A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 58: Old Friends

"I am still not sure how much of this you are making up." Gurzan said dryly (the only way he said things, most of the time.) "In some of your other stories, you are Goelon Duvainor. In this one, apparently, you summon him by stabbing yourself in the chest, but he is otherwise a distinct entity. You need to be consistent with your setting info. Still, my daughters have once more expressed an interest in hearing your stories for themselves."

Caleldir sighed. "I would love to tell them some stories, but more than that cannot happen. I have way too many women following me as is." Looking up, he saw Ashyr approaching. He turned a beet red. "Like, err, Ashyr for instance. Not that I want to get rid of her..."

Gurzan smiled slightly. His looks had improved quite a bit over the time of their separation; he still looked like an old, grizzled fellow, but minor orcish attributes aside, he had a manliness to him that showed what his wife had found attractive in him at least. "Well met, Ashyr Duskhaven. I hear that you and that cousin of yours have mellowed out a bit these last few months."

"And your time with your wife seems to have suited you." Ashyr responded to Gurzan's greeting with a very slight grin. The expression would have been more friendly, but her mood was soured by the news of Carlotta. She walked up to join the two of them until she stood very close to Caleldir - her proximity seemed to be an unconscious decision. There was nothing in her expression to tell that she was flaunting her relationship with Caleldir. Indeed, she was not intentionally doing so.

Gurzan immediately noticed Ashyr's sour mood. "My time at home always leaves me feeling refreshed. But I am not one to stay always in the nest." He said shortly. "Something troubles you that did not when you entered here."

Caleldir had not noticed Ashyr's mood, but when Gurzan pointed it out, he could not help but do so. "What is wrong?" He asked with concern.

"I just found out that Faust might have Carlotta." Ashyr said with uncharacteristic seriousness. She remembered what happened with the Lord of Port Afron got a hold of Caleldir. To picture similar torture on the small, adorable human was enough to set roiling, burning anger in Ashyr's heart.

Caleldir went cold. Strong-willed he may have been in some other areas, but the torture that had been inflicted on him in those dungeons had left a far greater impression on his psyche than he cared to admit. Well, to a certain extent. Goelon was used to such things, Caleldir was not. His train of thought followed Ashyr's closely. He rose to his feet. "Then we must mount a rescue immediately! Gurzan, why did you not tell me of this?"

The half-orc sighed. "I did not know that you knew anyone on that mission very well. It would have come up on the council tonight. But, I can tell you this: if you are mounting a rescue, I will accompany you. As will my companion." He rose to his feet. "Pardon me, I must make a call." He strode from the hall.

"Thanks." Ashyr told Gurzan. "Sounds like you'll have time to catch up with Gurzan soon enough. I think I like your friend, Caleldir." She said when the old orc left - probably to speak to his 'companion.' "I guess we should go back and talk to the rest of the people. Knowing Althaia, we've probably been volunteered to rescue Carlotta already." That was said with a slightly wider smile than she'd used since hearing the news of their diminutive human friend.

Caleldir cracked a smile as well. "Knowing Althaia, we have probably been volunteered to do take the fortress tonight. I think that we can, if we play our cards right. But you are right, let us return to the others first."

Just as Selene was done observing the newcomers, Ashyr approached. "So. How many things have we been volunteered for?" There was still that stress of worry muting her expressions, but there was a grin on her face to show that she was amused rather than annoyed about potentially being volunteered for something without her permission.

"I think that we can persuade the people of Port Afron to let bygones be bygones." Althaia mused. "If we take the city with a minimum of death and destruction, I can almost certainly persuade them of whatever I need to for them to accept the new way of things." She nodded. "I will talk over my plan with the rest of my group."

Althaia's eyes swept over the gathering, noting probable troublemakers. "If you need a champion to subdue any unruly elements, I can do that as well. I am quite good at violence, and some of these mercenaries look as if they will answer to such arguments."

"Please do not beat anyone up." Caleldir said as he walked into the conversation. "So, like Ashyr said, what did we miss? What are we being volunteered for?"

"Rescuing your other girlfriend" - whether Althaia was referred to Carlotta as Ashyr's girlfriend or Caleldir's was ambiguous, but evidence pointed more to her words being directed at the drow - "and taking the city. Tonight, if we can throw a group together fast enough."

"Sounds like what I was planning on doing anyway." Caleldir said genially.

"So... can we find a quiet place?" Althaia asked. "I have a plan."

Once they agreed, the nymph pulled Caleldir and the two drow into a corner where they could not be overheard. "So... this is what I was thinking. We put as many soldiers as we possibly can inside R.I.S.A., fly into the city under cover of darkness, make our way to Faust's headquarters, then open up the door to R.I.S.A.'s dimension and unleash the army behind all the city's defenses."

Caleldir smiled. "We think alike. It seems to be the most rational plan. We will have to ask R.I.S.A. how many people she can transport, though. It is not the physical space that we need to worry about, but life-support. It takes a good deal of energy to simply provide air and whatnot to a large crowd. She can manifest as large of an undetailed room as need be." He began pondering. "She will likely need a lot of energy to pull something like this off."

"If it was possible to just fly into the city, I think the druids would have done so already." Selene told the rest of the party. She didn't much like that idea anyway. She wouldn't be able to ride on the winged horse, so her options were to be shoved in their pocket dimension with all the other sweaty, smelling fighters, or she'd be left out of the operation entirely. Neither of those choices sounded at all appealing.

"Good point." Caleldir agreed. "But I do not think it impossible. Just... difficult. After all, Gurzan managed to fly into and out of the city back when we last broke out of Faust's dungeons. Although, that was during an escape attempt. Since he is volunteering to help, he will likely bring along his 'eagles' to help with those of us who have trouble riding on Celestial creature."

"Perhaps..." Selene said, unconvinced. "But the idea of using R.I.S.A. to sneak in warriors has some merit, if we don't mind letting the world know about her."

Ashyr seemed more excited about the prospect. A fantastically entertaining scenario about her jumping from on high while yelling 'surprise!' before raining death on her enemies ran through her head. The grin on her face was proof of her thoughts. This was so much better than the time she tried to fly on the back of a harpy. "If we can pull it off, I think it's well worth revealing our secret succubus."

"Perhaps it would be better to sneak in another way." Althaia mused. "Alternately, we could use some sort of an attack as a distraction. Have the druids attack the north, the mercenaries attack the east, and then we drop in from the west, landing in a residential district at sunset. Once enough time has passed for our entry, the armies withdraw, and we lay low until past midnight. Then we make our move."

"Perhaps that could work." Caleldir agreed. "It is a very dangerous plan, though. And would result in more bloodshed than if we simply found a way to sneak in."

"Before we even decide on how we want to break in, we have to make sure our secret weapon will actually work. There is one issue with how much energy she might need. If we want to make the attempt tonight, then she can't pull energy from anyone who is going to fight." Selene reminded them. "We'd have to find someone - or several someones - to use instead. It's either that, or we wait until tomorrow night and have another orgy tonight." If one could judge by her tone, Selene didn't seem to care either way. No one would be draining from her no matter what they chose, and the only reason she would join the assault in the first place was because Ashyr needed her support.

Caleldir blanched a bit. It seemed that he had briefly forgotten where the virtual succubus got her energy. "I do not think that we should reveal her: just her pocket dimension. Pocket space dimensions are not unheard of; her and her powers are unique. So we can simply say that we have an artifact that acts like a supersized bag of holding, and leave it at that." He took a deep breath. "On the topic of powering her, well, an orgy is not, strictly speaking, necessary. She is perfectly capable of draining energy through a touch."

"Slowly and inefficiently." Althaia countered. "If we wanted to wait a week or two, yeah, would go do that."

"Let us just ask her about what she can realistically handle." Caleldir said shortly.

"We'll talk this over with R.I.S.A. See what she has to say about all this before we decide too much." The older drow said. "Come on, let's find someplace to open the portal." She began to make her way out of the hall entirely, then behind some brush away from any visible path. Only after it looked safe did she get out the little figurine of the A.I. "R.I.S.A, dunno if your were listening, but we need to talk. We're coming in."

R.I.S.A. had indeed been listening, and when the portal opened, the group stepped into a little nondescript room that Tsabdrin had been watching them from (being in her main space while it was being renovated would have been dangerous for him.) Tsabdrin himself was still on the couch, with R.I.S.A. standing behind him in much the same way she had done with Althaia earlier in the day, and Cieraela back when she had been held in R.I.S.A.'s dimension.

[I heard your plan.] R.I.S.A. said.

Tsabdin had been paying attention, just as R.I.S.A. had. He was not surprised, therefore, when the portal opened up and the party entered. He watched from his place, cross-legged on the couch. The robe he was wearing was held open at the crook of his arms to bare his slightly scarred upper chest, and the way he sat opened the lower part of the fabric to show a good deal more leg than usual. His expression seemed more serene than it had been since he joined the party. Even after the party entered the realm, he remained mostly motionless. It was strangely... nice to be useful. Or maybe whatever R.I.S.A. said she was doing to him felt good. But when the other people entered, he became painfully conscious of his state of dress. If this didn't look like an invitation to couple with a female, he didn't know what did.

The male drow's face, Ashyr noted, darkened ever-so-slightly when he realized that they could see him now. The oldest drow couldn't help the small, suggestive grin that pulled at the corner of her lips. That was quite the pretty position he was in. Too bad the A.I. didn't seem to realize this...

Just as Ashyr noted the oddly suggestive position that Tsabdrin found himself, so did Althaia. She, however, did not show any visible reaction, except for a polite nod of greeting to the drow. Knowing how this version of R.I.S.A. had pushed her prodigious sex drive completely to her other personality (because this version of R.I.S.A. was patterned off of Caleldir's ideal of her, and Caleldir had not initially wanted to think of her as a sexual being, despite a long-standing attraction) Althaia knew that R.I.S.A. was not taking advantage of the male drow sexually. Just using his energy to top off her reserves.

Caleldir did not really pay attention to Tsabdrin. He had seen R.I.S.A. charge up this way before, and knew it was completely harmless. And Tsabdrin was fine with it, so no matter.

"Cover yourself up, brother." Said Selene irritably. Her reaction to him was decidedly the opposite of her female cousin's.

It was only then that Tsabdrin's serenity was shattered. He scowled, but he quickly did as his sister commanded. It was just too difficult to overcome over a century of conditioning despite his feelings about being ordered around.

[I am not sure I will be able to perform satisfactorily in this matter, not as I currently am, at least.] R.I.S.A. replied.

Caleldir nodded. "We would not be going tonight. Not enough time to set everything up. How many do you think that we could take by tomorrow afternoon?"

The A.I. pondered this. [At the moment, I could handle ten warriors at most. Any more than that would require a lot of energy. If you had asked me before construction, I could have done it, but at the moment I am sapped of most of my power.] Her brow constricted. [I do not think it is possible to siphon off enough energy by tomorrow evening to take upwards of a hundred warriors.]

"Well, not doing it the boring way." Althaia said. "You would have to do things the interesting way."

[Which is what?] R.I.S.A. said questioningly.

The nymph rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, you play at not knowing in this personality. I forgot about that."

Ashyr was amused by R.I.S.A's sudden forgetfulness when it came to sex. Now that she thought about it, Ashyr realized that this R.I.S.A. was very different from the one they ended up with the night before. Was it possible for an A.I. to... split? To compartmentalize so completely? That's really what it looked like. "What if we managed to give you as much power as you had this morning? How many people could you fit, and for how long?"

[Well... that is a complicated question with many answers. But I think that if I temporarily suspend construction and receive another influx of power of the magnitude that I apparently did last night, I could hold up to 150 soldiers for up to eight hours. I could hold a lesser number for longer, but I cannot boost the number more than that without hitting sharply diminishing returns.]

The prospect of having a repeat of the night before seemed to be cheering Ashyr up a little bit. So it was with a crooked grin that she said, "We'll figure out a way to get you more power, then, R.I.S.A." Then she gave the nymph kin a suggestive wink. "With that figured out, we can safely discuss how we're getting into the city. Carlotta and her crew found a way. Maybe she was able to share that before going silent."

"I had considered using whatever way Carlotta and company did, but since they were captured, that may not be the best route." Caleldir noted. "Seeing as it did not work out for them."

Althaia shrugged. "We do not know where they were captured yet. That could still be a viable route."

"As for getting inside the city, it sort of sounded like the leaders knew a way in. Not much point talking about that now until we can get more information."

By that point, Tsabdrin had easily figured out what everyone was talking about concerning the power situation. It had been a little confusing for a little while, but now he was quite certain he understood. He softly cleared his throat when the conversation about getting into the city came to a temporary halt. "I want to help. The better way." The male drow told them. His expression would have been confident if he hadn't been staring down and into the middle distance when he said it.

Ashyr turned to him and blinked. "It's very draining, handsome. You're too weak right now." Her tone wasn't exactly commanding, though.

"I am strong enough; I've had a day to rest and eat. It's not like you're going to let me do anything else. I can sleep it off while you get to take over Port Afron." He actually sounded a little bit envious of the party's upcoming task. Or maybe he just wanted the freedom they had to do what they wanted.

The oldest drow sighed. Tsabdrin was certainly determined, and he'd looked so... content a moment before when R.I.S.A. had been doing whatever it was she did. Participating in this would probably make him feel a lot better about his life. "Well, I guess we can tell Risa to be careful... I'll leave it up to two. I'm okay with it if you are." He eyes fell on Althaia an Caleldir, leaving no doubt that she was speaking to them. Selene had obviously decided to sit this event out already. The pregnant drow was still leery of letting a succubus drain her.

Tsabdrin glanced up at Althaia before his eyes shot back down to his hands resting on his lap. It was only then that his face flushed darker in embarrassment. Discussing ritual orgies to let something (or someone) gain in power was no big deal where the drow came from. That was, right up until he fully realized who would probably be involved.

The A.I. looked at the group, then blinked. [It seems that I should see to halting construction.] With that, she disappeared. Which was slightly odd, as there was no reason that she could not do that from here. As she left, the room morphed into a bedroom. Two of them, in fact. The missing wall appeared as well, making it a proper room and not just a viewing station to their surroundings. It was still a very nondescript environment, though.

Althaia smirked. "She will pretend not to know, but she definitely knows. I think that she is just letting her alter-ego manage that sort of thing for her now. For now. At any rate, I am game for whatever. Although, I not sure how my 'cousin' will react to things."

Well might she wonder. Caleldir looked around the room with a slightly distressed look on his face. "I am not sure if..." He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "We should probably get to the council before we do anything that might be that... draining. Although, if Tsabdrin wants to, err, 'contribute', perhaps he can do so while we are gone. I think Selene is right to sit this one out, for reasons of progeny. I would rather sit this out too, but..." He sighed. "Seeing as I have already had sex with R.I.S.A.-"

"Risa." Althaia corrected.

Caleldir looked annoyed. "With... Risa, I might as well do so again." He did not seem all that comfortable about having Tsabdrin around for it, though. "So... are any of us not needed at the council, or should we return here once done?"

"Perhaps I should attend to the council, and leave the rest of you to this." She suggested. "With two males, the extra burst of energy from me will not be needed."

Ashyr blinked in surprise. This wasn't some strange emotional connection thing that Althaia needed to give them space for. No, this would be about as much pleasure as possible - something that should have been very much in the nymph's territory. The oldest drow looked between Tsabdrin and Althaia. Did this have something to do with whatever happened the night before?

"Tsabdrin is a terrible substitute for you, Althaia - I mean practically speaking, handsome." Ashyr began to say, then quickly explained herself before the hurt anger on the male drow's face could grow. "As a nymph (and not recently half-starved on top of it all), you have more stamina than he does. We can use all the energy we can get; we have no idea how long it will take to actually get into a position where we can unleash the army. If you will not participate if we include him, then we'll just have to leave him out."

"It is not because of Tsabdrin's participation that I am reluctant." Althaia explained. Her eyes were downcast and tone subdued. In fact, she seemed almost embarrassed. "It is because he reminded me of what I do not want to be. I was becoming my sisters. I desired to move beyond my biology, to become something more than a beautiful body attached to an overactive libido. After I died, I made the decision to do just that. But I began to slip again, until Tsabdrin said something that made me realize that I was slipping back into the grand attitude of entitlement that I most loathe about my kind. Most nymphs cannot even conceive that someone would not want to have sex with them. As I said back then, they do not have even the concept of rape. Any resistance is just kinkiness. Tsabdrin reminded me that wanting something is not the same as deserving it. I do not deserve his affections. I do not deserve anything." With that, she left by the portal.