"Fine, I'll agree to your terms, but I must be going now..."
"Wait!" said the rab-bat man. "Maybe you can help me..."
Suddenly a blue exclamation mark appeared above his head. When you looked at it closely, an information window appeared.
:::
Quest Available!
Quest: The Cursed Helping the Cursed.
Recommended Level: 5
Information: Aid the rab-bat man in curing his curse.
Rewards: 100 XP, 20 points good alignment, slight erosion of your own curse, add quest-giver to your party.
:::
Now that was interesting! She could weaken this damnable curse?
"I wasn't always this way." said the creature. "I used to be a man, a peaceful man, and a man of science. I came to this region when I heard tales of a great scientist who I might learn from, but he was mad, and used me in his experiments. He mixed science with dark magic, and now I turn into this every night, and cannot help but kill any humans I see when in this form. If you help me invade the madman's castle and kill him, I could find the secret to undoing this curse in his notes, and I will be forever in your debt."
It was a tempting offer, but she couldn't stay in this form to work with him. She'd have to do it alone, and her level was far below what was recommended. She wasn't sure if the recommendation accounted for not having his help either.
"I can not help you now," She said, "but I will return."
"I will wait." said the cursed man. She'd come back at a higher level.
She hastily made her retreat then, and once she was far enough away she reverted to human form. A wave of relief hit her as her darkness and rage released. She hadn't realized it, but just being in that form was painful to her human soul, but the pain was repressed. Then the rest of her emotions hit, and she would have cried, but she was too exhausted. She thought she might also have some residual emotional numbness from the transformation.
Pulling up her stats, she noticed she'd made some progress towards Succubus Transformation lv 2, but also that her alignment had shifted a few points towards evil from how long she'd used the transformation. There was also a cool down timer till she could safely use it again, with a warning that using it before then could have dire consequences. It was just over a week. Her charm skill was almost ready to level up too, and fireball as well as her character level would hit lv 3 soon. Apparently using the succubus transformation to defeat higher level opponents was a great way to level up. She'd gained almost a full character level from the one encounter! But of course, it would be another week before she could do it again safely.
Oh well. Nothing to do now but head back to town and gain some well-earned sleep. She bought a room at the cheapest inn she could find, and lay down on the mattress. It was a strange experience. Alex had never slept on such a crappy mattress, but to Lillian it was luxury beyond luxury. But after all she'd been through she was out in moments.