Conall is just a simple farm boy escorting his childhood friend to town. Her destiny is to go out into the wider world of magic and monsters before the wider world finds her and potentially burns their village to the ground. The Imperial Bureaucracy prefers not having to rebuild villages every generation because some random peasant can randomly control fire and that attracted a vampire or something; it messes with their tax tables. His destiny is to go back home, farm, probably get married to some girl from the next valley over whose parents agree with his parents that they would be good together, and then die in his 50s or 60s...
Or, that's what everyone thinks is going to happen, chief among them Conall. Because this young man is about to discover that destiny has signed him up for a lifetime of wild - and sexy! - adventures.
CONTENT WARNING: This quest contains explicit sexual content and is intended for a mature audience only. All chapters containing explicit content will be labelled as such, but expect 18+ content in general. This quest will also contain coarse language and potentially contain high levels of violence, depending on decisions made. The explicit material is intended to be erotic, but not purely pornographic, as the erotic elements are meant to tie into other themes.
QUEST OBJECTIVE: Write some scenarios in a fantasy world, make numbers go up, and experiment with writing things I haven't before.
Conall was bone weary from a long day on the road, pushing the cart through ruts and muck when the ox alone was insufficient. The final stretch hadn't been as bad once they left the forest and got onto an Imperial Road, but that had just given Conall's muscles and joints just enough time to realize how sore they were before they had made it into town. Young and strong from a lifetime on the farm, the ache in his body told him how hard he had been working. He knew from experience that he should be good by the morning, but for the time being he just wanted to flop into the cot for the room that had been rented for the night.
Maybe he could ask Dervla to get him some soup from the common area in a bit, but for now he just wanted to close his eyes.
His friend, travelling companion, and the reason he was pushing a cart down dirt roads during the spring soon entered the room, and Conall kept his eyes shut as he catalogued everything that was sore. Not even the sowing season or the harvest time had ever been this bad! So enthralled was he in his own soreness that he barely even acknowledged the sounds of her entrance into the room and the shutting of the door. It wasn't until Dervla sat down next to him that he actually recognized her presence by jokingly begging, "Please just leave me to die."
Lightly swatting him across the shoulder, Dervla replied, "No, none of that. You're filthy from the road, and need to get cleaned up."
"I'll do it tomorrow," Conall counter offered.
"No, you won't," Dervla informed him. "First of all, I'm pretty sure there's shit in all that muck you had to push the cart through, and I'm not sleeping in this room with you. Second of all, you're not going to be doing the bulk of the washing, I will." Long, strong fingers danced along Conall's inner thigh, trailing upwards, and Dervla said impishly, "I'm extremely appreciative of everything you've done for me, especially today, and I wouldn't want to leave tomorrow without expressing it."
Suddenly discovering that he wasn't quite so sore, Conall cracked open his eyes to gaze upon Dervla. In the dim light of the inn's room he could make out her cheeky grin, and he knew that failure to participate was not an option. Letting her finger trace along a seam from his thigh up to the lacings of his trousers, she said, "If you start by taking these off, I can take it from there."
Conall discovered, much to his frustration and Dervla's amusement, that it really was best to remove boots before trousers in order to actually get everything off in a timely manner. Still, with only a bit of struggle he found himself with his legs exposed and Dervla using a rag and some water to wash his feet. As she worked away, her strong hands kneading into sore muscles, the two of them bantered and laughed about the situation, even as the bittersweet melancholy that had been there at the start of their journey grew between them.
Finally Conall found that he could not contain things anymore, and he asked, "Did you ever think… ever think we would be here?"
A sad smile settling on her face, Dervla shook her head and said, "No. I don't know where I expected us to go, but here most certainly isn't it. Maybe… maybe us striking out together for the Capital, or even you doing so, but not me alone."
Conall sighed and said, "Yeah. Yeah…"
A single finger of Dervla's wandered across Conall's inner thigh, and she said, "Maybe we could have been married. Everyone sees how we get along, but then again, maybe not."
Tongue thick in his mouth, Conall nodded even as something he wanted to say got caught in his throat. At Dervla's smile growing slightly mischievous in a familiar way that let Conall know that she would extract what he was thinking even if he didn't want to speak up, he sighed again. Taking a moment with his face turned away from her, he then said, "I'll always be your friend, and I've never regretted fooling around with you… but…"
"You never saw us being together like that," Dervla finished for him, her voice even and her eyes slightly lidded in the dark.
Gulping, Conall just nodded. At Dervla starting to press the nail of her finger into his thigh, Conall added on stumblingly, "It's not… not that I didn't want to be with you, not exactly, it's just that. You know. I didn't think either of our parents would really go for it, and… and…"
Her enigmatic expression growing into a sad but sincere smile, Dervla suggested, "And you didn't want to hurt from investing something you couldn't get. I… I know." She went silent for a time before she asked, "Do you remember when we first started 'practicing kissing' when no one was around?"
Nodding, Conall said, "Yes, of course."
"I still thought that was how babies were made back then. I thought if I had your baby our parents would force us to get married," Dervla explained, chuckling slightly at her childish plan. "I think I've still been trying all these years, even if…"
Her thoughts slowed to a halt along with her wandering finger as it came to rest upon the bulge in Conall's underwear. Her pause was short lived though, her finger starting to trace circles about the most prominent point, drawing a hiss of excitement from Conall. Dervla went out nearly every morning to milk her family's cows, and she had had many festivals and quiet moments to transfer those skills to use on her childhood friend and semi-lover.
Switching up from her gentle circles to tapping the pad of her middle finger to the cloth covered tip, Dervla said, "So I was just going to reward you for all of your efforts with a 'milking', but tomorrow I will be gone on the Imperial Road and you will be doing odd jobs until the roads are clear. You'll go home and your parents will set you up with a girl in the next valley over – I think you'll probably get paired with Dairine – and… and that will be that. If we're lucky I might see you again in ten years, when I finish out my conscription and I'm close enough to stop by for a visit. So… this is it, and… and I…"
Placing a hand gently on Dervla's side, Conall asked, "You want to do more?"
Dervla just nodded her head awkwardly, clearly not quite sure what it was she wanted. When Conall ran the hand he had placed upon her side up to her breasts, she leaned into his touch and then leaned over to him. Their lips met, experienced but uncertain at first, and then their tongues found each other. Dervla pulled away for just a moment, just enough to wriggle out of her tunic before throwing a leg over Conall's waist and climbing atop him and the rented cot.
Their mouths locked together again, and their hands wandered over the body of the other. A spark and shiver passed back and forth between the two of them, the thrill of something taboo and yet long yearned for growing faster and faster as the two of them realized that they were not going to hold back any longer. Fingers and tongues were good for foreplay, but in this last night together they were going to do all the things they had always held back from out of fear.
The two of them were naked, Dervla atop Conall as they paused to savour each other before they took the final step. Conall could feel the heat radiating from Dervla's groin, and his fingers and belly were already slippery from her readiness. Her buttocks rubbed up against his cock, which twitched with the eagerness of being so close to where it wanted to be but not being quite there yet.
"Ready?" Conall asked, and Dervla licked her lips as she nodded. Lifting up her hips, she wriggled around until she felt she was lined up, and then began to lower herself down onto him. With one hand on her hips, one on a breast with his thumb resting on her nipple, the added sensation of her hot, wet folds enveloping him almost made him lose control then and there. Dervla's little gasps, moans, and wiggles as she settled on nearly drove him over the edge again, but despite his previous exhaustion Conall found that he had just enough energy to keep focused. He'd disappointed Dervla in their play in the past, and he didn't want to ruin this moment.
Having grown up amidst farm animals and in homes where one could not know what adults got up to during the night, both knew the basic mechanics of coupling, but the first few thrusts were awkward and halting. Dervla nearly called a complete stop a few times as something didn't connect right and she winced, and in one harrowing moment Conall had slipped free and nearly rammed directly into her pubic bone before they both stopped and reset.
Eventually though, for all the fumbling, they found their rhythm. With Dervla straddling him, he was treated to the bounce of both her breasts and her lovely dark hair. Conall had no idea how he held on for as long as he did, but as Dervla ground her hips upon him he felt her inner muscles tense up upon him and her breath hitch. The feeling was just too great, and as her back arched from her own climax, Conall too lost himself to orgasm.
In that moment of release, Conall felt so intensely close to Dervla. The whole of her life seemed to flash before him, hundreds of moments and memories of a life on the farms in the wilderness of Iver Prefecture. There had to be thousands of mornings waking up to milk the cows; afternoons heading out to the forests to gather sticks for coal and herbs for medicine; and evenings and festivals lounging about with friends swapping the latest gossip. All grains of sand slipping away between Conall's fingers, and yet he found he had no regrets that this was ending.
Conall and Dervla had never been lovers, not truly, but they had always been friends, and most of all they had been safe around each other. They had been safe, and neither had ever truly demanded anything for the friendship of the other. Dervla was leaving, having been singled out by Fate to have some natural talent for the magic of the world, but Conall knew that if he demanded anything of her he would shatter the foundation of their friendship. He didn't want her as his wife or his lover; he just wanted her to be safe and comfortable so he could be safe and comfortable with her.
Reflecting back on everything, if Conall had any regrets it was that he had never paid as much attention to her discussions about forest plants as he could have. He'd been learning so much more about growing things in the past year, and now all that knowledge he could have had was slipping away due to childish arrogance. He should have paid attention more, and he should have asked more questions.
The moment of transcendent release and connection ended, and Conall rode the wave of pleasure down by letting out a long, grunting sigh even as Dervla collapsed upon him while making a noise that was equal parts squeal and moan. The two of them panted hard, the sweat that coated them now uncomfortably noticeable, and then Conall had to chuckle as he felt his member relaxing from its arousal, seed dripping from Dervla onto his thighs and the bed beneath.
Her face pressed into his chest, Dervla mumbled, "I just cleaned that."
Conall shook his head and then gently wrapped his arms about her, holding her gently but close. The promise of sex had kept him up despite how tired he had been all afternoon, but now he felt the last dregs of energy leaking from him. He kissed Derval's forehead and started to say, "I'll help…" but his eyes were closed before he could finish the promise.
By the time Conall's eyes flickered open again, it was almost completely dark in the room, with Dervla curled up at his side on the cot. It was obvious that he had crashed and she had cleaned up and then tucked them both in, and Conall's first thought was to just shut his eyes and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, the reasons he had actually woken up kept him up. Namely, his stomach was growling and his bladder was full.
Gently and quietly extricating himself from the cot, Conall made sure that Dervla was covered up before he put his clothes on and slipped out of the room. One trip to the outhouse later and he found himself in the dining hall picking at the remains of the available food. Taking the heel of a hard loaf and the congealed remnants of a stew that had started cooking when the sun was still up, Conall found a place to sit and quietly eat away at his food.
While he ate, Conall also thought about the future. When morning came Dervla would be joining up with the next caravan along the Imperial Road, heading for the Capital, and he would be left waiting. He had a Headman's Pass and official documents showing that he was assisting in official Imperial Business, but that just meant that no one would kick him out for vagrancy. He would need to figure himself out for the next few weeks until the spring rains slowed and he could make the trip back home safely. That meant finding work.
Thankfully all the towns along Imperial Roads had so many iterant people that the government had developed a system of odd job and bounty boards. Admittedly, most of the significant jobs were for wandering monster slayers, but there was always something for labourers who needed a few coins to pay for meals while they waited to move on to their next destination.
The inn actually had a job board, and Conall had taken some time to look at it before sitting down to eat. It was either bare from the odd jobs already being taken during the day, or mostly just served as a warning about dangerous creatures in the nearby woods, but there were a few persistent items. The Prefect's Office seemed to have a standing job to go out and maintain the Imperial Road, and given that it was spring that would probably be extra busy with rains and thaws causing problems. Merchants always needed spare labourers for the loading and unloading of cargo of the endless caravans that passed through. While he wasn't quite sure why the farmers couldn't do it on their own, it seemed like the farms nearby were looking for workers to help with the spring planting, which was something Conall knew he could do very well. Also, while he wasn't entirely sure he remembered everything Dervla had ever told him, the bounty for collecting silverthistle prickles on behalf of the local apothecary looked like something he could do that would get him silver in his purse rather than brass.
Chewing on the dense bread while he thought, Conall figured that he would figure it out in the morning. He had a bed to get back to.
Farmboy "I don't know why the farmers out here are so lazy that they hire people to do their farming, but that looks like a super easy way to get paid for doing something I would be doing if I were back home." +40%
Grappler "Hauling sacks and crates doesn't sound like much fun after the bear of a time we had, but we're strong enough that it should be easy money" +20%
Attentive "Nothing here, whatever"
Digger "The roads are something we can work on easy enough. We might even learn something!" +10%
Herbalist "I don't know if I know enough, even if it is good money" -20%
Tomorrow's Work
[] Help with the planting (1.4x)
[] Move cargo (1.2x)
[] Road repair (1.1x)
[] Find silverthistle (0.8x)
Welcome to this quest of mine! This is an experiment in doing some things I have had trouble doing in the past while also exercising some of my questing muscles with easy things like Number Go Up. If you have made it this far, you should recognize that this quest contains explicit sexual content. This is being done for thematic and artistic purposes, as well as because I just want to and have never done it before. Sex will be an important element of this story, but I am trying to avoid pure pornography.
Now, if that hasn't already earned the Mature tag, I'll throw in my standard disclaimers about violence and coarse language.
On to the expectations of gameplay. Conall here is a country bumpkin out in the wider world for the first time. He expects that he will be going home once the roads dry out, but he's going to end up going on adventures. Sexy adventures. And because part of my design document was "take the worst combination of terms and make a worthwhile story out of it", the general setting is an ISO 131001-3 cultivation world. Expect the wandering murderhobos that run around killing things and refining their gallbladders into +2 Strength Potions to be basically a part of an Imperial government, either directly or as licensed independent contractors. Sadly, Conall doesn't know a whole lot yet, so not much will be revealed. You'll figure it out along the way though. I encourage asking questions in thread, and I will try to answer them with IC knowledge whenever possible, or tell you straight up that Conall doesn't know or that is outside the scope of things.
Finally, on to the last bit of experimentation, the skills! Skills in this game are less "Swords 5" than "Swordsman 5", in that skills are general packages of experiences and attitudes. Having the Swordsman skill doesn't just mean being good with swords, it also means attitudes and opinions on the application of violence to problem solving. To start with that will mostly manifest as certain vote weight modifiers depending on the strength of a skill, but as skills become stronger they can have stronger "opinions" as Conall's character firms up. The names and descriptors are also loose in many ways, and skills can change name, merge with other skills, or even divide to represent a changing spectrum of abilities. At game start, Conall's primary skill is Farm Boy, which means that he does best at tasks like farming and manual labour, and his attitudes are generally rustic, naïve, and bluntly direct. Skills go up through use and/or esoteric magical bullshit, which are generally awarded for story purposes. Ranks 1 through 5 are generally 'mortal' levels, while higher require some form of magical foundation for why they are so good. As Skills get stronger, they also have a stronger influence on behavior that can range from vote weight modifiers to bonus or penalties for certain courses of action. When relevant, an in-character description of a situation as influenced by Skills will be provided as "commentary". Skills aren't the only possible way to do things, but they are what you start with.
People say that all I'm good for is being big, and to that I have to say that I might be big, but I also know how to use what the Gods gave me. I know when and how to till, how to plant my seed, how to hoe out a whole field, and how to collect the sweet fruits of my labours. I might not be fancy, but I reckon I know a thing or two. And I'm big, and I'll show you just what I can do if you want to make it an issue. I also work from dawn to dusk, so I can probably go longer than most too.
Grappler 2
Down on the farm, sometimes you've just got to grab something and hold it. Most of the time that's an ornery cow or a tenacious root that needs both hands come out, but sometimes the other boys - or even the girls! - want a scrap. When that's the case then you just got to bring them in close and show them who's boss.
Attentive 1
Look, all I'm saying is that just shutting up and listening can be the best way to get what you want. If you give someone else what they're asking for, they'll want to return the favour.
Digger 1
Sometimes there's a problem where the only solution is to thrust in your shovel, overturn things a bit, and see what happens.
Grappler "Hauling sacks and crates doesn't sound like much fun after the bear of a time we had, but we're strong enough that it should be easy money" +20%
I wanted to make sure I got the threadmarks in, but I will be giving the Skills descriptions, including as much innuendo as I can without it becoming outright farce. I am aiming for "fun, but not funny", if that makes sense.
Seems interesting enough, though given all the themes and such, are we expecting Farm Boy over here to be having (EXPLICIT) warnings on a lot of his journey or just at certain points?
Seems interesting enough, though given all the themes and such, are we expecting Farm Boy over here to be having (EXPLICIT) warnings on a lot of his journey or just at certain points?
It won't be every chapter. I will just say straight up that I have no intention of the next chapter being explicit. The one after that has a relatively high possibility. Explicit scenes are all about rhythm and timing within the greater narrative to not simply burn out on them.
Also, Conall's character sheet has been slightly updated.
Would probably shed the "Farm Boy" part before then and transition to something like "Farm Hand" or the like, but that would be... Clark Kent fresh to Metropolis from Smallville. Maybe not as powerful, but that's more or less the idea.
I wanted to make sure I got the threadmarks in, but I will be giving the Skills descriptions, including as much innuendo as I can without it becoming outright farce. I am aiming for "fun, but not funny", if that makes sense.
Finally, on to the last bit of experimentation, the skills! Skills in this game are less "Swords 5" than "Swordsman 5", in that skills are general packages of experiences and attitudes. Having the Swordsman skill doesn't just mean being good with swords, it also means attitudes and opinions on the application of violence to problem solving. To start with that will mostly manifest as certain vote weight modifiers depending on the strength of a skill, but as skills become stronger they can have stronger "opinions" as Conall's character firms up. The names and descriptors are also loose in many ways, and skills can change name, merge with other skills, or even divide to represent a changing spectrum of abilities. At game start, Conall's primary skill is Farm Boy, which means that he does best at tasks like farming and manual labour, and his attitudes are generally rustic, naïve, and bluntly direct. Skills go up through use and/or esoteric magical bullshit, which are generally awarded for story purposes. Ranks 1 through 5 are generally 'mortal' levels, while higher require some form of magical foundation for why they are so good. As Skills get stronger, they also have a stronger influence on behavior that can range from vote weight modifiers to bonus or penalties for certain courses of action. When relevant, an in-character description of a situation as influenced by Skills will be provided as "commentary". Skills aren't the only possible way to do things, but they are what you start with.
I really love this idea, and I'm curious to see how it works in practice, beyond what we already saw in this first update (the work options being based on our skills).
[X] Move cargo (1.2x)
Like Road repair, it sounds like it might introduce us to some people and let us socialize/learn the most, but I'm picking it because Grappling is something rarely seen in these stories, and I would love it if we went that direction. (Edit - And it might provide tangential benefits to our sexing, or even develop into a skill about that.)
This is a rare opportunity to earn silver coin. Plus as a standard job in the area, silverthistle has to be relatively common. (And of course, OOC that "moment of connection" involved thinking about herbs and was pretty sus.)
ISO is the International Organization for Standardization (blame the French for the acronym's spelling) and it exists to provide standardization across companies. If everyone does things the same way in certain key details that means that you can all agree that something was made/tested/handled in a way that you can trust. Instead of having to figure out if the terminology in the paperwork means the same thing from business to business, you get ISO certified and now everyone knows you're on the same page. For the consumer this means basically nothing, but in supply chains and the like it is super important.
Anyway, every ISO standard is designated by a string of numbers. The leading numbers indicate what the field is, then there are typically a couple of zeroes because they give themselves plenty of room, and then the final number tells you exactly what it is within the series. A dash and then another number can indicate a subset of the larger standard. So ISO 9001 is the first standard in the 9000 series.
Thus, you will sometimes get authors describe their world as being "ISO random numbers fantasy world" to indicate that they haven't put a lot of effort into setting up a unique set of ideas for their world. Typical examples are "D&D-type western fantasy world", "Dragon Quest-type isekai fantasy world", and "generic xianxia cultivator world". It's a tongue in cheek way of saying "Set your expectations about here-ish" and not having to do a lot of initial exposition. It's lazy, but depending on what you are doing the world itself may not matter to the goals of the story.
