Finishing Up
5/17 Evening
I was invited to sit in a moderately clean kitchen. Tea and bread were brought out, and I let myself sit and think while she did her rituals for being a host. Calia seemed genuinely happy with this life; it was so wholesome it hurt. I’d probably call off the whole operation and let her live in peace if this was scheduled to last. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
Southshore was doomed to be destroyed in a couple years, unless I acted to save it. I was planning on doing so, but I could only split my focus in so many ways. Of course, if things went fantastically well I might be the god king of all Azeroth by that point in the timeline. Southshore might just not be in any danger then. It’d be easier to make it happen if I had one more powerful priest and access to Southshore as a teleport location, so I’m definitely justified. I swear.
“I am a man with an unusual power. I have visions granted by the Light. They warn me of danger, and hint at ways that I might avert tragedy.” I had to be careful. Alluring whisper made my voice incredibly sexy, not compelling. She wanted to hear more of what I had to say, just so she could listen to my voice a bit more, but that didn’t mean she’d like what I told her automatically.
“What does this have to do with me?” This was not a woman who wanted adventure, or to be special. I was making her nervous, she was worried I was about to tell her she was the chosen one.
“Lorderon is fallen. Southshore is really all that’s left of it, save a few villages in Silverpine and the risen dead. Your people are isolated, and though defended by brave men and women, that will not be enough forever. When the day comes, this city will fall and it’s inhabitants will die with it.” I looked meaningfully out the window where her daughter was playing. “My visions tell me you might be able to help to avert such a tragedy, with this.” I pulled out a gold necklace.
She looked at it like I had produced a hissing snake. “What… is it?”
“It’s the only aid I can offer Southshore. An amulet which is useless in the hands of most, but which bestows great powers of the light upon one who meets the right criteria. The two biggest ones are that the wearer have been born to great responsibility, or that a close relative has been consumed by darkness. It is meant to help rectify such wrongs, and fulfill such obligations.”
She recoiled. There was a panicked, feral look in her eyes. She worried that I would take all of this away from her. She didn’t want to be Princess Calia Menathil, heir of the throne of Lorderon and sister to the Lich King, empowered by tragedy. She wanted to just be Calia, wife and mother. I needed to reel her back in.
“I will not ask what reasons the amulet is right for you. I will not reveal you to the world. But I hope that you will use this power to protect this home you have found. I ask only that you wear it so that you come to understand it’s power, for if you wait until the moment it is needed, you will be helpless in the face of great tragedy. This land has seen too much of that already.”
She stared at the amulet placed in front of her. It would make her important again, just by virtue of making her powerful. It was a tense few moments before she tore her eyes away and looked out the window, at all the children that wouldn’t see adulthood according to the official timeline. “I’ll wear it. But only to protect my home.”
“I understand. I wouldn’t dream of trying to take all this away from you.” I didn’t have any specific plans for Miss Calia just yet. Just adding her to my stable and making it easier to travel to and from Southshore. Maybe I’d need a princess someday, but for now she can be a housewife whenever I don’t need her as a healer.
I’d done most of my work from a seated position, but the commute had exhausted me. I walked into an out of the way nook and found Lividia, looking quite surprised. She checked over her hands and feet and seemed fairly pleased. “Oh wonderful. I was worried I’d be stuck in bed like you.”
I thought about it and yeah. I did want her here if she had been in pain where she was, but I wouldn’t have wanted her to suddenly appear in mixed company. The automatic aspect of this power was going to be a trip. I had an assignment for her too, since she was here. First an embrace, though, and we leaned together against a fence while she told me about the raid.
“Heh. Go Stitches, I guess. So. I have another job for you. I need someone to go to Quel’Danil lodge, northeast of here. Maybe a day’s travel by wing. Start setting up for the next big battle and maybe gathering herbs for Abby. We’ve lost too much time on my injury already.”
“Can’t you just send the green?” Casual dragon racism aside, I didn’t have an answer for that.
“Huh. Yeah I suppose I can.” I checked through Imriss’s eyes. He was humanoid at the moment, and was speaking with Talaada.
“Is there any chance you can explain to me what is happening? You’re a type of dragon I’ve never seen before, there was a Black earlier, and we are working with the mortal races? How did this happen? How was I pulled out of the Emerald Nightmare? No one has TOLD me anything!”
Ah good. Nothing important. I summoned Imriss to my location as Talaada started to respond. His visage was a night elf; they seemed very popular with green dragons. A pretty nondescript one. Around 6’8”, skinny, not particularly handsome, with lavender skin and silver hair that went down to his shoulders. That may sound unusual, but he was the most basic bitch night elf I’ve ever seen. He’d blend into a crowd anywhere that night elves weren’t rare and exotic.
“So. Pull up your map. I need you to go to a place called Quel’Danil Lodge.”
“Map?”
“Your amulet. Grab it and ask for a map with your mind.”
“Ysera’s eyes! That’s amazing, how does it-“
“Now request the Location of Quel’Danil Lodge. Then go there. By foot or by wing, I don’t really care. There’s food in the communal inventory if you request it from the amulet.”
“Oh. Um. Ok. Any chance I might get an explanation?”
“You’re helping us to recover a powerful dragon by the name of Emeriss from the Nightmare. Get moving. We have a schedule.”
“Lady Emeriss is in trouble? Of course I’ll go.” He ran off. Huh. In retrospect maybe I was a bit rude. But I felt this instinctive mild dislike the moment I looked at his face. Was it a black dragon thing or am I just tired and didn’t want to provide explanations? If it’s the former, I might want to start spending more time in other forms. Right now though, I was going home with my prime consort and I was going to relax, at least for an hour or two.
••••••••••
We had a lovely encounter, and Lividia got to try cowgirl for the first time, followed by sucking me off to completion. Due to my injuries, I didn’t really feel up to being very vigorous myself even if sexual calibration would have probably let me, so I let her do most of the work.
After we were satisfied, we lay together under the sheets. She went into a pleasant meditative state from having my arm wrapped around her, playing the part of submissive arm candy, and I had nowhere to be right that very moment. We lay together and eventually I pulled out my amulet to check the app.
Anduin was wearing an amulet; not surprising. It can’t have been too hard to get a ten year old boy to wear a piece of jewelry when you have control over his only living parent. Both he and Calia were very resistant to the necklaces. As things stood right now, I wouldn’t capture either of them for a full week. Royals who are happy with the status quo are resistant to enslavement. Who knew?
Aurora Skycaller was at 111 right now. ETE of about 5 days, pretty average. That Dwarf girl in Kharanos, Glynna, will be captured around then too. Speaking of Kharanos: looks like Dremuus finished his mission. No bonus; damn. Zombie dwarf must not have counted. No big deal. A credit, an orb of entrancement, a mission ticket, and a new regional quest were more than worth a day of Dremuus’s time. Hotter dwarves was a bit random, but I wasn’t complaining.
According to my settings, the next mission should be based off of Tony’s location. So I was more than a little miffed to see that it was in Stranglethorn, at the southern tip of the Eastern Continent. For those of you without a map handy, Tony is currently in Tirisfal Glades, far to the north.
Kurzen’s ordersGet Corporal Sethman in the Rebel Camp in Stranglethorn Vale killed. You will be penalized if any member of your retinue commits the act directly.Rewards: Creature Defense
Dammit. The Company is trying to get me to murder random loyal members of the Alliance again. Yeah, it said rebel base, but the situation in Stranglethorn is really messy for the Stormwind army. Onyxia sent quite a few troops into the jungle to die and a good chunk of them got promptly mind controlled by a troll witch doctor or some such nonsense. I think there was a reference to a movie about Vietnam? Doesn’t matter. Point is, if anything I should probably be sending someone south to get those guys back to safety, not to randomly murder someone. Mission ticket time; I have far more than I need.
BloodthirstKill 10 sentries in Menathil Harbor. Bonus if you eliminate all witnesses.Reward: HUD, Captain Bart TidewaterBonus: Orb of Entrancement, sailing skill chip
HUD: one member of your retinue can be imbued with the powers of an amulet, permanently causing them to have access to all abilities and perks as if they were wearing one. Permanently attached to one person.
Um. What the fuck, missions guy? Did I offend you somehow? Do you want me to go full evil? I’m not going to. I’m not exactly a saint but random serial murder does not appeal. I didn’t even go through with that gnoll genocide plan I had. Well. Not directly. The Lions have been killing a lot of gnolls…
Regardless, they offered plenty for this one. HUD seemed like a really nice thing to slap on someone in enemy territory, or even on myself so I’d never need to worry about touching the amulet again. A ship’s captain, an entrancing orb, and a niche but useful skillset also sounded pretty nice. I didn’t really want to murder ten people though. As I might have mentioned before, in relation to a smaller number of murders.
I’m going to sit on this one for the moment. It doesn’t really seem quite up to the level of a deluxe mission ticket, but… Ugh. What did I get for regional mission?
Dun Morogh- Defeat Great Father Arcticus of the frost trollsReward: Stud Service
Stud Service- You are prime breeding stock, able to sire the best children feasible given a compatible partner, which is something that potential partners sense... and like. The more proof of your fertility, virility, or the quality of your offspring that a potential waifu witnesses the more the image of submissively being bred by you infects and inflames their fantasies. Those who have had offspring, or who are 'hearing their biological clock ticking', are particularly susceptible.With practice, you can influence your offspring at conception to possess or lack traits which it would be possible for them to inherit.
Ok. That’s… Nice. Really nice, in some ways. Setting aside the reward, the Frost Trolls are far and away the least powerful and influential tribe of trolls I’m aware of. Their faction leader is probably a chump that I can take out pretty easily. Another old Murk-eye situation, basically.
The actual reward is not one I can see coming up to its full effect any time soon. Sure, being super attractive to women who want, or stereotypically might want, kids is nice as a passive benefit. But right at this very moment I don’t have or particularly want kids, so I don’t have anything to show off. Apparently evidence of my virility will have at least some effect as well, so if I’m super manly and badass women might start fantasizing about me, but I don’t really know how much of an effect it will have. Of course, I haven’t really experimented with Alluring Whisper so I don’t really have much of a standard of comparison for what a lure is capable of in general.
Jaina Proudmore, one of the strongest mages on the planet, is unmarried in her 30s; if this means I’ll passively give her baby rabies by being around her, I will be pretty ok with that. Especially if it would increase in effect if I did something badass in her presence. I don’t have a pregnancy kink, but I will exploit the hell out of a magically induced one if given the opportunity. There are a lot of cougars and milfs in the Warcraft universe.
Either way, I’m getting it. Given the bonus for whoever gets the kill, I’d have killed Arcticus for a mission ticket. Preferably before I charge into battle against a dragon alongside an army of warrior women in a few days. Nothing needs to actually come of it, but I would be quite happy to have half the Feathermoon Garrison looking at me as a potential baby daddy.