Wail

Givinghead's jail is below the barracks, and it turns out it's incredibly easy to gain access to it. For a mere 5 silver, a guard agrees to show us the prisoners. She's a muscular brunette whose size and height makes me a bit intimidated. She even has to duck (something neither Aster or myself need to do) when we get down to the dungeon.

Torches on the wall light a passageway that slopes downward, descending farther into the earth with each step. On either side are small windowless cells with iron barred doors. We pass several empty ones before coming to one occupied by a naked human man. He sits hunched over watching us.

"Had this one for a few days," the guard tells us. "Nearly beat a visitor to death in the lounge at the Horn. You can free him for 3 gold."

"What? You'll just let him go, if we pay you?" Astra asks.

"Pay me and take him out of town."

The man rushes to the bars. "Please. Help me get out of here. Would you? It's all a big misunderstanding."

"You were seen by eight people bludgeoning the man."

"He had it coming. We'd teamed up in the wilderness and after a battle with bandits, while I was still weak, he robbed me and left me for dead."

So, he's a player. (Detect confirms this.)  "What do you think?" I ask Astra.

She walks up to the prisoner. "What's you're class?"

"Mace-Bearer. I'm level 3. I could be a lot of help to you."

"I'd like to help, but we're in need of a thief not a fighter."

"Please! I'll do anything. They'll keep me here until someone buys me out. I don't want to spend my entire game time in a prison. I have at least five days left in Feronia." I assume he means five real life days, so 5 months in-game. Being stuck in conditions like that for all that time really would be torture. I want to buy his freedom, but we're burning through our money.

We had 14 gold left from the purse the Lady had given us, and from that we'd promised some potions and equipment to the other newcomers to the party. Plus, if this went the way we wanted to, we'd have to pay for our thief's freedom. At that point, we might not have enough for everything even if we dug into our own pockets.

Astra sighs, visibly frustrated by not being able to do anything. "Look, I'd like to free you, but we only have so much money. And like I said, we need a thief."

"Aw, come on! Are you just going to let me rot in here?"

"Maybe someone else will come along needing a fighter," she says weakly, and then we let the guard usher us to the next prisoner.

The brunette says, "If you're looking for a thief, you're in luck. This one was caught picking the pocket of a Counsel member. 3 gold to set him free."

A Felinoid sits in this cage, naked like the other prisoner. He just stares at us without saying anything. Detect shows he's an NPC, so we go onto the next. This one is a female gnome in for murder. They want 6 gold to release her, and she's also an NPC.

The last prisoner is a Fairy-Folk with mauve hair. She sits away from the bars pressed against the far wall, trying to cover up her exposed skin as best she can with her legs curled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her. Detect tells me she's a Pixie and a player.

"What's she in for?" I ask.

"Gross immorality. 5 gold if you want her." Damn! That was nearly the same amount they wanted for the murderer.

"Gross immorality!" I blurt out. "In this town?"

Astra asks, "What exactly did she do?"

"Made a big stink at the Horn. Screamed at the companions to stay away from her. Then tried to encourage people to leave the house without having sex."

"And that was immoral?"

The guard says, "It wasn't just her sinful prudish ways. During her trial, the judge gave her the chance to redeem herself by masturbating in front of the court. But she refused, proving herself to be a miscreant completely lacking in morals."

Astra whispers to me, "Lucky you weren't run-in when we first got here." Then, louder to the prisoner, "What's your class and level?"

"Pilferer. Two." She doesn't look at us and doesn't sound please to be talking to us.

"Pilferer? Like a thief?" The Pixie nods. "Want to get out of here?" Another nod. "What's you're name Pilferer?"

"Vladimir."

"Oh! Er... So, Vladimir, we're going on a dungeon raid and are in need of a thief. Will you pledge your services to us for the duration of the job, if we pay your fine."

"Sure."

From the exchange, Vladimir doesn't come across as the most trustworthy. His terse replies are a little surly, and he refuses to make eye contact. But then, it just might be because he's naked in front of us in a body he's clearly embarrassed about. Still, I can't clear my head of thought that he'd take off the first chance he got. But we're also out of options.

We tell the guard we're freeing him. She doesn't unlock the cell until she's paid.

From there, we're all lead back upstairs. I feel bad for Vladimir and would lend him a cloak if I had one. Both Astra and I barely have enough clothes to cover ourselves and have nothing to spare to help him out, so he's forced to parade himself in front of the other prisoners and an assortment of guards. Back on the main floor, the guard opens a chest and hands over Vladimir's confiscated equipment. We turn away as he dresses.

When he's done, he wears leather armor. The bottoms stop at the knees and is cut like some super tight fitting low-rise jeans. The top resembles something of a sports bra. Both are died a mauve to match his hair. A low slung utility belt holds a dagger and a blow dart.

"One more thing," the guard says. In a flash, she locks a collar on his neck. 

"What's that for?"

"Slave collar. Here take this." She hands Astra a coin. "This has the same number as the collar and proves you're the owner."

"But I just wanted to free him!"

"And you did. By purchasing him. Now you're responsible for him if he does anything else wrong."

With a look of displeasure, Astra flashes me six fingers. Our party is complete.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon is spent purchasing the additional equipment and supplies. My one splurge is an anti-lich potion (actually the game calls it Life Cleanser). The dungeon is supposed to have lots of undead, so I suspect there will be liches and after what happened to Dwayne, I want to be prepared. It will also work on anyone being turned into the undead, so it may come in handy even if we don't encounter any liches.

After dinner, we assemble around a table in the Horn and Hole. The very table that Dwayne's party had breakfasted at. It was one of the few places conducive for a group to talk together. Especially as Kerda's room is way too small for everyone to fit into.

It was strange seeing everyone together.. I'm not sure how we managed it, but everyone appears to be (more or less) female in appearance, and we're all diminutive with two Fairy-Folk and the rest of us being of species were the average height was five feet or under. Not only that, but we represented a broad spectrum of colors. Morgan and myself have monochrome black and white skin respectively. Kerda has green skin and another member has blue. Then, Vladimir has Mauve hair and Astra red, or orange depending on the light. We were a real rainbow coalition.

"All right," Astra says. "You all know Triste and I by now. We are the co-leaders of this party." I'm a little shocked she's counting me as co-leader since I pretty much just followed her around while she put it together. But I don't contradict her. "But I want you all to know, that just means that when a strategy decision needs to be made, we get the final call. And we are the ones to deal with our employer. But otherwise we're all equals here."

"That's easy for you to say," Vladimir moaned. "No one else is a slave."

"I am!" Kerda says, drawing all eyes to her. "Triste bought me to be her sex slave." She looks at me with hungry eyes.

"I... What? I did no such... Really, I never—"

Astra cuts in, "Vladimir, the slave thing is just a stupid bit of bureaucracy. None of us will treat you that way. I checked, and the collar means you'll be detained by guards if found in a town alone." She'd confided in me that she didn't want to try and get it off sooner, because it held Vladimir to his bargain with us. "It doesn't force any obedience like I've heard of in some games. Once the quest is over, we'll talk to the Lady about having it removed. Also, Kerda, if you want to be Triste's sex slave, that's between the two of you."

Kerda beams at me.

I try to put this whole stupid sex slave notion to rest by saying, "No. I... That's not... I..."

"Before we continue, I'm curious, Vladimir, do you prefer being called he, she, or them?" Astra asks.

"He, of course! This game royally screwed me when it reset. I did not want to be this little girl."

"Okay," Astra says, stopping him from going on. "So, since we'll all be working together, I thought we could go around the table and introduce ourselves. Say our species, class, and level. And to get to know each other a bit better, maybe share a little something personal about yourself. I'll start. I'm Astra, a level 3 Warden and all Vulpera, or Fox-girl if you didn't guess." She wags her tail so it waves over her shoulder for emphasis. "I'm proficient with the bow and a dagger. Prefer she and her. And... my go to song at karaoke is Back to Black, unless I'm doing a duet, in which case it's Islands in the Stream. And if you haven't guessed, I love karaoke.  Triste?"

"Uh..." 

"Okay. So, as you can probably tell be the bright shade of red she's turned, Triste is a little shy. So, maybe I can fill you in and save her a bit of stress. She's a level 3 Banshee Mystic, which is some super rare species class combo she picked up. It allows her to control the dead and scream in a way that gets enemies to run away. And don't let her shyness fool you, she's really great at—"

"NO!" I scream cutting of before she can mention that rumor about me and oral sex.

Astra shoots me a look of amused disbelief. "I was going to say: great at kicking ass in a fight."

"Oh. Yeah. That."

"Since she seems so flustered, why don't we let her reveal her personal thing in her own time. How about we go to Suzy next?"

Suzy is  Morgan's friend who we recruited sight unseen. Suzy is an Unseellie, which is a strange species with blue skin. Of all the species in Feronia it seems to be the most cartoonish, like a depiction of an elf from a second-rate anime. All her features are slightly exaggerated. For example, her face seems abnormally long, but not in an entirely unattractive way. She's a little taller than Astra and lean but muscular, with small firm breast. Her hair is sky blue (several shades lighter than her skin) and she wears black studded armor that doesn't cover much more than a one-piece bathing suit would. The studding forms patterns that resemble flowers on twisting vines. Oh, and did I mention the bulge? She has a suspicious bulge in the crotch that the armor does little to hide, but no one so far has dared ask about.

"Hey, everyone! I'm Suzy. I'm a Blade-weaver. Unseelie. Oh, and uhh... level 4. I was playing an elf sword-mage before the reset, so this is a bit of a... change. Yeah, a real change. Still getting used to it—to everything, that is. And this is my first time playing an RPG (is that personal enough?). So, forgive me if I'm still learning. I can't believe I let my big brother, here, talk me into it." She says, pointing at the little Selkie next to her and chuckling at the word big. "Anyway, it was fun until the reset. Hoping this adventure will get back to the action and less of the... um... other stuff this game has to offer. Oh and, for pronouns: she and her please."

Morgan starts up when she finishes looking peeved at her. "Yeah, well as Suzy has let out of the bag, I'm not a girl in real life, but I am enby, so go with they/them, okay.  I'm playing a Selkie, and I'm a level 2 Skin-mender."

Suzy says, "I think they should have called the class a Sturgeon. Get it! Because they look like a fish."

"What the hell are you talking about! I'm supposed to look like a seal not a fish. Do you see any gills or scales? No!"

To us, Suzy says, "They're a bit defensive."

"I am not—You know what? Never mind.  For something personal... I'm studying art and plan on becoming either a tattoo artist or work in 3D animation."

Suzy fake coughs the word "porn" and earns another glare from her brother.

Kerda's next and she goes through the same details she'd mentioned to me only she's since gone up to level 4. 

"Wait a minute!" Suzy interrupts. "What the hell is a Warrior-Wench?"

Kerda says, "It's a class with both battle and um... service skills."

"That sounds sexist as hell," Suzy says.

Morgan replies, "Maybe you can write an angry letter whenever we get the hell out of here."

"Anyway," Kerda continues. "I use a rope-javelin. It's a bit hard to explain, but it'll make sense when you see it in a battle. Wow. Personal is hard. Ahh... well, if it's Suzy's first game, you can probably call me an addict. I've already booked nearly 2000 hours inside games this year."

Last is Vladimir, who very curtly tells us his class and level again and adds: "I like the E-Fighter competitions."

"Great!" Astra says with forced enthusiasm. "So, we're together for this one mission. Once we return here with the Scepter of Ascendancy, we can reassess whether we want to stay a party or change things up. Until then, we have to act as a team. And I think we have a pretty balanced one. When we enter a fight, we'll have a little bit of everything at our disposal. Now, get a good night's sleep. We'll leave town at 8 a.m. tomorrow with the goal of marching half the distance to the dungeon. Any questions?"

When there's none, everyone goes off to find companions and rooms for the night, except Kerda and me. She might not really be my sex slave, but she's not going to let me go off with someone else either.