5/24 afternoon
It was actually kinda creepy watching the nightmare Skitterer take High Inquisititor Whitemane over. It seemed to grow into a thorny plantlike form and wrap around her, piercing her skin as she tried to thrash and rip it off, and shrinking away into nothing as she absorbed it into her body. Her clothes were shredded, leaving nothing but a thin sheath of organic fabric shot through with thorny vines; the symbiote's "armor" form.
https://imgur.com/a/Xml8sbj
She went still for around a minute, and I flew down from my elevated perch to check on her. The timer on my watch said she was just about ready, and the Skitterer had all but vanished. She looked at me with confusion as her hands quickly made their way between her legs and started rubbing furiously. When I took humanoid form the confusion melted away into lust.
"P- please. Please? I need… I need you." She seemed to be just barely holding herself together; who was I to deny a lady such a request? I pulled off my robe and enjoyed the experience of her eyes instantly locking onto my cock as her hands started going at double time. A little whine escaped her throat. I approached and shoved it into her face, just to see how she would react.
She immediately started sucking desperately; she continued staring at me with naked lust and need. "Hands and knees, now." She complied, and I pulled my fully hardened dick out of her mouth. She looked so bereft without it, it made me smile as I circled around and found the bodysuit reshaping itself to give me access to her sopping wet pussy.
"Please?"
"Of course, my dear." I plunged deep within her and she let out a strangled cry of pleasure. "Yes, yes, yes my mate? My Husband? My King? My Love? My Master?" She seemed to be casting about for the right word to call me, and none of them seemed to feel right to her. "My Champion? My Prophet? Yes. Yes. Fuck me my prophet! Show me the light's will!"
Shouldn't be surprised that she chose a religious way to look at me. She'll need to have a few chats with Talaada about that, I think. As she began a quiet chant of devotion, the ivory haired beauty impaled herself repeatedly on my cock. I came inside of her, and as she was filled with my cum she collapsed like a puppet with her strings cut, as her entire body underwent some of the most incredible orgasms possible and her brain finished rewriting itself.
She shakily rose to her hands and knees and reverently asked, "may I please clean you with my mouth?" In case you ever find yourself in a similar situation; the answer is "yes" when you are asked that question by a beautiful woman. If she's brainwashed it'll be great, and if she's not she might be offended by any other answer and you don't want to fuck that up. She had lost the desperate need; instead, she was attending to my cock with a reverent devotion more appropriate to a holy relic than anything else. Other than the part where she was licking every inch of it. I don't think that's part of the deal with the Shroud of Turin.
I was always a bit curious, so I asked her. "Who am I to you?"
"You are the Light given flesh. Your every action and desire are those of the Light made manifest." Ah. So she managed to keep her old fanatical devotion intact by folding it into the new fanatical devotion. Good for her, I guess.
"You will serve me well by teaching all who serve in this monastery to see things as you now see them."
"Of course. Anything less would be blasphemous."
"They are not ready, unfortunately. We must act with subtlety." Sally continued licking, lapping up every trace of her own juices from my cock and balls, but managed to look disturbed by the statement. Offended.
"If I must."
"You must. Luckily, I have magic amulets that can teach anyone to see things as you do, and my current high priestess who can speak on mybehalf." That broke the inquisitor's discomfort, replacing her smile with one full of excitement at the prospect.
"It would be an honor to host such a person."
"Not only to host her. You must teach her all you know of the process of channeling the light, and all of the insights that will come to you in the coming week, even as she teaches you how to deliver my words to the masses."
"It will be done." Talaada would be very excited, I was sure.
"One last thing: the first people who will need to be shown the truth, before anyone else in the monastery save you, are anyone trained in the arcane arts or the creation of enchanted arms and armor. So think about that. This amulet alone is to be worn by you at all times underneath your clothing, so that you may be contacted by myself or your peers in my service."
She took the amulet exactly as you would expect a fanatic to take an item advertised as a direct line of communication with their god, and I pulled one of the half dozen variants on her standard outfit out to replace her newly shredded one. The sheath of white wrapped in thorny vines, which had already retracted when I was fucking her, was nowhere to be seen, but if the catalog was to be trusted she could summon it back with a moment's thought.
I prepared to leave. "You are to tell no one of me, or of the revelations you have found here today, without first gaining my approval or that of High Priestess Talaada to do so." I couldn't risk her telling someone that would be justifiably upset by her overt heresy. "In time, I believe the amulets will be more than capable of replacing torture for new recruits, and it will strengthen them at the same time."
"Absolutely, my prophet." She seemed far more awake and chipper than she had been before being fucked into a fanatically loyal slave girl, so hopefully she'd have a good day. I, for my part, had everything go reasonably well for me today. So far, anyway.
From the reports I was getting, the Agamand mills were going quite well too. After Lividia rained merry hell upon them, the zombies and skeletons had started bunching up together so they couldn't be picked off, but that made them easier for the necromancy team to avoid. They had grabbed the two remaining Agamand sisters and then, at Harnea's suggestion, requested Nozara to provide them with a bit of assistance.
After a few minutes of Nozara half assedly raining burning stones upon them and the necromancers picking off anyone with enough self awareness to try to run, the mills themselves were largely depopulated. I had six zombies and three ghosts out of it. Hopefully there would be somemovement towards the crypts later today, and far more profit to be gained.
••••••••••
I still had a bit of mana, so I checked in with dear Nathanos. I was stealthed and faded when I had Em open the closet, and only did so after using mind vision to be sure that he was still bound and gagged. He naturally came out swinging, but I had a nine foot tall musclegirl and her 6 closest friends there to subdue him, and he was literally chained up. It wasn't really a problem.
I charmed him again, aiming for him to love me enough to say that he loves me if asked, even if it was just as a trick. That distinction, that he doesn't have to mean it, was apparently just enough to make it work. I staggered, had a massive stroke of vertigo, and my vision started to fade, but I didn't actually pass out. That meant that it worked.
Once I had a glass of water and the world stopped spinning, I adjusted his newly unlocked obediences, 102 ETE now, and had the satyrs pull out his gag. "So, Nathanos Marris, do you love me?"
"Yes, of course!" It was a lie. He thought he might be able to play me.
"Tell me in your own words."
"I love you, mister..?" I smirked; I might as well tell him, he's about to be captured.
"Bismark."
"Alright, I love you mister Bismark." Hmm. From communication talent he doesn't seem to be believing it any more than before he said it.
"One more time."
"I love you, Erich Bismark?" Oh. Damn. He was lying. He was trying to play me. That's what he was feeling validated about. He felt more confident that he could sweet talk me, as opposed to believing the words he was saying. That was enough to get him down to 93 ETE, so this was productive in its own way, but I wasn't capturing him like that. Not without more charms.
I didn't actually have all that many spare mana potions, but I had enough for one refill if I burnt through most of my current stock. One more charm might not be enough, though; this one had shaved off about 24 hours. Good, but not enough. I'd need to weaken his resolve to make it worth the expense, or use a different method to help me restore mana. I put him back into the closet for now.
"I'm glad to hear it. But for some reason I don't believe you."
I checked in with Harnea; Druids in the game had a spell called innervate. It had a moderately long cooldown, but accelerated mana regeneration. Thankfully, they did know the spell, though it had a few extra quirks. A much longer cooldown, for one; nearly a full hour. The trio had also been actively using it on Melisara, Eliza, and especially Lillibeth/Abby, who received twice the benefit. I could kill half an hour waiting, no worries about that.
I went to check in with the last handful of black dragonspawn that hadn't been captured yet. They were in Westfall, subduing the countryside with a series of mock battles. From Onyxia and Vanessa's projections, the war could be declared over by the end of the month. After that, Onyxia felt confident that she could persuade her brother to dial back the Blackrock orcs' offensive in Redridge. Once that was done, the Stormwind army would be at liberty to be a bit more focused. We could clear out the remaining undead in Duskwood, though I'd keep them away from the worgen for now. Retinue members only until I finished 100 Wolf Moon.
Innervate felt pretty nice, honestly. The closest equivalent I can describe being using a hot water bottle to help ease pain, but for my brain. There was a warmth, right on the edge of being uncomfortable, and the fuzziness in my mind faded away. It wasn't as powerful an effect as I might have hoped, only about 6% of my mana restored over a minute, but between the waiting and three casts of the spell, I was at around 80%. That would hopefully be enough.
I pulled the seal of joy out of my inventory; if I didn't use it at a time like this, I probably just wasn't going to use it at all. I had another drink of water, took a leak, and brought it in to talk to the Blightcaller. He was pulled out of the closet again, with the same testing procedure to make sure he was properly bound and gagged of course, and promptly stamped. An unsettling smile spread across his rotted face. I might need to gender flip this man just so that he doesn't gross me out.
"Nathanos. I'm going to take control of you. Are you ok with that?"
"Normally I wouldn't be, but I am. I guess that means it's working?" He asked, his tone mostly one of curiosity, seeing his predicament as interesting rather than horrifying.
"Well I haven't actually charmed you yet. You see, I need you to tell me that you love me and mean it. Can you do that right now?" I figured that I had a minimum of an hour, and nothing I said seemed to faze the guy. Might as well go all in.
"I sure as hell wouldn't mean it. I'd kill you if I could!" I had been expecting that, but did he have to sound so chipper?
I downed one more mana potion at the last minute. "Well, here's hoping." I charmed him, with the target being that he tell me that he loves me and earnestly try to mean it. The try part was important. It was an easier charm than I was expecting; apparently the seal of joy made him up to try anything once. I felt a bit drained, but he was captured within a few minutes.
"You got me, it seems. Any chance I can go home now, or was there something you needed?"
"We'll figure it out later. Take this necklace; if anyone asks, you got it off of someone that tried to sneak onto your lands. You can use it to communicate with me, but don't do that more than you need to." I sent Lividia back to his homestead in the eastern Plaguelands. "Important question; would anyone in Undercity know where you are?"
"No. They will probably assume I was attacked by a large force and had to lay low when I didn't make contact at the normal time. They wouldn't risk blowing my cover just to check on me; not until the prearranged check in tonight."
"Why tonight?"
He rolled his eyes. "We have a schedule. I know the exact time of day for it, so I can generally arrange to be in a place where there's no presence of the Cult of the Damned. They can sense Mind Vision, if they are alert."
So good luck on Nathanos; bad luck on Scholomance. "Well, let's get you back to your farm for that meeting, eh?"
••••••••••
With that done, I didn't have much left to do today. The Altar of Elders was ready. Hoping to burn one last dreg of mana, I went to check on the prisoners captured with Emeriss. I found that the two dragonspawn were both captured and the female spirit had vanished. Checking the amulet, it seemed that she was in Ashenvale, still wearing an amulet; most likely, when she had been captured she'd woken up in her barrow den.
The man, for his part, was in quite a sorry state. He was scared and confused, as the corruption he'd fully integrated was lashing out as my amulet suppressed it. He was also only a few hours away from capture, despite only 4 days passing of his initial 7 day ETE. Apparently less corrupted he was, the more he was open to being captured. I charmed him, aiming to use all of my excess mana while still being able to move and think. As a mild fatigue flowed over me, I saw him fade from existence. Hopefully he'd wake in one of the safe barrows, not one of the ones full of sleepwalking murderers. A quick mind vision told me that he was in a dark, quiet place surrounded by other sleeping forms. "You'll be contacted later. Get somewhere safe; don't let anyone examine your amulet."
I told the girl the same thing as I made my way to the altar; she was making her way towards the night elf town of Auberdine. I selected Warden from the small menu, and I walked into the pillar of light that appeared before the statute of, I assumed, Elune. Then I blacked out.