The Incredible and Astounding Adventures of Crimson Ines the Lovely Adventurer, Episode 1: The Evil Tentacle Monster from the Dark Depths of the Nameless Abyss!
The Incredible and Astounding Adventures of Crimson Ines the Lovely Adventurer, Episode 1: The Evil Tentacle Monster from the Dark Depths of the Nameless Abyss!
_For Jessica Elwood (jessicaelwood.deviantart.com)
By the Muse of Caprice and Whimsy (mocaw.deviantart.com)
Disclaimer: The characters and their distinctive likenesses are the property of Jessica Elwood and iare used with permission from the creator. The story itself is the property of the MoCaW and may not be used without prior consent. This story may be distributed freely as long as it is distributed in its entirety without editing, and with this disclaimer block intact. In other words: please give credit where it is due, it's the decent thing to do. Thanks._
*****
Dramatis Personae
CRIMSON INES: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/87089/ A dashing and adventurous fox-girl swashbuckler.
SYLVIA ADELAIDE: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/92606/ A scholar and wizard, mischievous and cunning.
TSUKINAGA: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/101695/ A poisoned Kitsune from the far East, reserved and strong.
EIR: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/110069/ (pictured with Tsukinaga) A hearty and lusty Viking shieldmaiden.
*****
"So, remind me again why we're doing this again?" Ines grumbled, picking dust and debris from her blonde hair.
"Gold, Fame, and Power!" Eir laughed heartily. "There is goot plunder in dungeons, ja?!"
"Vengeance," Tsukinaga replied curtly. "Namely, I require funds to continue my quest of righteous retribution against the evil ones."
"Because this abandoned temple might hold artifacts of immense cultural and historical value," Sylvia explained, carefully studying the map. "After all, it's been left practically untouched since it was abandoned over a century ago by the ancient Elysian culture. Even the grave robbers leave it alone."
"Right, now that's the thing that's bothering me," Ines went on, tossing a bit of twig into the corner with a sigh. "The whole, 'even grave robbers leave it alone' thing. Because one thing that being an adventurer has taught me is that grave robbers will rob just about anything. . . unless they have a good reason not to."
"Oh, that's probably because of the monster," Sylvia said off-handedly.
"Monster? What monster?"
"The monster that the ancient witch-king Corwin supposedly placed to guard his final resting place. It's supposed to kill and eat anyone who tries to loot this tomb," Sylvia said distractedly.
A pause, followed by the sound of weapons being drawn. "I find it odd that you did not mention this earlier, Adelaide-san," Tsuki said, her voice taking a dark, dangerous tone.
"I didn't? I thought I did mention it before. Interesting." Sylvia scratched her head, trying to make sense of her old, faded map.
"Treasure? Vealth? Ja! Horrible creetures who vill kill us all? Nein!"
"Keep it down, they'll hear us!" Ines whimpered, her foxen eyes desperately scanning the darkened hallways.
"Oh, it's no big deal," Sylvia said dismissively. "These legends of guardians and horrible monsters are just legends, you know. Just think of the ecology. There's no way that a dungeon this size could support even one apex predator, much less aaaaaaaaaaagh. . ."
". . . much less what?"
Silence.
"Forgive my forwardness, Ines-san, but were there not four of us a moment ago?"
"Oh, bugger."
- * -
When Sylvia woke up, her first thought was, "I'm very cold."
Her second thought was, "I can't move."
Her third thought was: "Ah, I see. Being chained to a damp stone wall tends to have that effect. Interesting."
Her fourth was: "I wonder why that old man in the black robes is smiling at me?"
- * -
"Ve haf to get out of here now!" Eir whimpered, "Before the monsters kill and eat us all!"
"It would be most dishonorable to leave a comrade behind, we must pursue her immediately!" Tsuki retorted.
"I vil miss Sylvia, but she is most likely dead already! Ve must flee and return vith my Vikings so that ve can avenge her death properly, ja?!"
"A wise man once said, 'Do not count a man as dead until you have seen the body. Even then, you may make a mistake.'"
"Both of you, shush!" Ines shouted. She was kneeling on the patch of floor where Sylvia had disappeared a few minutes ago, poking something with her dagger. "Trap door," she said, straightening up. "Really well made, too, I can't open it from here. It looks Elysian-made and well-maintained." She stood up. "Someone's alive down here," she said grimly. "Someone who knows how to repair and maintain ancient traps."
"Ze monster?" Eir whimpered.
"I don't think monsters have the skill or the dexterity to maintain these kinds of traps. Couldn't be ogres or orcs. Kobolds? No. . . too elegant for kobolds. . . and it smells like. . ." she sniffed the air experimentally. "Magic."
Silence.
"Scheisse."
- * -
"You are a fellow student of the arcane arts, yes?"
"A scholar, mostly," Sylvia replied, squirming uncomfortably, "but I have had some training in magic, yes."
"You have Talent. And a strong one too," the old man said. "And this. . . sword you carry. Hyborian make. Probably a couple of centuries old. Magical, too." He hefted the wide-bladed broadsword experimentally, watched the blade tracing silver-white light in the dank, damp depths of the dark dungeon. "Fifth culture, perhaps. . . from the reign of the Mad King Adelbert."
"Oh, I say, you do know your stuff, don't you?" Sylvia exclaimed, her puppy-dog ears perking up with interest. "So many lay people confuse the Fifth with the Third so often, but it's really quite simple, since weapons from the Fifth culture have much less elaborate cross-pieces and pommels than those from the Third. In fact, if you look at the quillions, you can see. . ."
"I'm sorry, but I really don't have the time to discuss my childhood at the moment. You see, your friends are soon going to reach this chamber the long way around, and I really do need to feed you to my pet before they arrive," the old man said.
Sylvia whimpered, her ears lowering and her tail stopping its excited wagging. "So, are you going to kill me, then?"
"Oh, no. . . no, that would defeat my purposes entirely!" the old man chuckled, running his hand along the bookish canine's chin. "But you are going to be eaten. . . in a manner of speaking."
And that was when Sylvia first heard it: a low, wet, slippery sound, like a million slugs being dragged across a marble floor.
Schlik. Schlik. Schlik.
- * -
"Holt me, Tsuki!" Eir whimpered.
"Forgive my forwardness, Eir-san, but are you not supposed to be a fearless Viking warrior? Cringing at shadows like a child is not exactly fearless, is it?"
"Varriors? No problem. Berserkers? Easy. Monsters, I can handle. Horrible sorcerers veilding dark magic? Zat iz a whole other story."
"Would both of you shut up and let me pick this lock?" Ines grumbled. "This isn't as easy as people seem to think it is. . . there." She backed off to one side and opened the door with the point of her rapier. No spring-loaded arrows, spears, or horrible monsters leaped out at her, so she poked her head around the corner and looked in.
She saw a long, dark corridor with bizarre, eldritch-looking bas-reliefs on every single available surface: images of weird, grotesque monsters eating helpless people. . . at least, it looked like they were being eaten, although some of the victims seemed to be enjoying the experience. The walls and ceiling were riddled with holes, she realized, most about as big around as her thigh. She carefully crept into the room and used her dagger to poke around inside the hole for traps. It came away covered with some sort of strange slime, like the kind that snails lay down behind them.
"Is it safe?" Tsuki asked from outside the room.
"I think so. These aren't traps. . . what they ARE I'm not sure of. And that door on the far end. . . there's light behind it. I think we're almost at the end."
Eir whimpered. "Und ze sorcerer?"
"I don't see anyone else but us. . ."
A moment later, they heard a high-pitched scream. A very familiar high-pitched scream.
"Sylvia!" The scream had come from the far end of the corridor, beyond that lighted door. Ines ran, her rapier drawn, her heart in her throat, hoping and praying she wasn't too late to save her friend. . .
The far door slammed shut behind them, trapping all three of them in the corridor together.
"It's a TRAP!" Eir shouted.
"Oh, you THINK!" Ines sighed, slapping her forehead in frustration. "I'm such a DUNCE. . ."
There was a long pause. Then Tsuki sighed and rubbed her forehead in frustration.
"Shimatta."
- * -
"Aaaanh!" Sylvia moaned, as the wet, slimy tentacles wrapped around her helpless body, lifting her into the air. Her hands clenched tightly into fists, her cheeks were burning red with embarrassment as the creature's sluglike tendrils insinuated themselves past her clothing, running over her bare fur, wrapping themselves around her arms, her legs, her waist, her breasts, stroking up against her nipples, which, to her shame, were already starting to grow hard and erect.
"This creature is most unusual," the old man chuckled. "Unlike most monsters of its type, which feed on female vaginal secretions, this particular creature is directly sustained by the sexual energy of its victims. The more aroused the prey, the stronger it becomes. Unfortunately, it can only feed on the life energy from those with magical Talent. Like yourself."
"Th. . . that's why. . . just me. . . ?"
"That's right," the old man crooned. "Your friends are useless to me. . . but they should do to give my little Ginger a little exercise. He's been so bored lately. Speaking of which. . ."
Sylvia heard Ines' cry, heard the door slam shut outside the madman's torture chamber. "Your friends," her captor went on, "have reached the killing hall. Shall we watch?" He snapped his fingers, and an image of Sylvia's three friends, standing in a darkened corridor, appeared on the far wall.
"No. . . no no no. . . please don't hurt them," Sylvia moaned, as the monster's horrid tentacles wrapped closer and closer around her helpless body.
The old man just chuckled in reply. "We'll see." He snapped his fingers. "Ginger. Strip her."
Sylvia screamed in terror as the creature tore all her clothes off in an instant: her tunic, hose, skirt, boots, even her gloves were torn from her in the blink of an eye, leaving her completely nude. She hung there helplessly against her restraints, unable to resist as the monster began to grope and fondle her now completely naked body. "Have fun," the old man grinned.
- * -
"Damn!!" Ines cursed as her lockpick broke in half. She threw the useless shards of metal on the ground and stomped on them. "Can't get through. . . maybe if I try the hinges."
"Out of my way!" Eir roared. The cayan Viking hefted a handaxe and charged the door at full speed.
"NO, WAIT!"
SNAP! A broken axe-head spun across the stone floor and skittered into the darkness.
"I already thought of that! The door's made of ironwood, it would take adamantite weapons to break through!" Ines shouted.
"Then do something!" Eir roared. "You got us into this mess, you get us out of it!"
"What? It wasn't MY idea to come down here in the first place, you know?"
"Vell, it vas not mine either!"
"That's right! It was Sylvia's idea! Damn it, this is all HER fault!"
"That stupid bitch! Ven I get my hands on her. . ."
"Quiet," Tsukinaga murmured. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear vat?"
"Something. . . like a thousand slugs all marching in the same direction."
Ines listened carefully. In the dark silence, she thought she really could hear something slowly approaching. It was a low, wet sound. . .
Schlik. Schlik. Schlik.
"Oh, fuck. . ." Ines groaned.
- * -
"No. . . no. . . no. . ." Sylvia moaned.
"Yes," chuckled the old man. "Give in, little magus. Give in to your desires and succumb to the bliss."
"No, please. . . please." The canine girl bit back a scream as the monster's tendrils slowly tightened around her limbs, spreading her legs and lifting her into the air, trying not to love the cool, damp feel of its wet skin against her hot flesh, the slightly sticky feel of its slimy members gliding across her fur. "Please. . . stop."
"Feels good, doesn't it? Like dozens of tiny arms caressing you all at once. . . stroking you all over like a million tiny kisses on your bare flesh." The old man undid the front of his robe, and Sylvia saw that he was naked, stroking his shriveled branch of an erection with his withered hand. "Give in, my little pet. Give in to the pleasure."
"No. . . Ines. . . Tsuki. . . Eir. . . I'm sorry," Sylvia whimpered.
The old man chuckled and snapped his fingers again. Sylvia bit back a scream as the first tentacle penetrated her, sliding past her dripping folds and deep into her burning sex, the cool wetness of the horrid thing making her gasp with pleasure as it expanded to fill her, stretching her vaginal walls, sliding in all the way to her womb before gliding back out again with a wet, nasty sound.
Schlik. Schlik. Schlik.
- * -
"Tsuki! Behind you!"
Fwik-slash!
"We are overwhelmed! For every one we destroy, ten more appear! This battle is hopeless!"
"Tell me something I don't know. . . damn it! Where is Sylvia when you need her?!"
"I've had enough of this! RaaaaaaaaaaaaRGH. . . Scheisse. . ..mmmmph!"
"Eir!! It got Eir!"
"FUCK!"
- * -
"Unnnnnh. . ." Sylvia moaned around the tentacle in her mouth. She was loving it. . . couldn't help it, even as she watched her own desire feeding this horrid monster and helping it to hurt her friends, even as she saw the questing tentacles reach through the holes in the killing hall, saw Eir stripped of her armor and forced to her knees as a tendril slid into her friend's mouth, ignoring all of the Viking girl's attempts to bite. The canine scholar gasped as a third tentacle slid into her tailhole, loving how it filled her up inside, almost exceeding her capacity, writhing in helpless pleasure as the creature excited her every nerve, sent hot tingles running across her desperate body, building up the tension to nearly unbearable levels, teasing her, stroking her, possessing her entirely. . .
"That's right, little magus," the old man grinned, still stroking his emaciated cock. "Cum. Cum and feed my monster, and then its power will be fully restored. Let your pleasure be your friends' doom. Cum for me."
The tentacles clenched tight around her, the one in her cunt accelerating to a frenzied pace, blurring with the speed of its thrusting. Sylvia whimpered, her hands clenched in tight fists. . . then moaned. . . then just screamed past the tendril in her mouth, the one that gagged her and kept her from crying out. Pleasure exploded from her womb like a bomb, racking her body with waves of white-hot bliss, an orgasm like none other she'd ever experienced, lasting on and on and on, until she felt that she would die from the bliss, that it would kill her, leave her a spent husk on this dungeon floor. . .
With a supreme effort, she opened her right fist, let a tiny drop of liquid splash onto the monster's pale blue tentacles. . . screamed two words at the top of her lungs, hoping that they would get out through the horrid thing in her mouth, just enough to call upon the Source, to tap her Talent and cast the spell she'd been desperately formulating since the first tentacle reached through the wall to grope her helpless body. . .
"INVOKUS SALATA!"
- * -
There was a very loud, wet noise and a despairing scream, then silence.
When it was over, the tentacles were gone, leaving the three female adventurers laying on the stone floor, gasping for breath. A moment later, there was the sound of a key in the door, and the portal swung open, revealing a tired, naked, kinda slimy, yet somehow contented-looking Sylvia standing here.
"Hi. We're done," she said softly.
"What's all that white stuff?" Ines groaned, getting to her feet and trying to find her trousers. (She was not successful).
"Salt," Sylvia replied, brushing some of the snowy powder from her shoulder. "I cast a spell using a drop of my own sweat as the catalyst."
"That would explain the dissolving monster on the floor," Tsuki noted, as calm as ever despite the fact that her breasts were hanging out of her tattered kimono.
"Yes, actually. I figured, if it works on slugs, it might work here," Sylvia sighed, stretching out.
"Great. Who's the stiff?" Ines asked, gesturing to the skeleton sitting in the armchair.
"King Corwin, I suspect. Probably using the monster to feed his own immortality and died when it was destroyed. It's the usual way these things happen," Sylvia replied, a bit distractedly.
A pause. "Vell, I'm going to go loot his treasure," Eir said firmly, "und perhaps find some clothing. Coming, Tsuki?"
"Of course." The naked Viking and the half-naked samurai walked off into the next room.
"I should go with them, or they'll smash everything of historical value," Sylvia sighed. "And I need a tissue."
"Syl?" Ines asked cautiously. "One question."
"Yes, Ines?"
"What took you so long? I mean. . . couldn't you have cast that spell a lot sooner? It would have saved us a lot of trouble. . . you didn't have to wait until after you came, did you?"
Sylvia just smirked.
"Fuck."
The End