Chương 142: Plans in Motion
5/21 evening
The Emerald Dragonshrine was easy to find, and a welcome sight. Ysondre hadn't been there very often; she spent most of her time on the southern continents, trying to heal the messes created by mortals. The Dragonshrine was, as always, patrolled by the emerald Skytalons, who flew out to meet her as she approached. The bright green birds were creations of Ysera, constructs of crystallized dream meant to defend the shrine, and the eggs it so often housed, from outsiders.
Ysera, Ysondre's aspect, her queen, her mother, lay at the center of the shrine. This close, the dragon could sense her sovereign as easily as she could sense which direction was down. She couldn't go straight to her though. No, she needed to be more careful than that. As she landed, she withdrew two necklaces from the shared inventory. The only two available, but she was certain that her mission would be approved by the man that had stolen, in the least romantic sense of the word, her heart and soul.
Best to search for Nishera, the groundskeeper, first. She wasn't a particularly powerful drake, but she saw to the shrine's health and defenses as a healer and gardener. Alystros, the great owl who led the Skytalons, was not particularly intelligent or creative, and the lashers were just plants. Nishera, when no one more qualified could be spared, served as a default commander here. She was also the only one awake here with any chance at all of questioning the necklaces.
Nishera approached very cautiously, and the lashers circled around Ysondre as if she were an enemy. "Ysondre. You seem… better than I was expecting."
Ah. She had last been seen by her own flight being coaxed away by the Nightmare, and now she appears entirely clean? "Yes. It is wise to be cautious, but I am pure. A powerful human priest developed a way to wake me up from my nightmare. The magic he used was not like ours, which might be why it worked so well. The Nightmare preys upon us, doesn't it? It could be that it is a specialized predator."
Nishera was skeptical, but obviously wanted to believe. After all, the humans weren't exactly their allies, but the Light was far from the worst force to seek help from. If the lost could be saved, then the war was not half so scary.
"And if it's some trick?"
"Do I show any of the signs of someone corrupted by the nightmare? Any at all? I will submit to any testing you wish to perform, but I am here to give you and Mother a gift. The amulets he has been developing can ward off the nightmare; if you wear them, it's far harder for it to get its thorns into your soul."
Nishera was a gardener, not an enchantress. Ysondre was banking on her fellow dragons being overtaxed by the war. The younger green needed to decide: trust Ysondre, or seek out another who could verify or deny her claims. In the end, she chose cautious faith.
"Give them to me. I'll wear it, and give Alystros orders to kill me if I start acting erratic. I'll determine if these necklaces are safe that way." The pendants changed hands.
"That's hopefully wise. It's unlikely that mother will encounter anything that's a true threat to her soul in the next few days. Please though, when you realize it's not hiding something nefarious, give mother hers. I believe she needs all the support she can find, and the necklace will let her contact its creator."
Nishera stared at the necklace in her hand. "Tell me about this human? He must be quite powerful."
"He's an egotist who is likely helping as much for his own gratification as anything else." Ysondre answered frankly. "You know how the followers of the Light can be. He is genuinely an enemy of the Nightmare, but likely sees himself as its primary foe already."
"Yes, that does sound like a human." Nishera sighed and donned the necklace. "Will you be staying? We could use the support."
"I'm afraid I can't. Lethon and Taerar have gotten loose in the night elves' lands, and Emeriss is in the process of being healed. Bismark intends to try to capture and heal as many corrupted green dragons as he can manage, and I intend to help. From what he's told me, we might be investigating what happened to Eranikus soon, as well."
"Tell me more before you go? Do you know how the war is going against the Nightmare?"
"Of course. I'll tell you what I can." Ysondre fingered her own necklace idly, establishing barriers around Nishera's understanding and ensuring that she wouldn't run off to Wyrmrest the moment Ysondre left.
••••••••••
Immortality was great. Lividia had never quite believed she was mortal, but knowing that she simply could not truly die so long as her king lived was tremendously liberating. She never needed to moderate herself, except to please Erich, and that was something she was happy to do. Usually.
Further, caution was for other people now. If anyone else had been sent to scout one of their enemy's bases alone it would have been suicidal. It still arguably was for Lividia, but she'd be fine either way. If she was as fast as she thought she was, she'd have the evening to spend with Erich. If not, she would wake up at her king's side. A win either way.
The big Green had quite the honor guard assembled. Nearly a dozen of those tree men tried to hurl boulders at her, which she dodged gracefully and with absolutely no startled yelps. None that you can prove. No, the threat to her was naturally the dragons. The big Green (Leafion? Something like that. Wasn't important, he was green) seemed content to launch a sphere of utter darkness at Lividia, but he had two large drakes that dove after her instantly.
Lividia vaguely saw that there were more flower creatures, but there were none of the druid spirits at all. Strange. She bolted away as fast as she could, and the two dragons stupidly lost track of her after only a few minutes. She was too fast and clever for them by half. Or perhaps they were scared she was leading them into a trap? Either way, they were afraid to let her dictate their encounter.
•••••••••••
I checked the base tab again and found that the Wisp already counted as a dedicated member of the retinue for this base. 10 energy per day for just being around? I'd need to keep that in mind. More importantly, the wisp had its own menu for building.
I checked to see what I could actually build with my starting resources, and it wasn't terribly promising. Mostly because I didn't have much in the way of resources yet.
Tree of Life 340/185
Ancient of War 150/60
Hunter's Hall 210/100
Moon Well 180/40
Altar of Elders 180/50
Ancient of Wonders 90/30
I had never been the best RTS player, but I remembered the basics. It was almost always best to run lean, using any resources that I got as quickly as possible unless I had them set aside for something I'd be building very soon. Unfortunately, I didn't know how quickly I'd be getting essence.
I wanted to free Emeriss up so that she could participate in big fights again, so I needed a Tree of Life first. That meant I needed 340 energy and 185 essence at the same time. I did some mental math. If wisps could generate ten energy per day just by being here and cost 60 energy each, and I made three today to gather essence, I'll have 350 energy tomorrow.
Assuming that three wisps would gather more than 35 essence in a day, which seemed reasonable given how much energy I could plausibly get my hands on by moving the Brotherhood of Love to live here, I'd be able to burn almost all of my resources to build a new Tree of Life. After that it would come down to how much of a disparity I have between energy and essence.
I'd start with an Altar of Elders; if I remembered correctly, the first hero came free with the altar. Hero units started moderately strong and eventually became extremely powerful; some examples of canon fully leveled up hero units you may be familiar with are Tyrande Whisperwind, Malfurion Stormrage, and Sylvanas Windrunner. They may be the upper end of the curve, but you get my point.
Once that was done, I'd build an Ancient of War and an Ancient of Wonders if I had enough essence. If I didn't, I'd be buying wisps until I had a reasonable income. War would allow me to start training my shroomed worgen as archers. Wonders would let me convert any excess energy into magic items, mostly consumables. Once I had a small store of essence, I'd build a hunter's hall: the upgrade building, which would allow me to strengthen the night elves. No clue if that would take the form of better equipment or if they would just be vaguely better overall, but I'd take it either way.
I gave Talaada and Irma the task of gathering all of her disciples to this location. I don't know how much gathering a ton of people would impact my energy income, but I had a cult living in a swamp; I could probably get more use out of them here.
At this point I might as well head to bed, except that I had two important individuals being captured by midnight: Xylinnia, who would allow me to teleport to the Feathermoon Stronghold and take the necklace away from any prying eyes, and Witherwing, who would let me purchase corruption resistance for free. I just needed to find some way to kill time. As I am prone to do, I checked my app, in this case my map. After a quick mind vision, I whispered into my amulet.
"Hey, Darcell. Having trouble with the ogre? Get to a place where you can see him. I'll give it a shot."
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