"Come on, don't chicken out now. A whole night of fun and adventure awaits you. It is high time you cut loose and let off some steam."

Her face turned red, and I could almost envision the steam in question coming out of her ears. She faltered, her steps coming to a pause, but I tugged on her arm for the umpteenth time and herded her along.

"I have it on good authority that a certain someone should be there soon, someone that makes your heart beat all the faster with longing."

Somehow, her face turned even redder as she let out a small whine and covered her face with her hands from embarrassment. I was pressing pretty hard, but I know when to ease off and when to lay it on. Now was the time to give her a moment to take it all in, as pressing any harder will make her run away.

With my arm around the shy little thing, I weave her between the crowd as we make our way to The Wayward Oasis. Naturally, we are each dressed for the night's theme, with my kimono patterned with cherry blossoms that glow in the dark. I also wear a reflective visor that changes colors every couple of seconds. I likewise have several sets of wires wound around my horns that glow on and off in alternating patterns. For extra flair, my sandals leave behind glowing marks that last about half a minute. Right now, I have them set to leave behind blue hearts, but they have up to eight patterns and colors I can cycle through.

Underneath the robes, my second outfit is far more bold. Black leathers cover some of my body, the parts revealed only offering enticement for one to discover what remains hidden. The whole affair is studded with many spikes, although the tips are dulled so that no one gets hurt. In fact, I have pulled strings and manipulated events so that several of us would arrive here tonight with similar getups, all to surprise my First Love with a night of debauchery.

As I shepherd the one beside me through the front door of our destination, a cascade of glowing lights flickering through a rainbow of colors greets us. Also in attendance is Tamadora, who is admittedly dressed for the occasion, but her outfit is more of what a man would wear, just styled for a woman. To put it mildly, her outfit is imposing, as if she were a sovereign dressed for an audience with her court. It totally works for her, especially given her demeanor, and the wide shoulders make her appear larger than she is.

"Chooka, it is a pleasure to see you as always," Tamadora greets me telepathically with no lack of appreciation for my visit. Her face is masked to cover the nose, mouth, and chin, but her eyes are exposed and expressive as they critically examine the one next to me. "And she must be Serideth, the one you mentioned earlier." Tamadora is almost as tall as I am, at least with whatever shoes she is wearing, and so she towers over the elf next to me as she leans in for a closer look. "Worthy tribute," she finally assents after finishing her examination.

Without a word that we can hear from their mistress, attendants flock over to us to tend to our needs and to escort us to our room. Considering Tamadora almost never talks, and that no one who knows of the effects of her voice would want to be around when she does, I hardly find the experience surprising.

"Sure are a lot of unfamiliar faces here today," I commented to the attendant leading us. I know the names and faces of all the employees here, but since all of them are masked and dressed identically, including wigs, I cannot tell which is which at a cursory examination.

Without breaking stride, she turns and bows deeply, with arms in front of her and one hand holding the fist of the other. Effortlessly, she continues to guide us without falling while continuing this pose.

"It is as you say, most distinguished guest," she explains with a voice modified by some enchantment to sound mechanical and flat, such that I cannot discern which employee she is. "Several new mercenary companies have arrived at Worlds Hope this week, and many have found wisdom and reward by visiting this establishment during their leave. It has been most auspicious for all parties involved."

That feels like a reasonable explanation. I haven't been as informed as I would like to be about mercenaries, as my focus is on Adventurers. Admittedly, the line between them can be blurry at the best of times, for they can fulfill similar roles. Ultimately, mercenaries intend to fight in wars with others of the mortal races, whereas Adventurers intend to fight beasts and monsters. Both professions offer a life of violence, good pay, and a need for release every now and then. After a long march all this way south, I can only imagine they had to draw lots to see who would be fortunate enough to take leave and come here for entertainment and companionship.

Serideth follows along, asking no questions and seemingly whelmed by the sights that catch her eye as we are led through the winding hallways to our room. Some patrons like to keep the door to their rooms open so that passersby may observe the depravity that occurs within. One such room we pass has a naked male and female tied up with fancy rope, each hanging from the ceiling, while a member of staff works to couple them together in an erotic position. I can sense Serideth's interest and longing when she notices it, as well as her embarrassment, and so I put my arm behind her back to help push her along lest she get distracted and wander off.

Before long, we are led to a large room, one capable of hosting at least a dozen guests plus staff. The floor can scarcely be seen here, for it is covered in pillows and cushions such that each guest can make themselves comfortable wherever they please. To my delight, I find that we are not the first to arrive, for I take pride in timing my arrival so that I don't have to wait long for events to kick off, but not so late that I hold everyone up.

"Looking good as always, I see," came a voice filled with undisguised lust as soon as I entered. Normally, that would not narrow it down regarding who is speaking to me, but given that I recognize the voice, I find myself appreciative of the comment.

"Blythnin, I am glad you could make it," I respond earnestly as I make my way over for a hug. "And I see that Relarina made it too. I have heard that you two have become good friends."

The youngest elf in attendance awkwardly rises from her nest of pillows, the whole foundation of which shifts and squishes treacherously under her feet. She joins the queue for greetings and introductions while pushing her balance to the limits so as to not spill her drink.

As more people wander in, introductions are made, greetings between friends occur, and seats are found in a circle. All told, barring the final arrival, the guest list includes myself, Serideth, Blythnin, Relarina, It-Has-Pockets, Bellwright Muddlespoon, Gambino, Bambina, and Torborg. We only wait a short time before the door opens for our final guest, one that we hear before we see.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please, hold your applause. I will sign autographs at the end of the evening."

Alterez saunters in, arms spread wide, to a mixed but mostly positive reception of those present. He takes a seat to my left, with It-Has-Pockets to his left. With all eyes upon him, we watch as he withdraws a few crates of potions from his dimensional storage, which is probably an enchantment on one of the many chains around his neck. Said crates are placed in the middle of our circle.

"Now, as most of you probably know, we are having a little party before everyone wanders off to have fun tonight. I have managed to wheel and deal with a contact within The Blood Keepers for some of their rejected potions. I have been assured that none of these are physically harmful, but they do very weird things. The big potions are cleansers, which will purge the effect of whatever potion your imbibe. The smaller ones are unlabeled and do all kinds of weird stuff, and they will be the focus of our game tonight."

Stolen novel; please report.

He reaches into the crates and starts passing bottles to me, which I in turn pass around the circle until everyone has a cleanser and a few random potions. Everyone also has a small bowl to drink from, all of which are currently empty. Small trays have been set out for each person to set their various drinks and food items upon, with the pillows and cushions in the center cleared so that the trays may rest upon little tables upon the floor.

"As you can see, these smaller potions are big enough for three doses. We will take turns going around the ring. When it is your turn, take your random potion and pour a dose for yourself and for two other people of your choosing. Pick a friend, an enemy, someone you don't know; it doesn't matter who you pick, just try not to bully someone. Additionally, please remove any masks, eyewear, or face coverings, so that we can all see each other's reactions."

Fortunately, everyone complied without complaint, which was always a good start to a party. It only takes one bitch fest to kill the mood, which is why I had been discerning in my guest list.

"In the spirit of fairness, I will go first."

Without further ado, he grabbed a potion at random, popped the stopper off, and poured a dose for himself, Bellwright, and Bambina. He then took his seat, and once settled, he raised his cup towards the center of the room in a toast with his fellow experimenters.

"Here's to friendship and the secrets we share!"

Many of us also toasted with our various normal drinks, and then down the hatch it went.

"I don't know if you know this," Alterez said as he stood up and moved to the center of the circle, "But the enchantments on this room have been designed to speed up the effects of potions. So far, I feel fine, but that could just be my superior goblin physiology at work."

I turned my gaze towards those who had drank the potion, trying my best to figure out what it could possibly do. While Alterez had not explained any explicit objective of the game, it seems prudent to shout out what the effect of the potion is. None of them have shown any change in personality that I can discern, and as a [Courtesan] in her natural environment, my Blessing is well-tuned to spot such discrepancies. While nothing jumps out at me, I notice all of them are looking down. Not like they are sad, but each casts a gaze at the floor around other people. Perhaps it is making them paranoid or something, I cannot tell.

While Alterez was blathering on, he moved to return to his seat, but he tripped over his outfit. Not only did he trip, but he stumbled so awkwardly as he attempted to regain his balance that he veered towards It-Has-Pockets. In a full stumble, he crashed down such that his mouth landed right on her feet. And since he was in the middle of yelping in surprise, her feet went right into his mouth, as she sat with legs together and knees hugged to her chest. He made attempts to right himself, but he became so entangled in the various chains hanging around his neck that he only managed to sink her feet further into his mouth, which was evident by the choking and gagging noises that he was making. After an inordinate amount of time, and no effort on It-Has-Pocket's part to interfere, he did manage to recover.

"I feel no different at all," said Bellwright matter-of-factly. "Are you sure this potion does something?"

The pieces were falling into place, but the answer seemed too unbelievable. Bambina had witnessed the whole affair with rapt attention, and while she may not have noticed it, she had been rubbing Gambino's feet the whole time. Alterez had done a rather convincing job of making it look like an accident, but after years of calling him out on his bullshit, I knew that every part of what had happened had been carefully orchestrated. Now, I know him fairly well, and I am well versed in his depraved nature and what it entails, but what had happened here had been just a hair off from what he goes for.

"Seriously, I don't feel a thing. Are we sure these potions work?" came the voice of an earnestly confused Bellwright.

I turned my gaze around the room, and as I met other faces, I noticed that many of the others were coming to the same conclusion. As if by silent agreement, our exchanged nods cemented the pact that we would not reveal what that potion did. For those of us in the know, we had deduced that it had been no other than a Potion of Foot Fetish. And considering Bellwright felt no different after drinking it…

Well, I will just file that tidbit of information away for later.

"It truly is a mystery," I explained to the group with my most diplomatic voice and countenance. "Perhaps those who participated should drink a cleanser as we move on to the next round."

The participants agreed, and soon everything was reset, with a now less-than-completely-confident It-Has-Pockets being next up. Carefully, she grabs a potion and looks around the room as she considers who her friends will be for this round. After a few moments, she came to a conclusion, for she poured a portion for herself as well as for Torborg and Blythnin.

"To full larders and favorable barters!"

Most of the group liked It-Has-Pocket's toast, but Bambina and Gambino had to hold each other back as their eyes twitched with annoyance.

The trio of drinkers rose and walked to the center of the room, all as if they were in agreement that they should locate themselves in an area clear of obstruction in case they needed to move freely. A few moments later, as if getting antsy, their eyes darted around the room, assessing it for some reason that the rest of us could not discern.

Wordlessly, they set about grabbing everyone's trays and bringing them to the middle. Blythnin cleared them while Torborg stacked them into a tower, with the cups (which he drank dry) being used as pillars between the trays. Soon they ran out of trays, and as only a dwarven master of engineering could do, he stacked the pillows on top, with all his materials provided to him by the other two. Only a short while later, they ran out of pillows too, and then they turned their gaze onto the smallest of our number.

Gambino, Bambina, Alterez, and Bellwright all scooted a smidge back, each trying to discreetly adjust their position and posture to make themselves less noticeable and attractive as a target. Poor Bellwright made too much noise as his clothes scuffed the floor when he scooted back, and like a pack of hungry wolves detecting weak prey, the trio moved to surround him. A few undignified noises and a spot of ignored pleading later, and Bellwright found himself precariously balanced on top of a tower of pillows, trays, and cups.

Before they could find another victim, I stepped in with cleansers in hand.

"Good job, everyone! Perhaps you would all like to cleanse that potion now."

They took the offered cleanser, and then immediately tried to stack it on the tower. With the rest of us ganging up, not only did we manage to force-feed them the cleaners, but we did not topple the tower in our struggle, which could just be a testament to the sturdiness of dwarven engineering.

Afterwards, the tower was deconstructed. Everyone returned to their seats with their trays in front of them. With all of our drinks having been drained by a thirsty dwarf, the staff, ever waiting patiently by the walls of the room, rushed forth to attend to us.

I was so caught up in the fun that I almost didn't notice, but my instincts screamed at me that something was wrong. Alerted, I focused on the members of staff, trying to figure out what was amiss. Unfortunately, I was too slow on the uptake.

On one side of the room, drinks were being poured correctly, with one member of staff holding the cup in two hands, with said cup aloft in the air, while another poured from a bottle. On the other side, where Blythnin, Relarina, and Serideth sat side by side, only one member of staff filled their cups, pouring directly into the cups that remained on the trays. Already, the three of them were drinking from their cups, and the staff member that poured for them did not continue down the line to tend to more guests. Instead, said individual tried to return to the outskirts of the room.

This was not a mistake. Only the best of staff would be attending to us, and they had been drilled tirelessly on protocol and procedure. No rookies would be assigned to us, and so that narrowed down the list of explanations to one unpleasant truth. With determination, I acted, and if I had somehow been wrong, I would face the consequences of it later.

"To arms, imposter!" I shouted as I lunged at the errant attendant.

With my Blessings empowering me, I managed to leap from a sitting position and tackle the person into the wall, which caught her by surprise as she let out a yelp and struggled to push me off, both of which further cemented the idea that she was no member of staff.

Then all hell broke loose as Blythnin, Relarina, and Serideth went into a frenzy and started attacking everyone else in the room. The enchantments on the room that quickened the effects of potions had worked to our detriment, for now our friends had become aggressive combatants.

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