I go about my day… which is pretty dull, really. I mean, until the magic reaches us, I have very little to do. Sure, I keep my Keyhome open in one of the completed rooms of the castle so everyone can come and go as they please, and I leave a few summoned guards with instructions about who to let in at the gate… but otherwise I'm kind of stuck.
So I spend my day reading in my library. Going through spells at random, casting the better buffs on myself. Of course, Wesley spends a lot of time here too… which makes him the ideal target for testing, doesn't it?
I start with an innocuous request, “Would you please put this one back for me?”
“Yeah, sure,” is the response, and he gets up from what he's reading, takes it from my hand, puts it away in the proper spot, then goes back to his studying.
And he didn't even react like it was odd. Interesting. Time to turn it up, “Mind shifting to Wilma?”
“No problem…” the elf focuses for a bit, and shifts to his female form, her globes pushing her robes out a bit. Again, she doesn’t seem to question it at all.
How far can I go here? I drop the pretense of politeness, “Strip.”
Wilma stops reading again, takes off her clothing, setting it all in a nice neat pile, and gets back to what she was doing, her face turning a little red with her bare buns on the seat and her milk makers visible, but not a word of compint.
This is getting ridiculous, but I just can't help it, “Stick your fingers between your legs and rub yourself off.”
Her face turns a bright red at that one, but the image of my female form with slightly pointer ears reaches down and sticks her fingers in herself, using her thumb to stimute her nub as she slowly works her fingers in and out of her dripping hole… hmm, I'm going to need to clean that chair… as she works herself up to the crests of pleasure, and gets herself off while I watch.
As she's catching her breath after, I keep going, “Tell me: why did you do that?”
“Because… because…” still gasping for breath, “...because I'm supposed to.” The woman pauses, finally looking confused, “That doesn't make sense. Why am I ‘supposed to’ do the absurd things you're… you even stopped asking. You're just telling me to do things and I'm doing them without seriously thinking about it. Did you cast a spell on me when I wasn't looking?”
“No, no deliberate mind control on my part,” I answer the naked woman, “I think this is an effect of the wereism. I noticed it with Bearcw when he came to me wanting to practice control like you've been doing. She of course immediately lost control…”
Wilma frowns, “‘She’?”
“Bearcw, obviously… and when I suggested a change of position, she did it immediately. When I stepped back to try something else… she simply stayed there, waiting for me to continue, until I gave her a different instruction.”
“Huh.” The still-naked woman seems to be getting over her embarrassment while she's thinking… or at least not focusing on it, “It would expin some observed behavior of wolf packs… they're killed rather than studied, but it's not like we turn into killing machines, or even stop looking humanoid; we could easily pass ourselves off as some other kind of shifter… but any pack has a leader calling the shots… could just be organizational reasons, same as why military squads get a commander….”
“Do you realize you're naked?”
“Of course I am. I'm supposed to be because…” Wilma pauses, “...because you told me to strip.” She turns red again, “Do you mind….”
I chuckle, “Feel free to get dressed and/or resume your male form if you want.”
“Thanks…” Wilma puts on her robe and shifts back to Wesley, “...I knew I was nude, but that's how I was ‘supposed’ to be, and even when I realized why and didn't want to be that way, I just…” he pauses, frowning.
I take a guess at what he was about to say “...you couldn't help it, because I gave the order.”
“Yes. That. This is bad,” the elf gets up and starts pacing, “if you can just tell us what to do and we automatically do it, it's not safe for us to be around you… but we can't leave so long as we need your suppression of the condition, and if nobody maintains the dungeon it will become a big problem…”
Hmm. Umm… “Would it help if I told you to alert me if I accidentally give you an order?”
Wesley stops pacing for the moment, “‘Help’: Yes. ‘Solve’: no. Anyone compromising you still compromises all of us, and that is very bad, because it means we have no option to recover if or when it happens. We don't need to fg the control channel, we need to dismantle it.”
“Well, don't worry about it,” I idly respond, “I'm sure we'll think of something.” It's weird thinking in terms of ‘what happens if someone takes me over.’
The wizard shrugs, “I suppose you're right… no help for it, what's done is done.”
Something is bugging me, but I can't quite put a finger on it, “Right. Anyway, I guess we can get back to our reading….”
“Certainly.”
We both get back to it.
Eventually the magic does reach town, and I get to work on the ‘magical automata’ - “Summon Minion III” produces “CR 1 NPCs” from “the GameMastery Guide”... and in my case they st until dismissed rather than maybe a minute. A bunch of expert craftsmen get to work quarrying stone, collecting and processing various supplies we'll need from the surrounding terrain, and building the castle for us. I get thousands of workers… and the main designer I summoned tells me it's going to take about five years to complete. With that being no good, I summon several thousand more… and eventually I get it down to a year. Sadly, literally half of the minions are of necessity Clerics to feed them all via the Dream Feast spell. Still, they get a decent wooden fort with barracks for themselves up in a week.
Mind you… this leaves my summons outnumbering the actual townsfolk by well over a hundred to one.
We're of course approached by the town council about this, specifically Richard Swiftbde herself. She looks a bit further along, around seven months, maybe? Unlike when I rescued her, the currently five foot two human woman's red hair is now trimmed to her shoulders, and she's wearing a gray cotton robe. Two other members of the council bring a chair and help her along, setting it down so she can sit while she addresses us… which she does, her green eyes quite serious, her pale skin a little taught on her face, and her full lips in a tense line.
“Okay, so…” she begins, “What. The. Abyss.”
Roger chuckles, “Yeah… our Wizard's ways take some getting used to.”
“‘Getting used to’ you say,” she stares at the party leader ftly, “The magical automata of yours outnumber everyone else by over a hundred to one, and the magically trained among the council can't identify the spell… even though we can see the summoning magic. Seriously: What the Abyss.”
The halfling answers her, “Well… we have the spell to get the borers, and we're using them to build a castle on the nd we purchased. Are we doing anything wrong?”
Richard looks at our party leader ftly, “Will the dungeon be able to support this massive use of magic?”
Well… my spells don't lean on the dungeon, so really the only casting going on is that of the summons casting Dream Feast to keep them all fed: Just some first circle spells… dozens of thousands a day, but big cities do that and much more. The work itself is entirely mundane bor.
The party Wizard has my back, though, “We'll need to clean it out more often while we're building,” Wesley speaks up, “but that's it, and we're the ones handling that anyway, so it's scarcely a problem for you.”
“And after construction?” That dy isn't letting up.
Roger just shrugs, “We dismiss most of them, keeping enough here to maintain, staff, and guard the castle.”
“Where does that leave us?” Finally, the real question that concerns the town.
Roger chuckles, “Tell you what, Richard…” the rogue smiles, “...we'll help protect the town: Build a curtain wall and guard towers around the existing wooden palisade, keep it patrolled, and man the gates.” The halfling looks at Wesley, myself, and Bearcw, and we all nod, “keep everyone nice and safe.” He turns his gaze back to Richard, “Obviously we're not hurting for manpower, so you don't exactly need to worry about impressment or anything.”
The woman pauses a good long while, “I suppose that's the best I can ask for.” She looks at Wesley, “You realize there's plenty of people who would kill for the secrets you so obviously have, right?”
Wouldn't help: It requires a divine blessing.
Our wizard chuckles, “Yes… and I have a lot of defenses. Any delver does: Dungeons throw a lot at a man.”
Richard nods, “Thank you for your time, my lords,” she stands up and bows slightly, “and thank you for your generous offer of protection.”
Rogue smiles, “It's always good to be on good terms with the local citizens; drop in any time.”
After the town representatives leave (Richard getting support from one of the male council members, another taking her chair), I ask a question, “Why did she call us lords?”
All three of my party mates look at me like I'm an idiot, and eventually Roger answers, “What do you call a couple of guys who have nd, money, servants, an army under their command, and a castle - even if it is still under construction?”
I pause, “but we're not nobles….”
Bearcw ughs, “How do you think the nobles came to be? At one point in their family line every one of them had a couple of folks who carved out a name for themselves by hook or by crook. If we keep this up, you're liable to become Marty the First.”
“Stupid question, then…”
Roger shakes his head, “A naive question, not a stupid one. You'll get there. But come on…” he rogue smiles again, “He's not wrong about all the magic being bandied about: We should go check on the dungeon.”
And so we set out on the three mile trip to the dungeon….
