Alex had to pull away quite a few vines to reach Charley, more than should have fit in the space before she hit the wall, it seemed, but on freeing his face, she squinted her eyes. closed and balled up her fists, and planted a peck on Charley's lips, turning beet red from embarrassment. She rushed back to the table just after, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone.
Ben just shook his head, and turned to the board. His options were... right, the whole track. Wanting to get things over sooner than later though, he decided he really needed to make his way along towards the goal already. That meant getting into the forest, and suddenly he saw the perfect opportunity. "The wicked sheriff seeks you out! Your carriage he will seize! But as you bear the gift of song, escape should be a breeze! A path exists! Freedom for all! Just slip out through the trees! Your friends of course can come as well, especially your squeeze. So long as you speak naught but rhymes, this boon comes with no fees. But should you speak your words too plain, may fae do as they please."
Ben read the whole text aloud, pausing for a moment as he heard the unmistakable sound of a police siren approaching in the distance. "So if I read this right, we'll speed along tonight?" The vines that had been holding Charlie suddenly parted, and where there really should have been a brick wall, there were suddenly too tree trunks, with a nice forest path between them, definitely not the several feet of dirt and a sewer pipe that should have been in that direction. All things considered though, this wasn't that much stranger than anything else so far, and they didn't really have time to think since Carmen's corrupt cop father or whatever his deal was was shouting and pounding on the door. "So, gather up your goods, and let's head for the woods?" He paused to make sure the path was still there, and carefully grabbed the game board to carry it through.
"Well wait!" said Alex, seeing a number of problems with this idea. "What about the other two? They're still not back yet!"
Carmen shrugged, heading to follow Ben. "They're out for another turn, right? They'll have to catch up is all!"
Ben nodded. "Yeah I'm sure they'll be right along-" and suddenly realizing he almost broke the rhyming, and kept going in a halting fashion, "once... Dave's done riding Evan's dong?"
Carmen burst out laughing, as did a recovering Charley, and the tittering voice of Frank from somewhere deep in the forest. Alex just blushed even harder than already had been and followed along with the group.
Once they were deep enough in the forest not to see the basement anymore, Ben carefully set the board back down and gestured to Carmen. Everyone present had their token in the forest now, and the options weren't great. One path lead to some sort of fight she didn't have the might for, the other a weird challenge, but at least she had the skill for it. "You foolishly entered the cold dark forest without a tent or blankets. A friendly pixie is willing to provide your whole group with nice furs, and if your charm and roll add up to 10, she'll let you take yours off again." She didn't spend much time thinking about it and rolled, getting a total of 9. In spite of this, Frank appeared, giggling, from somewhere in the trees, dropping a huge pile of animal pelts she shouldn't be able to reasonably lift, and dropped them in the clearing. Everyone started spreading them out as something nicer to sit on, and Carmen wrapped a strikingly red fox skin around her shoulders. "Don't see a huge problem being stuck wearing this until the game's over," she said... just before it vanished with a sudden flash, and red fur sprouted from her skin. As a big bushy tail popped out from the base of her spine and her face formed into a muzzle, she simply said, "ah, of course. Oh well, it's still warm." The rest of the group was less anxious to try things out.
Charley was next, taking the fight Carmen didn't want. "The lady literally made for you has eyes for another. Best your romantic rival in a challenge of Might and claim her hand, or just be horny forever." Charley shrugged and rolled the die, only then noticing there was no result he needed listed on the space.
Suddenly everyone noticed the scene was lit by pink glowing flowers on drooping vines, and Frank's token had been moved to a space that simply said "use your pixie touch to help these mortals see now that the sun has set, and guide the wayward to their camp. Fix the turn order while you're at it."
Following these lights, Dave and Evan caught up the the others, Dave now wearing a very tight pink tanktop, a black miniskirt, two big hoop earrings, and the sort of confident grin suggesting she had very much come to terms with being a woman, and Alex had either found a new color to blush, or it was just the pink lighting.
The two were brought up to speed a bit, and Dave looked at the board. One space simply said "move immediately to the space you didn't pick" and the other, with Charley's piece, said "you've been challenged to a test of Might, and must roll accordingly." She did, getting just under Charley's roll, but with her bonus dealing with "the opposite sex" added in, well... Charlie winced in pain and a pair of prominent bony protrusions burst from his temples and started to grow.
Ben asked, "so, since we're all here again, I guess I don't have to keep the rhyming up, right?"
Frank started giggling wildly, suggesting this was not, in fact, the case.