Bookkeeping After Dark

5/31 evening

I was waiting in Ursula's chateau for Pai to come meet up with me, looking over the books. Quite a few ogres were being captured, which was nice. I might need to train more warlocks so I'm not forced to make any of them into wormtongues or Gan'arg. A nice strike force of satyrs and succubi seems best. Maybe Man'ari and Nathrezim, if I can do that without killing anyone now.

I was thinking I might turn some of them into Mountain Giants before turning them into demons. If they maintained all their passive abilities regardless of form, mountain giants would be far stronger shock troops just because of their extremely powerful defenses letting them last longer. Long term I'd probably turn at least some of them into Dryads to counter enemy mages and use ranged attacks, and I liked the idea of making a few imps into Druids of the Claw. Ideally, the result would be troops capable of being ranged blasters, healers, or melee bruisers depending on what was needed.

The important thing to remember is that the purpose of the demon squad is to be thrown en masse at things that annoyed me and which I wanted dead, but didn't want to risk lives against. They were disposable, meant to go in first to soften the enemy up and eat a few bullets and spells that otherwise would have hurt my real troops. I primarily put random dumb monstrous races into this force because they were the only ones who seemed like they might possibly enjoy the Valhalla lifestyle.

Right now, of course, I was still upgrading my units. Thankfully, the three units I found most promising would all be trained by an ancient of lore; I wouldn't need to build more than one new structure to start churning these bad boys out, though they also all used a different weapon and armor upgrade system than the archers and huntresses I've been building up. Unfortunate. 

Looking over my options for upgrades from defeating Serpentis, I didn't have much trouble. I worked my way through each option and was able to dismiss them without too much fanfare.

The Stamina option was, as frequently seems to be the case, weak because it wasn't proactive. Broll becoming a boss fight with multiple forms that each had their own health bars was great and all, but it just meant he'd stay alive a little bit longer while almost certainly being in a new form that was a worse matchup. Plus, I intended for him to be fighting a lot of regional bosses; he'd get other options later.

Spirit didn't provide an additional method of capture, which was a strike against it all on its own. I didn't really need to crank up the time table on the dwarven kingdoms, so having Thargas be everyone's second favorite candidate for king didn't seem like it would be all that easy to exploit.

The Big Guy for Noboru was appealing in its simplicity; making my draenei Paladin slightly stronger than a dragon aspect was extremely nice. It was also not really all that impactful on a macro level. One of my better melee fighters becomes a better melee fighter by maximizing his physical power. He was a paladin, and as far as I could tell he was a defensively oriented one. His job was to be an unkillable beacon that constantly blasted out low level holy radiation to burn his enemies. The hammer was secondary.

Giving Gina super gaslighting powers, able to slip into any organization and be remembered as a full member, was also intriguing, I seriously considered that one for many reasons. She wasn't an infiltrator though. I did not have enough really good melee fighters to use Gina as anything but the amazonian melee goddess she is, or a trainer for other melee combatants. Plus, like Broll, she'd have other opportunities.

The Arcanist for Doan was deceptively powerful. Until I saw that it stacked with soul talent, I almost skipped it entirely. Three days, however, is a very short time to train a mage as powerful as Doan, and I had some really quite valid questions that could, depending on the answer, crank this up from "quite strong" to "the objectively best upgrade I've gotten in a while."

Namely, is three days an estimate based on his current power level, or is it a rule? If Doan is trained by Jaina or Aegwynn up to tier 7 or 8, will he be able to crank out a classroom full of demigods every three days? How many students can he have? Could I have him lecture to an auditorium full of apprentices for an hour and then have them all go out for practical training with TAs, or did he need to personally oversee the training of one or two people at a time?

Mages are extremely powerful in the Warcraft Universe, if properly supported. A reasonably sturdy frontline and some decent healers will allow them to wreak untold havoc. Plus, Doan had already developed everything needed for perhaps the cheesiest combo in Warcraft history. Bubble hearthing. Sure, summoning a blast wave is great and all, but creating an unbreakable sphere around yourself and then teleporting to safety has style. I chose The Arcanist and sent Talaada and Sally an update to make sure that Doan could focus on training our people.

Sally was currently resurrecting the contents of my inventory; over a dozen more sentinels I'd stored there for safe keeping, while she showed Aurora, Sadie, and Anduin how it worked. I'm pretty sure Anduin resurrected Calia at one point in canon, so he should hopefully be well equipped to learn. At the very least, the young man in the early stages of puberty was very attentive to the red leather clad priestess's lessons, and didn't want to embarrass himself of his busty blonde fellow students. Sally wouldn't have as many dead crusaders now that there was an informal ceasefire with the Forsaken and they'd stopped torturing their prisoners to death, so practically speaking there was very little harm in keeping their figurehead away for most of the day. I might have Talaada sub in for her more often; she'd captured 11 middle managers by leveraging her position to get them alone, including both the houndmaster and the weapons instructor, and Sally seemed to be enjoying the working vacation as a personal trainer to attentive students.

Sylvanas's regional upgrade was a little harder for me to choose. Strength was thankfully easy to dismiss, as it was literally just turning her dark minions permanent. That just wasn't good enough; hell, in some situations, such as if I use her to kill something big and scary, it would be a straight downgrade from shipping that corpse to Tara.

Capturing points was intriguing, but I don't know if I actually care that much about logistics; sure I had a team working on trading goods between Stormwind, Darnassus, and the Undercity, but that was basically just checking prices and moving freight around opportunistically. I'm sure being able to retake all the mines in Elwynn and then getting free copper or whatever every day would be great, but what the hell do I need huge piles of copper for? Yeah yeah, I could sell it, I could give it to my craftsmen, I could make items to disenchant, but that seemed like a lot of logistics to me. I saw the value, but I couldn't bring myself to get excited.

Unlocking another Tech Tree seemed… well, exhausting, really. I don't know if it would have required different resources, but honestly the Night Elf Tech Tree was all I really needed and was almost to the point where I could start having it actually pay dividends. Having to go through this whole upgrade process again made me want to shudder. Objectively it would provide me with great benefits long term, hopefully including three more heroes, but… no. Not when I had other, equally promising prospects.

Lament of the Highborne would have been an instant pick if it didn't have the 3 minute per day limit, but it was still tempting. Infinite mana wellsprings are kind of a big deal. Entire civilizations have been built around them. Mostlyelven ones that then proceed to get screwed over by their mana dependency, but whatever. I'm sure it would work great for me. More practically, this could turn the tide of a battle, or let Sally resurrect almost twice as many people. However, the last option was just too good.

Trustworthy, a giant reference to how Sylvanas became Warchief despite how openly evil and hated by all her peers she was after the fall of the Lich King, would hand me the Horde on a silver platter. No matter what she did, the lion's share of the horde would eternally give her the benefit of the doubt. Long term I am pretty sure that I'd manage either way, but making it easier on myself just seemed like the smart thing to do. Plus, if she served as my PR manager, I wouldn't need to capture anywhere near as many people. I selected that one; no regrets.

Pai arrived, chipper as always, and sat at the dining room table with me. "So, any chance I get to find out what happened to me?"

"Simple. I altered your priorities to put me above just about anything else."

"May I ask why me? As far as you knew I was no one special."

"Actually no, you were the primary target. SI:7 has been tracking you for a while now. I need to get an agent into the Cult of the Damned. Specifically Caer Darrow. She's already a modestly skilled necromancer, as far as I can tell; how quickly can you make it happen?"

That threw her off for a moment, but she recovered quickly enough. "A few days at most. She needs to go through initiation of course, and then travel time. But my lord, initiation is a brutal process that fully subsumes one's will to the Lich King."

I smiled at that. "Not for one of mine. Do you feel like selling me out to the Lich King?" She shook her head.

"So how long will this take if travel time isn't a concern, and I can teleport her anywhere she needs to go?"

She put some serious thought into that one. "Dawn tomorrow, my lord."

"Make it so."

••••••••••

Onyxia entered the cavern. It was quite pretty, if a bit wet for her tastes. Theradras had good taste. She took her mortal visage for ease of movement through the narrow tunnels, but was deliberately projecting her presence around her. The beasts that inhabited the grotto would fear her, and the elementals would be given enough pause for her to be allowed to speak to their mistress.

The Princess of the Earth was sitting quite peacefully for the moment, staring into the waters, right next to a column of light that was clearly where the son of Cenarius was buried. It radiated life and vitality, which would be nourishing and comforting to an vitavore like Theradras even without the unhealthy emotional attachment. Onyxia imagined the great elemental rationalized the continuing aura of vitality as some kind of sign of his continued affection. Pathetic.

"Princess, I would like a word." Theradras shifted slightly so that one of her secondary faces was looking at the intruder.

"Speak quickly, spawn of Deathwing. I am in no mood to be disturbed. What is it that you desire from me, and why should I give it?"

Onyxia suppressed a flash of irritation. She would not be much more gracious to an uninvited guest in her own lair, but this arrogant rock would dare speak so to her? "I wish only to offer you something that you desire. Your consort," she nodded at the pillar of light, "is able to resurrect himself, but you worry he will be stolen away if so. I can ensure that he will return to you."

Theradras turned her primary face, the one on the front of her head, to look at Onyxia. "What interest do you have in such matters, wyrm?"

"We should be allies. Instead you languish here, providing guidance to your children but otherwise wasting away, slowly deteriorating in power for thousands of years. We could do much together, and I can think of no better way to begin a partnership than with a gift."

"Explain your methods, then."

Onyxia pulled out a necklace with a flourish, "this, you see, can serve to-"

She was cut off as the great earthen woman released a bellow of rage and charged her. How? How had she recognized it? There was no other explanation for this level of instant aggression. The thought was cut off quickly as Onyxia felt the sweeping strike from a giant stone fist. It sent her flying, probably breaking multiple ribs. She caught the next one in one claw.

"I was not lying, dear Theradras." Onyxia all but purred as she slowly, dramatically returned to her true form, the rest of her body growing to match the foreleg she had suddenly sprouted. "You are weak from your long seclusion, and you will be my ally soon enough. Even Zaetar will be granted to you, should you do well." As she spoke, she used her vastly superior strength to overpower the Princess of Deepholme. She would need healing after taking a hit like that in her human form, but she was the Broodmother. She had earned her power, and had no intention of letting some sulking overgrown child claim a victory with a sucker punch. 

She paid for her sense of drama with dozens of hammer blows on her torso, but her scales absorbed most of the pain. "Now, now, if you didn't like my first gift, perhaps you'll like this one better." She pulled out the orb of entrancement and held it before her pitiful foe, and chuckled as the struggles slowly trailed off. "You sit there and enjoy yourself for a moment. I must speak with your mate."

It was easy enough to lure out the spirit. She just had to speak in the Kaldorei tongue something that Zaetar wanted to hear. "By the light of Elune, I am cleansed of corruption. I am here to free you and extend the same courtesy to my wayward earthen sister." She pulled the amulet out of the water where she had dropped it, noting that the thin ghost thread had been knocked loose and reweaving it quickly.

"This will free you, given time." She whispered in Kaldorei to the shimmering centaur like sihouette that appeared on the burial mound, carefully staying out of Theradras's earshot and line of sight. "She will be neutralized so long as she is looking upon that orb, but I do not think it wise to leave it here where anyone could use it. I do not believe she will be able to take the amulet from you, but if she sees you are wearing it I do not know what she might do."

She felt his response more than she heard it. *Then I shall hide myself from her. It will not be so strange as to arouse suspicion in her.*

"Good. Well then, I'll see you within the week." She returned to her visage, plucked the orb out of Theradras's hand, and teleported home one handed. Job complete, as long as Zaetar can keep secrets.

••••••••••

That night, after Lividia's unfortunately unenlightening and short attack on Andorhol, I was settled in bed. I didn't notice when my amulet updated, as I was trying to get a good night's sleep for once. My next Bonus Mission was released, and damn. It was a doozy.

••••••••••

The War of the Shifting Sands

Complete the 6 following tasks by 6/15. Each completed task will extend the deadline by 2 weeks.

Kill 20,000 Warrior caste Silithid. Worker caste Silithid count as 1/5th of a warrior, minor silithid such as eggs and light sources count as 1/20th of a warrior. Higher order Silithid count as 5-20, depending on their specific power level.

Provide 500,000 gp worth of war materials, such as rations, raw materials, standard issue equipment, potions, magical reagents, and medical supplies, to the Alliance war effort. These need not be free donations, but the value of any given contribution will be calculated based off of the market value that would be offered by a rational purchaser with no mental influence. Profit in excess of that will be deducted from your total.

Provide 500,000 gp worth of war materials, such as rations, raw materials, standard issue equipment, potions, magical reagents, and medical supplies, to the Horde war effort. These need not be free donations, but the value of any given contribution will be calculated based off of the market value that would be offered by a rational purchaser with no mental influence. Profit in excess of that will be deducted from your total.

Reassemble the Scepter of the Shifting Sands

Defeat Ossirian the Unscarred

Defeat C'Thun

Rewards: each successfully completed mission objective will grant one of the following, in order

Sweet Home: upgrade to pocket planeInstant Capture and retrieval: Broxigar the RedInstant capture: Succubus Kerrigan (HotS powerset only)Instant capture/retrieval of Xal'atath, Blade of the Black EmpireHypnosis App binding function added to primary amulet.100 credits