Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Dungeons and Dragons, that would be Wizards of the Coast–no, wait, they got bought out by Hasbro. Even then, however, this is a story set in a world created mostly by Lily Nadesico and myself, with Lily DMing the majority of the campaigns in it so far.

From Tough Times to Strange Lives
a commission for Lily Nadesico by Xamusel

With high expectations, the sapient races of Nexos sought to make a new life for themselves in the wake of the cataclysmic war known as "The Dawn War." However, the forces of Evil sought to destroy the creations and servants of Good, even if one of those Evils would be seen as something Good to its own servants. Life was seen in a vicious and endless waltz, one of war, peace, and revolution.

The year was Great Axis era 1036, over 9000 years after The Dawn War. In spite of the forces of Evil doing a number of malicious things to the members of races on the opposite side, Good had been able to outweigh it all on the balances overall. Many people were able to live their lives in peace, even in the areas where Evil had a strong foothold, mainly because both sides of the conflict had equal opportunity to aid in the law and order (or even chaos and rebellion) of a land. It wasn't uncommon for the people to sometimes be seen as sheep.

In hindsight, a group of vigilantes known as the Abolishers would be the first group in the land of Tilea to restore the law and order of Good in over 500 years.

"You are a fool, Enrico," he says, Dario Caesar, born Enrico Casamonica, thought darkly as he sat on his bed. "When the time comes, you will be my vessel," he says. What does that even mean? What about me is worth being a vessel?

The room lurched for a few seconds, gravity causing him to tilt in his seating based on the direction of the room. When the room returned to its original position, he sighed. Damn travel over the high seas. I mean, I don't mind doing it on occasion, but not for such a long period of time that it makes me sea sick.

Dario looked at the ring on his left middle finger and removed it. The insignia of the ring was that of a shield with the image of a golden eagle, holding a sword in one foot and an olive branch in the other. The eagle also had a halo over its head, possibly signifying that it was a holy eagle. I never put much thought into the significance of my mother's heirloom before joining the Abolishers. Now that I know it, however, what am I supposed to do? If mother wasn't able to give birth to me before she died, I'm not sure what would have happened, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been good.

On a whim, Dario looked at the inside of the ring. Hmm? What's this? "The bearer of this ring will allow their character to show on the insignia." That must mean it won't look the same for each wearer, then.

Putting the ring back on his left middle finger, he thought back to the beginning of the previous adventure he went on. Corsia, the island of many lost species of animal. While the Malshapers were annoying to deal with on the island, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them somehow made their mission a partial success. It would not be the first time they did something like that. Still, why would they help the Casamonica clan, and what do they get as benefits?

The Malshapers: a dangerous criminal organization that spliced the genetics of any being they could get their hands on to create aberrations. The first time he encountered one of them was when a friend of his was mutated into an aberration, even if he never knew at the time what the group was called. That very same friend now rested peacefully, or so he hoped, because of what happened before he was put down. It was a few months ago that told him the identity of the group… and why he should be fully against the geneticists.

The Casamonica: a Mafia Famiglia that had coerced a large portion of the government into doing their bidding, going so far as to manipulate the laws being passed behind the scenes. The fact of the matter was the clan had been responsible for the destruction of many good people in their quest for control. The lawmakers who were aligned against them were the minority who were silenced by the vocal majority, mostly those who were bought and paid for by the clan. The rest of the majority were those who allied out of desperation, or so he hoped.

He sighed again. This is getting me nowhere. I need to find out why that man wants me to be his vessel, otherwise I can't stop that plan from happening. He got up from his bed, looked over to the door leading outside, and walked to it. I just need some air from the sea… man, I must be getting sea crazy at this rate.

Upon opening the door, however, he stopped in mid-motion when he saw his childhood friend and the love of his life (though he had yet to admit that to anyone) right in front of his room. Her vermilion hair flowed through the air as the ship they were on sailed the stormy seas, so it never quite reached the small of her back like it would on a calm day, while her emerald eyes looked to be glistening with tears. "Esmerelda?" he blurted out in surprise. "What's the matter?"

Esmerelda ran into Dario, embracing him, all the while sobbing into his chest. While he stood in shock, he heard her say between sobs, "Don't leave… don't leave me, Dario. I don't want… I don't want you to go against us… against me."

Dario looked down at his beloved, before he awkwardly wrapped his arms around her as well. "I promise, Esmerelda," he said. "I promise, on my honor as Dario Caesar, formerly Enrico Casamonica, that I will never leave you and the others willingly or otherwise, so long as I still retain control of my body."

Esmerelda's sobs wore down, before she looked into Dario's blue eyes. "Thank you, Dario," she said.

"Sure," he answered. "Now, care to tell me why you were crying, and why you were at my door? I was about to get some fresh air."

Esmerelda's cheeks took on a pink shade for a few seconds, before they returned to normal. "Well, I wanted to talk with you, Dario," she said. "I don't know if you have anything else to do, outside of getting some fresh air."

Dario blinked a few times, before he said, "I can talk, yes. Can we do this out on the deck?"

"Certainly."

A few minutes later, Dario and Esmerelda were standing along the side of the deck, looking out to the sea. "Okay, Esmerelda," he said, "what did you want to talk about?"

Esmerelda giggled, before answering, "Well, what a perfect gentleman you are, Dario. As for what I want to talk about? I'm worried for you."

Dario looked at Esmerelda out of the corner of his eye. "Worried for me?" he asked. "What about?"

"Well," Esmerelda began, before pausing and putting a hand on her chin. "Hmm… I think it has to do with the fact that the Casamonica leader, Don Mauro, might have something in mind to make you his 'vessel'. I fear that it might be akin to a trap you can't break out of easily, on your own or otherwise. I don't want to lose you to this trap, obviously. However…"

"Yes?" Dario asked.

"I want to be sure you come back to me, Dario," Esmerelda said. "So, please, let me be the mother of your child."

Dario, if this were an anime or a light novel, would've faceplanted at the sheer incredulity that he had just heard. Instead, he facepalmed. "Es…" he groaned. "Don't you have a celibacy vow to maintain as a cleric of Relena the Nature Goddess?"

"Celibacy vow?" Esmerelda asked. "What are you talking about? That only applies to the clergy of Dorago the Gold, unless they're going to go at it with the other women in that particular clergy or, as the sole exception to the rule, a male Paladin of Dorago's calling."

Dario blinked in confusion. "What?" he asked as intelligently as possible.

Esmerelda sighed in consternation. "I think you need to start thinking with your lower head a bit more, Dario," she said. "I don't want you to be deprived of carnal desires around me."

Dario removed his hand from his palm, before saying, "Y'know what? I think this might be a great idea. Just prepare for a lot of sleep, especially if this works out the way I want it to."

Esmerelda chuckled when she heard that. "I hate to break it to you, but this will more than likely involve you getting super exhausted, long before me," she said.

"Care to put your money where your mouth is?"

Dario and Esmerelda spun around to see who said that. What they saw was an Elvish woman with slightly tanned skin and pink hair, wearing a full suit of plate mail without the helmet. She was armed with a Cutlass of Elvish design on her left hip, plus a quiver full of arrows and an Elvish Longbow. All in all, a rather… interesting getup for a woman of such nature.

"Uh…" Esmerelda began, before her brain stalled for a bit. When it resumed, she asked, "Who are you, again?"

Before the Elf could answer, Dario asked, "Niña, what are you doing, making a bet on carnal desires? Aren't you supposed to be on the clock?"

Niña Plutom, a member of the Abolishers who was tasked with being the ship's navigator, waved her hand dismissively. "Eh, the newbie knows how to get us home from here," she said. "Besides which, I know you two are a thing, regardless of if you both know it or not." Before either of the two she was talking to could say anything, she continued, "I just want to be inserted into this relationship. I mean, given how I helped you both get back to the ship alive, I figured a reward like that would be given."

Dario and Esmerelda blinked at hearing that.

They blinked a second time a second later.

They blinked once again.

"Come again?!"/"Wait, that was you?!" Esmerelda and Dario yelled simultaneously.

Niña nodded when she heard that. "Yep," she said, popping the 'p'. "I saved you both from the Casamonica head. Now, are you interested in the bet? My bet is that he can handle one of us, but not both at the same time, before he exhausts himself partway through the second girl."

Esmerelda looked like she wanted to object to the idea, but Dario asked, "What are the stakes to this bet?"

"Simple," Niña answered. "Winner is the one who calls the shots of the relationship. They can even control if a girl is added or not."

Esmerelda looked strangely at Niña. "Why do you want that to be the stakes?" she asked. "I mean, this has got to be one of the most ridiculous ideas an elf would ever go with."

Niña shrugged. "Would you believe me if I said I'm bisexual, leaning towards lesbian?" she asked. "Even then, it's not like I dislike the idea of loving a man."

Dario looked at Esmerelda for a few seconds. "Um…" he let out, before he turned his attention back to Niña. "Okay, my bet is obviously me lasting longer than both of you combined."

Esmerelda looked between her childhood friend and the Elf who wanted to insert herself in, before she sighed in defeat. "Fine, then. I already gave my bet, so let's get to Dario's room and prepare ourselves for this."

Niña nodded in understanding. "Alright," she said, "though be ready for anything."

Dario waited outside his room, mainly to give himself a chance to calmly think over the circumstances behind his taking on this bet. So far, he couldn't think of why he wanted to logically take this bet.

Well, this is going to be rather embarrassing, he thought. Why did I agree to this in the first place? A couple seconds later, he realized something. What's taking those two so long? It doesn't take this long to get out of clothes… wait, Niña wore armor. Forgot about that.

At that point, the door opened up a crack from inside. "Dario, we're ready now," Esmerelda said. "Niña needed to get out of her armor first."

Dario turned to face his room and said, "Thanks, Es." With that, he opened the door and saw the two ladies in normal clothing, only there was an obvious difference in terms of body types for both of them. On the one hand, Esmerelda, as he recalled and saw, had larger hips, which resulted in a larger ass. Sure, there was nothing wrong with her bosom, but the ass was way larger and finer, at least in his opinion. On the other hand, Niña had what just had to be a nearly hourglass figure, what with her bosom being, based on his observations, a couple inches larger than her ass.

How did he know this?

The two of them were turning around to give him a fair idea of what they looked like in just their street clothes.

Dario looked at the two of them, before he asked what he felt was a pertinent question. "Why are you two still in your clothes?"

Niña decided to take the initiative and said, "Because we wanted to make sure you had sufficient viewing of our bodies before we ingest the body formula."

"…body formula?" Dario asked. "What's that, and why do I get the feeling it's more dangerous than anything else?"

"Well," Niña answered, pulling out two flasks of potion, "the body formula is something that can only be taken when a woman reaches adulthood and is fertile. It doesn't work on barren women, mind, since it works within five seconds of ingesting the whole thing for fertile women."

"What happens when a barren woman takes the formula?" Dario asked. "For that matter, what if a man takes the formula?"

"First," Niña said, "my elder sister was barren. She was also the only one to date that took the formula twice. The second time was when her breasts tripled in size, and her hips grew to match." With a sigh, she shook her head. "As for a man? It kills them, making the corpse more womanly than they were in life. The creator tested it on himself last, after recording his notes beforehand. His assistant? She was the one who sold the thing in his memory, to make sure women could have the bodies they needed."

Dario blanched when he heard what the formula was supposed to do. "Ugh…" he groused. "Fine, let's get this over with. I guess I have to see what happens now."

Esmerelda nodded when she heard that. "Niña, please hand me my formula," she said. At that, the formula was tossed her direction, which was all the warning she needed before catching it. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Niña said, before she pulled off the cork on her flask. "On the count of three, be sure to drink it, Lady Esmerelda. Ready?"

Esmerelda pulled the cork off her flask. "Before we start, what about our clothes?" she asked.

"No need to worry," Niña answered. "You won't fit in them anyway after this." Before Esmerelda could continue, Niña said, "One, two, three!"

At that, both ladies downed the formula.

Esmerelda POV

The first thing I noticed was that the formula tasted like strawberry milk. Then two seconds passed after drinking the formula. That last part was important because my stomach started gurgling rather loudly at that exact point in time. One second later, I could feel my shirt begin to tighten around my breasts, as if shrinking rapidly… wait, that's not right. My shirt wasn't shrinking, my breasts were growing! I so needed to check my measurements after this was done.

On top of that, my pants were beginning to go through the same thing, even if the growth wasn't as swift. I had to wonder, what happens if this growth continues forever? Will I even be alive? I don't want to die because of this!

Oddly enough, though I think it was due to the rubbing of the fabric on my body like it did, the whole thing was… I couldn't help but moan a fair amount of the time the growth happened. I had literally no control over how my body acted like that. What was the word for such a situation?

Finally, my clothes couldn't take it any longer. With a magnificent ripping sound, they came apart at the seams… and it seems I stopped growing there. Now I had to wonder… how large around was I where it mattered?

I turned my attention to something reflective in the corner of the room. It seems that my bust size went up a lot according to this mirror. It also seems that my hips and ass went up in size to match… wait. Is swearing like that so casually in the precepts of Sodesia?

Meh. I'll check later. I think… no, I know I need Dario's cock to jam its way in my tight, virgin pussy. I want him to fuck me stupid.

Niña POV

I was really wondering what would happen if the formula wouldn't work on me, at least for the first second. After that, the growth started in earnest. I sorta knew what to expect, but hot damn was the growth more arousing than I thought it would be.

Unlike Lady Esmerelda, I didn't have much in the way of growth required, as it turned out. My ability to control my moans, however, was disrupted by the formula. That much was… probably supposed to happen? I don't really remember.

In any case, I continued to moan while the formula did its job, before I heard my clothes rip apart completely. I decided, right then and there, that only Dario would be allowed to see me completely naked out of any man, given how the whole thing was for me. Also, it seems like Lady Esmerelda is feeling the effects of the formula more than anticipated. I could tell by the sex-crazed look on her face.

Wait… did I have the same look on my face? I don't want it to be specifically with Lady Esmerelda, but, well… I looked at Dario. More specifically, I looked at his pants, the tent in them looking to be painful for him. I… want… it. I… need… his penis!

Normal POV

Dario looked at the two ladies in the room, both of them turning to face him. He didn't know what was happening, but it was. I sure hope that this won't be a problem for them later… he thought.

Esmerelda dropped to her knees, crawling over to him and saying, "Hey, Dario… is your cock okay? Let me free it for you."

Dario looked at his friend in shock. "Es? What's gotten into you?" he asked. "This isn't how you–ACK!"

At that point, Esmerelda dropped his pants and underwear from their position, revealing a two inch thick by nine inch long cock that smacked her face. "Owie..." she muttered cutely. "Dario, please, take my virgin pussy and jam your cock in to fuck me stupid."

Dario blinked in surprise. "Es, this is completely out of character for you," he said. "However, if you really want it, I'll oblige for you." With that, he walked around to position himself right behind Esmerelda and inserted his cock inside her pussy, being careful to go in slowly for what he felt was maximum pleasure currently.

Before Esmerelda could say anything on the subject, Niña dropped to her knees and crawled over to the human woman, taking her mouth and giving her a deep kiss, using the Normanian technique to do so. It was luckily just the right time to do so, too, since Dario managed to reach the inner wall.

Dario adjusted his hips to go back until barely anything was in, before he decided it was time to thrust past the inner wall, which he did at a fast speed.

Esmerelda cried out into Niña's mouth as she felt her proof of virginity go away, though the kiss she was in helped alleviate the pain. Even so, she felt Dario waiting for a few seconds before he moved back again, only to thrust forward until all of his cock could fit in. At that point, he swung his hips back and forth to ensure that she could get the full enjoyment out of this she deserved.

Damn, and here I thought I wouldn't be going at it with Es, Dario thought. Even as he did so, he saw that his childhood friend was turning on to the idea of being bi-sexual, or so he was led to believe. It wasn't that big a stretch to believe it, what with her kisses becoming a lot fiercer with Niña than they were when all this started, but he needed confirmation. "Es, are you becoming interested in girls as well, now?" he asked. "Thumbs up if yes, thumbs down if no."

Esmerelda, in spite of her make out session with Niña, gave the affirmative answer for Dario.

"Okay, then," Dario said, before he felt himself approaching his first release. "Well, here's my first LOAD!" With that, he bottomed out inside of Esmerelda, filling her womb with seed.

Esmerelda screamed in ecstasy while her mouth was being occupied, thus eliciting a moan from Niña in the process. However, when Dario removed his still hard cock from his childhood friend, she fell limp to the floor, exhausted from the whole experience.

"Es?" Dario asked, kneeling down to Esmerelda and checking her pulse from her neck. "Okay, she's probably more exhausted than we'd realized," he said a few seconds later. "Right now, we should probably hurry this up so we can tuck her in."

Niña nodded, before she got up and laid down on top of the bed, stomach and boobs down. "Take me here, please," she said in a husky tone of voice.

Dario nodded, before he gripped her ass cheeks to spread her legs apart, then speared his way into her pussy. Niña's scream of erotic pain and ecstasy were more than worth it for him as he began pounding into her, the way she was so tight around his cock, and would seem to stay that way for who knows how long.

Like all good things, however, this had to end as well. "Here it COMES!" Dario cried out to Niña, bottoming out inside of her at that moment. As he bottomed out inside of her, he couldn't help but wonder something important… How am I gonna tuck Es into bed when Niña's hogging it all to herself right now?

As it turned out, however, Niña seemed to have enough stamina to stand up and move the covers back from the top of the bed. She then sat down on the edge of the bed and laid down along the length, before rolling over to the opposite side of the bed. At that, she fell asleep, her chest rising and falling as she rested from the sex.

Dario sighed out of good nature. "Well, time to pick Es up," he said, noticing that his cock was down to normal size. He lifted Esmerelda in a bridal position, took her to the bed, and laid her down gently. He then draped the covers over her and Niña, before saying, "Good night, miladies."

A/N: Well, this was a bit challenging to pull off for me. Still, I hope you all like it. This was meant to be set specifically in a land that didn't have the normal D&D deities and what have you.

So, to be sure, you can commission me to write what you want from me. However, don't be surprised if I can't actually do it, for any reason whatsoever. I'll be willing to provide said reasons, to be fair, so that you can understand why it wouldn't even work.

My rates are on my deviantArt account (well, they will be, if I don't forget to do write them down for all of you). Please take a look to make sure you find it agreeable for your budget. I offer this service to anyone who's interested in this.

Until next time, everyone. Take care of yourselves, please. Don't forget to be safe these days.