5/24 night
Tyrande hopped off of the hippogriff that had brought her to the front lines. She preferred going into battle mounted upon Ash'alah, but unfortunately the frostsaber had no easy way to travel as quickly as had been required. The green dragonflight were somewhat erratic allies, but rarely liars. From what Shandris had told her since she'd arrived, they had found no signs of deception thus far.
Dori'thur, her owl companion, had confirmed it as well. A corruption was spilling out of the portal, twisting the wildlife of Feralas into an army. That needed to be dealt with, no matter who the messenger was. Tyrande was still a bit sore over the dragons' decision to largely sit out the recent war with the Burning Legion, but the Kaldorei were not a petty people. They had a mutual enemy, and the dragons claimed that they were already fighting on at least four other fronts.
They also brought tidings from Malfurion. It had been easy enough to cleanse his signet ring with the light of Elune, and for a time they had been able to speak. Their time together always seemed fleeting whether it was minutes or years, and swallowed up with duties as often as not. He had confirmed everything save the miraculous jewelry that the dragons had devised to guard against the taint.
It made her glad to see the relief on her beloved's face when she gave him the news that Ysondre and Emeriss, two dragons he was acquainted with, were alive and fighting in the waking world. If dragons as corrupted as poor Taerar could be saved, perhaps the tide could indeed be turned. At least now she knew why he was trapped in sleep, and something she could do to aid him.
Well. It was time to begin. As the Druids of the Claw began their charge, Tyrande called out to Elune and stars began to fall from the sky.
••••••••••
Ysondre looked over her troops. Esmeralda was officially in charge, but she would be focused upon subduing their primary target. Emeriss was still a bit erratic from her time corrupted, Talaada was a child, and Noboru was unfamiliar with aerial tactics. That left Ysondre to direct things.
The new dragons, all freshly transformed into uncorrupted greens, were ready to fight but had only a modest level of training in doing so. They were all proficient flyers and most could snatch prey from above, but those were the bare minimum requirements. Ysondre would never normally bring a group this young and untrained into a battle this dangerous, and warned them all to be ready to flee at her word.
The plan was simple; rely on Tyrande while flanking the enemy from above. Should Taerar attempt to engage with the sentinels, then he could be struck in the sides and back. If he hung back for fear of their forces, then the battle would swing in their favor. In the short term, they would systematically uproot the ancient protectors. They were too large of a threat to both the sentinels and dragons. Enemy dragons that willingly engaged with them outside of the ancients' range would be the primary targets, of course.
••••••••••
Xylinnia was surprised when I appeared, though her unit took the appearance of an extra soldier armed with a moonblade as a good sign. I was a night elf wearing the Anduin armor instead of the Warden armor, so I would hopefully be taken for an eccentric dragon with an unusual weapon instead of a warden. I didn't want to draw more attention than strictly necessary.
Xylinnia was going into battle as a rank and file archer; arcane magic wasn't employed in battle by night elves, at least not at this point in the lore. Most of the people in her unit were only technically sentinels, armed and armored when there was a battle but generally brought along only as supporting fire. The team of bakers, cleaners, and craftsmen were happy to have an extra melee combatant along; they were mostly reliant on long daggers and running if the enemy got too close to them.
••••••••••
The enemy fell like wheat before the fury of the stars, at least at first. Against the enemy's pawns, she cut a swathe of destruction. To maximize the effectiveness of Elune's mightiest gift, she and her honor guard of Druids advanced steadily, breaking the enemy lines. Such as they were; the falling stars were mostly obliterating corrupted local wildlife. The sentinels could handily defeat such beasts without her intervention, so this was more a show of strength to improve morale and cut down on risk than a true lynchpin of their strategy.
When the starfall ended, cracks in their forces began to show. The Druids that had been sent by Fandral Staghelm were enthusiastic, but many outside of her own personal guard were young and inexperienced. Some had been trained after the battle for Mount Hyjal, and had never experienced war against an enemy of such pure malevolence. When the battle truly began, the great bears were unable to hold the line. Few died, as the bear spirit lent them incredible endurance, but they ended up clustered and fighting to survive while the enemy filtered through to the backline.
••••••••••
They had miscalculated; this was the first time Ony- er, Esmerelda had been exposed to the nightmare as a green dragon. She was wholly unprepared for it, and had built up absolutely no resistance. It didn't seem to be affecting the Draenei half as much, so Ysondre suspected she was being specifically targeted.
"Dremuus." She called for the first name she remembered was in a safe location. "Summon Esmeralda, and disable her for now. Call Vanessa if you don't have the authority to alter her commands yourself." She spent the rest of the battle keeping an eye on her companions. Emeriss and Ysondre were functionally immune, but the two of them were also hardly enough to fight three dragons and a dozen Ancient Protectors alone. She was a healer; she would monitor her flight's condition and have them evacuated and quarantined as needed.
••••••••••
The front line broke disturbingly quickly, which is very bad when your army is overwhelmingly focused on ranged combat. The sentinels weren't helpless, but they would have been using an entirely different strategy if they had known the Druids of the Claw couldn't hold the line. Hit and run tactics with their mounted huntresses, judicious use of their innate ability to fade into the shadows, and a general doctrine of constant skirmishing and guerrilla warfare was what they tended towards normally.
They were, at least, highly professional when everything went fubar. Shandris had trained her troops well, and what could have been a general melee instead became an orderly rearrangement of forces. There were losses, many losses, but it could have been far worse. At least the priestesses of Elune were doing their jobs; each was around as effective in their role as healers as Sadie.
I, for my part, looked far cooler than I actually was. Every twenty to sixty seconds something aggressive would stumble upon where I was hiding with shadowmeld. I swiped at them with my moonblade, Archaeus would delete the poor fool, and I'd either follow up briefly or blink away and hide again, depending on how secure my position was. Occasionally I would play hero if someone was about to have their throat ripped out right in front of me, but I was mostly playing it safe.
I saved Xylinnia several times; that was honestly how I used most of my time as people died all around us. She seemed to be actively targeted by the nightmare creatures, and I suspect it was because of her amulet. The nightmare knew of my retinue, and hated us.
The death of corrupted creatures all around me, some of them even because of my own actions, got me tons of experience, but each level cost more than twice as much as the last. Level two and fan of knives came after only a few minutes of combat, level 3 and my first upgrade to blink was less than thirty minutes of brutal grind later. I was more comfortable being proactive at that point; blink's 10 second cooldown was intact, but the cost became trivial. With Anduin's armor bolstering my mana regeneration, I could do this all day. I wasn't turning the tides, but I was contributing and looked cool while doing it. Thanks to Stud Service, that second part actually mattered.
••••••••••
The sentinels were winning their battle, and the dragons were holding their own. Tyrande did not know why they were winking out of existence one at a time, but she assumed it gave her troops a time limit. The uncorrupted dragons seemed to be playing defensively, primarily working to keep the corrupted from assaulting the sentinel lines. Unfortunately, the ballista crews were too pressed to properly put down the ancients and decisively turn the battle in Ysondre's favor.
Tyrande was going to kill Staghelm, but that came later. For now she was on the hunt. The dragonspawn needed to be put down; Shandris and Tyrande's teams were the only ones that could do so without heavy casualties. She signaled Shandris to focus on retaking the ballistae; with those in play, this battle would be all but assured.
••••••••••
Talaada was getting tired. Horribly, horribly tired. She had learned all she could of healing from Lady Paletress, but stamina takes time to build up and training was not her primary duty. She wasn't a warrior like her father or uncle, and she was one of the smaller dragons present. She was keeping some of the pressure off of Ysondre, but soon she wouldn't be able to do that anymore. She cast about for some way to stay useful, and she only had one idea.
She flew up out of the range of the thrown boulders, and waited for one of the two drakes to get close enough. When he did, she let loose the one spell she had left. "Soothe," she whispered, and plunged them both into a sea of tranquility, allowing a cackling Lividia to loop a necklace onto him before he regained his bearings. He managed to snap Lividia's spine before the paralysis order went into play, but the balance of power shifted quite nicely at that point.
••••••••••
The battle was brutal, but in the end we won. We had a slight numbers advantage, were generally more coordinated, and we each had roughly equivalent big guns. Taerar didn't make it; when Tyrande was able to close in enough to try to purify him, the shock to his system was too intense. He died as the corruption was seared away. To hear her tell it, there was hardly anything left of him but the corruption.
Despite that, she was more than willing to allow Ysondre to take the body away, and we managed to capture the other two dragons. Three new high end dragons for me was definitely a win in my book, even if I needed to use my resurrection scroll for Taerar. My retinue had one more contribution to make, as well.
Sally Whitemane was a bit surprised to be woken in the middle of the night, but she instinctively recognized me and accepted my orders as divine mandate. With repeated innervation, multiple mana potions, and as much moonberry juice as she could drink, she was able to resurrect more than half of those who had fallen. Anyone with a reasonably intact body, essentially. Those whose skulls had been caved in or who had been ripped in half were beyond Sally's powers, but what she *could* do was more than enough to earn the sentinels' reverence.
All that was left was to gather up my rewards and go home for a nap and a morning full of bookkeeping. I quietly passed something to Ysondre as she went to meet with Tyrande. I overheard the most important words coming out of her mouth with a smile, as she spoke into the horn for the Reward For Service.
"Of course. We were happy to help. All that I ask in return is that you and your people trust and cooperate with my organization for so long as our mutual enemies threaten Azeroth."
5/25 Morning
I went to bed with Sally; we teleported back to her small chambers in the monastery where a sleepy Keryn had been waiting for us, holding the spot for the inquisitor while vaguely disguised as her. The surprisingly modest bed was altogether too hard and small for what I had in mind, so I showed her how to set an alarm on her amulet and she, Lividia, and I helped each other get to sleep after the night's excitement. Through vigorous exercise.
••••••••••
I woke up alone in bed, which was a bit odd for me at this point. I looked around in confusion for a moment before hearing voices from down the hallway.
"I can understand why you would want to have your leadership all be human, but I'm sure you could find some use for other mortal species. Slaves perhaps?"
"No no, slaves are a terrible idea. The enemy could turn them into soldiers of the Scourge and overwhelm us. Besides, the so-called Argent Dawn has diversity, but they have only managed to defend two locations."
"I suppose you're right. I can't really find anything wrong with your organization now that you've explained it all. You're maintaining an overwhelming majority of humans, you are ruthless, your primary weapons are highly effective against your primary enemies, and you purge the weak that could put you in danger. All perfectly reasonable. Oh, good morning, my King."
"My prophet." Whitemane bowed her head. "I hope you did not wish to be awakened. I was enjoying the morning hour with your prime consort."
I wasn't sure if I should encourage or put a stop to this, so I decided to not worry about it first thing in the morning. I pulled out my amulet and fiddled with the app while two beauties discussed the wonders of human supremacy and burning people you don't like.
I found the absolutely delightful news that a few people that were properly in the catalog had been captured yesterday. Ones with rebates, no less. Calia Menathil, Sally Whitemane, and a Wyrmtongue Demon. The Wyrmtongue gave rebates on several things including addiction defense, Sally covered stress and mind among other things, and Calia had a mind defense rebate. That shook out to a lovely 20 credits in the bank, bringing me up to 22. Valeera was getting captured later today as well, and her stress and addiction defense rebates would bring me up to 28. That was enough for all sorts of exciting things.
The base was coming along nicely; I got 182 energy, half of which was from wisps and ancients and half came from all the elves Talaada had setting down roots in the area of the Twilight Grove. That was enough to build an Ancient of War, which I ordered quite happily. The grove was going to grow steadily; I didn't have too much to show for it just yet, but it was only a matter of time.
I still definitely had a to-do list for the day. Lunch with Sadie, and I was planning on going out with Caledra and Hawkspear to learn about being a hunter. I had Tony and my green dragonspawn picking through the Lasher corpses from last night's battle, and there were more than enough savage fronds for me to turn into Rayne already. I was going to present Moira with some jewelry today, just to see how she reacted. Not Jewelry; normal magical jewels that won't cause her to assume the worst of me if she examines them. That will help me decide what my next step is with her.
I had Lo'Gosh's team and Nathanos to check in with, I wanted to touch base with Gretchen, and I wanted to see if any of my enchanters had any thoughts about the necklaces since I'd asked them to start study. I had a crock of shit to spew at a newly very trusting and cooperative Tyrande Whisperwind about the necklaces, and needed to let her know about the situation in Ashenvale. Oh yeah. Figuring out what to do about the Emerald Nightmare now that it's not a mission objective. I was booked solid for at least a few days, and I was sure I was forgetting things.
••••••••••
I gauged the time of day to still be just early enough for shadowmeld to work. Shadowmeld, at least the version I got from my warden class, didn't care about how dark it was. Only that it is "night." Apparently night elf biology considered it night time until some time mid morning. I wasn't complaining; it was a lot more finicky than normal stealth, requiring that I stand perfectly still, but shadowmeld made me almost completely invisible. More importantly, it's all I had if I didn't want to prompt another round of awkward questions for Sadie by suddenly appearing right next to her. I appeared, already shadow melded, and killed the time deciding where to center my next mission while Sadie moved on with her morning. Southshore seemed good, now that Calia was captured.
Suddently appearing in a hallway when nobody was looking was still a bit creepy, but I was a night elf carrying a satchel for another night elf. Officially I was an envoy from the green dragonflight, carrying a gift from lady Ysondre, which Rayne accepted with bemusement but no suspicion. She was going to inspect everything before using any of it, but I handed over nearly 60 fronds from last night's harvest. She handed me two markers of thanks from the crusade; I didn't really know what to do with them, but I nodded my thanks and wandered off. When my escort wasn't looking at me for a few moments, I blinked onto the roof and teleported away.
Overdramatic? Yes, I suppose. But damn if it didn't feel cool.
••••••••••
Sally had returned to the Scarlet Monastery when I got back to the apartment. She had a full day ahead of her, completing her normal duties. Lividia, for her part, was helping Stitches hunt worgen by serving as a spotter. He could catch them easily if he knew where they were, due to his giant fuckoff hook on a chain, so I supported this partnership. However, that left me alone in a small box, so I went to the Twilight Grove for some company.
The whole basin was dotted with rudimentary shelters now; tents and lean-tos mostly. The children were playing, and there was plentiful forage as long as you liked spider legs and mushrooms. Combined with the Tree of Life's fruit and Kriss's newly reclaimed ability to summon bread and clean water without any serious side effects, and the community was already self-sufficient. I suspect they would have been in worse spirits if this had been their first stop after Silvermoon City, but most of these folks had been living off of half rations in a cramped barracks under siege for more than a year. Safety, food, space, and a lack of mana dependency went a long way towards keeping them happy.
They still craved mana, but it was mild. Just being near the Tree of Life helped a bit, and stress defense made the few physical symptoms much easier to deal with. Many were drinking herbal teas made from magically charged herbs, but overall nobody was likely to be stabbed for a bag of magic dust anymore. Asked for a hit? Certainly. But not stabbed.
I settled down on a log near a large fire pit. A circle of them had been gathered to serve as easy benches, and it had a good view of where the Ancient of War was growing. It still looked like a tree with an unusually thick trunk for the moment, but it would grow arms and a face within an hour or so. I settled in, waved at a few passerby, and checked my mission log.
Helcular's Revenge
Resurrect the Lich Helcular in the Southshore Graveyard with the help of his apprentice Thaivand. You will be penalized if any inhabitant of Southshore realizes your involvement.
Rewards: 5 credits, Relationship Shift
Well well well; I vaguely remembered this quest. Helcular would be resurrected and then go on a rampage. So if I went for this, I'd need to collar him and pull him out quickly. I'd need to look into the process of resurrection; I didn't know if this was a warlock's job or a rogue's. Probably both.
5 credits was extremely worth it, but the relationship shift was a bit niche. I'd probably end up using the one I already had to shift Sally even higher on the Scarlet Crusade totem pole next time one of her superiors came to do an inspection, retconning her to being the superior of the two.
Come to think of it, Renault Mograine was somewhat more lore significant than Sally, what with being personally groomed to kill his father by a Dreadlord. I didn't really know which one was in charge of the Monastery in any practical sense. I'd need to talk to her about that; it was entirely possible that she was a highly regarded resurrection machine that only served as a figurehead. Anyway, speaking of dreadlords, Balnazzar was on the short list of people that might be the target for the Eastern Plaguelands. Let's see who The Company wants dead?
Eastern Plaguelands: Defeat Kel'Thuzad
Rewards: Soul talent sharing, power swap: necromancer, deluxe mission ticket, Death Bringer Sonya, tantric rod, power swap: T5 Undead, Mission Ticket
Note: purchase of Kel'Thuzad has been disabled
So. The Archlich of Naxxramas, Lich Lord of the Plaguelands, Commander of the Dread Necropolis, Master and founder of the Cult of the Damned, Creator of the Abomination, Formerly of the Council of Six, Summoner of Archimonde the Defiler, The Betrayer of Humanity, Hearthstone Enthusiast, and Majordomo to the Lich King himself, Kel'Thu-freaking-zad. I was kinda hoping for Baron Rivendare; a dead guy on a horse would have been just a bit more manageable, city full of zombies or no. Balnazzar would have been on my to do list anyway, as well.
Kel'Thuzad could be described accurately as the final boss of Classic Wow, and he earned the position legitimately. As you may have guessed from me rattling off his resume, he's a big deal from a lore perspective as well, and they were offering me an appropriate market rate. I was probably going to have to deal with him eventually, given my plans for Scholamance and the Scarlet Crusade, so I suppose getting a massive payout when I finally do will be nice.
Still, it's one hell of a mission. He's sitting in the core of an impregnable flying death fortress, full of dozens of people that are at least on par with my dragons, which is also mostly cramped enough to reduce the combat effectiveness of said dragons drastically. It was telling that the GMs had decided to forbid me from cheesing him by saving up 50 credits, as crazy a plan as that sounded. It might legitimately have been the easiest way of taking him down.
To sum it up: I'm not going to do this one for a while. I doubted that in this version of the world the various bosses would be so polite as to allow me to systematically destroy them one at a time, and the idea of having to fight almost any of them, especially Loatheb the anti-healer, in a properly supported military unit terrified me. Well, that was enough of that. I had more work to do. I got up and walked over to the corpse of Taerar and brought out the scroll with a flourish. Let's see how this bad boy works.
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