I wasn't loving this new approach of charging into battles.

Crystal may have been becoming a literal tank with her armor and added Defense bonuses. But I was still an unarmored spell-caster and I wished we'd take a more deliberative approach. Especially when one of these boggles had the potential take on our entire group single-handed. And I resolved to have a party meeting about it at the next opportunity. But at the moment, we were rushing into the room where six of the enemy were waiting.

Although I suppose I wasn't the only one finding the charging in problematic. Sulin and Ellie were holding back on the iron bridge. And Aaron scuttled away from the battle and back through the door. They were a ranged attacker, but their ability to detect traps put them up in the front, where they just didn't have the armor or the weaponry to fight effectively.

Unfortunately, with so many of us being cautious, it meant as many of us were outside of the room as in it. 

The room itself was octagonal and twice as high as the average floor in the boggle lair. Another carved wooden door was opposite ours. The four party members were fighting and getting overwhelmed by the enemies even with Rick's shield protecting them. I noticed that it wasn't just the six on the floor, but two more were on an upper gallery raining blow-darts down on them.

I tossed my staff down and cast my robe off, then put my ring of invisibility ring on. Waiting for a break in the knives and arrows being fired, I leaped over my teammates and slipped into the room. I cast a Vine spell next to one of the boggles attacking Rick, and let it grow and strangle the foe. Then I fired a blast of electricity from each hand, one at each boggle on the balcony. I ran to a new position and hit them again. I kept this up, dodging through the battle to avoid the retaliation fire of their darts. 

Crystal and Mack seemed to be doing okay, but not great. Rick and Josh were only still on their feet because of the help of our ranged attacks. I could tell a few of the enemy were affected by Ellie's spells. One seemed to have gone blind. Another tripped and fell over, and later when I saw him, he was jabbing his spear into his own leg. Aaron used the opportunity to charge in and added to the boggle's woes by attacking with their dagger. 

By the time my Mystic Energy ran out, one of the gallery boggles was dead. The other was blackened and singed but still blasting its missiles at us. I called to Aaron and pointed out the elevated enemy. They rolled away from their current target, retrieved a throwing knife from a body, and flung it. It buried into the boggles' gut. He teetered over the railing and landed on the floor, dramatically.

I saw Rick take a hit and crumple. I pulled him from the boggle as Aaron struck it with their dagger. Taking a potion of healing from my inventory, I placed it to his mouth. It was strange seeing it suddenly appear and then float magically through the air to him even though it was my hand doing it. 

"Thank you," he said. Then, he went to place a hand on my arm, but missed. His eyes grew wide as he touched boob. I squealed and skittered away.

The battle wrapped up with the last few, boggles finally succumbing to the group onslaught. I slipped back out to the bridge and dressed before becoming visible again. When I got back, the others were searching the bodies for loot.

I clapped my hands and got everyone's attention. "All right, everyone. This isn't working. We're getting our butt's kicked."

Crystal said, "From where I'm standing we're the ones doing the butt kicking."

"Only because we exhaust our two healers after every fight and we're downing healing potions like water. And in case no one's noticed, these boggles aren't dropping any potions. If we keep kicking down doors and charging in, we're going to start losing people."

I tried to hold my gaze to them without actually looking at their eyes. I hated how they were all on me. Especially Aaron's and Tanner's. They looked so surprised that it reminded me that stepping up and taking charge wasn't my thing. And I almost retreated back into myself.

Rick asked, "What do you suggest? We can't all turn invisible like you." He sounded more regretful about this than critical.

"She just likes running around naked." Josh snickered, and happily everyone ignored him.

"We need to be more tactical. Like with this last bunch, we could have lured them out onto the bridge to prevent them from swarming."

"That would have also prevented us from spreading out," Crystal said.

Sulin stepped in. "I agree with the Elk-girl. You aren't maximizing your people. When I was shooting through the doorway, my targets were limited and I had to hold my shots half the time not to hit any of you. With my last party, the role of the fighters were to push the enemy back, so the ranged weapons could be maximized. And our healers were safe in the back, lending support."

Mack replied, "Well, this isn't your last party. They're all dead, or did you forget. We don't have the luxury of having people hide in the back. Crystal and I can't control a mob of these things by ourselves."

It was Aaron, as always, who calmed things down, calling for quiet and pacing before us until they had the floor. "Tanner's right." This causes a grumble from some of the group. They held their hand up and waited for it to quiet down. "At this rate we're not getting out of here alive. Each of these boggles is a challenge for most of us one-on-one, and with our health potions depleting, they're going to start picking us off, making it harder for the rest, until there's no one left." Still, pacing, they let this sink in. "But Crystal is right too. Our party doesn't have enough fighters built for a forward assault. And our healers fight with staves, which means they have to get in close."

"So, what should we do?" Rick asked.

"We have to stop going in blind. We don't enter any area where our melee fighters are out numbered. We lure some out. Or take a few out with ranged weapons and spells to even the odds before you go in."

There was a bit of a discussion and not everyone was completely on board with it, but they said we could give it a try. I said to Aaron, "You know this means that you'll be the scout and in the most danger."

Before they could answer, two more boggles appeared on the balcony and started firing upon us.

"God damn it!" Mack yelled.

Aaron, Ellie, and Sulin all started returning fire. I used one of my precious potions of Major Mysticism and joined in. Rick tried to help hoist Crystal up to the platform but she was too heavy with all her armor on. So, he lifted Mack up instead. The only reason she wasn't riddled with darts as she attempted this maneuver was that both the boggles were reeling from the ill effects of Ellie's spells.

It didn't take long to take them out them out, but it was clear, we couldn't stick around here. The healers got us up to full health or close to it, then they downed a couple of potions to take care of themselves. We decided to leave the loot until our way back, so we weren't in the shooting gallery longer than we needed to be. 

Aaron opened the door a crack, and reported, "A hallway. It's empty. Six doors on the right. One at the end." Then they went out and examined the entire length of it. When they came back, they said, "There were two traps. A trip line in the middle of the hall, I was able to disconnect. And the door at the end is set to trigger something when it's open, but the line ran inside, so I couldn't tell what it does."

The first door in the hall was set apart from the rest. It's location meant it was the likely source of those boggles on the balcony, so we prepared ourselves for a guard room. This time Aaron and Sulin took up position opposite it, and Mack and Crystal hide on either side. The rest of us backed off, waiting to be called upon or to defend against boggles coming from other doors. Crystal lifted the latch and pushed it open.

There was an immediate keening of alarm from several boggles. Aaron and Sulin fired into the room, and a soldier ran out. Mack and Crystal pounced. He got a hit in on Mack. But on her second swing, Crystal took his head off with her ax. The neck geysered blood in the disturbing way wounds overacted in Feronia. The body dropped and our ranged attackers launched another volley. The room's occupants responded with a couple of crossbow bolts.

"There's only four in there," Mack said and charged in with Crystal on her heels. 

I hesitate, but since nothing was happening in the hallway, I followed them after another round of knives and arrows flew in.

When I entered. A boggle was already dead, and two were occupied by Crystal and Mack. The last one stood on a flight of open stone stairs and fired a crossbow and me, grazing my arm. I used my staff to zap her with electricity, then a Gust spell to knock her of the stairs. She screamed in pain from the fall, but got right up and charged with a club. I used my last two spells and killed her before she reached me.

The other two finished off their foes, and we continued down the hallway following the same procedure before opening the doors.

The next room was an opulent bedroom and empty. A quick search revealed not much of note except a statue the system listed as valuable. It featured the crowned head of a boggle. It was painted in gold and had gems in the crown and on a necklace design. We took it.

The next room was the same except had nothing of value. The third bedroom door triggered an alarm that rang unanswered in the guard room. It was twice as big as the others and there was a canopy bed. There was a lot of things in drawers and cupboards, but we only came across two with a system value: a beaded and embroidered coat and a diamond ring made for a piercing.

"Hey, Tanner," Josh said. "You could put it in your other nipple."

"Fuck that!" Mack said. "This is too valuable for that. We're selling it."

On the fourth bedroom, we met another boggle. She appeared to be in the middle of putting on lingerie, which was odd since these boggles mostly went around naked. But she had on a black lace camisole that stopped mid-stomach and showed off a glittering bellybutton-ring with a pink stone. On her legs were black stockings and she had little golden slippers on her feet. There were no panties. And she didn't seem the least concerned about this. Instead of screaming or covering up, she cast a spell. Flinging a cone of cold out the door, hitting Aaron and Sulin before they could get their shots off. But they wasted no time retaliating before dashing away from their exposed position.

I did a quick check and saw that the system listed her as "Boggle Consort - Level 5."

This wasn't going to be easy.

I had one more potion but it only restored 20 points of Mystic energy. I downed it as she cautiously approached the door, arms raised to fire another spell. Quickly disrobing, I put the ring of invisibility on, then rushed her.

Unlike the other enemies I faced in this state, she seemed to know I was there as soon as I got near. The consort grabbed onto my arms as I grabbed onto hers. Cold filled me as I released electricity into her. One of my spells scored a critical hit but she seemed to hardly care. The boggle leveraged me, pushing me down onto the floor and landing on top of me. Her silk covered thigh pressed against my groin, making me all too aware I wasn't wearing anything. I fired on her again, at roughly the same point an arrow and a knife hit her. She pressed a hand against my chest grabbing my left breast and sent a jolt through me. Every muscle became stiff and immobile. With her other arm she fired a blast of something at Mack, who'd come in to attack. She staggered as though hit with a heavy object.

I'd been parallelized like this before, and it wasn't pleasant. But this time, despite not being able to move, I noticed I could still feel things. Mainly her hand still on my chest and her thigh rubbing me as she shifted her weight. The sensations were confusing the hell out me. My body welcomed it and begged for more stimulation, while my mind screamed at the horror of being casually molested by a semi-human monster. I stared up into her furry snout, because I couldn't even move my eyes to look somewhere else. A thin line of slobber dripped agonizingly slowly from her fanged mouth and land between my slightly parted lips.

"Ghaaaah!" The scream rattled around my head even though I couldn't release it. 

Crystal steamrolled in and took a blast similar to Mack's, but she barely flinched. The consort raised both her arms and fired off two cones of cold directly into Crystal's chest.

On my own chest, my breast felt chilled with her hand no longer there.

Crystal recovered and took another swing before our foe could fire of more spells. Her ax buried into the flesh were her neck met her shoulder, and all the life drained out of her.

I scrambled out from underneath the corpse. I was about to start spitting and gagging to get the foreign saliva out of my mouth, when I realized I was visible. A little shriek escaped me, and I scrambled to grab a coverlet from the bed and wrap it around me. Except I misjudged, and the bed wasn't nearly as close as I thought it was, making me cross the room to get to it.

"Stupid ring!" I said. "That wasn't nearly fifteen minutes."

Crystal said, "Yeah ... um ... whatever she did that froze you, it seemed to shut of the ring too."

"You mean, I was lying there ... the whole time ... and you could ... see me!" I felt nauseous. 

Josh came into the room and said, "Yeah, and it was kind of hot." And unfortunately my eyes flickered down and saw how his semi-erect penis has flipped up the little flap of cloth covering his groin. My nausea doubled.

Aaron brought me my robe and we searched the place. This had the most stuff by far. We found a valuable snuff box and an expensive Garotha statue. Also, her stockings, slipper, and ring had magic bonuses to Stamina, Finesse, and Life Force. (The combination of them made me wonder exactly why she'd worn them)

Ellie said, "Since I got the priestess stuff, it's only fair Aaron get these."

"No. you can have them if you want." She sounded more insisting the accomodating.

Mack said, "But those stocking with their lacy tops will match those cute little gloves of yours."

And I could help adding with a smirk, "And no one will even see the piercing." After all, payback is a bitch.

The last bedroom was thankfully empty. Not even anything in it worth taking.

So even though we were rattled and only had recovered a fraction of our Mystic Energy, we set up for a major battle at the door on the end. When we were all set, Crystal went to open the door, but it didn't budge. After much fussing (with various members of the party trying to twist he handle and slam their shoulder against the door), we came to the conclusion it was locked, and we'd need the key to open it.

We searched all the rooms again but couldn't find one. We must have to get it from one of the other areas of the lair. But by this point, it had been a long time since our last full sleep, and we desperately needed the restoration wight hours would bring. Plus, we were surrounded by luxurious bedrooms. The choice to rest seemed obvious. We split up the rooms, and I shared the bed with Mack.

When I woke up a system message was waiting for me.

 

From the cries of shock coming from all across the floor, I guessed I wasn't the only one.