A Day of Prep I

5/7 night

Eliza didn't know why she had been sent to lure her friend into a trap. She studiously didn't think about it. The pain didn't start until she began acting on her discontent, but she wasn't looking to invite her liege's displeasure. She felt good standing, walking, and generally moving. She felt better than any time since she'd fallen ill and needed to be saved by- pain.

She staggered. She hadn't expressed discontent. Why was she being punished? She'd just tried to think of- Pain. No. No he couldn't be cruel enough to try to take away- pain. Why? Her fractured mind, already unstable since she died and grown far worse the last few days, struggled to make sense of the situation. She grasped at the one line of logic that made sense. Her new liege felt that her connection to… she diverted her mind slightly, focusing on something that her mind would allow her to think.

Her connection to the one whose heart beat in her chest might be an impediment to her being a good knight. She wanted to be a good knight; though it had faded, she still got a thrill when she imagined herself taking on that role.

She was strong, stronger than any of the rabble surrounding her, even with her bare hands. A man- pain… someone she trusted told her that Morbent Fel was doing shoddy work. That she was worth a dozen of these mindless skeletons. And she was; she could raise the dead herself with but a thought and an exercise of will, channeling the runes scribed into the circle around her lover's heart. She'd never developed her strength fully, as she'd never needed to, but she suspected she could serve with distinction, so long as her liege wished for her to kill.

Tonight was a simple task, not violent, but not peaceful. She was to go to Mor'Ladim, a man she had known in life and in death, a fellow damned soul with whom she felt a faint warmth of shared suffering. She was to lure him to a place where he would be isolated, so that he could be dealt with. She went to the place he patrolled, the small hill where his family had been buried. As normal, he held vigil there.

"Mor'Ladim. I need to speak with you, in private." She called out to him, not overly worried about being overheard. Fel's ears were all around. Surely just across the hill he was busily animating a dozen more dead, as he did most nights. He was dangerous, and an outsider, but was no great threat to her. He simply wished to collect corpses, which he'd someday lead in battle. They had no intention of interfering with that, so he left her and her lover in life alone. Peaceful enough.

The being that was once Morgan Ladimore turned to her. He was tall, and clad in worn, rusted armor from his days as a Paladin. Strapped at his side was a large blade in no better condition than the armor, though it's razor edge still glowed softly. He approached. "Eliza. What brings you to my vigil? It is a welcome intrusion, but an unexpected one." He had always been a kind neighbor, visiting her grave whenever he had been forced to reform in his own, but he seemed foolishly drawn to this place by his guilt.

"There is something you must see. I believe it will be a great relief to you." The dead knight seemed skeptical. "Please. I have taken time from my night, time I'd prefer to spend with the one I love, to ask this of you. Tomorrow at dusk, come to my grave. I will show you. If I'm right, perhaps you will be pleased. I would have" wince, "my lover show you, but I know how you can get when you see the living."

Mor'Ladim was, in theory, driven to protect his family's shattered graves. The sight of the living, however, regardless of their nature or intentions, would drive him into a mournful frenzy. Just as he had in his last hours, he would lash out at anyone who saw his shame and grief. She assumed that her liege must know this, as he openly referred to his plan as a trap.

An ambush would be necessary, to be sure. Few of the founding members of the Knights of the Silver Hand had survived to do battle in the third war, and more than half of those had been killed. Only the most deadly returned home, and Morgan Ladimore had needed to be slain by his own hand. She would use what vestiges of nobility he had to separate him from his unwitting protectors. It was what she had been commanded to do. It's what would make her happy.

••••••••••

We had a fairly good night. Abercrombie's old bed wasn't terribly comfortable, but it had easily enough room for two people. We made a bit of a game out of me fucking Drusilla while Lillibeth tried to sneak in and possess her. Drusilla was quite good at catching the influence, usually noticing and ejecting Lillibeth within the minute; we weren't sure if it was related to Drusilla's training as a warlock, Lillibeth's lack of experience and power, or if Drusilla just had a strong will.

We had a lot of fun, and we discovered something interesting. Lillibeth could ride without asserting herself. At one point, I saw Lillibeth's amulet form around Drusilla's neck after a nice triggered orgasm, and she simply didn't notice anything until I told her directly that she was possessed, several rounds later. She was even skeptical at first, until she checked and saw the extra amulet herself.

Lillibeth still needed an opening, such as a massive orgasm, but if she focused all her influence on being ignored and hiding the amulet from the wearer, instead of influencing behavior, she could sneak in. I wasn't sure when or how, but that definitely seemed at least potentially useful. If nothing else, Drusilla felt the passive effects of Lillibeth's necklace, making every touch immensely more pleasurable for her. Which meant, at minimum, the necklace was still working.

Gonna write that down in case someone ever tried to seduce me; turning something like that around could be dangerous, but potentially fun. There would be something immensely satisfying about a seductress or gold digger accidentally molding herself into the person she thought I wanted.

We went to bed eventually; Lillibeth kept watch since she couldn't actually sleep anyway. I slept reasonably well; I'd finally gotten kind of used to the dreary atmosphere of Duskwood.

5/8 morning

We woke for breakfast and I noted that the extradimensional cupboard was getting a bit bare. I'd need to buy some more food soon. Hopefully I'd be able to leave Duskwood tomorrow, and move on with my life. I'd come back of course, to kill Morbent Fel for the shroud, set up some kind of local branch office in Darkshire, maybe start capturing Worgen for that mission. I wanted a day or two off to relax, though. Somewhere that isn't incredibly dreary or a war zone.

I went over my updates, confirmed success with Eliza, and saw that Madame Katarina Eva had been captured. I should probably check in with her at some point, but today I had work to do and an ambush to set up. It would have to wait.

Unfortunately I didn't have a new necklace, but that was because Mezzo had gotten an amulet onto someone named Zelena Felwhisper, bringing the number of "active" necklaces to 5. That sounded like a female demon's name to me, and Mezzo wasn't dead, so I was guessing that meant he had successfully gotten Satyr girl to wear it. Everything was coming up aces so far. Well, except that 147 hours were left to capture her. It figured. She was probably an ancient and fanatically evil demonically corrupted elf. The only way she was going to be easy to subvert is if I could somehow take advantage of the fact she's already kinda someone's magically brainwashed slave. I'd need to think about that. For the short term I tossed in a minor attempt at a safety protocol.

Desire or attempt to learn more about this necklace: momentary amnesia

I'd have preferred something more proactive, like anxiety, for something like this. Unfortunately my options were limited. Pain, shame, or paralysis seemed likely to draw more attention than they avoided. This demon was going on the back burner for now, and hopefully she'd just forget about her snazzy new jewelry.

"Hope. Do you need us yet?" I used her fake name in case she was in mixed company. Either actual outsiders or Defias who she might need to explain my communication to.

"Yes, my lord. I will go now, and pull Irma aside. I will tell her that you escaped, and we must find you. While I'm gone, you can ambush the other two while they are still groggy from the early morning."

It seemed like a fairly reasonable strategy to me, so we went with it. Drusilla, Lillibeth, and I arrived on the scene and got to work. The two guards, women that were clearly combat veterans from their scars and physiques, attempted to attack us. I got a bad slash along one arm, since they were right in close quarters with us. We had a substantial numbers advantage so I decided to risk Weakness. As I spat the word out, both me and my assailant fell to the ground in a heap.

I could barely move my head, but I was surprised to see the other Defias goon floating several inches in the air, seeming to be held up by a ring of crackling darkness tightly bound around her neck. She swung her legs and desperately tried to rip the ring away to no effect. Abby stood smirking, her elevated hand shimmering with dark energy. "I'm glad to see you return for me master. It was quite unpleasant to be required to play along with their inane prattle. I hope my masterpiece is well?" Oh right. Stitches. Yeah. Hopefully he was.

My fellow exhausted combatant started to weakly thrash from a fear spell, then Lillibeth's amulet settled around her neck and she vanished. Unfortunately, she vanished along with Lillibeth; it seemed like this would be a decent form of crowd control, but we'd need to deal with her eventually to get Lillibeth back. The other one fell from the air when Abby's spell ended, and was immediately attacked by a swarm of biting insects from the necromancer, and far more concerningly by Lividia. She was beaten black and blue within a few moments.

"Lividia. Hold her down." I changed my focus to the woman. "If you surrender, you will be allowed to survive and will be rewarded for your compliance. If you refuse, we will do everything we can to take you alive anyway. It will just hurt more." She wasn't inclined to be compliant, even when thoroughly cursed by Drusilla and covered with angry insects. I could admire the grit, despite my tough talk. I pulled out a thick cloth, wet it, and did my best to smother her until she passed out from lack of oxygen. We put her into the inventory at that point; she'd be mostly fine, I was sure. Any brain damage would probably just be healed.

The other was pretty easy to deal with . Lillibeth tried to push her into surrendering, but she realized she wasn't herself too quickly to weave in any insincere declarations of love. Lillibeth was able to get her to drop her weapons at least. Between all of us, it was pretty easy to subdue one unarmed woman, no matter how tough she was.

Once we were safe, Lividia pounced on me. "My king. That was an excellent strategy. I wish I had known what you were planning, I'm sure that I could have implemented it for you with Abby's help days ago." She had taken hold of my arm and was leaned against me affectionately. She nuzzled in and then surprisingly went quiet. She must have been spooked; communication talent told me that she was playing the part of submissive eye candy. I'd given that behavior the reward of negative emotion reduction, and now she was clinging to the role for comfort after her ordeal. It was kinda cute. Drusilla didn't have much experience with flying as a dragon, but she offered to make her way back to the shack so the rest of us could relax a bit and then teleport to her. I took her up on that offer and looked around the campsite, gathering up anything that seemed valuable.

The team had been bringing Lividia and Abby up the river in a small boat, so they'd been packing light. They had a modest amount of silver between them, a few small tents, and some trail rations. Strips of heavily salted meat, a couple radishes, and some very hard crackers. After the cursory looting, I sat down and waited with Lividia snuggled in close.

"I checked in with Eliza last night. She is making good progress; she'll be ready to see you by tomorrow. I say we spend the night together as a celebration." Eliza as she was now would nauseate me in bed, but if the mission reward came through she should look much more palatable by tomorrow evening. Easily enough for one threesome, at least. Abby seemed thrilled at the prospect.

Vanessa had left a note for me that she was working on Irma. I approved. Vanessa was, according to the lore, only an ok fighter. I didn't think poisons would be too effective against a skeleton, so I was fine with her sitting out the Mor'Ladim fight. I still hoped that it wouldn't turn into a fight, but I wasn't all that hopeful.