章 199: Logistics
5/31 late morning
My budget for the base was a lot slimmer today; I'd deployed most of my army, which meant that I didn't get energy from them. Plenty of essence though, so I was able to buy the second rank of weapons and armor upgrades for my humanoid night elf troops. While I did, I found myself considering what I was doing. I was upgrading these units that I didn't even have yet, and I was about to pick up martial talent sometime in the next week or two. Would I even need to mass train units here?
Well… yes. Though they were trained night elven soldiers, they also had distinct advantages even if I never used them in combat as what they were trained to be. A small personal inventory, magic resistance, the ability to dodge bullets, a summonable panther, free magic arms and armor, shadowmeld. That's just the things that come with Archer or Huntress. If anything I'd need to start making this part of the onboarding process for anyone that's not already a badass. I didn't want to train someone to be a modestly powerful mage and then completely swap out that entire power set for the basic skills of night elven infantry, even if it would be worth it in the long run.
At this rate, when I start training a substantial number of people with the ancient of war and the like, I won't be doing it just to get an army of Huntresses. Huntress, archer, dryad, or any other unit will be a near-instant form of boot camp. A starting point before teaching them more advanced or specialized techniques. By the light, I was thinking of this as some kind of super soldier program, and why shouldn't I? Even with what I have already, wouldn't the archer template make a no-name priest drastically more durable in a shootout, and save mana by giving them an effective nonmagical ranged attack to boot? Wouldn't a huntress be dramatically more effective as a close quarters combatant if they were trained by a Paladin or Death Knight? Wouldn't my demon goon squad benefit from some quality weapons and armor they knew how to use?
I jotted down the ideas for later. Pumping up the goon squad seemed like the option that would get me the most mileage. Turning Em and her crew into archers before turning them back into demons would be relatively cheap and dramatically improve their flexibility and survivability.
While I was looking through my amulet and considering that, I noted that succubus was now an option. Ah. So that's what Bavira was. Neat. I needed to capture more ogres. Or maybe experiment with shroomed animals. If I turn a mind wiped badger into a human, then a night elf archer, then a succubus, what does the result look and act like? And is it still bestiality? I'm perfectly happy with a new felsteed per day being sent to Zelena's ranch if I can't find anything better to do with the mushrooms, but why let convention limit me? Especially convention that I made up myself less than a week ago?
••••••••••
Calia was back home with her husband, but he should be leaving for work at around this point. I had no particular attachment to the princess of Lordaeron being a field agent. As far as I was concerned, it was a totally valid desire for her to want to fade out of the public eye and raise her kid undisturbed. If Dremuus told me that he and Norin wanted to shift out of field work and pop out another few kids to raise in a better environment, I'd give my blessing happily. I'd want Dremuus to become a full time trainer and Norin would probably end up working in logistics somewhere, but I wouldn't force them into combat if they didn't want to.
I arrived in shadowmeld and blinked outside, knocking on her front door so as to at least pretend I wasn't creepy as hell. She let me in, and put her daughter to the task of making tea while we spoke. She looked noticeably younger than last time I'd been here. She still looked mature, but that was more in her tone and posture than her face and body. If I'd been judging off of just her physical appearance, she'd be in her 20s, just like most people in my retinue.
https://imgur.com/a/iuxpIZ0
"So, Calia, I hear you have fully come into the powers you were promised?"
She grimaced. "You could say that. I have so much knowledge that feels like it came from nowhere, and so much of it is only useful in a fight."
I gave her a sympathetic nod. "What the amulet grants us is the power of our strongest future. Not our fate, necessarily, but the version of us that we would become if we were forced to grow to our full potential. Prince Anduin is as powerful now as he would be after several years of taking his father's throne in wartime."
She nodded morosely. "And me?"
"Right now you have the strength of a Calia that sees Southshore burn. You are capable of incredible things, but if you do not want the power, there is a solution that will ensure it does not go to waste."
"What is it, and what happens if it turns out I still need it? I don't want to give up the power and then end up on the path that would lead me to it anyway."
"You will keep your amulet. If you ever need help, for any reason, we will heed your call. In return, we would ask that you give your magic to one of our trainees. I have a girl in mind by the name of Mary. Sweet girl, if a bit vain, and unfortunately lacking in aptitude for magic. If she was gifted your power, she would be able to contribute drastically more."
There was no hesitation at all at that point. "I'll do it."
••••••••••
Calia and Mary sat at the table with the glass hoop sitting between them. Energy sluggishly flowed from one to the other; a faint green from Mary and a vibrant gold from Calia. In retrospect, maybe I should have reverted Mary into a human before this process, but it's not like being a dragon would in any way hurt Calia or place any real demands on her.
The whole process took ten minutes, during which the two women sat and stared at each other in a trance. I gave Calia a hug and left with Mary, reiterating that she would have our full support at any time and for any reason. I felt a thin parchment scroll appear in my inventory. Another scroll of reanimation in the bag.
The plan was that Mary would become the full time healer for the A-team. A core group was captured and available; it was time to start deploying them to deal with dangerous threats and harvest valuable regional missions. A team consisting of Gina, Valeera, Broll, Nathanos, Mary, and Darcell should be able to handle most problems. Once Naralex, Helcular, and Aegwynn were captured, they could join up too. One more after that, and I'd have a properly scary ten man raid group with nothing better to do.
It was tempting to stack every powerful individual I could find into this group, but I was very deliberately choosing people that didn't have duties that relied on them day-to-day. Thargas, for example, was the head of the Anvilmar clan, and had a seat on the Ironforge Senate. Him running off with Lo'Gosh had been a strategic decision, done with the king's blessing. He really shouldn't just stay abroad for the rest of his life, especially if he was still unmarried and didn't have an heir. There were plenty of people who fought alone full time as their entire trade in the World of Warcraft, or who weren't doing much to benefit their fellow man so I wasn't overwhelmingly concerned about finding enough people to fill out the world's most overpowered 40 man raid group.
Just off the top of my head I could think of several powerful individuals who weren't doing anything too important: Rexxar, Tirion Fordring, Arugal, Gunther Arcanus, High Inquisitor Fairbanks- shit. I needed to get Fairbanks out of the murder closet in the Scarlet Monastery. He was too valuable to pass up on and right now he was locked up as a borderline feral undead. I added that to my to do list, though it might need to wait until Sally has captured Renault Mograine or he might make it harder than it needed to be. Fairbanks was originally shoved into the penalty box because he saw the Scarlet Commander murder his own father, the drastically cooler and more powerful Paladin Alexandros Mograine AKA the Ashbringer. Saidan Dathrohan was involved. It was a whole thing.
I really needed to ask Onyxia about how splitting people works, too. Being able to get a senator Thargas and a warrior Thargas, or a political Moira and a pocket healer Moira, or a Vanessa that wasn't primarily driven by the pure unbridled power of mind control kink and one that existed for nothing else? That appealed to me. A lot. Especially since it only divided personality, not knowledge or skill. Neither Varian nor Gina could really be trusted to operate independently, but they had been explicitly divided with the intention of making a puppet king. I might be able to counteract the effects with mind runes, too, which would definitely justify those as a purchase. I don't imagine that it's a quick and easy ritual, but it has so many potential applications.
••••••••••
I introduced Mary to the A team, which at this point was just Gina's team plus Nathanos, at the same time I made sure they all knew Darcell. Darcell wasn't going to be on the team forever, or more accurately she could be pulled out for individual assignments at any time, but until she was level 10 I wanted her in dangerous situations frequently, and learning how to be a good rogue again from Valeera. She'd made it up to level 3 at the caverns, and was positively giddy to have such incredibly enhanced senses and reflexes. As far as I could tell she was experiencing literally none of the drawbacks of being a demon hunter; she even still had her eyes, though they blazed with fel energy. I wasn't sure if that was corruption defense at work, or the fact that she skipped over the entire traumatic process of becoming one.
https://imgur.com/a/DE2VgKI
"Alright everyone. I want to make sure you know what your next big assignment will be before it happens for once. To the east of here, there is a temple dedicated to the troll god Hakkar. Real nasty Loa, demands blood sacrifice, we have a book about him somewhere around here if you want to read up on it. His cult is currently attempting to resurrect him, and we are fairly sure it involves the torture of the powerful green dragon Eranikus somehow."
Different people tensed up at different points. I had Valeera and Nathanos at "troll god." Gina, Darcell, and Mary were focused on the blood sacrifice likely to start happening in the region next to Darkshire. Broll was concerned throughout, but had a visceral reaction when I mentioned Eranikus.
"Broll. Do you know Eranikus?"
He hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "I know of him, and he has indirectly served as a patron to me. I was granted an idol that contains a fragment of his essence during my training. For many years it helped me shape my power."
"Well; time to repay the favor, it seems. You will be taking a day to rest while the necromancers finish their work, but tomorrow at dawn I'll be sending you all to the temple with Abby, Eliza, a few banshee, and the mindless undead we could make from last night's excursion. Animals and the like. You'll be making the first big push, and if we are very lucky you'll make it all the way in. Primary objectives will be locating and extracting Eranikus, and eliminating the leader of the Atal'ai, a troll named Jammal'an the Prophet. Secondary objectives are the nonlethal capture of any living members of the cult possible, retrieval of corpses when it's not possible, and subjugation of any undead they currently use."
Nathanos and Mary were the most concerned by this plan, for exactly the opposite reasons.
"I've gotten used to working alone. I use quite a lot of planning and strategy when I fight; in a group of people I don't know I'm reduced to being a particularly talented archer."
"Well, you're going to need to get to know your new team mates then. You've got a day to learn about one another and figure out how this will work. If it turns out that you simply can not cooperate, then I suppose I'll need to separate you back out, but I'll be very disappointed if I have to do that." That got a grunt from him, but it was a grunt of assent. 'I don't like it but acknowledge that the decision has been made' was laced into that grunt expertly.
"That's all well and good but… I have never been in combat? These people all seem terribly dangerous and professional. I know I have been granted magic, but I'm still sorting it out in my head. Should I really go straight from stylist to assaulting dark temples overnight?"
Fair point. "I'll have you accompany a team I have hunting undead in Tirisfal today. It'll be a relatively low impact mission, but you're right. The first time you get into a life or death fight shouldn't be on a mission this serious." I sent her away to where Lividia had rejoined her Scarlet Crusade squad. They would look after her while she got herself a little dirty. She was more than capable of contributing, hell she might even end up teaching Lividia a thing or two. She just needed to get comfortable with the magic.
And there went my whole morning. I had Sylvanas on an assignment in Loch Modan before going back to Undercity. Fuck it. I'm gonna do something fun. Useful, too, but fun. I was headed for Theramore.
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