5/22 midmorning
Melisara nestled in the back of my head, and I felt our two necklaces around my neck. I had teleported to Keryn, but between fade and stealth even she was basically just taking that on faith. I followed, letting her keep track of Varian's team while I discussed strategy with the banshee.
She was obviously angling for me to assist the Forsaken as much as possible while taking over the crusade; I noticed and accepted it. She could have secondary loyalties as long as her first priority was to me, and the plan still seemed reasonable. Essentially, we would work our way up while mass controlling the chaff members of the Scarlet Crusade. To do that, however, I needed more than a single bejeweled banshee.
Lucky for me, she knew of an old manor with a few mills that had a force of scourge controlled ghosts garrisoned there; the ghosts were a minority, but they were still present. She knew I had at least one necromancer who might be able to take over these ghosts; if so, they could in turn take over the crusaders and farmers guarding the Solliden Farmstead. The farmstead was the primary source of food for the monastery, but was substantially less guarded than the monastery itself, in no small part because the farm wasn't on holy ground. The two locations swapped troops often enough to make it a good vector for infiltration, but only if we had enough ghosts to hit critical mass in a few days.
Once the majority of the farm's defenders were captured, we could use it as a trap for patrols that would then make their way back to the monastery. Once we had a meaningful group of people on the inside, I could arrange to get into Whitemane's bedroom or private prayer room without being bothered. I had more than enough company swag to figure something out if I had the lady inquisitor isolated from any supporters. After that? We'd use her authority to repeat the process for Hearthglen and Tyr's Hand, funneling subverted troops from the monastery until I could corner the top brass. At least that was the plan; I'll admit I wasn't the most consistent when it comes to following through on elaborate long term schemes.
It was a simple plan, but it was totally plausible and would lead to me having a drastic uptick in resources for future use, just as long as Abby and Eliza could subdue a dozen or so spirits long enough to capture them, and I funneled amulets to all of them. I could think of worse things than getting a few dozen random love confessions per day from my amulet. Though perhaps I should direct those to Talaada? They could be awkward in some contexts.
Most importantly, the swarm of possessing ghosts would still be available to me for all my ghostly needs, even after I was done with the crusade. I could use them to capture a whole ogre clan in a day or two, or send them to Gnomeregan and just churn out gnomish retinue members by capturing leper gnomes. I signed off on this plan; I'd send a few guards along with my necromancers, plus Sha'ni Proudtusk as an extra ghost and Darcell as an infiltrator. Hopefully it would be good necromancy practice for Lillibeth.
The party was led to a small council chamber, while keeping my Varian waiting, incidentally. Magni really must be steamed about this whole situation with his daughter. Well, I had a strategy to get her out of there, hopefully mending the rift between the kings in the process. While also, naturally, giving me a chance to get my own claws into Moira. For obvious reasons, Keryn couldn't get in close enough to listen; even the guards couldn't hear what was happening clearly. I know. I checked with mind vision; the doors were thick. The only bit I did get was a heated exchange near the end of the meeting, where Valeera seemed very upset about something.
••••••••••
"I've got a man on the inside; we keep in contact by scrying orb. If he's right, an' I think he may be, the Dark Irons an tha Black Dragons are in cahoots. A man in your army by the name of Marshal Windsor believed that someone in the Stormwind court was a Black Dragon. I believe that they attempted to assassinate you and replaced you with a dragonspawn slave, wearing your face."
The dwarven king was pensive; Lady Proudmore's missive and the man's own actions had proven this man's identity, but Varian had been changed by his ordeal. He seemed more angry, more reckless. Well, his heart was in the right place. That was more than could be said of the toady waiting in the nearby antechamber.
"So where's Windsor? We need to get in contact." Thargas asked.
"He was taken by the Dark Irons. A massive force of them attacked his unit, nearly 300; that is why I believe they are involved. That couldn't be a coincidence. Not with everything else they are doing."
The elf girl piped up, "Alright, then we go save him. Less talk, more action." As if it were that simple.
"We don't even know if he's still alive, Valeera!"
Thargas shrugged, "Only one way to find out. Sounds like hero time to me; Lo'Gosh?"
"A large force would be too risky," Varian nodded, "but what about a small party approaching stealthily?"
"Stealth? That's my middle name!" The blonde elf smirked.
Broll shook his head. "You're not coming, Valeera. Fel and Arcane artifacts are common in the Blackrock Depths. If your hunger got the better of you…"
"What! You need me!"
"Until you purge the fel corruption from your body, you are a liability!"
••••••••••
After a shouting match that I only caught snippets of, a sulking Valeera was escorted out of the room by a team of dwarves, muttering to herself. I jumped to her point of view, and felt the bone deep hunger she was dealing with. It was like starvation mixed with the pain of channeling far too much fel energy. She was in a very bad way. More concerningly, I felt someone else was in there with me.
"Sanctuary? Yeah right. They are imprisoning me! Killing me! Those stupid herbal draughts haven't done anything for a week! They're just trying to get rid of me!" As she spoke, I heard a voice, incredibly faint, whispering in her ear, confirming her darkest, mostly delusional, suspicions. Holy shit, was she possessed? If so, that would go a long way to explain the stronger than normal hunger.
While I watched Valeera, Melisara was following silently using my body. Keryn split off to keep track of Lo'Gosh and Broll. The blood elf was taken to a comfortable human sized apartment with a hearty stew waiting for her. Despite her hunger, she impulsively threw the earthenware bowl at the wall.
"Not… not hungry… for that." She started pacing back and forth like a trapped rat. Poor dear was having tremors. I left her alone for the moment.
Melisara could slip through walls, and I could teleport to her. It was easy enough to get into Valeera's room, and simplicity itself to turn myself into a high elf. Actually a blood elf, probably. I had far too many active pacts with demons to keep my glowing eyes blue.
She lunged at me when I suddenly appeared in the room, absolutely on a hair trigger. I flicked my wrist and gave myself a shield, which she almost immediately started to feed on.
"Afternoon, miss Sanguinar. I'm hoping I can solve a problem for you. Please, don't make a scene. The dwarves know nothing of our people's plight. They may insist on continuing with this crude method of purging your system."
She watched me warily, both daggers still ready to strike. She did keep her voice down, though. "I'm listening."
"I can help you flush out the fel energy. You have enough inside of you right now that it's feeding on your body, according to my sight. Here, take this to start." I pulled out my arcane orb, and she greedily snatched it out of my hands. She took the charge, but then she kept draining it until the damn thing went dark. She had a rapturous expression after that, sated for the moment. That little bitch! She didn't just absorb the reservoir; she absorbed the enchantment itself! I liked that orb!
I did actually have arcane sight as a blood elf, and soul talent was giving me decent guesses as to what I was seeing. She had a powerful fel entity nested inside of her, siphoning magic from her own internal stores. Eating that item was probably the first time in a while that she felt remotely sated. For me, that just meant I could get a two for one, assuming I didn't spook either of them. Thankfully a decent lie sprang to mind immediately.
"Oh, yes. You have a particularly bad case, I think. We will need to bring out the specialized equipment." I pulled out a tempest jewel that looked like a pearl necklace, except that each "pearl" was glowing faintly blue.
"What's that?"
"Right now, your reflex is to drain as much magic as you can, but you're so mana starved that it will take time for your body to self regulate. This," I held up the necklace, "will drip feed you mana constantly without letting you overdose. Have you ever seen a wretched? They aren't pretty."
"I thought I needed a lot of mana! To flush it out, or whatever."
"You do. But too much at once can take a brutal toll on your body; you can only process so much at a time." I was mostly bullshitting based on half remembered explanations of how nutrition worked in my old world, but she wanted to believe that I was here to wipe away all her problems. I just needed to sound plausible. She took the necklace off of me and put it around her neck, and I won.
Obviously there were a few more steps, but when I checked Valeera's profile, she was so ready to let the necklace work it's magic that she only had 75 hours to capture. Kathra'Natir, the impressively named being inside of her, had the full 168 hours. That might end up causing problems.
I quickly forbid Valeera, and thus Kathra'Natir, from leaving Valeera Sanguinar's body or doing anything that might physically or spiritually harm Valeera Sanguinar or any member of the retinue. "We do have a place where you can stay to recover. If you'd like."
"No! I want to go back up my friends! I could still catch up with them."
"Do you think they would trust you any more now than he did before? They don't understand your situation. It's best if you wait until the process is complete. If you'd really like, we could bring you to one of our outposts near wherever you are going so you can meet up with them later?"
She stewed on it. "Yes. Let's do that. We can figure it out from there."
"Alright. Where are they going?"
"Blackrock mountain. They are planning to rescue a prisoner."
"Oh? That's good." It was in fact not good. Not for me anyway. "Well, through this portal, please."