In the end, she wants a Ring of Invisibility that only works for her daughter. We settle on making one that turns anyone wearing it female (harmless for her daughter), only works near a human (a half-orc qualifies, and Aldamen's daughter apparently takes after her father), only works in the hands of a non-caster, and prevents casting Divine spells… the Guildmaster is paying us half the market price of a fully functional Ring of Invisibility, so ten grand, and it will cost us a little less than three and a half grand to make. I can also make it in four days, which is within our time budget, and is a pretty nice wage for the work, although the party does get a cut. Ironically, the body change if the wrong person tries to use it? That doesn't affect the price. Mom always said it's because it doesn't affect game bance when discussing it… whatever that means.

  Aldamen was quite insistent on that particur ‘security measure’, though.

  We book a room at the inn for me to set up my Keyhome, sell our loot to a broker, buy materials, and settle into a routine: I work on the Ring for eight hours a day (it's the limit, despite my not needing to sleep, eat, or otherwise rest), and we wander about town the rest of the time, checking out the local cuisine, helping Roger with control (not that she needs much anymore), and going through my library. Wesley spends his time in my library, practicing her control, check9ng up on what publications the local town has avaible, or trancing control. Bearcw spends his time tasting what the town had to offer, practicing his control with Wesley. Roger spends some time with me every day practicing, some sleeping… and while I can easily watch where he is, I still can't really tell what he's doing all day. I also splurge slightly by buying a pony for Last Shadow to eat at one point during the time we craft.

  By the way: Watching a cross between a lion and an eagle eat a live pony is not for the faint of heart.

  It's day two in town when the Scrying starts. I seem safe, but I spot Scrying sensors around our Barbarian, Wizard, and Rogue… not Last Shadow, though. It's a higher end spell, Greater Scrying. I try Detect Scrying to follow them back, but find I'm blocked by a spell. It's not exactly hard to guess ‘gnome’, though. I find I can’t dispel them, and they never seem to show up in my Keyhome.

  On day four, when we're leaving the Keyhome to deliver the ring, Bearcw frowns, “The door is locked.”

  That makes me crinkle my forehead, “What?”

  “Just what I said,” the half-orc shrugs, “it won't open.”

  I try it, and… nope, it won't budge. I try the key in the lock… and nada. Now I frown, “Well… the door can be forced….”

  The barbarian nods, grabs it, struggles for a bit, forces himself through… and appears right next to me.

  Wesley chuckles darkly, “That's an effective trap we're in.”

  I consider a bit, “It's not like we're going to die in here. We have food, water, and air forever.” I'd rather not use the back door….

  The elf looks up and to the left, slowly bringing his eyes to the right, “You can do fourth circle spells, right?”

  I nod, “Yes, but Pne Shift isn't avaible until…”

  “But Dismissal is fourth for Priests,” the Wizard interrupts, “and I have seen you do priestly spells.”

  I think about that for a bit, “Okay, yes, Ui can cast itnon myself to try to send myself home, but there's no telling….”

  “Do we have any better options?” Roger interrupts this time.

  I think about that… I'd have to break things to use the back door because I'm cking Mom's buffs. I could do that anyway, but… “I suppose not. Okay. It has to be me that goes, due to that chance of ending up on the wrong pne. If I send one of you…”

  “Then we could open the door, come back in, and we could try again,” Bearcw points out, “But you going is a matter of expediency, as you can just Dismiss yourself again if you end up in the wrong pce: It saves steps.”

  Why is everyone else better at thinking things through than I am? “Right. So… anything anyone else can think of before I do this?”

  They all shake their heads (including Last Shadow), and I cast my spell, hitting myself and accepting the effect, which warps me off.

  I look around after the instant of disorientation… I am in a forest, can smell the sea, and hear a brook babbling nearby. It's raining heavily… the temperature isn't bad, not that any of us care anymore, but snow would block sight lines. It's the prime material pne, at least. Nothing jumps out at me… the trees are just evergreens… I go ahead and fly up above the tree line to get my bearings… okay, that's North… I recognize those mountains because I have magic skills… and with the direction they're in, we're almost sixteen hundred miles from where we were. I can at least work with that.

  I open the door to my Keyhome, and find the rest of the party waiting. Roger speaks up first, “How is it?”

  “We're almost sixteen hundred miles from where we were,” I begin, “so we're looking at…”

  “About a twenty six and a half hour trip,” Bearcw inserts.

  The barbarian does math? “Umm… yes, but I have access to Dimension Door now, so I can teleport regurly to speed that up…”

  “But that limits how many people can come with,” Wesley notes.

  “It does save time if we don't get the Howdah out of storage,” the party leader considers, “Okay. Go for it. We'll stay here. And… please maintain Invisibility while traveling. We don't want you hurt.”

  Wesley considers, “I can think of worse things than being stuck in the world's best reference library.”

  Bearcw chuckles, “At least I can get out regardless.”

  “All the same, stay safe,” the halfling shakes his head, “I don't want you dead.”

  “It's nice that you still want me around even though you all have control now.”

  “You're one of us now,” the half-orc smiles… which looks kind of threatening, honestly, what with those teeth, “brothers in arms.” He then frowns, “Sometimes sisters-in-arms? Family in arms? Yeah, that works.”

  Roger ughs, “Marty here does strange things to pronouns, this is true. But let's go….”

  I go ahead and close the door, cast Invisibility on myself, stow the Key in my Warp Storage, shift into to a medium-sized dragon and fly like… well, not an arrow: An arrow exists at every spot along the arc it travels, while I'm skipping a little over seven hundred feet of the path every six seconds. With that plus the ft out run, I hit about a hundred thirty two miles an hour, and make it back where we started in about twelve hours. It's a beautiful trip… I kind of regret taking it so quickly. Still… we have a ring to deliver.

  Hmm.

  I didn't use the gate leaving, but I didn't exactly leave by choice… eh, there aren't exactly records, may as well use the front door.

  I nd out of sight of the front gate, resume visibility, and walk calmly for the st several hundred yards (this town keeps the area around the wall clear for a few bowshots, presumably to give lots of time for them to gather a defense and shoot at any invaders). Fshing my guild card at the gate, I walk in with no acknowledgement beyond a nod from the guard. I then head back to our inn room, and open the Keyhome again, and let everyone out.

  At least, that was the pn. The Great Hall inside just has the summoned minions I leave as guards, plus Last Shadow. So I look at one of the minions, “Would you please tell me: Where are my party mates?”

  He answers, “Bearcw and Roger went to the pantry; Wesley is in the library.”

  “Thank you,” just because they're soulless, suicidally obedient spell effects is no reason to be impolite.

  I start with the pantry, Last Shadow following and… ah. They're practicing. Bearcw is in hybrid form, on the ground, her milk makers shaking in time with Roger's gyrations, who is in fully female form, on top of Bearcw, her baby bakery wrapped around the half-orc's meat pole…. which means I walk in on two women with milk tanks slightly rger than their heads rocking, shaking, grunting, moaning, completely nude, and very obviously enjoying each other's company.

  It's quite the scene, and I'm SURE they'd let me join… but I'm not sure how much of that would be a ck of control on their part, how much would be my position as their sire, how much would be them being actually willing, and how much other factors… so for now, if they're going to agree to it, it needs to be their idea and in their birth forms.

  Philosophy sucks: That looks really fun.

  Shaking my head, I let them go at it; they'll tire eventually. Hopefully Wesley will be a better person to chat with….