LunartickZero
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Blurb (+BG3 Lore):
- Mindflayers procreate by capturing a member of another species and inserting a small tadpole into their brain, usually through their eye-socket. Several days later you would then turn into one. You and your party have all been infected, allowing you to mindlink with each other, sharing memories and thoughts.
- You find Karlach sitting by the side of a river, suspecting her of being a devil, but find out she was also on the Mindflayer Nautilus(ship) with the rest of you. To make sure she’s telling the truth, you mindlink the tadpole in your mind with hers, allowing you to relive her memories. But you weren’t ready for what you find there. The Mindflayer inserting her tadpole had to improvise some creative ways to circumvent her burning Hellfire skin and insert the slithering little tentacled creatures into her body.
- Then, in even deeper memories, you’re treated to a myriad of scenes of Zariel—the Queen Devil of Avernus, the first circle of Hell—and many other devils attempting to break Karlach with ticklish torture until she agrees to serve Zariel unconditionally. She proved to be very stubborn…
- Your Dark Urge (the malicious evil that lives inside your mind) can’t help but be ecstatic about learning all about this tall, powerful barbarian’s most excruciating weaknesses, and you find yourself already reaching for a feather from your spell component pouch to cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, the tickling spell, while she’s distracted by combat.
- Whilst connecting memories, you also see some of Shadowheart’s previously lost memories, specifically of Shar’s “interrogation training”; so does Lae’zel, and you can’t wait to see the rivalrous pair go at it…
[Note: Since the torture scene is witnessed by you through reliving Karlach’s memories, you experience them from her perspective. However, since people probably came here to see Karlach get tickled, I still wrote the scene in third person, as if you’re watching it. But I did include a first person version of just that scene where you are in Karlach’s body, experiencing the torture; that version is down in the comment section, if you prefer to be the lee of the story.]
Karlach's Hideous Laughter - Part 1: Karlach’s Arduous Tadpole Insertion
The gravel cracks under your boots as you gingerly make your way down, down to the river. Behind you, heavy footsteps and the clanging of heavy armour does nothing to help your party’s sneaking approach, as Lae’zel believes stealth is for the fearful and weak. In contrast, Shadowheart moves so silently from shadow to shadow, you almost thought you’d accidentally left her at the toll house. You pray you never make an enemy out of her; not just because she could easily catch you unaware, but she’s told you some things about the ways dark justiciars exploit their enemy’s weaknesses and how they are masters at interrogation and… “persuasion”. The way she spoke about it with a wide grin told you how much she loved it, and how much she was dying for an excuse, any excuse. You also couldn’t help but notice how her eyes kept flicking over to her rival, Lae’zel, as she spoke about Shar’s methods of torture and interrogation, and you had to admit, a fire welled in your stomach at the thought of seeing the petite goth girl taking the cantankerous and powerful Githyanki down a few pegs.
You’re suddenly shaken from your tantalizing thoughts by the sight of an infernal figure sitting across the small creek at the bottom of the hill. The paladins of Tyr you met at the toll house warned you that the devil that attacked them was not only extremely powerful, but a General of none other than Zariel, the Queen devil of Avernus, first circle of hell. You hear a change in Lae’zel’s gait, as even she seems slightly intimidated by this foe. From this distance, you can make out that the devil’s whole body seems to be burning brightly; an infernal fire illuminates her body from within, silhouetting her ribcage against her chest and making her red skin glow as if the very touch of it would burn you.
“An infernal engine.” You flinch as you hear Shadowheart whisper in your ear. “Only the most powerful of hell’s denizens can even handle running on one of those. We might be out of our league here.”
“Chk,” Lae’zal interjects loudly, “don’t be a such a sniveling is’tark [coward]. Even the most powerful chraith [enemy] has a weakness. We must simply find hers, and she will fall like any other.”
You realise the devil’s already got an eye on you as she calmly runs a whetstone across the edge of her battleaxe. The sharp ‘shink’ of grinding metal pulses rhythmically as you slowly approach, any attempt at stealth now out the window. As you walk closer, you realise that her giant axe had tricked your brain into perceiving the devil as being smaller than she is. Crossing the small stream of water, you realise that the axe itself is actually of a gargantuan size, and as the female devil stands to her feet, she proves to be as well. Your jaw drops as your eyes explore her powerful, muscular body. Instead of clothes, her searing skin was covered by a cacophony of black leather belts, all intertwining across her figure, covering her just enough to provide decency, but leaving many, many openings. As your gaze caresses the exposed parts of her ribs, sides, stomach, even inner thighs, you figured she must be a barbarian, as defence was not on her list of priorities. Your eyes finally land on a giant pair of worn, thick leather boots and you figure she has at least one part of her body she wants to defend.
She takes a step closer and towers over you, and a shiver runs across your body. Not one of fear. Something else. You quickly look up and suddenly realise that her face is stunningly beautiful. You notice the two horns atop her head, one of which is broken off near the base, and you wonder how that happened. Then you follow her black and red hair as it flows back behind her head, and then comes forward again over her shoulder, resting on her collarbone, which draws your attention to the beating engine buried deep in her chest. It pulses rhythmically with the fires of hell itself, making her chest glow golden. Your gaze rests on her heaving chest and you suddenly realise she’s been speaking to you as her words start to break through your distraction.
“Huh, what? Sorry, I uh… what were you saying?” you stammer.
The devil grins, baring a set of sharp teeth and very pronounced canine fangs. Maybe she knows you were checking her out. You almost get distracted again when you notice her red tail flicking side to side like she was really enjoying making you squirm, but you manage to give her your attention.
“I said,” she repeats, “I suppose Zariel’s minions sent you down here to capture me, instead of facing me again themselves?”
You and Shadowheart exchange a quick confused glance, while Lae’zel stands stonefaced, simply waiting for a fight.
Shadowheart replies, “they claim to be paladins of Tyr, and that you are not just a devil, but a servant of Zariel.”
The devil lets out a loud burst of a laugh. “Oh that’s rich! Paladins of Tyr…” She goes to wipe a tear of laughter from her left cheek, but it evaporates before she can get it. “Normally I’d tell you all to fuck off and leave me to my business, but unlike most adventurers, you guys actually seem on my level. Maybe you can help me out? Help me drive back those devils?” She relaxes a little. “Karlach”, she exclaims as she holds her axe out towards you, making all three of you flinch back. “Oh no, I’m just greeting you. I can’t shake hands, you see. I’d burn you.”
She holds her other hand out open towards you, and you can see the heat rising from her palm.
“Wow…” you say, “you can’t turn it off?
She bangs her chest. “It’s been acting up ever since I escaped Avernus. I’ve been looking for an infernal mechanic, but it should come as no surprise that I’ve had no luck up here in the material plane.” Her shoulders drop as she sighs. “You have no idea how touch deprived I am. Even the breeze across my skin gives me goosebumps from the longing for touch.”
“Sounds like that deprivation has left you extremely sensitive,” Shadowheart quips with a malicious grin.
Karlach clenches her jaw shut, regretting what she’s already given away.
“Is that why those massive boots are the only protective part of your outfit?” you add, with a smirk to match, “without them you’d have trouble getting through the forest?”
Karlach’s chest bursts with bright yellows and oranges as her infernal engine fires into overdrive, causing flames to spark across her very skin. “No!” she exclaims. But somewhere in a different dimension above yours, a twenty-sided object rolls across a table and when it comes to a stop it displays a number, the number one. None of you believe her.
“Pa’vrylk [Stop]! Enough chatter!” Lae’zel yells while assuming a fighting stance, directing her silver sword towards Karlach. “Why are you all acting like she is ra’stil [an ally]?! Hta'zith [die creature]!
Shadowheart also darts back and pulls her weapons. “For once Lae’zel is right, she’s manipulating us with her friendly banter.”
You look at Karlach, unsure what to think.
“Look soldier,” she says looking back at you, “I don’t know how to convince you one way or another. But I have no reason to lie to you. Yes, I served Zariel, but not willingly. You have no idea the things I’ve been through. And now that I’ve escaped on that nautiloid, I’m never going back. Not after the things they… did to me. So either you help me fight off her bounty hunters, or you get out of my way, because trust me, you don’t want to be in it.”
She crosses her arms and stares at you. Soon, your companions join her in staring, waiting for your call.
Your eyes suddenly light up. “Actually,” you say excitedly, “there might be a way to figure out if you’re telling the truth. You said you escaped Avernus on a nautiloid? The one crash-landed at the beach?”
“Yeah.” Karlach nods.
“Were you perhaps… captured by the Mindflayers? Put in a pod and—”
Karlach quickly puts up a hand and her face snarls, letting you know that she doesn’t wish to relive that.
“Well,” you continue, “in that case.”
You close your eyes and reach out to the tadpole in your brain, then to the ones around you. You feel Shadowheart’s and Lae’zel’s minds connect, and then shortly after, a strange new mind. A fiery mind.
[Note: The following scene is in third person, but head to the comment section if you’d like to read it in first person, and experience Karlach’s memories from her point of view.]
You feel hot. Steam sizzles around Karlach’s body from the organic flesh of the pod restraining her in place as you’re living out Karlach’s recent memories. A mindflayer approaches her, more gingerly than you’d expect, like it’s slightly afraid of her. Karlach screams obscenities in an infernal language too ancient for you to comprehend. The mindflayer holds up a hand and her head is frozen perfectly in place, completely restrained without even an inch of movement. Even her eyelids are fully pried open. With his other hand, he guides a tadpole over to her eye. She panics, but as the tiny alien creature comes into contact with the fluid of her eye, it screeches and recoils from the heat. You hear Karlach let out a smug laugh, but she’s quickly silenced as she feels a telekinetic tug on her jaw, causing her to clamp it shut in defiance. Karlach feels the Mindflayer try and pry her mouth open but she’s too strong. Another defiant smirk paints her face as the Mindflayer moves closer. So close she can feel its tentacles brushing against her chest. They both stare into each other’s eyes; she’s so focused on fighting back that she never expected to suddenly feel one of the alien being’s tentacles slither into her bellybutton. The being recoils slightly when its touch produces a searing sizzle to his tentacle, but he’s spurred on by the look of absolute terror on Karlach’s face. The sizzling makes her skin vibrate as the slimy tip slithers deep into her navel and swirls around, driving her to the brink of madness in seconds. Then, he jabs even deeper and touches the knot at the bottom of her bellybutton.
“AAHAHAH STAHAHAP I HAHAHATE—”
Suddenly, her jaw stays fixed in a wide open position. Now that it’s stretched open as far as can be, Karlach no longer has the strength to fight his telekinesis and close it.
“NGAHAHANGNAAAH” she yells, incomprehensibly.
Karlach’s tongue flails around in defiance between her sharp demonic fangs. Then she gasps as the tadpole hovers in front of her again. The Mindflayer tilts her head back slightly and the ball of sentient slime floats closer and closer to her open mouth. A half dozen tentacles sprout from the small alien blob and latch onto her fangs, then tries to slither into her mouth.
“NGAAAAAAHAAAAAH” she screams as she uses her tongue to try and block the tadpole’s access to her mouth.
Karlach feels tiny tentacles wrap around her tongue and pull it down. The tadpole is shockingly strong and her tongue now lies restrained and motionless against her bottom jaw. She braces herself to feel it slither its way into her throat and up to her brain somehow, but it doesn’t come. It just stays where it is, seemingly confused as to how to proceed, now that it’s not at an eyeball. Then, her whole body jolts with a panicked gasp as she suddenly feels tiny tentacles gingerly touch the roof of her mouth, searching for some kind of passage. her eyes shoot open wide and her breathing grows rapid as the prickly little tentacles start to stroke and scrape along the roof of her mouth, and Karlach clearly had no idea how ticklish she is there. Surprisingly, the thin tendrils feel itchy and feathery, as opposed to the sliminess you’d expect. Hot tears run down her cheeks as the roof of her mouth is mercilessly tickled and teased, driving her out of her mind. She starts to cough and rasp to try and scare the tadpole out of her mouth and… it works? Karlach feels the tadpole lean back out of her mouth slightly and she’s about to sigh with relief… then her entire body is set alight with torment as she suddenly feels tiny tentacles reach up into her nostrils, feeling around and tickling the inside of her nose. Karlach screams at the top of her lungs and her whole body starts to tremble despite the Mindflayer’s attempts to hold her still, as the teasing, feathery tentacles tickle around inside her nostrils as well as return to the roof of her mouth, making both areas itch beyond anything she’s ever felt.
Karlach’s mind was so utterly occupied by the overwhelming torture that she hadn’t even noticed the Mindflayer holding up two more tadpoles in front of her. You realise that he must have given up on the tadpole in her mouth making it to her brain and decided to take alternative options. The one in his right hand starts to float over towards her; she summons all her strength to try and move away, prompting the Mindflayer to redouble his efforts to restrain her telekinetically, and she feels the weight of it press her down against the pod. Karlach’s body is so restrained she can barely even heave her chest to breathe. She tries to keep her eyes on the new tadpole floating over to her left shoulder, but soon it disappears out of her view. Then, she feels its feathery tendrils grab on to her shoulder, and slowly crawl up the side of her neck, turning her skin into goosebumps and forcing a panic reflex deep into her core. Before she knows it, playful little giggles start to escape her mouth, making the whole situation that much more humiliating. This is a dire, horrendous, torturous, terrifying, deadly situation! Nothing about this is funny. And yet, as the feathery tendrils snake their way up her neck and throat, Karlach finds herself giggling uncontrollably, as if this were the silliest thing that has ever happened to her. You notice the tadpole has no trouble touching her skin now, and you realise she’s been so exhausted of her strength that her fire is but an ember.
Then the muscular Tiefling’s whole body tenses once more as she feels the tips of the prickly tentacles explore the outside of her ear. She starts to whimper between her giggles. She wants to beg but the Mindflayer still forces her mouth wide open while the first tadpole still continues to torment the insides of her mouth and nostrils.
“Ehehehaahachiiuuooueeeaaah” is all she can muster with her mouth spread open and tongue restrained.
The prickly tendrils explore the creases of the barbarian’s pointed ear, circling around until finally they find the opening and start to slither deep inside. The emotion she should be feeling is fear, but instead her mind is overwhelmed by the ticklish nature of the sensation, and her brain begins to melt as her sanity threatens to leave her for good.
Then a jolt, like a thunderbolt to the chest. The third tadpole landed right between her large breasts and its many tendrils flail around those soft mounds as it crawls down between them. Some even reach far enough to touch her nipples, flooding her senses with a very conflicting set of emotions. Then she feels it head down. Further down. She feels it explore her extremely muscled abdomen, the feathery tips caressing the creases between the defined muscles of her stomach, making her suck it in in the hope that it helps, but it somehow makes things worse. Karlach feels the itching prods form a circle on her belly, and she realises with horror that the tadpole is hovering directly above her bellybutton. A tentacle, slightly larger than the others, lands right on the edge of her navel, and starts to explore, drawing maddeningly teasing circles around her bellybutton, like it’s looking for it. Part of her wants it to find it already so the teasing stops, but she knows it’ll be so much worse when it does.
The circles become smaller and home in on the sensitive dimple at the centre of the fiery barbarian’s ticklish stomach, until finally, the tadpole senses the inward dip. All at once, the tendrils snake down into her bellybutton, vibrating against her skin with its prickly, feathery texture, twirling around and scratching at all the folds and creases within. Karlach screams so loud her voice goes hoarse in seconds. But the worst was yet to come, as the tadpole reaches the depth of her bellybutton and it starts to play with the knot at the bottom. Tears flow down the beautiful Tiefling’s face as she experiences mind breaking torture, worse than anything even Zariel, Queen of the first circle of Hell, could have conjured up. Each flick, every scratch of those sharp, prickly tendrils against the excruciatingly sensitive bottom of Karlach’s red navel sends a torturous shock of lightning up her spine, as if it was directly plucking her nervous system itself, playing it like a harp. But instead of music, it was screaming laughter and mind-melting torture. Suddenly, she feels the mass of the tadpole force itself all the way into her bellybutton, forcefully stretching it wide as it inserts itself.
[Note: Come back here if you read the first person version]
Suddenly, Hellfire. You realise you’re no longer on the Nautilus, but in Avernus, the first circle of Hell. You’re not sure how you know that, you just do. You’re still in Karlach’s memories as she pulls frantically on a set of rough, black and rusted iron shackles, to no avail. You look down and realise she’s naked. Karlach looks up to see Zariel towering over her, the Queen of Avernus and a powerful devil. Beside her are her generals, and they all flex their claws. She knows exactly what’s about to happen.
“So, Karlach,” Zariel purrs with saccharine tone, “are you ready to serve me yet?”
“Get bent!” she yells with a hoarse voice, and spits on the ground before the Queen, which sizzles as it instantly evaporates.
“Have it your way.” She grins, betraying it’s the answer she wanted. It’s clear she loves torturing Karlach particularly.
For what feels like days, you witness endless memories of Karlach being tortured mercilessly; you would have sworn every devil in Hell had their turn exploiting Karlach’s ticklish weaknesses, making her scream with agony and involuntary laughter. But Zariel tickle tortured her the most, really taking her time to explore and study every inch of Karlach’s body, with every technique and tool she could possibly dream up. You find yourself staring in blissful curiosity as Karlach’s stomach, ribs, armpits, neck, ears, back, knees, even her inner thighs, ass, breasts and privates, and especially those big bare soles of hers are full exploited and tormented to drive her to the edge of insanity, repeatedly, endlessly, and mercilessly. Your Dark Urge wells up inside you and you find yourself maliciously drooling at the thought of making this powerful devilish warrior whimper and beg for mercy with just the tiniest little tickles in just the right places. You focus studiously on her memories and absorb every reaction to every spot on her body as it is tortured, until you have her entire body memorised in your mind; a complete mental map of not just her greatest weaknesses, but the most effective method and tools for each of those spots as well. Karlach should pray she never makes an enemy out of you, but unfortunately for her, the Dark Urge within you doesn’t care about enemies or allies, it just wants to make someone suffer.
Now you’re in a large stone hall. A cathedral, perhaps. A small group of Shar’s Dark Justiciars stand around you. You realise you’re no longer in Karlach’s memories. No, these must be Shadowheart’s.
“Now then,” the one with the most ornate helmet says, “as you know, the followers of Shar are masters of interrogation, of retrieving information. Often through persuasion, but sometimes unconventional methods are required. I am talking, of course, about the art of torture.” He motions towards Shadowheart, and you suddenly realise that he’s not talking to her, but to the justiciars around him.
“We have here a young pupil, one we have deemed especially… susceptible to interrogation. It is our hope that as you use her to hone your own expertise in torture, she may learn to withstand it. After all, no follower of Shar would ever succumb to torture.”
He flashes Shadowheart a stern glare, hinting at his strong disappointment in just how extremely susceptible she is to ‘torture’. “We can only hope… Begin.”
You look down and it is only now that you realise that Shadowheart is tied to a wooden x-shaped frame, her pale, soft, stark-naked body completely stretched out and vulnerable to the men in ornate armour. You feel her panic rise as the heavily armoured figures surround her with all sorts of tools of torture, aiming to exploit every inch of her soft, sensitive skin. She screams in the rag tied over her mouth as their hands come down—
You gasp as if surfacing from under water and find Shadowheart glaring ferociously at you.
“It seems Karlach’s memories have brought up some of my own, ones that I’ve lost,” she says, and you notice she’s blushing fiercely. “Forgive me, but I would like to experience these new memories alone.” She pauses, turns, then looks back at you from the corner of her eye with a grin. “But perhaps we can go over them in detail, later.”
“You know,” Lae’zel interjects, “perhaps our trainings were not so different.”
Shadowheart’s normally pale skin takes on a fiery hue not unlike Karlach’s, as she realises her rival, Lae’zel, also saw her memory.
“As warriors of the great Vlaakith,” Lae’zel continues, “we abhor weakness. The weakness which you had forced out of you as we have seen in your memory, it is abundant in the Yanki [young]. We too have rituals where we purge these weaknesses from our young warriors, so they may become fearless soldiers of the mighty Gith.”
Shadowheart grips her mace tightly, embarrassment building inside of her as Lae’zel confirms that she did indeed also see the memory. “So what if it doesn’t go away,” she says, trying to move on from talking about her. “What if you never stop being deathly ticklish? You just can’t become a Githyanki soldier?”
“No,” lae’zel replies, “I was still allowed to become a—TSK’VA” she swears as she realizes what she’s just admitted to.
Shadowheart’s jaw drops and her eyes spread wide as she looks at Lae’zel with shocked rejoicing.
“That is not what I meant!” Lae’zel yelps. She can tell from your smug smirks that neither of you believe her. She turns away with a “Chk!” and you realise her green skin is doing its version of blushing, a blue hue flashing across her cheeks and nose.
“You guys are fun!” You suddenly hear Karlach exclaim, the tall devilish barbarian who is still standing before the three of you. “Like a bickering rag-tag crew of misfits. I love it.”
You feel a slight panic at the thought of her knowing what you have seen.
“What did you do to me, anyway,” she asks, nursing her head. “One minute we were talking, then suddenly I’m seeing your memories. Well, only your recent ones. Nautilus, Mindflayers, Emerald Grove, and such. You seem like a good bunch of people who help others.” She smiles innocently. Naively. “I think we’ll do well together!”
You let out a deep sigh. Then you grin, ear to ear, as the Dark Urge within you rejoices at the fact that she has no idea of the things you know about her. Her deepest darkest secret, her greatest weaknesses.
Lae’zel shuffles closer to you with an identical malicious grin, and whispers “I told you, even the greatest chraith [enemy] has a weakness. The greater the foe, the greater the weakness, I find. Which appears very much true for this one particularly.” She looks Karlach up and down, scanning the bare parts of her body, analysing it, remembering the things she’s seen in those memories. Meanwhile Karlach dances randomly in place, humming and hopping on her giant boots—which you now know hide excruciatingly ticklish feet—with an innocently naïve smile on her face.
You nod at Lae’zel, feeling the urge to exploit that weakness bubble up within you. Especially when you see that cute, naïve look on the tall Tiefling’s face. She trusts you completely. Oh how she’ll regret it.
Footsteps pull you from your reverie and you turn to find the ‘paladins of Tyr’ standing behind you.
“Our lord Tyr grows impatient,” one of them says, “the devil must be dealt with so our lands can be safe.” They pull their weapons. “Will you aid us, great and righteous adventurers?”
“I’ll deal with this,” Karlach says with a smug grin, “I’ve had a rest, this’ll be a piece of cake.”
The horned barbarian jumps in place on her worn leather boots as she hypes herself up, growling and shaking her muscles loose while gripping her massive battle axe tightly. The engine in her chest churns loudly and glows bright, setting fire to her skin and coating her in hellfire. Her eyes spark ablaze and she screams loudly with an unmistakable barbarian rage. You find genuine terror grips you, as well as everyone else around her. You have no more doubts that she is unmistakably a warrior from Zariel’s Hell army.
She dashes forward, faster than you had ever expected her to move, and lays into the paladins. Her axe swings with the fires of hell and the paladins don’t stand a chance. They do their best to defend themselves, but ultimately, the barbarian is more powerful than any of you had imagined.
“What do we do?” Shadowheart asks.
You survey the situation. Karlach is clearly one of Zariel’s generals. Just witness that awesome power. And these paladins, who she claims are devils, don’t seem to stand a snowflake’s chance in hell against her. She is wiping the floor with them, and you find yourself admiring her powerful muscles flowing across her body as she battles them with Hell’s fury. Heck, you realise even you might not stand a chance against her. Maybe they really are just normal paladins, and maybe she really is an evil devil?
“Maybe it doesn’t matter?” you hear a voice in your head say. Your Dark Urge.
You grin as you realise you don’t actually care who was lying, who is evil, who is good. You watch in awe as this mighty devilish barbarian dominates the battlefield, mowing down anyone who stands in her way with great ease. She is invincible, powerful, beautiful. She has all but won this battle. And you realise you’re suddenly holding a feather. You’d subconsciously pulled it from your spell component’s pouch. You grin wide as you hold the feather up and gently start waving it in the air while staring intently at the beautiful Tiefling, and start the incantation for ‘Tasha’s Hideous Laughter’. The magical tickling spell. It’s time to make the devil sing.
[Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it, and let me know what horrible things you'd like to happen to poor sensitive Karlach in the future. Also let me know if you'd like me to write in more detail about Karlach's memories of Zariel, Shadowheart's memories of her training, or Lae'zel's training.]
- Mindflayers procreate by capturing a member of another species and inserting a small tadpole into their brain, usually through their eye-socket. Several days later you would then turn into one. You and your party have all been infected, allowing you to mindlink with each other, sharing memories and thoughts.
- You find Karlach sitting by the side of a river, suspecting her of being a devil, but find out she was also on the Mindflayer Nautilus(ship) with the rest of you. To make sure she’s telling the truth, you mindlink the tadpole in your mind with hers, allowing you to relive her memories. But you weren’t ready for what you find there. The Mindflayer inserting her tadpole had to improvise some creative ways to circumvent her burning Hellfire skin and insert the slithering little tentacled creatures into her body.
- Then, in even deeper memories, you’re treated to a myriad of scenes of Zariel—the Queen Devil of Avernus, the first circle of Hell—and many other devils attempting to break Karlach with ticklish torture until she agrees to serve Zariel unconditionally. She proved to be very stubborn…
- Your Dark Urge (the malicious evil that lives inside your mind) can’t help but be ecstatic about learning all about this tall, powerful barbarian’s most excruciating weaknesses, and you find yourself already reaching for a feather from your spell component pouch to cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, the tickling spell, while she’s distracted by combat.
- Whilst connecting memories, you also see some of Shadowheart’s previously lost memories, specifically of Shar’s “interrogation training”; so does Lae’zel, and you can’t wait to see the rivalrous pair go at it…
[Note: Since the torture scene is witnessed by you through reliving Karlach’s memories, you experience them from her perspective. However, since people probably came here to see Karlach get tickled, I still wrote the scene in third person, as if you’re watching it. But I did include a first person version of just that scene where you are in Karlach’s body, experiencing the torture; that version is down in the comment section, if you prefer to be the lee of the story.]
Karlach's Hideous Laughter - Part 1: Karlach’s Arduous Tadpole Insertion
The gravel cracks under your boots as you gingerly make your way down, down to the river. Behind you, heavy footsteps and the clanging of heavy armour does nothing to help your party’s sneaking approach, as Lae’zel believes stealth is for the fearful and weak. In contrast, Shadowheart moves so silently from shadow to shadow, you almost thought you’d accidentally left her at the toll house. You pray you never make an enemy out of her; not just because she could easily catch you unaware, but she’s told you some things about the ways dark justiciars exploit their enemy’s weaknesses and how they are masters at interrogation and… “persuasion”. The way she spoke about it with a wide grin told you how much she loved it, and how much she was dying for an excuse, any excuse. You also couldn’t help but notice how her eyes kept flicking over to her rival, Lae’zel, as she spoke about Shar’s methods of torture and interrogation, and you had to admit, a fire welled in your stomach at the thought of seeing the petite goth girl taking the cantankerous and powerful Githyanki down a few pegs.
You’re suddenly shaken from your tantalizing thoughts by the sight of an infernal figure sitting across the small creek at the bottom of the hill. The paladins of Tyr you met at the toll house warned you that the devil that attacked them was not only extremely powerful, but a General of none other than Zariel, the Queen devil of Avernus, first circle of hell. You hear a change in Lae’zel’s gait, as even she seems slightly intimidated by this foe. From this distance, you can make out that the devil’s whole body seems to be burning brightly; an infernal fire illuminates her body from within, silhouetting her ribcage against her chest and making her red skin glow as if the very touch of it would burn you.
“An infernal engine.” You flinch as you hear Shadowheart whisper in your ear. “Only the most powerful of hell’s denizens can even handle running on one of those. We might be out of our league here.”
“Chk,” Lae’zal interjects loudly, “don’t be a such a sniveling is’tark [coward]. Even the most powerful chraith [enemy] has a weakness. We must simply find hers, and she will fall like any other.”
You realise the devil’s already got an eye on you as she calmly runs a whetstone across the edge of her battleaxe. The sharp ‘shink’ of grinding metal pulses rhythmically as you slowly approach, any attempt at stealth now out the window. As you walk closer, you realise that her giant axe had tricked your brain into perceiving the devil as being smaller than she is. Crossing the small stream of water, you realise that the axe itself is actually of a gargantuan size, and as the female devil stands to her feet, she proves to be as well. Your jaw drops as your eyes explore her powerful, muscular body. Instead of clothes, her searing skin was covered by a cacophony of black leather belts, all intertwining across her figure, covering her just enough to provide decency, but leaving many, many openings. As your gaze caresses the exposed parts of her ribs, sides, stomach, even inner thighs, you figured she must be a barbarian, as defence was not on her list of priorities. Your eyes finally land on a giant pair of worn, thick leather boots and you figure she has at least one part of her body she wants to defend.
She takes a step closer and towers over you, and a shiver runs across your body. Not one of fear. Something else. You quickly look up and suddenly realise that her face is stunningly beautiful. You notice the two horns atop her head, one of which is broken off near the base, and you wonder how that happened. Then you follow her black and red hair as it flows back behind her head, and then comes forward again over her shoulder, resting on her collarbone, which draws your attention to the beating engine buried deep in her chest. It pulses rhythmically with the fires of hell itself, making her chest glow golden. Your gaze rests on her heaving chest and you suddenly realise she’s been speaking to you as her words start to break through your distraction.
“Huh, what? Sorry, I uh… what were you saying?” you stammer.
The devil grins, baring a set of sharp teeth and very pronounced canine fangs. Maybe she knows you were checking her out. You almost get distracted again when you notice her red tail flicking side to side like she was really enjoying making you squirm, but you manage to give her your attention.
“I said,” she repeats, “I suppose Zariel’s minions sent you down here to capture me, instead of facing me again themselves?”
You and Shadowheart exchange a quick confused glance, while Lae’zel stands stonefaced, simply waiting for a fight.
Shadowheart replies, “they claim to be paladins of Tyr, and that you are not just a devil, but a servant of Zariel.”
The devil lets out a loud burst of a laugh. “Oh that’s rich! Paladins of Tyr…” She goes to wipe a tear of laughter from her left cheek, but it evaporates before she can get it. “Normally I’d tell you all to fuck off and leave me to my business, but unlike most adventurers, you guys actually seem on my level. Maybe you can help me out? Help me drive back those devils?” She relaxes a little. “Karlach”, she exclaims as she holds her axe out towards you, making all three of you flinch back. “Oh no, I’m just greeting you. I can’t shake hands, you see. I’d burn you.”
She holds her other hand out open towards you, and you can see the heat rising from her palm.
“Wow…” you say, “you can’t turn it off?
She bangs her chest. “It’s been acting up ever since I escaped Avernus. I’ve been looking for an infernal mechanic, but it should come as no surprise that I’ve had no luck up here in the material plane.” Her shoulders drop as she sighs. “You have no idea how touch deprived I am. Even the breeze across my skin gives me goosebumps from the longing for touch.”
“Sounds like that deprivation has left you extremely sensitive,” Shadowheart quips with a malicious grin.
Karlach clenches her jaw shut, regretting what she’s already given away.
“Is that why those massive boots are the only protective part of your outfit?” you add, with a smirk to match, “without them you’d have trouble getting through the forest?”
Karlach’s chest bursts with bright yellows and oranges as her infernal engine fires into overdrive, causing flames to spark across her very skin. “No!” she exclaims. But somewhere in a different dimension above yours, a twenty-sided object rolls across a table and when it comes to a stop it displays a number, the number one. None of you believe her.
“Pa’vrylk [Stop]! Enough chatter!” Lae’zel yells while assuming a fighting stance, directing her silver sword towards Karlach. “Why are you all acting like she is ra’stil [an ally]?! Hta'zith [die creature]!
Shadowheart also darts back and pulls her weapons. “For once Lae’zel is right, she’s manipulating us with her friendly banter.”
You look at Karlach, unsure what to think.
“Look soldier,” she says looking back at you, “I don’t know how to convince you one way or another. But I have no reason to lie to you. Yes, I served Zariel, but not willingly. You have no idea the things I’ve been through. And now that I’ve escaped on that nautiloid, I’m never going back. Not after the things they… did to me. So either you help me fight off her bounty hunters, or you get out of my way, because trust me, you don’t want to be in it.”
She crosses her arms and stares at you. Soon, your companions join her in staring, waiting for your call.
Your eyes suddenly light up. “Actually,” you say excitedly, “there might be a way to figure out if you’re telling the truth. You said you escaped Avernus on a nautiloid? The one crash-landed at the beach?”
“Yeah.” Karlach nods.
“Were you perhaps… captured by the Mindflayers? Put in a pod and—”
Karlach quickly puts up a hand and her face snarls, letting you know that she doesn’t wish to relive that.
“Well,” you continue, “in that case.”
You close your eyes and reach out to the tadpole in your brain, then to the ones around you. You feel Shadowheart’s and Lae’zel’s minds connect, and then shortly after, a strange new mind. A fiery mind.
[Note: The following scene is in third person, but head to the comment section if you’d like to read it in first person, and experience Karlach’s memories from her point of view.]
You feel hot. Steam sizzles around Karlach’s body from the organic flesh of the pod restraining her in place as you’re living out Karlach’s recent memories. A mindflayer approaches her, more gingerly than you’d expect, like it’s slightly afraid of her. Karlach screams obscenities in an infernal language too ancient for you to comprehend. The mindflayer holds up a hand and her head is frozen perfectly in place, completely restrained without even an inch of movement. Even her eyelids are fully pried open. With his other hand, he guides a tadpole over to her eye. She panics, but as the tiny alien creature comes into contact with the fluid of her eye, it screeches and recoils from the heat. You hear Karlach let out a smug laugh, but she’s quickly silenced as she feels a telekinetic tug on her jaw, causing her to clamp it shut in defiance. Karlach feels the Mindflayer try and pry her mouth open but she’s too strong. Another defiant smirk paints her face as the Mindflayer moves closer. So close she can feel its tentacles brushing against her chest. They both stare into each other’s eyes; she’s so focused on fighting back that she never expected to suddenly feel one of the alien being’s tentacles slither into her bellybutton. The being recoils slightly when its touch produces a searing sizzle to his tentacle, but he’s spurred on by the look of absolute terror on Karlach’s face. The sizzling makes her skin vibrate as the slimy tip slithers deep into her navel and swirls around, driving her to the brink of madness in seconds. Then, he jabs even deeper and touches the knot at the bottom of her bellybutton.
“AAHAHAH STAHAHAP I HAHAHATE—”
Suddenly, her jaw stays fixed in a wide open position. Now that it’s stretched open as far as can be, Karlach no longer has the strength to fight his telekinesis and close it.
“NGAHAHANGNAAAH” she yells, incomprehensibly.
Karlach’s tongue flails around in defiance between her sharp demonic fangs. Then she gasps as the tadpole hovers in front of her again. The Mindflayer tilts her head back slightly and the ball of sentient slime floats closer and closer to her open mouth. A half dozen tentacles sprout from the small alien blob and latch onto her fangs, then tries to slither into her mouth.
“NGAAAAAAHAAAAAH” she screams as she uses her tongue to try and block the tadpole’s access to her mouth.
Karlach feels tiny tentacles wrap around her tongue and pull it down. The tadpole is shockingly strong and her tongue now lies restrained and motionless against her bottom jaw. She braces herself to feel it slither its way into her throat and up to her brain somehow, but it doesn’t come. It just stays where it is, seemingly confused as to how to proceed, now that it’s not at an eyeball. Then, her whole body jolts with a panicked gasp as she suddenly feels tiny tentacles gingerly touch the roof of her mouth, searching for some kind of passage. her eyes shoot open wide and her breathing grows rapid as the prickly little tentacles start to stroke and scrape along the roof of her mouth, and Karlach clearly had no idea how ticklish she is there. Surprisingly, the thin tendrils feel itchy and feathery, as opposed to the sliminess you’d expect. Hot tears run down her cheeks as the roof of her mouth is mercilessly tickled and teased, driving her out of her mind. She starts to cough and rasp to try and scare the tadpole out of her mouth and… it works? Karlach feels the tadpole lean back out of her mouth slightly and she’s about to sigh with relief… then her entire body is set alight with torment as she suddenly feels tiny tentacles reach up into her nostrils, feeling around and tickling the inside of her nose. Karlach screams at the top of her lungs and her whole body starts to tremble despite the Mindflayer’s attempts to hold her still, as the teasing, feathery tentacles tickle around inside her nostrils as well as return to the roof of her mouth, making both areas itch beyond anything she’s ever felt.
Karlach’s mind was so utterly occupied by the overwhelming torture that she hadn’t even noticed the Mindflayer holding up two more tadpoles in front of her. You realise that he must have given up on the tadpole in her mouth making it to her brain and decided to take alternative options. The one in his right hand starts to float over towards her; she summons all her strength to try and move away, prompting the Mindflayer to redouble his efforts to restrain her telekinetically, and she feels the weight of it press her down against the pod. Karlach’s body is so restrained she can barely even heave her chest to breathe. She tries to keep her eyes on the new tadpole floating over to her left shoulder, but soon it disappears out of her view. Then, she feels its feathery tendrils grab on to her shoulder, and slowly crawl up the side of her neck, turning her skin into goosebumps and forcing a panic reflex deep into her core. Before she knows it, playful little giggles start to escape her mouth, making the whole situation that much more humiliating. This is a dire, horrendous, torturous, terrifying, deadly situation! Nothing about this is funny. And yet, as the feathery tendrils snake their way up her neck and throat, Karlach finds herself giggling uncontrollably, as if this were the silliest thing that has ever happened to her. You notice the tadpole has no trouble touching her skin now, and you realise she’s been so exhausted of her strength that her fire is but an ember.
Then the muscular Tiefling’s whole body tenses once more as she feels the tips of the prickly tentacles explore the outside of her ear. She starts to whimper between her giggles. She wants to beg but the Mindflayer still forces her mouth wide open while the first tadpole still continues to torment the insides of her mouth and nostrils.
“Ehehehaahachiiuuooueeeaaah” is all she can muster with her mouth spread open and tongue restrained.
The prickly tendrils explore the creases of the barbarian’s pointed ear, circling around until finally they find the opening and start to slither deep inside. The emotion she should be feeling is fear, but instead her mind is overwhelmed by the ticklish nature of the sensation, and her brain begins to melt as her sanity threatens to leave her for good.
Then a jolt, like a thunderbolt to the chest. The third tadpole landed right between her large breasts and its many tendrils flail around those soft mounds as it crawls down between them. Some even reach far enough to touch her nipples, flooding her senses with a very conflicting set of emotions. Then she feels it head down. Further down. She feels it explore her extremely muscled abdomen, the feathery tips caressing the creases between the defined muscles of her stomach, making her suck it in in the hope that it helps, but it somehow makes things worse. Karlach feels the itching prods form a circle on her belly, and she realises with horror that the tadpole is hovering directly above her bellybutton. A tentacle, slightly larger than the others, lands right on the edge of her navel, and starts to explore, drawing maddeningly teasing circles around her bellybutton, like it’s looking for it. Part of her wants it to find it already so the teasing stops, but she knows it’ll be so much worse when it does.
The circles become smaller and home in on the sensitive dimple at the centre of the fiery barbarian’s ticklish stomach, until finally, the tadpole senses the inward dip. All at once, the tendrils snake down into her bellybutton, vibrating against her skin with its prickly, feathery texture, twirling around and scratching at all the folds and creases within. Karlach screams so loud her voice goes hoarse in seconds. But the worst was yet to come, as the tadpole reaches the depth of her bellybutton and it starts to play with the knot at the bottom. Tears flow down the beautiful Tiefling’s face as she experiences mind breaking torture, worse than anything even Zariel, Queen of the first circle of Hell, could have conjured up. Each flick, every scratch of those sharp, prickly tendrils against the excruciatingly sensitive bottom of Karlach’s red navel sends a torturous shock of lightning up her spine, as if it was directly plucking her nervous system itself, playing it like a harp. But instead of music, it was screaming laughter and mind-melting torture. Suddenly, she feels the mass of the tadpole force itself all the way into her bellybutton, forcefully stretching it wide as it inserts itself.
[Note: Come back here if you read the first person version]
Suddenly, Hellfire. You realise you’re no longer on the Nautilus, but in Avernus, the first circle of Hell. You’re not sure how you know that, you just do. You’re still in Karlach’s memories as she pulls frantically on a set of rough, black and rusted iron shackles, to no avail. You look down and realise she’s naked. Karlach looks up to see Zariel towering over her, the Queen of Avernus and a powerful devil. Beside her are her generals, and they all flex their claws. She knows exactly what’s about to happen.
“So, Karlach,” Zariel purrs with saccharine tone, “are you ready to serve me yet?”
“Get bent!” she yells with a hoarse voice, and spits on the ground before the Queen, which sizzles as it instantly evaporates.
“Have it your way.” She grins, betraying it’s the answer she wanted. It’s clear she loves torturing Karlach particularly.
For what feels like days, you witness endless memories of Karlach being tortured mercilessly; you would have sworn every devil in Hell had their turn exploiting Karlach’s ticklish weaknesses, making her scream with agony and involuntary laughter. But Zariel tickle tortured her the most, really taking her time to explore and study every inch of Karlach’s body, with every technique and tool she could possibly dream up. You find yourself staring in blissful curiosity as Karlach’s stomach, ribs, armpits, neck, ears, back, knees, even her inner thighs, ass, breasts and privates, and especially those big bare soles of hers are full exploited and tormented to drive her to the edge of insanity, repeatedly, endlessly, and mercilessly. Your Dark Urge wells up inside you and you find yourself maliciously drooling at the thought of making this powerful devilish warrior whimper and beg for mercy with just the tiniest little tickles in just the right places. You focus studiously on her memories and absorb every reaction to every spot on her body as it is tortured, until you have her entire body memorised in your mind; a complete mental map of not just her greatest weaknesses, but the most effective method and tools for each of those spots as well. Karlach should pray she never makes an enemy out of you, but unfortunately for her, the Dark Urge within you doesn’t care about enemies or allies, it just wants to make someone suffer.
Now you’re in a large stone hall. A cathedral, perhaps. A small group of Shar’s Dark Justiciars stand around you. You realise you’re no longer in Karlach’s memories. No, these must be Shadowheart’s.
“Now then,” the one with the most ornate helmet says, “as you know, the followers of Shar are masters of interrogation, of retrieving information. Often through persuasion, but sometimes unconventional methods are required. I am talking, of course, about the art of torture.” He motions towards Shadowheart, and you suddenly realise that he’s not talking to her, but to the justiciars around him.
“We have here a young pupil, one we have deemed especially… susceptible to interrogation. It is our hope that as you use her to hone your own expertise in torture, she may learn to withstand it. After all, no follower of Shar would ever succumb to torture.”
He flashes Shadowheart a stern glare, hinting at his strong disappointment in just how extremely susceptible she is to ‘torture’. “We can only hope… Begin.”
You look down and it is only now that you realise that Shadowheart is tied to a wooden x-shaped frame, her pale, soft, stark-naked body completely stretched out and vulnerable to the men in ornate armour. You feel her panic rise as the heavily armoured figures surround her with all sorts of tools of torture, aiming to exploit every inch of her soft, sensitive skin. She screams in the rag tied over her mouth as their hands come down—
You gasp as if surfacing from under water and find Shadowheart glaring ferociously at you.
“It seems Karlach’s memories have brought up some of my own, ones that I’ve lost,” she says, and you notice she’s blushing fiercely. “Forgive me, but I would like to experience these new memories alone.” She pauses, turns, then looks back at you from the corner of her eye with a grin. “But perhaps we can go over them in detail, later.”
“You know,” Lae’zel interjects, “perhaps our trainings were not so different.”
Shadowheart’s normally pale skin takes on a fiery hue not unlike Karlach’s, as she realises her rival, Lae’zel, also saw her memory.
“As warriors of the great Vlaakith,” Lae’zel continues, “we abhor weakness. The weakness which you had forced out of you as we have seen in your memory, it is abundant in the Yanki [young]. We too have rituals where we purge these weaknesses from our young warriors, so they may become fearless soldiers of the mighty Gith.”
Shadowheart grips her mace tightly, embarrassment building inside of her as Lae’zel confirms that she did indeed also see the memory. “So what if it doesn’t go away,” she says, trying to move on from talking about her. “What if you never stop being deathly ticklish? You just can’t become a Githyanki soldier?”
“No,” lae’zel replies, “I was still allowed to become a—TSK’VA” she swears as she realizes what she’s just admitted to.
Shadowheart’s jaw drops and her eyes spread wide as she looks at Lae’zel with shocked rejoicing.
“That is not what I meant!” Lae’zel yelps. She can tell from your smug smirks that neither of you believe her. She turns away with a “Chk!” and you realise her green skin is doing its version of blushing, a blue hue flashing across her cheeks and nose.
“You guys are fun!” You suddenly hear Karlach exclaim, the tall devilish barbarian who is still standing before the three of you. “Like a bickering rag-tag crew of misfits. I love it.”
You feel a slight panic at the thought of her knowing what you have seen.
“What did you do to me, anyway,” she asks, nursing her head. “One minute we were talking, then suddenly I’m seeing your memories. Well, only your recent ones. Nautilus, Mindflayers, Emerald Grove, and such. You seem like a good bunch of people who help others.” She smiles innocently. Naively. “I think we’ll do well together!”
You let out a deep sigh. Then you grin, ear to ear, as the Dark Urge within you rejoices at the fact that she has no idea of the things you know about her. Her deepest darkest secret, her greatest weaknesses.
Lae’zel shuffles closer to you with an identical malicious grin, and whispers “I told you, even the greatest chraith [enemy] has a weakness. The greater the foe, the greater the weakness, I find. Which appears very much true for this one particularly.” She looks Karlach up and down, scanning the bare parts of her body, analysing it, remembering the things she’s seen in those memories. Meanwhile Karlach dances randomly in place, humming and hopping on her giant boots—which you now know hide excruciatingly ticklish feet—with an innocently naïve smile on her face.
You nod at Lae’zel, feeling the urge to exploit that weakness bubble up within you. Especially when you see that cute, naïve look on the tall Tiefling’s face. She trusts you completely. Oh how she’ll regret it.
Footsteps pull you from your reverie and you turn to find the ‘paladins of Tyr’ standing behind you.
“Our lord Tyr grows impatient,” one of them says, “the devil must be dealt with so our lands can be safe.” They pull their weapons. “Will you aid us, great and righteous adventurers?”
“I’ll deal with this,” Karlach says with a smug grin, “I’ve had a rest, this’ll be a piece of cake.”
The horned barbarian jumps in place on her worn leather boots as she hypes herself up, growling and shaking her muscles loose while gripping her massive battle axe tightly. The engine in her chest churns loudly and glows bright, setting fire to her skin and coating her in hellfire. Her eyes spark ablaze and she screams loudly with an unmistakable barbarian rage. You find genuine terror grips you, as well as everyone else around her. You have no more doubts that she is unmistakably a warrior from Zariel’s Hell army.
She dashes forward, faster than you had ever expected her to move, and lays into the paladins. Her axe swings with the fires of hell and the paladins don’t stand a chance. They do their best to defend themselves, but ultimately, the barbarian is more powerful than any of you had imagined.
“What do we do?” Shadowheart asks.
You survey the situation. Karlach is clearly one of Zariel’s generals. Just witness that awesome power. And these paladins, who she claims are devils, don’t seem to stand a snowflake’s chance in hell against her. She is wiping the floor with them, and you find yourself admiring her powerful muscles flowing across her body as she battles them with Hell’s fury. Heck, you realise even you might not stand a chance against her. Maybe they really are just normal paladins, and maybe she really is an evil devil?
“Maybe it doesn’t matter?” you hear a voice in your head say. Your Dark Urge.
You grin as you realise you don’t actually care who was lying, who is evil, who is good. You watch in awe as this mighty devilish barbarian dominates the battlefield, mowing down anyone who stands in her way with great ease. She is invincible, powerful, beautiful. She has all but won this battle. And you realise you’re suddenly holding a feather. You’d subconsciously pulled it from your spell component’s pouch. You grin wide as you hold the feather up and gently start waving it in the air while staring intently at the beautiful Tiefling, and start the incantation for ‘Tasha’s Hideous Laughter’. The magical tickling spell. It’s time to make the devil sing.
[Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it, and let me know what horrible things you'd like to happen to poor sensitive Karlach in the future. Also let me know if you'd like me to write in more detail about Karlach's memories of Zariel, Shadowheart's memories of her training, or Lae'zel's training.]
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