Elora's Lyrical Lament (Adventurers MCTF) (Patreon)

Hey folks!

It's my birthday week, so happy birthday to me! I will likely be spending my time knee deep in this writing project that has gotten utterly out of control (and that you'll hopefully be seeing soon) so I'm looking forward to having a good time!

So while I'm working on that, how about you guys enjoy another fantasy tale of Tanya and Elora! Well, just Elora this time, mostly. I'm sure that'll go fine. What's the worst that could happen?

Don't answer that. I'll answer it for you! Have fun, and have a great week all!

“I told her so. I told her so! But why would she listen to me? I’m just an ancient and wise creature of the arcane world, blessed with life experience and power far beyond her ken! Who’d listen to that?”

Elora was annoyed. This was not, in and of itself, an unusual occurrence. Her best friend would say that the elf had two main moods – annoyed, and horny, and there weren’t any pretty ladies to drool over around at the moment.

Unsurprisingly, the source of her annoyance was usually said friend, and today was no exception to the rule. What was unusual was that Tanya wasn’t present to be causing the annoyance in person.

This was because Tanya was currently missing. Because she’d gone off and done something that Elora had told her not to do.

Well, that was probably why. It was hard to be certain without asking her, and her disappearance had made that challenging. It was also hard to alert her to how much trouble she was putting her good and wise friend Elora through, due to the same reasons.

But that wasn’t going to stop Elora from telling her. In excruciating detail. Oh no it was not.

The story was simple. A few days ago, the pair had wandered into town, their latest quest successfully completed, and they had been in the mood to celebrate. Coin had been spent, drinks had been ordered, and Elora was just in the middle of seducing a truly lovely waitress when their revelry was interrupted by a visitor. A concerned looking man in fancy nobleman’s wear, holding a cane in one hand and a heavy coin purse in the other. He was offering a job.

Well naturally, El had had no interest in him whatsoever, so she just kept drinking and flirting. Tanya could deal with him, she thought.

By the forces, what had she been thinking? What on earth could have possessed her? She knew better, didn’t she? Didn’t she?

No, of course she didn’t. Not when there was such a lovely maiden this close to sliding into her lap. She probably would have mistaken the King for a beggar if he’d come up to her that night at the bar. And doing so might have been nearly as disastrous as letting Tay handle business on her own, because just as she was about to seal the deal with the waitress, her blonde idiot of a best friend/worst enemy had grabbed her by the arm and yanked her out of the door.

She’d nearly earned a fireball to the face right there and then for that one. It was only Elora’s incredible power of self-control and restraint, honed over centuries of mastering the arcane arts, that violence was avoided. Frankly, she should have been awarded a medal.

Instead, she had simply demanded that the Paladin explain herself in a calm, rational manner, which only shook most of the windows on the street, not broke them! See? Incredible control. Truest Hero, thine name is Elora.

And after all of that, all Tanya had to say was that they had a new Quest. An investigation to see if the noble’s wife was cheating on him. Easy money, she’d said. Nothing simpler than an adultery case.

Adultery. Adultery! What were they, some kind of private detectives? No, no, they were Adventurers. Ad-vent-ur-ers. They dealt with the slaying of monsters, the righting of wrongs, and, most importantly, Official Adventurers Guild business. They didn’t just take private concerns from whiny husbands.

Elora had said as much. Tay had countered that the only reason she was protesting was because if they took Adultery investigations regularly, Elora would turn out to be the culprit like 80% of the time.

The nerve. As if she’d ever be caught that often.

But yes, she had refused. It was late, it was cold, and she was sure she could recover with the waitress if she jumped back in before she was called to serve another table. And if it was so force crackled easy then Tanya could handle it herself, couldn’t she?

Obvious mistake, in hindsight. Trusting Tay to handle something on her own – hadn’t she just been reminded of what a terrible idea it was? Without El there to guide her or knock her hands away from danger, the blonde would inevitably get herself into trouble. She couldn’t help it. She was a human, and, worse, a Paladin. They couldn’t help but stick their noses into the nearest canon mouth. It just came naturally to them.

So yeah, Elora had gone back inside, and now it was three days later and she hadn’t seen so much as a peep of the girl. She was starting to get a little – a little – worried.

Penelope had been lovely company for the evening, though, so as far as El was concerned, she’d still made the right call.

And anyway, Tay being a teeny tiny bit missing wasn’t a big deal. Because you know what’s part of being an ancient and wise creature of the arcane world? Scrying spells. If Tay – or, more likely, whoever captured Tay – thought they could hide from her, they had another thing coming. Her spells had encountered some resistance – someone had put effort into stopping her – but not enough to actually succeed. And now she was following the trail straight to wherever that blonde idiot had ended up.

Or she thought she was. That was definitely where her scrying spell should have taken her. But something must have gone wrong here, because there was no way miss prim and proper had ended up here.

Elora eyed the building she was stood in front of. It looked seedy, and well that it should. Brothels weren’t really supposed to look squeaky clean, it just didn’t give the right vibes. If you wanted a good place to get laid, you wanted the building to look just a touch on the rough side, it gave the place character.

And this was a good place! ‘The Winking Nymph’ was its name, and she’d spent a little time sampling its charms in the past, spent a couple of coins, and it had been pretty fun! They knew how to treat a lady: by supplying her with plenty of attractive ladies.

But Tanya? Here? Willingly? Nope. No way. That woman had a rod up her ass the size of a grand wizard’s staff. She was never setting foot in a brothel except to be all holier than thou about it. So, if El’s scrying spell was saying she was in there, something was seriously wrong.

Ugh, she was going to have to investigate. And not in the fun way, either. Because as much as she’d love to go ‘undercover’ as a client, she knew that would only get her distracted – and if there was something sinister going on here, then she couldn’t really afford that. She’d have to scope things out before she stopped to smell the roses, as it were.

Well, that was fine. Tanya may have been a loud and clanky Paladin, but Elora was a Sorceress, a mistress of the arts arcane. Reality bent to her whim, for certain degrees of ‘reality’, ‘bent’, and ‘whim’. A short little invisibility spell was no problem for her. Then she just needed to sneak inside through the comically unguarded back door (seriously, if these girls were up to crimes, then they needed to up their security. She just walked right on in) and hunt around.

See, Tay? This was how you handled an actual investigation. No kicking down the front door and threatening people with swords. Which was probably exactly what she’d done, and how she’d gotten herself in trouble. Such a brute, that woman.

Now, what was she looking for in here? Looking around, she just saw all the usual stuff. Corridors to private rooms. Accounting books. Peepholes to spy on clients, maybe to collect a little blackmail material – you always had to be careful of those in these places. Hm, maybe that was why Tanya’s investigation had led here? Had the Lord’s lady been caught and recorded in one of these bedrooms? Ha, novice mistake! Poor girl.

Anyway, nothing suspicious about any of this. Except for the lack of people. Where was everyone? It was a little early in the day, sure, but surely there’d be women around getting ready for the evening calls… It wasn’t like she was here to spy on them or anything… W-well, not exactly - but it was still weird not to see anyone. Weird, and kind of worrying.

Ah! But there. A sound! She could hear something coming from deeper within. The elf tilted her head, her sharp ears hunting. There. The sound was coming from that hallway. Music? Was there a Bard playing? Hm. No way was this place classy enough to provide that kind of entertainment. Iiinteresting.

Shrugging to herself, the invisible woman crept down the corridor and peered around the corner. Aha! There were all the missing ladies, gathered in a small common area, all of them sitting around on big plush cushions. They didn’t seem to be doing anything, just listening to the music, wide smiles on their faces, their eyes half-lidded. Enchanted, if the Sorceress was any judge (and she was).

But there was more. She’d visited this place a few times, right? Had the ladies here always been so… Uh. Hm. Elora leaned further around the wall, squinting, before remembering that she was invisible and could actually just go take a closer look. But it was just as she thought – all of the woman in the crowd were incredibly well endowed, their chests uncommonly large and their rears was heavily padded.

She considered herself something of an expert on the subject, and she’d easily consider all of the curves on these ladies to be top percentile. Which meant all of them could easily get work at a much nicer brothel than this if they wanted. Something was definitely up here. This couldn’t be natural.

The cause wasn’t too hard to guess, to Elora’s sharp eyes – or rather, to her even sharper ears. There, in the middle of the communal gathering, was the one standing woman in the group. With cloven feet, green furred legs, and long, curled horns poking up out of her red ringlet hair, she could only be a satyr. And a rich satyr by the looks of her – she must have been wearing half of the contents of a dragon’s horde as jewellery! Rings, necklaces, bracelets, gilded hooves, charms swaying from her horns…

She wasn’t wearing anything else, of course. Rich and slutty, seemed to be the fashion message she was selling. El had to admit, it was the right place for it.

Satyrs were one of the races closer to fae than to mortal. It was rare to see one out in the open in the wilds, let alone seeing one in civilization. They tended to keep to their own kind out in the forests – so what was this one doing here, alone?

Well, this one seemed to be playing the panpipes. A colourful set of wooden tubes, bound up in natural looking vines, producing a low but jaunty melody as the creature expertly moved the instrument against her lips. She was pretty curvy herself, Elora noted – strictly as a point of investigation, of course! But yeah, very bottom heavy.

Every little while, she’d lower her instrument, though the music would keep going without her. Instead, she’d lend her voice to the tune, with a curious – and, to the elf’s ear, revealing – turn of lyrics.

“Be willing be wanton, lusts ever uncorked,That’s all that you’re destined to be~!You’re whores of our finest of quality stockTo earn all of that money with me~!

Hurrah hurrah, oh what a great day,You’ll put out for payAnd you’ll make a great layHurrah hurrah, let worries unfurl,Lose yourselves in the swirlAnd just let those toes curl~!

No I don’t mind, and neither do you,Our gold’s for the owner, we give her her dueIt’s good, it’s grand, it’s happy and free…‘Cuz she lets us be whores like we’re wantin’ to be~”

Yep. Fae music. No, magical fae music. She could practically taste the song on the air, see it soaking into all the women listening. Enchanting the brothel’s whores and boosting their ‘charms’ – she could see how it made sense, from a business angle. Plus most of these women probably weren’t here willingly. Maybe this was why Tay had been called in – a noble’s wife had been turned into a brothel whore, and the idiot had misunderstood what was going on. That’d fit…

Of course, she’d have to put a stop to all of this. It was horrifically unethical, and more than a little dangerous. Messing with the fae was always a quick path to disaster. Plus it’d put their rates up, and she wasn’t made of gold! This scheme had to be stopped.

And this was probably what Tanya had gotten caught by, come to think of it. The Paladin could get blindsided by the silliest things sometimes, and a whore-making satyr? That’d do it. Did they have her as a mesmerised working girl here? El couldn’t see her head among the see of whores, but she might have dyed her hair, or maybe she was in another room. Either way, it’d be a nice bit of blackmail material to hang over the Paladin’s head if she got too snooty. Both that she got herself into this mess, and that Elora got her out~

Smirking, the Sorceress let her invisibility fade, instead summoning a fireball into her hand. Taking careful aim, she lifted the spell and then hurled it through the air, over the heads of the enchanted women, and straight into the fae’s panpipes.

The song ended in a fiery flare, and El felt the magic in the air pop like a soap bubble. The women on the floor didn’t move – still enchanted and thoughtless, clearly. But she’d brought an end to the spell that had been working on them, at least.

“That’s enough of that,” she said, stepping out fully into view. “Lady, if you want a harem of adoring busty ladies around you, you do it the normal way – by becoming unfathomably wealthy. All these songs are going to get you is a noise complaint.” She summoned another fireball over her hand. “The old fashioned way.”

“Tch.” The satyr looked down at the singed remains of her pipes for a moment, before giving Elora an annoyed glare. “That’s gunna be a pain in my admittedly magnificent rear to replace, lassie. If you had complaints about my song, y’really shoulda taken them up wit’ management.”

Elora rolled her eyes. “Har har. Don’t worry, I’ll be paying them a visit soon enough. First, let those girls go.” She gestured to the still sitting crowd of women. They were all still smiling, still staring blankly at nothing. Definitely enchanted.

“Let them go? Ah, come now.” The satyr folded her arms. “Then how will I ever get ‘unfathomably wealthy’? Y’really just contradicting yourself here lass.”

The fireball grew hotter as El drew her arm back to throw. She was sure she could hit the fae without endangering any of the women around her. It’d definitely end the enchantment of them either way, though. “I’m not being funny. Let them go or fry, lady. Simple either or.”

The fae sighed and lifted her arms, golden chains glittering. “Fine, fine. I wasn’t tryin’ to be funny either, lass. I was jus’ stallin’ for time so’s the owner could sneak up on ye’.”

Elora’s eye twitched, torn between the sudden choices of attacking and making sure that there wasn’t anyone behind her. Unfortunately, before she could decide, a slender, feminine, and unbelievably strong hand closed around her wrist, holding her arm back from throwing her spell, while another arm locked around her waist, holding her in place.

“Now now, girls,” the owner purred behind her. “That’s enough playing with fire. I’ve had a terrible time insuring the place.” The elf’s arm was lowered, the fire in her palm winking out. “Miss Elora, I expect better from you. You’ve come here enough times that you know the rules about roughhousing.”

“Let – me – go!” El growled, trying to fight free from this ludicrously strong grip. “Or else I’ll-Nnk!” Suddenly, the arm around her waist to suddenly rise up and press a black-nailed finger against her forehead. Instantly her body stiffened, refusing to move no matter how loudly her mind demanded it. She was paralyzed.

“A succubus’s touch can be a dangerous thing,” the owner sighed, releasing the elf’s arm and sliding around her, finger still held in place as she smirked at the helpless mage. Now in front of her captive, El could see that she was a traditional red skinned demoness, with black hair and a spaded tail. “It’s why you never want to let one of us get too close to you without protections up. Protections which you seem to have neglected today, miss Elora.”

The elf tried to glare, even though her eyes mostly remained focused forwards. Damnit, she should have seen this coming. A magical lust filled brothel? Of course that was a demon plot! It had succubus written all over it! Ugh, she’d gotten distracted by the fae. Embarrassing.

At least Tay wasn’t around to see her screw up like this…

The satyr had strutted over, and was now looking the captured Sorceress up and down like a piece of very attractive meat. “Good work, boss. What shall we do wit’ her?”

“Hmmm.” The succubus gave Elora an appraising eye. “I think we need a little help with security around here. You know this girl is the second one to just burst in and start snooping around? Mortals these days, no respect for private property.”

Both mobile women shook their heads as El fumed. The satyr even snorted. “Oh right. Whatever happened to her?”

The succubus gave her a look. “I turned her into you, darling.”

“Oh right.”

Wait, what?

What?!?

Elora would have stared at the satyr in shock if she could have moved. Wait, no, first she would have thrown some lightning bolts. But then there would have been so much shocked staring. This singing slut was supposed to be Tanya? How?! Normally there were some signs of a transformation left over…

Were there any here? Her face was kind of Tanya-esque, maybe, but that might just be because her face looked kind of human, and all of those looked the same. And, y’know, maybe her eyes, though those just looked the same as any other human’s too.

How did humans tell each other apart again? El had never been any good at that.

Well whatever. Damnit Tanya, this was totally all your fault!

“So, same for her?” Back in the mobile world, the two evil whorehouse schemers were still discussing her fate. El really wished she’d learned some kind of death glare spell at some point, it’d be really handy right about now.

“No, no, I think she would enjoy that a little too much.” The succubus shook her head. El’s wishes for a death glare spell redoubled. “If we want some security around here, I don’t think we need another slutty satyr. We need something bigger. Stronger. More intimidating. And who can guard a damned door.”

“Aha. Well then.” The satyr – the saTayr? No, that was awful, thank the forces she hadn’t said that out loud – held out a hand, summoning a new instrument. This one was a lute. “I think I may be able to help.”

“By all means, darling.” The succubus slid around Elora, raising her hands to the elf’s pointed ears. “Let me just soften her up for you.”

The Sorceress had a moment of freedom, a second of manoeuvrability as the demon’s touch released her – but it wasn’t enough to stop what was coming. Lighting, red and hellishly corrupted, lanced in through her ears, surging into her brain before plunging down her spine, spreading through her entire body.

She could feel its magic flooding through her, seeping into every inch of her magnificent body. There was little she could do to resist it, but she still tried, gritting her teeth as her body spasmed. The Sorceress wasn’t about to let this woman just twist her into whatever she wanted.

The problem was, though, that the succubus didn’t seem to be doing anything. All her magic was doing was ‘softening’ her form, reducing her resistance to other spells. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t much that could be done to fight that.

And then the singing began.

“Strong as an ox and as smart as one too,We need a bouncer, that’s gunna be you~!So thicken that muscle and thin out those brains,If you’re our new guardian, you’re gunna need gains~!”

The satyr strummed her lute, smiling as she sang, clearly enjoying her role. Elora might have had some very pointed comments about the ridiculous lyrics she was spouting – if they hadn’t all been pointed at her.

As it was, alas, all she could do was groan. There was no blocking the words out. They thrummed through her, entangling with the demon’s magic. The two forces twisted around one another and combined, power crackling through her. It was already starting to change her.

She felt her body swelling, her arms and legs thickening. Her clothing was starting to stretch and tear around her, her muscles bulging as the song sang through them. Power! She could feel incredible power coiling inside her, ready to unleash at any moment. If she could just access it, maybe she could break free!

But the elf wasn’t so lucky. The succubus’s magic still held her tight, even as her body grew stronger than even Tanya at her peak. Elora felt a roar of rage building up in her throat, desperate to get free as her head grew cloudy…

“You’ll be a big smash, looking after our girlsToo slow to act rash, too strong for the churlsAnd so long as you’re working, you’ll do as we sayThat’s right, you big bovine, it’s us you obey~!”

Uuuug… What… What was happening…? Those words, those lyrics, they were just bouncing around in her head over and over. She couldn’t … Couldn’t… Ngh…

As the Sorceress’s mind continued to slow, she lost track of everything else that was happening. Her red robes, ordinarily so pristine and neat, were splitting open at every seam, revealing a wave of brown fur that was spreading over her skin. It was growing down her arms from a joint patch around her shoulders, and rising up her calves from her ankles as-

Snap!

- As her shoes split apart, torn open by the rounded, hardened hooves that had taken shake inside them. Her balance wobbled for a moment, then adjusted, a though she’d been standing on the simple, powerful trotters for all of her life.

None of that was heeded. Her head felt thick. Like her mind was full of mush. Her thoughts were clunky. Slow. She swayed on her hooves, trying to make sense of what was happening, even as her brains seemed to solidify into beef inside her head. It felt like all of her spells were leaking out of her ears. Ears which were growing increasingly floppy…

“Legs like a girder and arms like tree trunksNo need for a spell when you crush all those drunks!With your chest filled with boulders and head marked by hornsAny fool that comes to cross us will be stuck on your thorns~!”

She bellowed as her body surged upwards and outwards, her robes shredded to ribbons as they were torn apart by the growing creature inside them. There was no holding back now – she wasn’t capable of doing so any longer, and couldn’t remember why she would anyway.

The fur had spread everywhere. Down her hands, which had simplified from five elegant and dexterous digits to three thick and clumsy fingers. Down her legs, which had thickened into muscular thunder thighs. Across her chest, where her breasts had grown into brown furred boulders, hanging proudly on her chest, covered only barely by a leather top. Her ass had grown almost as big, and likewise refused to be concealed by the efforts of a leather skirt.

Her head had changed the most, of course. The Sorceress’s sharp green eyes had dulled into a vacant brown. Her nose had thickened into a snout with a golden ring through the septum, and the wave of fur had totally hidden her ethereal elvish features. It had also turned her fiery red hair a dark shade of brown – punctuated, of course, by two tall, sharp, white horns poking up on the sides of her head.

The changes seemed to settle as the song came to a jaunty end. Released from the spell’s hold, she dropped to her knees, blinking slowly. Her thickened mind struggled to latch on to what had happened. She was…

She was…

“A minotaur. How lovely.” The demon giggled, stroking her horns appreciatively. “Mm, you did make that easy on my, Elora. I wonder if this is just a natural shape for you…”

The minotaur looked up. “Where yooooou talking to mmooooe Boss?” She asked, her voice deep and plodding.

The succubus shook her head, gesturing for the beast to rise. “No no. The woman I was talking to has left the building. And speaking of.” She leaned in, smirking up at her new beast. “I think we’ve had enough intruders in here. I want you on guard duty by the back door for the rest of the night. If anyone who isn’t one of our girls tries to sneak in, you make sure they’re shown back out – no matter how many of their limbs you have to break in the process. Understood?”

Uh… That was a lot of long words, but she thought she got the gist. “As yoooooou wish, Boss,” the minotaur said with a nod. She bowed, clumsily almost stabbing the demon and the satyr with her horns, before lumbering off towards the door, ready to start her shift.

“Well that was easy,” the redheaded fae giggled, watching her go. “But Boss, if you’re gunna be relying on me to handle these kindsa problems in the future, y’maybe should be considerin’ payin’ me a little more…”

“Now now, darling.” The demon reached out with a smile, pressing a finger against the satyr’s lute. A fae-like note played out through the room. “Remember…”

“You’re a whore of our finest of quality stockTo earn all of that money for me~”

The lyric washed over the satyr, and her eyes seemed to glow pink, going dull for a moment. “Oh right… All of the money… to you…”

The succubus giggled again. “That’s right. So go and finish your work with the other whores. I want you all good and lusty by the time our clients start rolling in.”

Still dazed, the fae nodded, turning to go and do just that. Behind her, the succubus watched her walk away, eyes fixed on that sluttily swaying rear.

Oh yes. Tonight would be another night at the Winking Nymph, and business was going to be booming…