Assessing Possibilities
5/21 morning
Melisara was fairly clear what she wanted: she wanted to strike out at the Scarlet Crusade. I was absolutely on board with that, but I also wanted to sleep. I finished healing Tony, told her to give me a writeup of the strengths and weaknesses of the Crusade, specifically against people like us. Then I headed back to bed. It was around midnight, and I had training with Varian before dawn.
As I finished setting my alarm, Lividia was suddenly next to me. Her abrupt appearances always startled me, but I was glad to see her back and in good spirits. That said, she was still so hyped up from the battle that I didn’t get to sleep for another hour as I told her how the fight went and what had happened after.
••••••••••
In the morning, I awoke to find Melisara at the table going over plans and tactics for the crusaders. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the column labeled defenses was quite full. There was a reason that Sylvanas had not taken them down already.
The big doozy was that the monastery was on sanctified ground. It was generally unpleasant for any undead to be near, and most forms of shadow or death magic were weakened. Of course, it didn’t technically harm the undead. From the way she described it, they just lost motivation. Mindless undead would stand around listlessly unless they saw something they perceived as a threat, while more intelligent undead would have difficulty maintaining focus.
Possession was basically a non-starter; banshee were far better at it than your average ghost, but even they would be ejected from any but the absolute most feeble minded of crusaders. Charmed crusaders had a slightly better success rate, with a few acting as spies for the Dark Lady already. Unfortunately, crusaders weak willed enough to be charmed usually weren’t very good actors or highly ranked.
Recruitment was an unpleasant affair. They had grown increasingly paranoid over the years; at this point any new recruit would be subjected to torture and questioning, and accepted only if they professed motives deemed “pure” by the interrogator. Once in a while they would dismiss a recruit who they didn’t think would fit in, perhaps sending someone too soft hearted to join the Argent Dawn at the Bulwark, but far more common was summary execution of the “impure”.
Their military force was substantial, and politically protected as well. The Argent Dawn, allied to both the Forsaken and the Crusade, tacitly accepted the two groups skirmishing. A full scale war with hundreds dead on both sides, though? That would be a diplomatic incident, and would draw forces away from the Plaguelands. The Monastery was their equivalent to Northshire Abbey, where they trained up new recruits before deploying them elsewhere. They genuinely needed it for the war against the Scourge, and striking out against Brill was essentially a training exercise to them.
It was a bit of a pickle. I could think of a few avenues to attack, but most of them would be slow burns to start with. Any lingering ideas I’d had of conquering the monastery with brute force faded. Before, I hadn’t wanted to risk killing Sally and needing to resurrect her with my scroll. Now I just thought it would make a big ugly mess; I was definitely going to be dealing with the plaguelands eventually, and I didn’t want to help the Scourge. I might attack the monastery at some point, but if I do it will be a distraction for something else.
••••••••••
Today Varian decided it was time for me to start learning how to use my shield offensively. I was put to duel Anduin without a weapon. Anduin’s technique was still a bit better than mine, but the gap was shrinking rapidly. Varian actually called in one of his royal guards, a woman that I instantly identified as a dragonspawn, to duel me when it became clear that Anduin wasn’t a challenge anymore.
https://imgur.com/a/4fYi9ur
Galiena kicked my ass, naturally. She was almost as strong as me, had far better technique than Anduin, and was generally just using the same fighting style I was, but better. In contrast to the way she destroyed me, she was extremely deferential to me the entire time, even compared to how she treated the actual royalty. I realized that I had a small army of elite troops here at the palace that would be very easy to gather, and I’d just forgotten about them. I sent Onyxia a note to set up an assembly so that I could mass capture them. I could use a squad of elite dragonspawn for the Ashenvale battle.
“Can I borrow her for a while?” I asked Varian. I could capture her quickly, then use her as a personal trainer when I had time and Varian wasn’t available. Or as an extra fighter who is just a smidgeon less notable than the goddamn King of Stormwind.
“Yeah sure. Brian should be all I need. It’s not like many people can really be dangerous to me.”
“Brian? Don’t you have a huge honor guard you can bring in?”
“Most of them are in Westfall, but like I said. Don’t worry about it.”
“All of them?” I knew that Onyxia had sent troops there to do some kind of mock war, but I hadn’t realized that she’d cleared out the whole royal guard. I suppose it would be good for PR.
He shrugged. “Yeah. Something about the Defias. Katrana seemed to think that sending a small, elite force would clear things up.” Anduin stared at his father with a combination of surprise and disappointment that was honestly a bit funny. His father had apparently sent forces to try to solve an important issue, but it definitely didn’t sound like he’d put much thought into it.
“Yeah. I’ll bring her back later. For now, come with me.” I parted ways with Varian, and brought the lady knight with me to my apartment. Lividia was still sleeping in; thankfully Melisara had already been sent to Quel’Danil lodge with a shiny new ghost-hair woven necklace in tow. She’d need to make her way back to the Undercity herself, but hopefully it wouldn’t take too long.
Galiena, being a dragonspawn, was perfectly happy to follow my orders as a black dragon. The process of putting a necklace on her and getting her to declare her love for me was both functional and enjoyable. I don’t know if she was this attractive before becoming a dragonspawn, but if she wasn’t she had apparently taken the opportunity of making herself a visage to get an upgrade.
Almost nothing about her demeanor or behavior changed when she was captured. She already saw herself as my property, the only change that probably happened is that I was more her master than other black dragons. I’d need to keep this in mind whenever I found myself going after Nefarion.
••••••••••
Oli’ba was fiddling with the necklace that had suddenly appeared around her neck. She had been commanded to return to the Tirisfal Glades, but saw no reason to rush. From her briefing, Gretchen would be usable as a viable method of teleportation soon enough, so it was more important to understand the tools she had been given.
The trolls of the Witherbark tribe were in steep decline and enemies to nearly every other form of sentient life on Azeroth, including the majority of trolls. Oli’ba would normally be a fierce patriot, gutting anyone who would dare to say such things of her tribe, but with a banshee behind her eyes she saw it as an outsider would.
Of course, tribal politics were not what was important right now; what was important was streamlining the process of capture. What better way to learn how to command a group of deranged fanatics than by practicing with a different group of deranged fanatics?
A banshee could typically possess two people per day; as many as three if she was allowed rest or given something to help restore herself. Of course, she’d need to recover for most of a day to be able to rebuild her tangible body after doing so. She’d received a surge of energy as she’d been captured, but normally she would have been trapped in an incorporeal state at that point.
If she could get the process of capture under twelve hours per individual, she should be able to maximize the procedure. She had been given free reign with her own necklace, so she could replicate the event that she had experienced herself by manipulating the settings. She just needed to ensure that the host was sufficiently aware when she did it for it to matter. Thankfully, religious fanatics tended to be very open to worship.
“Oh lord of de gems, grant Oli’ba your boon. I swear my devotion to you. I love you. By all de Loa I love you.” It worked well enough. Oli’ba’s body filled out as the slightly underfed poison crafter was rejuvenated. The fanaticism and reasonably strong will meant that her passenger needed to couch it in acceptable terms, but she had gotten one down.
Oli’ba
Now, to check if it was a fluke she would need to do it at least twice more before Gretchen was captured. Then she’d be ready to bring the Crusade in line. Lord Bismark was reasonably similar to an incarnation of the Light itself. Close enough for Melisara, anyway.
••••••••••Onyxia went over her reports. Perhaps she should request a necklace for a secretary. Someone who can go through all these damn reports for her. But no, there is no mortal she could trust to be able to see all the little hints of things to worry about that she could. Maybe Vanessa, when the Defias were no more.
Like this report of a battle at Thandol Span. She’d initially only skimmed it; it had been a skirmish amongst the dwarves, hardly her problem to deal with. However, it included a description of a small group of mercenaries of great skill and power brought in by one of the dwarven family heads. A young Sin’dorei girl, a human warrior, and the real giveaway: a Kal’dorei druid with antlers growing from his temples. It was for the best that the SI:7 hadn’t recognized the human warrior as their king, but the antlers were a rare trait in night elves, and she sincerely doubted that this band of warriors was a new one featuring Malfurion Stormrage.
There was one other such night elf she was aware of; Broll Bearmantle, a powerful druid who had been seen traveling with the gladiator Lo’Gosh. The, hopefully, still amnesiac vessel of King Varian Wrynn’s willpower. Well, he’d proven quite nearly impossible to kill, no matter how expensive the mercenaries she sent after him; perhaps it was time for a different approach? Lord Bismark came equipped with such wonderful toys, ones she had been entirely unaware of last time she’d seen evidence of Lo’Gosh’s location. Hmm. Yes, he’d made quite an impressive showing in front of King Magni. Likely he’d be making his way to Ironforge next. Perhaps Keryn was available…