章 161: A day without that damn mission
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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