A Book Worth Keeping

Field teams:

Me: Erich Bismark, accompanied by Lividia and other teams when needed.Area of focus: whatever catches my eye

The Classics: Drusilla, Annetta, Auffrey, Prudence, and TessaThey make a reasonably balanced low-mid level party with different and complementary skills. With the Blackrock orcs being relatively quiet on the orders of Nefarian and the gnoll packs in Redridge mostly killed off, we can afford to pull some of the heavy hitters of the Rampant Lions out of that area.Area of focus: Should be able to reliably deal with low level threats; anything above their pay grade they can call in a larger or more elite unit to deal with. Systematically go to low level locations to do minor missions, then either complete the regional mission themselves or pass it on to someone more appropriate.

Team Dremuus: Dremuus, Norin, Nadira, Scarletleaf, Harnea (temporary), Magglish, Bighorn, Raptor 1I was tempted to call them team spacegoat, but that felt rude. Harnea would stay or go once we knew Scarletleaf’s upper limits. Team is liable to change.Area of focus: setting up camp in a hostile environment and mapping it out.

The Rogues: Darcell, Keryn, Varvara, DorisA team consisting exclusively of people capable of stealth or turning invisible. Focus on one task at a time as a team; more likely than most field units to be split off for special assignments.Focus: surgical mission hunting with minimal combat; in the event of combat, they are expected to finish it quickly or escape to call backup.

Gates of Death: Abby, Lillibeth, Eliza, Tara, MelisaraMy necromancers and ghosts primarily exist to add more people to the retinue. Pair with Corpse Party when they need more muscle, because fuck optics.Area of focus: harvesting large populations of hostile undead or newly dead (through Tara) then providing them with the training and resources they need to become useful to us.

Farmers: Tony, several low skill elves and DraeneiA nice cushy job for Tony doing manual labor in locations where he’s unlikely to be kidnapped.Area of focus: Gathering herbs, ore, and hides for our crafters in relatively low danger zones. Can call in backup to clear out dangerous areas first.

Rapid response teams:The Heavies: Lo’Gosh, Valeera, Broll, NathanosThe top of the line kill team. If they can’t kill it we shouldn’t be engaging with it. Will continue to be supplemented by powerful but relatively low profile individuals (Aegwynn or Naralex, for example) as they are captured. To be in this group you have to be individually extremely powerful but able to randomly vanish without a large number of people being overly concerned. Note: Try to find a healer with few demands on their time. Tyrande may qualify, or Sadie might be pulled out of the Argent Dawn once we establish ties.

The B team: Noboru, Aurora Skycaller, Kriss Goldlight, Caledra, HamhockA draenei/dragon Paladin, an elf priest, an elf mage, an elf hunter, and an ogre shaman. These were the strongest people I had on hand who could be on call at all times. When given time to prepare, will go out with a full compliment of dragons and rangers.

Strike forces:Royal Guard: Around 50 Dragonspawn. 20 of them were elite troops before being transformed, the other 30 have been training hard to get up to that level since assuming the identity of a loyal elite guard. Probably the most dangerous goon squad currently in the retinue, will usually be led in battle by Varian.Named members: GalenaStrengths: Incredibly strong and durable in melee range, fire immune, well equippedWeaknesses: poor ranged and magical components. Supplement with druid spirits?

The Dragonriders: 20 high elven rangers (and counting) riding drakes, some of which are draenei and others are originally high elves themselves. Elven spellcasters thrown in for diversity. If B-team is deployed can still be led by Hawkspear alone.Named members: Caledra Dawnbreeze, Hawkspear, Noboru, Melaar, Kriss, AuroraStrengths: Absolutely unparalleled mobility for hit and run tactics, “radar” from tracking, flightWeaknesses: mediocre in close quarters; get Emeriss to train them in proper flying combat techniques before she goes to bed.

The Rampant Lions: Around 60 modestly trained warriors and mages, around half of which are captured thanks to occasional visits from Talaada.Named members: Irma, Sarah Ladimor, Yanca, BartlebyStrengths: uniformly equipped, have a decent number of spellcasters, unlikely to upset anyoneWeaknesses: very weak individual members compared to other groups

Demon goon squad: a small horde of demons bound to the party’s warlocks. Currently a bit less than 20 and mostly consisting of satyrs. Numbers could go up to around 105 if we transform 15 people each into satyrs, imps, fel steeds, eredar, Gan’arg, felbats, and Wormtongues. Soon to add a succubus to the mix and bring the theoretical numbers up to 120, minus demons involved in other things. Note: relearn how to bind demons.Named characters: Mezzo, Em, Pryzhum, Monze, Petra, Laurie, Willa (former Defias silk masks),Strengths: respawning, varied powers.Weaknesses: currently a disorganized mob

Corpse Party: Intelligent undead. At the moment this will mostly consist of the non-possession capable residents of the Agamand Mills, corporeal and otherwise, but will rapidly expand as necromancers continue their work. Stitches is included as well.Named members: Stitches

The Pack: All worgen have a supernatural affinity for combat and coordinating with one another, and many of those who survived their first bites from worgen were military veterans. Those that weren’t can be trained, those that can’t be trained normally can be trained using the ancient of war.Named members: Dasha, Claire, Sildia FogrunnerStrengths: fast, strong, coordinatedWeaknesses: Unclear; excessive rage is likely to be a problem when riled up.

Healers:Anduin Wrynn, Calia MenathilMore healers needed for standby: capture Druids of the Fang, priestesses of Elune, and priests of the light. Consider training some as well.

Recruitment:The Brotherhood of Love: I only really have one verbal recruiter and it’s Talaada. I should probably train some more people who have silver tongues to recruit people and induct them into the cult without magical power ups. Talaada can accept new initiates that she didn’t personally groom if I can establish a priesthood.

Team Possession: My ghosts capable of possessing people will form a hybrid of recruitment tool and assault force. Their primary task will be mass possession once they are all competently trained and properly equipped, though I will want to train them in other skills, combat or otherwise.Named Members: Melisara, Nissa, Yulia, Marina

Sally WhitemaneCombination of long term assignment and recruitment “team.” Can independently capture 1 person per 2 days. Plan is to subvert high ranking members of the crusade and then start introducing necklaces. May be able to move that plan up with JoD in play.

Logistical

The Stonemasons Guild: possibly the least sexy use for them, but many of the higher ranked members of the Defias have substantial amounts of experience in architecture and construction. Building up some housing in the Twilight Grove would be a good use for them.

Gilnid: goblin engineer working for the Defias. Robotics is his passion, but he could almost certainly be put to other tasks. Like bombs.

Zorba: Demonic smith capable of making things from fel iron. Output will be limited by the extent of Nozara’s ability to embezzle. Fel iron is a material on par with the best metals currently used by the Horde and Alliance.

Hahrana Ironhide: Extremely in demand leatherworker; her stuff is of the very highest quality, but she is nearly constantly busy outfitting the Tauren of Camp Mojache.

Education/Training:Melaar: teaching members of the retinue how to assume Visages at Twilight Grove. This is now something all members of the retinue are encouraged to at least try to learn.

The Heavies: when not in the field, the heavies will serve as trainers in their respective skillsets. When martial/soul talent is acquired, double down on this.

High elves? Do a survey for specialty skills among the high elves; both under my sway and still free.Demon Day job?

Long term AssignmentStormwind: though PR and narrative are still relevant limitations, we have control over Stormwind’s armed forces and (as of today) their spy networks. Capturing the admiral and high priest would likely wrap the whole thing up tight.Named individuals: Onyxia, Dena Kennedy, Ursula Deline, Matthias Shaw

Argent Dawn: now that we have Jewels of Discord, we could potentially start subverting the Argent Dawn again. Creating a cell within the Dawn through advertising communication and plague immunity may be a good use for necklaces, should we ever have any excess ever again. Until then, Sadie is an active member of the Dawn with many duties outside of my retinue.Named members: Sadie Paletress, Carlin Redpath

Darkshire: a small town that has recently become substantially safer. About a third of the extra tax revenue from the recent uptick in trade and industry is being quietly funneled into the retinue’s coffers. A good place for investment?Named characters: Ello and Althea Ebonlocke, Councilman Millstipe, Madame Eva, Deputy Mayor Role Dreuger

Shadowforge City: For now they will be a quiet new ally. Openly aligning ourselves will only cause trouble on both sides until Magni and Ragnaros are both handled.Kam Deepfury, Moira Bronzebeard

Emerald Dream: The nightmare is still at least somewhat a threat and keeping sleeping dragons next to my tree of life gets me lots of free energy. Carefully monitor them and check on them with mind vision if possible. Note: look into having Emeriss complete another regional mission before going back.Named individuals: Ysondre, Emeriss, Imriss, Lethas, Jaderoarer

Xoroth: Legion controlled world. Valuable, but enemy territory. Being approached subtly in order to avoid problems until now. More aggressive distribution of amulets may be viable with Jewels of DiscordNamed individuals: Zelena, Nozara, Zorba, Bavira (collared but not captured)

Night Elf Sentinels: Xylinnia has managed to leverage her inoculation against the nightmare to accompany the more elite sentinels to Ashenvale.

Other? Get back to thisMary Worthy: needs to be buffed up to tier 4. Current plan: make her a druid with a tier 2 building when convenient.Thargas Anvilmar- a loyal citizen of Ironforge; has some political cloutGretchen Dedmar- will want to find something useful for her to do when she can be freedCaptain Greenskin, Mr Smite- the captain and first mate on a heavily armed warship is great but also moves so goddamn slow compared to apportation.

••••••••••

As I looked over my notes it hit me that the things I really needed were support. Infrastructure, resources, money. I hadn’t realized quite how many soldiers I had, and in retrospect it seemed really obvious that I needed to overhaul my economy.The last thing I added was a note to my cabinet, stating that balancing the budget was now on our list of objectives, and proposals to do so should be sent to Irma, who would present them to me. We’d figure it out.