Chapter 124: Business As Usual
5/18 evening
I was exceptionally lucky: Quel'Danil lodge didn't have any mages. I'd been saving a couple amulets for any local enchanters, but the closest thing they had was a disenchanter and a few leatherworkers. Not likely to identify anything odd about the necklaces.
One of the simplest forms of enchanting was the art of extracting the magic from something, which then turned it into a pure physical form. Generally dust, or a spongy glowing ball; occasionally a crystal. Useful for enchanting, but also something that a high elf could feed on in safely controlled doses. Yes, consuming arcane dust could be done nasally, and yes it does look like faintly glowing cocaine.
Quel'Danil was originally a hunting lodge, though it has also served as a kind of informal embassy to the human and dwarven kingdoms. The leatherworkers here could take the hides of animals caught by the hunters and use ritualistic techniques to bring out the magic in them. Normally this would be the first step to making magical leather goods, but instead the disenchanter could draw that magic out; it ruined the leather, but fed the elves. Wild talent told me they were overdoing it; they would fuck up the local ecosystem if they kept going at the rate they were, and I was in the process of dumping more mana hungry mouths on their doorstep. Oh well, one problem at a time.
Kriss, Caledra, Dena, and Hawkspear had been handling the evacuation reasonably well; the civilians were all in Stormwind, getting a ration of cheap potions made from Silverleaf, a common bush that grows in Elwynn forest. It took the edge off, apparently, but they'd need something a bit stronger eventually.
Most of the Farstriders, rangers like Caledra, were still back at Quel'Lithien. The final evacuation would only take place once all of their supplies, valuables, and records were transported out. It was much harder for Kriss to physically lift a muscular special forces elf than it was to lift a somewhat strung out scholar, so I'd need to send some people to support the rapid exit; past experience told me Em was up for it, but I wasn't sure if an ogre would spook the elves too much. I was inclined to risk it for the sake of speed; the lodge was under siege, after all.
The leader at the Quel'Danil lodge, Jalinde Summerdrake, was a rather intense elven woman. I was quite pleased to find that Imriss had apparently made a good impression and explained the severity of the situation. Jalinde didn't know he was a dragon; just a night elf here to warn her of a nearby danger.
"So, you're this man's commanding officer? I hope you can tell me more than he can. We are already on guard because of the local trolls, so if this was just a warning it's appreciated but not particularly necessary."
"Yes; Lord Erich Bismark of the Dragon Raiders. A pleasure to meet you Lady Summerdrake. It was more important that he arrive with the teleport beacon than that he had a full understanding, I'm sorry if I unnecessarily alarmed you. I'll be using the area near your lodge as a staging area if you'll allow it, but I wouldn't dream of demanding that you assist."
"Staging to deal with this dragon?"
"Precisely. Emeriss is not in her right mind at the moment. We intend to subdue her if we can, and put her down if we can not. Our name isn't a joke or a literary reference; we are on quite good terms with the dragons of the world. When the battle begins, we will have some of her kinsmen here to help subdue her."
"Any particular reason you came to me then, if you don't expect my assistance? Do you truly just need a safe place to gather? If so, why not Aerie Peak?"
"The dwarves are a bit too gung ho; we need cooler heads. As to why I chose your lodge, the force I will be leading will include many of your kinsmen from the north. Those formerly stationed at Quel'Lithien Lodge, exiled from Silvermoon. They were hoping you would help to support them. If not, I'll need to find places for them to live elsewhere. Are you willing to take them in? I'm certain that they will be of service to you if you do." I thought for a moment. "What troubles do you have? I'm sure I might be able to assist, at least a bit. In payment."
"Just the Witherbark, I'm sure reinforcements from Quel'Lithien will likely provide all the help we need." She waved me off. Communication talent told me it was pride; I wasn't an elf so she didn't want to rely on me.
"Of course. I intend to maintain contact with them, and by extension you, should you change your mind. We have been trying to develop amulets which can reduce the arcane cravings your people experience, with the backing of King Wrynn. Once the design has been perfected, I'm sure you'll benefit from that as well."
She perked up a bit at that. "Oh? How do they work?"
"I'm sorry, I don't make them myself. Our enchanters tried to explain it to me and it went entirely over my head. The short version is that it will reduce your body's dependence on outside mana to the point where you won't experience negative effects from its lack." Once I picked up addiction defense, anyway. It had some real competition for credits right now, though.
"I'll need to speak with one of them. I don't know more than the basics myself but it sounds fascinating." Shit. A hobbyist. Best to warn anyone that comes here to keep it in their shirts, just to be safe.
"I'm sure Kriss will be able to explain it better than me. We will be bringing you those reinforcements and setting up in that field by tomorrow. I hope it's ok if Imriss stays here?"
"Certainly. He's pleasant company. A bit awkward, but better than being arrogant, like most Kaldorei."
••••••••••
Bad luck man, just a lot of bad luck. Tony didn't believe in fate or anything, but if he did he was pretty sure he owed the guy money by now. Too much good luck. Explains the angry gnolls attacking while they picked weeds. You know, balancing it out.
Good luck, Faruza was a smart girl; she booked it with him the moment they heard the giggling bastards coming.
Bad luck, one of them was a fast little bastard, caught up to Faruza real quick and got her good on the leg.
Good luck, Tony managed to bash his skull in and grab the girl, and was still faster than these jackwagons.
Bad luck, they were pretty damn persistent.
Good luck, they ran across this giant stitched together zombie man that was looking for gloomweed; he smacked the gnolls around real nice.
Bad luck, Faruza had a bad limp now.
Good luck, it was nothing a cheap healing potion, the kind made of peacebloom and silverleaf, couldn't fix.
They got back to it pretty quick, no more run ins with the dog men, no more bad luck. Getting turned down didn't count as bad luck; you shoot your shot and you keep goin.
••••••••••
I made my way back to my apartment and checked on Lillibeth. She was extremely happy to see me; unsurprisingly, she didn't seem to like being alone. She was wearing a gray and white dress from the closet; something Vanessa had worn in official artwork, I assumed. She'd settled on a young, brown haired look. More an idealized version of the Lillibeth I'd seen earlier today than a brown haired copy of Abby.
https://imgur.com/a/lillibeth-resurrected-EU8f1vu
She had occupied herself since lunch by cooking, apparently. I had had a decent number of raw materials for food in my inventory and relatively few finished meals, now that was reversed. Most of the finished meals were stews of one kind or another; nothing too fancy. She had just had a lot of nervous energy and needed to use it somehow.
"So, we will need to get you back to work soon. According to the amulet I need to make you more powerful, so I'm going to need to figure out how to do that."
"Of course. Anything. I just don't want to sit around anymore. Is there anything I can do now?"
"I might be able to make you into a messenger by turning you into a dragon like Imriss or Lividia, but it would be a relatively solitary job. Or you could go and live with Talaada's people." She didn't seem thrilled at either prospect, so I kept trying to think of ideas.
Just turning her into a dragon wouldn't necessarily be enough for the penalty mission; I'd checked, and Imriss was tier 3. Lividia was tier 4, but I was guessing that was due to her being literally immortal.
Wait a second. I checked the tier list guide. There were multiple depending on where I looked, probably drafts from different builds, but they agreed on one thing: the cutoff for tier 4 was having at least one ability that was firmly superhuman. Apparently flight wasn't necessarily enough if you're the size of a small dog, but one list called out immortality as an example. I had multiple demons in my retinue, and if bound to me, or to another warlock, they would become immortal and functionally unkillable. I could do this right now and maybe knock out that mission.
"Actually… I can probably do it right now if you don't mind being transformed. Permanently. You'll still be pretty, but you'll be the same kind of creature as Zelena." I thought about it. "Or maybe something similar to what we turned into to approach Talaada's people, but red or purple. Any preference?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone