Succubus

Your hair slowly turns sapphire blue.\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]\n\n<<set $hairColor to "sapphire blue">>

You revel in the return of your magic, and slip back into your old life, translating various ancient scrolls on esoteric topics, saving people from their periodic stupidity, and listening to the occassional magical research lecture. The archmage and guildmaster are soon also rescued, and return to performing their own research with their pride as strong as ever. Your new guildhall is very well hidden, being a lone structure high up in the mountains, far away from any towns or churches, so it seems like you will be safe from further attacks by the inquisition. As the weeks pass by, however, you find part of yourself looking back fondly on your time in hell, and begin to miss the succubi of your old circle, particularly Ithrenda and her daughters. \n\nYou realize that as long as you have been a member of the guild, you have not really gotten close to any of your fellow guild members, and have found yourself looking down on many of them, whereas you came to rather like and respect the succubi of your circle in the month you spent amongst them. You decide to try going out on dates, but none of them go anywhere and you think better of continuing. You find youself growing increasingly lonely, but also find yourself unable to relate to your fellow humans. None of them have experienced what you have experienced, nor do they think in a way similar to how you think. You begin to wonder whether the mages transformed you back properly, but you are not about to let them alter your brain again, no matter how benevolent their intentions would be, and you don't think there is anything wrong with your brain. It feels more like your brain is working properly, and that it is all other human brains that are broken. \n\n[[Distract yourself from your loneliness with your research]]\n\n[[Start summoning your friends to visit]]\n\n[[Return to hell]]

When you tell the circle the bad news, Ithrenda sighs and tears at her hair in frustration. Finally, she says, "I have a way to ensure our security without one of the circles agreeing to an alliance, but I had hoped never to have to use it. It will be a major embarrassment for us, and will lose us much of our social standing, but it needs to be done." She then turns to Iltara and says, "You know those battle succubi you keep hanging out with behind my back even though I told you to stop seeing them, and that you think I don't know that you are still hanging out with? Tell them that I wish to speak with them, and that I intend to give them an offer they will want to hear." Iltara obediently runs off into the distance, with her face appearing to be a mixture of just about every possible emotion at once. Clearly this is a very emotional time for both mother and daughter, otherwise they would not allow themselves to display any emotions. It is also obvious that Ithrenda intentionally understated the importance of your mission, though you are not quite sure why. It does, however, make it clear that you are not completely trusted yet.\n\nAbout an hour later, a dozen battle succubi appear, and ask why Ithrenda would want to see them. Ithrenda offers to let them join the circle, and promises that if they do so they will receive knowledge they would never have access to otherwise, and would never have to worry about darkhounds again. "What's the catch? You would not have been caught dead talking to us just a couple weeks ago, and now you invite us into your circle?", one of the battle succubi reply. Ithrenda replies reluctantly, each word appearing to cause her physical pain, "With the current chaotic situation, we need more fighters loyal to us to be able to survive attacks by some of the more reckless succubi circles. As a result, we have need of your skills in order to ensure our safety, but in return we will offer what safety we can provide." Another battle succubus replies, "So effectively we gain protection from darkhounds, but may get pulled into succubi wars and have to fight against battle demons. Well, this is a rare opportunity that I am unwilling to pass up, but don't make us regret this." With this agreement out of the way, [[Ithrenda takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].

"An interesting offer... Sadly, I would not be willing to trust any information that did not come from my own circle. We've had a couple issues in the past with such things, though not as bad as many circles. Well, it is a pity we could not reach an agreement, but I am unwilling to protect a circle that cannot protect us in return", the leader replies. You hope you have better luck with the [[second succubi circle]].

"Humans are people, with their own thoughts, goals, and dreams, just like you and me. The fact that we are smarter and more self-controlled than humans does not stop them from being worthy of a certain level of respect. While we are often in conflict by our nature, and you must do whatever you need to do to survive, never forget that they are not mere slaves or prey, and do not let yourself feel that you are their master or are superior to them. Instead, you must think of them as your equals, lest your arrogance get you killed.", you tell your daughter. It would not do to let her get a superiority complex, even if that is entirely too common among succubi.\n\n"I have never heard of a demon thinking of humans as their equals, or respecting them in any way, but I shall try to do as you ask. You seem to know more about humans than almost any succubus, so if you say that they are to be respected, than I shall respect them.", your daughter replies. You feel that your words will make her a better and more humble person. [[You arrive back at your patch of rock to find your mate waiting for you with three darkhound steaks]].\n\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>>\n<<set $morality to $morality + 1>>

You roll under his next set of fireballs, spring back to your feet, and start clawing at his legs, ignoring the resulting pain as his flames try to devour your hands. Your fingernails don't seem to be causing all that much damage, however. He promptly starts slashing at you with his claws, forcing you to go on the defensive. You manage to avoid the first few blows, but then one lands, and you feel a sharp pain in your neck before you die.

You each tear into your imps ravenously. The imps don't taste too bad, though you can tell that you would have found them disgusting before your transformation, and their flavor is quite unlike anything you have had before. As you are eating, you notice that the sky has dimmed slightly, but shows no signs of ever becoming properly dark. You feel somewhat tired after your day, so you ask about where you should sleep, and they welcome you to sleep beside them, while they take turns on watch. You are not quite sure why they are so quick to train and shelter a stranger like yourself, and don't fully trust them, but seeing no sign of your fellow mages, and having no better options, [[you gratefully take them up on their offer]].

The tavern is filled with scantily-clad bar maids, but as soon as you enter, all attention drifts to you. You are not quite sure whether to be flattered or alarmed, and settle on being both. A man in a black cloak sitting in the corner with a mug of ale gestures for you to come over, and you obediently approach, and take a seat at his table. He tells you that he might have a job for you, if you are interested. When you ask about the job, he tells you that his employer needs to have some information be extracted from a few people in his custody, but that they are currently short a proper interrogator, and thus have been having trouble extracting this information. He tells you that he thinks you might be a good fit for the job, and that you look like you are in need of discrete employment. In return for extracting information from these and similar people, he promises that they would make sure you were hidden and well provided for. Clearly he works for a criminal organization, seemingly a rather powerful and ruthless one. Working with them could prove dangerous, but you don't have that many other options and they might decide to dispose of you if you refuse.\n\n[[Accept the offer]]\n\n[[Refuse the offer]]\n<<set $firstTime to true>><<set $resistance to 5>><<set $introductions to false>><<set $question to false>>

You barely avoid the kick, only to realize too late that she is already launching a second kick, this time a back kick using her left leg aimed towards your chest. It slams into your chest. You are unable to get out of the way and already somewhat off-balance from avoiding the first kick, so end up falling over backwards. She quickly leaps on top of you and tears out your throat.

"As with many things, you must weigh the probabilities logically, and go with whatever results in the best outcome. You should not let emotions cloud your judgement in either direction, whether they be pride, shame, fear or anger, but simply figure out which action would result in your best chance of living a long and successful life, and choose that option. That said, there are a few factors you should consider when making this decision. First off, running away is often quite perilous. Not only could your enemies catch up to you and kill you, but even if you escape them you will have left your allies behind, and find yourself alone among a hostile neighborhood, doomed to either be hunted down or be eaten by darkhounds. And secondly, if you banish all fear and doubt from your mind as you fight, and keep fighting even when the odds are against you, you may win the fight simply by intimidating your opponents into running away, for they will expect you to run away when things start going badly. But in the end, what matters is not how many of your enemies you kill, but whether or not you manage to survive."\n\nYour daughter nods, and thanks you for your explanation. You feel like your words will help her pick her battles, but they will also almost certainly push her towards the amorality of your fellow succubi, for better or for worse. [[You and your daughter finish eating your imps in silence, and then go to sleep]].\n\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>> \n<<set $morality to $morality - 1>>

Ithrenda replies, "You must be from a different neighborhood, to be trading for information about our politics. In any case, the local demon lords are currently Gridregeth, Gartugrath, Gugreden, Gegreth, Giogreng, and Kridrefarl, all of whom are mated to the six succubi from the Royal Circle, as they call themselves. That is the most powerful of the succubi circles, and it only admits those who have mated to demon lords. We are lucky to be one of the few neighborhoods of hell to have so few demon lords, they are a pain to work around as I am sure you are familiar with. The Royal Circle and their mates are the only upper-class demons in the area, and must be given due deference, but they realize that if they pose too large of a burden on the populace they could and would be destroyed. As a result, they exert little power on us, and mostly leave us to our own affairs. However, they are known to preemptively deal with any group who they think likely to unbalance the neighborhood, so all of the local groups, including us, are careful to keep their schemes below the Royal Circle's notice." \n\nShe pauses briefly before continuing, The battle succubi, as they call themselves, are tolerated but not respected, and are generally considered lower-class succubi. Their rejection of what makes a succubus a succubus results in them functioning much like weaker [[battle demons]], unpredictable, but ultimately managable. None of the succubi circles are in open conflict with each other, but there have been a several dozen succubi killed by [[battle demons]] in the last month, presumably all at the instruction of their succubi mates, and some of the succubi circles are getting uncomfortably violent and ambitious, hence the need for those alliances you arranged." Ithrenda then [[takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].\n\n<<set $politics to true>>

She looks quite sad at your decision, but tells you that she understands, and doesn't blame you. You find her bones a few days later, with the rest of her body appearing to have been eaten by darkhounds. You live out the rest of your life relatively happily, hunting imps and training with your fellow succubi, but part of you regrets leaving such a cute little girl to be eaten alive, and wonders what it would have been like to raise her.

The guildmaster is about fifty years old, and is a fierce advocate for freedom of research. He formed the guild in order to allow his fellow mages to conduct advanced magical research without the inteference of the church or any government. He allows his fellow guild members to conduct almost any research, so long as it does not unduly endanger the guild and the results are formerly presented to the group upon conclusion of the research. There are rumors that this has resulted in some unwilling research subjects being used by some of the guild's less upstanding members, but none of these rumors were ever confirmed. The guildmaster has shown a particular interest in demons and mutation magic, and is considered one of the world's foremost experts in altering human bodies. His blatant disregard for the concerns of the church and his refusal to let inquisitors enter the guild hall have infuriated the church, but so far the church has grudgingly left the guild alone.\n\n[[Return|Start]]

Another few weeks pass fairly uneventfully. Your daughter continues to become a better warrior, and is now putting up quite a good fight during your sparring sessions, though she still has not beaten you yet. While she is faster and more graceful than you, you still have better reflexes and are better at telling what she is about to do, allowing you to remain a step ahead of her throughout the fight. She has also improved at hunting, and is usually able to catch more imps than you these days. \n\nOne morning, shortly after you wake up, she asks you who she should feel free to lie to whenever it would benefit her. You know that lying is a common part of life for upper-class succubi, and that it is one of their most useful tools, but your also know that it is much less common among your fellow battle succubi, and they might become offended if they discover one of your daughter's lies. Also, you and your group rely on mutual trust to survive, losing that trust could be quite disastrous. \n\n[[Tell her to always tell the truth, no matter what the circumstance]]\n\n[[Tell her to only lie to people outside your group of battle succubi]]\n\n[[Tell her to feel free to lie to anyone except you]]

The next morning, when you wake up, your daughter asks you, "Mommy, if I get summoned by a demonologist, how should I handle them? Should I do whatever they want, or should I try to trick them into giving me more control?" It is a good question, on the one hand letting the demonologist bind you to whatever vows they want is rather risky, but on the other hand trying to trick them into accepting lesser vows might anger them, and an angry demonologist is quite a dangerous person to have as a master.\n\n[[Tell her to try to maintain as much freedom as she can]]\n\n[[Tell her to try to avoid vows that are clearly going to be dangerous to swear, but otherwise do whatever they want]]\n\n[[Tell her to do whatever the demonologist wants]]

You charge at the demon lords and tell everyone else to follow you. Surprisingly, they obey. You dodge a series of fireballs, though nearly bump into a couple of your fellow succubi while doing so before you reach the demon lord. You start clawing at his leg, but without doing much damage and you find yourself having to fight through the pain of your hands catching fire. Then a claw catches you in the chest and you are sent flying backwards. You land about twenty feet away, bleeding profusely from multiple lacerations. At least the speed of your flight extinguished your hands. Your fellow succubi seem to be having little better, and soon the charge breaks apart. Soon, all your fellow succubi are running for their lives. You try to follow, but you are caught by several fireballs in the back and burst into flames. You fall to the ground, writhing in agony for a few seconds before you pass out from the pain. You never wake up.

"Humans are our enemies, and should be killed without mercy. They pull us from our home, enslave us, hunt us down, and in the end blame us for all of this, when we are the victims. The average succubus lifespan would be increased dramatically if not for demonologists, and in our circle we spend a good deal of our time trying to figure out how to survive our brief trips to their world. However, they are also beneath us, so do not risk your life just to eliminate a few of them.", you tell your daughter. You have not thought of yourself as a human for quite a while, and have started to despise humanity. \n<<if $killMaster is true>>\nYour daughter nods, and thanks you for your answer. She looks unsurprised by your answer, and it seems that you have confirmed some of her existing thoughts rather than implanting new ones. [[You arrive back at your patch of rock to find your mate waiting for you with three darkhound steaks]].\n<<else>>\nYour daughter frowns and replies, "You tell me that humans are enemies to be fought and destroyed, due to their continuous attempts to summon, enslave, and murder us, but also to protect the human who summons and enslaves me. These statements do not make sense together, and are forcing me to doubt your judgement." It seems that your poorly thought out answers have damaged her trust in you. [[You arrive back at your patch of rock to find your mate waiting for you with three darkhound steaks]].\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty - 1>>\n<<endif>>

You decide to let your hair flow halfway down your back, which seems relatively common among succubi.\n\n<<set $hairLength to "halfway down your back">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

Your hair slowly turns white, but you manage to make it still look elegant.\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]\n\n<<set $hairColor to "white">>

"You must think through each vow, and figure out whether the vow will prove dangerous to you, or whether it is relatively harmless. If you swear all of the vows that a demonologist wants you to swear word for word, unless they are an idiot, you will be little more than a slave, and a highly expendable slave at that. Needless to say, that is a dangerous position to be in, especially since a number of demonologists have rather dark and twisted minds, and a few would likely be happy to murder you for a few magical ingredients of dubious usefulness. However, you can often get away with a few word changes, as long as they do not seem significant. The trick is to make your changes seem innocent, while making sure that they prevent your new vow from being too restrictive. In this way, you can make them believe that you are their slave, while in reality being relatively free, which will give you a decent chance of survival if they get any unfortenate ideas. It will also allow you to please some of the more picky and less than brilliant masters you might get. A few will expect you to perform certain services for them, after having just had you indirectly swear a vow not to do so. The most common such case is for them to make you swear not to hurt them in any way, and then order you to have sex with them. They often do not stop to think that since we drain their life force by touching them, having sex with them would prove quite harmful to them, and thus would be prevented by such a vow. Then they will get angry, and instead of realizing that the situation is their own fault, a few will get angry at you and possibly even murder you", you tell you daughter.\n\nYou pause briefly before continuing, "On the other hand, each vow you decide to bend is a risk in and of itself, since if they catch you they will become quite angry and paranoid, and those are not exactly properties you want in a master. At this point, you will be made to swear all future vows word for word, no matter how cruel or badly thought out, and if the demonologist is mentally unstable they might just kill you outright at this point. If you refuse to swear any of the vows, you will probably be killed. So make sure that it is worth it before trying to bend a vow, you will need to pick your battles"\n\nYour daughter listens to your explanation with interest. When you finish, she promises to choose carefully which vows to swear as is and which to bend. She then asks you, "Once the negotiations are finished, should I get my master killed or should I try to keep them alive?" This is another difficult question. On the one hand, with her master dead, she would be completely free, rather than living or dying at the whims of a demonologist. This freedom could be used to gain great power in the mortal world, for there would be few who could match a succubus' wisdom and none that could match her beauty, allowing her to manipulate quite a few important mortals indeed. On the other hand, without a master she would quickly find herself alone in a hostile world, dominated by a church that devotes itself to persecuting people like her. \n\n[[Tell her to get her master killed]]\n\n[[Tell her to protect her master]]\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>>

Your <<if $horns is true>>reindeer horns<<else>>wyvern wings<<endif>> get you a few odd looks as you walk back to your study, but not half so many as you would get anywhere else. Considering that this is one of the world's foremost research institutions on mutation magic, seeing a fellow member temporarily sporting a few extra body parts is considered relatively normal, though some of the newer members are apparently still having trouble adjusting to this fact. After a brief walk, you find yourself back in your study. A few hours later, you have finished translating the next scroll, and read what it says: "Succubi are not like most demons, who act on blind instinct and rely on their strength for survival. Succubi are in fact quite weak, but are still often considered greater demons due to their cunning schemes and their ability to lie extremely convincingly. Their skill at deceit is greatly enhanced by the complete separation between their body and their emotions. In other words, they can feel one set of emotions, but effortlessly make their body perfectly display a completely different set of emotions, making it impossible to have any idea what a succubus is thinking just by looking at them, unless they wish you to know. Humans rely largely on involuntary body reactions to tell when another human is lying, but succubi do not have involuntary body reactions, their every movement is deliberate while still seeming completely natural. Based both on how cunning their schemes are, and on how many things they decide manually that most other races would leave to the subconscious, we are forced to conclude that succubi have brains with far more computational power than those of mortals, perhaps greater even than our own. It is indeed a pity they are so untrustworthy and so naturally destructive, otherwise they would make for valuable advisors."\n\nReading this scroll you begin to wonder to what degree you are discovering fresh knowledge about demons, and to what degree you are merely rediscovering knowledge that was lost as a result of either language barriers or church interference. The church destroyed any demon-related materials they could get their hands on, destroying centuries of careful research and resulting in the increasing need for new demonic research, ironically resulting in far more demon summonings than likely would have occurred had the church just left the old knowledge intact. It also leaves the world much less able to deal with demonic threats. Your thoughts are interrupted by a young mage bursting into your study and between gasps for air telling you that his friend was cursed, and needs your help now. You tell him to lead the way, and [[quickly follow him]].

The day proceeds fairly normally, tying customers to the bed in a variety of carefully calculated ways before pleasuring them, and then seeing them stumble out as if drunk. That night, you decide to only pretend to sleep, figuring that they will probably try to punish you for failing to leave sometime tonight. Sure enough, late that night you see your fellow prostitutes enter your room with daggers drawn through the corners of your eyes. You wait until they are all well inside the room, and one is about to stab you before you suddenly kick that prostitute and shout for help. A bouncer with a wooden club bursts in through the door, and sees the women surrounding you with drawn daggers. Seeing that it is too late for them to claim innocence at this point, they try to stab the bouncer, who gets out of the way while calling for help. In the end, another seven bouncers appear, and with their help you manage to subdue the women. When you explain what happened to the manager, he sighs and informs you that he will have to shut down the brothel, as he will have to turn in all of his other women over to the police for attempted murder. He allows you to stay the night, but tells you that you must leave in the morning. The next morning, you leave, but have to quickly [[enter the tavern|Enter the tavern]] to avoid an inquisitor.

Your hair slowly turns brown.\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]\n\n<<set $hairColor to "brown">>

"And what makes you think we would be willing to risk going against the Royal Circle itself?", the leader asks.\n\n[["We both know that if you get much more powerful the Royal Circle will take interest, and we also both know that you are still planning to increase your power"]]\n\n[["You are clearly quite ambitious, and you seem ambitious enough to try to take down the Royal Circle"]]

You barely avoid his claws as you quickly step to the left. You manage to get behind the demon, with your opponent's own momentum proving too much for him to stop. This is an opportunity you cannot afford to waste.\n\n[[Attempt to choke the demon|Go for a choke]]\n\n[[Slash at its back]]

"Seeing that you cannot give us a reason for why you are doing what you are doing, I think it is much more likely that you are trying to convince each of us that war between us is inevitable, so that we get rid of the Black Circle for you but in the process become too weak to challenge you", the leader replies. He then orders one of his succubi to go explain the situation to the Black Circle, and ask if they also got someone trying to convince them that war between them was inevitable, as well as to convince them to join in destroying your circle. You can see that you cannot convince the Ascendant Circle to change their mind at this point, and instead rush back to [[report the bad news]].

You return to your circle and report your failure. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 27 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You then send them off to attack the Royal Circle. Two of them return, badly wounded, to report that the attack failed, due to a number a couple of timely alliances the Royal Circle managed to secure. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

"You will need to manipulate both in a balanced mixture. The upper classes can provide you valuable protection, land, titles and wealth, and can also find a way to provide you with plenty of lifeforce in a discrete fashion, but if you make too many friends among the upper classes you will gain a lot of dangerous attention. The lower classes cannot provide you protection or wealth, but if you ever need someone to suddenly vanish, need to know someone's secrets, or generally need anything done discretely, you'll need friends in the lower classes. The information they can provide you will help you take full advantage of your upper class connections. That said, it is best to simply stick with your summoner when possible, and then just return here, the mortal world is not a friendly place for us", you tell your daughter. Your daughter nods and thanks you for your explanation. You then [[both go to join the rest of your circle]].

The succubus replies, "She was one of the greatest succubi warriors, and showed us how powerful we could be if we put our mind to it. Had she not been betrayed, she would have been able to retire wealthy, famous and safe. We intend to gain her strength while sticking together, so that none of us are ever alone and that together we can defend ourselves. Most other succubi suggest that we gain power by manipulating others, but no matter how many friends you might have, in the end what matters is how much power you can actually bring to bear when you need it. The succubi who so look down on us would be unlikely to survive were they to encounter anything truly dangerous without warning, and instead rely on trying to anticipate and deal with all such threats well in advance."\n\n[[Return|Go talk to the succubi practicing fighting techniques]]

"The circles being blackmailed have agreed to offer us their full support in return for getting the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle to fight each other. In essence, after we deal with those two uppity circles, they will agree to fight our enemies regardless of who started the war and share their research in return for us protecting them. While they might be relatively small and have few battle demons, they should have some interesting information, and could in time become quite powerful allies. Besides, the Black Circle and Ascendant Circle are becoming rather inconvenient, and it will be good to have them out of the way. In order to accomplish this, I shall convince the Black Circle that the Ascendant Circle is going to attack them, while I would like you to convince the Ascendant Circle that the Black Circle is going to attack. If we were to convince only one side, there is a decent chance that one would double check our claims and find that they were baseless, but if both suspect the other may attack, they will both be considering a preemptive strike when the other goes to check on them. This will make it much more likely for our claims to be believed, and should result in them decimating each other, leaving us with new allies and a more friendly environment to work with", Ithrenda explains. With that, she leaves to speak to the Black Circle. Now would be a good time to [[alter your body|transform yourself]], if you feel you need to. Otherwise, it is time to [[speak with the Ascendant Circle]]\n\n<<set $CircleTransform2 to true>>

You tell her that while she demonstrated great skill in the hunt, and was quite successful, that she will need to be more cautious in the future. Your daughter deflates, looking almost depressed, and promises to be more careful in the future. You reassure her that she did quite well, and that you are merely showing her how to do even better in the future, at which point she returns to her normal cheerful self. \n\nOne day, though, another succubus child about her age calls her a weakling and a coward. This other child was obviously not raised by a normal succubus by any stretch, and is acting more like a battle demon. Her mother was probably a member of the Red Claw back before they joined your group, they were always blunt even for battle succubi. She is slightly taller and has longer claws than your daughter, lending her a slight advantage. In any case, such an open insult is a blatant attack on the honor and reputation of your daughter. Letting such an insult slide would weaken your position and invite yet more such insults. Letting your daughter solve the problem herself would give her valuable practice, and if she won decisively would increase her reputation. However, if she lost it could be quite embarrassing. On the other hand, handling the problem yourself would imply that the insults were correct, though if you handled it brutally enough people might also learn not to mess with your daughter.\n\n[[Tell your daughter to prove her wrong]]\n\n[[Teach your daughter to deal with insults gracefully]]\n\n[[Handle the insult yourself]]\n\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>>

Ithrenda replies, "We are actually one of the few succubi circles working on that problem, and have developed a spell that can transport things to the mortal world. The spell has been only recently developed, and has limited accuracy. You must picture a place in your mind to send the item to, and it will arrive in the vacinity of that location. So far we have been limited to sending rather small and light items, and they have been found to be fairly badly damaged. We will need to fix these problems and increase the efficiency of the spell before we can send demons to the mortal world. Still, it is a promising start, and can be useful in its own right. We can use this spell to send messages to the world above, though we cannot receive a reply, so it is mostly useful for putting foolish ideas in the heads of reckless mages. We have also created a spell to hold a mortal portal open, while you remain close to it, and traded the knowledge to a few of the more reckless succubi circles. It was a nice way to get knowledge and clear out some of our less predictable rivals. All of those succubi got themselves slaughtered in the mortal world, along with their mates, or so I have heard." She then proceeds to teach you how to perform both spells, and then [[takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].\n\n<<set $PortalSpell to true>>

You barely manage to stab his arm with your left arm, due to his attempt to twist at the last moment to avoid your arm. As a result, your stab lacks enough force for your fingernails to dig in, and the demon is able to twist around your arm and cut off you hand with his claws. Desperately, you try to stop the his right arm, which now coming back towards your neck with your own right arm, and succeed in digging your fingernails deep into his wrist, but you now have your back turned completely away from his left arm, which arcs towards your neck. You feel a brief flare of pain in your neck, and then lose consiousness. You never wake up.

You stop retreating, crashing into the suprised battle demon and avoiding the initial blow. However, you soon feel a sharp and intense pain on the back of your neck. Apparently the demon is still flexible enough to be able to reach your neck from this position. You soon pass out from the pain. You never wake up.

She giggles softly, and then says, "You just thought up that idea now? I know that it is not something that most people consider seriously, but you must have no ambition whatsoever if the thought never occurred to you before, even in passing. There is a reason that the Royal Circle is so paranoid, and it's not brain damage from overly-vigorous intercourse. On the contrary, they realize that most people have thought of that idea, and if they don't repeatedly demonstrate their strength, many would start seriously considering it. Either you are a bad liar, or do not think very far ahead, but in either case, I do not think working with you is a good idea. Therefore, we must decline your offer."\n\nYou return to your circle and report your failure. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 27 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You then send them off to attack the Royal Circle. Two of them return, badly wounded, to report that the attack failed, due to a number a couple of timely alliances the Royal Circle managed to secure. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

The Succubus Incident, a Mage's Tale

You share your story with your circle, who listen intently. <<if $SoS is true>>"That's a new one. Normally humans are too scared of us to summon us for something so trivial as a game, he must really have wanted to win. By the way, what is chess?", Ithrenda replies. You quickly find yourself having to explain how to play chess to your fellow succubi, who seem quite interested in the game, particularly once you mention the societal expectations that chess masters are somehow wise or cunning in general.<<set $chess to true>><<else>>"Ah, the usual. It seems that a good chunk of demonologists just find us a good way to get laid, not that I mind. The demonologists that just want to satisfy their carnal needs pay perfectly fine lifeforce, and generally don't put us in much danger. Still, it is somewhat boring and uninformative", Ithrenda replies.<<endif>> \n\nThe next few weeks pass relatively peacefully, and no other powerful circles seem to be popping up. In fact, with the help of your alliances, your circle now seems to be the most powerful succubi circle besides the Royal Circle itself. Despite this, you notice that Ithrenda is becoming increasingly concerned (and not bothering to hide her concern), though she will not say why, only warning you and the rest of the circle to keep their heads down and not cause anyone problems. As you think about it a bit more, you realize that you might have become powerful enough for the Royal Circle to have gotten concerned, and that saying a word about this would only increase the risk of the Royal Circle acting on their concern. A few days later, Ithrenda is summoned by a demonologist, or at least you assume that is what happened based on how she suddenly vanished in the middle of your meeting that day. After some debate, your circle reluctantly decides to let you take over her duties as first among equals until she returns, considering your previous success with destroying the Ascendant Circle. Iltara and Iltratha largely take care of themselves, but do end up asking you more questions than normal.\n\nOne day, a succubus from one of the circles you saved from the Ascendant Circle arrives, and warns you that the Royal Circle is gathering allies to attack you. It is possible they are lying in order to try to cut themselves free from their obligations, but you suspect that they are telling the truth. After all, they seem too cautious to try a stunt like that, and their claim seems entirely too likely, especially with Ithrenda's concern. Assuming this succubus is telling the truth, the more time you give the Royal Circle, the more allies they will be able to mobilize, so you will want to hit them relatively quickly. However, you may need a bit of time to gather enough forces to defeat them, especially since your current allies are rather cautious, and might decide to simply forget their agreements rather than fight against such a powerful group as the Royal Circle. \n\n[[Gather your allies to attack the Royal Circle]]\n\n[[Warn your allies that you might be attacked, but do not attack the Royal Circle]]\n\n[[Quickly recruit new allies, then attack the Royal Circle]]\n\n[[Attack with just your Circle's forces]]\n\n[[Try to convince the Royal Circle not to attack you]]\n\n[[Suggest the idea of joining other circles]]

"If you get caught in an outright lie, people will generally become quite angry and stop trusting you. This combination is extremely dangerous, as it creates an enemy while simultaneously depriving you of your most important tool, leaving you at the mercy of your new enemy. Every lie you tell is a dam, which if it fails will cause much more destruction than it prevented, so they are to be avoided. Half-truths are also dangerous, as they are the mark of an experienced deceiver. If you are caught using them, the people who find out will never trust you again. Instead, you must learn how to get people to do what you want while telling them only the plain truth", you tell your daughter. She gives you a dubious look, which seems to ask whether manipulating mortals while being completely honest with them is even possible, and you can sense that she will find that difficult. You also sense that trying to make it work will make her a better person, for better or worse. After a few minutes, [[you both go to sleep]].\n\n<<set $morality to $morality + 1>>

You explain that if the Royal Circle wants to destroy your circle, it might be best to dissolve the circle, and have everyone else join new circles. A succubus called Ijrethora replies, "No circles would accept us under the circumstances, as no one wants to run afoul of the Royal Circle, and they would hardly approve of people sheltering us from them, which would leave many of us alone and unprotected, and most of us would end up being eaten by darkhounds. No, we will live or die as a circle." It seems that you need a [[different plan|previous()]].

You leap on top of the battle demon's back, wrapping your right arm tightly around his neck and resting your right hand on your left shoulder while wrapping your left arm around your right hand and the back of your neck, pulling hard. The demon desperately claws at you, and you feel cuts open up all over your body, but the blows are relatively weak, both from the awkward angle and by the fact that you have cut off almost all bloodflow to his head, and you manage to twist away from the worst of it. A few seconds later, the demon loses consiousness. You bring him down to its knees, while still choking him until you are sure that it is dead. The two succubi that had been helping you give you an impressed look. You look over and see that the other battle demon is also dead, though he appears to have been killed by repeated slashes across his body. The leader of your group and the succubus fighting beside her took a few nasty cuts, but no one seems permanantly injured. The leader informs you that battle demon meat is rather toxic, so you will have to find other food for tonight. After you all finish healing yourselves, you decide to [[go hunting for imps]].

<<if $battle is false>>The mage glares at you in fury, and then summons a barrage of sharpened ice shards, which slam into your chest, leaving you with countless lacerations. Apparently he really does not like being rejected. You fall to your knees and desperately try to stop the bleeding. The mage chants another spell, and the last thing you see is a lightning bolt arcing from his hands straight towards you.<<else>>The mage glares at you in fury, and then sends a barrage of sharpened ice shards hurtling towards you, which you barely manage to dodge. After avoiding the last of the ice shards, you charge straight at him, intending to tear his throat out before he can cast another spell, knowing that he will have a significant advantage in a prolonged fight. You reach the mage and slash straight towards his neck with your fingernails, but at the last moment the mage disappears in a blinding flash of white light. You quickly hear the mage chanting behind you, and turn to face him, but when you attempt to charge at him again, your left foot won't leave the ground. You look down to discover that your foot has sunk into the stone floor, leaving you trapped in place. The mage must have cast a temporary dematerialization spell on the ground under your left foot as you were turning around, and then released the spell before you attempted to pick your left foot up. Apparently he is much more skilled at battle magic than demonology. You look up just in time to see a lightning bolt arc from the mage's hands straight into your chest. You experience a brief moment of excruciating pain before losing consiousness. You never wake up.<<endif>>

You have partially recovered, but your left leg is still fairly burnt. The demon lord is eight feet away from you and the other succubi surrounding him, but seems to be focusing solely on you. His reach is longer than yours, in addition to him being able to throw fireballs, so you will need to close in soon unless you want to find yourself at a severe disadvantage.\n\n[[Roll under his fireballs and kick the legs out from under him]]\n\n[[Roll under his fireballs and claw at his legs]]\n\n[[Roll under his fireballs and remove his phallus]]\n\n[[Use the shoulder of one of your fellow succubi to leap onto his head and stab his eyes out]]

You send succubi to warn your allies that you might be attacked soon, and instruct them prepare to launch a counterattack. Even if you were overheard, this will prevent the Royal Circle from attacking you unless they were already planning to do so<<if $allies is true>>, as well as allowing you to utilize all of your allies<<endif>>. The next day, the Royal Circle's six demon lords and two dozen angry-looking battle demons attack you during your meeting. You and your fellow succubi scatter, but when you ask your allies to launch a counterattack, they conveniently forget that you were ever allied, having no wish to fight against the Royal Circle. When the demon lords start to catch up, Grithdren heroicly holds them off while you, Iltara and Iltratha get away. You leave the neighborhood, having no wish to rely on the mercy of the Royal Circle. A few days later, you are eaten by a pack of darkhounds, having no one left to protect you.

The next day, you and the rest of the succubi circle convene as normal, and begin discussing the intricate details of the human language. You quickly find yourself having to explain the details of marriage and religion, which apparently had been causing some confusion to your fellow succubi. Your explanations are cut off by a group of ten battle demons approaching you with a grim and menacing stride. "Scatter, and tell our allies that the Jagged Circle has attacked us!", Ithrenda shouts, and promptly runs for it. You follow Ithrenda, along with her two daughters, while the rest of the succubi scatter in different directions. Two battle demons start to follow you, while the other battle demons start running after the other succubi. \n\nAfter about a minute of running, you encounter Grithdren, who charges at the battle demons pursuing you. You slams into the first one, causing that demon to fall over backwards, hitting its head hard. Grithdren quickly starts tearing into the second one with his impressive claws before the first can recover. By the time the first enemy battle demon regains his feet, Grithdren has shredded the second battle demon, leaving his bloody remnants lying on the ground. The first battle demon, seeing how quickly his comrade was slain, promptly runs for his life. Ithrenda calmly explains that you have just survived the first phase of any succubi war, and that the Jagged Circle has openly attacked you, you and your allies will exterminate it. She then sends Grithdren to help with the counterattack. A few hours later, Grithdren returns, reporting that the every single demon in the Jagged Circle was slaughtered, and the bodies of the succubi were gathered together to make it clear that the circle was destroyed. He mentions that only two allied battle demons died, and none of them belonged to your circle.\n\nIthrenda tells her daughters, "Well, it seems our initial attacker was destroyed. If we are lucky, that will be the end of it. If they had allies that are actually going to follow through on their commitments, we could easily end up having to do this a couple more times, but usually those that attack a group like us without any provocation also forget to create firm alliances too. Since we obviously don't know of any of their allies, if they have any, those allies have the choice to simply act like their alliance never existed, which would likely be their wisest option under the circumstances. There is also the possibility of a misguided preemptive strike against us. To avoid this, we will need to explain why we destroyed the Jagged Circle, and show that we have no wish to engage in other wars. succubi wars are ugly things, and are best avoided when possible, especially since much of our power relies on maintaining some level of peace. If we allow hell to fall into complete chaos, power would shift towards the best fighters, and those would be the battle demons and demon lords, not succubi, and certainly not those of our circle. This is part of why we value caution and fear excessive ambition. It is also part of the reason we look down on battle succubi so much, since they overall prove to be a destabilizing force, though not as much so as unmated battle demons. In any case, we must [[wait and see what happens]]."

The next day, you and the succubi circle convene as normal, but this time the four battle demons loyal to the circle are standing guard around you. A few of the battle succubi practice fighting techniques, while the rest of you attempt to discuss the intricate details of the human language. You quickly find yourself having to explain the details of marriage and religion, which apparently had been causing some confusion to your fellow succubi. Your explanations are cut off by a group of ten battle demons approaching you with a grim and menacing stride. The four battle demons guarding your circle and the battle succubi charge at the enemy battle demons. The resulting fighting is quite fierce, but only lasts a few minutes before all ten enemy battle demons lie dead, while your circle lost one battle demon and five succubi. \n\n"Those battle demons are from the Jagged Circle. They were one of the overly ambitious circles I was keeping an eye on, but I wasn't sure which one, if any of them was going to strike. Now that they have attacked us, it is time to eliminate them. We cannot afford to leave enemies such as those alive.", Ithrenda says calmly. And with that, she gestures for everyone to follow her, and starts walking. About a half an hour later, you come across a group of succubi who give you startled looks and start backing away. "You... you can't be alive...", one of them sputters. "Tear them all apart, and pile up the bodies in an orderly fashion.", Ithrenda orders in a bored voice. Your battle succubi and battle demons rush into motion, quickly running down the enemy succubi. Barely a minute later, there is an orderly pile of succubi bodies in front of you. You and the rest of your circle proceed to return back to your traditional plot of rock, and [[continue discussing the human language]].

"Ah, then you must not have many allies, and must not be confident in your own might. I understand why you came to see us now. However, it leaves me wondering what we would get out of the deal."\n\n[["We are not powerless, just not powerful enough to stand alone in these troubled times"|HavePower2]]\n\n[["We have ways of acquiring information others cannot, and would be willing to share some of it"|PromiseKnowledge2]]

You shorten your hair to be merely shoulder-length, which should prevent it from getting in your way too much in a fight, while still looking relatively good. \n\n<<set $hairLength to "down to the top of your shoulders">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

Your watch begins peacefully enough, you look over many other groups of demons with similar sleeping arrangements to your own. You notice that the area around you is almost exclusively inhabitted by unmated succubi, with the mated succubi and battle demons sleeping off in the distance. A while into your watch, you see a pack of about thirty darkhounds approaching, eating a few unfortunate succubi on their way. The darkhounds are about five feet long, with shadowy fur that seems to shift ominous before your eyes and absorbs all light more thoroughly than even the best ink. You shake the nearest of your fellow battle succubi awake, who looks at the darkhounds approaching and shouts, "Darkhounds are coming!" \n\nAll around you, you see succubi scrambling awake, some running for it, while others prepare for a fight. "Well, I was hoping we wouldn't have to deal with a darkhound attack for a while. At least darkhounds taste good", the leader of your group says, seeming both annoyed and tired. Your group decides that it is going to stand and fight, and tries to gather other succubi to stand beside them. In the end, you stand about twenty strong. A couple minutes later, the other succubi around you have either been eaten or successfully run away, and [[the darkhound packs moves on to attacking you|the darkhound pack attacks you]].

<<if $attract > 5>>He seems too distracted by your seductive body to even notice your alteration to your vow. That is the last of the traditional vows demanded of a demon, but many of the more experienced or paranoid demonologists will demand additional vows. This mage is apparently no exception, and demands that swear to never lie to him.\n\n[["I swear to never lie to you"]]\n\n[["I swear to only lie to you if you order it"]]\n\n[[Refuse]]\n\n<<set $slave to false>>\n<<else if $attract > 3>>He resitates, but reluctantly accepts your modified vow. He seems to be watching you more closely now, though. That is the last of the traditional vows demanded of a demon, but many of the more experienced or paranoid demonologists will demand additional vows. This mage is apparently no exception, and demands that swear to never lie to him.\n\n[["I swear to never lie to you"]]\n\n[["I swear to only lie to you if you order it"]]\n\n[[Refuse]] <<set $suspicion to true>><<set $slave to false>>\n<<else>>You sense that if you had been a bit more pretty, he would have been too distracted to call you out on your alteration, but as is, he calmly demands that you swear as he requested, word for word. You also sense that he is less attracted to you than to the average succubus.\n\n[["I swear to obey your commands"]]\n\n[[Refuse]]\n<<endif>>\n

Your opponent tries to keep facing you by turning while jumping in place on her left leg, but she is too slow and soon you are behind her. You quickly run up and tackle her, leaving her laying on her stomach with you on top of her. Realizing that she is helpless in this position, [[she yields]].

"A curious thing for you to be interested in, but I happen to know the answers you seek. What shall you share with us in exchange for such knowledge?", a succubus called Ijrethora replies. You offer to share knowledge about recent events in the mortal world in exchange, and tell her that you have only just returned to hell. Ijrethora accepts your offer, and says, "Unlike the rest of demons, imps do not eat other demons or drain life force in order to survive. Instead, they derive their energy from the heat and sulfur in the air, slightly cooling it in the process. Over the centuries, this results in a decrease in temperatures. While this change has been hard to quantify given its slow progress, at the current rate hell will be the same temperature as the mortal world in about three thousand years. Around this time, I suspect that they will become unable to sustain themselves, and start dying off, which will eventually result in the death of every demon living here as the food chain collapses. However, that is much too far away to bother worrying about now, and I do not think we will see any significant effects in our lifetimes. Now then, what has been going on in the mortal world lately?"\n\nYou tell her about how your guild ran afoul of the inquisition and was attacked after discovering a way to turn humans into succubi, and also how most of the guild escaped, but is presumably in hiding. You carefully hide the fact that some of the guild members descended into hell. You also mention how the church is cracking down on smuggling of inquisition-grade holy water. Ijrethora thanks you for trading information with her. She then invites you to join the circle to share knowledge and protect each other. Realizing that hell is a dangerous place to be without friends, [[you gladly accept]].\n\n<<set $diet to true>>

She smiles and says, "Thank you! I will make sure to inform you whenever I need you to remove someone's head for me. You're the best mom ever!" You begin to wonder what you have gotten yourself into, and clarify that murdering people is something that is best to be avoided, but that you will handle it if absolutely necessary. Her smile fades slightly, but does not go away, and she still seems happy with your decision. With that out of the way, you and your daughter [[join in the nightly imp hunt]].\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>

As you are walking through the plain stone hallways, your master asks you what your name is. Since Archmage Throst gave you a new name, technically both that and your birth name are valid answers to the question. <<if $SoS is true>>You realize that if you answer with your birth name, given that you are under a vow of truth and that he is a fellow member of the guild, he will probably realize who you actually are and try to return you to your human form, if you wanted that. However, part of you has grown attached to the succubi of your circle, and you don't feel like you belong in the mortal world anymore.<<endif>>\n\n[["Iltharia"]]\n\n[[Give him your birth name]]

You give one of the steaks to your daughter and take the other two yourself. You eat in silence, and go to sleep shortly afterwards. The next morning, you and your daughter walk over to join your circle's daily meeting, just like every other day, and find them in a heated debate about when exactly to use commas when writing in the human language, with both sides citing punctuation used in various official documents. It quickly becomes apparent that the various officials are using commas inconsistently with each other, leaving the correct usage of commas ambiguous. You try to help them as best as you can, but are no master of grammar yourself, so end up being only slightly helpful. During this debate, you hear one of the succubi practically shout, "But the comma is omitted before the and in a list in the land charter for three hides of land from Lord Zanith to Sir Wrulfwrith as a reward for his bravery during the Battle of the Pilinida River!" Eventually, the debate dies down when everyone realizes that they simply have insufficient data to be certain about exactly how commas are meant to be used in certain situations. The rest of the meeting is spent discussing other parts of spelling and grammar, which you honestly find quite boring. However, you realize that such knowledge might help your daughter if she ends up summoned for an extended trip in the mortal world, and so pretend to be interested in the subject.\n\nDuring dinner that night, your daughter asks you, "Out of curiosity, why did you decide to adopt me? While I am extremely grateful, I am wondering what you are expecting to get out of our arrangement."\n\n[["I couldn't just leave you there to die"]]\n\n[[Tell her that you will likely her need help with some calculations in the future]]

You thank them for teaching you that spell, and promise you'll practice it later, but say that you should really be getting back to your translation work. They wish you good luck, and you return to your study. A few hours later, you have finished translating the next scroll, and read what it says: "Succubi are not like most demons, who act on blind instinct and rely on their strength for survival. Succubi are in fact quite weak, but are still often considered greater demons due to their cunning schemes and their ability to lie extremely convincingly. Their skill at deceit is greatly enhanced by the complete separation between their body and their emotions. In other words, they can feel one set of emotions, but effortlessly make their body perfectly display a completely different set of emotions, making it impossible to have any idea what a succubus is thinking just by looking at them, unless they wish you to know. Humans rely largely on involuntary body reactions to tell when another human is lying, but succubi do not have involuntary body reactions, their every movement is deliberate while still seeming completely natural. Based both on how cunning their schemes are, and on how many things they decide manually that most other races would leave to the subconscious, we are forced to conclude that succubi have brains with far more computational power than those of mortals, perhaps greater even than our own. It is indeed a pity they are so untrustworthy and so naturally destructive, otherwise they would make for valuable advisors."\n\nReading this scroll you begin to wonder to what degree you are discovering fresh knowledge about demons, and to what degree you are merely rediscovering knowledge that was lost as a result of either language barriers or church interference. The church destroyed any demon-related materials they could get their hands on, destroying centuries of careful research and resulting in the increasing need for new demonic research, ironically resulting in far more demon summonings than likely would have occurred had the church just left the old knowledge intact. It also leaves the world much less able to deal with demonic threats. Your thoughts are interrupted by a young mage bursting into your study and between gasps for air telling you that his friend was cursed, and needs your help now. You tell him to lead the way, and [[quickly follow him]].

It seems that most of the succubi in the circle were summoned at least once, with three of them having been summoned twice, and Ithrenda having been summoned three times. You have a feeling that Ithrenda must have gone to some considerable effort to recruit succubi that had been summoned by demonologists, since you are pretty sure that there are a lot more succubi than there are succubi summonings. The first succubus to tell her story was apparently summoned by a very lonely mage. She seduced this mage, and kept him alive and happy for a good week while she learned what little this mage knew about the details of summoning demons, before she informed the mage that if he did not return her home, he would die. He was already rather weak by this point, from the combined drain of maintaining their pact and from the sex they had been having nightly. If she had let the mage die, she would have been left in the mortal world, with no one the wiser, but she thought considering her ignorance of mortal politics and the increasing presence of the inquisition she would be better off returning to hell. As it was, she had to be careful in order to allow the mage to last as long as he did, so she could learn all she wished to know while still being able to return home. Several other succubi take this moment to note how hard it is to make a mortal last that long, with some of them having left theirs on the verge of death after a single night.\n\nThe second succubi to tell her story was supposedly summoned by a rather shady brothel owner. She ended up feasting on the life force of the customers and also managed to piece together a decent picture of local politics from them, while being careful to keep any damage to the customers subtle. This life force made her feel stronger and more energetic than she had ever felt before, or ever felt again. Most of the customers were apparently rather pleased with her service, but one day someone told the church that there was a literal demon working at the brothel during a confession, and the inquisition showed up that night, searching for her. She climbed out her window, carefully closing it after her while holding onto the side of the building, and hid on the roof until they went away. Afterwards, the brothel owner returned her to hell, having decided that keeping a succubus in the brothel was more trouble than it was worth. The rest of the stories are similar to these, with the succubus seducing those around them and learning what they could from their victims, before eventually being returned to hell by the person who summoned them. You are almost certain that most of them could have stayed in the mortal realm had they so wished, but that they each decided that they would be better off returning to hell instead. Some of them do seem to miss parts of the mortal world, though, and look back nostalgically at their time there. \n\nOver the next few weeks, you continue to share knowledge with each other, and your fellow succubi are becoming masters of human language and culture. Two succubi circles begin to grow in power, and start trying to blackmail a few of the smaller circles, though they stay well clear of your circle. One of these circles calls itself the Black Circle, while the other calls itself the Ascendant Circle. Eventually, [[Ithrenda tells you that she has a plan take advantage of the situation]].\n\n<<set $allies to true>>

"You must be from a different neighborhood, to be trading for information about our politics. Welcome to the area. Well, what do you wish to share in exchange for an overview of the local politics?", Ithrenda replies. You offer to share knowledge about recent events in the mortal world in exchange, and tell her that you have only just returned to hell. Ithrenda accepts your offer, and tells you, "The local demon lords are currently Gridregeth, Gartugrath, Gugreden, Gegreth, Giogreng, and Kridrefarl, all of whom are mated to the six succubi from the Royal Circle, as they call themselves. That is the most powerful of the succubi circles, and it only admits those who have mated to demon lords. We are lucky to be one of the few neighborhoods of hell to have so few demon lords, they are a pain to work around as I am sure you are familiar with. The Royal Circle and their mates are the only upper-class demons in the area, and must be given due deference, but they realize that if they pose too large of a burden on the populace they could and would be destroyed. As a result, they exert little power on us, and mostly leave us to our own affairs."\n\nShe pauses briefly before continuing, "However, they are known to preemptively deal with any group who they think likely to unbalance the neighborhood, so all of the local groups, including us, are careful to keep their schemes below the Royal Circle's notice. The battle succubi, as they call themselves, are tolerated but not respected, and are generally considered lower-class succubi. Their rejection of what makes a succubus a succubus results in them functioning much like weaker [[battle demons]], unpredictable, but ultimately managable. None of the succubi circles are in open conflict with each other, but there have been a dozen succubi killed by [[battle demons]] in the last month, presumably all at the instruction of their succubi mates, so it seems that there are more subtle conflicts in progress, as is normal. The darkhounds have eaten a number of unmated succubi that were not in any circles, but have been kept away from connected succubi like us. Now then, what has been going on in the mortal world lately?"\n\nYou tell her about how your guild ran afoul of the inquisition and was attacked after discovering a way to turn humans into succubi, and also how most of the guild escaped, but is presumably in hiding. You carefully hide the fact that some of the guild members descended into hell. You also mention how the church is cracking down on smuggling of inquisition-grade holy water. Ithrenda thanks you for trading information with her. She then invites you to join the circle to share knowledge and protect each other. Realizing that hell is a dangerous place to be without friends, [[you gladly accept]].\n\n<<set $politics to true>>

The brothel manager gives you a look filled with both terror and awe when he sees you. "Relax, I'm not here to harm you or any of your employees. In fact, I am looking for employment", you tell him. He ends up hiring you on the condition that you stay in your room, and tells you that he will only send you customers that are ready for your skills, then leads you to your new room. He specifies that you are not to cause serious injury to any of your customers, and that you must stop whenever they tell you to, with a different signal being agreed upon if you gag them. Your room is relatively small with a well-used canopy bed. You also notice a variety of bondage equipment, including a gag, a blindfold, several lengths of rope, a leather whip, and a collar. Apparently you will be serving customers with more unique requirements, which makes sense after you think about it. After all, the customers that ask for a dominatrix are even less likely to talk about their sexual exploits than other customers. Then you notice a variety of drawings helpfully left on the bed, which show various ways to tie your customers. You study these carefully, knowing that you cannot afford to leave any of your customers dissatisfied. \n\nAs you work at the brothel, you start perfecting the various bindings demonstrated, figuring out just what tightness and positioning of the various knots leads to the greatest arousal without causing excessive discomfort, and then begin experimenting. You end up tying customers in a large variety of ways, from hogtying them to tying their limbs to the corners of the bed at various heights, sometimes facing the ceiling and sometimes facing the bed, to tying them vertically, stretched between two of the bed's posts. From there, for new customers you begin to lightly caress them and flirt. You wait for them to beg you to do more before eventually relenting and giving them what they paid for. For returning customers, you gag and blindfold them, leaving them entirely in your hands, and perform roughly the same amount of light caressing and flirting before escalating your attentions. \n\nAt the end of your sessions, your customers are often left quite weak, but you make sure they are always strong enough to leave under their own power. You also make sure to tell each of them that you must avoid telling anyone about what you are, lest they become unable to see you again. The manager informs you that you are doing a good job, and you notice that you are becoming quite popular, with increasingly rich customers hiring you. Most of your customers are male, but you do get the occassional female customer, and you end up managing to give those a particularly good time. \n\nHowever, one morning you wake up tied down to your bed with your own ropes, naked and gagged, with the rest of the prostitutes standing around you. Apparently they became jealous of all the attention you were getting, and are probably short on both work and pay due to your success. They proceed to whip you mercilessly, until your entire body is covered with a network of scars and you are barely strong enough to move. You carefully avoid healing your injuries until they are gone, no need to demonstrate how futile their whipping was. They tell you to leave the brothel without explanation before sunset, and never come back. They untie you, and return to their rooms. Once they are gone, you focus on how your body looked before they whipped you, and a few minutes later your body has completely recovered.\n\n[[Get your revenge]]\n\n[[Stay and pretend that nothing happened]]\n\n[[Leave]]

You awake to the sounds of someone repeatedly shouting, "The inquisitors are coming! The inquisitors are coming!" You throw on your robe and look out your window to see a line of a dozen inquisitors accompanied by four dozen paladins and a half-dozen priests, all wearing anti-magic amulets. They must be serious, anti-magic amulets are not cheap, and you've never seen so many paladins in one place. You attempt to form a portal to your hometown of Marlton, but something seems to be preventing your portal from forming. The priests must have used a dome of isolation to prevent you from escaping. You rush to the main hall, where you find the guildmaster, Archmage Throst, and three young-looking mages you don't remember. The guildmaster tells you that all of the other mages have escaped, but that you are all trapped. \n\nArchmage Throst replies, "Actually, I do know of one way to escape, but you're not going to like it. Domes of isolation cut the area inside from the rest of that world, but not from other worlds. So we can transform into succubi and go to hell, which is well beyond the reach of the church. Hell is of course not exactly a friendly place, but it seems like the best option under the circumstances. I will not force anyone to come with us, but anyone who remains as a human will be forced to face the inquisitors, and I pity anyone who falls into their hands." Throst proceeds to open a portal to hell, so that you can escape once you have been transformed into succubi. Well, at least you are quite fluent in demonic. \n\n[[Decide to take your chances as a human, and decline to be transformed or go through the portal|Decide to take your chances as a human]]\n\n[[Ask to be turned into a succubus]]\n\n[[Jump into the portal without being transformed]]

You make your fingernails long, sharp, and claw-like, emphasizing their ability to tear through flesh at the cost of elegance. You feel this decision will make other succubi will doubt your negotiation skills, and will leave any mortals you meet more cautious.\n\n<<set $fingernails to "downright claw-like, and custom-made for tearing through flesh">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

The next day you reconvene with your succubi circle, where you learn that the Black Circle destroyed the Ascendant Circle, losing most of its battle demons in the process, only to be in turn destroyed by an impromptu coalition of smaller succubi circles (presumably the same ones that promised your circle their support). "They forgot a very important lesson: people must be either respected, left alone or destroyed. To do otherwise leaves you surrounded by enemies. Forgetting this very valuable lesson made the downfall of the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle inevitable, I merely took advantage of the situation", Ithrenda tells the circle. The succubi nod, and then move on to further discussing the intricate details of the mortal language. Shortly into the discussion you see the archmage and the guildmaster standing nearby, and they signal for you to join them. You quickly excuse yourself from the discussion of your own language, and go over to [[join your fellow mages]].\n<<if $fingernails is "perfectly smooth and rather short">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 2>>\n<<else if $fingernails is "rather long and sharp, but still elegant">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<endif>>

You rush at the mage, but he manages to get out of the way of your wild swings long enough to shoot a barrage of sharpened ice daggers into your chest. You fall to your knees and desperately try to stop the bleeding. The mage chants another spell, and the last thing you see is a lightning bolt arcing from his hands straight towards you.

You step back in to finish him off, claws extending towards his unprotected neck, but while you are distracted with trying to kill him he stabs into both of your sides with his claws, before ripping them out, letting you collapse onto the ground. You quickly die of blood loss. Unbeknownst to you, your daring allowed your fellow battle succubi to defeat the remaining demon lords, earning them grudging respect from even the most elitist succubi circles.

You reply, "The battle succubi are currently the larger threat. They are more powerful at the moment than the our potential rival circles, at least as far as I can tell, and they are likely eager for recognition. They are also large enough that they could deal with, or maybe even benefit, from having heavy casualties, so if the leaders can convince their underlings that attacking us is a good idea, and they can win the resulting battle while staying towards the rear, they might benefit greatly. Furthermore, the battle succubi tend to be more reckless, perhaps even downright irrational, and might attack us even if it is not in their best interest to do so, whereas the succubi circles would be rather reluctant to attack us. Overall, they pose the much greater immediate threat." You can tell that not only is your daughter convinced by your argument, but that by hearing her explanation she has improved her ability to adjust for battle succubi in her plans, which will likely prove to be a vital skill. Shortly after that, [[you both lie on the smooth rock and go to sleep]].\n\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>>

About an hour later, you find the Ascendant Circle. They are a group of about twenty succubi who have let their looks become slightly more regal than most other succubi, and they currently seem to be discussing what other weak circles to blackmail into providing them information and battle demons. You go up to them, and tell them that the Black Circle is planning to attack them, but that they have a short window in which to launch a preemptive strike. One of the succubi, appearing to be the leader of the group, asks you why you are telling them this.\n\n[[Claim that you want to see the Black Circle destroyed]]\n\n[[Tell them that by informing them of this you will ensure that both circles are crippled]]\n\n[[Tell them that you wish to become allies]]\n\n<<set $CircleTransform2 to false>>

You decide to beg Archmage Throst to turn you back into a succubus and send you back to hell, or at least teach you how to do it yourself. At first, he refuses, but eventually he becomes annoyed enough at your pleading that he decides that making you literally go to hell sounds like a pretty good idea after all, and ends up turning you into a succubus and sending you back to hell. You were lucky enough to return to a spot near where you were summoned from, so you quickly manage relocate your circle, and [[reunite with them]].

You stab his arm with both of your hands, fingernails digging deeply into his wrist, and stopping his momentum completely. You quickly realize your mistake, however, as you are now facing completely away from his left arm, which slashes straight towards your neck before you can react. You feel a brief flare of pain in your neck, and then lose consiousness. You never wake up.

Over the next several weeks, you begin giving your daughter probability distribution calculations to perform before and after your circle's meetings, and compare her results with your own. Being able to perform such calculations is a vital skill for a succubus, and you want her to be quite skilled at it. You will occassionally ask her to explain her calculations, particularly when the results differ from your own, both to double check her reasoning and to see if you forgot to include something in your own calculations. When your results differ from those of your daughter, you find that about a fourth of the time it is because you forgot to take something into account, and about a third of the time your daughter forgot to account for something. The rest of the times generally came down to differing opinions on the probabilities of certain people taking certain actions in certain situations, which are usually just educated guesses on both of your parts. Overall, you are quite impressed by your daughter. \n\nOne morning your daughter asks you, "Mother, how much life force should I drain from a human that is not my master? Should I drain them dry, or should I leave them with a bit of energy left?" Draining humans dry would kill them, forcing your daughter to dispose of a fairly large number of dead bodies, and probably drawing a fair amount of unwanted attention. However, leaving them with some energy left would allow them to tell the inquisition about your daughter, if they wanted to and realized the source of their tiredness, as well as forcing your daughter to drain energy from a larger number of people. \n\n[[Tell her to drain people dry]]\n\n[[Tell her to leave her victims still able to function]]\n\n[[Tell her to take only a small amount of energy from each person]]

<<if $killMaster is true>>\n<<if $skill < 3>>Years pass, but your daughter does not reappear. Eventually, after one of your other fellow succubi returns from being summoned, you are informed that your daughter is dead. You live out the rest of your life relatively happily, sharing research and plotting the demise of the occassional enemy, but part of you will always miss your daughter. You blame both yourself and that demonologist for her untimely demise, yourself for failing to train her well enough for her to survive, and the demonologist for taking her from her home and plunging her into the dangers of the mortal world.\n<<else>>Years pass, but your daughter does not reappear. Eventually, after one of your other fellow succubi returns from being summoned, you are informed that your daughter freed herself from her master, and went on to become a prosperous merchant. She apparently now has not only great wealth, but also is known to have countless connections throughout multiple countries, and has enough guards for her various caravans and ships to form a small army. <<if $morality > 2>>You are also told that she has developed a reputation for honesty and fairness in all her dealings, never trying to trick people into paying more than her goods are actually worth, or trying to get them to sell them to her for less than their worth. Instead, she simply buys goods at a fair price at one location, and sells them at a location where the market price is much higher, earning herself a nice, honest profit.<<else>>You are also told that she has developed a reputation for being willing to sell almost any good or service for the right price, including many less than legal goods and services. In particular, she is rumored to contract out assassins, thieves, forgers, smugglers, spies, torturers, and even a couple [[nihilmancers]]. She is allowed to continue with this partially because people have not managed to prove that she has actually sold anything illegal, partially because people are afraid that they will disappear if they try to speak out against her, and partially because many people, both low and high, find themselves in desperate need of her special services.<<endif>> You live out the rest of your life relatively happily, sharing research and plotting the demise of the occassional enemy. A part of you will always miss your daughter, but another part of you is proud that she took the opportunity to succeed and enjoy greater prosperity and power than she could ever have achieved in hell.\n<<endif>>\n<<else if $skill < 2>>Years pass, but your daughter does not reappear. Eventually, after one of your other fellow succubi returns from being summoned, you are informed that your daughter is dead. You live out the rest of your life relatively happily, sharing research and plotting the demise of the occassional enemy, but part of you will always miss your daughter. You blame both yourself and that demonologist for her untimely demise, yourself for failing to train her well enough for her to survive, and the demonologist for taking her from her home and plunging her into the dangers of the mortal world.\n<<else>>A few days later, during one of your circle's meetings, your daughter reappears. You welcome her back home, and congratulate her on surviving her first summoning. Then Ithrenda asks her about her trip, at which point Imethra [[shares the story of her trip to the mortal world]]. \n<<endif>>

"Ah, so when you said cautious, you merely meant that you refrain from destroying groups that did not threaten you, and you believe in an aggressive form of caution, similar to that of the Royal Circle. Well, that sounds a bit too reckless for us, we are researchers, not assassins, and do not wish to get dragged into wars due to misguided preemptive strikes like your circle might cause. Your words send a comforting message, but hidden behind them I see hints of recklessness and ambition, which are to be feared in times like this. Perhaps in a more peaceful time we could have been allies, but not at the moment. For that reason, I must decline your offer", she replies. She is really overthinking your comment, but you sense that there is no way for you to convince her of that. You hope that you have better luck with the third circle. When you try to talk to the third circle, you are promptly rejected, apparently they heard what you said to the first two circles and did not like what they heard. You [[return to your circle in failure]].

"Well, I suppose as long as your circle isn't starting any wars, a group attacking you would be a general threat, and it is good to have allies at times like these. A defensive alliance will be acceptable, for now, and perhaps we can later discuss sharing research", the leader replies. You manage to convince the last circle to become a defensive ally of your circle as well, using similar arguments, and then [[return to report your success]].

"Well, good news: most of us are still alive, and we will have a breakfast worthy of the Royal Circle itself. Bad news: we lost six succubi, two of which were from our group, and a number of the rest of us were wounded, though our wounds should heal quickly enough. Bloody darkhounds...", the leader of your group summarizes, and the other battle succubi disperse, each taking the corpses of the darkhounds they slew. Once they are gone, the leader notices that your leg is not healing quickly, and realizes that she never taught you how to heal yourself. She instructs you to imagine your leg becoming as it once was. She tells you to will your muscles to repair themselves, and the skin to regrow over the wounds, until your leg as it was before the battle. A few minutes of careful concentration later, your leg is completely healed, with no evidence that it was ever wounded in the first place. "Other demons might be much more durable than us, and hit much harder, but only we can heal ourselves after being wounded", she tells you. After everyone has finished healing their wounds, [[you have a very nice breakfast indeed]].

Your opponent tries to deflect your right arm with her arm, but you nimbly move your arm down beneath it and cut her chest deeply with your sharpened fingernails before quickly backing away. It looks like those wounds will take a while to heal, but are not debilitating. Your opponent suddenly closes in and attacks you with a round kick using her right leg, aiming straight towards your left knee. \n\n[[Try to get out of the way]]\n\n[[Stab it with your fingernails]]\n\n[[Bend your knees deeply and try to grab her right leg]]

The guild of nihilmancers originally specialized in spells that removed items or people from existence. They quickly became greatly feared and hated, and soon ran afoul of the inquisition. Most of the guild was massacred by several dozen paladins wearing anti-magic amulets, but a dozen or so escaped and fled into hiding. These survivors were by far the least friendly of its members, and the destruction of their guild made many of them downright psycopathic. While most people forgot about the guild, you remember them largely for the fascination they later took in various types of curses. Some of their curses are masterpieces of cruelty, able to cause prolonged agony that even the inquisition cannot match (not for lack of trying, either). In short, they are a group of mages you really do not want to mess with.\n\n[[Return|Ask how the mage came to be cursed]]

Archmage Throst begins chanting at you, and you feel your body begin to change. You begin to grow breasts, your phallus begins to shrink rapidly, to be replaced by a vagina, your hair grows, and you find small horns slowly growing on your head. This transition, rather than feeling painful like you expected, strangely feels somehow natural, as if your body is turning into a succubus of its own accord rather than being made to do so. At first you are frightened by how suddenly your body is changing, but you find your terror fading. Not because you are any more comfortable about the transition, you realize, but rather because your mind is no longer allowing your emotions to be as potent as they were before. This worries you much more than the changes to your body, but you find a new part of your mind starting to analyze the changes rationally and quantitatively. \n\nAfter your transformation is complete, this section of your mind informs you that your capacity for emotions has been decreased by about 80%, that your conscience has been weakened by about 90%, that your mental calculation speed has increased by about 60%, that your ability to remember things clearly has been increased by about 235%, that you have lost the ability to use human magic, and that you can now slowly alter your body in minor ways without using magic. You are quite sad about the loss of your magic, but perhaps you'll discover a new form of magic later. Throst tells you that he decided to leave a bit of your human mind intact, so you would not lose who you were, but that he needed to sufficiently alter it so that you would be able to integrate into demonic society. That explains why you still have a conscience, albeit a greatly weakened one.\n\nYou begin to feel cold, since your new body is used to much warmer temperatures. Throst hands you an elegant black dress, telling you to change into it. Considering how desperate the situation is, you decide not to ask questions or ask for privacy, and prompty disrobe and change into the dress. Throst hands you a hand mirror which you use to look at yourself. You see that you have become a stunningly attractive succubus, with flawless pale skin, breasts that are just a bit larger than average, good-sized ivory horns, and long black hair that flows halfway down your back. The black dress fits you perfectly, and only augments your new beauty. You look around and see that all of the other mages besides Throst have also been transformed into succubi, just as elegant as yourself and all in similar black dresses. Throst begins turning himself into a succubus, and tells you to all go into the portal. You hear a loud noise from behind you, and you see the door to the hall fly off its hinges, quickly followed by the inquisition pouring into the hall. The look of shock and horror that appears on their faces when they see you is priceless, but you have no wish to stick around further. [[You leap into the portal]], quickly followed by the other mages.\n\n<<set $succubus to true>> <<set $hairColor to "black">> <<set $hairLength to "halfway down your back">> <<set $breastSize to "smaller than the average succubus', but larger than the average human's">> <<set $fingernails to "perfectly smooth and rather short">>

She replies, "Perhaps, but if they were gone, while we might grow more powerful, so would other groups. In the end, our relative power would only grow a bit, and in the end it is relative power that truly matters. Going against the Royal Circle just to potentially gain a tiny bit of added power does not seem worthwhile to me, so I must decline your offer."\n\nYou return to your circle and report your failure. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 27 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You then send them off to attack the Royal Circle. Two of them return, badly wounded, to report that the attack failed, due to a number a couple of timely alliances the Royal Circle managed to secure. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

You tell the rest of the mages about how you learned to fight with your fingernails, and how to hunt imps, which you inform the rest of the mages make for a decent food source. The guildmaster holds his head in his right hand, shaking it and sighing, before replying, "We spent years training your mind, and yet when times get tough you choose to become a warrior rather than a scholar." You grow indignant at this, but luckily your new mind does not allow itself to be controlled by emotions, and so you endure the guildmaster's scorn without comment. You learn that the guildmaster and archmage joined succubi circles, and have been busy trading information, though they decline to share the information they learned with you, which adds to your indignation. \n\nYou had thought you were going to be working together to survive, but it seems that the archmage and guildmaster have little interest in working with you. You are not sure whether this is their old elitism, or a newfound selfishness as a result of their transformation, but in either case you lose all interest in working with them. The other mages have apparently yet to find groups to help them, and are now quite hungry and sleepy. You doubt they will be of much help, seeing that they cannot seem to even help themselves, and are now in too bad of a mood to offer to help them. You walk away from the mages in disgust. You sense that now would as good a time as any to [[alter your body|transform yourself]]. Perhaps you could shorten your hair so it doesn't get in your way, or shrink your breasts to a more reasonable size. Otherwise, you could [[return to the battle succubi now]].\n\n<<set $BattleTransform2 to true>>

Ithrenda replies, "As you are aware, pacts with demonologists consist of a series of vows that the warlock makes you swear under a spell of binding. Any vows you make under such a spell are enforced by and paid for by the life force provided by the mage. One of the best way to manipulate the pact is to swear oaths that are close enough to what the demonologist requested that they will not think anything of the difference, but will allow you a bit more freedom. Each of these deviations must be carefully calculated, if you press your luck too far your demonologist will almost certainly insist on you reciting all future oaths word for word, and will keep a very close eye on you in future. One of my personal favorites is swearing to only harm my master if he ordered me to do so, rather than simply swearing never to harm my master. Most demonologists will think little of this, only for a few of them to order me to do something which will cause them great harm, leaving me with a greatly weakened master and plenty of delicious life force." \n\nIthrenda continues after a brief pause, "Similarly, swearing to protect your master unless they order you to do otherwise is a useful little trick, which almost all demonologists will accept. In addition to the obvious instance of your master ordering you specifically not to interfere in a fight, if they previously ordered you to go do something else, you can often choose not to save your master, and instead to continue doing whatever they previously ordered you to do. Overall, when manipulating your vows you want what you swear to seem more useful to the demonologist than what they told you to swear, while also making them less restrictive. And as always, remember that you are only held to the words of your vows, never their spirit."\n\nAfter another short pause, Ithrenda says, "If a demonologist becomes unable to supply any of the life force that is used to sustain the pact, you will be freed from all of your vows and the pact will be permanantly broken. Similarly, if they foolishly decide to try to maintain it with a smaller amount of life force than is required, you will be able to break your vows with sufficient force of will. If the mage proceeds to pour sufficient life force into the bond, though, your vows will become binding. Never suggest a demonologist put less of their life force into maintaining the pact, however, as it will make even rather reckless ones extremely suspicious. They must make such mistakes from honest stupidity, though you can sometimes pressure them into making such errors by taking some of their extra life force. Such life force theft must be done carefully, though, since it will make some demonologists quite nervous or angry." She [[then takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].\n\n<<set $pact to true>>

You decide to ignore your growing loneliness, and instead throw yourself into your research. After you are done translating all of the ancient scrolls you have been given, you begin to carefully study the succubus mind and the human mind, focusing on how a human mind might be improved. After a couple years of careful research, you believe you have discovered the optimal structure of a brain, which provides greater active computation power and memory storage than the human brain while still maintaining the same sense of morality. The strength of emotions after this change is greatly weakened, as much of the extra active computation and storage is created by replacing large portions of the brain associated with producing emotions with extensions of the cognitive part of the brain, much like the brain of a succubus. You then begin to assemble the spell required to alter a brain in this way, and finally cast it on yourself. You find your thoughts return to the clarity you had as a succubus, and your feelings fade into the background. You still have emotions, but you no longer feel the need to act on those emotions, and are able to proceed with a more rational series of actions. You present your research to the rest of the guild and manage to impress them with your findings to such a point that you are officially named an archmage. \n\nYou find yourself answering questions about your research for weeks after, and eventually decide to write a book about how to optimize the human brain. This book becomes immensely popular among mages, and hundreds of copies began flying off the printing presses, despite the inqusition's frequent attempts to suppress all copies of your book. This forced mages to choose between defying the church or leaving their brains more primitive than those who did, and many begin to choose wisdom over faith (though certainly still a minority). The church becomes desperate at this point, and starts burning anyone suspected of altering their brains at the stake, killing many innocent scholars, officers and nobles in addition to the occassional reader of your book. This in turn weakens the countries in which the church was the most powerful, and leaves them falling increasingly behind technologically, as well as increasingly short of mages. A couple decades later, these countries are crushed in a series of wars, with their enemies employing far superior tactics and much stronger magic. At this point, the church begins to fall out of favor with the people, who tire of the burnings, interrogations, and brutal supressions of knowledge. \n\nEventually, the church is forced to disband the inquisition, translate their holy texts into the common tongue, stop destroying printing presses, and allow anyone to buy high quality holy water. During all this time, you continued your research into how to improve humans in various ways, and discover ways to make them stronger, more durable, faster and more attractive, continuing to publish your research publicly and trying to ignore the hollowness you feel inside you. You also decide to publish an account of your visit to hell, which becomes a very popular book indeed, and is read by people from all walks of life, from mages to farmers. After your death, you become known as one of the greatest research mages of history, and your work is referenced for hundreds of years to come, with entire classes being taught on your works.

They carefully walk you through the various techniques. The techniques are somehow graceful, yet look extremely deadly. They involve a large variety of stabs and slashes with your fingernails including stopping your opponent's arm by stabbing them in the wrist with your fingernails, slitting their throat with a carefully-aimed slash, and sliding out of the way of your opponent's slash while delivering your own. You can see why they mentioned that you needed sharpened fingernails in order perform these techniques properly. The battle succubi tell you that they are about to go hunting, and ask if you would like to join. Figuring that this is one of the best ways to learn about acquiring food, you accept. They ask that you make your fingernails harder and sharper in the meantime, so you decide to [[alter your body|transform yourself]].\n\n<<set $FirstBattleTransform to true>>

The succubus replies, "It is a popular story, particularly among the 'battle succubi' and those of us who find them most inconvenient, but there are plenty of people like yourself who have never heard it. With that said, here is the story. There once was a succubus named Scythra. She was far from the fairest succubus, and never managed to quite get her appearance down. Instead of being seductive, she ended up appearing almost regal. But it went farther than that. She was full of pride to the point of arrogance. She was also extremely bad at lying. These combined to make it really hard for her to flatter mortals, while she couldn't hide her anger when someone insulted her. She was reckless, often getting into fights with her fingernails as opposed to her mind. One day, a battle demon wished to mate with her, but she did not think the demon worthy. So rather than encourage other battle demons to challenge that demon, as would be customary, she decided to demonstrate her own worth by fighting the demon herself. The battle demon tore at her with large, sharp claws, but she nimbly evaded the blows. Her own blows were much lighter, and had trouble getting through the battle demon's thick hide, but were hitting fairly reliably. Eventually, the battle demon keeled over from exhaustion and blood loss, allowing Scythra to tear out his heart. Everyone around stared at her in shock, as that was not something any succubi did back then."\n\nThe succubus pauses for breath before continuing, "One day she was summoned by a demonologist. The demonologist tried to form a pact with her, but instead she angrily tore his throat out, and left his dead body lying in the middle of the summoning circle. She proceeded to try to join the army. They did not realize that she was a demon, but were still reluctant to let a woman join. However, when they attempted to remove her from the recruitment building, she proceeded to slaughter all of the soldiers who dared touch her, at which point the army changed its mind. She fought long, hard and loyally for that army, ripping enemy soldiers apart with her claw-like fingernails, eventually becoming that nation's best and most famous warrior. However, this made others envious of her, and she didn't help things by being generally arrogant and impolite. Eventually, her army suddenly retreated without warning during a battle, leaving her surrounded by the enemy army. Despite her great skill, she was overwhelmed and slain."\n\n[[Return|Go talk to the disapproving succubi]]

You charge at the demon lords, performing a forward somersault to avoid the fireballs they promptly throw at you, before quickly springing back to your feet. <<if $hairLength is "halfway down your back">>That roll had the unfortenate side effect of leaving your long hair in front of your face, which leaves you temporarily blinded, allowing the demon lord in front of you to shatter your skull with a well-placed downward slash of his claws, killing you instantly.<<else>>You proceed to kick the demon lord in front of you in the back of his knee with your left leg, causing it to buckle and send him sprawling to the ground on top of your left leg. You wince in pain as his burning body rests on top of your leg, but manage to slide it out from under him and begin clawing at his neck, wincing as the flames lick eagerly at your hands. <<if $fingernails is "rather long and sharp, but still elegant">>Your fingernails do not seem to cause much damage, unfortenately. One of the other demon lords takes notice of you and swings at you with his claws. You avoid his attack by rolling to your left, but the demon lord that you knocked over grabs one of your legs out from under you, and pulls your body until your neck is in front of his mouth. All the while you feel his flames eating away at your flesh. You then feel a sharp pain in your neck before you lose consiousness. You never wake up.<<else>>Your fingernails dig deep into his neck, and you feel them tear through his skin with every stroke, accompanied by his screams. You are interrupted by the next demon lord to your right, who swings at you with his claws. You avoid his attack by rolling to the side, then get to your feet and begin backing away from the demon lords. The demon lord you were attacking does not get up, it seems your attack was sufficient. Your current opponent continues to advance towards you, abandoning his formation. You continue to lead him away from his comrades while you try to heal your burnt flesh and dodge the fireballs he throws at you. Soon, you and five of your comrades surround the demon lord while the rest of your fellow succubi attack his comrades. However, the demon lord begins to close in on you, [[forcing you to stand and fight]]. <<endif>>\n\n<<endif>>\n

Your opponent deflects your arm with their left arm, then slashes at it with her right arm before quickly getting away. Her claws cut deep into your lower arm, tearing most of the muscles there and leaving you in excruciating pain. Your opponenet then rushes to get on your right side, and starts a whirlwind of attacks. You struggle to block, but your right arm is not responding as quickly as you need it to. Soon she manages to cut you in countless places on your upper body with her claws, and you find yourself slowing down even further from your new injuries. She takes advantage of this to get inside your guard and rip your throat out. You fall to the ground, clutching your throat as you bleed out.

The guild of nihilmancers originally specialized in spells that removed items or people from existence. They quickly became greatly feared and hated, and soon ran afoul of the inquisition. Most of the guild was massacred by several dozen paladins wearing anti-magic amulets, but a dozen or so escaped and fled into hiding. These survivors were by far the least friendly of its members, and the destruction of their guild made many of them downright psycopathic. While most people forgot about the guild, you remember them largely for the fascination they later took in various types of curses. Some of their curses are masterpieces of cruelty, able to cause prolonged agony that even the inquisition cannot match (not for lack of trying, either). Employing them is quite a risky decision, as it would quickly put you at odds with the church if they were discovered, and they could easily decide to do horrible things to you if you did not treat them sufficiently nicely. However, they would also make extremely valuable allies, if you can keep them on your side.\n\n[[Return|anxiously wait for your daughter to return]]

You carefully sneak through several hallways, past several distracted mages, through a lecture hall and find yourself in a crowded street in the middle of a large city. Looking around, you quickly spot a large cathedral nearby. That is not good, you are going to need to get off the streets before the inquisition sees you. You spot a seedy looking tavern called "The Wicked Maiden", with a cheap painting on the sign depicting a scantily clad server in a vaguely seductive pose. You would certainly gain a lot of attention in there, but its clients are unlikely to be on good terms with the church, and you doubt that a member of the clergy would ever admit to frequenting such a tavern. However, as you have no money, you would have to beg for a room from one of the patrons. Alternatively, you notice a nearby brothel. If the brothel owner is shady enough to hire you, that could solve all of your problems rather neatly. However, hiring you would be a significant risk to them, so your employment is by no means certain, and it is also possible that your fellow prostitutes might become jealous. \n\n[[Enter the tavern]]\n\n[[Enter the brothel]]

You bend your knees deeply to lower your center of mass, causing her leg to hit your chest rather than your knees. You quickly grab onto her leg before she can withdraw it, stand up, and begin running backwards with it, forcing her to leap forwards with her other foot just to avoid falling over, and leaving her temporarily unable to respond. You take advantage of this opportunity to tear into her leg with your right hand, while keeping a vise grip on it with your left. For the next several seconds, you destroy her lower leg as best you can with your sharpened fingernails, leaving it a bloody mess. Then she manages to kick off of her left leg powerfully enough to send her crashing into you, sending you into a backwards somersault and forcing you to release her leg. As soon as her right leg touches the ground, however, it gives way, forcing her to stand solely on her left leg. She is now at a clear disadvantage, but is apparently not willing to stop the fight yet. You have to admire her determination, even if it doesn't seem to be in her best interest at the moment. It seems that you are going to have to make one last assault.\n\n[[Quickly circle her in an attempt to get behind her]]\n\n[[Charge at her aggressively, in an attempt to bowl her over]]\n\n[[Attempt to kick the leg out from under her]]\n\n[[Attempt to kick her in the chest]]

Your darkhound is delicious, tasting somewhat deer-like, but much better than any venison you have ever eaten. You only manage to eat about a fifth of it before you are quite full. After breakfast, your leader mentions that with only the five of you left, your group is getting perilously small. She continues, "We were already fairly small before we recruited you, which was part of why we were so glad to have you, but now many succubi circles could have their mates eliminate us if they so wished, without subjecting them to too much danger. Until we can get a few more members, we will need to tread carefully." You companions nod grimly. You mention that you might be able to get a couple trustworthy recruits (thinking of the starving and sleep-deprived mages), but that they will need feeding, sleep and training before they will be of much use. The other succubi discuss it for a bit, and come to the conclusion that you should go find these recruits, and they will see whether they can be trained to become battle succubi. With that, you [[go to find your fellow mages]].

She stares at you as if you just sprouted a second head. In fact, she would probably be less surprised about the second head, considering the natural shapeshifting abilities of succubi, even if growing a second head spontaneously would be quite impossible for even a pureblood succubus. The idea of someone doing something out of the goodness of their heart appears to be so foreign to her that her brain has trouble even grasping the concept. She waits several long moments, as if waiting for you to announce that you were just joking. Eventually, when you continue to remain silent, she replies in a stunned voice, "You can't be serious... You expect me to believe that you would help someone just because you felt like it, or because it is the right thing to do?" You go on to explain that even succubi like yourselves have emotions, and that if you grow powerful enough you can afford to indulge in these emotions. You also tell her that you like raising her and having her around. She appears to be pondering your words, and trying to wrap her head around the concept of helping someone simply because you feel like it. You sense that introducing this concept to her will make her a better person, for better or for worse. You can also tell that she isn't sure whether or not to believe you.\n\nWith her question answered, you join the nightly imp hunt, in which you manage to catch two imps and she catches a single imp. During dinner that night, she asks you to explain in which circumstances she should run away, and when she should instead stand and fight.\n\n[[Tell her to never run away]]\n\n[[Tell her to run away only if she is certain that she cannot win the fight]]\n\n[[Tell her to run away if and only if that results in a greater chance of long-term survival than staying and fighting]]\n\n\n<<set $morality to $morality + 1>>

You arrive in approximately the spot you were summoned from, allowing you to quickly relocate your <<if $battle is false>>circle, and [[return to them]].<<else>>fellew battle succubi and [[return to them|ReturnBattleSuccubi]].<<endif>>

You decide to ask them what happened to the other three mages accompanying you. "Oh, them... I haven't seen them lately, I think they got eaten by darkhounds", the guildmaster replies, seeming completely unconcerned about the loss of three of his fellow guild members. "No great loss, they were bad students anyways", the archmage replies, apparently sharing the guildmaster's lack of concern. They appear to have fully adapted to the succubi way of thinking, and you make a mental note not to expect any compassion from either of them in the future. You had hoped that at least some compassion had remained, but now that you think back you realize that neither of them had much empathy before their transformation, either. With that out of the way, you each [[share what you have learned since your last meeting]].\n<<if $breastSize is "large even for a succubus">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<else if $breastSize is "average-sized for a succubus">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 2>>\n<<else if $breastSize is "smaller than the average succubus', but larger than the average human's">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<else if $breastSize is "small even for a human">>\n<<set $attract to $attract - 1>>\n<<endif>>

Over the next few weeks, your newly grown hunting group learns to work together and begins to think of itself as a single group, rather than an alliance of smaller groups. These weeks pass relatively peacefully, with your days filled with hunting trips and training sessions. You begin to get used to your new routine, and start to think of this as your new home. \n\nOne day, as you are discussing various techniques for clawing throats out, you feel an invisible force grab you and pull you at incredible speed. The entire world around you vanishes instantly, replaced by a black, cold emptiness with entire worlds whizzing by in the distance. Drawing on your knowledge of planar theory, you know that you are rapidly being pulled through planes of existence, presumably towards the mortal world. After about a minute, you find yourself come to a stop in the middle of a summoning circle in what appears to be an underground supply room. You see a single mage before you in a brilliant red robe that you do not recognize. He is almost certainly not from your guild. Looking down you see that he forgot to add the runes of binding, so you can leave the circle freely, and can probably kill the mage before he realizes his mistake.\n\n[[Kill the mage|KillMage2]]\n\n[[Allow him to proceed to forming a pact with you]]\n\n<<if $hairColor is "black">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<endif>>\n<<set $battle to true>>

You tell your daughter, "Only lie to people outside our group. We rely on each other for our survival, and lying to each other would fatally weaken the mutual trust we need to all survive. While I have no particular attachment to some members of our group, lying to them would simply be too risky, as if the lie was discovered either you would be removed from the group or the group would start to unravel. In either case, it would simply not be worth the risk."\n\nYour daughter nods, and promises not to lie to other succubi in your group. You continue to train your daughter for another nine years or so, until she manages to defeat you regularly. With your daughter being around eighteen years old at this point, you tell her that you have little left to teach her, and pronounce her a fully independent adult. She thanks you for having raised you, and remains a part of your group. A few months later, you start to hear rumors that an alliance of succubi circles, led by a cunning succubus called Ithrenda, is planning to attack your group. Not wanting to start a costly and unnecessary war based on mere rumors, your group decides to wait and see what happens. A few days later, [[a group of a couple dozen battle demons attacks your group]].

You tell her, "When we defeat the Royal Circle, we and our allies will become the most powerful group in the neighborhood." She ponders your words, and then asks, "And what would stop others from simply overthrowing us, just like we overthrow the Royal Circle? Wouldn't we be setting a precident for our own destruction?"\n\n[["We would merely be showing that no one circle can stand up to an alliance such as ours"]]\n\n[["Our new position would allow us to find new allies, and together we would be more powerful than any force that could be assembled against us"]]\n\n[["The Royal Circle has stood strong for a very long time, surely any group able to defeat them would be equally feared and long-lasting"]]

<<if $loyalty < 2 and $morality < 3>>When the battle demons attack, your daughter promptly flees, leaving you and the rest of your group to face the battle demons without her. While you are rather angry at your daughter for abandoning you in your time of need, you currently have bigger things to worry about. You quickly rally the rest of your comrades, and lead them in splitting up the battle demons. Soon, each battle demon is surrounded by two succubi. After a fierce battle in which about half of your fellow succubi die, you manage to kill off all the battle demons. You later hunt down and exterminate all of the succubi circles which these battle demons came from, including several children. For her cowardice, the leader of your group announces that Imethra is no longer welcome among your group.\n\n<<if $skill < 2>>A few days later you stumble across the bones of your daughter, with the rest of her appearing to have been eaten by darkhounds. It seems that her cowardice, rather than saving her, led directly to her death. You live out the rest of your life hunting imps and training with your fellow succubi, but you will always sad that your daughter decided to abandon you, and miss the days when you would train her and she would pay attention to your every word. The rest of your life feels somewhat hollow. Although you are surrounded by people you can mostly trust and manage to keep yourself well fed, you feel that something is missing. In the end, you die during a darkhound attack, when one of the darkhounds leaps on you from behind and tears your throat out.\n<<else>>A few days later, you discover that your daughter joined a smaller group of battle succubi, who were happy to have someone as skilled as her. You occasionally talk to her, but you are never able to forgive her for leaving you and the rest of your group to die. You live out the rest of your life hunting imps and training with your fellow succubi, but you will always sad that your daughter decided to abandon you, and miss the days when you would train her and she would pay attention to your every word. The rest of your life feels somewhat hollow. Although you are surrounded by people you can mostly trust and manage to keep yourself well fed, you feel that something is missing. In the end, you die during a darkhound attack, when one of the darkhounds leaps on you from behind and tears your throat out.\n<<endif>>\n<<else>>When the battle demons attack, you and your daughter rally your fellow succubi and lead them in splitting up the battle demons. Soon, each battle demon is surrounded by two succubi. After a fierce battle in which about half of your fellow succubi die<<if $skill < 2>>, including your daughter<<endif>>, you manage to kill off all the battle demons. You later hunt down and exterminate all of the succubi circles which these battle demons came from, including several children. \n\n<<if $skill < 2>>You live out the rest of your life hunting imps and training with your fellow succubi, but you will always be sad that Imethra died in her first battle, and miss having her around. The rest of your life feels somewhat hollow. Although you are surrounded by people you can mostly trust and manage to keep yourself well fed, you feel that something is missing. In the end, you die during a darkhound attack, when one of the darkhounds leaps on you from behind and tears your throat out.\n<<else if $morality > 3>>Your daughter goes on to become an extremely honorable and successful warrior. She refuses to ever run away from a fight or tell a lie, and eventually people from all around the neighborhood come to trust her. Succubi begin to eagerly trade for any information she can give them, because they trust that her information will be accurate, whereas many other succubi would sell them lies. Her strict sense of honor spreads to other succubi in your group, and slowly your group of battle succubi begins to resemble an order of Arthurian knights more than a collection of demons. You live out the rest of your life quite happily, hunting imps, training with your fellow succubi, and watching as your daughter turns your neighborhood into a better place.\n<<else if $skill > 2>>Your daughter goes on to become the best warrior in your group, moving more quickly and gracefully than anyone who challenged her, as well as the best hunter. Succubi from all around the neighborhood flock to your group so that your daughter can teach them how to fight and hunt. Eventually, your daughter becomes the new leader of your group. You and your daughter live out the rest of your lives quite happily hunting imps and training with your fellow succubi.\n<<else>>Your daughter becomes a quite well-respected warrior in your group, but not quite the best. She does become the best hunter of the group, though, and several of your fellow battle succubi ask her how she hunts so well. Soon you see your daughter starting to train your fellow succubi on how to perfect their hunting techniques. You and your daughter live out the rest of your lives quite happily hunting imps and training with your fellow succubi.\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>

You explain that she is quite a bright girl, and in time you believe she could provide you quite valuable insights and help you negotiate the more delicate parts of local politics. You see understanding flood across her face. "I see. You have been surrounded by battle succubi, and thus had no one to turn to for help with political maneuvers. You are smart enough to notice that your group lacked the expertise to properly compete with the diplomacy of your potential rivals, and realised that this made you weak. Then you noticed an orphaned daughter of a normal succubus, and saw your opportunity to solve your problem, by adopting me. Very well, I shall endeavor to help you negotiate the volatile politics of the neighborhood. Thank you for informing me of this, otherwise I might not have been able to hold up my side, and ended up disappointing you." She seems somehow relieved by your explanation, and seems more devoted to you than ever. \n\nWith her question answered, you join the nightly imp hunt, in which you manage to catch two imps and she catches a single imp. During dinner that night, she asks you to explain in which circumstances she should run away, and when she should instead stand and fight.\n\n[[Tell her to never run away]]\n\n[[Tell her to run away only if she is certain that she cannot win the fight]]\n\n[[Tell her to run away if and only if that results in a greater chance of long-term survival than staying and fighting]]\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>

With that, the mage concludes the contract spell, and you feel your vows take hold, along with a trickle of the mage's life force entering you. That trickle will just barely enough to sustain you, and you realize you are only getting it because it is required in order to maintain and enforce your contract. With the formalities out of the way, [[your new master leads you out of the room]].

You tell them that the Black Circle has been interfering with your plans, and has been blackmailing some of your friends, so you want to ensure that the Black Circle is destroyed. \n\n"Well, that would make you want to make that statement whether or not it is true. That leads me to my next question, why should I believe you?", the leader replies.\n\n[["Don't take me at my word, send someone to see for themselves"]]\n\n[["Because we both know that when two powerful and ambitious groups sprout up at once, they will inevitably come into conflict"]]\n\n[["I give you my word"]]

Except for the battle succubi, it seems that most of the succubi in the circle were summoned at least once, with a couple of them being summoned twice and Ithrenda having been summoned three times. You have a feeling that Ithrenda must have gone to some considerable effort to recruit succubi that had been summoned by demonologists, since you are pretty sure that there are a lot more succubi than there are succubi summonings. The first succubus to tell her story was apparently summoned by a very lonely mage. She seduced this mage, and kept him alive and happy for a good week while she learned what little this mage knew about the details of summoning demons, before she informed the mage that if he did not return her home, he would die. He was already rather weak by this point, from the combined drain of maintaining their pact and from the sex they had been having nightly. If she had let the mage die, she would have been left in the mortal world, with no one the wiser, but she thought considering her ignorance of mortal politics and the increasing presence of the inquisition she would be better off returning to hell. As it was, she had to be careful in order to allow the mage to last as long as he did, so she could learn all she wished to know while still being able to return home. Several other succubi take this moment to note how hard it is to make a mortal last that long, with some of them having left theirs on the verge of death after a single night.\n\nThe second succubi to tell her story was supposedly summoned by a rather shady brothel owner. She ended up feasting on the life force of the customers and also managed to piece together a decent picture of local politics from them, while being careful to keep any damage to the customers subtle. This life force made her feel stronger and more energetic than she had ever felt before, or ever felt again. Most of the customers were apparently rather pleased with her service, but one day someone told the church that there was a literal demon working at the brothel during a confession, and the inquisition showed up that night, searching for her. She climbed out her window, carefully closing it after her while holding onto the side of the building, and hid on the roof until they went away. Afterwards, the brothel owner returned her to hell, having decided that keeping a succubus in the brothel was more trouble than it was worth. The rest of the stories are similar to these, with the succubus seducing those around them and learning what they could from their victims, before eventually being returned to hell by the person who summoned them. You are almost certain that most of them could have stayed in the mortal realm had they so wished, but that they each decided that they would be better off returning to hell instead. Some of them do seem to miss parts of the mortal world, though, and look back nostalgically at their time there. \n\nOver the next few weeks, you continue to share knowledge with each other, and the old circle members are becoming masters of human language and culture. Even some of the battle succubi are deciding to listen in, and are starting to become proficient in the human tongue. Two succubi circles begin to grow in power, and start trying to blackmail a few of the smaller circles, though they stay well clear of your circle. One of these circles calls itself the Black Circle, while the other calls itself the Ascendant Circle. Eventually, [[Ithrenda tells you that she has a plan take advantage of the situation]].\n\n<<set $allies to false>>

You fall over backwards, avoiding your opponent's slash. However, now the battle demon is on top of you, pinning you to the ground. You quickly realize that you have made a horrible mistake. The battle demon proceeds to rip your throat out with his claws.

Your hair slowly turns blood red.\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]\n\n<<set $hairColor to "blood red">>

You rush at the mage and slit his throat with a well-aimed slash of your right hand before he can react. He falls his knees, clutching his throat before falling to the ground, dead. Now you realize that you are a succubus in the mortal world with no master and no portal. You start to second-guess whether killing him was actually the best idea, but its too late to change that now. You are going to need to either find a way back to hell, or find a source of life force here, and you are not going to be able to disguise the fact that you are a succubus. You appear to be in the basement of a mage guild. You could try seducing one of the mages, who could help you out with either goal, but you are not exactly experienced in seducing people and most of them have probably seen more attractive succubi than you. You could also try kidnapping a mage, but you would have to be careful to pick a relatively weak mage. Alternatively, you could try to escape the guildhall and look for easier targets.\n\n[[Seduce a mage]]\n\n[[Kidnap a mage]]\n\n[[Escape the guildhall]]

You leap onto the right shoulder of a nearby succubus, and then push off to send you flying towards the demon lords. You end up flying just over the fireballs they fling at you and manage to fly into the middle of their circle. A few of them promptly turn to face you, and claw at you. You don't have enough room to get out the way, and so find yourself quickly shredded by their claws. Perhaps you did not think that one through thoroughly, or perhaps you were entirely too human and decided to sacrifice yourself to save your friends. Unbeknownst to you, your sacrifice allowed your fellow battle succubi to defeat the demon lords, earning them the grudging respect of all the demons in the neighborhood.

"Your word? Do you take me for some ignorant human who believes a fellow succubus just because they give their word? Since you refuse to give a proper explanation, I can only assume that you are lying, and want us to start a fight that would otherwise not occur. Chances are, you also have someone feeding the Black Circle similar lies. Inqwithine, go to the Black Circle and explain what has happened", the leader replies. A succubus, presumably named Inqwithine, runs off obediently. You see that you have no chance of convincing him now, and have a feeling that both circles are going to attack yours shortly, so rush back to [[report the bad news]].

"Out of curiousity, why were you plummeting towards the ground from several hundred feet in the air? Also, how did you end up with wyvern wings?", you ask the mage. The mage blushes slightly, and replies that she was part of a research group experimenting on attaching body parts taken from one animal onto humans, and they decided to attach wyvern wings to her. She explains was trying them out, but was still getting used to them when she lost her balance about a thousand feet off the ground and couldn't recover. She reluctantly admits that she would likely have been seriously injured if not for your timely aid. \n\n[[Ask to join her group|Ask about joining her research group]]\n\n[[Ask why you would take a body part from another animal, rather than growing it afresh]]\n\n[[Go back to translating scrolls]]

<<if $allies is false>>You start to make claims that your system of alliances is quite strong, and that you would cause considerable losses to them should they be foolish enough to attack you. However, they see through your bluffs, and one of them disdainfully replies, "If you were as strong as all that, you would not have needed to let battle succubi join your circle. You and I both know that that is a move of desperation and shame, not one of strength and confidence. No powerful circles would join you as allies after that, either, until you got rid of your battle succubi. While you would have one day become strong, if we decided to do nothing, you are currently quite weak, and certainly no match for us, even with Ithrenda's cunning." \n\n[[Report your failure to your circle|Warn your circle about your failure]]\n<<else>>You start to explain that your system of alliances is quite strong, and that you would be able to put up quite a fight should they be foolish enough to attack you. One of them replies, "If you are strong enough to challenge us, then why are you warning us of this, and trying to negotiate, rather than arranging for an attack? Surely, you would have a better shot at defeating us if we did not know you were coming, and trying to bluff against us is a move of pure desperation."\n\n[["We might not be able to defeat you, but we are strong enough to make you seriously regret attacking us"]]\n\n[["We would rather not take the kind of losses required to defeat you"]]\n<<endif>>

Your daughter thanks you for your explanation, and promises to work hard to be the best warrior she can, so that you can fight by your side when that time comes. She then asks about what type of danger you are expecting. You explain that your group has overthrown the old order by defeating the most powerful succubi circle, and that many of the other circles would like the old order to return. Thus, one of the most likely threats is an alliance of succubi circles working together to destroy your group, and force battle succubi to be darkhound fodder once more, rather than continuing to accept you as their equals. She nods at this and tells you that your fears make sense, but assures you that together you can stand against any such alliance. You know this to be just a proud boast, rather than a careful calculation, but it comforts you nonetheless. \n\nWith her question answered, you join the nightly imp hunt, in which you manage to catch two imps and she catches a single imp. During dinner that night, she asks you to explain in which circumstances she should run away, and when she should instead stand and fight.\n\n[[Tell her to never run away]]\n\n[[Tell her to run away only if she is certain that she cannot win the fight]]\n\n[[Tell her to run away if and only if that results in a greater chance of long-term survival than staying and fighting]]\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>

You find yourself explaining concepts like honor, morality, and guilt, all of which your fellow succubi find quite confusing. "So, you're saying that poisoning your rival is considered dishonorable, but waging war against them and slaughtering hundreds or thousands of people just in order to remove your rival is considered honorable? But yet murdering innocent people is considered dishonorable?", one of the succubi asks. You have to explain how humans consider certain ways of killing people to be acceptable in certain situations, while certain ways of killing are considered dishonorable, and there are some situations where it is almost always considered dishonorable to kill someone. The succubi come to the conclusion that this is a curious human weakness to be further examined, so they can fully exploit it in the future. You quickly find yourself explaining various codes of honor, especially the code of chivalry, which they find particularly fascinating.\n\nThe next few days pass quite uneventfully for your circle. It seems that if the Jagged Circle had any allies, those allies thought better of attacking you, after seeing how quickly you destroyed the Jagged Circle. You hear that one of the other more reckless circles was destroyed in a similar situation, after which point the other succubi circles became decidedly more cautious. "It seems that the massacre of two of the more powerful succubi circles has rather forcefully reminded everyone of the follies of starting succubi wars, especially without proper preparation. This should create a period of relative peace for a couple months, maybe even a couple years if we are lucky, before another few succubi circles recklessly try to gain power through force again", Ithrenda tells you and her daughters during dinner one evening (or what you assumed was evening, you still can't quite tell for sure). You continue to teach the succubi of the intricate nuances of the human language, and in turn [[they tell you of times when they were summoned by demonologists]].

The next day, you start translating scrolls again, after a quick breakfast. You are not particularly fond of translating the scrolls, but they provide valuable knowledge that would otherwise be lost, and by providing such knowledge you will increase your reputation in the guild, which will increase your chances of being invited to join more interesting research groups. The current scroll appears to describe how to use Tarot cards to tell the future. When you are finished translating it, you decide to test out the method, and create a Tarot deck, enchant each card as the scroll indicates, and chant the fortune telling spell. The fool, the magician, the devil, and the chariot fly out of the deck to land on the right side of your desk in a pile, while the hierophant, judgement and death fly out of the desk to land on the left side of your desk in a similar pile. You are not quite sure what to make of the cards to your right, but you have a bad feeling that the cards to your left mean that the church is soon going to tire of your guild. \n\nYour thoughts are interrupted by the sound of distant screaming from outside your window. You look out your window to see a mage with wyvern wings tumbling uncontrollably towards the ground from several hundred feet above you. You mutter a spell of levitation, stopping her fall just outside your window. You don't remember any of the mages having wyvern wings, and you feel like that is something you would remember. She thanks you for stopping her fall.\n\n[[Talk to the mage]]\n\n[[Go back to translating scrolls]]

"I am going to release you, and then you are not going to try to run away, or cry out for help, or banish me, or injure me, or anything similarly unfortenate. Instead, you and I are going to remove our clothes, and we are going to have a good time together. If you attempt to call for help, or incinerate me, or anything of the sort, I will tear your privates out and thrust them down your throat until you choke to death on them. Do you understand?", you growl at the mage. The mage nods vigorously, looking terrified. About an hour later, the mage collapses from exhaustion, smiling contentedly. You feel more full of energy than you have ever felt, due to life force you stole from the mage. Well, after that nice meal, it seems like it is time to [[get out of there|Escape the guildhall]]

You leap off of the shoulder of one of your fellow succubi, sending you hurtling straight towards the demon lord's head. However, the demon lord steps aside, causing you to hit the ground hard and fall forward, before leaping on top of you and stabbing you through the back with his claws, one of which goes straight through your heart, killing you instantly.

She replies, "Which would foster a new surge in alliances, and soon we would be surrounded by mazes of rival networks of circles, until all too soon we would fall from power. No, while the thought of that kind of power is appealing, I don't think we could hold onto it, and such temporary power is a worthless trap. As such, we must decline your offer."\n\nYou return to your circle and report your failure. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 27 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You then send them off to attack the Royal Circle. Two of them return, badly wounded, to report that the attack failed, due to a number a couple of timely alliances the Royal Circle managed to secure. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

You roll under his next set of fireballs, and quickly spring back to your feet just barely in front of him. You quickly reach up and plunge your claw-like fingernails into the top of his privates and start pulling down. He screams in agony as his phallus comes free of his body, and quickly step back as he collapses to his knees, bleeding profusely from his groin. You can tell that the injury you inflicted will be enough to cause him to bleed out eventually, but you are unsure how much damage he could do in the meantime, and you will be unable to help deal with the remaining demon lords while waiting for him to die of blood loss. On the other hand, you are much safer from him out of his striking range, whereas you would have to put yourself in grave danger to finish him off.\n\n[[Wait for him to die of blood loss]]\n\n[[Finish him off]]

You tell your daughter, "Drain your victims dry, you do not want to leave them alive to tell anyone that you are a succubus, nor do you want to have to drain from more people than you have to. Make sure to dispose of the bodies discretely and thoroughly afterwards." Your daughter nods, and agrees to drain all of the life force her victims.\n\nThe next several years pass fairly uneventfully, with all of the major groups trying to make alliances, but none becoming powerful enough to risk attacking one of the other groups. You continue to give your daughter large amounts of practice calculating a large variety of probabilities, and she becomes increasingly good at these calculations. You also carefully train her in how to write, read, and speak the mortal tongue, and she picks it up surprisingly quickly, eventually becoming able to speak it just as fluently as if it was her native tongue. \n\nA little while after your daughter turned nineteen, your daughter suddenly gasps and then vanishes into thin air during one of your meetings. Presumably, she was summoned by a demonologist, but you find yourself wondering where on the mortal world she is, who summoned her, and when and if you are ever going to see her again. With these questions buzzing through your head, you find it hard to concentrate on the topic being discussed during the meeting, which in this case is human sports. Your fellow succubi seem to be particularly interested in trying to figure out the exact rules and culture around playing cricket. It seems that you have little choice but to [[anxiously wait for your daughter to return]].

"They usually do so, unless they are otherwise destroyed, but I am unsure whether that is inevitable or merely carefully arranged. I see no reason why we cannot become allies, hell is large enough for the both of us, and we will need each others' help to deal with the Royal Circle, if and when we become powerful enough to need to do so", the leader replies. He then sends a succubus to go talk to the Black Circle to tell them that he has no wish to fight them, and wants to become close allies instead. You know that this will cause Ithrenda's plan to unravel, and suspect that both the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle will attack your circle for trying to set them against each other. You rush back to [[report the bad news]].

"You should try to keep your master alive. While the amount of freedom you would gain with his death is tempting, without a master you will find yourself alone and trapped in a hostile world, dominated by a church who spends a good deal of their time figuring out new ways to condemn us. As you can imagine, this is not exactly a safe situation, and I don't think anything is worth that kind of risk. Instead, you should try to ensure you have a safe and peaceful trip to the mortal world, and then return here to share the information you have found while you were there", you tell your daughter. \n\nShe nods, and tells you that she will try to protect her master, if and when she is summoned. With that, [[you and your daughter go to your circle's meeting]].\n\n<<set $protectMaster to true>>

The random book you chose ends up discussing the magical properties of various materials. Some of these you knew of, such as the high magical capacity of gems in general, and rubies in particular, but some surprise you, such as the high magical capacity of forest moss, or how common coal can barely hold any magic at all. The book goes on to discuss various theories regarding why certain materials have the magical properties that they do, but none of them seem particularly inclusive or convincing. Eventually, your master wakes up, and sees you reading the book with interest and remarks with surprise, "A succubus scholar? Well I never...". \n\nYou smile and reply, "It took us a while to decipher your written language, as it is so different from our own, but many of us are much more scholarly than you think." He seems taken aback by this, and eventually says, "Well, I should really be getting you back to where you belong, before someone realizes that I stopped supplying enough energy to maintain the pact. Thank you for not eating me or something while I was sleeping by the way." He then [[banishes you back to hell|he banishes you back to hell]].

The succubi circle seems quite relieved to hear of your success. You sense that your mission was more important than you thought. As a reward for completing your mission, they offer to share more of their information with you.\n\n<<if $politics is false>>\n[[Ask about local politics]]\n<<endif>><<if $pact is false>>\n[[Ask about manipulating a pact with a demonologist]]\n<<endif>><<if $diet is false>>\n[[Ask about what imps eat]]\n<<endif>><<if $PortalSpell is false>>\n[[Ask about creating portals to the mortal world]]\n<<endif>>

Your daughter nods at you, and she calmly and confidently advances towards the succubus that insulted her, and soon the battle starts. Imethra is faster and more graceful than her opponent, but does not appear to be as strong or resilient. In the first minute, Imethra lands quite a few hits on her opponent, but none particularly severe, and her opponent manages to slash Imethra viciously across her chest. <<if $skill > 0>>Your daughter takes a few steps back while she recovers, and then executes a fluid series of feints and attacks, which her opponent struggles to defend against. Eventually Imethra manages to stab her right hand claws into her opponent's soft neck, and rips downward. Imethra's opponent collapses to the ground, clutching her neck. You congratulate your daughter on her victory. You tell Imethra's opponent to leave before you tire of her presence, and to never insult your daughter again. She nods and runs off, still clutching her neck. With that, [[your daughter has dealt with the insults|you have dealt with the insults]].<<set $skill to $skill + 1>><<else>>Eventually Imethra's opponent manages another couple hits to her chest, at which point Imethra collapses to her knees and is forced to concede the match. She proceeds to insult your daughter further and then walk off confidently. Your daughter is badly shaken from her defeat, but manages to heal her injuries relatively quickly. You can tell that you will now need to rebuild your daughter's confidence, in addition to training her to be a better warrior. Sadly, you have [[failed to deal with the insults|you have dealt with the insults]], as well as damaging your daughter's reputation.\n<<endif>>

Ithrenda replies, "You must be from a different neighborhood, to be trading for information about our politics. In any case, the local demon lords are currently Gridregeth, Gartugrath, Gugreden, Gegreth, Giogreng, and Kridrefarl, all of whom are mated to the six succubi from the Royal Circle, as they call themselves. That is the most powerful of the succubi circles, and it only admits those who have mated to demon lords. We are lucky to be one of the few neighborhoods of hell to have so few demon lords, they are a pain to work around as I am sure you are familiar with. The Royal Circle and their mates are the only upper-class demons in the area, and must be given due deference, but they realize that if they pose too large of a burden on the populace they could and would be destroyed. As a result, they exert little power on us, and mostly leave us to our own affairs. However, they are known to preemptively deal with any group who they think likely to unbalance the neighborhood, so all of the local groups, including us, are careful to keep their schemes below the Royal Circle's notice."\n\nIthrenda pauses briefly before continuing, "The battle succubi, as they call themselves, are tolerated but not respected, and are generally considered lower-class succubi. Their rejection of what makes a succubus a succubus results in them functioning much like weaker battle demons, unpredictable, but ultimately managable. None of the succubi circles are in open conflict with each other, but there have been a several dozen succubi killed by battle demons in the last month, presumably all at the instruction of their succubi mates, and some of the succubi circles are getting uncomfortably violent and ambitious, hence the need for those alliances you arranged." Ithrenda [[then takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].\n\n<<set $politics to true>>

You step to the side, avoiding the strike, and you both turn to face each other again. <<if $hairLength is "halfway down your back">>In your haste to turn to face your opponent so quickly, you ended up accidently sending your long hair flying over your shoulder, and it is now covering your face, blocking your view. While you quickly step back and brush the hair aside, that momentary distraction was enough for your opponent to both get on your left side and close the distance. You desperately try to defend yourself, but she is both in control of the situation and also clearly much more experienced at fighting. Soon she manages to cut you in countless places on your upper body with her claws, and you find yourself slowing down from your injuries. She takes advantage of this to get inside your guard and rip your throat out. You fall to the ground, clutching your throat as you bleed out.<<else>> You find yourselves in the same situation as before, and [[start to circle each again|begin the duel]].<<endif>>

Ithrenda replies, "We are actually one of the few succubi circles working on that problem, and have developed a spell that can transport things to the mortal world. The spell has been only recently developed, and has limited accuracy. You must picture a place in your mind to send the item to, and it will arrive in the vacinity of that location. So far we have been limited to sending rather small and light items, and they have been found to be fairly badly damaged. We will need to fix these problems and increase the efficiency of the spell before we can send demons to the mortal world. Still, it is a promising start, and can be useful in its own right. We can use this spell to send messages to the world above, though we cannot receive a reply, so it is mostly useful for putting foolish ideas in the heads of reckless mages. We have also created a spell to hold a mortal portal open, while you remain close to it, and traded the knowledge to a few of the more reckless succubi circles. It was a nice way to get knowledge and clear out some of our less predictable rivals. All of those succubi got themselves slaughtered in the mortal world, along with their mates, or so I have heard." She then proceeds to teach you how to perform both spells, and [[then takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].\n\n<<set $PortalSpell to true>>

"You are desperate enough to give us some of your knowledge for such an alliance? You really must be worried about your defense. As much as we might like gaining knowledge, we have learned not to trust knowledge that comes from outside our circle, and we are also reluctant to work with clearly desperate circles such as your own, so we must decline your offer. Your circle should consider joining us, we'd protect you and pool our knowledge together", the leader replies. When you try to talk to the third circle, you are promptly rejected, apparently they heard what you said to the first two circles and did not like what they heard. You [[return to your circle in failure]].

<<if $SoS is true>>"Wait, you're Arxium? Why didn't you say anything? Wait here, I'll fetch the other mages at once", he says, and returns with a dozen other mages, all in sapphire blue robes. The mages lay you on the ground and begin to chant. You feel your emotions rapidly becoming stronger, and your brain becoming more clouded. You begin to feel sorry for the three mages that you, the archmage and the guildmaster just abandoned, rather than trying to help them find homes in hell, and angry at the inquisition for forcing you all into that situation, as well as grateful to Ithrenda for helping you, even if it was for her own selfish reasons. You realize that you are going to miss the clarity of thought you had while you were a succubus. You feel your breasts begin to shrink and your phallus begin to grow back. As you look at yourself, you notice that your hair shortening and your skin is becoming less pale. A few minutes later, you find yourself back in your old body, and one of the mages hands you a freshly folded set of sapphire blue robes. You feel your connection to magic restored as well. You thank them for saving you, and [[return to being a mage]].\n<<else>>He mentions that that is quite an odd name for a succubus, and asks why your mother gave you that name, at which point you reveal that you were born as a human male. Pretty soon you find yourself having to explain your whole life story to him, and he begins to stare at you in amazement. After he recovers, he tells you that while it was quite interesting to talk to you, he thinks that you will be unsuited for the purpose he summoned you for, and [[banishes you back to hell|he banishes you back to hell]].\n<<endif>>

You figure you will compromise, leaving your breasts a bit smaller than most succubi, to insure that they are not too awkward, but larger than those of the average human so that mortals still find you quite attractive. \n\n<<set $breastSize to "smaller than the average succubus', but larger than the average human's">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

[[Look at self]]

She smiles happily, and promises that she will make you proud of her. When you ask her what her name is, she tells you that she is called Imethra. You lead her back to your circle, and announce that you have decided to adopt her. They congratulate you, and Ithrenda tells you to feel free to talk to her if you ever need advice. After the meeting concludes for the day, you lead your daughter to your patch of ground, and are greeted by your mate, who provides a large darkhound steak to both of you. When you are done eating, Imethra asks you about how best to deceive mortals.\n\n[[Tell her that it is best to play to their hopes or fears]]\n\n[[Tell her that half-truths work best, and that outright lies are to be avoided]]\n\n[[Tell her to try to avoid deceiving mortals when possible]]\n\n<<set $skill to 0>>\n<<set $loyalty to 0>>\n<<set $morality to 0>>

What color do you wish to change your hair to? You see that your fellow succubi have chosen a variety of hair colors, but black is the most common.\n\n[[Black]]\n\n[[White]]\n\n[[Gold]]\n\n[[Red]]\n\n[[Blue]]\n\n[[Brown]]

"Very well, you have proven your worth. We shall join your group, and together we should be able to withstand almost anything", she tells you. The other succubi in the group stare at you in awe, indicating that she really was quite the warrior. You lead them back to your circle triumphantly, and announce to your leader that the Red Claws will now be joining you. She informs you that while you were doing that, the rest of the group managed to recruit another two groups of battle succubi. You now have about forty battle succubi in your group, which your leader informs you should be enough to be able to defeat most of the succubi circles, and certainly enough to fight off darkhounds. Your leader then announces that you will split up while hunting, but will all sleep and train together, for maximum safety. She also suggests that while you are still getting used to working with each other, at least one member of her old group should be with each of the hunting parties, to better understand how the new members hunt and to share hunting techniques with each other. During that night's hunt, [[you find yourself with a group of succubi you do not recognize]].\n\n<<if $fingernails is "rather long and sharp, but still elegant">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<endif>>

"You promise? Do you think that I am some petty mortal to believe you just because you make a promise? I am considered one of the more honest succubi, and I have still told thousands of lies, not to mention half-truths and the like. No, the only way to ensure that an agreement would be productive is for it to be in the best interests of both sides to act in such a way. As it is, you have managed to insult me, and also demonstrate your incompetence, and I do not work with people who insult me or people who are clearly incompetent", the leader replies. Apparently promises are a good way to insult succubi, and you make a note to yourself not to use them in the future. You hope you have better luck with the [[second succubi circle]].

"I can certainly respect a cautious group, though it does leave me with a question. How do I know that you will be willing to risk coming to our aid if we are attacked?", she replies. \n\n[["We understand that the risks of losing our allies are greater than the risks involved in helping them"|NeedAlly2]]\n\n[["Any group willing to attack you is clearly a danger to us both, and such threats must be eliminated"|EliminateThreat2]]\n\n[["We would never break our word"|Word2]]

You tell your daughter, "You must never run away from a fight, and should always stand your ground. You will never know what you can accomplish until you have tried, and running away is often quite perilous. Not only could your enemies catch up to you and kill you, but even if you escape them you will have left your allies behind, and find yourself alone among a hostile neighborhood, doomed to either be hunted down or be eaten by darkhounds. No, whenever you get in a fight, you must fight with all of your heart and mind until either you are victorious or you are dead. If you fight like this, you may win a fight against the odds simply by intimidating your opponents into running away, for they will expect you to run away when things start going badly, and you will be a great warrior." \n\n<<if $morality > 1 and $loyalty > 0>>She thinks on your words and finally replies, "Very well, I shall stand my ground in any fight, hold out with all of my abilities, and never give up, no matter what the odds." It seems that she will become a quite fierce warrior indeed, as well as an unusually honorable one, being willing to stand and fight for what she believes in even if it means her death. [[You and your daughter finish eating your imps in silence, and then go to sleep]].\n\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>> \n<<set $morality to $morality + 1>>\n<<else>>She angrily replies, "You are advising me to stand and fight even if I know that will get me killed? Clearly that piece of advice is not meant for my benefit. While I knew you were raising me for your own ends, I never thought that you would stoop to giving me such advice to try to get me to sacrifice myself to save everyone else. I don't think I can trust you anymore" It seems that your daughter now deeply dislikes and distrusts you, and probably feels quite betrayed. Her newfound disdain and distrust for you, combined with her lack of any friends and the amorality of your fellow succubi, is unlikely to help her become a good person. [[You and your daughter finish eating your imps in silence, and then go to sleep]].\n\n<<set $loyalty to -1>>\n<<set $morality to -1>>\n<<endif>>

For an attack on the Royal Circle itself, you will need to recruit some of the most reckless and ambitious of the remaining circles, as any cautious circle would refuse to have anything to do with such a dangerous undertaking, but will also need to be relatively powerful in order to be able to provide significant help. Unfortenately, this is exactly the type of circle that the Royal Circle carefully disposes of, one way or another. Still, your fellow succubi know of a few somewhat powerful and ambitious circles that have avoided their purges, by never being significant or troublesome enough for them to take notice. Your circle decides to send one succubi to each of these circles, sending you to [[talk to the largest and most ambitious of these circles]].

You make your fingernails long and sharp, while keeping them elegant. You figure this will be a good compromise, allowing you to use them to a fair degree in a fight, while still looking good and preventing mortals from becoming too nervous around you. \n\n<<set $fingernails to "rather long and sharp, but still elegant">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

She disdainfully replies, "So, you wanted us to help you against the Royal Circle, but declined to inform us of the timeline for our help being needed. In fact, you actively tried to deceive us into thinking that you were in no hurry. You must think before you manipulate, otherwise you may end up with unintended results. In any case, the combination of incompetence and deceit you have displayed leaves us unwilling to aid you in your struggle." Well now you have embarrassed yourself AND failed to recruit a valuable ally. This is definitely not one of your better days.\n\nYou return to your circle and report your failure. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 27 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You then send them off to attack the Royal Circle. Two of them return, badly wounded, to report that the attack failed, due to a number a couple of timely alliances the Royal Circle managed to secure. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

The next couple months pass relatively peacefully, but are quite tense, as all of the groups in the neighborhood try to build up their strength and eye all of the of the other groups nervously. Eventually, Ithrenda sends your daughter to go convince the battle succubi to attack the largest of the rival alliances of succubi circles. Ithrenda explains that even battle succubi would likely recognize and distrust both you and her, after how you dealt with the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. \n\n<<if $skill < 3>>Your daughter never returns from her task. A few days later, you find her shredded remains, with networks of claw marks covering her entire body. Apparently, the battle succubi realized that your daughter was trying to trick them into marching into their own destruction. However, they must also have realized that they could not afford to attack you, and so stopped at killing your daughter, rather than going on to destroy your circle. Eventually, all groups accept the new status quo of none of them being able to attack any of the other groups, and each decide to allow the others to continue to exist. You live out the rest of your life relatively happily, sharing research and plotting the demise of the occassional enemy, but part of you grieves for your daughter.\n<<else if $loyalty < 2 && $morality < 3>>However, the battle succubi instead attack your circle, and you are soon forced to run from about forty battle succubi as you desperately gather your allies. In the end, your alliance's battle demons manage to defeat the battle succubi, but about two thirds of the battle demons die in the fighting. Your circle suspects that your daughter betrayed you, and intentionally convinced the battle succubi to attack you, presumably to help out one of your rivals. Your daughter does not return, and you suspect that either she is dead or your circle is right and she betrayed you. A few days later, you are attacked by a group of about twenty battle demons, and are hunted down and killed.\n<<else>>Your daughter succeeds beautifully, and the battle succubi promptly attack the specified alliance of succubi circles. All but about eight battle succubi die in the resulting conflict, along with that entire alliance. Your circle then leaves the darkhounds to take care of the rest of that group of battle succubi, which they eventually do. With that, the tension fades away, and the other alliances recognize your alliance as the strongest group in the neighborhood. Your daughter goes on to become just as good at plotting and manipulating as Ithrenda. <<if $morality > 2>>However, unlike Ithrenda or most succubi, almost every sentence Imethra says after that point is completely true, both in meaning and application. Instead of lies or half-truths, she manipulates her fellow succubi by giving them biased sets of perfectly accurate information, leaving out vital details that would probably change their decision. <<endif>>A few years later, she ends up mating with a demon lord who moves into the neighborhood, and moving out onto her own patch private of rock. After Ithrenda's death, she becomes the new leader of your circle. You and your daughter live our the rest of your lives quite happily, sharing research and plotting the demise of the occassional enemy.\n<<endif>>

The next few days pass quite uneventfully for your circle. It seems that if the Jagged Circle had any allies, those allies thought better of attacking you and your allies, after seeing how quickly you destroyed the Jagged Circle. You hear that one of the other more reckless circles was destroyed in a similar situation, after which point the other succubi circles became decidedly more cautious. "It seems that the massacre of two of the more powerful succubi circles has rather forcefully reminded everyone of the follies of starting succubi wars, especially without proper preparation. This should create a period of relative peace for a couple months, maybe even a couple years if we are lucky, before another few succubi circles recklessly try to gain power through force again", Ithrenda tells you and her daughters during dinner one evening (or what you assumed was evening, you still can't quite tell for sure). \n\nYou continue to teach the succubi of the intricate nuances of the human language, spending much of your time explaining concepts like honor, morality, and guilt, all of which your fellow succubi find quite confusing. "So, you're saying that poisoning your rival is considered dishonorable, but waging war against them and slaughtering hundreds or thousands of people just in order to remove your rival is considered honorable? But yet murdering innocent people is considered dishonorable?", one of the succubi asks. You have to explain how humans consider certain ways of killing people to be acceptable in certain situations, while certain ways of killing are considered dishonorable, and there are some situations where it is almost always considered dishonorable to kill someone. The succubi come to the conclusion that this is a curious human weakness to be further examined, so they can fully exploit it in the future. You quickly find yourself explaining various codes of honor, especially the code of chivalry, which they find particularly fascinating. In turn, they tell you of their previous summonings, and evaluate the successfulness of their various approaches to manipulating mortals, as well as [[telling you many secrets they discovered while in the mortal world]].

How large should your breasts be? You feel more comfortable with smaller breasts, considering that you used to not have them at all, but you have also heard several people back in the mortal world talking about wanting women with large breasts. \n\n[[Smaller than average even for a human]]\n\n[[Average for a human]]\n\n[[Larger than average for a human, but smaller than those of most succubi]]\n\n[[Average for a succubus]]\n\n[[Large even for a succubus]]

You tell your daughter, "Sometime in the future, local politics will become quite complicated again, and navigating them will require complex calculations on the probability distributions of various decisions and resulting outcomes. The other members of the circle will likely be working on their own calculations, so will be busy to help, and I also wish to avoid displaying my foolishness to them if I make a mistake in my calculations. As such, I will be relying on you to double check my work, and make sure that my predictions about those around us will act are logical and likely to be accurate." \n\nYour daughter replies, "Thank you for your explanation, mother, it now makes much more sense. I shall help you check your calculations, and will work hard to ensure that I am as well prepared for that as I can be." She seems relieved by your explanation and more devoted to you than ever. After that, [[you soon both lie down on the smooth rock and fall asleep]].\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>

The next few weeks pass rather normally, with training during the day and hunting and feasting at night. Your daughter continues to improve her skills rapidly, and her attacks begin to look more graceful than your own (though admittedly your attacks are not particularly graceful for a succubus), but she still lacks the power, reflexes and instinct that she will need to develop to be a truly great warrior. With that in mind, you switch her training regimen to a more sparring-intensive schedule, and quickly notice improvements in all three of these areas. After one of these sparring sessions, she asks you, "Out of curiosity, why did you decide to adopt me? While I am extremely grateful, I am having trouble seeing how you benefit from our arrangement."\n\n[[Tell her that you did not adopt her out of self-interest]]\n\n[[Tell her that you hope that she will be able to provide valuable insights in time]]\n\n[[Tell her that you saw the makings of a great warrior in her, and that you felt that you might need her help at some point]]

The sudden motion, combined with the pressure on her damaged leg, prevents her from tearing your throat out. You now find yourself on top of her, and quickly force her arms apart, so that they can't defend her throat or tear out your own. You then move to tear her throat out, at which point [[she yields]].

Being clearly outmatched by the Royal Circle, and having no wish to get into such a dangerous conflict, you decide to try to convince them not to attack you. You realize that trying to convince the Royal Circle to leave you alone after they have clearly decided to get rid of you is rather desperate, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and getting on the bad side of the Royal Circle certainly qualifies as a desperate time. The fact that they are planning to attack you means that they currently think that you are growing powerful enough that you would one day be a threat, but that you are currently not powerful enough to be a significant threat at the moment. \n\nIn order to prevent the oncoming war, if the succubus who warned you about it was telling the truth, you must either convince them that you are too weak to bother with, or that you are too strong to be safely destroyed. On the other hand, if that succubus was lying, you need merely convince them that you realize that those were lies. Of course, by deciding to negotiate, you are revealing that you already know their plan, which will make it hard for them to believe that you can just be ignored without causing the Royal Circle problems in the future, as well as implying that you are not confident enough in your strength to risk taking them on in open war, leaving you with an uphill battle no matter which approach you take. You think through your best course of action as you walk. \n\nWhen you arrive, you see four of the "royal" succubi standing in a circle, surrounded by all six demon lords. They turn to greet you. You suspect that they are surprised by your appearance, since you have never heard of a circle deciding to try to convince their enemies to leave them alone. However, they do not allow themselves to show even a hint of surprise, or any other emotion for that matter.\n\n[[Convince them that you are too weak to bother with]]\n\n[[Convince them that you are too strong to be safely destroyed]]\n\n[[Convince them that you believe the succubus who warned you was lying]]

When you return, your leader quickly asks you to tell about what happened when you were summoned. You notice your fellow battle succubi gathering around to listen. It seems that battle succubi are not summoned all that often, whether due to selective summoning or there simply not being that many demonologists around compared to the number of demons. You quickly relate your tale, at which point a few succubi decide to ask you why you didn't decide to claim your freedom and then live out the rest of your life on the mortal world, at which point you explain that the mortal world is not a particularly friendly place to unbound demons, and that you think that you are safer here. A few of your fellow succubi look like they want to disagree, but the rest nod and in the end they decide to hold their tongues. Your fellow succubi ask you a few more questions about what the mortal world is like, which you answer quite thoroughly, you all return to your normal sparring sessions. \n\nThe next few weeks pass relatively normally, with one darkhound attack (which you manage to repulse with only three casualties), about a dozen new recruits (who had to prove their abilities before being allowed to join, since your group is now quite large already and your leader is starting to worry about it getting too large), and nightly imp hunts. By now your group seems to have mostly integrated, with the cultures of the various subgroups becoming merged together, and now you sense that each succubi trusts everyone else in the group (well, as much as one battle succubus ever trusts another, some are still left rather paranoid from the days when they tried to be normal succubi and found themselves being betrayed by their own circles), regardless of which subgroup they belong to. The hunting techniques have now been standardized, with everyone advancing down the caves in at a relaxed pace while blocking escape as best they can, avoiding the excessive injuries resulting from the bait approach. Now about forty succubi strong, your group could easily take down most circles if you needed to. \n\nOne afternoon you find a group of six demon lords approaching you menacingly. You sense that they think of you as a potential threat, and probably want to put you and your fellow battle succubi in your place. They stand around twelve feet tall, with thick, black skin, very large horns, and extremely sharp foot-long claws. Each is entirely wreathed in flames. "Stand firm! Surround and isolate them, and carefully wear them down and overwhelm them. We are battle succubi, we won't be defeated by a mere handful of demons, even if they are demon lords. They are attacking us because they fear our power, let us show them that they were right to be afraid", your leader orders. With that, you and the rest of your fellow battle succubi [[attack the demon lords]].

"Focus on the rich and powerful, they are the ones with the ability to truly help you. The lower classes can't even help themselves, if they could they would not still be such a lower class. While the lower classes might be able to make someone disappear, or provide useful gossip, they will have trouble trying to protect you, and that information will do you little good if you are vulnerable to every priest, inquisitor and uppity hooligan in the town. On the other hand, the upper classes could provide you land, titles, and protection, as well as coming up with a discrete way to keep you well fed on life force. That said, it is best to simply stick with your summoner when possible, and then just return here, the mortal world is not a friendly place for us", you tell your daughter. Your daughter nods and thanks you for your explanation. You then [[both go to join the rest of your circle]].

You remove the horns from the second reindeer, and attach them to yourself. The process is surprisingly easy, and your body quickly accepts them as part of yourself. Ida explains that since horns do not have muscles, attaching them is relatively simple, and is essentially just the magic equivelant of gluing them to yourself. You figure one transformation is enough for the day, and so decide to [[return to translating scrolls|Return to translating scrolls]]\n\n<<set $horns to true>>

The succubus replies, "I don't think you are in any position to negotiate, after all, your survival relies entirely on our whims. Publicly signing an equal alliance treaty with another circle would cause us a great loss in power and prestige. On the other hand, if we kept it secret we would be implying that your circle's power level is completely fine, which would encourage many other circles to grow and become more ambitious, as well as forming increasingly large systems of alliances. This would leave us having to destroy increasingly powerful circles in order to retain our position, which would take a greater toll on us than simply disposing of your circle. Either way, this cannot work. You don't really expect us to let ourselves be dragged into petty wars, do you? We might engage in a fairly large number of wars, but we decide carefully before starting each one, and each one is necessary. No, your aid is not worth that kind of embarrassment or loss of control. Besides, you are supposed to be a research circle, what do you need a full military alliance with us for? Since you have rejected our offer, it seems your circle must be eliminated. I do, however, have a deal for you. If you flee now and leave the neighborhood entirely, without returning to your circle or telling anyone about your failure, we will not pursue you. Otherwise, you will be hunted down and killed, along with the rest of your circle, and anyone foolish enough to aid you."\n\n[[Warn your circle about your failure]]\n\n[[Take the chance to flee]]

She considers your argument, presumably calculating the probability of defeating the Royal Circle, and then recruiting enough allies to secure your position as the leaders of the neighborhood. After a brief pause she asks, "You have intrigued me. Now, out of curiosity, why are you suggesting this deal now, rather than at a different time?" Revealing that the Royal Circle is already gathering allies to make an attack against you might make them reluctant to help you, but they will likely be suspicious about any other answer. In fact, it is entirely likely that they actually know the answer, and are simply testing to see if you will lie to them or not.\n\n[[Tell the truth]]\n\n[["We have only just become powerful enough to consider it"]]\n\n[["Now seemed like as good a time as any"]]\n\n[["We just thought of the idea"]]

You catch their right arm with your left arm and push it to the side while tilting your whole body to the left, causing her hand to fly past your left shoulder. At the same time, you use her momentum against her to quickly slash at her throat with your right hand, but they manage to stab your arm with the fingernails on her left hand. Unable to reach your original target, you manage to slash into their left hand with the fingernails on your right hand. You both spin away, each leaving long slashes on each others arms. You each begin to heal your wounds as you circle each other once again, but you notice that your wounds are healing faster than your opponent's wounds, even though they are about equally deep. After a few seconds, you feel that your arm is almost entirely healed, while hers is only about half healed. That might be just the advantage you need to win this fight.\n\n[[Continue circling her cautiously|begin the duel]]\n\n[[Try to stab your opponent in the eyes]]\n\n[[Close in, feint for the eyes, then slash at her chest]]\n\n[[Close in, feint for the eyes, then feint for her chest, then claw her throat out]]\n\n<<set $woundedArm to true>>

You tell your daughter, "Drain a fair bit from them, but make sure they can still walk under their own power, and avoid causing any permanant injuries. Killing mortals will draw unwanted attention even if you manage to dispose of all the bodies without being caught, as well as depleting the number of people around to feed on, making it increasingly hard to find new victims. While this leaves each of your victims able to tell the inquisition about you, you should be able to convince them that it would be much more fun to keep your secret and come back for more when they have recovered. In this way, you should be able to build up a dependable group to feed on without drawing any unwanted attention." Your daughter nods, and agrees to avoid causing permanant damage to her prey.\n\nThe next several years pass fairly uneventfully, with all of the major groups trying to make alliances, but none becoming powerful enough to risk attacking one of the other groups. You continue to give your daughter large amounts of practice calculating a large variety of probabilities, and she becomes increasingly good at these calculations. You also carefully train her in how to write, read, and speak the mortal tongue, and she picks it up surprisingly quickly, eventually becoming able to speak it just as fluently as if it was her native tongue. \n\nA little while after your daughter turned nineteen, your daughter suddenly gasps and then vanishes into thin air during one of your meetings. Presumably, she was summoned by a demonologist, but you find yourself wondering where on the mortal world she is, who summoned her, and when and if you are ever going to see her again. With these questions buzzing through your head, you find it hard to concentrate on the topic being discussed during the meeting, which in this case is human sports. Your fellow succubi seem to be particularly interested in trying to figure out the exact rules and culture around playing cricket. It seems that you have little choice but to [[anxiously wait for your daughter to return]].\n\n<<set $morality to $morality + 1>>

You decide to make your breasts downright small, which makes your body feel much more familiar. However, you feel like your fellow succubi are going to wonder about your choice, and you think that you will be significantly less seductive this way.\n\n<<set $breastSize to "small even for a human">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

You end up with about an imp each, having discovered an even smaller cave than you did on your first trip. These imps had the impudence to try to plead for their lives, as if you were foolish enough to believe their lies. You notice that your fellow mages tore them apart with slightly more refined slashes than last time, it seems that they are improving. During dinner, the other battle succubi tell you that after you fought that battle demon, you have become a true battle demon, and that you should stand tall no matter what the odds. The leader explains that bluffing is an extremely useful skill, and is one of the main reasons for the group still being alive. She does clarifies that one must be careful not to provoke fights unnecessarily, while not backing down to anyone. You sense that now would be a good time to [[alter your body|transform yourself]], if you wish to do so. Otherwise, it is [[time to sleep]].\n\n<<set $BattleTransform3 to true>>

"A full-fledged decapitation is excessive. Simply tearing their throat out will kill them without having to worry about breaking the spine in their neck, which claws would have trouble doing. If you really must remove someone's head for some strange reason, kill them first and then behead their corpse", you explain. Imethra nods solemnly and promises to remember your words. With that explanation out of the way, you and your daughter [[join in the nightly imp hunt]].\n\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>>

<<if $fingernails is "perfectly smooth and rather short">>You bend your knees and stab your arms upwards, stabbing your fingernails at the darkhounds throat, but because you decided to make them smooth again they cause no damage. The darkhound falls on you, and promptly tears your throat out.\n\n<<else>>You bend your knees and stab your arms upwards, stabbing your fingernails into the darkhound's throat. However, the darkhound proves heavier than you were expecting, and you barely manage to redirect its fall away from you. The darkhound is now about a foot in front of your legs, and appears to be bleeding profusely from its neck. The darkhound bites into your right leg and pulls, trying to knock you over. You go down to one knee and shove your fingernails into the holes in its neck, tearing outwards to expand them. You feel warm blood flow past your fingers as you slowly rip its neck apart. The darkhound whimpers while still not releasing your leg, until eventually it stops moving. You tear the dead darkhound off your leg, and with great effort force yourself to your feet. The darkhound has left deep cuts in your right leg, but the leg still seems to work, thankfully. You see eight darkhounds in front of you, but they are backing away slowly. Apparently they were not expecting this much resistance, and now seem to be thinking better of attacking battle succubi. You give them your best psycopathic grin, and [[they run away]].<<endif>>

He leads you to his friend's room, which is a fairly normal room for the guild, if a bit smaller than average. The victim is a young male mage who appears to be about 19 years old, wearing the traditional sapphire blue robes and a much less traditional ruby-studded gold necklace, continually moaning, "It burns... It burns..." You start internally cursing, rubies have extremely high magical capacities, making them perfect for holding curses. You chant a quick inspection spell, and find that the curse is quite strong, stronger than you can deal with by arcane means. You pull a vial of holy water from out of your robes, and pour it on the necklace, only to see the water boil away. Apparently, you will need something stronger. \n\nSighing, you pull out the silver flask of [[inquisition-grade holy water]] you bought on the black market about a year ago, and pour it on the necklace. Some of the water boils off, but then the necklace appears to cool and the rest of the holy water pours off onto the bed. It seems that the curse is now gone. Both mages thank you profusely for your help. You decide that this is a good time to inform them that they owe you five gold, due to the costs of inquisition-grade holy water. They ask how you managed to acquire such high-quality holy water, to which you reply that almost anything can be found on the black market for the right price. They hand you the gold, which should be just enough to replace the flask, assuming your black market contacts have been able to acquire any more. \n\n[[Ask how the mage came to be cursed]]\n\n[[Return to your work]]

The demon lords form a tight knot, allowing you to surround them but preventing you from isolating them. They then begin throwing small fireballs from their hands at you and your fellow succubi. Presumably succubi are still vulnerable to fireballs, despite being demons, though you are not about to test that. While none of the fireballs hit their targets, due to the quick reflexes of your fellow succubi, they are disrupting your attempts to attack all at once, while at the same time forcing you to figure out a way to attack them before the fireballs start hitting their targets. You are not sure whether this is magic, or merely a natural part of their bodies like a dragon's breath, but in any case it must be handled carefully. The demon lords appear content to stand there flinging fireballs at you and your friends. \n\n[[Wait for someone else to figure out what to do]]\n\n[[Begin to charge, roll under the fireballs, then kick the legs out from under the nearest demon lord before tearing its throat out]]\n\n[[Use the shoulder of one of your friends to leap over the demon lords into the middle of their circle, forcing them to turn their back to your fellow succubi to deal with you]]\n\n[[Lead a charge]]

"Well, it is good to know that you do not start wars purely for the sake of gaining power. We would never agree to ally with someone who did. What would we get out of the arrangement, though, it seems like we are better able to defend you than the reverse."\n\n[["We are not powerless, just not powerful enough to stand alone in these troubled times"]]\n\n[["We could help out in other ways, such as sharing some of the information we acquire"|"We have ways of acquiring information others cannot, and would be willing to share some of it"]]

You share more of what you have learned since your last meeting, though leave out any information about your circle. Your two fellow mages listen to you with interest. When you are done, you ask them what they have learned. The guildmaster informs you that he has discovered that the only writing material created in hell is specially prepared and carefully flayed succubi skin. He further explains that killing a succubus for the skin is one of the few taboos succubi society has, and that it has to be removed very carefully indeed, because any blood that gets on it cannot be cleaned off without great effort. "The main use I can see for this material is sending messages to mortals, since succubi have extremely good memories, and thus do not need to write things down. In any case, it appears to be very rarely used.", the guildmaster tell you. <<if $PortalSpell is true>>He then announces that he plans to use the portal spell you taught him to send specially prepared succubi skins with messages informing the survivors of the guild that you are trapped in hell, and need summoning.<<set $SoS to true>><<endif>> \n\nArchmage Ithrostia tells you, "I have discovered why all the succubi wear black dresses. There are a select set of succubi who make them using a secret technique out of darkhound fur. These succubi tailors are provided a certain degree of respect, power, and protection from their careful monopoly over clothing. Those who do not make a deal with one of these tailors are forced to wander around naked. While none of the succubi suffer from prudish notions of decency, I have heard that it is often quite useful when trying to seduce someone to have some part of you left to reveal, and the dresses also offer a limited degree of protection." With your exchange of information complete, you [[return to your circle]].\n\n<<if $hairLength is "halfway down your back">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<endif>>

<<if $firstTime is true>>He hands you a blindfold and tells you to put it on. After ensuring that your blindfold is secure, he leads you out of the tavern, and through a series of what you suspect are winding alleys, into a building, and down several flights of stairs. He removes your blindfold, and you find yourself in a dark basement, with a man tied to a chair in front of you. On a nearby table, you see a variety of tools, including thumbscrews, fingernail extractors, a large variety of knives, a hammer, and several lengths of rope. The man that led you here tells you to get him to tell you where Urthron is, and knock when you get your answer. He then nods to you and leaves the room, shutting and locking the door behind him. Presumably Urthron is an important person that has run afoul of this gang.<<endif>>\n<<if $firstTime is true>>\n[[Start by asking the question]]<<set $firstTime to false>><<endif>>\n<<if $introductions is false>>\n[[Present the tools of your new trade to the prisoner]]\n<<endif>>\n[[Begin torturing the prisoner]]\n\n[[Try to tempt the prisoner with your body]]

Imethra shrugs and replies, "No particular reason, just seemed like a good thing to know." You cannot tell whether or not she is telling the truth. She shows no sign of deceit, but her mother probably showed her how to hide all such signs, and her statement could be either true or false equally easily. Well, if she was in trouble, you think she would tell you, so you merely tell her that she is not yet ready for that part of her training, and caution her to pick her battles carefully. She seems content with your explanation, if a bit disappointed that she didn't get her question answered. With that out of the way, you and your daughter [[join in the nightly imp hunt]].

The succubi stop practicing as they see you approach. You feel the disapproving succubi surrounding them giving you disgusted looks. "Here to learn how to defend yourself without relying on others?", one of them asks. \n\n[[Ask them to teach you their techniques]]\n\n[[Go talk to the circle of succubi]]\n<<if $Scythra is true>>\n[[Ask about Scythra]]\n<<endif>>

She replies disdainfully, "You having just barely become powerful enough to even start considering the idea does not exactly fill me with confidence. On the contrary, I believe that you are going to get yourself and all of your allies killed. On that note, I must decline your offer. A prize, no matter how enticing or valuable, is not worthwhile if it cannot be attained." \n\nYou return to your circle and report your failure. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 27 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You then send them off to attack the Royal Circle. Two of them return, badly wounded, to report that the attack failed, due to a number a couple of timely alliances the Royal Circle managed to secure. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

You tell your daughter to feel free to lie to anyone, except for you, as long as it is her best interest. A few weeks later, she is caught trying to turn two of her least favorite battle succubi against each other through a complex series of lies, and is exiled from your group. It seems you gave her too much freedom for her own good, and that in the end she used that freedom to make a tragic mistake. Her parents must not have finished teaching her how to weigh risks and rewards properly, and admittedly you did not teach her how to do that either. \n\nA few days later you stumble across her bones, with the rest of her appearing to have been eaten by darkhounds. You live out the rest of your life hunting imps and training with your fellow succubi, but you will always regret that you failed to raise Imethra, and miss having her around. You consider yourself unfit to be a parent after your mistake, and so refuse to adopt any other children, in spite of your newfound loneliness. The rest of your life feels somewhat hollow. Although you are surrounded by people you can mostly trust and manage to keep yourself well fed, you feel that something is missing. In the end, you die during a darkhound attack, when one of the darkhounds leaps on you from behind and tears your throat out.

You share what you have learned with the other mages, who listen with some interest. The archmage tells you that he learned that up on top of the plateau the only succubi to be found are battle succubi, and that society on top of the plateau is much more chaotic and violent than it is here. The guildmaster says, "I learned that demons live by a philosophy they call 'the infinite heirarchy'. According to this philosophy, everyone has a different ranking, but in such a way that while no one knows their exact rank, it is obvious which of any two demons is higher rank. Lower ranking demons are to respect higher ranking demons, but need not be subservient to them. If a lower ranking demon fails to respect a higher ranking demon, they are usually disposed of by said higher ranking demon, but if the higher ranking demon starts abusing lower ranking demons, the lower ranking demons will generally rise up and destroy this higher ranking demon. The infinite part comes in when you consider that hell is a large place, and demons occassionally leave their own neighborhood, so at any time a demon more powerful than any currently in the neighborhood may arrive, and suddenly the highest ranking demons will find that there is someone above them. Thus, you can never know for sure who is at the top or bottom of the hierarchy. Its all quite vague and unclear, but seems quite important." Apparently the other three mages failed to find any information or make any friends, and are quite hungry and sleepy. Having exchanged what information you could, you disperse. You spot your succubi circle a little ways off, and [[go join them]].

You introduce yourself politely to the circle of succubi, who introduce themselves in turn. You learn that the two children are named Iltara and Iltratha respectively, and that both are daughters of a succubus in the circle called Ithrenda. Ithrenda asks what information you would like to trade for. You think that the chances of learning how the bottom of the food chain supports itself is unlikely to be useful at all, but could potentially be quite useful, depending on the answer. You think you should learn about local politics, but also know that openly asking about it could make lead to questions that you do not want to answer, and suspect that you might be able to learn about it in other ways. You would be extremely interested in any demonic ability to open a portal to the mortal world. However, you have never heard of demons creating such a portal, so have doubts as to whether they could create such a portal. Knowing how to manipulate a pact with a demonologist may prove quite useful if a warlock randomly summons you, but the chances of being summoned can't be all that high considering how many demons there must be compared to the number of demonologists. \n\n[[Trade for information on imp diets]]\n\n[[Trade for information on how to manipulate a pact with a demonologist]]\n\n[[Trade for information on creating portals to the mortal world]]\n\n[[Trade for information on local politics]]

The mages work hard to learn the combat forms, though they do not seem to have any particular talent for it. After a few hours, a pair of battle demons approach you, and they do not look happy. Each of them are about eight feet tall, with hard-looking skin, long claws and impressive horns. One of them tells your leader, "You took our girlfriends away from us. They would have mated us had it not been for you teaching them that they could defend ourselves, and now they are dead, and its all your fault! Now you shall pay." You and the rest of the succubi quickly move into motion, attacking the pair of battle demons from all sides. Your two fellow mages, first to attack, are sent flying through the air. They collapse to the ground, and while they appear to be alive, they are clearly out of the fight. One of the battle demons moves to engage your leader and one of the other succubi, whereas the other battle demon attacks you and two of your fellow succubi. The battle demon facing you seems to be focusing all of his attention on you for some reason, letting the other two succubi claw at his sides. It seems you will just have to survive for long enough for your companions to kill the demon. The demon swings towards your neck with the claws on his right hand, clearly intending to decapitate you. You are not confident in your ability to stop the demon's arm with just your left arm. \n\n[[Step back]]\n\n[[Stab its arm with just the fingernails on your left hand]]\n\n[[Stab its arm with all your fingernails]]\n\n[[Quickly step to the left]]

"Is that you, Arxium? You certainly look quite different. The guildmaster sent us a message that you were trapped with him and Throst in hell as succubi, and that we should summon you and return you to your original forms. Well, in any case, we will need to test that you really are Arxium, so I must ask you a question that only you and I would know the answer to. What mistakes did I make on my summoning circle last time you saw me summon a demon?", the mage replies. You explain which runes he messed up and which ones he forgot entirely, at which point he smiles and welcomes you home. A dozen senior mages file into the room, presumably telepathically contacted by the mage who summoned you. You definitely miss being able to use magic. \n\nThe mages lay you on the ground and begin to chant. You feel your emotions rapidly becoming stronger, and your brain becoming more clouded. You begin to feel sorry for the three mages that you, the archmage and the guildmaster just abandoned, rather than trying to help them find homes in hell, and angry at the inquisition for forcing you all into that situation, as well as grateful to Ithrenda for helping you, even if it was for her own selfish reasons. You realize that you are going to miss the clarity of thought you had while you were a succubus. You feel your breasts begin to shrink and your phallus begin to grow back. As you look at yourself, you notice that your hair shortening and your skin is becoming less pale. A few minutes later, you find yourself back in your old body, and one of the mages hands you a freshly folded set of sapphire blue robes. You feel your connection to magic restored as well. You thank them for saving you, and [[return to being a mage]].

Your daughter tells you and the rest of your circle, "I was summoned by a demonologist on the run from the inquisition, who apparently had several friends who had been murdered by the church. After this, he decided to strike back, and summoned me to help him with this. He had me find out the name of the inquisitor that led the group which captured his friends. He then ordered me to frame this inquisitor for summoning demons. Of course, this inquisitor had not studied magic, killed any he came across he found that summoned demons, and burnt all books on banned subjects quite promptly and efficiently. In short, he was a model inquisitor. However, the inquisition is cruel and paranoid enough that they will punish someone even if they know that said the person they are going to punish is not the type of person to commit the crime they are being punished for, as long as there is enough evidence against them."\n\nShe pauses briefly before continuing, "Therefore, it was simply a matter of providing that evidence against him. I located a skilled thief and a skilled forger, and obtained their services. I have the forger create an order, signed as if by the inquisitor himself, requesting a painter to paint a very specific design in human blood. The description of this design was taken from a beginner's demonology manual, and was one of the most basic types of summoning circles. I then had the thief plant this letter and this manual in the inquisitor's room, in such a way that the inquisitor would not accidently find them, but a thorough search of the room would certainly reveal them. After that, I had but to spread the rumor that this inquisitor was summoning demons. The next day, the inquisitor was accused of treason against the church, and found himself being on the other side of an inquisitor's interrogation. After about a day of torture, he snapped and confessed to being a demonologist, betraying the church, blasphemy, heresy, freeing captured heretics, and all number of other crimes, despite him being a loyal and faithful inquisitor. Upon having confessed to all these crimes, he was burnt at the stake in the public square. With that, my master dismissed me, and returned me here." Your daughter then reveals that she happens to have read through the entire demonology manual before handing it over. The rest of the meeting is spent listening to your daughter describe the contents of this manual. A few hours later, you and your daughter [[return to your patch of rock, have dinner, and then fall asleep]].

The succubus replies, "Either you are a threat or you are not, can't have it both ways, and in the end true power is found in your friends, not in yourself. I know of your allies, you have a large set, but they are a cautious bunch, and would not dare attack us. Instead, they will all suddenly forget such an alliance ever existed, and leave you to die. However, if we let you and your circle survive, you would eventually find more dependable allies, and become a serious threat to us, especially with such a cunning leader as Ithrenda. We have been watching you for a while, and carefully deliberated before deciding that you needed to be destroyed. I do, however, have a deal for you. If you flee now and leave the neighborhood entirely, without returning to your circle or telling anyone about your failure, we will not pursue you. Otherwise, you will be hunted down and killed, along with the rest of your circle, and anyone foolish enough to aid you."\n\n[[Explain that Ithrenda has been summoned, and argue that therefore they don't need to worry about her]]\n\n[[Warn your circle about your failure]]\n\n[[Take the chance to flee]]

You congratulate her on her good hunting, and tell her that she demonstrated both great courage and skill. She smiles happily at your praise, and walks with her head held high for the rest of the week. \n\nOne day, though, another succubus child about her age calls her a weakling and a coward. This other child was obviously not raised by a normal succubus by any stretch, and is acting more like a battle demon. Her mother was probably a member of the Red Claw back before they joined your group, they were always blunt even for battle succubi. She is slightly taller and has longer claws than your daughter, lending her a slight advantage. In any case, such an open insult is a blatant attack on the honor and reputation of your daughter. Letting such an insult slide would weaken your position and invite yet more such insults. Letting your daughter solve the problem herself would give her valuable practice, and if she won decisively would increase her reputation. However, if she lost it could be quite embarrassing. On the other hand, handling the problem yourself would imply that the insults were correct, though if you handled it brutally enough people might also learn not to mess with your daughter.\n\n[[Tell your daughter to prove her wrong]]\n\n[[Teach your daughter to deal with insults gracefully]]\n\n[[Handle the insult yourself]]\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>

<<if $attract < 3 or $suspicion is true>>He sighs in frustration, and demands that you swear the oath again, and do it properly this time. \n\n[["I swear to never lie to you"]]\n\n[[Refuse]]\n<<else>>He doesn't seem to mind your sneaky little alteration. You are not quite sure why you felt the need to make that alteration to your vow, but you don't like having your freedom restricted any more than necessary. And with that, the mage concludes the contract spell, and you feel your vows take hold, along with a trickle of the mage's life force entering you. That trickle will be just barely enough to sustain you, and you realize you are only getting it because it is required in order to maintain and enforce your contract. With the formalities out of the way, [[your new master leads you out of the room]].\n<<endif>>

You sigh, and start translating the remainder of the scrolls word by word, looking up each word in your dictionaries. Then, once you have completed translating all the words in a particular sentance, you carefully rearrange them to restore the original meaning, since the fae have a nasty habit of leaving the verbs and subject of a sentance until the very end, while leaving large clumps of disconnected adjectives at the start of the sentance. Several people have claimed that this makes it a beautiful language, slowly hinting at the meaning of the sentance while leaving you in suspense until the very end as to what the sentance is about, but you are of the opinion that it just makes it a needlessly illegible language. \n\nAfter a couple hours, you finish translating your current scroll and read what it says: "We have watched these foolish human warlocks with some interest. They do not seem to notice how their health fades and lifespan decreases after summoning demons, or how it weakens their lands. Demons suck life force from this world and its inhabitants, not out of some deep desire to cause evil like their priests sometimes claim, but rather as a natural consequence of what they are. It seems that while here, they require this energy to fuel themselves, though this need can be decreased by providing other forms of sustenance. There are several theories concerning how they live while in hell. One theory suggests that they drain energy from everyone and everything like they do here, but many doubt whether such a world could survive for long. Supporters of this theory believe that a new world needs to be conquered to replace hell every few hundred years, as the old one dies off, and many suggest that this world may one day be chosen for such a fate."\n\nYou pause to take a sip of ale before continuing to read, "There is an equally popular theory, however, that demons have have a different method of sustaining themselves while in hell itself, with many believing that they eat each other, much like carniverous animals do here. Detractors of this theory point out that the latter idea is only sustainable if there is a type of demon that is eaten by other demons, but does not eat other demons themselves, and wonder if such a demon exists, what it feeds on. Both theories will likely prove impossible to prove or disprove unless and until someone is stupid enough to go to hell to investigate the dietary habits of the local demons." Interesting, apparently even the fae took an interest in demonology, albeit more cautiously than most human warlocks. You know of several humans who decided to go to hell, but they were too busy fighting off demons or coughing up sulfur to come to any conclusions about what demons did when humans were not around. \n\nYou are starting to translate the next scroll when a young, panicked mage rushes into the room and informs you that he needs your help right now. If he needs your help in particular, it must have something to do with either curses or the mind, or is something which he wants to hide from the rest of the guild. In any case, it must be quite serious. You quickly set down your scroll, and [[follow him]].

The mage nods, then demands, "Swear not to harm anyone else in any way unless I order you to or they threaten either my safety or your own." That promise probably sounds helpful to him, but almost anyone can be a potential threat to someone else, especially with some creative interpretation, so that vow will barely restrict you at all, therefore you decide to just swear it. "Swear to obey my commands", the mage continues. Now this demand will be troublesome. If you swear it without alteration, you will become nothing more than his slave, but if you alter it too much he might get angry. You could try to at least add the caveat of not endangering him, which would likely sound relatively innocent while giving you a bit of breathing room with some creative interpretation. \n\n[["I swear to obey your commands"]]\n\n[["I swear to obey your commands if they do not threaten your safety"]]\n\n[["I swear to obey your commands if they do not threaten my safety or your own"]]\n\n[[Refuse]]\n\n<<set $canHarm to false>>

<<if $transformed is false>>How do you wish to transform yourself? You can only to make one change at a time, so choose wisely.\n<<if $FirstBattleTransform is false>>\n[[Change the color of your hair|Change haircolor]]\n\n[[Change the length of your hair|Change hairlength]]\n\n[[Change the size of your breasts|Change breast size]]\n<<endif>>\n[[Change your fingernails|Change fingernails]]\n\n<<set $transformed to true>>\n<<else>>\nYou feel you have transformed yourself as much as you can for the moment.\n<<set $transformed to false>>\n<<if $FirstBattleTransform is true>>\n[[Go hunting]]\n<<else if $CircleTransform1 is true>>\n[[inform Ithrenda that you are awake]]\n<<else if $CircleTransform2 is true>>\n[[speak with the Ascendant Circle]]\n<<else if $BattleTransform2 is true>>\n[[Return to the battle succubi|return to the battle succubi now]]\n<<else if $BattleTransform3 is true>>\n[[Go to sleep|time to sleep]]\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>

<<if $allies is true>>As your original allies only agreed to a defensive treaty, you cannot rely on their help for this attack.<<endif>> You quickly send succubi to call on the circles you rescued from the Ascendant Circle and the Black Circle. However, they conveniently forget all about their agreements, having no wish to get on the wrong side of the Royal Circle, and realizing that you are in too bad of a situation to enforce their agreements. No doubt you have lost the element of surprise by this point, as well as entirely too much time, leaving you with no chance of defeating the Royal Circle. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

"People are best deceived by playing on their hopes and fears. If you tell them what they want to hear, they will often believe you against their better judgement. On the other hand, if you tell them what they have secretly been fearing to be true, they will generally be cynical enough to believe you. It's an odd dichotomy, they find both the bad and good possibilities equally believable", you explain to your daughter. She thanks you for your explanation, and then [[you both go to sleep]].\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>

"Humans are simply prey for you to hunt as needed. Between their stupidity and their lack of self control, they are very much the inferior race and are unworthy of respect. You should use them to sustain yourself when you are in the mortal world, but should not kill them unless they threaten you or you are hungry, for doing so simply depletes your available resources needlessly. They are not our enemy, for that would require them to pose a legitimate threat to us, instead they are merely our food, to be eaten at our convenience." You have not thought of yourself as a human for quite a while, and have started thinking of yourself as a succubus, including thinking yourself superior to mortals. \n\nYour daughter nods, and thanks you for your answer. She looks unsurprised by your answer, and it seems that you have confirmed some of her existing thoughts rather than implanting new ones. [[You arrive back at your patch of rock to find your mate waiting for you with three darkhound steaks]].

Dinner consists of a pair of darkhound, which the four of you split between you. While you are eating, Ithrenda tells you, "The Black Circle and Ascendant Circle should weaken each other sufficiently that those they oppressed will finish them off. After this, we will be left with a rather extensive set of alliances, and with few powerful succubi circles left. In time, this should leave us as one of the most powerful circles short of the Royal Circle itself. But we must be careful not to display this power too much, otherwise the Royal Circle might move against us, and we are not yet powerful enough to stand against them."\n\nAfter dinner, Iltara asks you whether you like to be dominant or submissive while having sex. You have to think about this for a suspiciously long time, as you are still a virgin, and then find yourself having to give a complex answer to explain your delay. You aren't about to risk trying to claim to be a chaste succubus, that would cause way too many questions that you do not want to answer. Part of you is tempted to refuse to answer, but between the way it is asked and the lack of reaction from her sister or mother, you can tell that this is considered a rather normal question among succubi, and you don't want to be rude. \n\nIn the end, you reply, "I am not quite sure how to classify it. I prefer to let the mortal believe they are in complete control of the situation, while subtly manipulating the mortal into wanting to do precisely what I want them to do. In the end, I am in control, but act quite submissively so that they think that everything they do is their own idea. I find that for many things, manipulating people while making them think that they are doing everything of their own accord is often worth the effort required. It leaves them much happier and it often allows you to get them to do much more for you than if you simply asked them to do what you wanted them to do." Iltara and her sister both look impressed, and Iltara decides that she wants to grow up to be able to manipulate people just as subtly as you do. You might have overdone it a bit, and you hope no one asks you to teach the skills required for such manipulations, since you doubt you have those skills yourself. You mentally laugh at the situation you have found yourself in, and then [[go to bed]].\n<<set $attract to 0>>

Despite the fact that you were sleeping on hard rock and the sky never became dark, you slept quite well. It seems that your new body is used to sleeping under such circumstances. You hear Ithrenda talking to her daughters about how to properly seduce a mortal, and also how to tell the most convincing lies. You sense that now would be a good time to [[alter your body|transform yourself]], if you so wished. Otherwise, you can [[inform Ithrenda that you are awake]].\n\n<<set $CircleTransform1 to true>>

You are painstakingly translating a set of recently discovered scrolls, written in old fae of all things, when a young mage enters to inform you that the guildmaster is about to present his research. The mage promptly runs off, presumably to inform others about the presentation. You eagerly set the scrolls and your dictionary collection aside, and go to the main lecture hall. When the [[guildmaster]] conducts research personally, the results are always quite interesting. You find that most of the rest of the guild is already there, a few dozen mages in all, and grab a seat towards the middle of the room. There are three men on the stage in the front of the room, all in the sapphire blue mage robes traditional among guild members. The two men in the center are the [[guildmaster]] and [[Archmage Throst]] respectively. Off to the back right corner of the stage you can see a young, nervous looking mage you don't recognize. They must be quite new, but you are not sure why a new mage would be involved in the guildmaster's private research. The guildmaster normally only works with the most experienced mages in the guild, and it is considered quite an honor to work with him personally. A few minutes later, the guildmaster [[begins to present his findings]].

You have a small bunk in the middle of a large room filled with other bunks. Apparently you will not be getting much privacy, but you no longer feel a need for privacy after spending weeks sleeping beside other people under the open air. You lay down on your bunk and quickly fall asleep. Over the next several decades, you interrogate countless prisoners for your shadowy criminal masters, extracting secrets in a large variety of ways. You find yourself getting increasingly good at using your tools, and eventually find yourself requesting new ones to suplement your collection. You also find yourself coming up with new theories behind interrogation, which you begin to write down in a journal. You start to believe that just as important as the pain is to remove all feelings of safety and control from your victim. \n\nWith that in mind, you begin to have your victims stripped completely naked, since you find people find clothing comforting. You then start having them gagged as well, since they seem to value their ability to scream out their agony, releasing them from their gags only briefly to provide them chances to answer your questions. You also find that keeping the rate of torture constant regardless of whether they beg for mercy or try to taunt you into overdoing it is quite important to removing their sense of control. You also find that the more you appear to enjoy the process of causing your victim excruciating pain, the quicker they usually give in. \n\nAfter you extract the information you need and verify it, you almost always have intercourse with your victims, both to make them slightly less likely to try to hunt you down and kill you later, in case your organization decides not to dispose of them, and also to satisfy your own needs. The rest of the organization treats you well enough, though most of them try to avoid you as best as they can. You can't really blame them for that, after all causing unspeakable pain and agony to those that annoy you is practically in your job description. \n\nYou live like this for about a century, extracting information from all manner of people, from desperate thieves that tried to rob the wrong warehouse to rich lords whose rivals paid good money for their downfall. Over this time, you see many changes in leadership, some from coups and some due to attacks from rival gangs. All of these various leaders agree that your expertise at extracting information are vital to the gang's operations, so you remain fed, housed, and protected throughout all of this. You use your abilities to undo any effects of aging, leaving you perpetually looking just as young and beautiful as when you first became a professional torturer, while all those around you grow old and eventually die. Eventually, your hideout is revealed by a traitor, and dozens of heavily-armed guards pour into it, cutting through the few who try to stand and fight and chasing after the rest, with a particular emphasis on catching you. Soon you find yourself trapped against a wall, surrounded by a dozen guards with spears and shields. The guards have their shields locked together in a tight semicircle around you, with their spears keeping you well back from them. You attempt to cut the points off of the spears with your fingernails, but the guards start stabbing at you in unison, and one of the spear tips catches you in the right shoulder, pinning you to the wall. You quickly break that spear and rip the point out of your shoulder, but it managed to pin you long enough for more spears to hit you in the chest, quickly killing you.\n\nAfter your death, your journal is taken by the guards and it eventually makes its way to the royal torturers. They find your journal quite insightful and incorporate it into the standard training for their apprentices.

Your hair slowly turns black.\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]\n\n<<set $hairColor to "black">>

You explain that Ithrenda was summoned by a demonologist, and might very well not return, and therefore argue that it would be better for them to avoid destroying your circle unless she returns, as you won't be much of a threat without her. However, the succubus calmly replies, "Oh, Ithrenda will return, don't doubt that for a moment. She's been summoned several times before, and isn't about to let herself be killed by a mere mortal. Your circle has also been researching mortal culture specifically so that your members don't die when they are summoned. You might have noticed that most of the succubi in your circle have been summoned before. That is neither typical nor a coincidence, she worked hard to find the succubi who knew the most about mortals and get them to join her circle. As I said, we have watched your circle for some time, and know better than to expect your leader to get herself killed so easily. No, she will return, and when she does, she will ensure that your circle becomes increasingly powerful until it eventually becomes a threat to us. However, with her gone, now is the perfect time to strike. I will repeat my previous offer, flee now without returning to your circle or telling anyone about what was said here, and your life will be spared." It seems that you have failed to change her mind, and now must decide whether or not to risk returning to your circle.\n\n[[Warn your circle about your failure]]\n\n[[Take the chance to flee]]

You stand in the middle of the group of imps, clawing expertly and quickly in all directions, leaving dead imps all around you. However, the imps manage to take advantage of their position to claw and bite all over your body, and soon a pair of claws find your eyes, while a jaw finds your throat. You collapse to the ground, clutching your throat to try to stop the bleeding. You can here your fellow succubi rushing in, but you can tell that they will be too late. You end up dying of blood loss before your fellow succubi could save you, though you cannot tell whether or not letting you die was intentional on their part.

The next day, your leader gathers you together and says, "You have all worked hard, and fought bravely, but we are still too weak to resist most of the succubi circles, and with some of those circles getting increasingly violent and unpredictable, this puts us in a rather dangerous position. I suspect, however, that many other groups of battle succubi will be finding themselves in a similar situation. Therefore, I suggest that we convince a few of the other groups to join us, so that together we are strong enough to survive against almost anything. With many of the groups likely desperate to band together, it shouldn't be that hard to convince some of them to join us." She then tells you to recruit the Red Claw, which she tells you is a group of fifteen battle succubi known for their focus on single combat. She warns you that you will likely have to prove your strength to them in order to convince them to join the group. With that, [[you depart to recruit the Red Claw]].\n\n<<set $BattleTransform3 to false>>

She replies, "Even the Royal Circle has had to remove rival groups a couple of times each year to maintain their reputation and safety, and they have been in charge for decades. We would have just set a dangerous precident, and be weakened from our battle, and as such we would have even more problems. Eventually, we would be worn down from trying to remove rivals, and be destroyed. No, while the thought of that kind of power is appealing, I don't think we could hold onto it, and such temporary power is a worthless trap. As such, we must decline your offer."\n\nYou return to your circle and report your failure. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 27 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You then send them off to attack the Royal Circle. Two of them return, badly wounded, to report that the attack failed, due to a number a couple of timely alliances the Royal Circle managed to secure. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

"Ah, so when you said cautious, you merely meant that you refrain from destroying groups that did not threaten you, and you believe in an aggressive form of caution, similar to that of the Royal Circle. Well, if it has worked with you thus far, it must not be too reckless, and it is good to have allies in this troubled time. We shall agree to become defensive allies, on the condition that you do not start any wars without consulting us first", the leader replies. You manage to convince the other two circles to become defensive allies of your circle as well, using similar arguments, and then [[return to report your success]].

As you are about to reach her, she elegantly leaps aside while slamming her claws into your back. The resulting push from behind, combined with your own momentum, is enough to send you toppling forwards, and you land hard on your stomach. She leaps on you from behind, straddling your legs, and you realize that you are almost completely helpless from this position. You try to yield, but she decides to tear out your throat anyways.

<<if $allies is true>>"Perhaps we can take on the Royal Circle together, and you are right that the Royal Circle is likely to be a major problem for out plans. Let us not leap to such a decision so early, though, destroying the Royal Circle is no minor undertaking. Also, we still have to double check if your warning is accurate. If it is, you have yourself an alliance, otherwise you will not leave this place alive. Inqwithine, go check it out. In the meantime, we had better prepare to launch a preemptive strike. First half, fetch your battle demons", the leader says. About half the circle runs off in various directions, all but one of them presumably fetching their battle demons. The others form around you, preventing you from leaving. You hope Ithrenda did her part, otherwise you are going to die. About an hour later, Inqwithine returns, and reports that the Black Circle is preparing a preemptive strike. The leader thanks you for your warning, and lets you [[return to your circle to report the good news]].\n<<set $suggestedAlliance to true>>\n<<else>>"Even combined, we are much too weak to take on the Royal Circle. To suggest such an idea you must be either insane or trying to get us killed. Either case makes me distrust you. It seems likely that you merely want us and the Black Circle to destroy each other, which is one of the oldest tricks in the book", the leader replies. He then sends a succubus to go talk to the Black Circle to tell them of the situation, and that he has no wish to fight them. You know that this will cause Ithrenda's plan to unravel, and suspect that both the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle will attack your circle for trying to set them against each other. You rush back to [[report the bad news]].\n<<endif>>

Battle demons are a middle-class species of demons that essentially consists of all demons besides imps, darkhounds, succubi, incubii, and demon lords (which are essentially just more powerful battle demons). They stand around nine feet tall, with thick, black skin, large horns, and quite impressive claws. However, they are not known for their intelligence. \n\n[[Return|previous()]]

She braces herself, and withstands your kick, and also grabs onto your leg. She then pushes her leg up high enough that you cannot move forward or back as long as she has control of your leg. She keeps hold of it with her left hand, while tearing it apart with her right. You realize that she is now doing to you what you just did to her, but unlike her you cannot stop it. You scream in agony as she ruins your leg, removing skin and tearing out muscles. You notice that she is smiling gleefully while she is doing so. After your leg is completely ruined, she releases it and then closes in. You are forced to stand only on your one good leg, and quickly fall over backwards as she charges towards you. She quickly leaps on top of you and tears out your throat with her claws.

The succubus looks thoughtful, and eventually replies, "That is a good point. Even though you are the second most powerful circles still surviving, the others might not see it that way, and might become paranoid. Very well, we shall not attack your circle, on the condition that you form no new alliances with anyone, do not recruit any more demons to your group, and avoid trying to take any hostile action against us. We will be watching you, breaking our rules will be punished by prompt extermination. You may go and tell your circle of our decision." You return to your circle and tell them of the Royal Circle's decision, and while there is much grumbling about the terms, they are quite relieved to have been spared. The next day, several dozen angry-looking battle demons attack you during your meeting. You and your fellow succubi scatter, but your allies refuse to protect you and promptly forget that you ever had alliances with them. You are almost certain that the Royal Circle is behind both the attack and your allies' betrayal, but you are in no position to do anything about it. Eventually, the battle demons hunt you down and kill you.

When you return to your circle, they ask to hear about your trip to the mortal world. Telling them that you were transformed back into a human and then were turned into a succubus again would certainly cause a large number of questions you don't feel like answering, so you instead tell them that you were summoned by a group of research mages who wanted to study how your mind worked, with a series of chess games, conversations, and magical analysis of your brain. You quickly find yourself having to explain how chess is played, and one of your fellow succubi suggests building a chess set, though admits that she will have to ponder how best to build one.\n\n"Haven't heard of such an in-depth study in a century, the church usually destroys any group of mages becoming that ambitious. Perhaps the power of the church is finally starting to wane. Anyways, things have been fairly quiet here, no other circles have sprung to power, and there hasn't been so much as an attack on a circle since you left. With the Royal Circle looking for new threats more carefully than ever, everyone has been keeping their heads down", Ithrenda tells you. You notice that Ithrenda seems concerned (and not bothering to hide her concern), though she will not say why, only warning you and the rest of the circle to keep their heads down and not cause anyone problems. As you think about it a bit more, you realize that you might have become powerful enough for the Royal Circle to have gotten concerned, and that speaking about this would only increase the risk of the Royal Circle acting on their concern. A few days later, Ithrenda is summoned by a demonologist, or at least you assume that is what happened based on how she suddenly vanished in the middle of your meeting that day. After some debate, your circle reluctantly decides to let you take over her duties as first among equals until she returns, considering your previous success with destroying the Ascendant Circle. Iltara and Iltratha largely take care of themselves, but do end up asking you more questions than normal.\n\nOne day, a succubus from one of the circles you saved from the Ascendant Circle arrives, and warns you that the Royal Circle is gathering allies to attack you. It is possible they are lying in order to try to cut themselves free from their obligations, but you suspect that they are telling the truth. After all, they seem too cautious to try a stunt like that, and their claim seems entirely too likely, especially with Ithrenda's concern. Assuming this succubus is telling the truth, the more time you give the Royal Circle, the more allies they will be able to mobilize, so you will want to hit them relatively quickly. However, you may need a bit of time to gather enough forces to defeat them, especially since your current allies are rather cautious, and might decide to simply forget their agreements rather than fight against such a powerful group as the Royal Circle. \n\n[[Gather your allies to attack the Royal Circle]]\n\n[[Warn your allies that you might be attacked, but do not attack the Royal Circle]]\n\n[[Quickly recruit new allies, then attack the Royal Circle]]\n\n[[Attack with just your Circle's forces]]\n\n[[Try to convince the Royal Circle not to attack you]]\n\n[[Suggest the idea of joining other circles]]

"And how would you help us to defeat the Royal Circle?", the leader asks.\n\n[["We would provide you all the information you need"]]\n\n[["We would provide you what battle demons we have"]]

You go into a cave about an hour away with your daughter and six other succubi, at which point a swarm of imps attempts to escape. You all slash at them wildly. Your daughter is particularly fierce, jumping into the fray with wild abandon and taking four out of the sky in quick succession, but receiving a network of slashes across her body in return, which she quickly heals afterwards. You, taking a more cautious approach, manage to kill two of the imps. Your daughter did quite well, but also displayed a dangerous amount of recklessness.\n\n[[Praise her for her good performance during the hunt]]\n\n[[Tell her that she needs to be more cautious in the future]]

You step back, barely managing to avoid his claws and almost falling over in the process. The demon charges at you, denying you a chance to catch your balance. You sense that if you were on balance you could step to either side and quickly end up behind your opponent, but as is you are facing another slash coming from your left while barely avoiding falling over backwards. You sense that letting yourself be pushed backwards like that was a horrible mistake.\n\n[[Let yourself fall over backwards to avoid the blow]]\n\n[[Stab its arm with just the fingernails on your left hand]]\n\n[[Stab its arm with all your fingernails]]\n\n[[Stop as quickly as possible]]

You see a lone mage wandering in one of the corridors, but when you approach him and tell him that you want to show him a good time he shouts, "Demon in the hallway!" at the top of his lungs and starts shooting lightning bolts at you. Either you were insufficiently seductive or he has had a really bad experience with demons in the past. In either case, you need to get out of there. You try to run for it, but after turning through a few hallways you find yourself facing a set of four powerful-looking mages blocking your path. You try to turn back, but you suddenly feel an intense surge of electicity flow through your body, and you pass out. You never wake up.

The mage chants a magical contract spell. This spell will make any promise either of you makes binding for as long as the contract is valid. Of course, it is unlikely that your master is going to make many promises at all. "Swear to avoid harming me in any way", the mage demands. Seems like a fairly simple and reasonable request, though you might be able to leave yourself even more freedom if you alter it slightly.\n\n[["I promise not to harm you in any way"]]\n\n[["I promise not to harm you unless you order otherwise"]]\n\n[[Refuse]]\n<<set $suspicion to false>>

You find Ibleria and Intrenia sitting on a patch of rock. They inform you that Itrethna was eaten by darkhounds, whereas the archmage and guildmaster have both joined succubi circles, abandoning them here to die. You notice that they have already made their fingernails downright claw-like and have shortened their hair to be merely shoulder-length. You offer to introduce them to your fellow battle succubi, who will teach them how to hunt and defend themselves. They gladly accept, and you lead them back to the battle succubi, and offer them some of your remaining darkhound meat, which they eat ravenously, before collapsing from exhaustion. You explain that as far as you are aware they have not eaten or slept for a couple days, but that you think that they will train hard to make sure that doesn't happen again. You train with them for the rest of the day while the other two mages sleep, and decide not to go hunting tonight considering that you still have plenty of food. The next day, you and your fellow battle succubi [[begin training the mages]].

The succubus replies, "While I must admit I am quite interested in some areas of your research, research provided under duress is hardly likely to be reliable. Also, such an agreement would be naturally temporary in nature, and eventually you would grow too powerful for us to deal with, at which point you would stop handing over the research, and probably remove us from the equation entirely. We did not get where we are today by falling for offers like that. I do, however, have a deal for you. If you flee now and leave the neighborhood entirely, without returning to your circle or telling anyone about your failure, we will not pursue you. Otherwise, you will be hunted down and killed, along with the rest of your circle, and anyone foolish enough to aid you."\n\n[[Warn your circle about your failure]]\n\n[[Take the chance to flee]]

How long do you wish your hair to be? Longer hair seems to be very fashionable among mortals, but can also get in your way in a fight. You also suspect that other succubi will use your choice to make assumptions about how you like to solve problems.\n\n[[Shoulder-length]]\n\n[[Down to the center of your back]]

"We are actually one of the few succubi circles working on that problem, and have developed a spell that can transport things to the mortal world. What shall you share with us in exchange for such knowledge?", Ithrenda replies. You offer to share knowledge about recent events in the mortal world in exchange, and tell her that you have only just returned to hell. Ithrenda accepts your offer, and tells you, "The spell has been only recently developed, and has limited accuracy. You must picture a place in your mind to send the item to, and it will arrive in the vacinity of that location. So far we have been limited to sending rather small and light items, and they have been found to be fairly badly damaged. We will need to fix these problems and increase the efficiency of the spell before we can send demons to the mortal world. Still, it is a promising start, and can be useful in its own right. We can use this spell to send messages to the world above, though we cannot receive a reply, so it is mostly useful for putting foolish ideas in the heads of reckless mages. We have also created a spell to hold a mortal portal open, while you remain close to it, and traded the knowledge to a few of the more reckless succubi circles. It was a nice way to get knowledge and clear out some of our less predictable rivals. All of those succubi got themselves slaughtered in the mortal world, along with their mates, or so I have heard." She then proceeds to teach you how to perform both spells, and informs you that it is time for you to share your knowledge. \n\nYou tell her about how your guild ran afoul of the inquisition and was attacked after discovering a way to turn humans into succubi, and also how most of the guild escaped, but is presumably in hiding. You carefully hide the fact that some of the guild members descended into hell. You also mention how the church is cracking down on smuggling of inquisition-grade holy water. Ithrenda thanks you for trading information with her. She then invites you to join the circle to share knowledge and protect each other. Realizing that hell is a dangerous place to be without friends, [[you gladly accept]].\n\n<<set $PortalSpell to true>>

Once everyone has arrived, Ithrenda announces, "The battle succubi have started banding together. This trend started back during the Ascendant Circle incident, but we have been too busy trying to deal with our fellow circles to notice. There is now a group about forty battle succubi strong, formed from the unification of several groups including the Red Claw, one of the most powerful, proud, and fiercely independent groups of battle succubi. This new group is powerful enough that the usual approach of just letting the darkhounds eat them is proving completely ineffective. We will now need to start keeping an eye on them, but we cannot afford to deal with them directly. Apart from many of our alliances being defensive in nature, attacking them at this point would weaken us so much that we would be vulnerable to other succubi circles. On a similar note, we suspect that some of the circles have started banding together, though we doubt these alliances will become powerful enough to risk attacking us. Overall, we have entered a period of tense peace, no one party can afford to attack any other party, as that would leave them too weak to defend themselves from the other groups. We must work hard in the upcoming days to ensure that we remain powerful enough that no one can afford to attack us."\n\nThe rest of the meeting is spent discussing the various threats, as well as possible alliances to make sure that you remain powerful enough to be able to deal with those threats. After dinner that night, your daughter asks you about battle succubi. You explain, "Battle succubi are succubi who have abandoned the careful planning and manipulation that makes a succubus a succubus, and instead solve all their problems with their claws like battle demons. Of course, battle demons are generally more effective in a fight, being much stronger and more resilient, and succubi trying to emulate them is rather unnatural. For these reasons, we have generally ignored and looked down upon them. That said, we cannot afford to simply ignore them any longer, forty well-trained warriors are still a considerable threat even if they are not natural fighters." After your explanation, your daughter asks you whether you believe the battle succubi or the other succubi circles pose the greatest threat at the moment.\n\n[[Tell her that the battle succubi pose the greatest threat]]\n\n[[Tell her that the succubi circles pose the greatest threat]]

"Your word? Do you think that I am some petty mortal to believe you just because you give me your word? I am considered one of the more honest succubi, and I have still broken my word dozens of times. No, the only way to ensure that an agreement will be followed is for it to be in the interests of both groups to follow it. As it is, you have managed to insult me, and also demonstrate your incompetence, and I do not work with people who insult me or people who are clearly incompetent", the leader replies. Apparently giving your word on something is a good way to insult succubi, and you make a note to yourself not to use them in the future. You hope you have better luck with the [[second succubi circle]].

"On the contrary, you could certainly have done just that, and many people would have. Either you are lying to me, and quite badly at that, or you let your emotions gain control of you. The better I understand your expectations for me, the better I can fulfill those, so hiding them from me is clearly not in your best interest. And if you just let your emotions take control of you, that speaks poorly for your trustworthiness, and I have not seen any signs of you having that little self-control. I am extremely grateful for your decision, but I do wish you would trust me enough to tell me the real reason for making it, rather than trying to pretend that you did not have a choice in the matter", your daughter replies. You feel that you have lost some of her trust in you. After that, [[you soon both lie down on the smooth rock and fall asleep]].\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty - 1>>

The next scroll you translate takes about three hours for you to translate. It reads, "We have heard of human mages trying to ask succubi who their leader is, but never got a name. A particularly zealous group separately tortured several succubi, at which point the succubi claimed not to have a leader, or a government, but instead to consist of countless small alliances of about a dozen demons each. While succubi are infamous liars, it seems likely they were telling the truth, considering that they all came up with the same answer despite being questioned separately, without being permitted a chance to speak with each other. Curiously, they answered these questions relatively shortly into the interrogation, while displaying less pain than was to be expected. Their interrogators noticed this, and submitted the succubi to much further torture out of suspicion, but none of them changed their answers. Another curious note is that all of these interrogators disappeared within a year of their study, never to be seen again. We do not condone or recommend the practices of these human mages, but we must not let the knowledge gained from their studies go to waste."\n\nWhile you have no sympathy for the interrogators mentioned in this scroll, their sudden disappearance closely linked to the succubi is disturbing. You are not quite sure how they would have arranged for the demise of those mages, but you have little doubt that their deaths were arranged by the succubi, one way or another, which means succubi are, or at least were, much more powerful than you feel comfortable with. You spend the rest of the day translating scrolls. You see a brief mention of demons having their life force more tightly bound than mortals, to a degree such that most of their life essense remains inside them after death, rather than dispersing like that of mortals. This means that eating demonic meat would fill you with the full life force of the demon. Too bad demonic meat is extremely unhealthy for mortals, due to a number of nasty compounds that form inside their bodies. This also means that succubi would have a hard time sucking the life force of other demons, like they do to mortals, so they would likely have to rely on eating other demons while in hell for nourishment. It seems like the fae did largely did figure out demonic diets after all, though it still doesn't explain how the bottom of the food chain works, leaving you wondering what the imps eat. You pause your work briefly to eat dinner, and eventually [[go to sleep]].

"Just do whatever the demonologist wants you to do. If they catch you trying to bend one of their vows, they will become quite angry and paranoid, and those are not exactly properties you want in a master. On the other hand, if you swear all of their vows word for word, they will become much more trusting and friendly. Overall, the added freedom you would get by trying to swear lesser vows is not going to be worth the risk, and you will be better off just keeping your master happy and relaxed."\n\nYour daughter listens to your explanation with interest. When you finish, she tells you that she will do as the her master asks. However, she seems disappointed by your answer, and you sense that she believes that your advice implies a lack of confidence in her abilities. She then asks you, "Once the negotiations are finished, should I get my master killed or should I try to keep them alive?" This is another difficult question. On the one hand, with her master dead, she would be completely free, rather than living or dying at the whims of a demonologist. This freedom could be used to gain great power in the mortal world, for there would be few who could match a succubus' wisdom and none that could match her beauty, allowing her to manipulate quite a few important mortals indeed. On the other hand, without a master she would quickly find herself alone in a hostile world, dominated by a church that devotes itself to persecuting people like her. \n\n[[Tell her to get her master killed]]\n\n[[Tell her to protect her master]]

"You should try to get your master killed, since until then you are more or less a slave to them. After they are dead, however, you will be completely free, and in a world where you are the smartest and most beautiful person. You can then start manipulating the mortals around you, and accumulating large amounts of power, dwarfing that possible to achieve here. While it might be challenging and risky, it is simply too good of an opportunity to pass up", you tell your daughter. \n\nShe nods, and tells you that she will subtly try to get her master killed, if and when she is summoned. With that, [[you and your daughter go to your circle's meeting]].\n\n<<set $killMaster to true>>

You try to tear at her throat, but she has the head start, so by the time you reach her throat she is already tearing yours out. You collapse to the ground, clutching your throat as you quickly die of blood loss.

Dinner consists of another darkhound, which the four of you split between you. Apparently Grithdren is a pretty reliable hunter. While you are eating, Ithrenda says, as if to herself, "With troubled times like these, our shortage of battle demons, and our lack of allies, we are going to have to bring our battle demons along to circle meetings. It will be a clear sign of desperation, but so was inviting the battle succubi to join us, and we will need the extra guards. Ugh, this will take years to recover from..." Ithrenda seems almost certain that if she had stuck with the status quo, your circle would eventually be destroyed, based on her clear distaste of the changes she is making. The rest of the dinner is eaten in silence, and then you [[go to sleep|sleep2]].

Ithrenda's plot of ground turns out to be a particularly smooth section of rock at the bottom of a shallow, bowl-like dip in the ground. When you arrive, you find a battle demon standing there with the bodies of a couple darkhounds. The battle demon's bearing looks somehow noble, as if he were a great hero fighting for an important cause. Ithrenda tells you that this is her mate, Grithdren. You are given half of a darkhound to eat, with the rest going to the other succubi (presumably Grithdren already ate). You tear into the darkhound, which tastes rather deer-like and you quite enjoy it. Ithrenda informs you that darkhound meat is a luxury that she can afford to indulge in, but that many succubi have to sustain themselves on imp meat. After your feast, you lie on the ground and [[quickly fall asleep]].

"Ah, then you must not have many allies, and must not be confident in your own might. I understand why you came to see us now. However, it leaves me wondering what we would get out of the deal."\n\n[["We are not powerless, just not powerful enough to stand alone in these troubled times"]]\n\n[["We have ways of acquiring information others cannot, and would be willing to share some of it"]]

You catch up to the volunteer, as they attempt to flee the room. "So, what's it like to be a succubus?", you ask. "Let's discuss this in private, over drinks", the volunteer replies, blushing slightly. Whatever he is about to say is obviously rather embarrassing, so you figure letting him get a drink first is the least you can do. He leads you to his room, grabs a bottle of whiskey and a couple of shot glasses, and pours a couple of shots, giving one to you. \n\nAfter downing three shots of whiskey in quick succession, he explains that he had skipped lunch on the day he was transformed, and after being transformed he felt a need to absorb life force directly. He then explains how he proceeded to have sex with both the guildmaster and the archmage, in order to replenish his life force. After that, he apparently felt that this need was satisfied. He also explains how while he was a succubus, he felt his mind evaluating everything mathematically. Rather than framing things in terms of what he did and did not want to do, or what seemed qualitatively like a good or bad idea, his mind began naturally evaluating the probability distributions of various outcomes depending on his actions, and using these calculations to determine what the best course of action would be. "It felt both liberating and confining at the same time. I could tell what the corrent and incorrect things to do were just by solving a number of formulas, rather than having to guess like normal, but that in turn made there be only one logical choice at any given time. In essence, while I had a huge number of choices, there was only ever one choice that made sense and so I was forced to either pick that choice or knowingly make a bad decision. In the end, every tiny decision, every switch in posture, every choice of words was dictated by these calculations. I felt like I was a slave to my own mind, but I also knew that I had just as much freedom as I had ever had", he explains. You thank him for his time, tell him not to overthink the nature of freedom, and [[return to your study to translate scrolls|Return to translate scrolls]].

"Focus on the lower classes. If you start messing about too much with the upper classes, you will draw unwanted attention. The church, in particular, is quite protective of the upper classes. The lower classes can also provide you valuable information which you would not otherwise be able to acquire, and if you need to dispose of someone, you'll need friends in low places. That said, it is best to simply stick with your summoner when possible, and then just return here, the mortal world is not a friendly place for us", you tell your daughter. Your daughter nods and thanks you for your explanation. You then [[both go to join the rest of your circle]].

You find Ithrenda already back, and tell her how it went on your end. She congradulates you on a job well done. <<if $suggestedAlliance>>She tells you, however, that the alliance with the Ascendant Circle will have to be forgotten, since they will lose most of their power, but none of their enemies.<<endif>> As a reward for completing your mission, she offer to share more of their information with you.\n\n<<if $politics is false>>\n[[Ask about local politics|AskPolitics3]]\n<<endif>><<if $pact is false>>\n[[Ask about manipulating a pact with a demonologist|AskPact3]]\n<<endif>><<if $diet is false>>\n[[Ask about what imps eat|AskImps3]]\n<<endif>><<if $PortalSpell is false>>\n[[Ask about creating portals to the mortal world|AskPortals3]]\n<<endif>>

"A curious thing for you to be interested in, but I happen to know the answers you seek", a succubus called Ijrethora replies. Ijrethora pauses before saying, "Unlike the rest of demons, imps do not eat other demons or drain life force in order to survive. Instead, they derive their energy from the heat and sulfur in the air, slightly cooling it in the process. Over the centuries, this results in a decrease in temperatures. While this change has been hard to quantify given its slow progress, at the current rate hell will be the same temperature as the mortal world in about three thousand years. Around this time, I suspect that they will become unable to sustain themselves, and start dying off, which will eventually result in the death of every demon living here as the food chain collapses. However, that is much too far away to bother worrying about now, and I do not think we will see any significant effects in our lifetimes." Ithrenda then [[takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].\n\n<<set $diet to true>>

You tell your daughter, "You should always tell the truth, no matter what the circumstance. By consistently telling the truth, people will learn to trust and respect you. In time, this will allow you not only to gain power within our group, but also to help us negotiate with other groups favorably. Your consistent truthfulness will make you invaluable to a large number of people, and these people will in turn offer you much in return for your honest words. Furthermore, your honesty will highlight your martial prowess, for people will be of the opinion that only through your strength of arms could you live without lying and manipulating those you meet." \n\n<<if $morality > 1 and $loyalty > 0>>Your daughter ponders your words, and eventually replies, "That is a rather odd take on things, I never heard of any succubus suggesting being always truthful, and the idea of getting people outside your circle to trust you to be honest... it's almost unthinkable. However, since you seem so convinced, and your arguments make sense, I shall do as you ask, mother." \n\nYou continue to train your daughter for another nine years or so, until she manages to defeat you regularly. With your daughter being around eighteen years old at this point, you tell her that you have little left to teach her, and pronounce her a fully independent adult. She thanks you for having raised you, and remains a part of your group. A few months later, you start to hear rumors that an alliance of succubi circles, led by a cunning succubus called Ithrenda, is planning to attack your group. Not wanting to start a costly and unnecessary war based on mere rumors, your group decides to wait and see what happens. A few days later, [[a group of a couple dozen battle demons attacks your group]].\n\n<<set $morality to $morality + 1>>\n<<else>>Your daughter replies, "That is a rather odd take on things, I never heard of any succubus suggesting being always truthful, and the idea of getting people outside your circle to trust you to be honest... it's unthinkable. Clearly you know little enough about manipulation, it seems I was wrong to ask you my question." It seems you have lost some of your daughter's trust with your unusual answer. \n\nYou continue to train your daughter for another nine years or so, until she manages to defeat you regularly. With your daughter being around eighteen years old at this point, you tell her that you have little left to teach her, and pronounce her a fully independent adult. She thanks you for having raised you, and remains a part of your group. A few months later, you start to hear rumors that an alliance of succubi circles, led by a cunning succubus called Ithrenda, is planning to attack your group. Not wanting to start a costly and unnecessary war based on mere rumors, your group decides to wait and see what happens. A few days later, [[a group of a couple dozen battle demons attacks your group]].\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty - 1>>\n<<endif>>

You circle each other cautiously for a while, each looking for an opening. Each of you occassionally throws out a feint to try to get the other to react, but neither of you are having much success in that regard.<<if $woundedArm is true>> While you are circling each other, her arm finishes healing completely.<<endif>> Suddenly, your opponent steps forward and stabs towards your eyes with her right hand. \n\n[[Tilt your head to the side to avoid the strike, then close in and tear her throat out]]\n\n[[Deflect her arm with your left arm, while starting a strike towards her neck with your right arm]]\n\n[[Step to the side]]

<<if $attract > 1>>The mage looks momentarily confused, and opens his mouth as if to ask a question, but in the end just nods and accepts your altered vow. He then demands, "Swear not to harm anyone else in any way unless I order you to or they threaten either my safety or your own." That promise probably sounds helpful to him, but almost anyone can be a potential threat to someone else, especially with some creative interpretation, so that vow will barely restrict you at all, therefore you decide to just swear it. "Swear to obey my commands", the mage continues. Now this demand will be troublesome. If you swear it without alteration, you will become nothing more than his slave, but if you alter it too much he might get angry. You could try to at least add the caveat of not endangering him, which would likely sound relatively innocent while giving you a bit of breathing room with some creative interpretation. \n<<set $canHarm to true>>\n\n[["I swear to obey your commands"]]\n\n[["I swear to obey your commands if they do not threaten your safety"]]\n\n[["I swear to obey your commands if they do not threaten my safety or your own"]]\n\n[[Refuse]]\n<<else>>\nThe mage calmly requests that you swear as he requested, and he will be expecting you to swear your other vows word for word. You have a feeling that you should have been able to get away with such a simple alteration, but that your body choices are not particularly appealing to him, leaving him much more focused and demanding. Perhaps you should have made yourself a bit more like the fellow succubi from your circle, they apparently understand mortal tastes better than you do.\n\n[["I promise not to harm you in any way"]]\n\n[[Refuse]]\n<<endif>>

That is the last of the traditional vows demanded of a demon, but many of the more experienced or paranoid demonologists will demand additional vows. This mage is apparently no exception, and demands that swear to never lie to him.\n\n[["I swear to never lie to you"]]\n\n[["I swear to only lie to you if you order it"]]\n\n[[Refuse]]\n\n<<set $slave to true>>

The succubus snorts, and replies, "If you were thought that you could defeat us, you would be attacking us now, rather than talking to us. Defeating us would provide you with great power and prestige, as well as a measure of safety as a result, which would more than make up for any losses you might suffer, and Ithrenda knows this. Nah, if you could defeat us, you would not be telling me about it. I do, however, have a deal for you. If you flee now and leave the neighborhood entirely, without returning to your circle or telling anyone about your failure, we will not pursue you. Otherwise, you will be hunted down and killed, along with the rest of your circle, and anyone foolish enough to aid you." It seems they have a bit of an over-inflated ego, but sadly there is little chance of defeating them at this point.\n\n[[Warn your circle about your failure]]\n\n[[Take the chance to flee]]

"Mere information will not be enough to defeat the Royal Circle, and we both know that the Ascendant Circle is too weak to take on the Royal Circle. To suggest such an idea you must be either insane or trying to get us killed. Either case makes me distrust you. It seems likely that you merely want us and the Black Circle to destroy each other, which is one of the oldest tricks in the book", the leader replies. He then sends a succubus to go talk to the Black Circle to tell them of the situation, and that he has no wish to fight them. You know that this will cause Ithrenda's plan to unravel, and suspect that both the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle will attack your circle for trying to set them against each other. You rush back to [[report the bad news]].

A darkhound leaps straight towards your neck, clearly intent on tearing your throat out. You could step to the side while slashing its underbelly with your fingernails. This would deal a fair bit of damage to the darkhound, while avoiding its attack, but would mean this darkhound would be on one side of you, while the rest of the pack would be on the other side of you. Alternatively, you could try to duck under the darkhound while stabbing with your fingernails, which would ensure the darkhound remained in front of you while inflicting some damage, but you are not sure your arms will be strong enough to keep it away from your face. You could also try stepping back and kicking it like a ball.\n\n[[Step to the side and slash its underbelly]]\n\n[[Duck below it and stab it in the throat]]\n\n[[Kick it]]

You thought that it would be a simple matter of going through the portal just long enough to create a portal back to your hometown of Marlton, but it seems you underestimated how unfriendly hell is to mortals. You start coughing on the hot, sulfur-rich air and soon collapse to the ground, gasping for air. A ten foot tall demon walks over to you and slashes at you with one of his claws. You feel a sudden and intense pain in your neck, and promptly lose consiousness. You never wake up.

The first circle you decide to talk to consists of eight succubi. This circle was supposed to be largely defensive in nature, rather than being more research-focused like your own. The circle greets you politely, and you suggest the idea of forming a defensive alliance with your own circle. The leader of the circle expresses concerns about getting dragged into conflicts unnecessarily, as it is almost impossible to determine after the fact which side started a conflict.\n\n[[Assure him that your circle relies on research to increase its power, rather than war]]\n\n[[Promise him that your circle will never start a war]]\n\n[[Assure him that your circle is quite cautious by nature, and only starts wars when needed to insure their own safety]]

You tell your daughter, "Drain only a very small amount of energy from each person, that way they do not even notice that you have fed from them, let alone suffer injury. This allows you to keep yourself fed without having to dispose of bodies or get them to form lasting attachments, and will also avoid drawing too much unwanted attention. It might be challenging to drain from so many people, but I think you can manage it." Your daughter nods, and promises to drain so little energy from people that they do not even notice the loss. \n\nThe next several years pass fairly uneventfully, with all of the major groups trying to make alliances, but none becoming powerful enough to risk attacking one of the other groups. You continue to give your daughter large amounts of practice calculating a large variety of probabilities, and she becomes increasingly good at these calculations. You also carefully train her in how to write, read, and speak the mortal tongue, and she picks it up surprisingly quickly, eventually becoming able to speak it just as fluently as if it was her native tongue. \n\nA little while after your daughter turned nineteen, your daughter suddenly gasps and then vanishes into thin air during one of your meetings. Presumably, she was summoned by a demonologist, but you find yourself wondering where on the mortal world she is, who summoned her, and when and if you are ever going to see her again. With these questions buzzing through your head, you find it hard to concentrate on the topic being discussed during the meeting, which in this case is human sports. Your fellow succubi seem to be particularly interested in trying to figure out the exact rules and culture around playing cricket. It seems that you have little choice but to [[anxiously wait for your daughter to return]].\n\n<<set $morality to $morality + 1>>

"That is good advice. What my scout reports will determine whether you live or die, so you had better hope you were telling the truth. Inqwithine, go check it out. In the meantime, we had better prepare to launch a preemptive strike. First half, fetch your battle demons", the leader says. About half the circle runs off in various directions, all but one of them presumably fetching their battle demons. The others form around you, preventing you from leaving. You hope Ithrenda did her part, otherwise you are going to die. About an hour later, Inqwithine returns, and reports that the Black Circle is preparing a preemptive strike. The leader thanks you for your warning, and lets you [[return to your circle to report the good news]].\n\n<<set $suggestedAlliance to false>>

"After two years of painstaking research, we have finally discovered a method by which a human can be transformed into a succubus", the guildmaster announces. A chorus of gasps fill the room. That is truly a groundbreaking discovery, which will allow not only for far greater understanding of succubi, but also for a proper study of hell, which has thus far proven too deadly to be explored. However, the church is going to hate this new discovery, and relations between the guild and the inquisition are already quite hostile. To announce such a discovery at a time like this seem quite reckless, regardless of how important it is for future research. It is almost like the guildmaster is TRYING to start a war with the inquisition. \n\nAfter the audience quiets down again, the guildmaster continues, "We used this method on a volunteer, and found that succubi are able to think faster than humans, and are much better at remembering things. However, we found our volunteer became incapable of using human magic while he was a succubus. Also, his new needs proved rather distracting, if pleasantly so. While we had not planned on testing this, we found that the rate at which succubi drain life force from humans is directly proportional to the amount of skin contact with the succubus." You see the man standing on the corner of the stage begin blushing. Presumably this man was the volunteer, which would explain both how he managed to become part of the research project, and also why he was so nervous. \n\nAfter a short glance at the man in the corner, which only causes him to blush even deeper, Archmage Throst says, "We decided to only perform a ninety percent complete transformation on our volunteer's brain, both to minimize the chance of irreversible brain alterations and so that our volunteer would still be in control of their actions. We found, unsurprisingly, that the volunteer's conscience was greatly weakened during the experiment, but it also seems that their emotions were muted. While further research will still have to be done to confirm this, it appears that succubi feel emotions far less strongly than we do. There are indications to suggest that succubi have minor shapeshifting abilities, though further research will be necessary to confirm that this is indeed inherent to succubi, and not a side-effect of transforming a mage into a succubus. We look forward to continuing this research, and will be requiring new volunteers. These volunteers will be well compensated for their time." The guildmaster and archmage bow, and gracefully leave the stage. The volunteer promptly flees the stage. The archmage and guildmaster appear to have said all that they have to say about the topic. The volunteer, however, seems like they could give a valuable new perspective on the research.\n\n[[Go talk to the volunteer]]\n\n[[Return to translating scrolls|Return to translate scrolls]]

The succubus looks thoughtful, and eventually replies, "Perhaps we let you live too long to take you out easily... Still, you are only going to grow more powerful from here, and this will likely be our best chance to take you out. In addition, much of our power and prestige comes from ensuring that there is no one around able to threaten us, so it will also cost us dearly to let you live, even if you decide not to attack us once you are powerful enough to do so. How do you plan to replace this loss of prestige and power that we would face?"\n\n[["That's not our problem"]]\n\n[["We would become your allies, together we would be unstoppable"]]\n\n[["We would share our research with you"]]

"I am going to release your mouth, and then you are not going to scream or call for help. Instead, you are going to recite the words of banishment, and return me home. If you attempt to call for help, or incinerate me, or anything of the sort, I will tear your throat out. Do you understand?", you growl at the mage. The mage looks confused for a bit, then nods his head. You release the mage's mouth, while keeping your other hand firmly against his neck, and [[he obediently banishes you|he banishes you back to hell]]

Figuring that you cannot afford to risk the Royal Circle gathering their own forces, let alone gather allies, you decide to attack with just your circle's own battle demons<<if $allies is true>> and your battle succubi<<endif>>. Four minutes later, your circle's <<if $allies is true>>four<<else>>three<<endif>> battle demons are assembled before you. You proceed to lead them in an assault against the Royal Circle. When you arrive, you find all six of the local demon lords assembled before you, surrounding the succubi of the Royal Circle. Having revealed your intention to destroy the Royal Circle, you have little choice but to proceed with the assault. The demon lords tear through your forces, sending the decapitated heads of your battle demons <<if $allies is true>>and your battle succubi<<endif>> flying through the air. You and the rest of the remainder of your circle run for your lives, but you are eventually hunted down and killed.

<<if $succubus is true>>\nYou are a stunningly attractive succubus with smooth and flawless milk-white skin. Your smooth and well-ordered <<print $hairColor>> hair flows <<print $hairLength>>. Your breasts are <<print $breastSize>>. Your fingernails are <<print $fingernails>>. You have a pair of elegant ivory horns marking you as a succubus. You are just under six feet tall.\n<<else>>\nYou are an average-looking 32 year old man. You have short brown hair and green eyes. You are about six feet tall. You are wearing the traditional sapphire blue robes of your guild, along with a much less traditional pair of custom-made marble sandals and a dragonscale pendant. <<if $horns is true>>The reindeer horns sticking out of your forehead appear rather out of place on your otherwise quite normal body.<<else if $wings is true>>The wyvern wings sticking out of your back differentiate you from most of the rest of your guildmates, however. The powerful, leathery wings somehow seem to suit you, though they do make it awkward to go through small doorways.<<endif>>\n<<endif>>\n<<set $transformed to false>>\n[[Return|previous()]]

Your hair slowly takes on a golden hue.\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]\n\n<<set $hairColor to "golden">>

You desperately assume the fetal position, trying to make sure you don't leave anything important exposed. The imps claw at you and bite you all over your body, but don't seem to be hitting anything vital. The other succubi charge in at this point, and scatter the imps. They mock you for resorting to the fetal position, and mention that because you didn't kill any of the imps, you won't get to keep any of them. You hold back a growl, and [[return to your leader]]. \n\n<<set $fetal to true>>

Angry that she would dare insult your daughter in such a way, you charge at the impudent succubus yourself. Being a larger and more experienced combatant you easily manage to overpower her, and tear her throat out with a quick stabbing motion, leaving her to bleed out on the ground. After that, no one dared insult your daughter, but you later learn that most people thought your actions were a bit excessive. Your daughter also seems a bit disappointed that she didn't get to defend her honor herself. Overall, you suspect that you made the wrong decision. For better or for worse, [[you have dealt with the insults]]

You end up selecting the thumbscrews, since they appear to be the easiest to use, and should hide the fact that you actually have no idea what you are doing. You attach the thumbscrews over his right thumb, and begin to tighten it.<<if $resistance < 3>> You keep tightening it until you feel the bone in his thumb prepare to crack, at which point he screams out where Urthron is hiding, which is apparently a secret basement in a nearby warehouse. You give him a chance to change his answer, and tell him that if he lied to you, he will regret it severely, but otherwise you will give him a quite good time. When he sticks to his answer, you knock and tell the man who recruited you what the prisoner told you. A few hours later, you learn that it was correct, and ask to be left alone with the prisoner to express your gratitude for his honesty. The man who recruited you gives you an odd look, before he suddenly seems to understand and nods, leaving you alone. Half an hour later, the prisoner is happily collapsed on the ground, seeming to have thoroughly enjoyed your caresses. With that, you knock on the door again, and the man who recruited you [[leads you to your bunk]].\n<<else if $resistance < 6>> As you are tightening the thumbscrew you feel the bone in his thumb bend and then finally shatter with an audible crack, causing him to start screaming in pain, but he still refuses to tell you anything. You pretend to be happy about his lack of cooperation, and smile broadly as you destroy his other thumb and another four fingers, at which point he screams out where Urthron is hiding, which is apparently a secret basement in a nearby warehouse. You give him a chance to change his answer, and tell him that if he lied to you, he will regret it severely, but otherwise you will give him a quite good time. When he sticks to his answer, you knock and tell the man who recruited you what the prisoner told you. A few hours later, you learn that it was correct, and ask to be left alone with the prisoner to express your gratitude for his honesty. The man who recruited you gives you an odd look, before he suddenly seems to understand and nods, leaving you alone. Half an hour later, the prisoner is happily collapsed on the ground, seeming to have thoroughly enjoyed your caresses. With that, you knock on the door again, and the man who recruited you [[leads you to your bunk]].\n<<else>> As you are tightening the thumbscrew you feel the bone in his thumb bend and then finally shatter with an audible crack, causing him to start screaming in pain, but he still refuses to tell you anything. You pretend to be happy about his lack of cooperation, and smile broadly as you destroy his other thumb and another six fingers, at which point he loses consiousness from the pain. You try to wake him back up, but he does not respond. When he finally does wake up, you move onto his toes, but again he loses consiousness before telling you anything. Finally, the man that recruited you blindfolds you, leads you out of the base, and leaves you in the middle of an alley. You exit the alleyway only to run straight into a group of elite inquisitors, who hunt you down and kill you.\n<<endif>>

You make your fingernails short and smooth, which will be useless in a fight but look quite pretty, and will likely make a good impression on your fellow succubi.\n\n<<set $fingernails to "perfectly smooth and rather short">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

You decide to stick relatively close to the ground, to avoid duplicating Ida's mistake. It takes a while for you to learn how to balance, and you manage to fall on your back a couple of times, but after about an hour you think you have a decent amount of control over your wings. You feel like you should probably [[return to translating scrolls|Return to translating scrolls]]

You bend your knees deeply and carefully aim your fingernails straight towards its leg, and step in so you will hit softer tissue, but her leg still slams into arms painfully. She then proceeds to twist around and perform a hook kick, still with her right leg, which slams into the side of your head and sends you spawling onto the ground. She leaps on top of you and tears out your throat.

You manage to grab her wrists, but don't get a particularly good grip. She then puts her entire body weight into her stabbing motion, and your grip fails, sending her claws slamming into your throat. She quickly proceeds to shred your throat, leaving your dead body lying there on the ground, slowly emptying of blood.

You step to your left as the darkhound leaps at your head, while using your right hand to slash at its exposed underbelly, <<if $fingernails is "perfectly smooth and rather short">>but your dull fingernails glance off of it. You feel that smoothing out your fingernails again was a bad idea.<<else>>causing a decent amount of damage as it flies past you.<<endif>> You turn to face it, falling into a fighting stance, but then you feel something leap on you from behind, followed shortly by fangs digging into your neck. You fall over backwards, bleeding profusely from your neck, at which point the darkhound in front of you joins in, tearing into your exposed chest and causing you to start screaming in agony. You die of blood loss before your fellow succubi can come to your aid.

Your opponent adjusts her strike as you tilt your head, and manages to land the strike despite your best efforts, stabbing deeply into both of your eyes. You scream in pain and the world around you vanishes. You slash at her wildly, but only hit empty air, presumably she has moved out of the way. Then you feel her grasping you from behind, followed shortly by her slitting her throat with her claws. You collapse to the ground, clutching your throat, and quickly die of blood loss.

The succubus replies, "I am glad we could come to a mutually benefitial agreement. Go tell your circle what we decided on." You obediently return to your circle to report what you have agreed on. They are not particularly pleased with the terms you ended up with, but decide that they are better than fighting with the Royal Circle itself. When Ithrenda returns a few days later, just as suddenly as she vanished, she agrees with the rest of her circle that while the agreement is painful, it was probably better than the alternative. When you her about her trip to the mortal world, she explains that she was summoned by a minor noble to serve as his advisor. Apparently, she helped this noble frame several rival nobles for treason and seize their land, while secretly gathering enough evidence to be able to destroy her master if she wished to do so. She also managed to learn a great deal about mortal politics in the process.\n\nOver the next few years, your circle ends up being dragged into a few small wars, but the circles you are fighting with are not all that powerful, and it seems doubtful whether they would have ever become a threat to the Royal Circle. It seems that with your recent alliance with the Royal Circle, most are trying hard to avoid looking at all threatening in order to avoid facing your combined strength, and your combined forces quickly eliminate the rest. Eventually, you end up meeting a fierce battle demon, who you end up taking as your mate. He seems brave and loyal enough, and your circle was short on mated battle demons. Now having a mate, you grab your own patch of rock, and are no longer reliant on Grithdren for food and protection, not that Grithdren ever minded feeding and protecting an extra person. \n\nOne day, you discover a cute succubus that appears to be about ten years old, sitting alone on a relatively smooth stretch of rock. When you ask where her parents are, she informs you that both of her parents are dead, and politely asks you to adopt her. She has smooth black hair which flows halfway down her back, smooth and elegant fingernails, flawless pale skin, tiny ivory horns, and an elegant black dress. You don't think she can take care of herself yet, and have some doubts about whether anyone else would be willing to take care of her if you refuse to adopt her.\n\n[[Agree to adopt her|Adopt2]]\n\n[[Leave her to die|LeaveToDie2]]

"Well, as I am sure you understand, your word is not good enough for us. I am in a good mood, so I will give you another chance to answer my question. Why should we believe that you would come to our aid?", the leader replies.\n\n[["We understand that the risks of losing our allies are greater than the risks involved in helping them"|NeedAlly2]]\n\n[["Any group willing to attack you is clearly a danger to us both, and such threats must be eliminated"|EliminateThreat2]]

You reply, "In general, the battle succubi thrive on chaos, whereas succubi circles generally thrive on order. Since it is quite peaceful, the battle succubi should not be as large of a threat now as they otherwise would be. If this peace continues, they may end up splintering for better hunting, as such a large group of battle succubi usually runs into problems feeding itself. I would highly doubt that they can grow much larger than they currently are without running into such problems. There has also not been a succubus circle destroyed by battle succubi in living memory, so it seems unlikely that such a powerful circle as ours would suddenly fall victim to them, even if they are unusually powerful at the moment. On the other hand, our strength comes largely from having more allies than others, if rival succubi circles manage to form alliances faster than us, we may be in severe trouble." Your daughter nods, and thanks you for your explanation. Shortly after that, [[you both lie on the smooth rock and go to sleep]].

"Not good enough, swear what I told you to, word for word", the mage replies coldly. \n\n[[Refuse]]\n\n[["I swear to obey your commands"]]\n\n<<set $suspicion to true>>

The archmage shrugs, and begins turning the other mages into succubi. Their new bodies seem quite elegant and graceful, and part of you wishes you were joining them, but no, you were born a human and shall die a human. You leave to look for a hiding place, and end up hiding in a wardrobe. Unfortenately for you, the inquisition is quite thorough, and finds you. You try to shoot a barrage of ice shards at the inquisitors, but they dodge out of the way, before proceeding to bind your hands and gag you. You are led through the streets to the center of town, where you are accused of consorting with demons and performing twisted experiments upon people. You want to protest that you have not summoned or met with any demons, nor performed any experiments on people, but your captors do not appear to intend to give you a chance to defend yourself. You notice that a large crowd is gathering, who cheer as you are burnt at the stake.

You find yourself in a barren landscape of deep red rock. The ground underneath you is all one solid rock, which slopes slightly up and down in parts but is relatively smooth. You see various small clumps of demons scattered across the rock, with some sleeping in particularly smooth parts of the rock (they appear to be doing so in shifts), others talking to each other, and a few groups fighting with each other (with the groups fighting each other being composed entirely of [[battle demons]]). You do not see any sign of artificial structures, and don't see any possessions at all besides the black dresses most of the succubi are wearing (with the rest being completely nude, which you are still finding rather distracting). Off in the distance you can see an impressive series of cliffs, which appear to lead to a plateau several thousand feet above you. The sky is a brighter red, though is too cloudy for you to see any sun. The air feels comfortably warm, but you can tell that you would find the heat downright oppressive if you were still human. \n\nArchmage Throst, who you recognize only by him being the last to arrive, gathers you together. He explains that you cannot continue using your old names, so he shall give each of you a new name more fitting for a succubus. He names himself Ithrostia, names the guildmaster Igrethia, names you Iltharia, and names the other three mages Itrethna, Ibleria, and Intrenia respectively. The guildmaster then suggests you split up to subtly figure out how to acquire food and protection. He and the rest of the mages wander off, to talk to various succubi. You notice a small group of succubi practicing fighting techniques, surrounded by pairs of succubi throwing them disapproving looks. \n\nYou also see a circle of a dozen succubi, two of which appear to be children (with the children, who appear to be about twelve years old, remaining silent during these exchanges), sharing information with each other. You can sense that talking to the succubi practicing fighting will allow you to learn how to better defend yourself, but will also lower your social standing. Talking to the circle of succubi, on the other hand, could gain you some valuable information and possibly improve your social standing. You do not have enough information to calculate which would lead to a longer expected lifetime.\n\n[[Go talk to the succubi practicing fighting techniques]]\n\n[[Go talk to the disapproving succubi]]\n\n[[Go talk to the circle of succubi]]

You step back to a relatively safe distance, and easily dodge the fireballs he manages to throw at you, since these fireballs are slower and even smaller than the ones he threw previously. After about a minute, he finally collapses from blood loss. You find that in the meantime your fellow succubi managed to slaughter the remaining demon lords. In the end, your group lost seventeen succubi in the battle, a little less than half your force. With the demon lords taken care of, you and your fellow battle succubi slaughter the succubi who sent them after you (who apparently called themselves the Royal Circle). After that, the succubi circles stop insulting or looking down on battle succubi such as yourselves, and you can tell that your group has won their grudging respect. In the end, demons respect power, and your group is apparently now one of the most powerful groups in the neighborhood. \n\nAbout a week later, you discover a cute succubus that appears to be about ten years old, sitting alone on a relatively smooth stretch of rock. When you ask where her parents are, she informs you that both of her parents are dead, and politely asks you to adopt her. She has smooth black hair which flows halfway down her back, smooth and elegant fingernails, flawless pale skin, tiny ivory horns, and an elegant black dress. You don't think she can take care of herself yet, and have some doubts about whether anyone else would be willing to take care of her if you refuse to adopt her.\n\n[[Agree to adopt her]]\n\n[[Leave her to die]]

You approach one of the pairs of disapproving succubi, who smile and greet you politely. When you ask about the succubi practicing fighting techniques, one of them sighs and explains, "Those succubi call themselves 'battle succubi'. They reject what makes a succubus a succubus, and instead of building up careful alliances, creating careful plans, or mating with powerful demons, they decide to start acting like common demons, fighting their enemies with their claws rather than their minds. They are, in short, little better than the unmated [[battle demons]] they seek to emulate, but are weaker than them. They cause extra chaos that can mess with our plans, but not enough to be worth the effort of disposing of, yet. They generally run afoul of someone soon enough, though, and then are torn apart. Many of them justify themselves by pointing to the story of Scythra, but while Scythra was a great warrior, she died young after being betrayed by mere mortals, which to me only reinforces my belief in the importance of careful diplomacy. In the end, they think to gain power by strengthening themselves, but most of us realize that a succubus' true power is always in their friends, not in themselves."\n\n[[Ask about the story of Scythra]]\n\n[[Go talk to the battle succubi|Go talk to the succubi practicing fighting techniques]]\n\n[[Go talk to the circle of succubi]]\n\n<<set $Scythra to true>>

<<if $fingernails is "downright claw-like, and custom-made for tearing through flesh">>\nYou rip deeply into his back with your claw-like fingernails. You duck under a backhanded swing towards your face, and return to a defensive stance. The battle demon continues slashing at you, this time in a more controlled manner that prevents you from getting behind him, but his wounds are slowing it down too much for him to hit you, and in the meantime your companions are tearing into him from behind. Eventually, he collapses from blood loss, and you put it out of his misery by clawing its head off. You look over and see that the other battle demon is also dead, appearing to have been killed by repeated slashes across his body. The leader of your group and the succubus fighting beside her took a few nasty cuts, but no one seems permanantly injured. The leader informs you that battle demon meat is rather toxic, so you will have to find other food for tonight. After they finish healing themselves, you and the other succubi decide to [[go hunting for imps]].\n<<else>>\nYou slash at his back as best as you can, but end up creating relatively shallow wounds. You duck under a backhanded swing towards your face, and return to a defensive stance. The battle demon continues slashing at you, this time in a more controlled manner that prevents you from getting behind him. You suddenly find the distance between you and the battle demon shrinking, and he is now slashing at you with his right arm again. You are too close to get to the left of the arm. You are still not confident in your ability to stop the arm with just your left arm.\n\n[[Stab its arm with just the fingernails on your left hand]]\n\n[[Stab its arm with all your fingernails]]\n\n[[Try to duck under the blow]]\n<<endif>>

"Try to maintain as much freedom as you can. If you swear all of the vows that a demonologist wants you to swear word for word, unless they are an idiot, you will be little more than a slave, and a highly expendable slave at that. Needless to say, that is a dangerous position to be in, especially since a number of demonologists have rather dark and twisted minds, and a few would likely be happy to murder you for a few magical ingredients of dubious usefulness. However, you can often get away with a few word changes, as long as they do not seem significant. The trick is to make your changes seem innocent, while making sure that they prevent your new vow from being too restrictive. In this way, you can make them believe that you are their slave, while in reality being quite free, which will give you a decent chance of survival if they get any unfortenate ideas. It will also allow you to please some of the more picky and less than brilliant masters you might get. A few will expect you to perform certain services for them, after having just had you indirectly swear a vow not to do so. The most common such case is for them to make you swear not to hurt them in any way, and then order you to have sex with them. They often do not stop to think that since we drain their life force by touching them, having sex with them would prove quite harmful to them, and thus would be prevented by such a vow. Then they will get angry, and instead of realizing that the situation is their own fault, a few will get angry at you and possibly even murder you", you tell your daughter, drawing on stories you have heard from a number of your allied circles, in addition to your own experience. \n\nYour daughter listens to your explanation with interest. When you finish, she promises to maintain all the freedom she can when negotiating with a demonologist. She then asks you, "Once the negotiations are finished, should I get my master killed or should I try to keep them alive?" This is another difficult question. On the one hand, with her master dead, she would be completely free, rather than living or dying at the whims of a demonologist. This freedom could be used to gain great power in the mortal world, for there would be few who could match a succubus' wisdom and none that could match her beauty, allowing her to manipulate quite a few important mortals indeed. On the other hand, without a master she would quickly find herself alone in a hostile world, dominated by a church that devotes itself to persecuting people like her. \n\n[[Tell her to get her master killed]]\n\n[[Tell her to protect her master]]\n\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>

"By taking a body part from an existing animal, you reduce the number of necessary mental changes needed to adapt to the change. It also only require you to understand how to connect it to your body, rather than needing to understand every small piece of its anatomy, which makes it much simpler and less error-prone", she explains.\n\n[[Return|Talk to the mage]]

The second succubus circle consists of sixteen succubi, and is largely research-oriented. The circle greets you politely, and you suggest the idea of forming a defensive alliance with your own circle. The leader of the circle expresses concerns about getting dragged into conflicts unnecessarily, as it is almost impossible to determine after the fact which side started a conflict.\n\n[[Assure him that your circle relies on research to increase its power, rather than war|AssureResearch2]]\n\n[[Promise him that your circle will never start a war|Promise2]]\n\n[[Assure him that your circle is quite cautious by nature, and only starts wars when needed to insure their own safety|AssureCaution2]]

She smiles and replies, "Well then, we shall consider your proposal, and give you a reply in a couple weeks." You are now certain that she knew exactly why you proposed the idea at this time. By playing along, she has strengthened her bargaining position substantially. At this point you need to reveal the real reason and beg her to provide you help now, despite her having clearly stated that she wanted a couple weeks to decide, or give up on getting their help. \n\n[[Reveal the true reason and beg]]\n\n[[Give up on getting their help|Give on getting their help]]

He refuses to answer, and you sense that it would have been a better idea to make him ask you what it is that you wanted to know.\n\n[[Return|Accept the offer]]\n\n<<set $resistance to $resistance + 1>>

You tell the prisoner that if he answers your questions truthfully, you will be all his, and that you will give him the best time of his life. <<if $attract > 3>>He resitates, then caves in and tells you where Urthron is hiding, which is apparently a secret basement in a nearby warehouse. You give him a chance to change his answer, and tell him that if he lied to you, he will regret it severely. When he sticks to his answer, you knock and tell the man who recruited you what the prisoner told you. A few hours later, you learn that it was correct, and ask to be left alone with the prisoner to express your gratitude for his honesty. The man who recruited you gives you an odd look, before he suddenly seems to understand and nods, leaving you alone. Half an hour later, the prisoner is happily collapsed on the ground, seeming to have thoroughly enjoyed your caresses. With that, you knock on the door again, and the man who recruited you [[leads you to your bunk]].\n<<else>>He looks tempted, but in the end refuses to tell you anything. It seems that you will need to do things the hard way. \n\n[[Return|Accept the offer]]\n<<endif>>

She calmly replies, "No, they will not. We have been as powerful as we are today for years, with little problem. Besides, if they kept taking out circles as weak as ours, there would be an uprising and they would be overthrown. Many succubi, including us, are quite happy to see the powerful and arrogant circles removed, but if they started taking out people like us, suddenly they would turn from the neighborhood's police force to a bunch of psycopaths in the views of the other circles, and you know as well as I do what happens to psycopaths. You, on the other hand, have been rapidly growing and forming alliances, as well as destroying several circles. While no one particularly liked the circles you destroyed, it shows a level of power and confidence that makes many nervous, including apparently the Royal Circle itself."\n\nYou return to your circle and report your failure. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 27 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You then send them off to attack the Royal Circle. Two of them return, badly wounded, to report that the attack failed, due to a number a couple of timely alliances the Royal Circle managed to secure. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

You tell your daughter to ignore the insults. You explain that by attacking someone who insults you, you are allowing them to control you. However, you also tell her to remember every person who dared insult her, so that she can knows what they think of her and can use this knowledge to strengthen her own position. Furthermore, you tell her that insults are a fool's weapon, and that by insulting someone you make that person your enemy and give that enemy information to use against you. Therefore, you tell her to be happy whenever someone insults her, and to avoid throwing insults herself. The succubus who insulted your daughter shouts a few more insults, and then walks away. While what you just said is rarely taught among battle succubi, being more popular among the more manipulative succubi, you feel that it will serve her well. With that, [[you have dealt with the insults]], though not in the way anyone else likely expected.\n\n<<set $morality to $morality + 1>>

What do you wish your fingernails to look like? You think that the shorter and smoother fingernails will be more attractive to any mortals you might meet, whereas sharper, longer, and more claw-like fingernails would be better in a fight. You also suspect that your fellow succubi will use your choice to determine how you like to solve problems.<<if $BattleTransform3 is true>> You can tell that having smooth fingernails as a battle succubus would be a very bad idea, so disregard that idea immediately.<<endif>> \n<<if $FirstBattleTransform is false and $BattleTransform3 is false>>\n[[Short and smooth]]\n<<endif>>\n[[Long and sharp, while still being elegant]]\n\n[[Downright claw-like and perfect for tearing through flesh|Claw-like]]

You roll under his next set of fireballs, spring back to your feet, and aim a kick towards the back of one of his legs. However, the demon prompty turns and kicks you with that leg. The kick catches you in between your legs, interrupting your own kick, and sends you flying through the air. You collapse to the ground about thirty feet away. You see that your fellow succubi also closed in to try to help you, but quickly realize their mistake as the demon lord slashes out with his claws, slicing straight through the necks of two of your unfortenate comrades. The survivors quickly back away, and the demon lord decides to charge straight at you again. You manage to get to your feet just as he reaches you, at which point he starts slashing at you with his claws. You manage to avoid the first few blows, but then one lands, and you feel a sharp pain in your neck before you die.

<<if $fetal is true>>You return to your leader, and tell her how you ended up without any imps and getting mocked by your whole hunting group. She tells you that she is disappointed that you did not manage to make a good showing, and that this will damage the prestige of your old hunting group, but is glad that you at least survived. "I have heard of that hunting method before. It is generally used when many members of the group do not work well with others, and only by reminding them that they rely on each other for survival can they manage to work together. It is needlessly dangerous, and as such the rest of us will not be adopting it, but we will need to let them continue using it for a while at least, otherwise they will fall apart. Them deciding to use you as bait was doubtless specifically designed to weaken us, one way or another, and it regretably succeeded", your leader replies.<<else>>You return to your leader, and tell you how according to the rules your hunting group established, you are entitled to all twelve imps you caught, while the rest of the group is left with nothing. You also tell her of their hunting method, and how you got picked as bait. "I have heard of that hunting method before. It is generally used when many members of the group do not work well with others, and only by reminding them that they rely on each other for survival can they manage to work together. It is needlessly dangerous, and as such the rest of us will not be adopting it, but we will need to let them continue using it for a while at least, otherwise they will fall apart. Them deciding to use you as bait was a particularly unfortenate choice, and after trying a stunt like that I am glad that they either need to beg me for food or go hungry", your leader replies.<<endif>> You share ten of your imps with succubi who fared less well on their hunts, in return for promises to let you have some of their imps if you have a bad hunt yourself in the future. You [[then feast hungrily on one of your remaining imps]]. \n\n<<if $hairLength is "halfway down your back">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<endif>>

<<if $SoS is true>>"Ah, a good succubus name, traditionally belonging to the upper middle class. Well then, a pair of my fellow mages has been beating most of the guild in 2v2 chess, and it's about time someone put them in their place, but no one was willing to be my partner against them, so I decided I would summon one. Succubi always struck me as being particularly cunning, and your looks should also distract them immensely, so I think we can do this", he tells you. Well, you never expected someone to summon a demon simply to play chess, but it does seem like just the sort of thing the guild would do. You ask your master about your opponents as you are walking towards the main hall, and he tells you that you are going to be facing against Gordon and Brock, and begins describing their chess style and personality. He also summarizes the rules of chess, apparently making the reasonable assumption that you were never taught the rules. You remember Gordon and Brock entirely too well, they are two of the best chess players in the guild and were very fond of rubbing it in everyone's faces. They liked to challenge people to chess and then taunt them if they refused or when they inevitably lost. You agree with your master, it is about time someone beat them at chess. Still, you think it rather unlikely that your master is a chess player of their level of expertise, and back when you were a human you were not a match for either of them. Perhaps your new form will give you enough of an edge to win, though. In any case, it is worth a try. \n\nYou eventually arrive in the main hall, and sit down across from them in front of the chess board. It seems that your opponents have been nice enough to at least allow you to play as white. Gordon and Brock both shocked to see you sitting down across from them, and Brock exclaims, "Summoning a demon to be your partner is cheating!" Your master calmly replies, "I think you will find that the rules do not specify what race or species your partner belongs to, merely that they be properly clothed and refrain from touching their opponents, receiving outside help or using magic apart from that required to create a telepathic link with you." Mages from all around the hall are staring at all four of you now, some with looks of shock, some with awe, some with lust, and some with amusement. Many of them begin gathering around to watch your game, which they all expect to be quite interesting. You revel in the attention, especially since none of them would have paid you a second glance before your transformation. With the legality of your participation cleared up, it is time to [[begin the game]].\n<<else>>"That is a good name. Now, lets go to my room and have some fun", the mage replies. <<if $canHarm is true>>He leads you up to his room. The room is about twenty feet wide and long, and about eight feet tall, with a large bed in the center and a desk and bookshelf off to one side. He promptly lies down on the bed, undresses, and orders you to have sex with him.<<if $slave is false>> While having sex with a succubus is not exactly healthy, it shouldn't prove immediately life-threatening, so your little loophole about safety will not work for this particular case, even if you want it to.<<endif>> About an hour later, your master collapses onto the bed from exhaustion, smiling broadly. You had absolutely no idea what you were doing, but apparently it worked, and you think you have a couple hours of freedom before he wakes up. You feel more full of energy than you have ever felt, and realize that by having sex with you he transfered a large amount of life force from himself to you. You also realize that in his exhaustion he has stopped supplying the life force required to keep your contract intact. You calm down a bit from your excitement, and realize that it would be dangerous for you to be seen wandering around unattended, so you should stay inside your master's room until he regains consiousness. You could, however, start reading through the pile of papers on his desk, or start reading one of the books on his bookshelf. \n\n[[Start reading through the papers on his desk]]\n\n[[Start reading a random book from the bookshelf]]\n<<else>>At this point, you feel obligated to inform the mage that he just made you swear not to harm him in any way, and that you touching him would cause a lifeforce transfer from him to you, which would be harmful to him. The mage promptly facepalms. "I summoned a succubus from hell to give me a good time, and then made her swear not to touch me. I am a complete idiot", he announces. He sighs, and seemingly seeing no purpose in keeping you around [[he banishes you back to hell]].<<endif>>\n<<endif>>

You figure the succubi must have settled on that breast size for a reason, so you figure you will just copy them. Your resulting breasts feel a bit awkward, but you figure you will get used to them in time.\n\n<<set $breastSize to "average-sized for a succubus">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

Despite the fact that you were sleeping on hard rock, the sky never became dark, and that you didn't know whether or not your fellow succubi were going to do something to you in your sleep, you slept quite well. It seems that your new body is used to sleeping under such circumstances. You see your fellow mages gathering nearby, so you tell the battle succubi that you will be back and go over to [[share what you have learned]].

"I'd be glad to have you among us. I am called Ida by the way. Let me show you the team", she replies, climbs through your window, and leads you to a storage room in the basement where you see four other mages, three men and one woman, all quite young, who have transformed themselves in various ways. The woman has added several snakes to the top of her head medusa-style, though she does not seem to have full control over these snakes yet, and occasionally looks up and tells them to play nice. One of the men has attached a red fox tail to himself, which pokes out of a hole he made in his robes presumably just for that purpose. One of the other two men has reindeer antlers, while the other one has wyvern wings like Ida. \n\nYou greet the group politely, and explain that you are interested in joining their group. They welcome you to their group, and teach you the spell required to attach a body part to yourself. They then tell you to try it out. Ida mentions that wings take a little getting used to, and require cutting into your back with a knife in order to attach them. You see a couple dead wyverns, though only one of which still has wings, a red fox that is now missing its tail and two reindeer, of which only one still has horns. \n\n[[Attach wyvern wings to yourself]]\n\n[[Attach reindeer horns to yourself]]\n\n[[Say that you'll practice later]]

She somehow manages to leap over your kick, while simultaneously closing the distance and stabbing towards your neck with both of her hands. She is closing too fast for you to get out of the way.\n\n[[Grab her wrists and kick her]]\n\n[[Fall over backwards to avoid the attack]]\n\n[[Attempt to tear out her throat, and hope that either she stops to defend herself or she dies first]]

You rush into one of the prostitute's rooms, sharpened fingernails gleaming, and quickly claw her throat out, though not before she let out a blood-curdling scream. You then rush back into the hallway, cutting off the escape of the other prostitutes, and begin clawing through them. Blood flies through the air as you rip out throats or leave large cuts on their chests and gleefully watch them bleed out. Behind you, you see eight intimidating bouncers form up in the hallway, all carrying clubs. You charge at them, and manage to kill three of them, but are eventually overwhelmed and killed.

You spot a lone mage in a hallway with they back to you, so you rush up to them, put one hand over his mouth and the other to his throat in preparation to stab them with your fingernails, and pull them into an empty room. Now that you have kidnapped a mage, you have a choice between trying to get them to return you to hell, or trying to drain their life force.\n\n[[Order them to banish you]]\n\n[[Try to drain their life force]]

About three hours later, near dinnertime, you finish translating the next scroll, and read what it says: "We have found that transforming the body often also transforms the mind, in an amount that appears to be proportional to the amount the body is transformed. After all, without mental changes the person being transformed would be unable to adapt properly to their new form. A few human mages, concerned about corrupting their 'souls', confirmed this problem by creating a spell that specifically stopped the mind from changing even as the body changed, resulting in them losing mind-body coordination and becoming remarkably clumsy. As a result, any competent mutation magic is also a form of mind alteration. However, we have also seen human mages overdue this mind alteration, and cause needless and seemingly quite inconvenient alterations to the mind in an attempt to better match the mind to the body. It is amusing how many of our theories can be tested simply by watching human mages play about with forces they do not understand, though I do sometimes worry that one day they will make a mistake large enough to severely effect even us."\n\nPretty basic mutation theory, but it is interesting to note how much the fae knew about mankind. You should probably look into how the fae managed to gather so much information about human mages, while seemingly being so detached from the human world, but that is a problem for another day. You grab some food at the dining hall, and then [[go to sleep|day2]].

"I can certainly respect a cautious group. How do I know that you will be willing to risk coming to our aid if we are attacked, though?", she replies. \n\n[["We understand that the risks of losing our allies are greater than the risks involved in helping them"]]\n\n[["Any group willing to attack you is clearly a danger to us both, and such threats must be eliminated"]]\n\n[["We would never break our word"]]

You and your master set up a telepathic link with each other, and assume that your opponents have done the same. This way you can discuss each move with each other without letting your opponents know what you are thinking. You and your master begin moving your pieces cautiously, looking for opportunities while making sure to avoid falling into any traps. Your opponents, on the other hand, begin aggressively trying to set up opportunities, seemingly even looking for ways to set up even trades. As you think about it, that makes perfect sense. They have a better understanding of the game than you, but your brain can process things much quicker, and so can better handle the data associated with having two completely full boards. If, on the other hand, you end up with two relatively empty boards, that advantage would cease to be meaningful. You relay your revelation to your master, and you begin to use this to your advantage, constantly pretending to be presenting them an opportunity while in reality never offering them one. Now you have to get them to start falling into your traps, while being careful not to get your pieces in a bad position, fall into one of their traps, or even let them get an even trade. <<if $attract > 5>>Your opponents are obviously finding your beauty quite distracting, and start falling into even some of your most obvious traps. With them quickly running out of pieces, you and your master manage to trap their king in checkmate, despite your inferior chess knowledge. Cheers erupt from around you, not caring that it was your distracting looks and not your brain that won you the match.<<else if $attract > 4>>Your opponents seem to find you fairly distracting, but still manage to play decently well. The match drags on for hours, as each of you carefully avoids each other's traps. About three hours into the match, your opponents finally start to make mistakes. Presumably their minds have started to get tired. It takes another two hours for you to finally finish off your opponents. Cheers fill the hall as you declare checkmate, and after the match someone donates a leather-bound play by play account of your game to the guild's library, which unbeknownst to you will become one of the library's most popular books.<<else if $attract > 3>>Your opponents seem to be finding your beauty somewhat distracting, but still manage to play quite well. The match drags on for hours, but eventually you find that your opponents have managed to get you into a bad position, and you end up losing several pieces. You continue fighting on against the odds at this point, but after another couple of hours they manage to force you into a couple even trades, and that leaves you with too few pieces to feasibly win. Still determined to avoid losing, even if you can't win, you eventually manage to trick your opponents into causing a draw.<<else>>Your looks are not quite distracting enough to save you, and in the end your opponents' superior chess knowledge proves triumphant, though you do at least manage to hold out for three hours. The crowd around you shares their sympathy with you as you and your master stalks away from the chess table in defeat.<<endif>> With your chess match complete, your master [[returns you to hell|he banishes you back to hell]]

"Well, as I am sure you understand, a mere promise is not good enough for us. I am in a good mood, so I will give you another chance. Why should we believe that you are not going to drag us into a war without need?", the leader replies.\n\n[[Assure him that your circle relies on research to increase its power, rather than war|AssureResearch2]]\n\n[[Assure him that your circle is quite cautious by nature, and only starts wars when needed to insure their own safety|AssureCaution2]]

You charge straight forward, deeper into the cave, breaking through the imps and leaving probably a half-dozen dead. You turn to face the remaining imps, and see the other succubi closing in from the other side. The imps panic upon seeing the rest of the group approach, and try to flee further into the cave, but you manage to take out another half-dozen imps as they try to get past you. You take your dozen imps and begin to walk away. The rest of the group seems rather disgruntled, and ask if they can have some of the imps. After being set up as bait, you are feeling decidedly unhelpful, and so decide to tell them to ask your leader for food, if they need to go begging. Your leader would likely provide them with the food, but they would lose much of their remaining respect and power in the process. With that, you [[return to your leader]].

<<if $hairLength is "halfway down your back">>You topple over backwards in your attempt to avoid the attack to your kneck. In the process, you end up flinging your long hair on top of your face and knocking your opponent over. She lands on top of you, straddling your legs, which is clearly a quite dominant position. She takes advantage of the hair covering your face to tear out your throat.<<else>>You topple over backwards in your attempt to avoid the attack to your neck, knocking her over in the process. She lands on top of you, straddling your legs. You can tell that she is now in a quite dominant position. She moves to tear out your throat again.\n\n[[Attempt to grab her wrists]]\n\n[[Put one of your left foot on the outside of hers and quickly twist left, towards her wounded leg]]\n<<endif>>

You tell your daughter, "You must never run away from a fight that you could win. Running away is often quite perilous. Not only could your enemies catch up to you and kill you, but even if you escape them you will have left your allies behind, and find yourself alone among a hostile neighborhood, doomed to either be hunted down or be eaten by darkhounds. On the other hand, if you fight with all of your heart and mind, without allowing yourself to be afraid, you may win a fight against the odds simply by intimidating your opponents into running away, for they will expect you to run away when things start going badly. If you follow this advice, you will become a great warrior." \n\nShe thinks on your words and finally replies, "Very well, I shall stand my ground unless I know it is hopeless, and never give up when I still have a chance." It seems that she will become a quite fierce warrior indeed. [[You and your daughter finish eating your imps in silence, and then go to sleep]].\n\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>>

You decide to make your breasts a normal human size. You figure those will be hard enough to get used to, although they are going to make it a little harder to seduce mortals, if you ever need to do so.\n\n<<set $breastSize to "average-sized for a human">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

You walk about fifteen minutes before you find the circle you are looking for. There are fifteen succubi in the circle. These succubi have pure white hair, unlike the black hair that is traditional, leaving them entirely monocolored. Otherwise, they look fairly typical for middle-class succubi. You walk over to their leader, and suggest the idea of working together to overthrow the Royal Circle. <<if $allies is false>>She begins giggling uncontrollably, and replies, "You want to take on the Royal Circle, after being forced to allow battle succubi to join you to protect yourself against a lesser circle? I am not sure which is harder to believe, that you are trying to destroy them despite being so weak as to be completely beneath their notice, or that they are bothering to destroy a group as pathetic as yours, but clearly one of those must be the case. If the latter, they must have grown bored after all actual threats to them were destroyed, and fallen prey to their emotions. In either case, it is clear that you are in little position to defeat them, and you must think us fools to suggest joining in your destruction."\n\nYou return to your circle to report the bad news. Apparently your fellow succubi had equally bad luck, leaving you alone against the Royal Circle. No doubt you have lost the element of surprise by this point, as well as entirely too much time, leaving you with no chance of defeating the Royal Circle. You and your fellow succubi scatter, to try to improve your chances of surviving the Royal Circle's inevitable attack, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren accompanying you, and the rest going in completely different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.\n<<else>>She replies in a curious tone of voice, "And why would we want to destroy the Royal Circle? It has eliminated many of our potential enemies, and allowed us to live in relative peace and power. Besides, that would be an extremely risky thing to do indeed."\n\n[[Suggest that the Royal Circle will come after them next, after you and your allies are destroyed]]\n\n[["The Royal Circle is crippling your potential"]]\n\n[[Suggest that by defeating the Royal Circle, they would gain great power]]\n<<endif>>

The succubus replies, "On the contrary, it is very much your problem. You have convinced us that there will be a cost to attacking you, however you have failed to convince us that there is a better alternative, and thus we must go through with our original plans. Thus, your entire circle must be exterminated. I do, however, have a deal for you. If you flee now and leave the neighborhood entirely, without returning to your circle or telling anyone about your failure, we will not pursue you. Otherwise, you will be hunted down and killed, along with the rest of your circle, and anyone foolish enough to aid you."\n\n[[Warn your circle about your failure]]\n\n[[Take the chance to flee]]

"Ah... I see what you are doing. You wish to convince each of us that war between us is inevitable, so that we destroy each other, leaving the way clear for your circle to come to power. Cunning, but old-fashioned. And to think that it might have worked if you had been a better diplomat... Inqwithine, go tell the Black Circle what is going on, and suggest that they join us in destroying this succubus' circle", the leader replies. A succubus, presumably named Inqwithine, runs off obediently. You rush back to your circle to [[report the bad news]].

She replies, "We shall ready our battle demons, though if there are not at least twenty others standing at our side, we will not attack and will forget any mention of an alliance. If, however, you do manage to gather that many battle demons, we shall be your allies and help you to destroy the Royal Circle."\n\nYou return to your circle, to report the news. Three of other succubi sent out to recruit allies for your assault succeeded, leaving you with a total of 39 battle demons among you, your new allies, and the circles you saved from the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle. You promptly send these battle demons to attack the Royal Circle. A few hours later, thirteen battle demons return, including two of your circle's four battle demons, with the rest having died in the fighting. Grithdren tells you that the Royal Circle managed to ally itself with two other circles, and your battle demons were forced to shatter the strength of all three circles. He also informs you that afterwards, they hunted down and slaughtered all the succubi in all three circles. Though you have suffered heavy casualties, you have destroyed the Royal Circle and their allies.\n\nWith the Royal Circle gone, you quickly form a powerful network of alliances, and your network of allies becomes the most powerful group in the neighborhood, taking the place of the Royal Circle. When Ithrenda returns a few days later, just as suddenly as she vanished, she is impressed by what you managed to accomplish, and formally names you her second in command. When you her about her trip to the mortal world, she explains that she was summoned by a minor noble to serve as his advisor. Apparently, she helped this noble frame several rival nobles for treason and seize their land, while secretly gathering enough evidence to be able to destroy her master if she wished to do so. She also managed to learn a great deal about mortal politics in the process. \n\nOver the next several years, you and your allies ensure the destruction of troublesome circles long before they grow to become true threats, and the neighborhood becomes fairly stable and peaceful, allowing your circle to focus on its research. Without the continuous threat from more violent circles, most of the circles no longer feel a need to be particularly powerful, making your network quite secure in its position of power. Eventually, you end up meeting a fierce battle demon, who you end up taking as your mate. He seems brave and loyal enough, and your circle was short on mated battle demons. Now having a mate, you grab your own patch of rock, and are no longer reliant on Grithdren for food and protection, not that Grithdren ever minded feeding and protecting an extra person. \n\nOne day, you discover a cute succubus that appears to be about ten years old, sitting alone on a relatively smooth stretch of rock. When you ask where her parents are, she informs you that both of her parents are dead, and politely asks you to adopt her. She has smooth black hair which flows halfway down her back, smooth and elegant fingernails, flawless pale skin, tiny ivory horns, and an elegant black dress. You don't think she can take care of herself yet, and have some doubts about whether anyone else would be willing to take care of her if you refuse to adopt her.\n\n[[Agree to adopt her|Adopt2]]\n\n[[Leave her to die|LeaveToDie2]]

About twenty minutes later, you find the Red Claw in the middle of a sparring session, with all of them except their leader fighting one on one viciously. It seems their style of training is a bit more fierce and less controlled than that of your own group. The succubi of the Red Claw possess a rather feral version of beauty, even compared to the other battle succubi you have met. Their short hair seems unkempt, they have let their fingernails grow into vicious claws (which throws off the ascetics of their hands), their horns are unusually large and sharp, and their breasts are relatively small, but they are still somehow attractive. You suspect that most mortals would go into a fight or flight response upon seeing one of these succubi, though, rather than being seduced. \n\nYou greet the leader, and explain your proposal. "If you want us to join your group, then you will have to prove yourself worthy. Forming a larger group might make us safer, but we cannot afford to let ourselves get weighed down by weak succubi, otherwise pretty soon we'll trouble hunting enough food, and that would be a much larger problem. If you can defeat me in single combat, we shall join your group. Otherwise, we shall have to wait for a more worthy group", she replies. This is going to be a hard fight, she looks like a much more experienced fighter than you, but you wouldn't have been sent on this mission unless could succeed, considering your group's already small numbers. You mentally prepare yourself, and then [[begin the duel]].

"What makes you want to be allies with us badly enough to want to save us before even starting negotiations?", the leader asks suspiciously. \n\n[["The Royal Circle is likely to interfere with our plans in the future, but together we could defeat them"]]\n\n[["We knew we needed to demonstrate our own worth before you would agree, and could use some more allied battle demons"]]\n\n[["Our reasons are our own"]]

You notice that this group of succubi each have a rather impressive collection of scars covering their bodies, and one of them is actually wearing a black fur eyepatch over one of their eyes. Apparently they have seen some hard times. As you are walking, they explain that their hunting technique is to send one succubus into the cave to lure the imps out, and then rescue that succubus from the imps, massacring the imps in the process. You can tell just from the description that this method could also easily serve as a convenient way to dispose of someone the group didn't like, and that having this as their standard hunting technique forces everyone to get along for their own safety. You also suspect that it works better for caves that are too large to block off with your bodies. Still, it sounds like the succubus acting as bait could easily get seriously hurt, which might explain why the group is covered with networks of scars. After you finish contemplating this, they mention that this time you will be serving as bait. You are tempted to argue, but you realize that you are effectively the most junior member of this hunting group, and thus your attempts to argue would only make you look like a fool. They also inform you that their hunting rules are that the hunter gets to keep all the imps they slay. After about an hour of walking, you arrive at the cave, and the group gestures for you to enter. This cave is about ten feet wide and seven feet tall, with large numbers of dark crevices. You enter the cave, and get about thirty feet into it before several dozen imps fly out at you from all directions.\n\n[[Assume the fetal position]]\n\n[[Stand your ground]]\n\n[[Charge in a direction and try to break free]]\n\n<<if $breastSize is "large even for a succubus">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<else if $breastSize is "average-sized for a succubus">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 2>>\n<<else if $breastSize is "smaller than the average succubus', but larger than the average human's">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<else if $breastSize is "small even for a human">>\n<<set $attract to $attract - 1>>\n<<endif>>

You return to your circle in defeat, and tell them the bad news. After a short debate, you decide to scatter, with Iltara, Iltratha and Grithdren deciding to follow you, and the rest going in different directions. Eventually a pair of demon lords hunts you down, one of which attacks Grithdren while the other charges at you. You see the demon lord slash down viciously at your head, feel a burst of excruciating pain, and immediately lose consiousness. You never wake up.

<<if $allies is true>>You try to explain that you are no threat to the Royal Circle, and just want to be left alone to your research. One of the "royal" succubi replies, "We left you alone to your research for years, but it seems you are no simple research circle now. Instead, you have begun manipulating local affairs, leading to the destruction of a pair of quite powerful circles, and allying with quite a few other circles. While we are glad that those particular circles are gone, it demonstrates a disturbing amount of power. Don't try to deny your network of alliances, we didn't get where we are today by failing to notice what is happening in our own neighborhood. Perhaps your intentions are peaceful enough, but yout circle is growing too powerful to let survive, especially with a leader such as Ithrenda. She is both quite cunning and extremely ambitious. She may preach caution, but despite her patience and subtlety she is actually one of the most ambitious succubi alive, and will pose a very significant threat if she is not dealt with. I do, however, have a deal for you. If you flee now and leave the neighborhood entirely, without returning to your circle or telling anyone about your failure, we will not pursue you. Otherwise, you will be hunted down and killed, along with the rest of your circle, and anyone foolish enough to aid you."\n\n[[Explain that Ithrenda has been summoned, and argue that therefore they don't need to worry about her]]\n\n[[Warn your circle about your failure]]\n\n[[Take the chance to flee]]\n<<else>>You explain that you are no threat to the Royal Circle, and just want to be left alone to your research. One of the "royal" succubi replies, "To back off now would damage our reputation, as well as keeping around a group that now has good reason to be quite disgruntled at us. If you are so weak as to pose no threat to us, then why should we suffer the risk and embarrassment associated with letting you live?"\n\n[["As you only destroy circles that you think might threaten you, attacking such a weak circle as us would imply great weakness on your part"]]\n\n[["Because it would make many other circles fear similar attacks, and force them to work together to deal with you"]]\n\n[["Because our allies would make you regret that"]]\n<<endif>>

The next few weeks pass peacefully enough, and you find yourself getting used to your new life. You finding yourself explaining more and more about the mortal world to your circle, rewarded with the occassional bit of information you are interested in, in addition to the protection and food Ithrenda is offering you. Iltara and Iltratha continue to come up with various embarrassing but earnest questions to ask you, including the details of your sex life (which you have to make up completely to hide the fact that you have never had sex, which would lead to questions that you are not ready to answer), your greatest mistakes and how you corrected from them (you modify these to make sense for a succubus, but otherwise tell the truth), your family (to which you admit that you were orphaned at an early age and never got to know your parents, though you decline to mention that the inquisition was responsible for their deaths), and why you don't have a mate yet (you are not quite sure how to reply to this question, but end up deciding to reply that none of them wanted you, and that you eventually calculated that you were better off going on without one rather than essentially announcing your own failings to the world, which earns you some sympathetic words and some theorizing about how foolish those demons must have been to reject you). \n\nYou are actually coming to rather enjoy their questions, even if you end up having to lie in your answers to many of them and find some of them quite embarrassing, and find yourself growing close to them and their mother. You know that they would betray you in an instant if that was in their best interest, but you feel confident that your friendship will remain mutually beneficial, and feel like they actually do care about you, even if they won't allow themselves to let that cloud their judgement. You do not see the archmage or guildmaster during this time, with them presumably busy with their own plans. \n\nOne day, as you are returning home with Ithrenda for dinner, you feel an invisible force grab you and pull you at incredible speed. The entire world around you vanishes instantly, replaced by a black, cold emptiness with entire worlds whizzing by in the distance. Drawing on your knowledge of planar theory, you know that you are rapidly being pulled through planes of existence, presumably towards the mortal world. After about a minute, you find yourself come to a stop in the middle of a summoning circle in what appears to be an underground supply room. <<if $SoS is true>>You see a single mage before you in sapphire blue robes, and after a moment you recognize that he is the same mage that you had to save a while back from the demon lord he summoned. Looking down, you see that his summoning circles have improved considerably since then. Apparently nearly being killed by a demon provides good motivation for making sure your summoning circles have the correct binding runes so that the demon cannot escape.<<else>>You see a single mage before you in a brilliant red robe that you do not recognize. He is almost certainly not from your guild. Looking down you see that he forgot to add the runes of binding, so you can leave the circle freely, and might be able to kill the mage before he realized his mistake.<<endif>>\n<<if $SoS is true>>\n[[Tell the mage that you are a fellow mage from his guild, and turned yourself into a demon to escape]]<<else>>\n[[Kill the mage]]<<endif>>\n\n[[Allow him to proceed to forming a pact with you]]

You tell them that a succubus tried to convince you that the Royal Circle was going to attack you, but that you don't believe a word of it, and wanted to warn them in case other succubi tried to spread similar lies. One of the "royal" succubi thanks you for your warning, and you depart back to your circle, convinced that the threat was averted. The next day, the Royal Circle's six demon lords and two dozen angry-looking battle demons attack you during your meeting. Apparently the succubus who tried to warn you was telling the truth after all. You and your fellow succubi scatter, but when you ask your allies to launch a counterattack, they conveniently forget that you were ever allied, having no wish to fight against the Royal Circle. When the demon lords start to catch up, Grithdren heroicly holds them off while you, Iltara and Iltratha get away. You leave the neighborhood, having no wish to rely on the mercy of the Royal Circle. A few days later, you are eaten by a pack of darkhounds, having no one left to protect you.

"We might be ambitious, but we are not yet ready to take on the Royal Circle itself, and I very much doubt that you are. To suggest such an idea you must be either insane or trying to get us killed. Either case makes me distrust you. It seems likely that you merely want us and the Black Circle to destroy each other, which is one of the oldest tricks in the book", the leader replies. He then sends a succubus to go talk to the Black Circle to tell them of the situation, and that he has no wish to fight them. You know that this will cause Ithrenda's plan to unravel, and suspect that both the Black Circle and the Ascendant Circle will attack your circle for trying to set them against each other. You rush back to [[report the bad news]].

The succubus replies, "I don't think you are in any position to negotiate, after all, your survival relies entirely on our whims. Publicly signing an equal alliance treaty with another circle would cause us a great loss in power and prestige. On the other hand, if we kept it secret we would be implying that your circle's power level is completely fine, which would encourage many other circles to grow and become more ambitious, as well as forming increasingly large systems of alliances. This would leave us having to destroy increasingly powerful circles in order to retain our position, which would take a greater toll on us than simply disposing of your circle. Either way, this cannot work, and since you have rejected our offer, it seems your circle must be eliminated. I do, however, have a deal for you. If you flee now and leave the neighborhood entirely, without returning to your circle or telling anyone about your failure, we will not pursue you. Otherwise, you will be hunted down and killed, along with the rest of your circle, and anyone foolish enough to aid you."\n\n[[Warn your circle about your failure]]\n\n[[Take the chance to flee]]

You quickly follow the mage, who leads you down to the basement at a dead sprint. A couple of anxious minutes later, you burst into a supply room to find a young mage on the ground barely maintaining his protective shield while a twelve foot tall demon lord claws at the shield. You slam a lightning bolt into the demon's chest, causing it to stagger back, and then begin chanting a banishment spell. The demon charges at you, angrily, but the other two mages summon a violent but highly localized wind which manages to slow the demon down sufficiently for you to complete your spell, which opens a portal which sucks the demon back to hell before promptly disappearing. You take a quick glance at the summoning circle, and find a gap in the protective runes. While there is technically no rules against summoning demon lords, or making an improper summoning circle, you know that their reputations would be ruined if word ever got out, which must be why they decided to call you. You have carefully cultivated a reputation for discretion, which is a vital asset when you work with other people's minds. You also suspect that the guildmaster would be less than pleased to learn that there was a demon lord loose in his basement, and it is best to keep the guildmaster in a good mood. The two mages breathlessly thank you for your help, and beg you not to tell anyone. "I don't want to see either of you summoning a demon until you practice your summoning circles for another week, and for goodness sake, don't start by summoning a demon lord. I'll keep your secret, but you owe me one", you reply, and [[return to your research]].

You turn back to your attention back to the scrolls, and release the magic holding the mage in place. The mage quickly recovers and glides down to ground gracefully. A few hours later, you have finished translating the next scroll, and read what it says: "Succubi are not like most demons, who act on blind instinct and rely on their strength for survival. Succubi are in fact quite weak, but are still often considered greater demons due to their cunning schemes and their ability to lie extremely convincingly. Their skill at deceit is greatly enhanced by the complete separation between their body and their emotions. In other words, they can feel one set of emotions, but effortlessly make their body perfectly display a completely different set of emotions, making it impossible to have any idea what a succubus is thinking just by looking at them, unless they wish you to know. Humans rely largely on involuntary body reactions to tell when another human is lying, but succubi do not have involuntary body reactions, their every movement is deliberate while still seeming completely natural. Based both on how cunning their schemes are, and on how many things they decide manually that most other races would leave to the subconscious, we are forced to conclude that succubi have brains with far more computational power than those of mortals, perhaps greater even than our own. It is indeed a pity they are so untrustworthy and so naturally destructive, otherwise they would make for valuable advisors."\n\nReading this scroll you begin to wonder to what degree you are discovering fresh knowledge about demons, and to what degree you are merely rediscovering knowledge that was lost as a result of either language barriers or church interference. The church destroyed any demon-related materials they could get their hands on, destroying centuries of careful research and resulting in the increasing need for new demonic research, ironically resulting in far more demon summonings than likely would have occurred had the church just left the old knowledge intact. It also leaves the world much less able to deal with demonic threats. Your thoughts are interrupted by a young mage bursting into your study and between gasps for air telling you that his friend was cursed, and needs your help now. You tell him to lead the way, and [[quickly follow him]].

It seems that the main topic of interest for today is the fae. It seems that the other succubi have heard legends about the fae, but little in the way of reliable accounts, at which point you decide that you should share what you know about the fae. You explain, "The fae are a cunning and unaging race, living largely in isolated forests. They spend their lives trying to maximize their own pleasure, and will go to great lengths to keep themselves entertained. Rather than death being the enemy they fear, instead it is boredom they fear most, though they are still generally more cautious than humans. They seem to reproduce quite slowly, and I have never heard of one of the fae having more than four children despite some of them living for thousands of years. Due to a combination of this slow reproduction and conflicts with the church, their numbers have been steadily dwindling. Those who survive keep to the deepest parts of their own forests, having no wish to get tied up in mortal affairs. At some point they seem to managed to get a quite surprising amount of information on humans and demons alike, including information on what we eat here, how we drain life force from mortals, how we think, and what effects summoning us has on a demonologist and the mortal world. That information was gathered long ago, so it is unclear whether they are still gathering such information. Due to their isolation, it is hard to say how many of them still remain, or how powerful they might be." You then tell them that the first master who summoned you was quite interested in the fae, to explain how you know his information. Ithrenda thanks you for the information, and the rest of the meeting is spent speculating about the power and disposition of the remaining fae.\n\nAfter the meeting, as you are walking back to your private patch of rock, your daughter asks you what you think of humans. While this is a broad question, you think what she really wants to know is what the relationship between a succubus and a human is. \n\n[[Tell her that humans are enemies to be fought and destroyed]]\n\n[[Tell her that humans are prey to be eaten as needed]]\n\n[[Tell her that humans are people just like her or yourself]]

You manage to reach your circle about a half an hour later, and tell them that the Ascendant Circle and the Black Circle are likely going to work together to destroy you, and tell them all to run. You decline to mention how you know this, and why this is going to occur, but you are pretty sure that your fellow succubi can guess. You and the rest of your circle scatter in different directions, trying to make it harder for them to catch you all. A couple hours later, a group of twenty angry battle demons finds you alone on a barren stretch of rock, who promptly you apart.

The succubus contemplates your words, and eventually replies, "Perhaps such an agreement could be reached, though not as equal allies. Instead, you would be obligated to help in any wars we become involved with in any way, whereas we would only protect you from wars you did not start. In other words, the traditional slanted alliance, such as you made with the circles you liberated from the Ascendant Circle and the Black Circle." The Royal Circle is known to attack other circles rather frequently, in order to retain their own power, so this agreement would lead to you being dragged into many wars you want nothing to do with, while not allowing you to use the Royal Circle's might to keep other potential allies in line. It is not exactly ideal, but may be the best you are going to get, and you cannot afford to get in a war with the Royal Circle.\n\n[[Insist on a purely defensive alliance]]\n\n[[Insist on a full military alliance]]\n\n[[Accept her terms]]

"If you get caught in an outright lie, people will generally become quite angry and stop trusting you. This combination is extremely dangerous, as it creates an enemy while simultaneously depriving you of your most important tool, leaving you at the mercy of your new enemy. Every lie you tell is a dam, which if it fails will cause much more destruction than it prevented, so they are to be avoided. Instead, you use half-truths. Tell them things that are true, but in such a way that leads them to make whatever assumptions you need to. Mortals make all sorts of foolish assumptions on their own, give them a little help at this and you will be amazed by how delusional you can make them. If they realise that you have deceived them, you can truthfully explain that everything you said was true, and that they merely jumped to an incorrect conclusion based on your words, which will eliminate much of their anger and redirect a good chunk of their remaining anger at themselves. While this is still less than ideal, it is much less dangerous than being caught lying outright", you explain to your daughter. She thanks you for your explanation, and then [[you both go to sleep]].\n\n<<set $skill to $skill + 1>>\n<<set $loyalty to $loyalty + 1>>

Your opponent tries to deflect your right arm with her arm, but you nimbly move your arm down beneath it and threaten to cut her chest. She moves to defend her chest, though you are not quite sure whether or not she would be able to successfully block it had you actually intended to go there. You then try to claw her throat out, but she steps back and slashes her claws deeply into the insides of your wrists, which begin to bleed profusely. She then takes advantage of your injuries to launch into a whirlwind of attacks. You struggle to block, but your hands are not responding as quickly as you need them to. Soon she manages to cut you in countless places on your upper body with her claws, and you find yourself slowing down even further from your new injuries. She takes advantage of this to get inside your guard and rip your throat out. You fall to the ground, clutching your throat as you bleed out.

Dinner consists of another darkhound, which the four of you split between you. Apparently Grithdren is a pretty reliable hunter. While you are eating, Ithrenda says, as if to herself, "One of the other succubi circles is likely to attack us soon, we are a lot more influential than our small set of battle demons would indicate, due to our possession of some quite valuable research, leaving us an ideal target for a reckless circle that wants to clear the way for their own rise to power. However, we cannot afford to show weakness by having our own battle demons there, we must appear unafraid of the struggles ahead, and carry on as if nothing was wrong. When we are attacked, we will need to scatter and gather our allies, and then destroy every single demon affiliated with the offending circle. That way, no one will try something like this again for a while, and others should be much more cautious when considering attacking us in the future." The rest of the dinner is eaten in silence, as you contemplate her words, and then you [[go to sleep|sleep3]].

Ithrenda replies, "As you are aware, pacts with demonologists consist of a series of vows that the warlock makes you swear under a spell of binding. Any vows you make under such a spell are enforced by and paid for by the life force provided by the mage. One of the best way to manipulate the pact is to swear oaths that are close enough to what the demonologist requested that they will not think anything of the difference, but will allow you a bit more freedom. Each of these deviations must be carefully calculated, if you press your luck too far your demonologist will almost certainly insist on you reciting all future oaths word for word, and will keep a very close eye on you in future. One of my personal favorites is swearing to only harm my master if he ordered me to do so, rather than simply swearing never to harm my master. Most demonologists will think little of this, only for a few of them to order me to do something which will cause them great harm, leaving me with a greatly weakened master and plenty of delicious life force." \n\nIthrenda continues after a brief pause, "Similarly, swearing to protect your master unless they order you to do otherwise is a useful little trick, which almost all demonologists will accept. In addition to the obvious instance of your master ordering you specifically not to interfere in a fight, if they previously ordered you to go do something else, you can often choose not to save your master, and instead to continue doing whatever they previously ordered you to do. Overall, when manipulating your vows you want what you swear to seem more useful to the demonologist than what they told you to swear, while also making them less restrictive. And as always, remember that you are only held to the words of your vows, never their spirit."\n\nAfter another short pause, Ithrenda says, "If a demonologist becomes unable to supply any of the life force that is used to sustain the pact, you will be freed from all of your vows and the pact will be permanantly broken. Similarly, if they foolishly decide to try to maintain it with a smaller amount of life force than is required, you will be able to break your vows with sufficient force of will. If the mage proceeds to pour sufficient life force into the bond, though, your vows will become binding. Never suggest a demonologist put less of their life force into maintaining the pact, however, as it will make even rather reckless ones extremely suspicious. They must make such mistakes from honest stupidity, though you can sometimes pressure them into making such errors by taking some of their extra life force. Such life force theft must be done carefully, though, since it will make some demonologists quite nervous or angry." She then [[takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].\n\n<<set $pact to true>>

"And what will you share with us in exchange for such knowledge?", Ithrenda asks. You offer to share knowledge about recent events in the mortal world in exchange, and tell her that you have only just returned to hell. Ithrenda accepts your offer, and tells you, "As you are aware, pacts with demonologists consist of a series of vows that the warlock makes you swear under a spell of binding. Any vows you make under such a spell are enforced by and paid for by the life force provided by the mage. One of the best way to manipulate the pact is to swear oaths that are close enough to what the demonologist requested that they will not think anything of the difference, but will allow you a bit more freedom. Each of these deviations must be carefully calculated, if you press your luck too far your demonologist will almost certainly insist on you reciting all future oaths word for word, and will keep a very close eye on you in future. One of my personal favorites is swearing to only harm my master if he ordered me to do so, rather than simply swearing never to harm my master. Most demonologists will think little of this, only for a few of them to order me to do something which will cause them great harm, leaving me with a greatly weakened master and plenty of delicious life force. Similarly, swearing to protect your master unless they order you to do otherwise is a useful little trick, which almost all demonologists will accept. In addition to the obvious instance of your master ordering you specifically not to interfere in a fight, if they previously ordered you to go do something else, you can often choose not to save your master, and instead to continue doing whatever they previously ordered you to do. Overall, when manipulating your vows you want what you swear to seem more useful to the demonologist than what they told you to swear, while also making them less restrictive. And as always, remember that you are only held to the words of your vows, never their spirit"\n\nIthrenda pauses briefly before saying, "If a demonologist becomes unable to supply any of the life force that is used to sustain the pact, you will be freed from all of your vows and the pact will be permanantly broken. Similarly, if they foolishly decide to try to maintain it with a smaller amount of life force than is required, you will be able to break your vows with sufficient force of will. If the mage proceeds to pour sufficient life force into the bond, though, your vows will become binding. Never suggest a demonologist put less of their life force into maintaining the pact, however, as it will make even rather reckless ones extremely suspicious. They must make such mistakes from honest stupidity, though you can sometimes pressure them into making such errors by taking some of their extra life force. Such life force theft must be done carefully, though, since it will make some demonologists quite nervous or angry. Now then, what has been going on in the mortal world lately?"\n\nYou tell her about how your guild ran afoul of the inquisition and was attacked after discovering a way to turn humans into succubi, and also how most of the guild escaped, but is presumably in hiding. You carefully hide the fact that some of the guild members descended into hell. You also mention how the church is cracking down on smuggling of inquisition-grade holy water. Ithrenda thanks you for trading information with her. She then invites you to join the circle to share knowledge and protect each other. Realizing that hell is a dangerous place to be without friends, [[you gladly accept]].\n\n<<set $pact to true>>

"Well, I suppose as long as your circle isn't starting any wars, a group attacking you would be a general threat, and it is good to have allies at times like these. A defensive alliance will be acceptable, for now", the leader replies. You manage to convince the other two circles to become defensive allies of your circle as well, using similar arguments, and then [[return to report your success]].

You follow the rest of the battle succubi towards the cliffs, walking past around a hundred disapproving succubi, as well as a similar number of [[battle demons]]. As you are walking, they inform you that you are hunting imps, and that due to their wings, speed and surprise will be crucial. About an hour later, you arrive at the cliffs, and quietly approach a small cave from the side. The cave appears to be about four feet wide, six feet tall, and twenty feet deep. One of the succubi carefully looks into the cave, and then signals for the rest of you to approach. When you are all gathered directly to the side of the cave, she whispers to you to attack when she tells you to. \n\nYou all wait, anxiously, until she shouts, "Now! Get those imps!" and you all charge into the cave, blocking off escape with your bodies. The imps desperately fly at you, some trying to slip in between you and escape, while others attack head-on with their small claws. You and your fellow succubi start ripping them from the air, sharpened fingernails tearing into their exposed wings and throats. The imps are only about a foot tall, and are much more lightly build than succubi, and as a result fall pretty quickly in the assault. In the end, you end up with about a dozen dead imps after only minor injuries. You split the imps between you, with you receiving two of them. You then follow them back to where you met them, where you [[enjoy a well-earned feast]].\n\n<<set $FirstBattleTransform to false>>

Unfortenately, no one else seems to be coming up with a brilliant idea as fireballs continue to fly at you. Some of the fireballs begin to hit, and succubi go down screaming in pain all around you, a few even bursting into flames after being hit by several fireballs in quick succession. Soon, a few succubi begin to flee, quickly followed by the rest of your group. With all your allies fleeing for their lives, and six angry demon lords in front of you, you have no choice but to try to follow, but you are caught by several fireballs in the back and burst into flames. You fall to the ground, writhing in agony for a few seconds before you pass out from the pain. You never wake up.

"It seems that you are quite wise, at least should your warning prove accurate, in which case you will find yourself with a very enviable alliance. If you were lying, however, you will not leave this place alive. Inqwithine, go check it out. In the meantime, we had better prepare to launch a preemptive strike. First half, fetch your battle demons", the leader says. About half the circle runs off in various directions, all but one of them presumably fetching their battle demons. The others form around you, preventing you from leaving. You hope Ithrenda did her part, otherwise you are going to die. About an hour later, Inqwithine returns, and reports that the Black Circle is preparing a preemptive strike. The leader thanks you for your warning, and lets you [[return to your circle to report the good news]].\n\n<<set $suggestedAlliance to true>>

She smiles happily, and promises that she will make you proud of her. When you ask her what her name is, she tells you that she is called Imethra. You lead her back to your group, and announce that you have decided to adopt her. You then begin her training. You can quickly tell that she has not had any martial training in her life, presumably being protected from all dangers by her mother's mate. However, she works hard and has a natural grace to her movements, which makes you confident that in time she will become a skilled battle succubus. You subject her to the same schedule as the rest of your group, training her during the day and then hunting imps with her in the evening. \n\nAfter one of your practice sessions, Imethra asks you in a quite adorable voice, "Mommy, what is the most efficient way to decapitate someone?" You hope that her question is purely theoretical, as she is not skilled enough for you to be comfortable with her attempting to murder someone. Besides, fights are best avoided when they are not necessary. However, she should learn how to kill someone eventually, and it is better for her to be prepared sooner rather than later. \n\n[[Explain that actually removing a head entirely is needlessly difficult, and that simply slitting the person's throat works much better]]\n\n[[Tell your daughter to let you handle any head removal required]]\n\n[[Ask her if there is any particular reason for her curiousity about head removal]]\n\n<<set $skill to 0>>\n<<set $loyalty to 0>>\n<<set $morality to 0>>

You grab her wrists, pushing them apart and away from your throat. You then pull her towards you while kicking her hard in the chest, causing her to fall foward onto her stomach. You take advantage of the situation to leap on top of her, at which point [[she yields]].

The circle begins discussing one of their latest pieces of research, the human language compilation project. Apparently they have been painstakingly piecing together your language based on reports taken from succubi who have been summoned to your world, and they have made stunning progress. You tell them more about your language, which they are quite grateful for. You eventually begin to grow tired, and ask where you should sleep. You notice that the sky is slightly dimmer than it was before, but shows no sign of ever becoming truly dark. Ithrenda offers to let you sleep beside her and her children, while her mate stands guard. Having no wish to risk sleeping without such protection, you accept the offer, and [[follow Ithrenda to her plot of ground]].

You step back and kick the darkhound as if falls as if it were a ball. However, as soon as your foot hits, you realize you have made a terrible mistake. The darkhound is much too heavy to send flying, and instead your leg becomes trapped beneath it, causing you to fall over backwards in the process. You are now pinned on your back by a hungry-looking darkhound. It bites into your upper legs, causing you to cry out in pain, before it moves up to your neck. You try to slash at it wildly with your fingernails, but between the awkward angle and your fading strength the blows are ineffective. You feel its teeth digging into your throat before you pass out from the pain. You never wake up.

"You'll need to lengthen and sharpen your fingernails in order to properly use our techniques, yours are currently much too short and smooth. You should also shorten your hair at some point, it will get in your way in a fight, and could also be grabbed onto in a fight. However, we shall teach you our techniques now, so that you know them for when your body is ready for them. It will be good to have another fellow battle succubus around", another one of the succubi replies. The succubi then [[begin to teach you their techniques]].

From the papers on the desk, you learn that this is a guild of demonologists. Unlike your old guild, however, this guild does not conduct new research, instead focusing solely on passing down existing information to newer members. You also learn that your master is a senior student. Apparently he is experienced enough to be allowed to summon demons independently, but not experienced enough to teach anyone else. Most of the papers appear to be partially completed homework assignments. As you are already familiar with demonology, you see no need to study his homework, and instead decide to [[start reading a random book from the bookshelf|Start reading a random book from the bookshelf]]

You decide to start summoning your friends to visit you. You force yourself to space out their visits, only summoning a succubus once per week. You start by summoning Ithrenda, who you inform that you were temporarily a succubus of her circle. She replies that she always knew there was something different about you, but she didn't realize that humans could turn into demons. You explain that you only discovered the technique recently, and it is still not publicly known. You then ask if she is upset that you tricked her into thinking that you were a succubus. Ithrenda starts laughing at this, and after she has recovered replies, "You are the most interesting person I have ever met. You spent a month as one of us, seeing just how cold-hearted we all are, and how naturally we decieve people, and yet you are worried about my feelings for hiding that you were born a human? You might not have been born a succubus, and might not be a succubus now, but you very much were a succubus at the time. The lies you told were done masterfully, almost as well as my own. Besides, who could better explain to us how a human thinks than a human? Unlike many of your fellows, we are willing to accept almost anyone as long as it is in our best interest to do so, and you provided us very valuable information indeed, as well as helping us with some of our more delicate work. If you ever find yourself feeling homesick, feel free to return, we would be honored to have you among us again. Just think of how much fun we could have together, now that we know you think of yourself as a human. Otherwise, feel free to summon me anytime, you know where to find me, and your life force tastes delicious. Perhaps you can explain more details about magic in the future." You know that her comment about the tastiness of your life force should make you nervous, but for some reason you instead feel a mixture of pride and arousal at her words.\n\nOver the next two years, you summon various members of your circle, but summon Ithrenda and her daughters much more often than anyone else. You have Ithrenda provide you her insights and satisfy your more carnal desires, both of which she does expertly. She finds a new way to pleasure you each time, and you find yourself impressed by her creativity in addition to her skill. You also have her keep you updated about how things are going in hell, and you learn that the Royal Circle decided to take an interest in her circle, so she was forced to form further alliances and destroy them, leaving her circle as one of the most powerful remaining circles. In turn, you provide her plenty of life force and share much of what you know with her. You let Iltara and Iltratha ask you their embarrassing questions, a few of which cause you to blush bright red (which seems to make them quite happy, particularly Iltara, who appears to find nothing more enjoyable in the world than to make you blush as deeply as possible), though this time you answer all of their questions honestly. They are particularly curious about what it is like to be a human, and what you thought of being a succubus and living in hell. \n\nYou find yourself living for these visits, and are often find yourself daydreaming of your succubi friends while performing some of the less interesting parts of your research. Eventually, you find yourself growing quite weak from your summonings, and your fellow mages inform you that you have to stop, and that you have already used up all but about a year of your life. Reluctantly, you stop summoning your friends, and perform what little research you are still able to do. When you are confined to your bed due to your weakness, and know that your death is at hand, you call in what favors people owe you to have them summon your friends to meet you. You and your friends reflect back on your time together. Not wishing to die alone, you have them take the last shreds of your life force before they leave. You lived a relatively short life, but you enjoyed it, and in the end you died among the few people you truly cared about.

You find your succubi circle discussing a set of other, larger circles that are getting a bit ambitious. Apparently, a few are seriously considering eliminating some of their competition to clear the way for them to increase their own power. The succubi say that they will likely cause a fair bit of damage before the Royal Circle intervenes, including possibly killing all of you.<<if $politics is false>> Based on the context, it seems that the Royal Circle is a powerful succubus circle that intervenes when another group gets too ambitious or powerful, but it sounds like they can be a bit slow to act at times.<<endif>> In light of this, your circle has come to the conclusion that you should form a defensive alliance with some of the more cautious circles, considering that your circle only has four battle demons to call upon. After they reach this conclusion, though, there is some debate as to who should be sent to negotiate this alliance with the other succubi circles. A couple of the succubi suggest that Ithrenda should go, but the rest argue that that would be too risky under the circumstances, with it being entirely too likely that someone would try to kill her while she was away from both her mate and her circle. The other three mated succubi are eliminated from consideration for similar reasons. Iltara and Iltratha are eliminated from consideration due to lack of experience, leaving just you and six other succubi still under consideration. In the end you are selected, with the other succubi stating explanations to the effect that you must be quite the negotiator to survive as long as you have without learning how to fight or mating. You suspect the real reason is that they consider you more expendable than the other succubi. Ithrenda tells you where to find the three succubi circles which you should talk to, which are all known for their caution and stability. With that, [[you leave to talk to the circles]].

You dress, and decide to break a few things in your room and leave through the window as a small act of revenge. That way, the manager will suspect that his other employees did something to you, and will eventually learn the truth. It is early morning, so the streets are relatively empty, but you still don't want to risk remaining on them too long. Looking around, but seeing no better option, you decide to [[enter the tavern|Enter the tavern]]

You decide to take their offer, and run for your life, abandoning your circle to their fate. You leave the neighborhood, having no wish to risk being hunted down by the Royal Circle. You are fairly certain that they would carry out their threat if they needed to, in order to maintain their reputation and to prevent anyone else from crossing them in the near future. Having no idea how to hunt for food, and having no one to keep watch while you sleep, you quickly become both hungry and tired. A few days later, you collapse from exhaustion and are eaten by a pack of darkhounds.

You decide to make your breasts downright huge, seeing that you have never heard about anyone complaining about a woman having too large of breasts, but your resulting body feels even more unfamiliar than it did before.\n\n<<set $breastSize to "large even for a succubus">>\n\n[[Return|transform yourself]]

The mage reveals that the necklace came from his [[nihilmancer]] girlfriend, and says that she must have figured out that he cheated on her. Sighing, you reply, "Never, ever, ever cheat on a [[nihilmancer]]. The few survivors of that order are extremely vengeful, and are masters of various dark arts, including cursing. You should consider faking your own death, it would make your life easier for the next few years. In any case, do not open any more packages from her, and do not touch anything containing a ruby that you have not carefully checked for magic in the future." The mage nods sadly, and seems to be seriously reconsidering several of his life choices. Figuring he could use some time to sort out his life, you [[return to your work|Return to your work]].

"A curious thing for you to be interested in, but I happen to know the answers you seek", a succubus called Ijrethora replies. Ijrethora pauses before saying, "Unlike the rest of demons, imps do not eat other demons or drain life force in order to survive. Instead, they derive their energy from the heat and sulfur in the air, slightly cooling it in the process. Over the centuries, this results in a decrease in temperatures. While this change has been hard to quantify given its slow progress, at the current rate hell will be the same temperature as the mortal world in about three thousand years. Around this time, I suspect that they will become unable to sustain themselves, and start dying off, which will eventually result in the death of every demon living here as the food chain collapses. However, that is much too far away to bother worrying about now, and I do not think we will see any significant effects in our lifetimes." Ithrenda [[then takes you and her daughters home for dinner]].\n\n<<set $diet to true>>

Ida announces that she will help you with the process, since it is quite difficult to attach wings to yourself. She tells you to remove your robe so she can access your back, which you promptly do, leaving you just in your underwear. You feel a bit awkward standing in the middle of the group of people in just your underwear, but you figure if anyone has a problem with it they can just look away, and it seems a small price to pay for wings. Ida pulls a surgical knife from out of her robes before chants a spell which causes your back to become numb. She explains that the numbing spell should remove most of the pain, but that it will still hurt. \n\nYou are starting to have second thoughts about this idea, but you are too proud to back out now. You feel the knife plunge into the upper right of your back, cutting a small hole, followed by something being inserted into the new hole. You barely restrain yourself from crying out in pain. Ida then tells you to use the spell. You obediently chant the spell, and you feel the wing become part of your body. You repeat the process to attach your left wing. You have to modify your robes in order to accommodate your new wings, and you are still getting used to having wings, but your body accepts them as being a part of you.\n\n[[Try out your wings]]\n\n[[Return to translating scrolls]]\n\n<<set $wings to true>>

You duck under the blow, but in the process stop moving backwards. The battle demon slams into you, sending you falling over backwards. He takes advantage of this by leaping on top of you and pinning you to the ground. The battle demon proceeds to rip your throat out with his claws.

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She looks quite sad at your decision, but tells you that she understands, and doesn't blame you. You find her bones a few days later, with the rest of her body appearing to have been eaten by darkhounds. You live out the rest of your life relatively happily, sharing research and plotting the demise of the occassional enemy, but part of you regrets leaving such a cute little girl to be eaten alive, and wonders what it would have been like to raise her.

You start picking up each of your tools one by one and showing them to the prisoner, and explain what each of them is and what it is used for in turn. You make sure you look positively gleeful about each one, as if causing people unimaginable pain is your greatest joy in the world. "This is a nice assortment of knives, great for making precise incisions. With them I can cover your body with a network of scars without worrying about you bleeding out or peel back just the top layers of your skin, providing all the pain of being flayed alive, but with none of the mess. These pieces of rope might seem innocent enough, but tie them around the right part of you and hang you from it, and it can cause excruciating pain. Hanging men by their phalluses usually works particularly well, especially once you start swinging them. Stronger men than you have broken under such pain. Ah, and here we have the hammer. Not as elegant as some of the other tools we have here, but it is quite nice for shattering fingers and toes, not only proving rather painful but also leaving the victim permanantly crippled. I find that torture is much more effective when the victim realizes that they will never recover, and has to think about how they are going to have to live with their crippled bodies", you tell the prisoner, smiling broadly the whole time.\n\nYou pause briefly to let your words sink in before you continue, "And here we have the thumbscrews, a work of pure genius. Simply attach it to the offending finger, and crank the lever, and it will be slowly crushed, and you will be able to feel each shard forming as your fingerbones slowly shatter. Lastly, we have one of my personal favorites, the fingernail extractor. I find most people take their fingernails very much for granted, but not only is the process of removing them exceedingly painful, but I have heard that it can be quite annoying to go through the rest of your life without them. Now then, which one to use first, so many tempting tools...". The prisoner pretends to be bored by your introductions, but you can tell that you have managed to greatly unnerve him. Luckily, it seems he didn't catch any of your bluffs, such as being able to hang him from his privates (the rope you were given is too thick for that to be possible, even if you knew how to do such a thing) or being able to flay just the upper part of his skin (you don't think anyone has THAT much hand control).\n\n[[Return|Accept the offer]]\n\n<<set $resistance to $resistance - 3>>\n<<set $introductions to true>>

"Ah, you are a fellow research circle? That is good to know, and is quite reassuring. It does leave me with question of how I know you will be willing to risk coming to our aid if we are attacked, though."\n\n[["We understand that the risks of losing our allies are greater than the risks involved in helping them"|NeedAlly2]]\n\n[["Any group willing to attack you is clearly a danger to us both, and such threats must be eliminated"|EliminateThreat2]]\n\n[["We would never break our word"|Word2]]

You see that the battle succubi have already started practicing again, and join in. While you are still much less good at fighting than they are, you feel that you are improving quickly. The day passes much like the previous day, careful practicing followed by a hunt for imps, and feast. This time you are expected to be part of the watch rotation, apparently now being considered a full member of the group. You quickly fall asleep on the smooth rock, until a succubus wakes you up to [[begin your watch]].\n\n<<set $BattleTransform2 to false>>

Ithrenda greets you politely, and then asks if you would be willing to answer a few questions her daughters have. Seeing that she was nice enough to give you a place to sleep, and that getting in her good graces will likely be very helpful, you agree to answer what questions you reasonably can. You suppose you should not have been surprised by their many questions about how to best seduce and please men, and are quite glad that you can now separate your body's reactions from your emotions, otherwise you would be blushing quite impressively. After waiting until they finish asking questions for long enough for you to respond, you begin to answer them as best as you can, while admitting that you are not an expert in such matters yourself. The succubi seem pleased that you answered their questions, but somewhat disappointed in the quality of your responses. You see your fellow mages gathering nearby, so you tell Ithrenda that you'll meet up with her later, and [[go meet up with your guild]].\n\n<<set $CircleTransform1 to false>>

The next morning, before your circle convenes for its daily meeting, your daughter asks you, "Mommy, what sort of humans should I focus on manipulating, if I end up stuck in the mortal world for an extended period? Should I manipulate the rich and powerful, or the lower classes?" Manipulating the rich and powerful is the obvious answer, and one that most would give, but there are downsides to that. People in such high places tend to have rather public lives, so the more of them you manipulate the more likely you are to get unwanted attention. In addition, they tend to be less willing to do stuff for you, will value you less highly and generally be harder to manipulate. However, they are able to do stuff for you that the lower classes would be simply unable to do, such as declare wars or grant you control over lands. On the other hand, the lower classes tend to value their friends quite highly, and also keep a much lower profile. Furthermore, they can do thing requiring subtlety for you, such as slipping a poison you provide into their lord's food, fill you in on their lord's secrets, or steal things for you that you might need. \n\n[[Tell her to focus on the rich and powerful]]\n\n[[Tell her to focus on the lower classes]]\n\n[[Tell her that she actually needs to manipulate a balanced mixture of both]]

You find the succubi engaging in a debate over human theology, which seems to be greatly perplexing them. The main points of discussion seem to be whether god exists, whether god is omnipotent, whether god cares about mortals, whether the church has any special connection to god, and whether people actually believe in him or merely claim to believe in him in order to avoid the wrath of the church. Some of them are arguing that the concept of a god was invented by the church in order to gain power over the ignorant masses, while others seem to think that the existence of divine magic would imply the existence of a god. \n\nThe first group announces their belief that the so-called divine magic is just a subset of arcane magic that the church has carefully hidden from the masses. You never would have expected a group of unrepentant demons to be discussing matters of theology, but you realize that understanding the nature of god, faith, and the church would greatly help them weaken the church, as well as helping protect themselves from the inquisition. As you think about it a bit more, you also realize that much of the human sense of right and wrong is heavily influenced by theology, and so by understanding theology they will be able to better understand human thought. You have no love for the church after they attacked your peaceful guild of research mages, and also want to further demonstrate your worth to your fellow demons, so you decide explain your own understanding of theology and the church. \n\n"From my time in the mortal world, I have learned enough about divine magic to know that it is indeed different from normal arcane magic. Arcane magic pulls its power from the users body and the surrounding world, whereas divine magic draws from some source outside of the mortal world. The church claims this source is god, but it could just as easily come from another dimension. It has also been found that many of those that use divine magic cannot use arcane magic, even if taught, which would imply that it is a different power entirely. The church has a monopoly on divine magic, but it seems to be a matter of restricting knowledge, rather than them being in god's favor. They don't just restrict knowledge of magic though, they also keep their sacred texts in a language that only they and a few others can read so that they can make whatever claims about god are convenient for them at the time without being called out on it.", you explain. \n\nYou pause briefly before continuing, "My master was one of the few people outside the church who could read their texts, and found that the much of what they were teaching the public about god was a lie, leaving the clergy as the only ones that knew the truth about god, if he exists. I would suspect that if god exists and does care about mortals, he is refraining from acting visibly in order to weaken the church, as any evidence of his existence would only strengthen them. In any case, there is no clear evidence one way or another about the existence of god. As for whether people actually believe in him, that seems to be a mix. There are some truly faithful, and many that merely pretend to worship him." Your fellow demons thank you for your explanation and seem to be growing increasingly impressed with your extensive knowledge of the mortal world. You hope your knowledge is not too suspicious, but then again what could they suspect you of? It's not like humans turning into demons is common. You quickly find yourself answering more theological and clerical questions until eventually [[Ithrenda takes you home]].\n\n<<if $hairColor is "black">>\n<<set $attract to $attract + 1>>\n<<endif>>

The succubus looks thoughtful, and eventually replies, "That is a good point. Even though you are the second most powerful circles still surviving, the others might not see it that way, and might think us weak for having to destroy you. Very well, we shall not attack your circle, on the condition that you form no new alliances with anyone, do not recruit any more demons to your group, and avoid trying to take any hostile action against us. We will be watching you, breaking our rules will be punished by prompt extermination. You may go and tell your circle of our decision, but you must not tell anyone else." You return to your circle and tell them of the Royal Circle's decision, and while there is much grumbling about the terms, they are quite relieved to have been spared. The next day, several dozen angry-looking battle demons attack you during your meeting. You and your fellow succubi scatter, but your allies refuse to protect you and promptly forget that you ever had alliances with them. You are almost certain that the Royal Circle is behind both the attack and your allies' betrayal, but you are in no position to do anything about it. Eventually, the battle demons hunt you down and kill you.

Inquisition-grade holy water is blessed by no less than three archbishops, rather than by a mere priest like normal holy water. The water is then stored in a barrel made from sacred wood for several months, instead of being immediately bottled, and is then stored in flasks made from silver freely donated to the church. As a result of this extra care, it is much more potent than common holy water, and also much more valuable. However, unlike normal holy water, which is freely sold and nets the church a decent profit, inquisition-grade holy water is only allowed to be used by the inquisition. This monopoly is one of the main sources of the inquisition's power, since there are a number of threats that can only be solved by inquisition-grade holy water, forcing people to rely on the inquisition. Fortenately, there are always people willing to break such monopolies for the right price, though this price has been becoming increasingly high due to a recent church investigation finding many of the smugglers.\n\n[[Return|quickly follow him]]

Archmage Throst is one of the most experienced mages in the guild, and is considered the world's foremost expert on demons. He is said to have personally summoned and made pacts with every type of demon known to man. The inquisition has declared him to be in league with Satan, and has tried to kill him on several occasions, but the guildmaster decided to shelter him. So far, no inquisitors have dared attack the guild, but after that relations between your guild and the church have been quite hostile. Still, he does provide a wealth of knowledge, and it would be a shame to let that go to waste just because the church doesn't like him.\n\n[[Return|Start]]

"That is unfortenate, I think we really could have helped each other out. Well, good luck avoiding the inquisition. Oh, and don't worry about any trouble from us, my offer was unofficial and thus your refusal does not need to be acted on", he replies, and leaves the tavern. You decide to start flirting with the other patrons, and ask if one of them would like to take you home with them. One of them quickly takes you up on your offer, and takes you home to his small house. You end up having sex with him, both to keep him happy about his decision and to keep you well-stocked on life force, and leave him happily sleeping on his bed. You stay in his house for a couple days, but seeing that he does not seem to be recovering quickly enough to sustain your needs, you end up leaving to find another host. You end up having intercourse with over a dozen people over the course of a month before you stumble into an inquisitor on the street, at which point you are promptly hunted down and killed.