Lackeys of Lust

“Lackeys of Lust”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 89
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Honeypot Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Gates of Wrath" "Leave in Silence"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes enter the cages of lust and meet demons living there.

Lackeys of Lust

We avoided to fight the succubi.

After leaving wrath we discussed where to go next. I thought we should leave greed for last since it is Karzoug that is returning and I guessed that they will be strongest and most prepared. Since I don't like undead monsters I wanted to leave those as long as possible too. I suggested sloth or lust. Velicia complained and said we should start with those we thought was strongest as we would loose strength the longer we waited. As we had found leads in pride I suggested that we should try to learn more about the toughest enemies before attacking them, but somehow Velicia had the idea that brute force was better than knowledge. Strange.

Nathaniel agreed with me and Honeypot wanted us to wait with lust for some unknown reason so we headed for the Festering maze of Sloth. Not the nicest of names. As we headed down the corridor we didn't face the strange maze-effect that the others had and soon we came to a dead end. The corridor ended in raw rock. I started looking for hidden doors, while the others studied the rock. Velicia suggested that it was the same effect as had befallen envy. It had been destroyed and reverted to the rock it had been made of. We guessed that they just stopped caring some time long ago. We still wanted something that was sloth so after some thinking Velicia suggested we take a piece of rock. When Nathaniel took out his pickaxe she stopped him and said:
"No. Take a piece of rock that has fallen off the wall. It would be as close to the essence of sloth we can get here."

We returned out into the central room again. The only three remaining was greed, gluttony and lust. We agreed to go to lust even though Honeypot did object half-heartedly.

The corridor had the maze effect the other active parts had had. I and Honeypot entered a huge room with polished red and white tiles on floor. In the dim light I could see there was a big pavilion made from a silky material in the center and around it there were fourteen pillars all sculpted like nude women. Between each pillar and the outer wall there were cages. I immediately sneaked over to the nearest one and hid behind it. It was made of silver and gold. It had very good craftsmanship and was probably worth a lot. But inside were the long dead remains of a human. Looking at the next cage it looked like it too had a corpse. There might be some kind of trap on them so I left them alone and never start looting until you've earned it. Honeypot walked out into the room and looked around. She stood there studying the ceiling that was covered with pictures of men and women having sex, when I heard harpy-like noises from the other side of the room. I kept an extra eye out for flying creatures and sure enough soon demons came flying and landed in front of Honeypot. The demons spoke to Honeypot and to my surprise I understood what they said.
"Hello! You must be our new toys for us to play with."
"We are no toys, but I can play with you." she answered
As they continued to talk Nathaniel arrived into the room and soon after Velicia too. I thought Honeypot had talked to the demons to let the others catch up before attacking but it seemed she went on. After a while Velicia headed over to a cage further away on the other side of the room from me. Nathaniel followed her and a demon that earlier had been sitting on the the edge of the pavilions roof flew down to the same cage. It turned out there were someone still alive in there. Suddenly Velicia used her teleport magic to appear inside the cage and almost simultaneous the demon did too. As Velicia tried to touch the victim in the cage with her sword as part of her magic the demon brushed up against her and tried to kiss her. Velicia turned her face in the last second and got a kiss on the cheek instead of on the mouth and she and the victim disappeared from the cage. They appeared near the exit and soon the demon followed, but it still only talked to her wanting to play. It didn't really say, but it was obvious it would be some kind of sexual game. Velicia and Nathaniel went out the corridor and the demon followed them out of the lust part of Runeforge.

Meanwhile Honeypot had flirted with a demon or two and had ended up with three demons almost fighting over her. With all four of the demons gone or distracted I started to sneak around. I checked the rest of the cages, but no else was alive. Then I sneaked up to the pavilion. There were small gaps that I could peek in through at the joints in the pavilion, but they were too small to get in through. The fabric was also some magic material that couldn't be cut, at least not silently. Moving along the sides of the pavilion I get a good idea of the interior. It had sections dividing it into four rooms. Near the entrance there are five stone giants standing guard in some kind of harem clothes that didn't hide anything. The other interesting room was a throne room filled with four beds, a table, a throne and pillows and carpets giving it a lavish look. There were a lot of ropes, straps, whips and other toys all over the room. A censer stood on the table, spreading some incense all over the place. From what I could sense outside it had a sweet smell to it. On the velvet throne sat a female demon looking a little different from the other demons. She had long pointy ears, small horns, fangs and inhuman eyes. I guessed that was Delvahine who Vraxeris from pride had been seeing. She looked distant as if she had had too much to drink or was doing some kind of magical ritual. Now we had to decide what to do.