Okay guys, no illustration for this part yet, but it's the first BE scene, at least. ^^;
Edit: Pic's up!
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"...You can't be serious," Jillian said, looking at the tomb entrance built into the side of a hill. She spun around, looking down the hill to the lights of Rosefield twinkling through the windows as dusk settled over the mountainside. "This can't be it," She said, putting her hands on her exposed hips, the strange midriff- and hip-baring cut of her robe supposedly a result of the lines of arcane power sewn into it. "There's a *road* leading *right* to here from town, and it goes nowhere else. Who on earth would beat a path to a forgotten tomb? I bet there's nothing left in here but cobwebs and detritus."
"Aw, come on, Jillian..." Celia started. "It might not be that bad..."
"Yeah, maybe there's something locked away somewhere no one's able to pick the lock," Copperpot said, skipping to the entrance and peering in. "Come on, nothing ventured nothing gained..."
"...All right," Jillian huffed, crossing her arms under her chest, the motion causing her breasts to billow over her arms like rising dough. "Maybe there's *something* in here that won't make it seem like a waste of time..."
Rena took the lead, her enormous greataxe held before her in both hands. The stone-cut stairway was too narrow for her to swing in, but Celia had seen Rena in tight quarters before- she could thrust the curved points on the top of her double-headed axe forward with enough force to separate a goblin's head from its shoulders. Copperpot followed close behind, darting from one side of Rena's wide stance to the other, constantly checking the walls and floors for traps. Jillian followed behind them, a globe of magic light suspended above her opened hand illuminating the staircase as they descended. Finally, bringing up the Rear, Celia followed behind Jillian, clutching her staff to her chest with one hand and hiking up the hem of her robe with the other to keep from stepping on it, the flanged mace tied to her hip bouncing gently against her leg.
"This looks like a good enough place to drop our gear," Rena said as they came to an antechamber, a large square room with three exits leading from it. "Works for me," Copperpot said, shucking her small pack off her shoulders and taking her dungeon-delving trinkets out of it before leaving it in the corner of the chamber. The other adventurers did the same, Rena chucking everything but her weapons, Jillian discarding everything but her wands and spellbooks, and Celia keeping most of her backpack's contents, laden with bandages and potions and remedies for any of the numerous maladies both mundane and magical she'd encountered or read about.
"Well hello there," Copperpot said, squinting into the left-hand entryway. "Jillian, bring that light over here," She said, creeping forward. As Jillian walked over to the doorway, the glint of gold pierced the darkness and Celia and Rena walked over as well.
"Oooh, come to momma," Copperpot said, advancing through the doorway towards a gold-bound wooden chest with a large keyhole on its front. "So much for this place being cleaned out," She said, grinning, before looking over her shoulder. "Wait!" She yelled at Rena as the half-orc approached, throwing a cautionary hand up. "This place is trapped. Already stepped over a tripwire and a pressure-plate coming this far, just leave this to me."
"Rrrr..." Rena growled. "Fine, but be careful in there."
"Hey, I'm the best," Copperpot said as she knelt down in front of the chest. Pulling her set of picks from under her cloak, Copperpot began working on the lock, Jillian and the others watching from the doorway.
"Annnd... there!" She exclaimed, the latch clicking open. She grabbed the sides of the lid, then paused, kneeling her little head down as she barely moved the lid with her fingers.
"Ahhh... Think you're clever, do you?" She grinned, reaching into her robe with a hand and coming out with another tool, putting the long, narrow set of shears under the gap in the lid and snipping a tiny string before finally lifting it.
"There!" She said, turning around with a flourish. "Did I say I was the best, or did I say I was the best?"
"Is that the Maag?" Jillian asked.
"Heck, I dunno," Copperpot said, shrugging as she turned back and reached into the chest. "But whatever it is, it's big and gold, so I'll- ack!" She exclaimed, a rush of gas escaping the floor when she lifted the treasure out of the chest, coughing and falling to the floor as she spun away and fell.
"Copper!" Rena yelled, stepping forward into Jillian's outstretched arm. "What-" She started, shooting a murderous look at the sorceress.
"You want to set off more traps?" Jillian snapped. "You think that'll help?" She turned back to the halfling, who was getting to her feet. "Copperpot, you okay?"
"Cough, hack- y-yeah, I think so," She said as she got to her feet. "Think it was a dud, doesn't taste like poison..." She coughed again, trying to steady herself on her feet. "Ungh... little hard to breathe, though..."
"Probably just need some fresh air," Jillian said, "make your way out quick, and we'll-"
With a series of metallic clanks, a portcullis fell from the ceiling, a quick yank from Rena all that kept Jillian from getting impaled.
"COPPER!" Rena yelled, grabbing the portcullis.
"Don't- hack- worry about me," She said, grinning as she gingerly made her way around the other traps in the room. "They obviously- wheeze- didn't forge this thing to be halfling-proof," she said, pointing to the large gaps between the bars.
"Good! Yeah!" Rena said, kneeling by the portcullis. "Gimmie your hand, Copper, I'll get you out of there..."
Copperpot began making her way to the portcullis, discomfort tinting her mask of concentration even further.
"C'mon, cmon..." Rena said, stretching her arm as far as her thick metal armor would allow, the steel plates scraping against the iron bars as she strained. Copperpot's hand had barely reached Rena's when the half-orc made one final lunge, wrapping Copperpot's entire forearm in Rena's leather-bound mitt before jerking her entirely off her feet, clearing the last couple feet to the door instantly.
"Ooof!" Copperpot gasped as Rena tried to pull the halfling through, her head and shoulders passing through before she jerked to a stop, her eyes going wide as she screamed.
"Aaaagh!"
"Aaaahhh!" Rena screamed in response, letting go so suddenly she fell back on her rear.
"Can't... hnnngh... breathe..." Copperpot said, jammed between the bars wearing a pained grimmace. Celia began preparing an anti-venom spell, but stopped when she looked at the halfling and realized Copperpot's leather armor was unusually distressed. Before she could speak up, though, Rena was back again, trying to pull Copperpot through the opening.
"Stoooop!" Copperopt gasped. "P-Push me back out!"
"B-but-" Rena stammered.
"Push her out and pull the portcullis up!" Jillian barked. "You'll kill her if you pull her through!"
"Grr... Okay!" Rena said, pushing Copperpot on her backside and grabbing the lower bars of the portcullis. Celia stepped aside so she could finish her anti-venom spell, but was taken aback at what she saw.
Copperpot's breasts, which were petite even for a halfling's, were now inflating under her leather armor like a hot-air balloon. Looking on the verge of unconsciousness, Copperpot unsheathed the dagger on her hip and slipped it deftly into the seam on the front of her armor, slipping it up the stitching before dropping the blade and grabbing the slit with both hands, tearing open the front of her tunic with a gasp as her breasts spilled out of the gap, forcing the seam even wider as her breasts surpassed the size of her head. Copperpot looked on with a mix of awe and horror as they continued to swell, heaving up and down with every breath as they escaped her constricting garments.
"Rrrrgh- there!" Rena said, hoisting the metal grate up to knee height. "Can you get out?!"
Copperpot shook her head, snapping out of her growth-induced trance and diving forward for the gap, only to bounce off the floor as her ponderous chest reached the ground way before she anticipated. Her dive ruined, she scrambled on her hands and knees towards the grate, another surge of growth raising her just enough to forcefully bang her forehead against the bottom crossbar of the portcullis.
"C'mon!" Rena yelled as Copperpot shook the stars from her eyes. Jillian and Celia hovered behind Rena, bewildered by Copperopt's transformation and unsure of what to do, if anything.
"Hu-higher!" Copperpot yelled, her fingertips barely brushing the ground past her breasts as she struggled to regain forward momentum.
"H-higher?" Rena grunted, confused.
"Higher!" Jillian and Celia echoed, watching in horror as Copperpot's breasts continued to swell, widening beyond the door's width and pressing her high enough for her toes to leave the ground.
"Hrrrrrrgh!" Rena snarled through her fangs, bending her arms and pulling the portcullis higher, even as Copperpot's diminutive form was levitated up by her expanding bosoms. Jillian and Celia each grabbed one of the halfling's arms, trying to pull her down and under the spikes lining the bottom of the gate, but she seemed to be growing as fast as Rena could lift the heavy iron gate, the points seeming to always hover just above the poor halfling's flesh. Copperpot's eyes crossed as one heave brought her nose within a hair's breadth of one of the portcullis' spikes, the little halfling's body sunk into her cleavage up to her shoulders but still not low enough to pass through.
"Higher!" the three women yelled again.
"Hrrrr-RRRRAAAAGGGH!" Rena yelled, the full monstrous power of her orcish blood surging through her veins as she threw the portcullis up into its moorings, looking down only to come face-to face with Copperpot, the halfling nearly eye-level with the the warrior, lifted up as she was on her enormous, doorway-filling breasts.
"Wha-what!?" She yelped, stumbling backwards with eyes wide open, landing with a crash on her backside.
"Well, thanks for getting it open, meathead," Copperpot said, resting her elbows on either side of her human-sized cleavage and putting her chin in her hands.
"What- how-" Rena sputtered.
"Here, I'll get it out of the way for you," Copperpot said sardonically. "'Booby trap', ha ha ha, now can someone please cure or dispel this or something?"
"Er, right!" Celia said, shaking her head and blinking. She let a long breath out of her mouth, holding her staff out at arm's length, the holy symbol wrapped around the end of her staff glowing white as it lowered to within a foot of Copperpot's face, the halfling squinting and turning away from the light. Celia's brow furrowed with concentration for a second, the light extinguishing as her eyes popped open and she looked at Jillian.
"What?" Jillian asked.
"...There's nothing wrong with her," Celia started.
"What do you mean-" Rena interrupted as she stood.
"I mean there's nothing wrong!" Celia exclaimed, holding her arms out. "Whatever that gas was, it didn't poison her, didn't disease her, and it's not a curse!"
Jillian's brow furrowed as she studied Copperpot.
"...Well, so than what is it?" Copperpot asked, annoyed. "I didn't wake up like this, that's for sure!"
"...Hold still..." Jillian said, raising a hand towards Copperpot and stepping forward.
"Not like I got much choice," the halfling muttered as Jillian's palm came up just like Celia's staff, glowing slightly with ethereal fire. Jillian's eyes narrowed, her mouth pulling tight in a studious scowl.
"...She's right," Jillian said, hand dropping to her side. "Whatever did that to you, I can't dispel it."
"Well so now what?!" Copperpot exclaimed, her massive form jiggling in its confines.
"...The Maag," Jillian said.
"What?"
"The Maag. If it's as powerful as it's said to be, I bet I can harness it's power to shrink or transmute or... *something* to fix you down to a reasonable size."
"So that's it? Just leave me here?" Copperpot said.
"Sorry, Copper, but even if we could get you out of there, you'd never fit up the stairs," Rena said as she dug through their bags. "Here, some water, rations, and another belt of throwing daggers," The half-orc said, dumping the items in Copperpot's cleavage nearest to her head. "Just yell if you run into trouble."
"I'm not running anywhere," Copperpot grumbled as she set her items about her, looking for all the world like she'd fallen neck-deep into a giant lump of bread dough with a crease down the middle.