NOVEL NEXT Chapter 277: Oversight
6/11 Late Morning
Day 15
Secundus was very disappointed when Talaada's interest in him as a mate evaporated in the morning, but what was he expecting? He was competing with Lord Bismark; the most he could have hoped for was a role as an occasional companion. He had been sulking since the two of them woke up together in his villa, but not quite so badly as to necessitate reeducation. Perhaps he could take Alurmi as a mate, or any number of the highborn ladies at court if he wanted his sexual conquests to be useful?
Regardless, he would be boon and probably should be rewarded, just not with Talaada. He had suspicions about four other courtiers being embedded bronze dragons or dragonspawn, and could confirm that he was the only member of the Infinite flight currently acting in Zin-Azshari. Currently the only other agents he knew of were "attempting to help the Pandaren Emperor to achieve enlightenment, ensuring that Pandaria was not cut off from the rest of the world during the shattering". Talaada didn't know or particularly care about Pandaria, but she marked them down as another demographic that would need to be brought into the Prophet's service. Eventually.
The four bronzes would be an issue so long as they remained free, so Talaada began planning how to teach them. With a sigh, she admitted to herself that she would likely end up in bed with at least one of them. Maybe a girl this time? Would that feel more like serving the prophet? He did like his lovers loving one another.
••••••••••
The tremendous 4000 essence cost on that ship really interfered with my energy budget for the day. Ten credits was worth two days of sharply reduced unit output, but it was still annoying. I set aside 200 essence to play with, which I spent primarily on experimentally upgrading my Overlords. They were looking like they'd be mighty useful, so I wanted to get them to their most powerful and useful possible state.
That meant turning two into overseers, one intelligent and one not, and buying the "Ventral Sacs" upgrade for four, two intelligent and two not. Overall, I was just gathering information. The upgrades didn't take long to complete, so after attending another shamanism lesson (just further refining earth for now) they were ready to go and had already gone through general physical testing with the gnome squad.
First up I checked in with the two overseers. One was an Anveena clone named Imogen, originally a low tier weaver from Undercity. She'd made a shockingly large amount of cloth and earned enough reward points for a superior body and a promotion; this was it, on both counts. The other was a blank doll, looking a bit like a generic night elf except for her blank expression and constantly darting eyes.
Overseers had three main advantages over Overlords. First, they were faster when flying. That didn't matter all that much if they were in the form of a dragon and only using their levitation to improve maneuverability, but it was still noteworthy as a general benefit. Second, they could spit out a glob of slime that would turn into a shapeshifting puppet that could be psychically piloted by them or my shadow ops team, which would be a substantially bigger deal if I didn't already have shapeshifting from my necklaces. The changelings were extremely weak, barely able to lift twenty pounds no matter how they looked, but they could perfectly mimic anyone's appearance.
Third and most substantial was their extremely improved suite of senses. They could read a handwritten note from a mile away, had hearing and spatial awareness developed enough to generate a detailed map of a nearby building through echolocation as long as it was populated, could see the swirling flows of magic as well as Malygosa, and could track by scent with a three day old trail. They could eavesdrop on a conversation two buildings over in Stormwind, and could accurately judge the temperature and humidity by feel with a moment's thought. Invisibility and stealth meant almost nothing, and even the perception filter created by fade would generate a conspicuous swirl of void energy that drew the overseer's attention.
Alas, there were two problems. First off, that level of information was incredibly distracting. When we attempted combat practice with Imogen, she would react to things that were a dozen feet away. Part of it was likely inexperience; after all, she had been power swapped into a unit with no innate combat abilities to speak of. However, she seemed to have difficulty focusing on any one thing in general. She could see and intimately understand everything within a few hundred feet, but moved slowly and methodically, built to receive information rather than act on it personally. Overseers would probably be good spies, but would be terrible if caught out in combat. The other problem was a mixed blessing. They could hear and easily identify Nefarian's subliminals from nearly a full mile away and were susceptible to them from three miles away. Using Alexstrasza's purification breath and the lanterns SI:7 retrieved from Gadgetzan, we were able to confirm that Imogen could be entranced if a lantern was pointed at her from literally anywhere within her line of sight. She'd make a great canary, but she needed to be constantly monitored by a partner for her own safety. Possibly also a blindfold.
Mindless overlords and overseers had an interesting application: they were extremely easy for friendly shadow priests and ghosts to slot into. If nothing else, I could provide my ghosts with customizable bodies to use for their day to day lives. The mindless overseer was probably easier to apply than Imogen, as its mind could function as an interface. It was like a computer that could monitor the area and sort through information, but it needed good instructions to know what to look for and what to report. It would memorize everything instantly and perfectly, but it wouldn't think to do anything with that information without instructions, either before or after. If I turned them into something innocuous like a cat or a pet bird, they could easily serve as essentially a piece of equipment for anyone with enough psychic training to use them.
The question became simple: living scanner array, or a far more finicky but potentially more effective spy that required extensive training and a partner to even possibly function at peak effectiveness?
The other four were a good bit simpler; ventral sacks allowed an overlord to absorb allied units into their bodies and then release them later. It sounded grosser than it was; in practice, it looked quite a lot like putting something into my inventory. I even tried it; the small, dimly lit red room wasn't exactly well decorated, but it could probably fit six people into it in a pinch and had a large screen at the front to view the world through the overlord's eyes. It would probably be good for evacuation and rapid redeployment, but the fact that it was a 25 essence upgrade per overlord did make it a little less attractive.
••••••••••
Grand Inquisitor Isillien glared at Whitemane across his desk as she entered his office uninvited. How dare she interrupt him during his work! She might have proven useful, but if she continued to be so impertinent she would need to be reminded of the value of obedience and respect. "Inquisititor," he growled, "what is the meaning of this?"
She nodded at him and looked almost… pitying? "Your guards. They are good men. Loyal to the last. They will serve the Crusade for many years to come. You… perhaps." Before she finished speaking he was already on his feet, raising his hand to smite the impertinent wench with enough force to obliterate her whole body. Instead, in front of her appeared another woman, also white haired but with purple lipstick and fine robes. The blast of holy energy connected with this new intruder and did absolutely nothing. "Guards!" He cried out as he wrapped himself in a barrier, "I'm under attack!"
"Alright then." The robed woman spoke casually as she wiped his shield away with a flick of the wrist. "How best to get you under control quickly… ah! I've got it." In an instant he was blinded as his body was encased in ice. The old priest didn't panic; he'd faced the Lich Kel'Thuzad, though he'd had to flee that battle. A burst of holy energy broke him free in seconds. When he opened his eyes, the mage had been replaced by a towering bovine monstrosity, all rippling muscle with a huge exposed phallus. Whitemane and his two traitorous guards stood by the door watching with cool professional interest.
He sneered in disgust at the naked tauren before renewing his assault with a mind blast, a shadow magic technique that directly targeted the mind with overwhelming negative emotion. It did nothing but make Isillien dizzy, the magic splashing off his foe with no effect to speak of. He readied his staff, wondering if he'd be able to bash his way past, and who he could go to for aid when he did. The tauren raised a hand, began chanting, and Izzy wondered what he was doing.
https://imgur.com/a/SheC9Yr
Izzy stared at the big hunky cow man's cock. It looked really nice, actually. Like, she'd never fucked a tauren but that looked like it would stretch her out so good. Then he turned into some white haired ho with this weird purple lipstick. "Whaaaat?" Izzy whined. "Bring the sexy tauren back!"
"I'm sorry, that one is busy. But I do know one who looks a lot like him. His name's Cairne; I'm sure he'll take great care of you. Just put on this necklace and I'll take you right to him. Oh, and make sure to talk dirty to him." Izzy let the white haired girls pick her up and was whisked away in an instant.
••••••••••
Aegwynn looked over at Sally after they sent the new Bimbo away. "That was probably the right call." She commented, "He must have been exceptionally strong willed. She was still visibly a priestess, and came off more slutty than bimboish."
"Does it matter?" Sally asked, "he's beaten, mission accomplished. Hey, while you're here, would you mind being Sally Whitemane for a bit? I want to go visit my boyfriend."
"You do remember Tony isn't actually your boyfriend, right Doris?" Aegwynn asked, more than a little concerned.
"I know that," Doris replied with a shrug, "you know that, and even Tony will know that. It will feel real to me though, and I really doubt he'll mind." She smirked wickedly. "I wonder if I can convince the original to get involved before I'm reassigned. I've gotten very familiar with this body over the last few days, so I doubt she'd be disappointed."