NOVEL SIMPLE Titanic Blunders
6/7 late morning
“Yes sir. I’m afraid the male is exceptionally resistant to any mental tampering.” I’d asked Natalie to try to break through to Archaedes, but so far things hadn’t panned out. “It seems that he has extensive mental defenses against shadow magic specifically. From what the Earthen have been able to tell us, he’s something called a “Keeper.” It seems to be the highest rank in their command structure except for the titans themselves.”
“What about the other one? Ironaya, I think her name was?” The shadow magic resistance was not really a surprise; one of the main jobs the titans left their servants was to keep the Old Gods locked down. As talented as Natalie was, if she could noticably corrupt Archaedes with a few days of effort then Azeroth would have probably been overrun by void monsters millennia ago.
“Better, but not by much. We can chip away bits of her sense of self or make her feel certain emotions, but her rational mind holds sway. Unlike a human, if she rationally believes she shouldn’t feel a certain way or it runs counter to her objectives, she dismisses her feelings without too much difficulty.”
I sighed. From the app, they’d managed to knock her down by 32 hours, so she only had 64 hours left to capture. “Well, every little bit helps. She’s a being of pure order, so maybe I can talk to her. Have you been adjusting her obedience settings?”
“Nothing we have tried so far has been particularly effective.”
“Talking to her?”
“She’s refused to engage, and mental probing doesn’t get any useful information. We’ve kept verbal engagement to a minimum to avoid potential backsliding.” I nodded and walked over to the giant stone woman. If she was all logic, then I had an approach that might actually get her cooperating. Somewhat, anyway.
“So. Ironaya, right?” Silence. “I’m really sorry to do all this, but it’s actually pretty important.” A steady glare. “You see, I’ve been appointed as something of a champion for Azeroth, trying to fight off the influence of the old gods.” Silence, though she should be able to move and speak if she doesn’t try to leave the circle she’s being kept in. I checked her timer. 63. One hour off. Ok. I had her attention.
“To be perfectly frank, the titanic watchers failed. The dragon aspects haven’t done much better, and for essentially the same reasons. One member of their number turned on the rest, and everything since then has completely gone to pot. Neltharion for the dragons, Loken for the Keepers. You’ve been neutralized.” 62. One more hour. Ok. She’s listening.
“Currently, I’m looking for any resource I can find. I’ve got a black dragon flying around corrupting anyone I can’t reinforce first, one of the old gods is months away from breaching containment, and if that wasn’t enough Sargeras is aware of the planet and is making moves towards invasion. If I can’t get this under control, re-origination or actively letting Sargeras have the planet might become the best options. I’m mortal. Do you understand what proposing that means to me?” 59.
“I’ve figured out what’s on the Disks of Norgannon in broad strokes, but I don’t have the capacity to properly read them. Information is valuable, and so much of it is locked away from us mortals. We are your best shot.” 54. “Look, if you’ll cooperate with us I can bring you to the front lines. You can see where C’thun’s forces are starting to assert themselves. We are on the same side.” 50. She nodded.
She spoke with a crisp, clear voice. “I will see your evidence.” I smiled at the twenty foot tall iron woman and gestured for her to follow me through a portal to my apartment as I adjusted her obediences to punish acting in bad faith and thinking about reasons to distrust me with paralysis and amnesia respectively, while encouraging her to trust me with a sense of validation.
“Right this way.” She stood stock still, unresponsive. Uh. Did I fuck something up?
••••••••••
The entity was corrupted by the curse of flesh-
The entity was responsible for abducting her-
The entity was currently holding her direct superior and friend imprisoned-
The entity had used shadow magic to alter her emotional state-
The entity had used emotional appeals to manipulate her-
The entity was employing demons as its primary military force-
The entity had initially captured her with forces that reeked of the shadowlands-
Thoughts of the entity were disrupted by unknown force-
Unidentifiable corruption of mind present. Reverting to prior mental state cache: 1 hour.
The entity was corrupted by the curse of flesh-
The entity was complicit in abducting her-
The entity was currently holding her direct superior and friend imprisoned-
An entity had used shadow magic to alter her emotional state-
The entity had used emotional appeals to manipulate her-
The entity was employing fel infused entities as its primary military force-
The entity had initially captured her with forces that reeked of the shadowlands-
Thoughts of the entity were disrupted by unknown force-
Unidentifiable corruption of mind present. Reverting to prior mental state cache: 2 hours
The entity was potentially infected by the curse of flesh-
The entity was complicit in abducting her after her own unprovoked assault-
The entity was currently holding her direct superior and friend imprisoned-
An entity’s subordinate had used shadow magic to alter her emotional state-
The entity had used rational arguments to appeal to her emotions.
The entity was employing fel infused entities in some capacity-
Initial contact had been with entities somehow touched by the shadowlands-
Thoughts of the entity were disrupted by unknown force-
Unidentifiable corruption of mind present. Reverting to prior mental state cache: 3 hours
••••••••••
Natalie stood before the titanic construct with her lips pursed. “I can’t get much, but I think something in the necklace tripped some kind of mental defenses. That said, I think she’s going to be joining soon enough; she appears to be restoring her mental state to a prior form every few minutes.”
“Wouldn’t that just freeze her in a loop?” The amulet put her ETE at ???, which I was not at all a fan of. I hadn’t seen anything like this before.
“Yes and no. I’ll admit her mental defenses seem stronger than mine, but the amulets are capable of capturing secondary minds. All of my mental constructs are entirely devoted to you now, even the ones I had been trying to maintain as a source of dissent.”
“So, what does that mean?”
“Hopefully, it means that at some point she will access a partitioned mind that is already open to you. Then suddenly, she will be captured. Won’t that be nice?”
••••••••••
Nefarian stood impassively on a cliff overlooking Kamagua Harbor, one of the few settlements the Tuskarr had that could be called anything close to a city. To his irritation they were putting up more of a fight than he was expecting. The walrus men were on guard after his earlier attacks, using totems to disperse Chromaggus’s essence. Without the transformation of their forces into new dragonspawn, Nefarian’s companions were taking far longer than with prior assaults. Especially with Human’s help as a healer, their victory was still all but assured. Getting bored and antsy at the sight of a battle he could not participate in, Nefarian turned to his mission for the day.
Capture King Ymiron, currently found in Gjalerbron, an ancient keep in the Howling Fjord. You will gain a bonus if you awaken and capture at least 10 Vrykul, including his wife, before capturing him.
Reward: 1 credit, Peddlefeet’s Arrow
Bonus: Slumbering Vrykul will awaken, fully captured, after 50 hours in contact with a gem of entrancement
Hmph. Good enough. He might as well do this one, if he can figure out where Gjalerbron was. Probably one of the old ruins. Perhaps the storm giants would know; a few of them would be worth capturing regardless. The sound of a battle roar sounded above him. Whipping his head around, he saw the source. An assault team led by one of Alexstrasza’s spawn.
Intending to run interference so his forces could finish their work, Nefarian stood to launch himself into the air. His wings locked up. He physically could not use himself as a distraction. Bother. “Consorts! Abandon this battle! More worthy prey awaits us.” Now that he was leading a charge, the son of Deathwing could take off without any trouble.
He and his consorts were outnumbered two to one, but he didn’t fear someone like Keristrasza, a half decent frost mage at best, and her escorts were all drakes of no particular distinction. If he’d seen Alexstrasza herself, or even her prime consort, he’d have only dared to attack if they were alone, but this upstart would be nothing but a bit of sport.
While his consorts, two purple and three black, moved to guard his flanks he directly engaged the daughter of Alexstrasza. It was only fitting to engage a peer in such a way. No doubt she intended to put a stop to his attack on the Tuskarr or some other tripe. As if she had the strength to stop him.
They started with an exchange of spells, she because of his obvious physical superiority and he because it was more satisfying to defeat someone in a duel with their chosen weapon. As such, he engaged with her using bolts of frost at a distance, at least to start. Realizing that she was actually competent in this field, he remembered that she’d brought one other weapon along with her to this battle.
With a few moments of focus, he chose one of the simpler looking drakes and dove for it. The smaller red was easy enough to overpower, and Nefarian used her despair in the moment she knew he could kill her to drive a spike of willpower into her, dominating her. Had she been a bit stronger he wouldn’t have bothered with the exhausting spell, but as things stood, it seemed the best way to break the red.
“I love you, my lord Nefarian!” So much easier than fully corrupting them. That could take hours. Nefarian and his newest consort flew to engage Keristrasza together, at which point Nefarian noticed the glittering gemstone around his opponent’s neck. By the father, she was one of Netorarian’s! A shame. Nefarian shifted tactics and went for the throat.
It was an unpleasantly brutish fight. She had somehow managed to augment her breath with frost magic, a trick that he wouldn’t get to ask her about, which gave her quite an edge over him. As a red, her scales were nearly as impervious to shadowflame as his own. He was still stronger than her, and had superior backup. After a few tumbles through the air, Nefarian was able to immobilize her wings and plummet with her to the ground, kicking off mere moments before impact. He finished her while she was still in a daze, and looked around to see that the rest of the reds were fleeing. He couldn’t have that.
“Catch them! None may carry this back to the enemy!” Nefarian joined the pursuit as well. A shame about Keristrasza, but he still had enough energy to dominate one more, especially when their spirits were already broken.