Aftermath

5/20 afternoon

If you ever find yourself on the fence about whether or not you should stay conscious after a big battle, I'd recommend it unless you really need a nap. Of course, if you must lose consciousness, try doing so for reasons unrelated to becoming hamburger meat. Too much exciting stuff happens in the aftermath, like looting.

Once again there were three properly powerful magic items; a headdress and two sets of bracers, which we promptly shipped off to Eva to study. The headdress was a leather strap decorated with feathers, which allowed the wearer to see the weakest points on a person's body. It also made them faster and improved endurance, but it was predominantly an ambusher's bit of gear. I gave it to Darcell, to pair with the dagger I got off of Ysondre.

The two bracers both integrated bone into them. The lighter of the two, the bone formed studs around the wrists. They magnified outgoing force coming from that hand, and incidentally also absorbed most forms of magical energy. Not a huge amount, but enough to make the wearer a bit magic resistant. Those went to Doris; she seemed like the one most likely to get use out of them.

The solid bone bracers were big slabs that absorbed force applied against them. In practice, it meant that they could be used to block, or I could brace my shield against them to block things that might otherwise break my arms. I took them for myself.

The four new captures had gender parity and quite a lot of rage directed towards me. Two dragonspawn, one male and one female. Two Druids, one male and one female. The male druid was the most resistant to my control by far, absolutely maximum ETE of 7 days. The female druid, who I'd bowled over and slapped the necklace onto myself, was at around five and a half days. The way she looked at me was a strange combination of lust and hatred, so I think Stud Service was influencing how she felt about my recently demonstrated ability to overpower her. She was fairly unattractive for an elf, with a bland face and not even the suggestion of curves, but the necklace tends to have interesting effects. Obviously, she wasn't undead. She didn't feel the need to explain herself to me, but somewhere out there her real body was probably curled up in a barrow somewhere.

The Dragonspawn were both much closer to capture, especially once I turned into a green dragon in front of them. The female was knocked down to the minimum 3 day capture time, while the male was hovering around 4 days. Dragonspawn submissiveness is a delight, even with corruption fighting it.

Speaking of submissive dragons, Emeriss was captured after only five minutes with the globster. I was a little bit nervous when I saw that her body mass was still about thirty percent fungus; that meant either body defense didn't cover fungal infection or she was badly corrupted, at least when I checked Ysondre's body language. Ysondre knew her and was horrified; this was definitely not just an eccentric quirk of hers.

When she saw me approaching, she took on her visage, a tall night elf wrapped in sleek black dragonscale armor. She immediately threw herself at my feet, groveling and crying in a shrill voice. "Master! Master, I am sorry! I defied you, I do not deserve to live!"

That was a new reaction. "Well. That's what service is for. To make up for that. You weren't yourself, right?"

"I was so wrong. I thought the whole world needed to rot. But that would be against your will, wouldn't it? Please. Please tell me who has displeased you. I will destroy them. All who defy you deserve nothing better." Her voice shifted at that point from shame to rage. She was clutching at my legs, and eventually I managed to get a better look at her face… which was about half discolored mushroom caps and about half a beautiful elf woman that could have been Ysondre's sister. She was disgusting… I needed to figure out a way to use her, preferably far away from me. This level of manic energy scared me, whether she was obedient to me or not, especially if her skillset would result in fields of these volatile poison mushrooms scattered everywhere. I also definitely needed to pick up corruption defense, and soon. For now; I picked her up and shoved her into my inventory.

••••••••••

"So what can you tell me about Emeriss? I definitely want to try to heal her corruption, but I'd like to know what she was like without it, just so I can figure out what my goal even is."

Ysondre looked like she was holding back tears. Knowing how much of an effect stress defense had, I imagine she would be crying her eyes out somewhere nearby without it.

"She was a dear friend. A gardener, who loved to grow beautiful and practical plants. Things that will last, things meant to serve a single purpose, and things which will stay for only a short time. Seeing someone as beautiful as her reduced to that… that THING." Her eyes widened with horror "Would that have happened to me too? Was I just lucky that you got to me first?"

"I'm afraid so. But I think I can undo it." I checked my app, and saw that Nozara had copied Zelena's strategy and put her amulet on a Felbat. That meant another corruption defense rebate, enough to make it free once it was captured. "The healing process can start tomorrow night, it looks like. Once it does, I'm not sure how long it will take, but you took less than a week. There's hope." I squeezed her hand, and she turned it into a hug, bending over slightly so she could cry on my shoulder.

I definitely wanted a sane magical plant architect more than I wanted a crazed mushroom themed supervillain long term. For aesthetic reasons if nothing else. Ysondre's clear preference added to that; she was both melancholy and self aware enough that I kinda wanted to make her happy.

"I know you just had quite a shock, but do you think you can get to Ysera in less than a week? It's more important than ever that we get her an amulet to ward off this kind of thing." My best guess was that the proper corruption only happened after the mind was completely subverted, and I'd gotten to Ysondre before it started. I didn't think I'd be that lucky with the rest. I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the Emerald dream, but I sincerely doubted that giving as many Druids and Green dragons as I could find Corruption Defense would have a detrimental effect on the war, or on my own prospects.

••••••••••

Sylvanas was not frequently stunned. This was no exception. The report, if it was to be believed, indicated that someone had found a powerful artifact which could be used to both enslave and strengthen its wearer permanently. She believed it; Iceshard knew better than to bother her with mere rumors and speculation.

She wasn't sure why the poor creature before her had been chosen; she was sorely lacking in personal resources and had proven incapable of serving as a competent member of the Undercity's army. She primarily repaired clothing, apparently. Perhaps it was merely that she was vulnerable; if that was how her opponent was picking his targets, he must not have much of a foothold yet.

Sylvanas could not bring herself to hate this mysterious necromancer that Gretchen told her of. The Banshee queen was not above bending the minds of others to her whims. For the same reason, however, she knew exactly the magnitude of the threat she faced.

If the analysis was correct, her charms would likely still have at least a partial effect, and possession would be entirely effective so long as the victim's mind was fully suppressed. Not having access to the victim's mind would be inconvenient, but she had some rather good infiltrators among her banshee.

This "Tony" could be charmed and interrogated, then one of her banshee could possess him and lure his mistress, or master, into a vulnerable position to be charmed and captured themselves. Once she had all the information, she could decide what to do.

In the meantime, she deployed three of her deathguard to Alterac by bat. The retrieval of the Crown of Will had gone from a minor objective to one worthy of a bit of investment. A crown capable of instantly ending her own charms would perhaps allow dear Gretchen to serve as a double agent, or barring that Sylvanas could always wear it herself to ensure no funny business.