, but he was not back to normal. His cock underneath Selene was starting to press into her, though. "Well, that is nifty. I had read about something like that being possible in the deep past when the Empress of Souls sought to conquer the world and supplant the gods, but it was lost with her. The term she had for them was Monster Girls, which is a very silly label. Otherwise, they were called Eromajin. Funny that the art of creating them rediscovered about the same time as she returned."

"Funny," Selene repeated. "It may not be coincidence, but I have nothing on which to base that aside from knowing that the goddesses take personal interest in what our group does." Her tone was distracted; his half-erect cock brought increasing fire to her core. Her silvery markings flared brighter than ever as she directed her lust directly into his manhood through her own sex.

The magic quickly had the effect she desired. As Phivucai had said, with enough erotic power one could get a corpse erect. And Caleldir was no longer a corpse. His breath caught as his cock practically slammed into Selene's damp heat.

For a moment, he gripped her harder, then slowly eased off. "Selene..." he said slowly. "Can... can you attack me? Ravage me, tease me, use me, mock my prudishness. Like the old days."

Selene's perfectly full lips twitched upward in a smug smile. "I knew you couldn't resist me forever."

Tendrils of pleasure whipped out and took hold of Caleldir, fixing him to the seat and positioning his body to force his cock out and vulnerable to her assault. With far more dexterity and elegance than she ever managed before - which was an impressive feat - she slammed her dripping wet pussy onto his dick, which drew a gasp from him.

A set of delicately clawed grey hands wrapped around Caleldir from behind, stroking his vulnerable body. Purring tickled at his ear.

"Did you know?" she said in a smug voice, "My attentions will still help incubize you. Or, at least, halt your regression if there isn't another succubus creature here. Back before this, I would fuck you while you were sleeping along with the succubi. Of all the women, I claimed you the most."

This drew a moan from Caleldir. "You know exactly what to say, Selene," he breathed. "Sadly, I am too tired to actually want to even play at resistance right now." He closed his eyes, and tension flowed off of him. "You gave me my libido back pretty quickly. You feel every bit as amazing as ever. Maybe even better. I like you as an Eromajin."

"Eromajin. An interesting term. I still consider myself Drow - or, I suppose I should say Dark Elf. I am not like those idiots in the Underdark. And now I have enough nylameian energy that I can claim you long after the drow die of old age. I will only get better and stronger. How many times will you marvel that I've gotten even better?"

Her words seemed to be turning her on, for her body rolled and writhed harder and faster. Her rhythm was always absolutely perfect, no movement was clumsy. Selene drove herself to orgasm rapidly, and then it was Ylene who was mewling with pleasure on top of him while her mistress claimed Caleldir's mouth with a dominant kiss.

---

Ashyr and her crew flew through the gloom for a while longer until they came upon the most beautiful fortress Ashyr had ever seen. It had all the signs of nylameian architecture while looking practical enough to fend off any enemy who was foolish enough to try to attack it. Its beauty was simple and elegant across the whole structure, down to the last crenelation.

In the center of the fortress was a tall, circular, domed tower that dwarfed all other structures. There were hundreds of arrow slits in ordered patterns along its wall. Near the top, huge crossbows loomed within larger openings. A flying creature approaching the structure would have a very bad time.

Surrounding the tower was a more traditional fortress layout; walls, a large courtyard, an open smithy, stables, and busy women going between buildings. Then, of course, there were the dozen or so sparring valkyries in the open training grounds.

While there was snow surrounding the party, there was none to be found within the fortress walls. Upon closer inspection, there was a subtle layer of steam in a large bubble that encapsulated all but the outermost buildings beyond the crenelated walls.

The party slowed to take in the beauty. Their escort noticed a few wing beats later, turned to them, and flashed a proud, toothy smile.

"It's gorgeous," Aster marveled.

"It is but a small outpost," the valkyrie explained. "They all look exactly like this. Our capitol is far grander."

"Do you have to fight many sieges here?" Aster asked as she glanced around the obscuring mist.

"I wish," the valkyrie sighed. "Back at home, we have siege games, but we're so far from the north that no one will come to fight our regiment. We have to spar and fight wandering monsters to keep in shape. Now come, Redspear and Deathdancer will be happy to know you've arrived."

The party landed and approached the main gates. "Goldenfury! I have found the travelers we anticipated," their escort announced to the blonde guard peering out of the gatehouse window. "We need to report to Redspear."

A small door opened in the side of the gatehouse, which Ashyr's escort led them through. Comforting warmth hit them as soon as they passed through the threshold. All of them were protected against the elements, but the piercing cold of the mountaintop was still uncomfortable. They walked down a white corridor with floor and ceiling decorated with the same silver and gold knotting patterns that decorated the entire fortress. Tapestries hung on the walls at regular intervals, showing artistic depictions of epic battles and beautifully strong women. Very occasionally, a heroic man led battalions of female winged warriors.

Then they emerged into the courtyard, distracting some human and elven women who were busy with their chores. "They have fresh vegetables!" Aster observed, "Where are they getting those from? Portals? -oh, but teleportation was locked down!"

Their escort laughed. "We grew them, of course! We would not be very sustainable if we had to outsource our food. Our gardens are underground. We have sun-collecting lenses that direct everything our plants need to grow. I don't know the details; our servants take care of all that."

The valkyrie led them to a door into a building attached to the main tower. An elven secretary looked up. "May I help you?"

"Is Redspear in her office?" their escort asked.

"Is she ever?" the secretary asked with a small smile.

"Hah, no. I didn't see her sparring, though."

"She's overseeing the gardens at the moment."

"We were just talking about those," Aster said eagerly. "Can we go see them?"

"I suppose we will have to," the valkyrie shrugged.

They went back through the courtyard to where Aster saw the servants emerging with the fresh produce. A large door opened into a storage room that was only slightly warmer than the outdoors. They passed through that room to a set of heavy metal doors. When they walked through those, the heat of summer enveloped them. A long stairway led them deep underground.

And then there was the huge, bright room filled to bursting with greens, golds, and splashes of every other color nestled within the leaves. A familiar Valkyrie was leaning against a balcony overlooking the growing plants.

"Hlara, there you are!" Ashyr exclaimed.

The valkyrie turned and nodded at Ashyr and her group. "You are dismissed," she told their escort. "I was wondering when you would get here after the dimension lock surprised us. What is going on, what do you need?"

Ashyr began to explain what happened with Aster providing more details that the dark elf was still a bit fuzzy on. "We need an army and we need to train," Ashyr concluded. "Can you help us?"

"If you agree to become one of us," Hlara instantly replied.

The Matron of Duskhaven blinked. "Already thought this through, did you? I think technically the matron of Duskhaven has to be Dark Elf. Can... can I invited Caleldir and the rest of the ladies I brought with me? I need to talk it over with my partners."

"We usually don't allow males into our eyries..." Hlara replied thoughtfully. "But, as he is your male and we would need to keep you for about a week... You! Trainee!"

A redheaded human stopped immediately and stood at attention, though her arms that were full of squash made the motion awkward. "Yes ma'am!"

"When you have dropped that off, report to Deathdancer. Ask her to arrange for accommodations in one of the outbuildings!" Hlara ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" the human said again before she hurried off.

"Does your party need an escort?" the valkyrie asked Ashyr.

"Master Caleldir can track me," Aster informed her politely. "Shall I tell him to wrap up what he's doing and come up?"

"Do so," Hlara said, turning back to overlook the garden. "We will reconvene in my office once you have made your decision, Ashyr, Matron of Duskhaven. Dismissed."

Ashyr grinned. Redspear never seemed friendly even when they first met. Deathdancer assured her that Hlara did, in fact, like her despite her cold demeanor. They wouldn't have invited her to join their ranks if Hlara did not approve of her. Ashyr twitched her head toward the entrance, signaling the rest of her party to follow her out of the building.

As they were exiting, and before Aster had sent her message to call Caleldir and the rest up to the fortress, one of the valkyrie lookouts espied a small group rapidly approaching the citadel: an adult copper dragon and a nymph paladin on a celestial pegasus.

"That's Lady Althaia!" Aster announced as she took wing towards flying newcomers. The succubus familiar sent a message as she approached the nymph. -Caleldir! Come up! Althaia is here too! They will let you stay just outside the outpost.-

-Who should I bring?- Caleldir asked. -The spider-tanks will not go all the way up there.-

-It sounds like we're going to be here for a couple of days. Can you conceal the tanks and bring everyone?-

-Between Selene, Phivucai, and I, I am certain we can figure out something. Some sort of illusion, or burying them...-

As Caleldir and Aster conversed, Queen Althaia and Priestess Coppereyes approached the outpost citadel, then stopped as they drew very near. The dragon shifted to her humanoid form, albeit keeping the copper wings, and the priestess and queen flew in place. This close up, it was clear that Althaia wore artfully revealing armor, while Coppereyes wore a mischievous expression.

"Matron Ashyr! Princess Aster! Is that you?" Althaia called out.

"As you see," Aster said with a smile. She glanced over her shoulder to see Ashyr and a couple of Valkyries joining her. Hlara was poking her head out of the garden building and was sure to join them as well.

"Did Tsabdrin send you our way?" Ashyr asked when she got within earshot.

The Valkyries - now also in earshot - took a guarded stance in the air, waiting for their captain to give her orders about these newcomers.

"Tsabdrin?" Althaia responded. She shook her head. "No, we came here directly from Nymphgarden. We had already received a message that you were heading this way." She looked towards the valkyries and nodded. "Greetings, I am Althaia, Queen of the Nymphs and Aelsuna's Chosen Champion. This is Priestess Coppereyes of Aelsuna. I am here to discuss with you the threat of a particular over ambitious Green Dragon."

"Stand down, ladies. Queen Althaia is welcome here. Study her face well," Hlara ordered, her voice booming across the sky. She slowed to a stop next to Aster. "Would you and your attendant join me in my office? Matron Ashyr, Princess Aster, I would like you to join as well if you don't mind."

She led them out of the wind and down into the courtyard. Another valkyrie intercepted them, "Captain Redspear! We have cleared an outbuilding for the male!"

"Steel?" Ashyr asked, turning to the four warrior drow who had accompanied her. "Can you meet Caleldir when he gets here and help him set up our room?"

"I will show you the way," the reporting valkyrie offered.

The two groups split then, one outside the fortress and one deeper in.