Nefarian Exposé

6/4 midmorning

"So yeah. Your brother is now, officially, the most dangerous threat to us. In terms of his personal capacity to harm us, as well as the fact that he has some kind of so-far unidentified resource at his disposal of a similar nature to my necklaces. It's probably best to start with the assumption that he can do everything I can in addition to his own abilities. So. What do we do?"

Onyxia's face screwed up with dismay. "He can not bind us, though? Correct? I don't relish the idea of becoming his consort."

"And vice versa, until we defeat him. Mixed blessing. I think we could collar one of his, too, but that won't actually get us total control. So, what is he capable of?"

She stewed on that. "It will depend on whether he's taking us seriously or not. Nefarian has made a study of almost every known magical discipline. There are relatively few things he can not do if he puts his mind to it. Arcane, holy, shadow, fel, shamanic, and necromantic magic are his primary areas of interest, though if I recall he has also studied Druidism and chi. In combat his two greatest assets, other than the blindingly obvious as a dragon, are shadowflame, which can consume most living things in a few seconds but is fairly demanding for him to summon, and a spell he developed which makes his enemies dismiss him as a lesser threat."

"Run that last one by me again?"

"It's almost impossible for someone engaged with any other threat to perceive him as the most pressing issue, at least when he's in his visage. He can strike you with a shadowbolt directly, but you won't be able to bring yourself to seriously attack him unless there's nothing else you could reasonably be doing." Ouch, so it sounds like I'll need to pressure him personally if we turn this into a brawl. I was the only one with a working mind defense. 

"How about out of combat?"

"He can permanently dominate minds without trinkets," she gestured at the necklace around her own neck, "though he finds it irritating to do. Draining; he tends to want to rest for a few hours afterwards. Generally he only bothers with it for someone particularly valuable for his experiments. He also knows a few dozen teleportation spells keyed to locations across Azeroth, and is working to create what he calls Chromatic dragons. Dragons with aspects of all five dragonflights; father believed they could be a superior species to replace the black dragonflight."

"So, let's assume he knows what I am and what I'm doing. He has missions of his own to do. What is he likely to do?"

"It honestly depends on whether or not he thinks he can defeat you in an open challenge. If he does, he's likely to seek you out when you're vulnerable. Thankfully, he can't target you in your pocket plane, correct?" I nodded, "If he doesn't think he can win a direct confrontation, or can't find you, he's likely to do everything in his power to accumulate every advantage he can until he thinks that he has the tools he needs. Actively avoid you and use indirect forms of sabotage until he sees an opportunity to strike. You're also probably under surveillance, assuming he knows that he can't trust me."

"Trace and information defense should help with that... Wait. No. Those will only apply to me." I grimaced. "So what you're saying is that he has every advantage?"

"No, I wouldn't say that. In an individual contest of arms I don't think you would win, but the forces you currently have access to are more than equal to what he has. Assuming he hasn't dramatically grown in power, the Green Flight alone could likely defeat him if you pulled them out of the dream."

"That could change."

"I suppose it could, but you have rather neatly snatched up most of the low hanging fruit. Taking over a nation that you already command would be quite difficult. So how about we start with a list of nations you haven't already secured, hmm?"

"Good plan. After that, particularly powerful individuals, and potential strongholds?"

"If you like. Starting with continental powers? If we can secure Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms it will be relatively difficult for him to pose a military threat, and even you can't be quite everywhere at once."

"We can still make sure to have a few eyes and ears in each location."

"Obviously."

We spent a bit listing off every faction worthy of the name. Onyxia's gut served as a reasonable approximation of what Nefarian would be likely to consider worth his time. The Bloodscalp Tribe of trolls, for example, loosely ruled over a large chunk of Stranglethorn Veil, but they were embroiled in a war with another tribe of trolls and had no heavy hitters. The Timbermaw Furbolgs were borderline; they had some very good craftsmen and a defensible location, but the A Team could probably slaughter them in a day with demonic support.

Priority

Gurubashi trolls to the south

Amani trolls to the north

The isolationist and worgen ravaged nation of Gilneas

Ironforge

The griffon riding Wildhammer dwarves

A theoretical unified centaur bloc under Theradras

The magocracy of Dalaran

Thunder Bluff (hard sell to betray the horde)

The undead ravaged elven city of Silvermoon

The influential trade city of Gadgetzan

The Bronze Dragonflight (unlikely to be a soft target)

The Leper Gnomes of Gnomeregan

The rest of the the Scarlet Crusade

Maybe-

Alteraci Syndicate,

Timbermaw Furbolgs,

Farraki desert trolls,

Bristleback Quillboar,

Argent Dawn (powerful but well protected and under constant threat)

various pockets of Burning Legionnaires,

Red dragons in and around Grim'Batol,

The spirits of Kharazan (heavy hitters, defensible location, nearly zero ability to project strength until captured)

Worth noting: that's just who I needed to keep tabs on if I wanted to secure the two main continents I was operating on. If I also wanted to secure Northrend, I'd need to lock down the Drakkari ice trolls, the blue and red dragons (Ysera was on that anyway), the titanic fortress/prison of Ulduar, half a dozen different factions of Vrykul (giant Vikings), and probably the Taunka, Tuskarr, Nerubians, and local furbolgs for good measure.

There were other locations and factions, so many other locations and factions, that I couldn't dedicate too much effort to without completely dropping the War of the Shifting Sands. I'd send agents, of course, but I only had so many resources to spread around. For a lot of places it was going to be one or two of Talaada's priests, and maybe a ghost for flavor.

"Speaking of being spread thin... Onyxia. Whenever you have a moment, I need you to prepare the ritual. We are splitting Ysera once she's contacted the other aspects." Onyxia nodded solemnly, and I got up to go to Thunder Bluff and see if I'd wasted my regional upgrade.

••••••••••

"You see, the process is really quite interesting. As your mind more fully integrates with the patterns found within the crystal, you will become more obedient to my will. In time, your obedience will need to be tested. At that point, I will issue commands that you will obey, crushing your resistance, and then you will be ready to gaze upon the crystal once more. I for one look forward to seeing it happen in real time." Nefarian was not actually very interested in sharing all this with the Dwarf, but the mission demanded that he explain what he was doing as the smith was captured.

Having finished his monologue, Nefarian left the struggling dwarf strapped to a chair as a totem rose up, proffering the gemstone and magically drawing the eye. M'kalok had proven reasonably useful, and was now being put to work building more of those attention-grabbing totems.

Red of Fang and Claw

Drive the uncorrupted furbolgs out of the city of Grizzlemaw. Bonus if the corrupted furbolgs accept you as an ally or leader.

Rewards: 5 credits, disposable Stamp

Bonus: the wild god Ursoc will be resurrected in his corrupted state, Savory Deviate Delight

Savory Deviate Delight: Whoever consumes this fish will become a tier 2 ninja or pirate version of themselves, as power swap.

That would be easy enough. The bonus was of no particular use to Nefarian, but he could deal with the furbolgs well enough. With a few moments thought, Nefarian teleported to the Obsidian Sanctum, on the continent of Northrend. Grizzlemaw was a city built in the husk of a failed world tree; reasonably defensible, but few places were really equipped for a rain of infernals. If they proved resilient, Nefarian might need to take multiple trips, but the return in terms of credits was quite impressive.

While he flew he weighed his options and settled upon Kul'tiras. Their navy was unparalleled, and having even just one area in which his forces were superior to Netorarian's would be a good start. They were also ruled by a woman; a widow, in fact. Best to cut out the middle man and just become king directly. 

Of course, he also had a certain insect to crush in his fortress. He'd known for some time there was a fly buzzing around, but he hadn't felt the need to intervene. But now? Now he had good reason.

Searing Gorge: Defeat Vaelastrasz

Reward: Subliminal Audio

Subliminal Audio: You may enchant your gems to include an audio component. This audio does not entrance the listener, but it does serve to deepen their hypnotic depth and reach breakpoints. Can implant suggestions in anyone who has passed their first breakpoint (subject to their depth limit.)