A few days into our trip I lay next to a naked Sapphire. I'm grateful for the tiny muse, and for her increasing endurance with regards to acts of a sexual nature. She's sleeping but for once she's not sleeping in my soul. She's naturally invisible to the vast majority of people so I tucked her beneath some blankets and look out the window.
It's late at night and we've stopped our travels. We're near a small lake and I can see it in the distance, though mostly thanks to my superhuman senses. I study it for a moment and I smile. I also watch a few golems silently patrol the area around the wagon. It took my friends a day or two to get used to them, but I'm not about to needlessly endanger our safety by leaving us without protection.
We're not traveling right now and that's by choice. I made a decision to buy a living horse early on in this jump, just days after arriving. In the time since Amber has grown to care for the horse and has spent much of her time with it. We could be maximally efficient but I can never get behind that mindset when I think about jumpchains.
Jumpchains, to me at least, get really boring when someone's ultimate focus is achieving the goal of endless, unlimited power and all they do is rooted in that goal. It's good, healthy, and honestly probably advised for a jumper to have a goal they are striving towards, but that goal shouldn't be something they brood over. My desire to gain meaningful control over my chain and to go back to Veiled Earth is something I think about pretty regularly, but it's not something I'm gonna obsess over especially since I just don't understand the mechanics behind what is happening to me. It just… happens.
I have plenty of little hobbies. I like cooking, I enjoy writing things, and I like arts and crafts. During my downtime I tend to indulge these hobbies, and as a result I've gotten pretty good at them. I can make a figurine in minutes using eyebeams, which is a weird application of that power.
At night after playing with Sapphire and using her to help deal with the "Lay the Dragon" drawback I tend to meditate or do something arts and craftsy. Tonight I simply stare out the window and admire the sight of the lake in the distance.
We get back on the road in the morning. My maids are early risers and shortly after what should be about 6 in the morning our horse is up, fed, and we're making our way across the countryside. I'm seated next to Amber when she asks me something.
"So did you know that the maids talk about you?" She asks me. I laugh and nod, firmly aware of what they say. It's nothing negative, at least not to me.
"Do you know what they ask? Because frankly I'm curious about it too." She wonders, and I give her permission to ask what she wants to ask with a raised eyebrow and an amused look in my eyes.
"Who did you bring with us? Are you keeping an adventurer in your room? We hear you two." She states, trying to sound audacious and causing me to audibly laugh. Sapphire is on my shoulder and she blushes furiously.
"Do you… Wanna say hi?" I ask, turning to look at the sprite on my shoulder. Amber looks at me in confusion, while idly steering the horse. Sapphire looks at me and studies me to see if I'm joking. When she realizes I'm not she closes her eyes and focuses, purposefully shutting off her natural invisibility. I hear Amber's heart skip a beat when she sees the little fey-creature suddenly, to her anyway, materialize.
"A fairy…" She says, causing Sapphire to huff in annoyance and stand up. Her cheeks turn peat red and she takes to the air, her butterfly-like wings beating rapidly.
"I'm a muse! Not a fairy." She replies. Amber apologizes and Sapphire calms down almost immediately, causing me to shake my head in mild amusement.
"So this is Sapphire. She's a muse. We bonded a few months ago, while I was away. And yes, she and I have sex." I state, before finishing with an answer to a question that I know for sure would come next. Amber is stunned for a moment before saying something that causes me to laugh uproariously.
"Why are you so non-chalant about it? You're being loud enough to be heard." She says. When I finish essentially gauffing I reply almost immediately.
"Why am I unashamed of having sex in my own wagon? Of enjoying myself and bringing pleasure to someone else who wants it just as much as I do in a way that doesn't harm other people? I get that our behavior is a little shameless, sure, but the truth is that I'm enjoying myself and helping someone else enjoy herself in a way that we both like and really that's all that matters given the surrounding context." I reply, causing Amber to consider my words. We're all quiet for a moment and when I glance at her I see her cheeks slowly redden.
"How… Can you explain to me how it works?" She asks, and I immediately understand what she is trying to ask. I look at her curiously and note that we've spent a lot of time in close proximity over the last few days. I decide to simply shoot my shot, ready to accept either of the main possible outcomes. My power regarding seduction tries to turn to its active state but I shut it off with a thought, wanting to let things play out naturally. There'll be times when it's worth having this power in an active state, but I don't think this is one of them.
"I could, but I could also show you. Why don't you come by tonight? I'll be happy to give you a demonstration. Surely that would satisfy your… purely scientific interest." I tell my friend with a devilish grin. Amber, to my surprise, agrees. The remainder of the day is uneventful and when we settle down for the night I begin to glance excitedly, confidently, at Amber. A few minutes after dinner when Sapphire and I are in my room and the muse is excitedly glancing outside of the window. A knock on my door is quickly answered by me and Amber shyly slips into the room, a blush spreading across her face. It's cute to see someone so confident and cool at other things be so flustered about this, though I know part of it is because of my shamelessness. Sapphire turns and smiles at her before flitting over to me.
"Did anyone see you come in?" I ask, with a mischievous smile on my face. For a moment a flicker of annoyance flashes across her face.
"I knocked! Of course they saw me come in." She tells me. In fairness to me she might have been the last one to leave the kitchen, but I don't say this. I allow her to feel her annoyance which fades after a few moments. She spots Sapphire clinging to me and I watch a familiar blush creeping across her face. I lightly run a finger through Sapphire's hair and ask the muse to show my friend "How we do it".
Sapphire quickly uses some magic I've taught her, simple telekinetic cantrips really, that for her are amazingly handy. My pants fall and she's able to hug my swiftly hardening manhood. A second later even I am surprised by her eagerness when she skips a usual bit of foreplay and immediately wraps her head around me. I shudder in surprised pleasure as I watch her head comically balloon, though I know it's not painful for her.
Fiat-backing is good for a lot of things. Having sex is one of them. My sexual abilities, especially fun porn biology type things, are essentially ultra-fiat back, having multiple different perks and both of my adult essences guaranteeing their continued potency. It's still a little odd to see Sapphire's head swell for a few moments whenever she coils her mouth around my manhood. Amber's blush deepens as she watches the fairy-like creature experience the unique sort of rapturous pleasure I can provide. Amber moves closer to the two of us as Sapphire gorges herself on my manhood. I lay on the bed and watch Amber follow us, her eyes filling with lust and fascination.
Amber's fascination is the result of some convenient perks mixed with stuff like the fact that I am strikingly attractive. "Envy & Shared Joy" is a fun ability that causes people who see a partner and I, who I find attractive, having fun fills them with envy and makes them want to join in. It, coupled with stuff like my orcish pheromones, makes a powerful combo.
Sapphire has grown quite skilled in sexual matters due to plenty of months of, quite literally daily, training. I enjoy the results of her fixation and watch Amber focus on the muse's blissful expressions. I don't have to say anything to invite Amber in, and when I extend a hand towards the stable hand she takes it. I pull her close to me and kiss her, causing her to moan softly against me. Sapphire begins to even more eagerly hunt for some of my essence as I kiss Amber with practiced gentleness.
It doesn't take long for things to get more heated and for me to gently push Amber onto the bed. Sapphire is pleasantly filled, and I'm nowhere near satisfied; causing me to eye Amber lustfully.
"Amber… I am quite fond of you." I tell her with a thoughtful look. She gives me a steely, passionate look and I can tell she's waiting for me to move. The look in her eyes communicates her excitement, though I wait for her to slip off her pants and underwear herself before I finally move.
I fall to my knees and eagerly position myself between her legs, even as Sapphire flies over to her and begins to give her kisses. The muse's soft lips cause Amber to let out giddy giggles even as I coil her legs around me and skillfully, eagerly begin to taste the stablehand.
The instant my tongue reaches out and first flashes across her button-like clit I feel a surge of energy flow into me. The sensation is very similar to when Sapphire first went down on me, and I instantly acclimate to a steam of knowledge concerning farm animals entering my mind and I detect that I am now much, much better at interacting with wild animals. It seems that Sapphire's power is her familiarity with and natural affinity for animals. I open my ability to train via sex to her, and continue to orally tease and please her.
I bask in Amber's moans and the way her legs tighten around me as I hedonistically taste her. She blissfully reacts to both Sapphire's kisses and to my oral attentions. Mere minutes after I first wrap her lithe legs around my head I feel her walls tremble and squeeze my lengthy tongue, itself currently both teasing her clit with careful vibrations and also deep inside of her.
Amber is one of my staff members who isn't a virgin, and I can tell she's experiencing sensations she's never felt as she climaxes around my secret tool and favorite weapon for moments like this. When she's done orgasming she sits up and wraps her hands around my head.
"Wait… I need more. I want more." She whispers, even as Sapphire continues to kiss her. Sapphire kisses her neck, which gets a particularly heady reaction from her and the muse notes this with devilish delight even as I get up and push Amber down, though with careful consideration given her lesser strength. I also note the womb tattoo that matches Sapphire's on Amber, and smile in supernatural satisfaction.
I'm excited to have a human-sized partner, and I don't hesitate to show that when I mount Amber. She quakes and I feel her experience a smaller mini-orgasm even as I slide myself into her trembling, tight tunnel. This foreshadows a night filled with powerful, surprisingly rough sex, including a healthy dose of orc-powered "Mating Press" type play. There's something cartoonish to it when I'm not in the moment, but as I'm enjoying Amber's body there's something about the position that feels right. It helps that she lets me know that she likes it, having evidently discovered something about herself in the midst of our nightly activities.
By the time dawn comes Amber and Sapphire are both passed out. Sapphire is sleeping between Amber's breasts, and I'm able to look pridefully at the two women. It turns out that I like having sex with two people at the same time more than I like having sex with one person at a time, which is something that is genuinely and unironically news to me. At the same time I internally study the benefits of having sex with more people at once as I look at the pool of creative energy inside of myself and note the ways this pool has grown deeper, at a noticeably faster rate, coupled with the fact that my affinity with animals is much higher than it was previously.
Amber's inclusion in my sex life marks the beginning of a new period of my time here. For the rest of the trip Amber is in my room every night and I end every night having sex with the muse and the stable hand, and I get to enjoy ending nights on top of a human-sized partner. Amber turns out to be a firm bottom, enjoying the sensation of someone being on top which is fine with me since something in my instincts makes me like being on top in this form.
We reach the city of Orchestraville and are welcomed as valued guests. My first stop is the city's adventurer guild and this time I don't secure a job as a musician as a way to kill time. Instead when I'm done registering at the guild I take my wagon to this city's temple district, which is dominated by a gigantic cathedral, the glimmering and beautiful central church of Amara's faith. It reminds me of a Catholic cathedral, particularly one of the big, grand ones that dot Central American cities. The wagon is parked not far from the cathedral, in fact quite literally in its shadow, and as my friends and I exit the vehicle I summon a number of golem guards to protect it.
My party detaches ourselves from our vehicle and we walk across a busy street towards the radiant holy site, and I am reminded of how good it is that I am not vulnerable to holy places anymore. As I look at the cathedral I see the faint pink hue that I sometimes see from Amara's stuff. I still don't fully understand that even after reading texts and helping Amarans.
Peddlers try to hawk us various wares and I hear the sounds of faint, festive music in the background. I immediately get a sense that this place will be packed with a lot more art suppressors than past places have been. We reach the stairs leading to the mouth of the white chapel and climb up them. As we reach the church's opening I look ahead of where we're at and see the enormous nave. It is so gigantic that there are multiple different preachers giving sermons and explaining Amara's whole deal to different crowds of congregants, with truly hundreds of feet separating them. When my friends ask to split up and listen to different preachers I permit it, though I tell them to stay within eyeshot of each other. I close my eyes and focus on my powers.
The soundtrack of the world is loud here. I listen to the different songs playing over one another and relax to try and make sense of the noise. As I do this I walk over to a wall and lean against it, using a powerful psychometric ability I possess and causing the history of this place to fill my mind's eye. Powerful mental images run through my mind, historic scenes from the ancient past including Amara's own face and the descent of a legion of angels who proclaimed the grounds that this cathedral was built on a sacred place, while different medleys and motifs fill my ears. I take a calming breath and focus. As I do several different noises dim in my ears, and one song, a song that sets my heart racing and not in a good one, becomes louder. I open my eyes and study my surroundings, listening to what becomes louder and quieter as I look around.
It takes me a minute of focus and intensely studying my surroundings before I spot the source of the sound. A little girl dressed in a red hood is walking and is almost out of view. I begin to walk as I sniff the air and orient myself. The child disappears from view but I keep going and spot her walking, unnoticed, deeper into the cathedral. As I move I set "All eyes on me" all the way down and with it become nearly invisible despite my size. As I get closer to her, able to outpace her due to my legs being longer than hers, I spot a knife in her back pocket and I begin to think back and try to remember the last time I heard a song like the one she emanates. It doesn't take me long to realize that the last time I heard something like it was when I stopped the assassin who tried to take me down.
We slip into a narrow passageway and she doesn't notice me yet. That's her loss. I am able to sneak up on her completely undetected as she begins to open a door into someone's private office with one hand and reach for her knife with another. I fire a disintegration beam at her knife even as I slam her with a paralysis beam. She stiffens and faceplants into the office of the person she was planning on attacking. The figure, an older man, gasps in surprise and I listen for the song emanating from him is one of fear and confusion, but underneath it is a gentle medley of soothing and restorative sounds. I decide to trust my powers and turn my perceivability back up to normal as I enter the room.
"Excuse me sir, this child was about to attack you." I state, causing the man to almost leap out of his skin. He looks at me and then at the child and has an understandable reaction.
"Sir?! Did you do something to this child?" He asks, which… Yep, that's how a normal person probably would react to me, a massive orc, suddenly coming in after a child collapses in front of someone. Thankfully I have charisma perks. As I move to speak I first fire a ray of antimagic and then several charming rays at the child, undoing the paralysis and immediately hitting her hard with multiple helpings of charm magic. She begins to stir but is also charmed by me, and my frame is in the middle of the doorway.
"Hey there kid. What were you planning on doing here?" I ask, and when she looks at me I can feel the effects of the charmed condition, especially the heavy-duty dose that's mind-whammied her. She's very nearly dominated, and in D&D terms my charisma is far and away my strongest stat.
The charm condition means she can't hurt me, at least until/unless I hurt her, and I "have advantage" on anything related to social stuff with regards to her. It's a tool I've used to disarm bandits and assassins before, and while plenty of stuff in 5e are immune to it, a lot of creatures aren't immune to it so far in my experience. It has been a heavy-hitter multiple times since I got it a decade ago.
"Oh hi mister. I'm looking for Bishop Roades." She admits, and I assume that if we were rolling dice she'd have just bombed whatever saving throws she'd be rolling to resist whatever check I just made against her. Presumably a persuasion check. The old man pales as he hears what must be his name. The old man looks at me and I can see the fear in his eyes.
"Oh? Can you tell me, just for once, what your plan was with the bishop?" I ask, opting to skip over a lot of annoying stuff and use my once-per-person ace. The girl smiles at me and nods.
"I was gonna kill him. I had this knife but someone, probably you since you were behind me, broke it." She confesses. I nod and immediately petrify her, turning her to stone. I'm not typically so decisive with my powers but I think I've made my point. A bunch of beams slamming a child, and a girl at that, meshes several perks together and so in all likelihood it's more accurate to say she's either dominated by my power or almost dominated and thus incredibly vulnerable to charisma stuff right now.
I glance at the bishop who looks at me and has an expression between apologetic and fearful. I introduce myself and tell him that Amara told me to come visit the city and stop by her temple. This snaps the man out of his state of fear, and he immediately takes on a business-like tone once he sees that I am not here to hurt him or to be a foe of the church.
"Amara herself?! Uh… Stranger, what is your name?" He asks, and I give it. He looks on his desk and finds an official looking book. He opens it and scans pages quickly. His eyes widen when he finds something in his book.
"Ah you're the bard! Curious. When we received the oracle we thought you'd come here sooner. People with Amara's blessing are rare and they usually rush right over. Though I suppose I should be happy you arrived when you did. Seeing… all that has happened since you've visited." The old man explains and I flash him a sheepish smile. His usage of the word "Oracle" is funny. It sounds like he's describing a message, and not referring to an oracle that is a person who receives messages or visions from the gods.
Amara seems important, and I half wonder if I've displeased her, but when I remember the time I spent in her small chapel in Warnerberg I realize that I never felt anger from her. Impatience maybe, but not anger or disappointment. For whatever reason she is content with what offerings she received and the times I helped Thomas make up for any level of genuine discontent or actual annoyance she feels with me for waiting so long to follow up on her offer.
"I suppose you are here to see the inner sanctum?" The bishop asks. I decide to run with this and nod, and he smiles appreciatively at me. Amara wasn't exactly forthcoming about what she wanted when she invaded my head and gave me a sidequest, though she did mention to pray at her statue. I didn't see one in the... super-nave of the cathedral so it being in the sanctum makes as much sense as it being anywhere else.
"Yes, yes. You can reach it by going out and heading down a stairwell. The path down will be visible to you now that I've given you permission." He says, before closing his eyes and focusing intently on something. My senses pick up the sound of something behind me shifting and the distinct sound of stone on stone. When the man opens his eyes he flashes me a calmer smile. A part of me wonders if this the man's nature as a cleric is tied to an idea I once had that within one of these generic class jumps members of other classes could be found: so I as a bard in a bard world could still find clerics who have at least minor versions of the abilities outlined in the Generic Clergy jump. I wonder how my friends are doing before my facial expression shifts, and while I normally can mask subtle shifts some perceptive folks can see what each look means.
"Ah, you may be wondering about your friends. Don't. They are under the goddess's protection while they are here. The guards are now on high alert." He tells me. I nod, having really blundered my way into that one and accepting it with grace especially since it means I can, in fact, relax. I thank the bishop, before he assures me that he'll see to the child-assassin and waves me off. I wonder if this is the right move, but decide to improvise, and quickly make my way down the stairwell that is now visible when I exit the door leading into his office. I shut it behind me and turn to head down the stairwell.
After a short descent I enter a quiet room where a pair of priests: twins, kneel in front of a pink statue of Amara. The room itself is dyed the strange pink that many things tied to Amara are, and it is dyed such a vivid hue of pink that I wonder if the room is actually white and this is somehow a manifestation of Amara's connection to this place, which is what I quickly suspect is the case. The twins, which I can only determine are twins due to their scent, do not turn to speak to me but do begin to talk.
"Good afternoon, Lalo." They say in unison. One of them is a man and the other is a woman. I step towards them and greet them back, though I don't know their names.
"We are Amara's mouthpieces. Divine laws exist that make it rare for gods to speak directly to mortals in a big public setting and there are… divine physics at play that make it challenging for gods to speak to those who lack souls compatible with their domains. You can consider us, functionally at least, the main voices of Amara in this plane." One of them, the man, explains.
"Amara speaks somewhat commonly to many of her chosen clerics, expending a not insignificant amount of divine energy to do so, so we help those not in the church to better understand her divine goals and preferred methods. As a goddess of life she receives much energy but recycles this energy and invests it into those she views as deserving and as embodying her ideals. Such figures in turn help inspire and create instances of her domain, which empowers her, be they formally trained clerics or champions who receive her blessings and act in line with her ideals." The woman tells me, speaking with a gentler though surprisingly deeper voice than her sibling.
"Amara has been waiting for you Lalo. Would you care to approach the statue?" The man asks, and the two move, creating a space between themselves for me to come and kneel. I do as they ask and find myself sandwiched between the twins. When I am kneeling in front of the statue I remember my early childhood beliefs and what I've seen Amarans do during their services. I clasp my hands together and shut my eyes. As I do the world around me begins to dim, my senses shifting as I feel my mind get drawn somewhere else, somewhere new. Even the soundtrack of the world quiets as I am taken to a new, different place.