Taylor and the Twisted Game Part 10 (Patreon)

Taylor completed her teleport spell and blinked a couple of times when she went from standing just outside of Stormwind on a cliff in the early evening to the middle of a stone room with half a dozen people standing around a couple of braziers chatting. "Huh, not quite what I was expecting."

"Let me guess, you were expecting a bunch of dwarves?" Juli Stormkettle asked with amusement as she studied the blue skinned dwarf wearing a blood splattered black robe that clung to her body.

"Sort of," Taylor admitted as she walked over to where the white haired gnome was standing. 'At least they're wearing actual robes and not see through lingerie.'

Juli glanced down at the girl's soft leather boots. "Let me guess, you've killed an army of monsters and found your collection of spells doesn't quite cut it?"

"Basically," Taylor admitted. "I was hoping to pick up some new spells."

Juli drew a strange symbol in the air with her index finger, causing her eyes to glow blue for a second. "I can teach you a ward against cold that's useful for dealing with cold magic, how to counter an enemy's spell, a cone of bitter cold that will leave your enemies feeling the chill and how to surround yourself with ice."

'Easy come, easy go,' Taylor thought as she pulled out a couple of gold coins and handed them to the trainer. "Is that enough?"

"Sure," Juli replied as she gestured and cast her teaching spell on Taylor, instantly teaching her the basics of the new spells. "You'll have to practice if you want to become an archmage."

"Thanks, is there any way I can talk you into teaching me how to instantly teach people?" Taylor asked hopefully.

The gnome shook her head. "I'm afraid The Union would object."

"I had to check," Taylor replied as she glanced at the rest of the trainers scattered around the braziers. "Who do I have to talk to for the teleportation spell?" she asked as she pulled a gold coin out of her bag and held it up.

"That would be me, eighty silver," Milstaff Stormeye spoke up.

Taylor handed the gnome with a wild black beard and mustache the gold coin. "Thanks."

"That's why I'm here," Milstaff replied as he taught her the spell to teleport to Darnassus. "Don't forget to buy some runes for teleporting around unless you're willing to get a magical tattoo that stabilizes your spell." He gave her twenty silver in change.

"It's on my list," Taylor replied absently as she focused on Admin and summoned her, figuring she'd be done with her warlock training or at least close to finished.

[I just finished buying my warlock spells, I still need to visit the priest trainer] Admin equipped her buttplug so she could hear Taylor's response, her body shifting from one fox eared head to two.

Taylor shivered as she looked around the dimly lit chamber filled with warlocks that looked sinister and more than a little bit unhinged and a collection of strange looking demons, a number of which had jewelry in inappropriate places and scraps of clothing that made things worse rather than better when they bothered with clothing at all. "I'm standing next to the priest trainer if you want to accept the summon," she whispered.

[That makes it easier, we'll swap places] Admin replied as she focused and summoned Taylor.

Taylor accepted the summons and teleported to Stormwind while Admin accepted hers and ended up in Ironforge. "I'd like to learn all of the priest spells I can," she told the group of trainers standing around the brazier as she headed out of the warlock area with her body.

Theodrus Frostbeard looked at the two headed fox girl for a couple of seconds then nodded. "How did you end up with two heads?"

"A magical item," Taylor replied, not seeing a reason to elaborate.

"Ah, yes, the Titans left all sorts of weird items around the place," the dwarf replied as he checked which spells the girl needed.

"It's not all the Titans' fault, we've come up with plenty of interesting items and spells over the years," Juli argued.

"Interesting, yeah, that's certainly one word for it," Theodrus muttered then quoted a price for the new spells.

Admin handed over the required amount of coins for her spells. [We're running out of gold.]

"I'm aware," Taylor replied in a whisper. "I'll swing by the tailor's on the way out of the city and sell some of the clothes I made."

[Good, we're going to need a lot of gold for recipes and patterns.] Admin replied, looking forward to figuring out how everything worked.

Taylor grinned when she realized she had a lot more mental switches she could play with. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, walk with the Light," Theodrus offered.

"Of course," Taylor replied as Admin glanced around the room.

[Where are we going?] Admin asked, not sure what Taylor had planned.

"Where do I buy the runes for teleportation?" Taylor asked Milstaff.

"Longberry's Reagents, just across the way," Juli said as she gestured towards the exit.

"You can't miss it," Milstaff added.

Milstaff shook his head. "I don't know, I've seen some pretty stupid adventurers that couldn't find their way out of a wet paper bag without a map."

"Why would you make a bag out of paper?" Theodrus asked. "Is that a gnome thing?"

Juli shrugged. "More like a goblin thing or someone that took too many hits to the head, everyone knows that you can't use spatial runes on paper."

"Thanks," Taylor offered as Admin turned and headed for the exit. "Let's pick up some reagents and sell the clothing we can't use, then we'll swing by the auction house to see if anyone is selling herbs or ore for anything approaching a reasonable price."

[Makes sense], Admin agreed, looking forward to learning how everything worked. [After that we can summon everyone that needs training if we can find a friendly person to help.]

"Good point," Taylor agreed, glad that she had people around to help.

0o0o0

"This is disgusting," Ember complained when the scent of burning leper gnomes mixed with the ever present stench of disease and noxious chemicals that made tromping through Gnomeregan a less than pleasant experience.

"I've dealt with worse," Sherrel replied as she worked on looting the dead.

"Where?" Ember sputtered, fairly sure that the only reason she hadn't lost her lunch was that she'd already lost it when they were dealing with the irradiated troggs.

"Around," Sherrel replied, thinking about some of the nasty places she'd crashed over the last couple of years while she was drugged out of her mind.

Watching Wings use her telekinesis to rip a large pipe out of the wall then rip it into pieces so she could stick it in her bag, left Leet wondering if Wings was a hero or villain because her power was more than a little terrifying. "How many times are we going to run the dungeon?"

Ziz turned to look at Leet. "At least four times, I want the staff that lets us breathe underwater and we can scrap the metal and the components we can't use."

"Works for me," Uber assured her, wishing he'd brought nose plugs to deal with the stench or earplugs to deal with the sound of metal being ripped apart.

"Great," Ember muttered. "Is there any way to make the run go faster?"

"Sure," Ziz replied as she picked her party up with telekinesis and flew down the path as fast as an Olympic sprinter could run, using her telekinesis to pick up the various monsters and mechanical monstrosities so the group could burn them down.

"Fuck yeah!" Sherrel squealed as they started going faster. "This is better than sex!"

"You need better partners!" Uber called out then went back to tossing frost bolts at the large 'ball' of monsters flying in front of the group.

"Are you volunteering?" she asked, not seeing a point in putting up with Skidmark now that she was clean and sober.

"Hell yeah!" Uber agreed. "Leet, grab your gun!"

Leet laughed as he summoned his plasma gun and started shooting the monsters as quickly as he could, watching his experience bar climb as they made their way through the dungeon faster than a horse could gallop while Wings ripped the occasional support or pipe out of the walls and hauled it behind the group in a twisted 'ball' of metal.

Ember did her best to ignore the stench as she tossed various fire spells at the large 'ball' of enemies, wanting to make sure she got her share of the experience and trying not to look at the ground as it flew past. 'Ignore the distractions and work on leveling, once you get back you can burn the ABB to ash and turn Lung into a sheep until you figure out how to kill him.'

Sherrel swapped over to her wand when she ran out of spells. "We should probably head back to Ironforge after the second run to pick up some more spells, toss things on the auction house and do some crafting."

"There should be a couple of quests for the place now that we're the right level," Leet pointed out, figuring the bonus experience would help and might get them something they could use.

"It shouldn't take that long to fly to Ironforge," Ziz agreed, figuring two runs would give them a decent amount of supplies and enough levels to make visiting the trainers worth it.

"Sounds good..." Uber trailed off as they flew around a corner and he saw a group of cobbled together milking machines, some naked leper gnomes with comically sized lesion covered breasts and several large tanks of greenish white fluid that made him sick just looking at it.

"What the fuck?" Ember sputtered as Wings pulled the gnomes into the ball of monsters they were working on killing.

"That's one way to ruin a fantasy," Uber muttered.

"Torch it?" Sherrel asked as she worked on blasting the group of monsters.

Leet shook his head. "We might as well drain the tanks and salvage everything, it's probably worth something."

"Was this in the original game?" Ziz asked.

"Not that I recall," Uber replied. "But I didn't spend a lot of time in Gnomeregan."

Ziz started bouncing the 'ball' of monsters on the ground to reduce their health to make it easier for the group to kill them. "Finish off the monsters then we'll loot everything and keep going."

"There is something deeply wrong with the game designers," Ember grumbled.

Leet laughed. "Some people have issues, some people have subscriptions."

Uber glanced at Leet. "And some people have entire archives."

Leet flipped his friend off then went back to killing the ball of monsters with a grin, having far too much fun to care about his friend's joke.

0o0o0

Alec glanced between the translucent dungeon portal that had blue swirls of energy around the edges and the large rune covered meeting stone Admin and Taylor had used to summon everyone. "Can you copy the meeting stone with your construction skill?"

Admin glanced away from the map of the dungeon on Taylor's phone and looked at Alec. [I'll have to check.]

"She said it was worth checking," Taylor said as she reread the boss's abilities or at least the abilities the boss from Warcraft possessed.

"Do we have an actual plan for dealing with the boss?" Chevalier asked as he glanced at Noelle. "I don't want Noelle turning into a worgen and ripping us apart."

"Same," Noelle admitted. "I was planning on rushing him while everyone else was outside."

"I'd suggest letting me sneak in and sap him but most of the bosses are immune or at least resistant," Sophia complained.

"I have a couple potions of lesser invisibility that should let her get close to the boss before he notices her," Taylor offered, glad that Amelia had managed to make a few of them with the stuff from the garden.

"How long do they last?" Chevalier asked.

"Fifteen seconds, which should be more than enough to slip into the room and jump across the broken floor to reach the boss," Taylor explained.

Noelle glanced at Taylor. "You should be able to remove the curse before I kill everyone, especially if they're waiting outside of the room."

"Are there any magical items or skills that make you immune to mind control?" Chevalier asked.

Void shook his head. "Not that I know of, players are mostly stuck using trinkets to break mind control unless they're gnomes."

"Do we have a plan for the trash mobs?" Chevalier asked, hoping they had more of a plan than rushing in and stabbing things.

"Considering our gear basically sucks for our level and you're barely high enough to get through the door, we're going to be going room to room and crushing things when we can't find a decent kill zone. Just remember I'm not a proper tank so I don't have a way to keep aggro," Noelle warned them.

"Aggro?" Aisha asked.

Noelle turned to look at Aisha. "Aggravation or threat, basically what a tank is supposed to use to keep the monsters focused on them so the squishy classes can burn them down."

Void checked his gear. "I can probably deal with most of the trash or at least the stuff that slips past you."

Missy grinned. "If you give me a second before we pull large groups, I can twist space to make sure the mobs can't get to us."

Taylor slipped her phone in her bag after sending Dragon a text informing her that she'd be busy for the next thirty minutes. "I doubt anything will survive long enough to be too much of a problem. Just remember that hitting polymorphed creatures breaks the spell."

"I'm going to want two of the three fel steeds polymorphed when we get there. Do any of the hunters want one for a pet?" Noelle asked.

Sophia shook her head. "I wouldn't mind replacing my crab but I'd rather grab one of the ghost wolves if I can, they might be able to go through walls with me."

[Can you get my host to touch the fel steed?] Shaper asked hopefully. [I want to know how the flaming hooves work.]

[Do you think Amelia can figure out how the flaming hooves work?] Admin asked.

Taylor shrugged. "I've got a free slot, I left my parrot in town and it might be interesting for Amelia to take a look at."

'How much could I make by improving a race horse?' Amy mused then shook her head, fairly sure Carol would flip her top over any suggestion that might result in her earning money for her power. "I'll take a look. It might give me a better idea how to improve your pets."

"In that case, I'll make a copy of the toughest looking one and we'll go from there," Noelle said, looking forward to seeing what they could come up with.

Taylor grinned as she thought about her father's reaction to her getting back with a giant wolf or a horse with flaming hooves. "Works for me, with any luck I can get an improved version of the giant wolf."

"Do you think you can change the color of his fur?" Aisha asked.

"That's not hard," Amy replied with amusement.

"We could probably make some decent money providing strange and powerful pets," Noelle said as she headed towards the dungeon entrance, looking forward to picking up a decent pet and some decent minions.

"It's worth a shot," Amy agreed as she followed Noelle.

"Hopefully we'll get some decent weapons to drop," Void muttered as he followed the rest of the group towards the entrance to the dungeon.

"We should be able to make some once we get the metal," Chevalier assured him.

Sophia followed the group into the dungeon, seeing a large metal grate about ten feet in front of them. "I'm hoping…" she trailed off when she realized Noelle was standing in the doorway to the next room fighting a group of worgen that were trying to claw her to death or slip past her. "What the hell?"

"Chevalier, Aisha and Alec are barely high enough to get through the door, it increases the threat range," Noelle explained as she finished killing the worgen that were attacking her. "How are you doing for experience?"

"It's going up," Aisha said smugly, happy that she didn't have to attack things to get the experience. "How close do we have to be to get the experience?"

"Unless they've changed things, reasonably close or at least in the same general area. Stalker, can you shoot through the grate and or phase through it and shoot something so they charge through the dungeon at us?" Noelle asked, figuring it would be easier than rounding everyone up now that she had a better idea how tough the worgen were.

"With pleasure," Sophia replied as she walked over to the grate and tried sticking her hand through the bars. She drew an arrow, lined everything up and shot one on the worgen which caused him to take off running towards the stairs that led around to where the group was. "Incoming!"

"Shoot the rest," Noelle ordered as she headed towards the next door in the room they'd cleared. "Harvest the leather, they should be here in less than a minute. Try not to hit me with AOE, friendly fire isn't friendly."

Missy warped space in a line across the middle of the room that should keep anyone that slipped past Noelle from reaching the group then started skinning the worgen and the wolves, looking forward to being able to farm the dungeon herself.

Taylor waited until she saw a large group of wolves and monsters charging towards Noelle then opened fire with arcane missiles so she didn't hit Noelle with her area of effect spells. 'Once I get my gear and puppets, I should be able to run this with Admin since she doesn't seem to screw up my Lone Wolf perk. It would be a decent source of leather.'

"Should I grab the next group?" Sophia asked as she worked on shooting the worgen, being careful not to shoot Noelle in the back.

"Let's finish this group, you need the experience," Noelle replied as she started tossing bodies behind her so they wouldn't clog the entrance.

0o0o0

"Mandatory fucking drawbacks," Vicky grumbled as she looked at her collection of perks, trying not to think about the various flaws she'd gotten stuck with because of random chance and the fact that her aunt had put her foot down about Eric jumping into the simulation until they had a idea of the effects on the local gangs. 'Master artisan, 100% boosted gold, experience and items for the win, a boost to all of my stats and abilities when I'm by myself, a pet dragon that picks up loot so I don't have to, tireless which should keep me from getting tired, sparkling clean which means I'll never have to worry about Mush if the voice wasn't lying about getting to keep my new powers if I escape and I picked up the ability to sing like a professional which is cool.'

She glanced over the various 'guilds' that people were trying to set up. 'Yeah, no thanks Amy didn't mention a guild. She mentioned Stormwind, which means I need to flip the alliance toggle considering it stuck me as a blood elf,' she mused as she scrolled up and flipped the toggle to make sure she started near her sister, not particularly unhappy about being a hot elf.

"Amy's going to be a touch annoyed that I didn't grab the paladin class but the druid and priest combination looks fun and the leather looks better than the plate, the shoulder pads are tacky as hell. I'll still have the shield from the priest, plus all the magic and shapeshifting!" she joked then hit the accept button, finding herself in a crowded mage tower. She glanced down at her generous breasts and the linen cloth bag she was wearing. 'Yeah, I'm going to need to fix that but the breasts are nice.'

She flew up into the air then down the ramp over people's head, trying not to think about the view they were getting. 'At least I don't look like my-' her thoughts cut off as her character sheet opened and she saw her picture. 'Never mind, same face, gorgeous red hair though and pointed ears, bouncy assets and a bubble butt that's amazing. So much for having a secret identity,' she mused as she continued flying down the ramp and out of the tower. 'Now I just have to figure out how to find my sister... in a really large city, maybe I didn't think this through.'

0o0o0