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38.41% Real Waifu Catalog: Warcraft Beta Tester / Chapter 121: Staying on Task

Capítulo 121: Staying on Task

5/18 Late morning

Keryn and Darcell were somewhat at a loss. This murloc was absolutely unwilling to go to lash out. They had done anything they could to put him at odds with his neighbors, but he refused to take the bait. Just yesterday they had escalated to burning down his hut while wearing the faces of members of the nearby Waverunner clan, and he'd gone to his chief and had a level and rational conversation about the fact that he believed someone was trying to spark a war.

He was on to them. Somehow, this fish man living in a grass hut had figured out that he was being goaded. He had too much faith in his community; he refused to accept that his fellow murlocs were turning on him. Most would at least start throwing around accusations and demanding answers, but this fucking murloc refused to be unreasonable.

The first time, when they'd damaged his fishing nets, he'd gone so far as to apologize to the murloc they had tried to implicate. For placing his net in a poor position. Why did they have to get the most even tempered murloc possible?

It was after the meeting with the chief that Darcell had surprised Keryn with a plan. Why not play on this suspicion then? The murlocs have some legitimate enemies and potential enemies. They had decided on the green dragons at that point; a war with the Horde at Stonard would almost certainly wipe them out, whereas the dream-trapped green dragons were already attacking the murlocs on sight. It was hard to see the murlocs as nothing but pests to exterminate when you can understand their speech.

They had needed to turn into black dragons and then disguise themselves, as when they had become green they had felt so, so sleepy. The plan was to let themselves be seen by a murloc while they damaged the fish men's store of salted fish, and it worked like a charm. At long lastUrgmrg'll had been given an explanation for his woes he was willing to accept at face value. The drums of war were beating. The mission should be completed by the end of the day.

••••••••••

The first thing I did after training was go to Ysondre. Saying it was on the way would beinaccurate, but I wouldn't lose much time. I settled down near the huge dragon and checked the timer. It was about twenty minutes until she'd wake up, so I waved hello to the Brotherhood and looked around. There were five new recruits among the Draenei, four of which were uncorrupted; two male, two female, and one rather large broken male.

One was obviously Mary; she had apparently reacted to being resurrected by immediately adopting the culture she'd recently immersed herself into. She was wearing the draenei face she'd made for herself as a ghost and was styling one of the male recruits' hair for him. I looked them over and realized who they were: those three prisoners I'd sent over here. A bit odd, but apparently they'd wanted to fit in. Or maybe it was just the fringe benefit of being almost as tall as an ogre? Whatever works for them; I didn't care enough to investigate as long as they seemedhappy.

The big broken took me a moment. He was easily the largest I'd seen; 5'10" was absolutely massive on a broken draenei. Then I remembered him arguing with Dremuus the day I'd come to the swamp. The big fighter guy. Um. Shit, I had to check my app to find his name. Noburu. Well, hopefully being a badass was a family trait; I'd like another Dremuus. I'll take your whole stock, in fact.

I was letting Talaada act as my representative here, so I didn't go over and check on them. Recruitment had been stalling already, but now I'd be really banking on the community standing on its own merits. No ghosts means that someone has to really buy in to get captured here, not just buy in enough to say some ritual platitudes. I needed more ghosts; specifically I needed ghosts that were a bit far gone and disconnected from reality. Abby could definitely control ghosts, if I pointed her at a few. I also still had plenty of ghost hair, so I could absolutely collar anyone that she caught. Only questions were who and where.

I went to jot down some notes and possibilities when I remembered that I had a reward for Stitches. I just about bust a gut laughing at Master of disguise, which would allow him to be perceived as anything he was dressed up as, no matter how badly, but pretty quickly dismissed it. He didn't have the brains necessary to use that to its full extent, and if I really wanted to I could just disguise him normally. Less effective, but still functional.

Playmates made me perk up when I saw that it allowed for instant capture, but it had so many limitations on it that it just didn't seem worth the trouble. It only worked on friendly nonintelligent undead. Did I really need an army of idiots forming around Stitches? Was there enough benefit to having a captured and dimly intelligent undead instead of a noncaptured undead under Abby's control? Probably not.

I didn't really have much interest in a giant caustic fart cloud; I didn't trust it to not smell utterly foul even if it didn't actually hurt me. That meant the two front runners were Smash and Back for more. Both would double down on him being a giant brute, but the question was if I wanted him to be a nearly invulnerable giant brute or an offensively potent giant brute that added a few extra tactical options?

The deciding factor was Livin the Emerald Dream. I was going to be in a very good position to be able to resurrect anyone in my retinue I wanted anyway. I was sure that I'd get reckless and it would turn into an endless queue within a week, let's be realistic, but immortality among my team was a good bit less valuable to me with that in mind. I'd played enough MOBAs to know the value of a good hook though, and I was hoping that "supernatural skill" with his weapons of choice would avoid a shit show like we'd seen with the Mok'Gora.

I killed the last couple minutes fiddling with Ysondre's settings. Anything that might speed this process up, you know?

Doubting moments of lucidity: momentary amnesia

Thinking of Erich Bismark in a positive light: euphoria

Listening to Erich Bismark's voice: negative emotion reduction

Hopefully turning me into a source of light and comfort in the nightmare would help. I turned into Erius on the off chance she'd be able to tell the difference. When the moment arrived, I watched Talaada press the medallion into Ysondre's palm and the dragon's eyes snapped open.

I stroked her nose like you would a horse, whispering to her and trying to will alluring whisper to go into full effect. "It's ok, it's ok. You're safe here with me. I'll take care of you until you're well." She stared at me, and communication talent told me she was relaxing. Can't say I knew how communication talent knew, but I trusted it. Maybe the way her pupil was dilating?

I stayed with her until she fell back into her nightmarish slumber, and immediately checked her progress. Six hours. A full six hours had been knocked off by that tiny interaction. Not sure if that was my voice, the commands, or the fact that I was her own species, but she'd liked something about that interaction. I wasn't going to be here for every wake-up call she got, too busy, but I would definitely be coming back here any time I could.

••••••••••

Doris was waiting on the western shore of Feralas, which made it relatively easy for me to use her as a jumping off point to Feathermoon Stronghold. I handed her a necklace and ordered her to make her way to camp Mojache and give it to Hahrana. No sense having a retinue member with no connection to the rest of the team, and having a teleport waypoint in Mojache wouldn't hurt.

I wasn't certain who I'd be passing out necklaces to today. If there was an enchanter on the island, I didn't want to risk tossing necklaces around. I needed to figure out some way to justify asking about that.

I made absolutely no attempt to disguise my approach. The green dragonflight and the night elves were staunch allies, but they had a lot of shared cultural touchstones. Enough that I doubted I'd be hurt. For that reason, I chose one of their empty docks as my landing point; it's a traditional place for someone to enter from.

I tucked my amulet under my shirt, and waited for them to send someone out to meet me. I was a bit surprised to see that the leader of the small unit of soldiers that came to have a chat was a man. Night elves always had a bit of an odd culture when it comes to gender, probably due to repeated retcons. Most night elf Sentinels and priestesses, almost their entire military, were women. Almost all druids were men. NPC designers largely ignored that bit of lore, though, so going by the named characters you'd never know. In practice the only real nod to it you ever found was that all of the town guards were women in chainmail bikinis. As Elune intended.

"Welcome, dragon. I am Latronicus Moonspear. Please, state your business." He was civil, but I noted that he'd come armed and backed by a team of archers. They weren't planning on attacking me, but if I started something they intended to end it.

Dragons had a tendency to make decisions without consulting anyone else and back up those decisions with force. Relations get better during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, but that was still a couple years in the future. At this point in the timeline even the Red dragonflight, the goodest of boys, had places where they would repel intruders with lethal force and no questions asked. A bit of nervousness was reasonable.

"I come with grave news, I'm afraid. There is a dark force in the Emerald Dream. Some among my flight, even my queen's own lieutenants, have succumbed to its influence. I come begging for aid; we have few forces left in this world who might be able to do what must be done. I believe it may be affecting your people too; keeping druids trapped in fitful sleep. Some may even be rising and lashing out."

I was actively trying to overwhelm him with information, but I wasn't bullshitting. The night elves really were running into the problems I was describing, and as far as I knew they really were all from the nightmare. Why lie when the truth will get you what you want?

Latronicus was a bit taken aback. I don't know what he had been expecting, but it wasn't this. Plus I don't think he was a high ranking officer; I suspect he was just someone available. "Ah. Yes. I believe General Feathermoon will want to hear about this."

I let myself smile a little and injected some dark humor. "I suspected that would do the trick."


Capítulo 122: Waiting in Feathermoon

5/18 noon

I was asked to wait in a small room in the central building. I was offered some steamed dumplings and fruit juice, which I accepted. The night elves wouldn't, and in all likelihood couldn't, poison me. I realized before long that they probably thought I was a messenger, rather than a real envoy. After all, they had seen my dragon form. I was just a kid by elf standards. I could hear outside of my room the sounds of mobilization and preparation; apparently they had decided from my initial message that they should be ready to fight as quickly as possible. I'd be brought in to talk to the general when she needed to know their heading.

I appreciated the dumplings; I didn't expect Night Elf cuisine to taste like Korean food, but it did and I loved it. What I didn't appreciate was being left to cool my heels for more than an hour with a pat on the head and a snack. I couldn't exactly teleport away; that would provoke questions. I decided to cool my heels for the moment, and checked my app. It was awkward pushing the amulet against my skin instead of just taking it out, but I was feeling extra cautious. Night elves are very twitchy around any kind of magic that wasn't explicitly good in nature, especially at this point in the timeline. I definitely hoped they didn't have the ability to sense that I was magically linked to half a dozen demons, for example, and most night elves even rejected basic arcane magic.

I was quite surprised to see a popup indicating that Onyxia had already killed Arcticus. I definitely had not been expecting that to happen this quickly; only a few hours had passed since I sent her out. Mark that down; giant dragons can destroy starting zone trash mobs really easily.

I went through the options like I usually do. I dismissed hybrid form almost immediately. For Lividia it would have been a substantial power up; for Onyxia it just made her more convenient to bring into small tunnels and such. Many whelps only got a bit more consideration. Swarms of minions is an intriguing option; neither whoring Onyxia/Katrana out nor flooding the battlefield with my own children are particularly enticing, however.

Broodmother was a good bit more interesting; I have a vested interest in getting more drakes in my retinue. The draenei seem to have somewhat dried up as a source for that, at least until I had some ghosts. Lividia would probably get a quick and cheap power boost, too. It would still be a bit of a weird power to optimize, though, turning one of my strongest assets into a breeding sow.

Craftswoman, which would let her hide my Jewels in other items, had a lot of potential, but it also felt like it would become redundant once I got my hands on Jewels of Discord, which made my necklaces deceptive to cursory magical surveillance. I wasn't likely to get that in the immediate future, but I was making credits a bit faster these days, so it wasn't out of the question to plan around it.

Very hard and very fast, pumping her physical strength and prowess up to being on par with a dragon aspect, was just too simple and effective. Like a piece of gear that just had perfect stats and no fancy special abilities. The dragon aspects are basically demigods, and even without their magic they were absolute units. There are things that would still be a threat to her by using magic, and it would be even harder to fit her through doors, but in an open field she'd trump almost anything that didn't come with an entire army in tow. I was pretty sure that even without martial talent I was smart enough to identify the kinds of things that would be a serious threat to her and support her accordingly. Things like an entire squadron of griffon riders, one of the dragons of Nightmare, or the massed armies of the Horde or Alliance.

I was also pleased to find that the Murloc mission was complete, netting me a credit and wild immunity. Wild defense was one of the less tactically important abilities to get up to immunity, but I'm sure it would at least come up. Especially since I was going to have to fight a giant man made of fire in the middle of a volcano at some point. By the Light, I hope environmental defense works like an upgrade instead of there being some kind of cutoff point where my retinue goes from totally fine to instantly melted by convection because suddenly it's bad enough to count as environmental defense instead of wild. If so I'll have words for Auriel next time I see her.

Anyway: new mission just dropped. What have we got?

Ferocitus the Dream Eater

Restore the sanity of the furbolg mystic Ferocitus the Dream Eater. You will be penalized if any outsider realizes you have an interest in him specifically.

Reward: 1 credit, Greater Waters of Lethe

I checked my map. Teldrassil, the night elf starting zone. I was probably going to be in the area at some point, when I was I could send a couple of my rogues to toss a necklace around his neck. It might need to wait until I pick up corruption defense, but the actual time and resource investment will be very minimal. Of course that's what I thought about An Intervention and that just sat in my log for far too long.

The reward was in the category I thought of as "capture enablers". If I could get someone to drink greater Lethe water, they'd mentally become a blank slate. They were as good as captured unless I left them sitting around in public without any kind of personal identity. That would be a great way to find myself with another Ursula situation, but probably much worse.

I checked everyone's status and locations, noting that Abby and Drusilla were in Morganth's tower. I guessed that made sense; he probably had evil books about dark magic. Bitches love evil books about their chosen field. I sent out a note to Irma to arrange for the tower to be secured. Tiny shacks with gore filled cellars are great and all, but this was free real estate.

Something itched at the back of my head. There was something about that tower that made it a bad base… oh shit. It was being monitored. There was a wizard tower, Azora, in Elwynn. There was bad blood between the Archmage there and Morganth. And I'd stormed it with an undead and ogre army backed by my own troops. If I was very lucky, the scrying sensor didn't see the Rampant Lions.

"Forget that last order. We can make arrangements when I get back to base." If it was guarded entirely by ogres, undead, and demons, it might be written off as dark wizards fighting over resources. Given that the tower of Azora's MO was deploying adventurers to solve all their problems, I probably had time while he ponders his orb or whatever archmagi do. I'd need to neutralize Azora though, probably, eventually. Not necessarily kill or capture. Just make sure they wouldn't cause me problems.

Thinking of mages made me think. Maybe I could use my time a bit more productively. I poked my head out of the room and spoke to the two sentinels guarding the room. "Is there any chance you have an enchanter here in your fortress? I'd very much like to speak to them if you do. I expected to see your leader by now; I have something that I need examined. It may be important."

As is my preference, I wasn't lying. I had that ring Ysondre had. It was wrapped up in nightmares, far more than the other items had been. It might just be a coincidence, but my gut told me the ring was important and the Nightmare was actively trying to damage or isolate it. Ysondre could tell me more when she was captured, but maybe an enchanter could give me some hints.

The two sentinels looked at each other, shrugged, and flagged down another soldier. "Could you tell Xylinnia to come here? Apparently the messenger needs an enchanter. Sooner rather than later."

"Thank you, ladies. Please, let me know if there's anything at all I can do for you." I got a smile and an appreciative glance out of one of them. The other, the one who called for the enchanter, rolled her eyes; apparently she was used to this kind of behavior out of her companion.

"I'll be sure to come speak to you later, if there's time. I've always been very curious about dragons. I'm sure there are all sorts of fun things we might share with one another."

"By Elune, Renasha, we are on duty!" The flirty elf was appropriately chastened and averted her eyes. Ok. Good to know. I'm not sure if Renasha was particularly vulnerable to Stud Service or if she was just very sexually open and caught off guard by Alluring Whisper, but it was good to keep in mind that the lures wouldn't have a uniform effect. If she had been alone I'm 90% sure I could have gotten Renasha in bed with me, but the other sentinel was either unaffected or just had far more self control.

"Yes. There are many things to be attended to. Pleasure can wait until our duties are fulfilled. I apologize." I definitely didn't have a problem with a blue skinned amazon being just a bit too forward with me, but her partner was right. Right now really wasn't the time.

I only had to wait for about fifteen minutes for a silver skinned woman with blue-green hair to enter. She had a short golden rod sticking out of a satchel, and was the least muscular woman I'd seen since arriving. She was definitely still fit, but was much more "housewife who enjoys yoga" than "special forces soldier whose primary weapon is a longbow with absurd draw weight."

https://imgur.com/a/xylinnia-starshine-wtpCzLy 

"Ah. You are the dragon? Xylinnia Starshine. Your name?"

"Erius"

"A pleasure. So you said you had some manner of item that needed to be identified?" She was eager; she expected a challenge, if the green dragonflight couldn't do it themselves. Really it was more that I didn't want to risk Eva; humans tended to be a bit less resistant to corruption than dragons. This lady, in contrast, was an unknowing but serious threat to me until she could be collared.

I put the strange nightmare infused ring on the table, and gestured at it. It was hard to see clearly, requiring close examination to recognize it as a ring at all; at a glance it was just a clump of red streaked gray goo with a small round object at the center. "Be careful. We are almost certain that the enemy has shielded it for some reason. We just don't know why."

She pulled out the rod and a small monocle, which she placed over her glowing white eye. She then proceeded to start chanting and waving the rod over the ring. Xylinnia studied it, and slowly stiffened. I started to realize she was in trouble when I saw her eyes drooping. I tried to shake her out of her developing stupor, then snatched away the ring. She curled over the table, and her breathing became slow and rhythmic. She was asleep, but mumbling something. "Message. S'a message."

"Guards? Renasha! We have trouble!" I would have some explaining to do, it seemed. On a positive note, I'd probably get to talk to Shandris.


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