1-119 Don’t be decieved

“Wow, you're close,” Gisley said as she leaned over to look at Jaina's interface. “You are almost level forty.”

“And with forty comes my evolution to a mimic,” Jaina said nervously. “I can't believe I am almost there.”

“What does the mimic allow you to do that you can't do now?” Evalynn asked as she sat on the bed, brushing her hair.

“As the morphic, I can only copy living things, but once I become a mimic, I can shape change into objects, like a chest, or a door, or the bed your sitting on,” Jaina explained. “I can also heal by consuming organic matter, and I can begin adding mass to my mass pool, allowing me to increase my size.”

“How big can you get?” Gisley asked as her eyes widened in wonder.

“Well, the rule is ten times your size as a base, but for every point you spend on the skill, you can go twenty percent more,” Jaina explained. “Plus, a little higher up, I can even make copies of myself, but there are restrictions about what I can do with them.”

“Ha, does that mean you can make love to yourself?” Gisley asked with a smile.

“You know, I never considered that,” Jaina said. “I could even shape change so one of us is a man. I don’t need anybody but myself for sexual adventures.”

“What I want to know is,” Evalynn said as she got up and came to wrap her arms around Jaina. “Can you shape change into bondage furniture?”

“Of course,” Jaina replied, turning to her with a smile. “And assuming I absorb enough mass, I could change into an entire bondage room where I will keep you and Gisley firmly bound and tormented for the rest of eternity. I will spend all my time bringing you to orgasm to feed on your bodies.”

Gisley jumped back with a little eep as Evalynn moaned in anticipation of her coming imprisonment. They shared a warm hug and sat on the bed as Gisley looked at the magical clock on the wall.

“I have to go and replenish the glitter bomb syrup,” Gisley said. “Are we doing anything special today?”

“Umm, besides attending to our master's needs?” Jaina asked as she tried to think if anything was going on. “Nothing comes to mind. But we could always help you make that sweet honey.” Gisley smiled and they got up and left the magic tent that served as Roric's bedroom. Just down the hall, they ran into Roric coming the other way with a bit of a surprise. Heather stood beside him, looking embarrassed as she made eye contact with Jaina. She was dressed in slave silks, a collar with bare feet, and a short chain on her neck.

“Please tell me you bought her, and she will be living here with us from now on,” Jaina implored.

“Oh, ha, ha,” Heather said, shaking her head. “No such luck. I am on loan.”

“Well, I will take what I can get,” Jaina said with a smile as she approached with her arms wide.

“She isn’t on loan for that,” Roric said and stood between them.

“What? Why not?” Jaina asked disappointingly.

“She is here to help us look for Idris,” Roric said. “One of Rajeen's hunters claims to have seen Idris enter a city called Ivishdolain. He lost her in the city but believes she is still there. We have a mage waiting in the inn with a portal to the city. We are going over to hunt for her and see if we can locate the woman.”

“Why do we need Heather then?” Jaina asked.

“He wants me to use my shape-change power to look like Idris,” Heather explained. “You are going to take her form first, and then I will copy you.”

“We will use you two to ask people if they have seen a woman like this,” Roric said. “With the two of you, we can break off into teams and search more quickly.”

“Can't we just use your new class to steal the power for the others?” Jaina asked.

“We could, but I want protectors for each team, and that means they need to be in armor,” Roric replied.

“And what do we do if we find her?” Gisley asked.

“Bring her to the portal,” Roric said. “We will meet back at the portal at sundown. Hopefully, one of us will have her with them.”

“How do you intend to manage the teams?” Evalynn asked.

“You will take Jaina, Chandice, and Gisley,” Roric said. “I am trusting you to watch over them and keep them safe. I will take Heather, Lilac, and Breanne.”

“Oh, Breanne is coming too,” Evalynn said with a smile.

“Frank tasked her with watching over me,” Heather replied. “She is taking this job rather seriously.”

“Well, this day just got more interesting,” Jaina said as her form turned gray and blurred. A moment later, she was a pale woman with long black hair that curled on her back, ending in a sweep of purple. Her purple eyes graced a delicate face with a serious look. She wore a simple black dress with red lacing around the edges, giving her a gothy appearance. “This is Idris,” Jaina replied. “Or as close to her as I can get. I can't do an exact copy unless I have touched her in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Let me see if I can copy that,” Heather replied as her form blurred. A moment later, she looked exactly like Jaina, so much the two tried to switch places.

“I can still smell the difference,” Roric said as he separated the two.

“Oh, you had to pick a race with an acute sense of smell,” Jaina groaned.

“So I am not replenishing the glitter bombs?” Gisley asked as they headed off.

“You don't need to. I won't be here to drink them,” Heather grumbled.

“You could always go to the source,” Jaina suggested as Gisley smiled and her antenna rolled out.

“We don't have time,” Roric explained. “Idris was sighted two hours ago. The longer we wait, the more chance we have of missing her.”

“I don't understand how she is passing through cities and not being picked up,” Evalynn said. “Rajeen says she has nearly every town, village, and city in the north being watched. She's even paying bounty hunters to look for her, yet the woman is a ghost.”

“I wonder if she is a ghost,” Jaina said as they headed for the magic door. “She's kind of a necromancer class.”

“She is?” Heather asked in surprise.

“Well, not in the traditional sense,” Jaina corrected. “But she's a priestess of undeath, so she can summon zombies and has lots of undead powers.”

“How interesting,” Heather remarked as they crossed into the grand hall of the inn where the others were waiting. Rajeen was there with five of her girls; all decked out in proper armor and clothes. A tall man with scruffy dark hair stood to the side, waiting for instructions. Lilac was on hand with a staff and some light leather armor. Chandice was wearing her black warlocks robes, but the woman who got their attention was Breanne.

“Wow,” Jaina said, taking in the elf woman's armor. It was made of dark metal plates with silver highlights and obvious skeletal patterns. It covered strategic areas but left a lot of her skin exposed. She wore a hooded cloak under which her eyes glowed as she held her magic bow in one hand.

“I love that armor,” Evalynn said in approval. “Where did you get it?”

“An armorer in the city,” Breanne replied. “Thanks to my new magic ring, I now have an effective melee class and can wear heavier armor.”

“She looks like a cross between a banshee and a ranger,” Gisley said.

“That’s almost what she is,” Heather said. “She can even cast her spells through her arrows now. She has been practicing for days.”

“Neat,” Jaina said as the group met in the center.

“Ah, good, we are all here,” Rajeen said. “I will be taking a team of my own across to see if we can run her down. Your teams will search the city while I take mine beyond it to see if she has already moved on. I will also be taking five guards over to prevent anyone from using the portal to come here.”

“A good idea,” Roric said.

“So are we ready then?” the strange man asked as Rajeen and Roric smiled at one another.

“Sheesh, that’s how Heather looks at Frank,” Breanne whispered to Evalynn.

“You mean deeply in love,” Evalynn replied. “We are expecting tigergnoll babies any time now.” Jaina burst out laughing as Gisley covered her mouth to hide her smile. Rajeen shot them all a sideways glance, then announced it was time to begin. The strange man began his spell and spoke the name of the distant city, causing a hole to form in the air. It swelled to the size of a large doorway with a spiraling blue edge of magic.

“I will keep it open until you return or it hits midnight,” the man said. “If you don't return by then, I will reopen it at sunrise and wait four hours.”

Roric nodded, and they began to cross over, traveling a massive distance in a single step. Jaina arrived in a small courtyard along a wall of gray stone. The others began to cross over and spread out as they saw what looked to be a fairly traditional fantasy city.

“Nothing fancy here,” Heather remarked as she looked around.

“I would swear we were in old Europe,” Evalynn added. “It’s like you see in history books.”

“Well, let us hurry,” Rajeen insisted. “If the poor thing is here, we must find her and end her suffering.”

“Agreed,” Roric said and rounded up his girls. Jaina parted with a wave and took her place, walking behind Evalynn, who now sported her full armor and spear. Chandice had a single imp out and walked with a staff capped by a menacing horned skull. Gisley was in her simple white dress but kept her wings hidden away to avoid drawing attention. Still, her purple skin and lavender-colored hair did more than enough to catch people's attention.

“Let's start asking around,” Evalynn suggested and went directly to the first group of people they saw. “Excuse me,” she said as she interrupted their conversation. “But have you seen a woman who resembles this?” she pointed to Jaina, who smiled and waved to the group of men who were all some form of an orc by appearance.

“Nah,” the darkest gray of them said. “Is she a simulacrum or something?”

“Of me?” Jaina asked as the man nodded. “Oh, no. I am a shapeshifter. I just took her form so it would be easy for people to see what she looked like.”

“There hasn't been anybody new around in days,” a greener orc said as he folded his arms. “Well, except you four.”

“We were told she arrived here just a few hours ago,” Evalynn said. “We are friends who got separated in the wilds, and we have been trying to find her ever since.”

“Check the inns, I guess,” the gray orc said. “She must be sleeping somewhere.”

Evalynn thanked them for their time and headed on, taking them to a small round plaza where a short human-looking woman sat on a box, talking to a small cat. She looked exactly like you would expect a normal human to look, except she was no taller than three feet.

“Is that a halfling?” Gisley asked.

“I was going to say gnome, but they have big eyes for their size,” Chandice remarked.

“There is something funny about her,” Jaina said as she took in the woman’s tight curly blond hair. Jaina was sure she had seen her before, but then she had met a lot of people, usually for sex.

“Excuse us,” Evalynn said as she approached the woman. “But have you seen a woman who looks like this?” Once again, she pointed to Jaina, who felt silly being used to identify the missing woman.

“Like her?” the small woman asked as she looked Jaina up and down. “Hmm, are you sure that’s what she looks like?”

“Yes, we are sure,” Evalynn said as she considered the strange woman.

“What do you think, Tabitha? Have we seen anyone like that?” The cat at her feet let out a soft meow and sat attentively. It then turned its head and hissed at Jaina before turning about to rub on the woman’s legs. “Sorry, but we haven’t seen her,” the short woman said.

“Ok,” Jaina said as the short woman just smiled. They started to walk away and got a dozen steps when Gisley spoke up and asked where the woman had gone. The others looked back to see she was indeed gone, and so was her cat, as if they hadn't been there at all.

“Invisibility?” Evalynn asked as Chandice took out her wand.

“I sense a kind of magic in use,” Chandice replied. “But it’s deception magic.”

“Like Alexandria uses?” Gisley asked.

“Another deceiver player?” Jaina asked as she looked about the yard to see a few other players milling about.

“Keep your eyes open,” Evalynn said as she searched for the strange woman. “I don’t like how she answered us.”

“I swear I had seen her before,” Jaina said.

“I thought that too,” Evalynn replied as she led them to a few players near a merchant selling small daggers.

Jaina nervously looked about as Evalynn asked the players if they had seen Idris. She couldn't shake that woman's face but couldn't place where she had seen a halfling woman like that. She also wondered why the cat hissed at her like that but couldn't figure it out. An hour later, they were deep into the streets, stopping everyone they passed when they stumbled on Roric and blushing Heather.

“Did you learn anything?” Jaina asked as she wondered why Heather was so red.

“We learned that a woman with dark hair entered the city early this morning and was asking around about Rajeen,” Roric said.

“That had to be her,” Jaina said excitedly. “Did you learn anything else?”

“Hannah is very good at her class,” Roric laughed. He then explained how the information came from an uncooperative player who wanted to be paid well for the information. Hannah stepped in to use her seductions to gently convince him to help.

“She used seductions to change his mind,” Jaina laughed.

“She did very well,” Breanne said with a smile. “She had him eating out of her hand and then just walked away when we had the information.”

“I can’t believe that happened,” Heather said with a shake of her head. “Why do these powers work so well?”

“They only work on those who are in that frame of mind,” Jaina said. “If you are actively trying to resist or enraged, they are useless. You can't seduce somebody who isn't open to playing.”

“But it felt good to be leading him on like that,” Heather groaned. “I swear I was enjoying it.”

“Well, somebody is finding her place,” Jaina laughed and patted her arm. “But honestly, don’t worry about it. That feeling probably has something to do with the Lilim class. I bet you even got experience for playing with him like that, and that feeling was to let you know.”

“Oh, I hope not,” Hannah groaned.

“Ha, she is going to need time to get used to playing like this,” Evalynn laughed. “But did we happen to learn where Idris went?”

“He said she was asking if anyone knew Rajeen and the city she called her home,” Roric explained. “We think she was hoping to get the name so she could pay for a portal.”

“I assume he didn’t know the name,” Jaina surmised.

“No, but he suggested she check at the local adventurer's guild,” Roric said. “We were on our way there now to see if she spoke to anyone.” He suggested they come with them, and Jaina readily agreed so that she could pester Hannah for details of her encounter.

“How does it feel to put that class to use?” Jaina teased.

“I don't know,” Hannah said with a hand to her head. “Terrifying and exciting at the same time. I can't believe I did that, yet part of me hopes it happens again.”

“There is nothing wrong with using your skills, provided nobody gets hurt,” Jaina assured her. “All you did was a little empowered flirting, and he responded because he wanted to.”

“Actually,” Chandice cut in. “If you think about it, we know he answered Idris with no problems, but he was difficult with Roric. That means he was after something. I bet he saw the slave collars and thought he could get some free sex.”

“Oh, you are probably right,” Jaina laughed.

“Well, nobody is getting that,” Hannah firmly stated.

“Oh, too bad,” Jaina teased. “I bet he's all frustrated now as he dreams of what he wants to do with you.”

The others laughed as Hannah flushed even more red, her face becoming impossibly dark. They teased her about it as they headed down the street, spotting the large guild building a block down. A dozen players were outside the doors, talking as they stood before a message board. Roric led the group right to the doors as one of the players suddenly cried out.

“It’s her!” he said and pointed at Hannah.

“It’s me?” Hannah cried in alarm. “What did I do now?”

“No, wait, it's that one,” a woman said, pointing at Jaina.

“How can there be two of them?” a dwarf questioned as he walked up to glare at Hannah, then Jaina. “But sure enough, they look exactly like the picture.”

“Will one of you please tell us what you are talking about?” Breanne barked as her hands went to her hips.

“You mean you don’t know?” the dwarf asked. “I thought you were bringing her in for the bounty.”

“What bounty?” Roric sighed and looked past the group of players to see a noticeboard. Hanging on the board was a very accurate picture of Idris, probably posted by one of Rajeen's agents. It read that there was a bounty of five thousand gold for anyone who could deliver her to the guild hall unharmed. It specified that the woman's name was Idris, and she was to be captured alive at all costs.

“Oh,” Heather said, shaking her head before her form blurred, and she appeared as her blue-skinned succubus form. “Sorry, but I am a shapeshifter, and I was just using that form to see if anyone had seen her.”

“A succubus!” one of the men cried as his eyes went right to her neck. “And a slave too! Oh, baby, do you need any feeding? I have lots of stamina for you to drain.”

“Umm, no, thank you,” Heather stammered as she stepped closer to Breanne for protection.

“Back off,” Breanne warned as she presented her bow. “The woman has a master who will break your legs if you so much as touch her.”

“Is she for hire?” another man asked. “I got some gold I can pay with.”

“She isn't here for hire, sale, or otherwise,” Roric stated firmly as he stood between Hannah and the group. We are just here looking for information. This Idris woman is a friend of ours, and we have reason to believe she came here earlier and might still be around. I asked the girls to take her form so we could ask people if they had seen anyone that looked like her.”

“What about her?” a man asked and pointed to Jaina, only to be disappointed when Jaina's shape changed back to her normal form.

“Sorry, I am a shapeshifter, too,” Jaina said.

“Well, I have been here all morning,” a woman in chain armor said. “And the only strangers to come here was a woman with red hair and her strange lizard.”

“A lizard?” Gisley asked.

“Probably a familiar,” Chandice said. “So nobody else has been here? We had good information that said she was told to come here.”

“As I said, just the redhead,” the woman replied. “But she did behave oddly. She got to where you're standing and took one look at the notice board before practically running away.”

“Did she see a wanted poster of herself?” Chandice joked and looked over the board to see if there actually was one.

“Nobody who matches her description is wanted,” the woman replied.

“Did you notice anything odd about her?” Roric asked.

“Aside from how she ran off?” the woman said and thought a moment. “Well, she was wearing a collar, and she spoke to her lizard like it was a person. I heard her arguing with it as she approached the guild. Something about finding help.”

“That is odd,” Jaina agreed.

“I argue with Webster,” Hannah said with a shrug. “Usually because he’s hungry and refuses to eat anything I have on me.”

“Does the collar mean she was a slave girl?” Evalynn asked.

“It looked like yours but a little fancier,” the woman in the mail said.

“Hmm, my collars are fancier,” Hannah said. “Maybe she was somebody else slave girl?” She paused to consider the board as her tail swished in rhythmically. “But, what did she see on this board that made her upset? The only prominent feature is the bounty on Idris. You don't think that woman saw her or knows where she is?”

“That' s a distinct possibility,” Roric agreed. “Maybe they met on the way here and got to know one another, then she saw the poster and ran to warn her.”

“Warn her about what?” Gisley asked.

Roric sighed and tore the notice from the board before explaining that the wording was too vague. It didn’t say why Idris was wanted, only that a rather high bounty was on her head, which may have worried the woman.

“Oh, we are so stupid,” Jaina sighed. “We made that bounty sound like Idris is in trouble. Once she finds out about it, she will go even deeper into hiding.”

“If she isn’t aware of it already,” Evalynn agreed.

“Are you folks the ones who put the bounty out?” the dwarf asked.

“We are friends of hers who went deep into the north and got separated,” Roric explained. “We have been trying to locate her ever since, but for one reason of bad luck or another, we keep missing each other.”

“She's a dear friend, and we just want her back,” Gisley insisted. “She belongs with us.”

“She belongs with a slaver,” the woman in mail laughed. “No wonder she is trying to avoid you.”

“Hey, our master is a wonderful man,” Jaina countered as she clung to Roric’s arm. “We are all very happy to be at his side.”

“Suite yourself,” the woman replied with a shrug. “But as I said, the red-haired woman is the only new person who has come here all morning.”

“That red-haired girl sounds strange, but that isn't Idris,” Gisley added.

“Speaking of strange,” Jaina spoke up and addressed the players. “Do any of you know a halfling woman with curly blond hair who speaks to her cat?”

“Oh, her,” the woman said and rolled her eyes. “Calls herself Xandria and always asks the cat for advice before answering anybody. She blew into town about a month ago and just shows up when you least expect it and vanishes just as quickly.”

“Xandria,” Evalynn said slowly and looked at Jaina. “It couldn’t be?”

“Oh, but what if it is?” Jaina gasped.

“Something I need to know?” Roric asked as he looked between the two.

Evalynn quickly filled him in on the strange encounter and how she and Jaina swore they somehow knew her. They then explained how the woman vanished the moment they took their eyes off her.

“And I detected deception magic at play,” Chandice said.

“Could that have been Alexandria?” Jaina asked as she reeled at the possibility.

“Alexandria was a human, not a halfling,” Chandice pointed out.

“But how easy is it to find a way to disguise yourself?” Jaina asked. “Every one of our group can do it easily.”

“Point taken, but why a halfling that talks to a cat?” Chandice asked. “And why here? She’s a thousand miles from where we last saw her, and she didn’t react to you at all.”

“Because I looked like Idris,” Jaina stated. “But now that I think about it, she had the same hairstyle Alexandria wore.”

“And her face was the same but smaller,” Evalynn added. “That’s why she seemed so familiar.

“Isn’t this the woman who hates you?” Hannah asked.

“That’s her,” Chandice said. “If it was her, she’s probably scheming to steal Jaina away as we speak.”

“I wonder if she's watching us,” Gisley said and looked around. “If she shows her face, I am going to zap her.”

“We don’t need this kind of trouble,” Roric grumbled and nodded to the group of nearby players who were listening. “We should be careful what we say.”

“Oh, what harm can she possibly cause?” Jaina asked. “She was no match for Gisley alone. She isn’t going to risk fighting our whole group.”

“Even so, we don’t know what kind of connections she has here,” Roric warned. “We will stay together from now on.”

“Maybe you should buff up,” Jaina pressed with a sly smile. “You know, just to be safe, and look, you have a new girl who needs to be broken in.”

Roric shook his head as Gisley and Evalynn began to snicker while Hannah looked confused about what they meant.

“Let's go,” Roric insisted, taking them away as Jaina made Hannah blush by explaining how Roric got his buffs.

An hour later, Jaina was back in the form of Idris so they could ask questions. Heather was in her succubus form, browsing a nearby market stall as Breanne hovered behind her. Roric was now asking about Idris, Xandria, and the strange redhead, getting a random assortment of facts. Xandria was rarely seen, and when she was, she was always alone. If she spoke to anybody, she vanished immediately and usually wasn't seen again for hours. The redhead was a woman of about Jaina's height with curly hair and pale skin. She had run through town a few hours ago as if a dragon were chasing her, and as far as anyone knew, she was long gone. Nobody had seen Idris or heard about her beyond the bounty poster, which seemed odd considering the hunter followed her to this city.

“This is getting us nowhere,” Roric growled as he paused to look at the wanted poster still in his hand. “And we need to talk to Rajeen about changing this not to sound so hostile.”

“Oh, they have ice cream!” Gisley cried and pointed to a shop that read frozen creams and other treats. She turned to Roric with big trembling eyes and clasped her hands tight as she begged him for an ice cream.

“How are you going to say no to that?” Chandice laughed. “I would die of guilt if she cried.”

“It would appear I have no choice,” Roric agreed. “Come on. I will get us all an ice cream.”

Jaina smiled and called to Hannah, letting her know to come with. Hannah said she would be right there and went back to looking at a dress.

“Are you planning to buy that?” Breanne asked as Hannah held up a lovely blue outfit with dark leather straps.

“I think this would look good on the Lilim form,” Hannah replied. “But not so much my real form.”

“Your normal form is beautiful,” Breanne insisted. “You should use it more often.”

“Why?” Hannah laughed. “Our husband won't admit it, but he loves the slutty devil look. He is particularly fond of red hair. I should change back to that.” She set the garment aside and took up a black lace that was a little daring in all the right places. “This one would look good on Jaina,” she said and, on a whim, changed to mirror Jaina's form. She held the garment over her body for Breanne to see, and the elvish woman had to admit it looked very good on the dark-haired beauty.

“Oh, look, Tabitha,” came a familiar voice. “We were right. It is her.”

“Who, what?” Hannah said as she looked up in alarm.

“Xandria,” Breanne said as she went for her bow.

“Oh, no, weapons are bad,” Xandria said as she appeared out of thin air beside Hannah. “And how will you aim when you are blind?”

Breanne called out in shock as her vision went black, and she took a wild shot at where she remembered the woman to be. Hannah whirled about, her hand curling into claws as she squared off against the short woman.

“Your mind tricks won’t work on me,” Hannah snarled.

“I am well aware of that,” the woman said with a smile. “Fortunately, I have a cat.”

“Hannah, run!” Breanna cried and then started shouting for Roric.

Hannah lunged at the woman, her fingers becoming hooked talons to rip her throat out. She was suddenly tackled by the cat, who suddenly grew until it was the size of a large lion. The creature tackled her to the ground and roared as Hannah looked up in surprise.

Roric heard his name being shouted and bolted through the door with the others behind him. He arrived in the street just in time to see Hannah pinned under a lion as Breanne stumbled around blind. A short woman stood beside them with a wide smile on her evil face as she raised a hand and snapped a finger. Suddenly the street filled with swirling colors that hid Hannah and the woman from sight.

Gisley raced out, her wings spreading wide as she called a moon strike down on where the woman had been standing. Roric and Evalynn ran as fast as they could, but the cloud of colors hid everything from sight. They rushed in, determined to find the women, only to stumble out in random directions, turned about, and confused by the effect.

Chandice finally arrived with her wand held high and dispelled the effect to reveal that only Breanne remained. Hannah and Xandria were gone, as was the large lion. No tracks or evidence of their presence remained except for the black dress lying on the street.

“That had to be her!” Jaina shouted. “And now she has Hannah!”

“What are we going to do?” Gisley asked as she fluttered up to look around.

“We find her,” Roric said in a deep growl as he twisted in anger. “Because I am not telling Frank we lost his wife.”