Thank you massively for the suggestions on the recent post! 😊 I massively appreciated the help and am reading through, and should be able to give one a go by tomorrow (and by tomorrow I probably mean today because this one is late going out 😝).

Student wizards scurried for the darker alcoves of the Rat & Rascal as Professor Morivar stepped through the tavern door. The elf was fond of the place; he came there when he wanted to sit and observe human mating rituals, although on those occasions he was usually in disguise. Today, he was there on business.

He spotted Xenethon alone in a corner nook, scribbling in a journal, with a dozen undrunk ales cluttering the table before him. A tavern 'wench' wiggled up to his table, their perky green ass exposed as they leaned across the table to place another tankard. They stepped back with a smooth, feminine curtsy, snarling, “When I get free of this thing, I’ll rip out your heart and feast on it!”

“I’ll have another ale, thank you,” Xenethon replied pleasantly.

The wench pirouetted smoothly and walked back to the bar, heels clicking on the flagstones, squirming within their restraints like a chained beast and screaming about how he would crack open their skulls and suck out their brains. Morivar had to admire the softening of the male orc’s figure.

Xenethon could barely contain his enthusiasm as he began their briefing. The research team had hollowed out a golem and loaded their most ferocious test subject into it. The orc had initially been so feral that they’d lost the capacity for speech altogether. The roars of violent retribution, as the orc minced around the tavern, were actually a promising sign of the man’s recovering intellect. Xenethon positively glowed with pride.

“If we just had a few thousand more golems, then-”

“If we could spare a thousand golem chassis, we wouldn’t be stuck in this war,” Morivar interjected. “We have wounded soldiers coming in who need golem prosthetics. I respect the progress, but we don’t have the resources for you to turn a thousand-gold golem into a two-copper wench.” Seeing the human’s face fall, he added, “Let’s focus on what is achievable for now. Show me the new designs you have for orc lingerie.”