บท 141: RTS Mode Engaged
5/21 afternoon
As usual there was very little tutorial for how anything worked. I was able to easily identify the yellow circles newly added to my world map, though: in Warcraft 3, those represented gold mines. The core of any new base. I noted that four of them were at the locations of the dream portals, though there were others I didn't recognize. One in Gilneas, a couple in Northrend, one in Moonglade, the island of Teldrassil, and one in northern Felwood. Given what little I did know, I assumed they were all places with a strong connection to the Emerald Dream.
I eagerly warped to where Stitches and his ogres-turned-Satyrs were busily dragging away worgen to Raven Hill. Em was technically my teleport point, but she always stays near Stitches. I don't actually know if she got any smarter from the transition, but she is immortal now, and much easier on the eyes. Absolute win.
https://imgur.com/a/wL8RVi5
I made my way with Lividia straight to the Twilight Grove and called Emeriss forth, along with the druid trio so they wouldn't feel left out. Emeriss looked slightly different, with her skin shifting to a more craggy, barklike appearance. She also seemed more stable, and when she shifted to her visage it was thankfully neither a half-fungal nightmare nor a tree. I could sense that she was still at least a bit off, but the transition to being part tree of life had apparently shifted all of the corruption internally.
https://imgur.com/a/elODurc
"Greetings, my master. How may I assist you? Are you responsible for the changes within me?" She didn't seem thrilled. Well too bad, I definitely preferred this look.
I waggle my hand at her noncommittally. "Partially. But it's more due to the fact that you killed Morbent Fel. Whoever lands the killing blow upon my targets receives a boon." That earned a disappointed glower from Harnea.
She gave a sour look. "Very well. I will accept this "boon" if it is your will."
"It is. I've brought you here because I believe there is some manner of resource you can attune to or extract. Do you feel anything like that?"
She looked around until her eyes locked onto the great tree at the center of the grove, the one with the portal in the side of it. "Yes. That."
"Then do it."
She looked at it for a moment then nodded. "It is done."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
I checked the Base tab to see if anything had changed, and things definitely had. There was a new subsection labeled "Twilight Grove." In it, I found a brief overview.
Energy: 500 Essence: 150 supply 0/10
Buildings: Emeriss (uprooted)
Dedicated units: Emeriss (pending 23:59) tier 7, 100 energy/day
Harnea (pending 23:59) tier 5, 20 energy/day
Myrea (pending 23:59) tier 5, 20 energy/day
Irela (pending 23:59) tier 5, 20 energy/day
Erich (pending 23:59) tier 5, 20 energy/day
Lividia (pending 23:59) tier 4, 10 energy/day
Dedication? I checked the catalog for references to that, and it seemed to mean a member of my retinue working in a location full time. I wasn't sure what the timer meant; amount of time until I get my first energy payout from them? Amount of time until they counted as dedicated? I'd need to figure it out later; for now all I had to go off of was a 24 hour timer.
"This may sound strange, but do you know how to root yourself?"
"I… do?" She seemed unsettled by her own answer.
"Do it."
She found a nice shaded spot in the large basin, took her dragon form, and pressed her claws into the ground. As she did, her body shifted in dozens of small ways. Her half-buried wrists thickened, her shoulders sprouted stubby little branches, her legs seemed to fuse with her torso as roots burrowed into the ground, and her scales became more and more like bark. I couldn't have pointed at any one thing that sealed the deal, but by the end of the process she had gone from a dragon that looked a bit like a tree to a tree that looked quite a lot like a dragon.
I checked my app again, and Emeriss was listed as "rooted" now. She also had her own menu.
Train Wisp: 60 energy, 1 spirit unit - transform one appropriate unit into a wisp
Create Wisp: 60 energy, +1 supply - generate one wisp
Backpacks: locked; requires Ancient of Wonders: provides trained/generated units with their own inventory
Nature's blessing: locked, requires Tree of Ages: improves the speed and toughness of all ancients
Upgrade to Tree of Ages: 380 energy, 180 essence: strengthens Tree of Life, unlocks additional tech upgrades.
I was incredibly curious, but my starting resources didn't give me many options. I didn't know how to get essence, but I figured a handful of basic worker units might be able to gather it somehow. I needed to spend at least some of my starting energy on wisps, it seemed.
I didn't know what transforming someone into a wisp would entail, so I decided to keep things simple to start with. Hopefully the supply system would work like the game, and only functioned as a cap for now. I selected "create wisp" and was treated to a brand new, totally empty bar as 60 energy was deducted from my total. The very far left end of it had a tiny sliver of yellow almost immediately, but didn't seem to be in any particular hurry. I requested another wisp, and that bar stayed entirely empty. It would probably start once the first wisp was summoned, if the parallels continued.
"Emeriss! You doing ok?"
"Yes, great one. Merely focusing." Right in front of her, where her leafy head seemed to be focused, a tiny blue spark seemed to be slowly fading in and out of sight. Not purple or red, so hopefully not corrupted. Excellent.
"Well, when it has been created, tell the new wisp to gather essence. Without hurting anyone or putting itself in danger, then let me know you're done." I hedged my bets; I didn't want to come back and find the withered corpse of a night watchman with burnt out eye sockets "drained of essence." It would be a hell of a departure from the game, but sometimes the company seems a bit weird.
I left to check in with Imriss; he was in northeast Ashenvale, looking for a good place from which to stage our attack on the dragons. As it turns out, there was a tiny night elven ruin with a few inhabitants. One was an absolutely jacked night elven man who managed to not look silly with a skirt and no shirt. He went by the name Kayneth Stillwind, and was apparently some manner of Druidic game warden, overseeing the health of the area and protecting the nearby barrow den. He wasn't really managing well, but there were a roughly equal number of demons, corrupted dragons, and orc lumberjacks hemming him in on all sides. I could cut him a bit of slack.
The other, even more impressive, was an ancient. I identified him as an ancient of war, from his faintly catlike face with great tusklike branches on either side. In Warcraft 3, ancients of war were the basic military production building, used to train archers and huntresses, the footsoldiers of the sentinels. I'm not entirely sure what their role is outside of that, but apparently Gnarl was a guardian for the Bough Shadow grove. He was quite aware of the threat of the green dragons, who had driven him out of his home.
"Well, I am sorry to hear that. I'm hoping to try to retake the grove soon; with your help I hope?" I was wearing my Erich face, having not realized Erius would have been useful here. Gnarl in particular was extremely on guard around the strange humans, sniffing at the air suspiciously when I or Lividia got too close.
"Hmmm. No, the dragons are a problem, but the more immediate concern right now would be the demons of Felfire Hill. They have multiple active portals to bring in reinforcements. If you wish to use Forest Song as a staging area, I will allow it, but I need to prioritize." It felt more like he just didn't trust me, or maybe he even sensed the fel magic from my many demonic pacts. Eh, I'll handle him later. He might be worth capturing just to see if he'd function as a building in my new base.
"Ah. I'll go check there when I have a moment, then." I was serious too. Nozara was firmly on the back burner right now, but a bunch of demons I can semi-freely grab and collar sounded just lovely. I vaguely remembered there might even be infernals there; infernals, who had multiple high value rebates. Infernals were also giant burning stone golems and among the strongest, if dimmest, troops in the Burning Legion. I'd happily take the whole stock.
Only one wisp had been created by the time I finished my chat and set Lividia to go scout the portal, but that felt like enough for me right now. I wanted to see what I had paid for.
I found a flitting ball of light swirling around the great tree when I arrived back at the Twilight Grove. I hadn't gotten any new essence yet, but it seemed to be gathered from great trees and I had plenty of those. Ok. So I knew how this worked now. A bit. What to do with it though?
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