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Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 15 2006, 09:42 PM

Alright, welcome to chapter 2 of my fan fic. For those who haven't read part one, please look here:
http://www.waiting4oblivion.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1690

Well, have fun.

Chapter 2: Trouble with the mages.

,,Come one, you stupid rat. Is that the best you’ve got? Hah, missed me! Oops, there goes your head.”
I held up the soulgem that was now emitting a soft glow.
,,And here’s your soul. Welcome to your new home.”
I was happy. It was the first time I attempted to do something other than just taking out the opposition in battle, and it had worked quite well. With no doubt I could sell the gem and the soul contained within it to Galbedir for a nice price.

Yep, things had never been so good. I spent last night in my old shack in Seyda Neen. No one had even touched the small building. Definitely an improvement from the burglary of last time.

And in my pockets, I had samples of four different mushrooms. Ajira would be pleased. Not to mention the favour she would owe me.

It was when the sun had just passed its peak that I came across a small door embedded into a rock wall. Curious, I got closer. Above the door, old Dunmer markings were carved into the rock.

,,Here….last….dead…” I had begun to learn the written language used by the Dark Eves for a little bit. One thing was sure, this was a tomb and probably loaded with wealth just waiting to be taken. Those silly Dark Elves were too serious about this idea that the spirits of the dead stay behind.

Well, I had her mushrooms and I refused to take the Siltstrider. Ajira probably wouldn’t mind a bit of treasure seeking, would she? With some effort, I opened the ancient door and went inside.

Ok, things didn’t look as nice as I expected them to be. At the bottom of a set of stairs I could see what was obviously the corpse of a previous tomb robber. And the corpse didn’t seemed to have been there for so long. I took out my Katana and continued with a slower, more careful pace. I didn’t wanted to be the next victim.

When I reached the corpse, I still hadn’t noticed any sign of life around here. Maybe whatever killed this guy had left? I sat crouched next to the body and took a good look at it.

No stabwounds, cuts, crushed bodyparts, or signs of death caused by magic. Maybe he just fell down the stairs. I stood up again and looked at the corridor that led further into the tomb. It was then that the ghost attacked me.

I’d never seen an undead being before. If I did, I might’ve been more prepared. I performed a overhead chop at the ghost, only to see my blade pass right through it! I got in two more useless slashes before the thing dove on top of me and began to strangle me.

I dropped my sword and desperately tried to create a fireball. No use, I couldn’t focus properly and the best I got were a few miserable sparks. My vision slowly turned to black as I began to lose consciousness.




Sorry about the lack of humor, but there isn't much joking he can do whith that ghost on top of him. He can do a lot of choking though.

Posted by: Taillus Feb 15 2006, 10:08 PM

Uh oh.... this is not good. Damn ghosts and their intangibility!!!

Posted by: Kiln Feb 16 2006, 03:22 AM

Great way to start the second chapter. I would be worried about the ghost killing him but the story is too good for the character to die so early, I'm not worried.

Good job, keep it up.

Posted by: minque Feb 16 2006, 08:12 PM

woah....what a.....disgusting experience, meeting an undead like that....

Good work anyway!

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 16 2006, 08:29 PM

Um yeah, thanks for the comments. Now for the story. I'm not so sure about it, I have this feeling that my way out of the ghost problem was a bit too simple. Just read and you'll see what I mean. I couldn't think of much humor also. That will hopefully change when I get back to Balmora. Tons of people to use there.




,,Wake up, your time has not yet come.” Hot burning air filled my lungs till they were about to explode. Energy soared through my veins. I didn’t need to think, I just plunged the sword into the ghost’s face.

I lied there for a while, unsure about what happened. Fargoth’s ring had reduced the burning in my lungs, though only a little. If I got out of here, I really needed to ask around the mage’s guild for a better healing spell.

Two hours later, I felt capable of moving on. In the meantime, I’d been filled with questions. To who belonged that voice, how did I come back from the brink of death like that? And how did Tarhiel’s sword end up in my hand?

I shook my head, the experience probably messed with my brains and caused me to imagine things. One thing was for sure, if I still wanted to go on into the tomb, Tarhiel’s sword would be the weapon of choice. Just the fact that it managed to touch the ghost made it better than my Katana in this case.

The only remains of the ghost were a few drops of some sort of green goo. I put some of it in one of the small bottles I’d found in Gilnith’s shack. Maybe Ajira was willing to pay for a sample.

When I ventured deeper into the tomb, it was a big difference with how I simply walked in before encountering the ghost. Now I slowly crept forward, keeping low to the ground and my sword raised for a devastating thrust at all times.

After a few more stairs, I came to a corner. A peek around it confirmed what the sound of rattling bones had already hinted at. A skeleton was marching back and forth. I waited till it had turned around and was moving away from me before stepping around the corner.

It caught a fireball right into its stupidly grinning face that knocked its head of. Now headless, the skeleton charged. Quite an amusing sight if it wasn’t potentially lethal. But skeletons are simple and clumsy, so I simply sidestepped its charge and watched it run into the wall. A moment later, I slammed my sword into its spine. The enchantment that kept the thing alive vanished and it dropped to the floor in a pile of bones.

It only had some cheap iron crap on it, not worth the trouble I just went through, but it was better than nothing. I continued on my way and soon found that the corridor ended in a room lined with urns and a few pillars.

An arrow lodged itself deep into my Bonemold chestplate, though it fortunately came just short of penetrating. What’s worse than a skeleton with a sword? A skeleton with a bow.

I took cover behind a pillar and made multiple attempts to move into an attack position. No good, whenever I poked my head out, it would fire an arrow. This required a small distraction.

,,Ok, sack of bones, here’s a little question. Will you shoot your master’s ash, or not?” I muttered and threw the urn at the wall. An arrow hit the wall at the same spot as the urn, only a bit later. The skeleton never got the chance to ready another arrow before its bones were scattered across the room. ,,So you shot it.”

I kicked the remains around a bit. ,,You’re not so tough now, are you? Your bones are lying in a pile, how are you going to stop me? Well, how are you going to do that?” I Thrust my sword through a ghost that was drawn to the scene by the noise I made.
,,Wait for your turn, I’m talking here. Too late now. You’re already dead.” I said and filled my bottle with some more of the green goo. Ghosts were pathetic. The trouble was in actually hitting them, once you did that, they stood no chance.

That was all the opposition I found. There was nothing valuable in the damn tomb. The only thing that got close was a helmet. It was Bonemold, but of a design I hadn’t seen before. It was unlikely I would find it in a store. It looked nice on my head too.

I got out of the tomb only a little later. The rest of the day was used to hit Kwama Foragers, Mudcrabs, Rats and the occasional Scrib. I spent the night in Pelagiad. Though it was an Imperial town, the idea of a bed sounded better than spending the night on a rock. And it was a good place to sell the weapons of the two Skeletons.

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 17 2006, 07:15 AM

Ok, The next part is mostly some quick fun with Ajira's missions.



,,What?!” The Khajit barely even seemed to notice that I was yelling at her. This was ridiculous. ,,I just brought you those mushrooms and now you want me to do that?!” Still no decent response, all I got was another: ,,Ajira thanks friend for mushrooms, but now friend must drop fake soul gem in Galbedirs desk, then Ajira will win the bet.” This was just great.

The damn gem seemed to burn a hole through my pockets, or maybe it was my imagination.
,,Something wrong, Redguard?” Ranis, the steward of the Balmora guild hall stood in my path. She still refused to call me by name. I understand that it was rare to find a Redguard in the mage’s guild, but she was pushing it.

A faint smile developed on her face. ,,I see. Those two have been at each other’s throats since they came here. They’re constantly arguing whether Khajit or Bosmer make better thieves. And there is the occasional duel. I suggest you just do what she says. After Galbedir has finished her accusations, we’ll have some peace. Till Galbedir takes revenge, that is.” Not much help from this one.

I pretended to read a book while waiting for the Wood Elf to leave her room. Actually, I wasn’t pretending, I was reading it and completely forgot about the time. When I finally realized, Ajira’s distraction had been long done and Galbedir was locked up in her room again.

Time for a change of plan, but I didn’t knew what. I walked back to the main hall. There I saw my chance.

,,Don’t Interrupt my thinking! Leave me now!” An Orc was making a lot of noise. I thought I was going deaf. An Orc in the mage’s guild, and then people talk about a Redguard being a strange sight. People are just plain weird. But it did give me an idea.

I ran back to the bottom of the stairs. ,,By Oblivion, that Orc is about to pound someone into the floor! I’m out of here!” I conveniently yelled from the bottom of the stairs and hid behind a few barrels.

Yep, the Wood Elf just couldn’t resist the temptation of excitement and hurried down to look at the commotion. She didn’t even close the door.

I didn’t knew how long she would be gone, so I slipped the fake gem into her desk and left the room as fast as I could.

,,Hi, Ajira. I just came to tell that they send that package you asked for.” Ajira thanked me then immediately came with her next assignment. Where does she get those from?

,,Now Luper Alkad must seek flowers for Ajira.” Yep, another pointless job. This was not what I expected when I joined up. This is the mage’s guild so shouldn’t I have to do tasks more related with things like…magic?

Seeing as it was the only way to get away from her, I accepted. But the Daedra be damned I was not going to hunt for a damn lake! Instead, I just dropped in with the nearest Alchemist and asked if she sold flowers.

,,Yes, I do.” Finally some good news. I would just spent a few days to keep that Imperial drugaddicted spy from sending every person with a weapon after me and buy the flowers after seemingly returning from a long trip.

My next order of business was spend with the local clothier. My robe was nice and comfortable, but it failed to provide the manoeuvrability I needed for real combat. The clothier came with a fine solution, a set of pants covered by a skirt that provided both warmth, manoeuvrability and that swinging style I liked.

,,Ah, there you are.” Caius was still wearing the same ridiculous and elaborate outfit. A set of pants that nearly fell apart. He looked me over. ,,I see you’ve bought a set of Bonemold, and more than you could buy with the money I gave you. But underneath that, you still look the same.” Nice, and you looked the same too. Can’t we just get to business?

,,Ok, gramps. I did what you wanted, so where are these stupid orders of yours?”
,,First, stop calling me gramps. I’m not that old. Now, I want you to ask a man named Hasphat Antabolis about the Sixth House and this Nerevar. He can be fount in the fighter’s guild hall. And one more thing, I didn’t told you to join the mage’s guild. You’re supposed to blend in, not stick out like a sore thumb.”

,,Calm down, gramps. I’m already going. I want to get this done with as soon as possible.” I walked to the door but turned around before leaving.
,,Can I sell that Skooma pipe of yours?”
,,Out!”
,,Is that a yes?”
Before I left, I could hear him mutter one last thing.
,,Out of all the possible prisoners, why did they have to send this one?”

This sounded easy, I would just ask this dude and all. It should be over in an hour or so. But why couldn’t gramps do it himself? Nah, he didn’t looked like the type you see walking into the Fighter’s guild. Too naked and too much drugs.

,,Yes, I do know a few things. As for you, you’ll need to know a bit more about Morrowind. Here, take this book. I’ve still got a copy. And now for the info that old sugar tooth wants. I’ll do it, but I’ll need a favour.” The guy wearing armour and looking all hot and though said. I should’ve known that it was too easy.

,,Ok, what do you want?”
,,There is a nearby Dwemer ruin here. Inside, there is something called a Dwemer puzzle box. I want that box. It is small and has engravings on one side. Get that for me, and I’ll give Caius his information.”

The directions sounded easy enough, so I just got to it. When passing Fort Moonmoth, I realized. He knew too much about the artefact. This was a trap.

Posted by: Elidor Feb 17 2006, 10:30 AM

Posted by: Tellie Feb 17 2006, 12:37 PM

Loved it, you are just a GREAT GENIOUS, I liked the part when Oasis was calling Caius for Cossack and gramps.

Great job, give us more,

Posted by: Kiln Feb 17 2006, 06:07 PM

Lots of content and alot of detail as well. I like how the characters thoughts are implemented seamlessly after each time someone talks and when he's doing something. Also, don't worry much about having each update brimming with humor, it isn't a must for your story so just keep writing and add a bit when you feel like it. Good job mate.

Posted by: minque Feb 17 2006, 09:28 PM

Heey nice updates!.....I especially liked your interpretations og the mage-guild guys in Balmora!....So very amusing!

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 17 2006, 09:58 PM

Thank you, thank you all. Telendil, are you SURE you want to say that? What if it turns me into a big arrogant, wait for it.....N'Wah?

I just noticed I've slowed down a bit. Normally, I have an update posted by this time. What can I say, I had a lot of fun looking for Maar Gan, only to find that a Siltstrider goes there from Ald-Rhun.

Ok, I won't bother you with my talking. Let's just get to the update.



Let’s see, what would be the best place to place an ambush? Preferably some place where I didn’t had much place to manoeuvre and had to pass through. Got it, it had to be the Dwemer bridge I was supposed to cross.

As expected, the bridge was already taken. One guy wearing a crappy Iron cuirass and nothing else in the way of armour. Only one guy? That fighter’s guild dude really underestimated me. He should have picked at least two. Wasn’t there safety in numbers? ,,Ok, I can handle that.”
Now the guy started waving his hands around and magicka whirled around him. ,,Ok, so that makes one mage and one skeleton. A bit harder, but still doable.”
I ducked to avoid the spark of magical electricity. ,,A skeleton, a mage and bolts of lightning?! Man, this is getting tougher by the second! Alright, here I come!”

I stormed over the bridge at full speed. I considered it best to take out the mage first and worry about the skeleton later.

,,Watch your step, you might trip. Sorry.” The skeleton was as stupid as all members of its kind and easily tripped over my leg. With the skeleton on the floor for the next few seconds, I could focus all of my attention on the mage. Plenty of time to finish him.

My sword swing was stopped by the blade of a really big axe. The situation had just took a bad turn. Taking out a mage would’ve been easy, but a battlemage was a different story.

I traded blows for a bit longer. This definitely wouldn’t end well if I stayed around any longer. I narrowly dodged another swing of the axe, kicked the skeleton in the ribs to send it to the ground again and ran back to where I came from.

I stopped only after I’d entered the fort. Only a fool would start a fight there. The place was crawling with Imperial Legionaires. It appeared that mister axe hadn’t followed me. Good, then I would have a little surprise for him.

I really just wanted to give up on the whole thing, but that was not an option. First, the drugaddicted spy would kill me if I didn’t produce results. Second, it would be a major blow to my ego. Ok, the last one isn’t a good reason. Sorry about that, but I’m just sensitive regarding my ego.

I left the fort and this time, I passed it on the other side. If I was correct, I should end up in the canyon that lead underneath the bridge. From there, I could ambush the ambush.

Why was I trying to kill him? I could just sneak past. But my life was at stake here and I promised I would bring those flowers to Ajira. Besides, he attacked first. ,,Ah, forget this. I’m just trying to ease a damned guilty conscience. I’m just going to kill the freak, period. Now let’s get going.”

I was right and soon found myself standing underneath the bridge. Luckily for me, the stupid idiot never even bothered to look down and his skeleton was gone. Good. I strapped my shield onto my back and started climbing.

I wasn’t all that good at climbing and had the great luck that I didn’t notify the battlemage of my presence. For the last few metres, I took my time. Levitation was still new to me and I found it hard to do rapidly. But after a few minutes of concentrated casting, I could feel myself rising towards the bridge.

Levitation is great, it allows me to float through the air without making a sound. That was what I did now. He never even noticed that I was behind him. It was the oldest trick in the book. The spell cut out just before I reached his back and I landed with a little thump. He spun around just in time to see the flash of the sword that separated his head from his body. The head rolled of the bridge and fell into the canyon.

,,Hmm, he lost his head during combat, that’s not smart.” I muttered as I looted his body for anything of value and ended up taking a couple of coins. Whistling, I finally crossed the bridge to the other side. Dwemer ruin, here I come.

You can say what you like about them, but these Dwemer sure had a strange architecture. Most towers were poking out of the ground at an odd angle, with even smaller towers attached above the ground like little arms.

A Cliffracer was circling the top of one of those towers. It would make a fine soul for my soulgem. Some handwiggling later, the haze of a soultrap spell enveloped the ugly bird.

It dove towards me and slashed at me with its razorsharp tail. I blocked the tail with my shield and then cut it off before the tail got out of my reach again. The Cliffracer stumbled and nearly crashed into the ground. After cutting of its head, it really crashed into the ground.

Strange, why didn’t its soul fill the soulgem? I then noticed the tiny crack in it. Only one soulgem had that crack to recognize it. ,,No, I slipped the real gem into the stupid desk. This is the fake!” No money coming from filled Soulgems for me today.

Posted by: Kiln Feb 18 2006, 01:25 AM

Well what can I say? Great update, laced with humor and written well. I especially liked this bit,

"First, the drugaddicted spy would kill me if I didn’t produce results. Second, it would be a major blow to my ego. Ok, the last one isn’t a good reason. Sorry about that, but I’m just sensitive regarding my ego."

And the mistake with the soulgem was realistic and somewhat funny. Anyways keep it up.

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 18 2006, 01:11 PM

Ok, next update.



The door took a while to find, but after that it was a simple matter of turning the crank nearby and running like a maniac before the door would be locked again.

I slipped through just in time to avoid being cut in two. Now, where would I begin my search? I walked away from the door and soon found myself staring at the huge cavern. You could build a small city in here! And some huge towers.

,,Die, Fetcher!” Umm, is it just me, or do these people have a real self-control problem? I mean, everyone just seems to want me dead for no good reason! The three robbers were only equipped with cheap Chitin daggers, so it wasn’t hard to send them to Oblivion with a few well-timed slashes of my sword.

These people were poor. If that was the best they had, I probably could forget about the idea of encountering one of those Dwemer machines I heard about. Of all things, the guy at the bridge was ten times as powerful as these pathetic little bullies.

I randomly picked one of the three doors at the bottom of the huge room and made my way through the maze of corridors, hacking the occasional robber. The place was filled with Dwemer furniture, all of which was made out of the strange steel the Dwemer seemed to use for everything. The only weapons I found were a spear, a shortsword and a Jinksword. The swords would be the nice start of a weapon collection when I ever came back to my shack in Seyda Neen. I kept the spear, you could never know when a bit of extra reach came in handy.

I returned to the big entrance room a few hours later. No puzzle box in sight and I was sure I had tried every single door with the exception of one door that was locked. I decided that there was probably something nasty behind it and left it alone.

My lunch consisted of fried Cliffracer, with the help of a small campfire the robbers had left behind. I saw a balcony I hadn’t been on yet. If I climbed those rocks near it, I should be able to reach it.

After finishing my lunch, I gave it a try. The climb was easy enough and I soon reached the balcony. Time to continue my exploration.

,,Hey, who are you?” Oops, looks like I’d found their boss. The place was filled with artefacts, including a small box. The puzzlebox! Now how did I got out of this mess without a fight?

,,Oh, hi boss. I’m the new guy. Didn’t they told you I’d arrived?” The robber looked at me. I prayed that he wouldn’t be suspicious about my outfit. It was a bit more…elaborate. ,,Really? I don’t know about a new guy. And what’s with that outfit? You look rather rich to me. Did Crito let you pass on the bridge?” So the guy on the bridge was Crito?

,,Yeah, he did. We talked for a while. Interesting fellow.”
,,I am Crito! Now you’ll die!” He came at me with rage burning in his eyes. Why did my plans always fail?

I raised my shield just in time to catch a blow from Crito’s warhammer that nearly broke my arm. Damn, I hated fighting people with heavy weapons. I dropped the shield that now had a really big dent in it. This fight couldn’t be won by defence, I had to avoid his attacks if I wanted to live.

Lucky for me, the big hammer also made him a bit slow, and I managed to put a few minor cuts on him. But dancing within reach of that big block of Iron was too dangerous. Crito soon had me backed in a corner, just out of his reach.

,,You should’ve picked a stronger opponent. I will bath in your bloo…Argh!” The Dwemer cog that flew into his face looked painful. Actually, there wasn’t much of a face left. I hacked at what was left to end his life a bit quicker. There was no need to let him suffer. I stashed the puzzlebox and left the ruins.

,,Redguard? I see that you’ve returned. That pleases me. Have you found the puzzlebox?” The fighter’s guild guy looked surprised to see me. He should’ve known that it took more than a few robbers with daggers to stop me.

,,I’ve got your puzzlebox right here.” I answered. Oh, this guy was so going to get it.
,,Good, then give it to me.” I pushed the tip of my Katana to his throat before he knew what happened and backed him up against the wall. A fireball that was burning in my free hand would complete the threat.
,,I think it’s time we change the deal. You will give me the information and I will keep the damn box. If not, you are going to meet the same end as your friends from the ruins.” I said with my most threatening voice. He was bigger than me, but he literally seemed to shrink.

,,You won’t get out of here. You are already surrounded by everyone in the guild.” As if I expected anything else. I didn’t need to look to know that multiple weapons were pointed at me.
,,Whether I get out or not doesn’t matter. You are a traitor and if you don’t do as I say you will die as a traitor!” I could see the fear in his eyes. His hand slowly went to his pocket and he pulled out a small piece of paper.

,,Take these notes.” He whispered with a trembling voice. I grabbed the paper and released him from my grip.
After that, I turned my back to him and walked away.
,,I can kill you now. Why do you turn your back to your enemy?” The fool. Such a big mouth but no muscles to back it up.
,,I have nothing to fear from you. You are a coward. Next time you try to cheat on me, I will not spare your miserable life.”

Caius seemed to have mixed feelings about the whole thing.
,,Look, you got the information. That is good. But I told you about the blending in thing before. Threatening someone in front of the entire fighter’s guild is not a good way to avoid attracting attention.” He said. He still hadn’t dressed properly.
,,Whatever, Skoomie. I got you the notes, so can I go now?”

,,Skoomie?! If you keep it up like that, I’ll kill you myself.” This was so funny I just had to laugh. He looked so ridiculous when he was angry.
,,You won’t. If the emperor thought it was important enough to send you a letter written by himself, then that means that I’m too important to be killed by a halfnaked spy.”
,,Your purpose is important, not you. If you get killed, we’ll just grab another prisoner.” He said.
,,Now, Antabolis’s notes describe the sixth house well enough, but they are lacking in the case of Nerevar. I believe I know just the person to help out with that.” Oh great, another errand.

Posted by: jchamber Feb 18 2006, 05:13 PM

yay, more great stuff. btw how and why do you get the "start quote" marks in the subtext spot?

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 18 2006, 08:21 PM

Ok, I'm back.
,,Jchamber, are you referring to the two little markings I put in front of your name?
Well, I just use two komma's (is this the english word?) Ok let's try that again. just do 2 of these: ,
And I do it that way cause that's the way I learned to write at school. (Yes, we dutch people are stubborn.)

In game news, I pissed of the guards with a stolen bottle in the council club that ended in a slaughter. (Hey, I took a bottle! No need to start killing here! Scamp, give me a hand, will ya?) I managed to pay the fine through the Thieves guild, but they still attack me on sight. Am I screwed?




,,Now, I have an Orc friend in the thieves guild. You may have met her.”
,,Yeah, yeah. I already know what you want from me. Get to your Orc buddy and do anything that’s needed to get the info without drawing attention. If she wants money, it will have to come out of my own pockets because you’re too lazy to put on a shirt with pockets. Whatever, see yah.” And I was out again.

When I shouted that I believed that she was going to beat up someone to lure Galbedir out of her office, I was serious. Man, Orcs scare me. What I don’t do in service of the empire.

,,What is it this time?!” I hoped that I would catch miss greenskin in a good mood, but it appeared there was no such thing as a good mood for her.
,,Cosades would like you to do a little service?” I carefully asked, ready to run as if an army of Daedra was after me.

,,Caius? Maybe I will help him, for a price.” A price, you can never get something without a price here. Aren’t we generous.
,,What do you want?” Let’s hope it didn’t had anything to do with grabbing metal boxes out of a ruin.

,,I want a skull. There is a tomb in the Bitter Coast Region in which the skull of a long dead Dunmer is kept. Of course it has nothing to do with Necromancy.” Yeah, of course not. Not a chance in Oblivion at that. Of course it’s for Necromancy. What else would she need someone’s skull for?
,,Got it. I’ll be back in a couple of days.” I left quickly before the Orc would change her mind and decide that she did want to pound me into the ground.

I brought Ajira her flowers and instantly got jumped by the next job.
Ok, so now I had to buy a bowl from the local trader. Okidoki, that wouldn’t take more than five minutes.

When I came back, one minute later than expected, Ajira had completely forgotten about the stupid bowl.

,,Galbedir has stolen Ajira’s reports. Friend Luper Alkad must find reports for Ajira. Galbedir has not left the guild, so the reports must be here.” Doesn’t this ever stop? I dropped the bowl on her desk and looked around the guild.

One of the reports was underneath a bed. I took a small peek to satisfy my curiosity. Nothing but some boring crap about the usefulness of mushrooms as an ingredient in potions. But the end was different.

,,Ajira works very hard to go all over Bitter Coast and collect all these mushrooms. Ajira deserves rank of Journeyman much sooner than Galbedir.”
What? This was just not right. Ajira travels all over the Bitter Coast? Since when was my name Ajira.

The next report. Was behind a bunch of baskets at the bottom of the stairs leading up to Galbedir’s room. I took a peek in the hope that it was a bit better. It was basically the same thing as the mushroom report, only with the flowers. She wrote all that in just six minutes while I was out to fetch a stupid bowl? And look at this, she did it again.

,,Ajira works very hard to collect these flower samples from the dangerous Lake Amaya. Ajira must do two reports and Galbedir must only do one silly report. Ajira deserves rank of Journeyman very soon now.”
Ok, friend or not, she was not going to get away with it. Time to pay mister sugartooth a visit.

,,Back already? Did you get the information?” The guy seemed genuinely hopeful. Too bad for him.
,,No, not yet. Now step aside and clean up that table. Say, can you imitate people’s writing?" I replied with a big grin.

,,Well, I am a spymaster. What did you expect?”
,,Great. Look, I’ve got these lovely reports here. Now I want you to rewrite them all, but shuffle the effects around a bit.”

He took a quick look at the two reports.
,,This is a report made by a student at the mage guild. Now why would I help you with such a childish action?” He said, looking very insulted. I decided to hit the old man with his own weapons.
,,Look. I don’t want to draw any attention. So if you rewrite those reports, a certain Khajitt is going to create chaos in the guild and no one will notice that I had to do a….sensitive favour for your Orc friend.”
,,Alright. I’ll see what I can do. Just give me an hour.”

It didn’t take long for him to rewrite the reports. I stashed the originals at his place. No one would look for them among the mess that was mister Skooma’s house.

,,Won’t you get caught with that?” He asked in a last attempt to keep me from doing this.
,,Hey, don’t worry. When the whole show starts, there will be only one person who will be blamed for it. And that person isn’t me.

I was back at the mage’s guild a little bit later. Ajira was all too happy with the reports and thanked me again and again. She never even looked at them. Good, that delayed the show till the reports were shown to the steward. Now I had a skull to hunt.

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 19 2006, 06:26 PM

Ok, another update and all that stuff.
And about my guard problem, I'll have to start all over again. I found that I needed some real big cheating just to survive. That will take time, but it will give me the chance to do things again, and a bit better this time.
(Such as saving poor Rabinna. I couldn't protect her when we were attacked by three Cliffracers and a Kagouti after we were surprised by an ash storm. *starts crying*)



I knew of only one tomb, and that was the one in the Bitter Coast Region. Sure, works for me.
I had softened it up a bit the last time I paid the tomb a visit, so I shouldn’t have much of a problem cleaning up what was left.

I was wrong. Barely one step after I’d entered the tomb, a ghost had already impaled itself on my sword. It looked like every creature I killed last time had been replaced. Here we go again.

It makes things easier if you know what to expect and I got past the two skeletons and the second ghost without a scratch. I’d better find the skull quick, though. If I had to deal with that respawning skeleton archer too many times, I’d run out of things to throw at the wall.

One door caught my attention, thanks to the sounds coming from behind it. I carefully opened it and found myself face to face with a Bonewalker. No problem, a bit of hacking later and it was turned into bite-sized chunks. But I already had lunch, so I left it on the floor. Besides, decaying flesh isn’t exactly my favourite.

And look at that, one really big skull was sitting in one of those ash pits. If this one wasn’t big enough, I didn’t know what could be big enough. Oh well, time to head back.

Ajira’s report would be shown to the steward later that day and I didn’t want to miss that. So despite my hate for Siltstriders, I found myself on the back of one again. Let’s just say that the bucket came in handy again.

,,Oh, hello again, Redguard.” I nodded at the steward and made my way into the guild. The skull in my bag made me very nervous. If someone would see it, I was in big trouble. I doubted that I could survive the entire guild throwing spells at me. At least it looked like the show was about to start. Ajira walked up to the steward with the reports in her hands. I stopped to watch.

,,Good, Ajira. May I take a look.” The steward took the reports and was soon frowning.
,,I’m sorry. But are you sure this is correct?” Reports handed back to Ajira, Ajira takes a look at them, time to prepare for lots of noise.
,,GALBEDIR!!!” Wow, I never knew that Khajit could scream that hard.

,,Galbedir *sob*, stole Ajira’s reports and *sob*, made them bad!”
I have to admit, I felt a bit sorry. I knew that Ajira wouldn’t like it, but I never thought she would cry. Crying Khajit break my heart.

I found the Orc during all the commotion and slipped the skull in her arms.
,,I suggest you put this somewhere safe fast. We’ll take care of the rest later.” I told her and turned my attention back to Ajira.

Galbedir had arrived at the scene.
,,Galbedir, do you admit that you took Ajira’s reports and changed them?” The steward asked her. I suddenly noticed that the females outnumbered the males in this hall by a lot. Maybe women have got more talent with this stuff? How do I get these thoughts anyway?

,,No, master. I am completely innocent.” Galbedir answered without showing any sign that she was lying. I bet she’d practised this for a long time.

,,Well, Ajira. I am afraid that I won’t be able to award you the rank of Journeyman at this moment.” Ajira ran of crying. Now I really felt like a big bully. Maybe I could comfort her later, but first I needed to serve the emperor and all that crap.

,,Hi, I was wondering if you could help me with my ancient myths of Morrowind studies?” Funnily enough, the Orc acted a lot more friendly now that she knew I was with Caius. I wondered if she would tell him what had happened with Ajira. Anyway, I received a note for Caius and was out of the hall a bit later.

I read the note on the way. It was some stuff about some Dark Elf named Nerevar who died fighting against the ultimate evil and stuff. Then there was something about a bunch of people who believed that this Nerevar would return, beat up a bunch of gods and drive all of us outlanders of the land. Yeah, and I’m Tiber Septim.

I dropped the note of at Caius and was very happy to learn that I should do some freelance work while he worked out the information. Good, I’d seen enough of my shirtless friend for a few days. I dropped by with Ra’Virr and bought a bit of moonsugar. Maybe I could cheer Ajira up a bit.

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 20 2006, 05:36 PM

And another update. Sorry, but I just couldn't let Ajira cry forever, it would break my heart. I love the beast races.



I found her in her room, still sobbing a little. Man, I was such a dirty evil scumbag. The room was a mess also, not like her. I really shouldn’t have done that.

,,Hi, Ajira. I brought you some moonsugar. So, how do you feel?” I didn’t got much of a response. She nibbled on the moonsugar a bit and gave a nearly soundless:,, Ajira thanks friend Luper Alkad. But Ajira lost the bet with Galbedir.”

Ouch, I never realized how much that rank meant for her. And actually, I think I could understand it a bit. So many Khajit were kept as slaves, being a mage of high rank would be some sort of a personal victory against the evil Dark Elves.

,,Hey, don’t worry about it so much. So Galbedir is now a Journeyman, as if that matters. You’ve got the skills. I bet you’ll be an Evoker way before her.”
It looked like I hit the right buttons.
,,Does friend Luper Alkad really think that?”

I don’t know why I said the next thing. I guess the beast races just make me soft.
,,I sure do. And call me Oasis. That’s what my friends used to call me back home.”
,,Ajira is honoured. Why did friend Oasis come here? Surely he would be well respected by his people”

That was a question I didn’t like to answer. But I didn’t seem to be capable of refusing her anything.
,,nah, I did a few stupid things in the past. My dad was….a smuggler, same thing with my mom. You know, sail the seas and avoid the Imperials and all that stuff. I was still young and thought it was the most common thing in the world.”
I paused for a moment as I struggled to control the storm of my memories.

,,But one day we got caught. An Imperial ship catched up with us. My dad thought he could fight them, so he drew his sword. It was a trap. As soon as the two ships were locked together, more legionaires swarmed out of the hold. I was eight at the time and kind of panicked. I burned one of the Imperials with a big fireball, bigger than the ones I can use now.”

That was the worst memory in my life. I considered the ship’s crew as my family and saw how they were slaughtered in front of my eyes. I didn’t say anything about that. I thought it would be better if I left her with the impression that they all spent a few years in jail and eventually got out.

,,The Imperials won the fight and dragged everyone of to jail, including me. Normally, they would’ve probably dumped me in some other family, but I killed one of them. About fiftheen years later, they put me on a ship and dropped me of at Morrowind. I don’t think I can go back to Hammerfell. And frankly, I’m not sure if I want to go back.”

We ate the rest of the moonsugar without a word. I was happy to see that she had stopped sobbing and seemed to be back to her normal self.

,,So, what’s your story?” I asked. Might as well hear her side.
,,Ajira was normal Khajit who lived happily with her parents. Then evil slave masters came and dragged Ajira to Morrowind were Ajira had to do many unpleasant things. But Ranis bought Ajira and freed her. Now Ajira works real hard to please Ranis and become a wise mage.” So the Steward freed her from slavery? I saw that I needed to change my opinion of the Dark Elf.

After a few more minutes she shoved me out of the door and said she had to go back to work.
I wandered off in the hopes of buying a few more soulgems to fill from Galbedir.

,,Hello, Redguard. I’ve wanted to ask you what you think of the guild.” I nearly bumped into the Steward who looked at me with those strange red eyes.
,,Well, it is a nice place.”
,,But?” Damn, is she telepathic or something?”
,,I thought I had to do things more related with…magic here. So far I haven’t done anything that had something to do with it. Not directly anyway.”
She smiled at that. Hey, I wasn’t trying to be funny.
,,I know what you’ve been doing. By the way, I have to thank you for comforting Ajira. Now to answer your question, take a look at yourself.”

I did. There was nothing strange in my opinion. I was wearing my clothes, shield on my back and my two swords at my sides. My helmet attached to my belt. The Bonemold armour showed a few scratches, but nothing that was worth the trouble of repairing.

,,You don’t see it, do you? You don’t look like a mage. You look like a member of the fighter’s guild. Sometimes we hire a member of that guild to do the dangerous outdoor jobs. I respect your skill with the sword, Redguard, but that is not the concern of the guild. Now I want you to show me your skills in the magic arts.”

The test took over three hours, but in the end she promoted me to Journeyman. I hoped this wouldn’t upset Ajira. I’d just passed her in rank. Utterly exhausted, I went back to bed. This day had given me a lot to think about, but I was sure I would get things sorted out in the end.

Posted by: Kiln Feb 20 2006, 06:45 PM

Very good updates, soooo much content to read...I loved the last few updates and I'm actually quite surprised that there haven't been many replies to this wonderful story. You learn more about the characters past in the last update (which is very important in my opinion) and with the descriptions you give I can basically see all of the character's actions. Very good mate, keep up the good work.

Posted by: jchamber Feb 22 2006, 07:00 PM

There are lots of things I like about your writing, but....

I don't know where people start talking and I have to restart over again and again as I read. Then the name screwing-up thing has begun to bug me, it was funny at first but then....not so much. Also you should think about this... while the names are unusual to us, the character's find names like Cassius Cosades as common as we find the name Bob Smith, or Joe O'neil, or Amy Jones or Takada if you are Japanese..which I don't think anyone here is but you get my point.

I really hope you can forgive me for not following your story really closely. I will check in every now and then just to see how it's going. Again I am sorry, it's just not my kind of reading I guess. I ....feel really bad after you have been so kind in you own comments about my writing. I'm sry, and I still wov you Cloudy.....

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 23 2006, 09:51 PM

Thanks, Kiln. I really need to put the time aside someday to catch up on your fic.

jchamber, I understand what you mean. My conversations tend to be a bit...chaotic. And the namescrewing thing is running towards its end. I either use the real name (or part of it, like only using the first name) or I simply don't give a name at all. But Caius isn't going to get away from the insults that easily.

Now, sorry about the lack of updates, but I ran into writer's block. *yeah, the cheapest excuse there is, I know.*
What follows is my attempt at putting my theft of a silver claymore out of a guard tower in Balmora into the story. (I just dropped the thing on the ground and paid of the guard. I'm surprised I wasn't cut into tiny bits.)




Next morning really wasn’t funny. Not only did I awoke with the feeling that I was submerged in lava, I also had a terrible nightmare. I won’t go into details, but I remember someone wearing a big golden mask who was joking around with a bunch of dead dudes.
I just lied there, gasping for breath. Finally, after what felt for an eternity but probably lasted just a few seconds, the agony fled. This was not my favourite start of a new day.

There wasn’t much chance for me to catch some more sleep, so I got out of the bed. I took some breakfast and sneaked out of the hall a few minutes later. Everyone was still asleep, and I had no intention of waking them. I needed some time away from people I knew. Time to think. I wandered the city that was still covered in darkness and gazed upwards at the moons. It was a beautiful sight.

,,Hold it, Redguard.” What in the name of the Daedra? What did I do wrong this time? I turned around, expecting to see one of the local guards, but was greeted by the sight of a Dark Elf wearing a green robe and bearing a scar similar to the one that Dark Elf on the prison ship had.

,,I am a sleeper, one of thousands. Lord Dagoth has awoken and the sixth house shall rise from the ashes. The lord shall command us and drive all outlanders away from our land. Take what you can and leave now, for the lord said that all shall greet him as flesh or as dust.” Ok, now this guy must’ve received serious brain damage with that scar.

To get away from the freak, I ran into the first building I saw, one of the guard towers. I really wanted to be left alone. The building was a bad choice. Since it was a guard tower, I should’ve known that there would be a guard inside. I brushed him aside muttering something along the lines of wanting to take in the view from the rooftop.

The view was amazing. I could look from one end of the city to the other and even look over some of the mountains that surrounded the city. The sight of seeing the sun rise over the top of the mountains was something no one would forget. But life called for me in the form of a grumbling stomach, so I went back down in the hope of getting lunch.
The guard seemed to have ended his duty and was now replaced with a new one. Same armour and stuff, only a bit dirtier. He had his back turned, so I mentally prepared myself for the questioning that would with no doubt begin the moment he saw me. My eyes caught the sight of a shining blade in the process.

I leaned in closer for a better look. On a desk, someone had placed a large Claymore. It was excessively decorated and shone so brightly, it had to be silver. A beautiful and expensive weapon, but I doubted that it was very practical. Most weapons like that are for ceremonial purposes, not actual combat. I just couldn’t control myself, I had to pick it up to try out its balance.

,,You, thief!” Oh, great. Why did the damn guard have to see me now? And why is the first thing he said the word thief?

,,Look.” I started. Getting into a close quarters fight with a guard was the last thing I needed. It was deadly and even if I won, I would be in big trouble with the other guards. ,,I’m not trying to steal it.”

Then I got an idea. The sword looked like it hadn’t been used in a while, but its balance was exceptional. I’d fallen in love with the shining blade. ,,Say, how much is it worth?” I asked.

The guard attempted to scratch his head, but the helmet got in the way. I pity these guys, they can never get out of their armour, no matter how warm it is. They aren’t even allowed to remove their helmet to wipe the sweat of their face.

,,Well, Outlander. It…uh….it is for sale, but it’s quite valuable, you know.” He stammered. Behold, the eternal conflict between duty and greed.
,,How much, guard?”
,,Umm…..371 Septims.”
,,Deal.” I said before he could change his mind, handed him the Septims and walked out with my new toy. Now I felt like taking a little vacation in the Bitter Coast Region. I dropped by with the guild to say that I was going to see what plants grew there as a study and walked out of the gate when the sun was at its highest point. The bad dream had been nearly forgotten.

Posted by: jchamber Feb 24 2006, 04:42 AM

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 24 2006, 09:17 PM

Ok, time to head for Hla Oad. And anyone who has been there before knows that it is an interesting place. Well, that will have to wait till the next update, sorry.




I set my sights on a place called Hla Oad and followed the signs while enjoying the occasional skirmish with a Nix-Hound. Nothing really happened till I reached a bridge.

,,Hey there, Redguard! Wait up!” A Nord came running across the bridge towards me. My first instinct in these situations would to get a hand on my sword, but he sounded friendly, so I waited.
,,It’s good I got to you. I have to warn you, these areas aren’t safe.”

Wow, he was trying to warn me of danger? I’m a Redguard and armed to the teeth, I could handle myself. But whatever the danger was, it would have to be a lot worse than a Nix-Hound to be called dangerous by a Nord. Nords don’t seem too bright which may be due to the alcohol, but they’re powerful warriors.

,,Hello to you too, my friend. What may this danger be?” I asked. A real warrior never goes into a battle without knowing the opposition.
,,There are Dangerous Outlaws around here. You don’t want to meet them.”
,,Outlaws?” That was the wrong word.

,,Outlaws like me. Now give me 100 septims or I’ll have your head.”
Great, so he turned out to be less than friendly after all. These kind of people really made me mad. First they act all nice and stuff and the next moment they try to rob you blind. It made my blood boil.

,,Your not getting the septims or my head. Now get out of here before I strip you of your clothes and leave you here in the wilderness naked, you drunken big rockbrained idiot.”
,,Then you are dead!”
In a blur of movement, he drew a big axe and started his assault.

He was fast, and I barely got my shield up in time to stop the blow that would’ve cut me in half. Unfortunately, I lost a big piece of my shield instead.

For what felt for like half an hour but must have been less than a minute, we were participating in the deadliest dance known to man, the dance of combat. I was forced to fight within his range with my Katana while trying to avoid his blows. I had the luck that his tactic could be summed up as chop, chop, chop and chop. If he had used his brains more, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. It was brute muscle against speed. And the brute muscle was winning.

My shield showed the signs of the barrage he launched at me, and in the end his axe came through and hit me in the side, just between two plates of Bonemold.
The agony of crushed bone and muscle paralyzed me and I dropped to the ground.
,,Alright, you win. I’ll give you the money.” I muttered with whatever breath I had while hoping that it would cause him to stop.

He did, and I gave him the money.
,,Redguard, don’t try to fight Fjoll. You cannot win.” He said as he turned his back on me and walked back to the bridge.

Fool, never turn your back on an opponent who isn’t at least completely incapacitated. He would see the error of his ways in the form of a fireball slamming into his back that set him on fire. Who cares about honour. If it gets the bad guys dead, I’m happy.

Screaming, he rolled over the ground. I repeated the process a few more times before I was sure he was dead. Now I had to prevent myself from joining him in Oblivion. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the damage.

Out of the schools of magic I’m quite proficient in, for a Redguard, the school of Restoration is the hardest. Not cause it is harder than other forms of magicka, but it is so disorientating. I could feel my consciousness flying through my veins at high speed, telling the cells to repair my body while leaving a small pocket of Magicka in each to do the job. After many hours, I thought I could walk again. My side still hurt like mad and it would leave a massive scar along with permanently damaged muscles if I kept it like this, but I could take care of what remained while continuing my journey.

The sun had already set and I usually made sure I wasn’t outside in the darkness. I hoped that Hla Oad was close. It probably was, cause Fjoll didn’t had any food with him nor tools needed to efficiently take it from slain creatures. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was as often found in Hla Oad as he was found on the bridge. Doing my best to ignore the pain, I crossed the bridge. Robbers, they’re so annoying.

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 25 2006, 09:22 PM

An interesting place, but it really gets on my nerves. I wouldn't be surprised if I went back someday and turned it into a ghost town. Anyway, here's the update.




I was right, Hla Oad was close. It was small though. Just a few shacks near the water. I doubted there was much to find here, but with a bit of luck I would find a bed. If not, I could always sleep on the floor.

,,Excuse me?” I tried with the first person I ran across.
,,What is it, filthy outlander?” Hmm, not too friendly, are we?
I tried my best to keep my charmes around me, a night’s sleep in a bed was worth more than venting my anger at the moment.
,,I was just passing through. Would you like to tell me of the services I could receive here?”

,,There is Fat Leg’s Dropoff. It’s the local tradehouse. Not much else to find here. Our primary trade here is fishing.”
After thanking the woman, I made my way to the building she’d pointed at.

Even Seyda Neen was better than this. What was called the tradehouse closely resembled my shack back there. Just a few twigs of wood tied together in an unstable construction that didn’t even managed to keep out the wind. No bed either as I soon found out. A trapdoor caught my eye however, and I went down it. I could here voices, maybe the real tradehouse was underground.

Well, the tradehouse was underground, but it dealt in different goods than I’d expected. The place appeared to be a big cave with several wooden walkways. I made my way to who looked the most like a trader.

,,Excuse me. But would you be so kind as to tell me what you trade in?” I asked. Always try to be friendly.
,,Well, at the moment I don’t trade in much. But you look like you could use a bed, my friend. Tell you what, if you do me a favour, I’ll give you a bed for the night.” Bingo, one bed coming right up.
,,I could use a bed. So what’s the favour?”

,,I’m in a small debt with a friend of mine. Since I don’t have the money, I’ll pay him in goods.”
He waved to his assistant, who brought the “goods” into view.

All thoughts of finding a bed left my mind. All I really wanted to do right now was to put my sword through their ugly faces. A slave, he was dealing in slaves. And you usually don’t pick slaves out of the ocean. Which meant that this was a big smuggling town that could be found on every map. Why in the name of Jagar Tharn is slavery legal here? Damn, I just used the wrong name. Slavery would have been right up in the late battlemage’s alley.

,,Could you take this one to Vorar Helas in Balmora? His house shouldn’t be hard to find. I know that it’s not much to look at, but the true value is on the inside.” He laughed at his own joke. The dirty piece of slime.

,,Fine, I’ll do it.” Like I would, the moment I got to this Vorar Helas, I would buy the poor thing from him. If I could keep myself from starting a massacre here, that was.
,,Good, now I’ll show you the bed. Come on, follow me.” He didn’t even notice my internal conflict.
,,I would prefer to deliver the slave now, if you don’t mind.” No way I would be able to get a good night’s rest with the thought of the poor Khajitt in the hands of those monsters.
,,Whatever. Thanks, mate. I owe you one.” Yeah, and the price would be your head if I ever saw it again. I hate slavers.

The Khajitt was too frightened to talk and simply followed me. She’d been treated badly, that was for sure. Damn monsters, may they burn in Oblivion for eternity.
Anyway, I wasn’t in the mood for a long conversation anyway, so the silence was nice.

And it allowed me to keep my ears focussed for the sounds of the local wildlife that might show an unhealthy interest in my companion. I made sure that not a single rat, Nix-Hound or Cliffracer ever got close to hurting her even further.
The roads would be a big detour, so I decided to pass over the mountains and then follow the riverbank. It would lead us right to Balmora with a lot less trouble. Or so I thought.

I motioned the Khajit to stop when we reached the top of the mountain. In the depths, the Odai river flowed. But that wasn’t what I was looking at, I was looking at the thing. It was barely visible in the fog, but it was unmistakably some kind of large lizard. Two legs like treetrunks, two giant tusks with an equally huge mouth between them and a scaly skin that rippled with the muscles underneath. Definitely not my favourite creature to encounter.

It was either going back to the roads or straight through it. The roads would be too hard for my patience, so this lizard would have to pay the price. Since I wanted to start the engagement as comfortable as possible, I smacked a fireball in its back. Bellowing a battlecry, the thing turned around and charged.

I should’ve taken out my Silver Claymore. But sometimes, I tend to do things without thinking. I considered the weapon too beautiful to waste on anything, so my Katana would have to do the job again.

I sidestepped the charging Kagouti and hacked at its armoured head. My katana only made a small scratch in its skin. I was thrown of my feet by the tusks when it bashed me with its head. The blow send me flying through the sky for a few metres at least.

This looked bad. I’d chosen to fight it and now found I could not win. If it wasn’t for the Bonemold, that hit would have cracked my bones like a little twig, but it was still painfull.
There was only one way out, and there was no time to inform the slave about my plan. Getting up to my feet, I pushed her off the cliff and then jumped after her, towards the cold water that streamed below.

Posted by: Kiln Feb 26 2006, 12:06 AM

Great job on this part, I really liked that the character tends to have trouble with the creatures and people he is forced to fight, it adds a certain level of realism that is essential for a story in which the character is new and inexperienced in combat. Sorry for my lack of comments but it is very good, update soon.

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 26 2006, 08:54 PM

Alright, here is the update. In reality, Fjoll never managed to put a scratch on me. Same thing with the Kagouti. Adrenaline Rush makes the Redguard way too powerful. But it isn't fun to write that way. Anyway, here's the update.




Hitting the water from such a high altitude is like slamming into a brick wall with the force of a battering ram. In other words, quite a painful experience. My momentum carried me on till I hit the bottom of the river, causing further pain to my tormented body. Only barely awake, I struggled back up to the surface, with my armour doing a good job at dragging me down.

That was the most painful dive in my whole life, and I was the one wearing armour here. Who knows how it must have felt to the Khajit. I looked around for a few seconds before I finally found her.

She was drifting in the water with her face pointing at the bottom of the river, clearly unconscious. Though I felt like I had been crushed underneath a Siltstrider, she was my top priority. Don’t you love this heroic silliness? So I managed to swim towards her and started to take the necessary precautions. I raised her face above the water while pumping as much restorative magicka into her frail body as I could muster. I hoped that the damage would be repairable. After a few worried moments, the Khajit regained consciousness and spat the last drops of water out of her lungs. At least she turned out to be a good swimmer. Now that I didn’t had to worry about her drowning, I could asses our current situation.

We had been drifting downstream for a while now and where getting further from Balmora with each passing second. The water was freezing cold and I didn’t had the magicka left to perform an underwater fireball to heat it. Man, this was ridiculous. I should use the magicka for waterwalking or waterbreathing, not as some silly waterheater. The worst news was that I lost my Katana and that it had been swept away by the current. I would miss my trusty blade.

Setting these thoughts aside, I helped the slave upstream. I was pleasantly surprised that the river was completely devoid of Slaughterfish. As long as there wasn’t a Cliffracer flying around, we could swim right into Balmora without any trouble. That’s what we did, though I did make sure there were a few chances to rest.

We must have made quite a weird sight, being all soaking wet. I asked a guard about where to find Vorar Helas and then took the time to dry up. Once dry, I was as ready for my confrontation with the slave master as possible.

Well, this was nice. So mister Imperial spymaster was Helas’s neighbour. Maybe I should have a talk with him about the ethics involved in slavery, though I doubt he would care. As long as slavery would keep the province from turning against the empire, he would keep it.

The door was locked, but it was no match for a bit of lockpicking.
,,Who are you? How did you get in?” A Dark Elf. I should’ve known.
,,I just came here on an errant from your friend back in Hla Oad. He sent you this slave.” I pointed at the Khajit who was trembling with fear. With good reason, as I soon found out.

,,I see. Yes, now if you would be so kind as to wait for a moment. I’ll just finish my business and then you shall receive your reward.” He said as he raised a Chitin dagger. No need to ask what he was about to do.
,,Touch her, and you’re death, you Dark Elf scum.” I said, moving my hand to the Claymore on my back to illustrate my point.

,,Ah, so you don’t like the way we do business here? Well, that is quite unfortunate. I think I’ll just have to kill you both. I believe your belongings will fetch a nice price.” What, he really thought he could kill both of us with that miserable dagger of his? This guy was sick.

But I never told him that, I had different problems. Like the paralyzing spell he put on me. I could do nothing but watch as he tried to take down the slave, who put up quite an impressive fight. But the dagger won over the claws in the end and he got ready to strike the finishing blow.

Except that a certain Silver Claymore wielded by yours truly was send into him with enough force to pass through his spine, his heart and ribs to emerge on the other side and stop a hair’s width from entering the Khajit in the same blow. So as a result, the finishing blow never happened. I pulled the sword back out and watched how the corpse dropped to the ground. A few seconds later, two guards stormed into the building, attracted by all the noise of the fight. All they saw was a wounded Khajit, a dead Dark Elf and a Redguard who was holding a large sword from which blood was still dripping to the floor.

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 27 2006, 12:05 PM

And an early update. Enjoy!







,,Murderer! What have you done?!” I just killed the guy, wasn’t that obvious?
Fighting those two guards definitely wasn’t an option. They were some of the best fighters in the city and had the advantage of numbers. Damn, and I just began to enjoy my freedom.

,,You’re coming with us, Outlander. You are now officially accused of coldblooded murder within city boundaries. Hand over your weapons slowly and let us put a slave bracer on you so you don’t use any magicka.” The biggest of them said. Great, I had no idea how I could talk my way out of this.

,,What’s all that noise? Can’t an old man enjoy his Skooma here?” Uh oh, there was Caius. He didn’t look to happy. Now I was really in trouble. He would probably turn the sentence from lifelong to execution and give a stupid speech about not drawing any attention.

,,Excuse me? We are arresting a dangerous criminal, citizen. Please step aside.” The shortest of the two guards said. Caius looked more like a drugaddict than ever. He shoved the spy aside and came towards me.

,,Oh no. Don’t tell me he was at it again. There goes my drug dealer. I told him that this hobby of his was going to kill him someday. Dragging Outlanders into your home and then try to kill them for fun is a dangerous way to spend your time.”
Both guards turned their back at me and stared at the shirtless man.

,,What did you say?”
,,This man isn’t a criminal. He just defended himself the moment he noticed that the only reason why late Helas here dragged him into his house was to kill him. Besides, look at the Redguard. Does he look like the man who needs to kill for money? That weapon looks very expensive to me. Though I’m not an expert.”
I had to admit it, the way he manipulated those guards with his voice was amazing. Even I nearly believed his story. Now I knew why he was called a spymaster.

,,I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding, Outlander. Consider the house yours to compensate for the inconvenience. I certainly hope that your stay in Balmora will be a pleasant one.” The two guards walked out of the door, leaving me to simply stare at their backs.

,,That was amazing. Thanks, sir. You just saved my life.” I told the spy.
,,Don’t thank me just like that.” He replied, looking really furious.
,,Please wait here for a while. Make yourself comfortable.” He said to the slave and then dragged me over to his own house.

,,Now what was that all about? I told you not to draw unwanted attention. And now you killed someone right next to my home. I suppose you’ve got a good reason for all this?” Oops, he was really mad at me now.
,,I just couldn’t let him kill that slave. That’s all.” What else could I say but the truth?

,,I see. Now who brought the slave to him in the first place? You did that.”
,,Now wait a minute. I didn’t do it so he could kill her, nor did I do it for any kind of reward. This was my decision and I’ll face the consequences. The moment I delivered her, I would have bought her.”

,,So then you would have a slave of your own. How considerate. Now how many spies have a slave?” He still wasn’t convinced to let me go, was he?

,,How many spies spend a fortune on Skooma? But slave and being a slave are two different things. Slave is a title, while being a slave is about how you’re treated. If your owner treats you well, you have the title but you’re not a slave. Get it? Now you clearly still want me around for your information gathering, or you wouldn’t have even attempted to take those guards of my back.”

He actually smiled. ,,That was a good speech you held. Maybe I should train you in the power of words. Your tongue can be much sharper than your sword. Yes, I still need you. But having a slave is very bad for your cover. She may, without wanting it, become a leak. Now, I suggest you take her to Ebonheart. It is just to the southwest of Vivec and holds a building known as the Argonian Mission. That place exists to free slaves and bring them back home. Take her there and then go to Vivec where I want you to search out three informants.”

He gave me a piece of paper. ,,All the mission details are written there. Vivec can be reached by Siltstrider. I suggest you travel by night. And one last thing. We are neighbours now, so I think we should at least try to get along.”
I laughed at that.

,,Every time I kill someone here, I get to have their house. Maybe I should go into real estate.” I said.
,,May the Divines have mercy on us when that happens.” Caius laughed himself. If you ignored his Skooma problem, he wasn’t so bad after all.

Posted by: Kiln Feb 27 2006, 11:40 PM

Changing the slave quest to involve Caius was very interesting and it was far from what I expected. I just expected him to kill the smuggler and take her directly to the Argonian Mission but the twist you added really made it different. Great job.

Posted by: jchamber Feb 28 2006, 05:06 PM

hmmm I like the last post much more than the initial material that I criticized, I like how the Speachcraft is done without sounding too game-mechanicy I am glad to have started reading this again.

Keep it up and update soon.

Posted by: jack cloudy Feb 28 2006, 08:45 PM

Thank you for the comments and here's another update.




,,What is it, Outlander? Don’t tell me you want to ride at this time of the day. I was just about to settle in for the night.” The Dark Elf could only just keep himself from calling me by a less polite name.

I had spent the rest of the day cleaning up and preparing my new home to be filled with all my possessions I left back in Seyda Neen. Getting rid of the dead body was the hardest part, there were no Slaughterfish here. In the end I just waited till night fell before putting him in a bag and dumping him in the river.

,,Yes, I need a ride to Vivec.”
,,Vivec? That’s a long way. I won’t do it, it’s too late for that.”
Great, and how was I supposed to take care of the slave Rabinna? I had a talent for getting in trouble on my own, so I wanted to get this done with as quickly as possible. I decided to bluff a bit.

,,Listen, pal. My master really needs this slave and if he hears that the reason for the delay was that a caravaner refused to give us a ride, all three of us are going to be in big trouble. Now I’ll make it up to you. How about double the normal fare for both of us? That would come down to about a hundred septims in total. Quite a nice bonus, don’t you think?”

,,Well, maybe. Now who did you say your master was?” I could see his resolve beginning to crumble. I’d shown him the carrot, time to increase the size of the stick.
,,My master prefers to be anonymous. If I told you who he was, he’d be forced to take certain….precautions if you know what I mean. He is very wealthy and powerful.”
,,Oh, alright. Now I only do this because I don’t want you to be late for your appointment, understand? Hop onboard.”

Riding on a Siltstrider through the night is an unforgettable experience. You should really bribe a caravaner someday to see it for yourself. Rabinna didn’t had time to look at it though, her attention was completely devoted to the bucket that was being filled at an alarming rate.

Me? I didn’t needed it this time. Maybe I should explain it. It isn’t the movement of the Siltstrider that makes me sick, it is the memories that are called by these movements. A Siltstrider moves like a boat. I grew up on one, and my last memory of the boat wasn’t a happy one.

That was fiftheen years ago. It was time to put it behind myself and instead focus on the happier moments. I was quite proud of myself for not needing the bucket anymore.

I was nearly sad when we reached Vivec. Riding on a Siltstrider is nice if you don’t spend the time with your head in a bucket.

Now Vivec was huge. No really, it made Balmora look like a bunch of shacks in the middle of nowhere. All the time we followed the road to Ebonheart, only bothered by the occasional rat, the giant cantons of Vivec could be seen to our left.

Ebonheart was an impressive castle of its own, but it would easily fit in just one of the huge cantons of Vivec. I left Rabinna with the Argonian who was in charge of the Argonian Mission and also heard a sad story.

According to the Argonian, slaves were sometimes used by smugglers as mobile containers for drugs. Same thing with Rabinna. She was forced to swallow a big bag that was probably filled with moonsugar. That explained why Vorar Helas was so intent on killing her. He would have succeeded if I didn’t killed him first.

There was a bad part to the whole story. When the bag in Rabinna’s stomach would finally dissolve, she would become one hell of a drug addict. I hope these Twin Lamp people know how to deal with that.

After receiving a nice bag of septims as a reward, I left the building and made my way back to Vivec. I was happy I could help the poor slave, but travelling alone was definitely much better. Fighting when you had to watch out for a fragile slave was a nightmare. I made it back to the entrance to Vivec near the Siltstrider when the sun began to show itself over the hills.

,,We are watching you, scum.” Yeah, and you really need that mask to hide your ugly face.
The guards here were the rudest and least friendly by far of all the guards I had encountered.
Now where would I begin to look for Caius’s little informants? One of them was commonly found in some sort of club in the Foreign Canton. Seeing as I was in the same canton, I decided that this lizard would be the first one to tell me everything Caius needed to know, and maybe a bit more.

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 2 2006, 09:01 PM

A bit of asking around quickly directed me to the club in the heart of the canton. How someone could live in this big rock cave was beyond me. I got claustrophobic just thinking about it.

Anyway, my lizard friend was having fun consuming the local alcohol, with three very drunk Dark Elves as company. He was the only Argonian in the room, so I went up to him.

,,Excuse me, are you Huleeya by chance?” A small nod confirmed my suspicions. Good, only five minutes of walking and I’d already found one of Caius’s informants. I hoped that all of them were so easy to find, especially considering the size of the damn city.

,,Great. Now I’ve been sent by someone known as Caius Cosades to retrieve a bit of information. Are you ready to answer any questions I have?” Might as well get straight to the point, I thought. Too bad it wasn’t smooth sailing after all.
,,Huleeya will answer your questions. But Huleeya wants to go to Jobasha’s bookstore where he can read. But these Dunmer prevent Huleeya from leaving. Huleeya cannot fight them, for his Morag Tong honour forbids it.” Excuse me, you’re a coldblooded assassin yet you don’t dare to fight a bunch of drunks? This was hilarious.

I casually took a look at the Dark Elves and our surroundings. Despite their alcohol, they weren’t as drunk as I first thought they were. Their movements were still coordinated enough to put up a decent fight. So it would be three against two, and I didn’t dare to rely on Huleeya. Assassins rely on the element of surprise to take out their target without ever being spotted. In a straight up match, they’re better than your average farmer, but not by much. Not too mention he didn’t looked like he would help in the first place. Add other customers, a crowded area filled with furniture and you had all the things I prefer to avoid in a fight.

After getting something to drink I walked to the center of the room. Didn’t Caius say that the tongue can be sharper than the sword? It was time to find out.
,,May I have your attention please?” I loudly shouted through the room. Sure enough, people turned to watch me, most of them looking rather annoyed and complaining about the rude outlander.

,,Thank you. Now as you may or may not know, the Ordinators want to hold a party here. A private party. Since it will start in two hours and I want our honoured host to have time to prepare, I would like you all to drink up your drinks and leave this establishment. That’s all, thank you.” Silly, I know but it was all I could think of.

,,Why do you tell us this, Outlander?” One of the Dark Elves said. One of the most important things about bluffing is that you have to stick to the same story, you can’t suddenly start talking about something else.

,,Cause they hired me to get this place empty. If they come in and find that there are still customers in here, they’ll have to do it themselves. And you don’t want to know what an annoyed Ordinator would do. Now drink up your drink and please leave.” I turned back to the rest of the customers.
,,Come on, people. Didn’t you hear me? Finish drinking and leave. When the Ordinators come for their party, this place has to shine.” One by one, everyone left.

,,Ready to go to the bookstore?” I asked the assassin with a grin. When we arrived in the bookstore a bit later, he told me everything he knew.

More stuff about this Nerevarine dude and about this sixth house. Why always the same questions? Maybe Caius had smelled the trail of something big. If it was enough to be worthy of the attention of the province’s spymaster, it had to be big. Whatever was the case, one informant down and two more to go. I just hoped there wouldn’t be any problems any more. By now I was really starting to wonder why things could never go as smooth as I wanted them to go.

Posted by: Taillus Mar 2 2006, 10:35 PM

Loved the ordinator party trick done in true Oasis fashion. You keep me guessing and even though it follows the linear storyline aspect of Morrowind it is still full of surprises. Keep it coming!

Posted by: Kiln Mar 3 2006, 12:05 AM

Great updates here, lots of content and as Taillus said, it has changes that keep it interesting while still following the story. Great work, keep it up.

Posted by: mplantinga Mar 3 2006, 01:23 AM

Just caught up on chapter 2. I have really enjoyed Oasis' unique way of dealing with the potentially nasty situations that keep popping up. Keep up the amazing work.

Posted by: jchamber Mar 3 2006, 01:39 AM

I'm liking how the party story took hold...looking forward to seeing if the tavern owner takes revenge for loss in wages from the drinkers that left and/or the ones that didn't show up....watch your back now....rofl

very nice updates, just read the last two at once...very nice indeed. please continue.
\:edit: omg lots of spelling errors fixed

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 3 2006, 08:05 PM

Thank you. The Tavern owner will come back. I've got an idea, but it will need to grow a bit more. Anyway, enjoy the update.





Up, down, up, down. This city was driving me nuts. Couldn’t they’ve built it at least a bit more travelfriendly? And I was not going to pay for a boat trip.

After a long walk, I finally arrived in the canton where my next informant would be. Unlike with my cowardly assassin friend, asking around this time gave me no information that gave me a location more specific than “somewhere”. With a grumbling stomach, I settled in at a local club. This was probably one of the few good sides to Vivec, there was a place to get food in every canton.

After filling my stomach, I went to the most likely place to find the little kitten, the sewers. How in the name of Fargoth could the Khajitt handle the stench down here? Oh well, the local rat population was rapidly diminished.

After working my way through a few rats I still had found no sign of her. Maybe this was simply the wrong place? There were a few torches up ahead, and a person standing next to them. No Khajitt, but maybe I could get some information.

,,Hello, Redguard. You here to join the Daedric cult?” Oh, so this was the local shrine. In the middle of the sewers, it instantly showed me that this local religion was less than legal.
,,No, but have you by chance seen a..…..” My words were cut short by the sword that came my way. Guess that this cult didn’t like any trespassers.

Maybe I could’ve taken her, maybe not. Whatever was the case, I wasn’t in the mood for a fight here. The damn stench would distract me. So I turned tail and ran till I went around a corner where I waited.

Sure enough, the cultist had been following me and tripped over the leg I stuck out in front of her path. The stench was horrible, but falling in the dirty water must’ve been even worse. If she hadn’t tried to kill me, I might’ve felt sorry.

,,I only wanted to ask you if you’d seen a Khajitt hanging around here. But since I can see one of in the distance, I guess I don’t need your help anymore. Now go back to your shrine and be a good little guard over there. I’ve got better things to do than play around with you all day.” With those words, I cast my waterwalking spell and crossed to the other side of the tunnel, making sure I kept away from her sword.

The Khajitt had a horribly long name and was unwilling to give me the information. Only after doing a little favour would she be willing to help. Alright, I was getting used to this by now. It looked like my furred friend was a smuggler. At least, that’s what a Census and Excise agent thought. Ah, the Census and Excise, old friends. This would be fun.
He wasn’t too hard to find, I just had to look for the only Imperial who was trying his best not to be noticed while he observed the waistworks. He failed miserably at not being noticed. I walked up to him with a nice plan already in my head.

,,May I help you with anything, Outlander?” It felt good to use that word myself for a change. He eyed me suspiciously but soon started smiling. I looked like any average mercenary, the type that could be bought.

,,Why, yes. I’m looking for a friend of mine, Addhiranirr. Perhaps you know where to find her? I can give you something for the trouble.” He answered. Great, I was about to trick someone and he would pay me to do it. Oh, I love it when I meet an Imperial like that.
,,Sure, she’s hiding from someone who believes that she’s a smuggler. I’ll take you to her. Make sure we’re not followed by the Census and Excise agent.” A few septims switched owners and we were off, back to the sewers.

,,Oh, this place doesn’t smell too nice, now does it? It must be hard on her, having to hide in a place like this.” So I wasn’t the only person who noticed. It would be a shame to soil those expensive clothes of him, but I didn’t care. I followed the flow of the water till I found what I was looking for. Say goodbye to the Imperial.

,,And this is where we go our separate ways. Goodbye, sir. It was fun to fool you.” I told him with a huge grin.
,,What, what are you doing?! AHH!” With a big splash, I threw the Imperial in the water and saw how the current swept him away. He would probably be spit out of the sewers into the lake a few minutes later. Hopefully he’d learned his lesson. If not, that was not my concern. I would have all the information I needed by that time.

Unlike Huleeya, the smuggling Khajitt believed that the phrophecies of this Nerevarine were only stories meant to scare little kittens. But what she said about the sixth house was more worrying. Smuggling had stopped over the normal channels. Oh, they still smuggled, but not for their normal employees. And they were very silent about their employees. The Khajitt believed that the sixth house was this new employee.

This was getting interesting. Strangely enough, I actually started to look forward to meeting the next informant. Caius sure found an interesting subject to ask information about. And this Nerevar was connected through history with an ancient sixth house. A sixth house that was presumed destroyed, but still existed according to the Khajitt. Perhaps if the sixth house still existed, there might be a small bit of truth behind the Nerevarine phrophecies. Whatever was the case, I was glad I could leave the stench of the sewers behind.

Posted by: Taillus Mar 3 2006, 08:15 PM

That will learn him. Ha! Good job another well done post!

Posted by: Kiln Mar 3 2006, 08:18 PM

Nice update, glad to see that you can stick to the story but add your own little twists to keep it interesting and different, good work.

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 4 2006, 06:23 PM

Thank you, and here's another one.

My last informant was the easiest to find, but she was in a place that rivalled the sewers in iritating me. No, it wasn’t the smell or the furniture. It was the fact that the damned place was overrun by Ordinators. Amidst lots of scum, N’Wah and other words I prefer not to tell, I made my way to the library.

The Dunmer woman seemed happy to hear that Caius was doing fine, for as much as that was possible with all that Skooma in his lungs. She was alos willing to simply give me the information without requiring any favours to be done first. Certainly a nice change of pace.

I was led to a quite corner of the library and she told me what she knew. Like Huleeya, the cowardly assassin, she knew nearly nothing about the sixth house. Being on the right side of the law seemed to make it a hard subject to know about. What she said about the Nerevarine was more revealing.

Though the temple holds the ancient Nerevar as the closest thing to a fourth Tribunal god, they hunted down any signs of the Nerevarine like the world depended on it. From their point of view, it probably did. Part of the phrophecy said that the Tribunal gods would be destroyed by the Nerevarine. Without the gods, there was no reason for the temple to exist. As a result, any person who claimed to be the Nerevarine, would be hunted down and executed. Thereby that person was revealed as a fake. The Nerevarine couldn’t die before fulfilling the phrophecies. Sure, killing someone shows that they can’t be an immortal hero, but isn’t it a bit extreme?

She told me that I should look up a book known as “Progress of Truth” for further information. The library had one, but it was well guarded by the Ordinators. She suggested that I searched for a book seller who sold this highly illegal book. After that, she went back to help another visitor and left me to explore the library. I took the time to read up on the relation between the Daedra and these Tribunal gods. I wondered what the Daedra might think of their competition.

I should’ve known that reading a temple book wouldn’t help much. Ok, so according to the temple, a couple of Daedra had sworn to serve the Tribunal. These were the “good” Daedra. The ones that didn’t serve the Tribunal were the “bad” Daedra. This was just sick. I for one, couldn’t possibly see why a Daedra would even want to be bossed around by one of these newbie Tribunal gods. The Daedra had been around thousands of years before the Tribunal was even born.
And another stupid thing was that Azura was listed among the good Daedra while according to the Nerevarine phrophecies she’d sworn to destroy the Tribunal. Oh well, at least it was good for laughs. I put the book back on the rack and my eyes fell on the title of another book.

,,Stupid outlander! Look at the mess you made!” The Ordinator sounded more than willing to beat my brains in. He was right though, I just knocked down a whole rack filled with books who where now lying in a pile on the ground.

,,Sorry. I came here to see the scholars about this book that’s been in my family for generations. I wanted to know how old it was and what was in it. It had very fuzzy writing, you see. I’m very sorry. I’ll just take my book and leave before I break anything else. I hope I don’t have to pay. I don’t have a lot of money.” I said with my most outlanderish voice. Acting like a simple idiot was probably the only way I could keep the Ordinator from becoming aggressive. This humble tone was rather emberassing in my opinion, but it was all for the greater good.

I grabbed the book and put it in my backpack. The Ordinator was still busy deciding whether or not he would try to kill me when I walked out of the door. I’d read Progress of Truth later. Preferably at a place where the nearest Ordinator was far beyond the horizon. With the mess I left behind, I doubted anyone would notice that one book was missing.

After that, I had nothing left to do in Vivec. I was glad I could leave the city behind. All these Ordinators were sriously getting on my nerves. For all their elite guardish stuff, they sure had a limited vocabulary. Scum was getting old.

It was a long walk back to the Foreign Canton, and the sun had already set when I finally arrived. No Siltstrider for me today. If I wanted to leave, I would have to spend the night outside or use a different exit. I knew of just one. Once more, I made my way up to the top of a canton. Vivec was a beautiful city, but the population was a bit unfriendly and there were too many changes in height between places.

,,You! Stupid N’Wah!” Well, who did we have here? There was only one reason why that guy could be swinging a club in front of my face.
,,Look, sorry about the inconvenience.” I began but soon found out that apologies didn’t help much.

,,Sorry?! You are sorry?! You made me believe that I would be rolling in money after those Ordinators had held their party. I hired the most expensive cleaners in the city! But where where they?! Well, where were the stupid Ordinators?!” Wow, this guy really had taken it a bit too far. He needed to cool down before he would explode.

,,Hey, didn’t you hear? They found two of their people dead. Throats slit. Not exactly the right time to be holding a party, don’t you think?” Luckily I had heard that bit of news.

,,I know that! I asked one of these Ordinators. And guess what?! He didn’t know about any party, Dagoth be damned!” He still hadn’t calmed down. Maybe I should’ve just started a fight in his club.

,,It was a surprise party.” I was running out of lies fast.
,,I won’t fall for your lies again, Redguard! Your blood will stain the ground when I walk away from here and my hands will be wet! Get your dirty hands away from your sword!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

,,Ok, calm down. Can’t we talk about it?” I said as I raised my hands and created some distance between us. Then, I stretched out my arms in a burst of magicka and watched as he flew over the railing. Telekinesis sure was handy sometimes. It also helps when people think you’re nothing but a mindless thug with a sword. It makes it easier to surprise them.

,,Looks like a bit more than just your hands got wet! Sorry, but I prefer to keep my blood inside my body. See ya!” I yelled down at the owner of the club who was now swimming in the lake that the city was built in. Three people in the water on one day, what was wrong with this city?

Vivec was the largest city on the island. Couldn’t get much bigger if you asked me. It also was logical that it contained a hall of the mage guild. I would just use the guild guide to poof back to my lovely new home in Balmora.

,,Excuse me, outlander. What are you doing here?” An abnormally fat mage asked me in a not so polite tone the moment I’d entered. I wondered how many Feather spells were used to support that weight.
,,Mind if you first tell me who you are?” I responded. I never let people run over me like that.

,,Sure, I am the Archmage of Vardenfell. Trebonius.”
I took a good look at him. Imperial and very fat. I had no doubt that he would be part of the more corrupt people in the guild. If that was the case I knew just how to get him of my back.

,,Ah, Archmage. You are just the person I need. We’ll talk in a more quite corner. This is something that can only be said to someone who can be trusted.” I simply dragged him to where I wanted before showing him Fargoth’s ring.

,,See this? It is the sign of the Blades, his majesty’s top-secret spy service. Now I am on a mission to preserve the safety of the Imperial citizens in this province. Of course, that is something that is best kept a secret. I’m sure I can trust you. I will need access to the guild guide for transportation. I will use the identity as a mage in this guild as my cover. If you notice anything suspicious, tell me. Don’t do it in person, that would just attract attention. Sent a sealed envelope to the guild hall in Balmora to a man named Luper Alkad, my cover identity. Do your duty, and the emperor shall surely reward you. Remember, don’t talk about this to anyone you can’t completely trust.” After saying that, I left the confused Archmage behind.

Posted by: jchamber Mar 4 2006, 08:29 PM

yay! the angered tavern man and his unwilling swim, sweetness I tell you!! Manipulation of the arch mage is nice......and convenient. muwahahahahaha, nice peice here.

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 5 2006, 07:57 PM

Thanks. Hope you enjoy the update.




The guild guide brought me to Balmora in an instant and I spent a few minutes joking around with Ajira before saying goodnight and setting of for my new home. I stopped before reaching the door. Why should I just go home? I might as well drop off my notes at Caius’s place. The sooner I got this over with, the sooner I could just go back to my own business.

,,Excuse me, can I still come in?” I asked with the door barely opened. Who knew what the spy was doing right now.
,,What, oh it’s you. Alright, come in. Make sure no one sees you.”

,,Good to see you, Luper. Now before we get to your duties in Vivec, has the situation with the slave been resolved?”
,,Sure did, she’s on her way back to the mainland as we speak.”

,,Good, now report.” Caius ordered as he paced back and forth. He seemed impatient, or maybe he was just eager to hear about what I’d found out.

,,I’ve found all three informants and received the information you were looking for.”
,,How did you handle the complications you surely ran into?” For the short time he knew me, Caius sure managed to pick up on my style of doing things.
,,I dropped one Daedric Cultist in the sewer waters, flushed out one Census and Excus agent out of the city through the same sewer and dropped one club owner into the lake. Oh yeah, I made a bit of a mess of the temple library.”

,,That’s all? I would have expected more from you.” Caius looked very relieved. Clearly he expected me to slaughter half of Vivec’s population or something.
,,Good, now here are Huleeya’s notes. I’ve also stolen a book out of the library that your temple informant suggested and I can give you a spoken report on the information of your Khajitt informant.”
,,Well then, get started.” For the next few hours, we went through the information and the book together.

,,Alright, Huleeya’s notes are fine. The book gives some very interesting information though I don’t know if I can thrust its information. We’ll have to locate these dissident priests. But how do we know that Addhiranirr is right? For all we know, the smugglers could all suddenly have a change of heart.” Caius spoke in the end, more to himself than to me.

,,I trust her opinion. I was raised by smugglers myself, remember? Once a smuggler, always a smuggler. And smugglers are a proud bunch who like to tell about their trade over a drink. There can be only two reasons why they would be so silent and you won’t like them. Either they get paid a huge fortune to keep their mouths shut or they are too scared to talk. Or both. Whatever’s the case, I would like to go visit one of the other guild halls and see if I can get a bit more there while working on my career as a mage. Goodnight, shirtless.” I said and finally went to my own bed. It was nearly morning already, and tomorrow would be a busy day.

I awoke the next morning and got myself fully awake with the help of a good glas of Flin. After that, I went to the Siltstrider and paid for a passage to Seyda Neen.
When the big bug arrived, I made my way directly to Gilnith’s shack. My hand went for the door when I froze. Someone had messed with the door.

,,Ok, whoever you are. We’re going to play things my way.” I muttered to myself as I levitated to the roof. My short stay in the shack had planted the location of every little hole in the roof and walls firmly in my head. I lied down near one of those and peeked through it. There was a man in my house who judging by his size, was a Nord. So mister shake-down Fargoth had finally caught on. Took him long enough.

I slowly made a small hole in a corner of the roof and levitated everything I wanted to take with me out through it. After that I went through the hole myself.

,,Well well, what do we’ve got here? A guest, how can I help you?” I said as I laid the tip of Tarhiel’s sparksword in his neck and watched with satisfaction how the sparks shot out of the iron into his neck. It had to be quite unpleasant.

,,You! You promised to find Fargoth’s hiding place! But then you disappeared. For days I’ve waited here. Now I’ll have my revenge on the traitor who didn’t lived up to his word!” Hrisskar made a lot of noise, but he still seemed to have the necessary brain cells to realize that he was in a bad position to be aggressive.

,,Ah, but didn’t you realized that your master plan was a bit too good? All you needed to do was to spend a night on top of the lighthouse to find it yourself. But no, it was too cold outside and you needed your alcohol. So you thought you could fool a prisoner who hadn’t smelled freedom yet. Now I tell you that you won’t be taking revenge on me today, cause you can’t even move.” I told him and hit him with a nice little paralyzing spell from late Vorar Helas’s ring.

I quickly undressed the stupid Nord till he was standing in nothing more than his underwear. Then, as the paralyzation wore of, I put fire to said underwear. Screaming, Hrisskar bolted out of the door straight for the water. How fun it was to see him swim for his life with the Slaughterfish on his heels. He was too scared to get back on the land where I was.

,,Having a nice swim?! I’d join you if I could, but I’ve got important business to do! It was nice to meet you, goodbye!” I shouted after him and walked with my goods back to the Siltstrider. I was on the way back to Balmora by the time Hrisskar finally dared to get out of the water.

Posted by: Tellie Mar 5 2006, 08:44 PM

Wohoo...rofl . That was just funny, poor Hissking, having the swim of his life I presume. I really like the way you handle the game, and each update is dripping vith humour..please keep'em coming.

Posted by: Taillus Mar 7 2006, 02:56 PM

Hahaha That will teach Hissking. Lets see how tough he is with flaming underwear!

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 7 2006, 08:47 PM

I based that one on Hlomar Wine-Sot. I loved that stupid Nord standing naked cause of that Festering witch and her charms. Glad you liked it. Now I've both been busy with real life for a while and trying to think up how to continue. Frankly, there wasn't much I could do about Edwinna's first three missions, so I just skipped to the Dwemer Tube. Anyway, here we go.



Finally, a real mission. All the time I’d been working for Edwinna Elberd, the Ald-Rhun steward, I’ve felt like a cheap delivery boy, bringing all the books she likes. But no books this time. No, she wanted a Dwemer tube. Nice, you could buy those if you knew where to look, but I was going to collect it from a Dwemer ruin since no one said I couldn’t take anything for myself. Long live the treasure hunter spirit.

The Siltstrider had taken me to what was the closest town to the ruin that I knew of, Gnisis. The place wasn’t much, just a few of the big shells people call houses here and some barracks. I’ve never seen so many Orcs at one place though. After taking my bearings, I left the town behind and moved into the mountains.

,,Excuse me. Thank the gods you came. I need your help.” Oh my, the woman who was standing by the side of the road was well, damn good looking! Silly, but she seemed to play on the male instincts. All I thought of was pleasing her.
,,Hello, fair lady. How may I be of assistance?” I asked. Man, I really sounded dumb but I didn’t noticed that.

,,I was on my way to Gnisis. I’m a dancer and I would perform there. But along the way I tripped and my ring fell into that muddy pond. I couldn’t just leave it there but I can’t show up all dirty you know. So I’ve been waiting for a hero to come along and help me out. Would you be so kind as to be my hero. I’m sure we can come to a very suitable reward.” A very fishy story but as said, my mind and instincts had been shut down and hormones had taken over.

,,Sure thing, you’ll have your ring back in no time.” I said and walked over to the pond. There was only one entrance and the rest of the pool was surrounded by high rocks. If you wanted an ambush, this was the perfect place. Thank the daedra I still had some sense of hygiene.

,,You can put that armour over there. It looks heavy and I don’t want you to drown.” She told me as she pointed at a few rocks.
,,No, that won’t be necessary.” I replied and jumped on top of one of the rocks lining the pond. Looking into it, the ring was barely visible near some plants. If I actually decided to take a swim without my armour, I would’ve been dead.
There were alternatives to swimming, such as a small bit of telekinesis. With a few gestures, I lifted the little trinket out of the water and into my hands.

,,There you go, it was my pleasure.” Anything else I had intended to say was cut short as I yelled. It was more in frustration and surprise than pain. An arrow had lodged itself firmly between the plates covering my left arm. At the same moment, the dancer’s hand went into her pocket and came out with something round and pointy. I finally realized what was going on here.

,,Oh no you won’t! Take that, you dirty piece of mud!” I shouted and pressed a hand filled with fire into her face while my other hand took out my Claymore. I ended with a wide slash across her stomach and watched her fall into the pond. Even if she survived those injuries and escaped from drowning, I doubted her face would have attracted a big crowd to her dancing.

,,Thought you were smart, didn’t you?! How dare you play with my hormones like that! That’s just mean!” Another arrow reminded me that the dancer wasn’t the only one who had been trying to kill me. There was an archer around somewhere, but I was unable to see him.

That left me with little options. I dodged like crazy to make myself a harder target and started preparing my spell. When another arrow bounced of a rock near me, I figured out the general direction it had came from and fired.

The fireball wasn’t very powerful, but it was designed to explode in a radius as wide as possible. The moment it hit the ground, it expanded and hit my invisible assailant. The view of flames burning on invisible armour was enough for me. I fired a paralysis bolt at the archer and rushed in with my sword. One swing later, and the archer lacked the upper part of the head. It turned out to be quite a deadly wound.

As my heart calmed down, my brains started working again and I realized how I’d been fooled. Their plan was simple, but very effective. One beautiful dancer to get any male victim of his guard and into a pond that was the perfect place for an ambush, preferably without armour. Add an archer concealed by a powerful Chameleon spell and you had a killing team. Too bad for them they really needed the element of surprise. Without it, they never stood a chance.

This encounter had been a serious blow to my ego, but it also explained to me once more that looks aren’t everything. My embarrassment was softened by the lovely Amulet of Shadows which was a nice souvenir indeed with its powerful Chameleon enchantment.

After taking everything I needed and ditching the two robbers in their pond, I wandered on.

Posted by: Taillus Mar 8 2006, 04:09 PM

*sigh* curse that pond. I lost my very first character to that pond. Poor little breton didn't even see it coming. Rest in peace Calypso!

Posted by: Tellie Mar 8 2006, 07:51 PM

I can say the same Taillus, but it was even worse forme...my first character who I named Mannfred ( and imperial ), was in level 53, and after going out there, i found the ring, but got stuck in some plants...after a little time, my big dont-mess-with-me character was dead by some f****** camper,who was about invinsible... R.I.P mannfred, I'll never forget you...

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 8 2006, 09:26 PM

The pond got me too. I just couldn't withstand the temptation of an easy quest (Not even a Slaughterfish in the pond!) and so fell for it. I only noticed the guy during my death animation. But I took revenge after reloading by simply forgetting about the ring and instead walking behind mister invisible's back and hitting him first. He (or she, I never remember those things) was dead soon enough. Without the invisible archer, miss dancer-who-lost-her-ring is easy.
Anyway, an update.



The ruins were just past a cliff which I crossed with the help of two steel bridges. The place looked like a fortress, but the only defence on the outside came in the form of a Nix-Hound which I quickly dealt with. I also admired a device that looked like a gigantic crossbow before heading inside.

Once inside, I was immediately on my guard. The small vibrations that moved through the walls and floor were similar to the ones I felt in the ruins near Balmora, but there was something else, a ticking sound like small spears being thrust at the floor.

I descended down the stairs and saw that the corridor soon reached a chamber with multiple exits, giving me several directions to head in, as well as giving an enemy the chance to sneak up on my back. This was also where the ticking had its source.

A small ball of Dwemer steel ran towards me on thin steel legs. I had encountered my first Centurion. This one looked like a Spider Centurion. It wasn’t too big and although the Dwemer steel formed a good barrier to my sword, I felled it in two massive chops.

,,Well, if this is the best these Dwemer had, no wonder they disappeared.” I laughed and kicked the wreckage to see if it still showed any signs of movement. Bad move, the noise I made attracted the attention of another Dwemer artefact. I was notified of its appearance by the big rumbling sound it made as it rolled over the steel floor. I spun towards the sound and saw a giant steel sphere coming at me.

With a quick dash to the left, I managed to avoid the big Sphere and stay away from its crushing weight. With its element of surprise gone, I thought I could easily take it with my sword. That thought evaporated when the sphere opened and a steel figure popped out, holding a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. A Sphere Centurion, this was just great.

For a few moments, we traded blows. Though my sword had both greater reach and power, my advantage was nullified by the Centurion’s shield and fast movements. I backed of just long enough to throw a fireball in its path only to find out about the Centurion’s great resistance to heat. No surprise really, it did had hot steam coming out of it all the time after all.

Parrying and avoiding as much as I could, I was slowly backed into a corner by the thing. If it wasn’t so damn fast it would be scrap metal by now. That gave me an idea.
I backed of as far as I could till I ended with my back against the wall before trying another spell.

The different elements used in the school of destruction are supposedly all the same and not any more difficult to conjure than an other element. Fire still felt easier though, so the bolt of ice that emanated from my hand couldn’t compete with my usual fireballs. It was still effective, in that it cooled down whatever powered the Centurion and froze the hot steam into snow.

With most of its speed gone, I finally found a chance to parry one of its attacks and bring my sword up through the joint that connected its shield arm with its body. The arm separated and dropped to the floor. With its shield removed and heavily slowed down from the cooling, the Sphere Centurion proved no match.

I explored the corridor the Sphere Centurion had come from to find it empty. Good, one less place for enemies to creep up on me. I took the other corridor and ascended a flight of stairs. What I encountered may have been a Dwemer long ago, now it was nothing more but a slightly more lethal ghost. Still no match for the silver of my sword and I easily ran through it.

Sounds of ticking legs notified me of several Spider Centurions headed my way. They were not very dangerous on their own, but in large numbers they could be a threat. I dealt with them in the same way as the Sphere Centurion. Some ice to slow them down followed by a good hit from my sword.

I saw one last Centurion at the far end of the last room. It was one of the Sphere type. I’d just expended my Magicka reserves, so this battle would have to be won by trickery, not force.

,,Hey, lump of rust! Over here! Come and get me if you can!” I sprinted back to the previous room as fast as I could and waited near the center. The Centurion came rolling towards me at full speed, intend on running me over and then crush me with its weight. I had other plans and waited till it was nearly on top of me before jumping away. The Centurion reacted too late and plunged in the pit filled with lava that was right in the center of the room. No matter how heat resistant it was, it couldn’t handle this much heat and soon melted away.

I came out of the ruins not only with the tube, but also with what appeared to be the left bracer, left Pauldron and Cuirass of a Dwemer suit of armour. I was planning to explore more Dwemer ruins someday in the hope of finding a full set. As for now, nothing but the boring trip back to Gnisis awaited me.

Posted by: Tellie Mar 8 2006, 10:14 PM

great jacky, really great...:toungue: it was funny how you felt being fooled by miss-dancing.queen, a major blow to your ego, I laughed a long time after that.

As always you write great and in a very funny stile, I love it, so please give us more now...NOW.

Posted by: Taillus Mar 8 2006, 11:04 PM

Great update Cloudy. Dwemer ruins are so fun! Keep up the good work!

Posted by: jchamber Mar 9 2006, 02:53 AM

lol, 'if this is the best the dwemer had'.....hahahaha I have missed a bit and I am sorry but I am reading again....I read really slow so I can't keep up with your updates....I am busy with school, I am almost in finals week and am begining to feel it already.

Posted by: mplantinga Mar 9 2006, 03:03 AM

Great updates. The use of ice on the centurions was brilliant; at the very least, the explanation you gave would work in the real world. I always thought some of the Morrowind natural laws defied rational explanation. Perhaps that is to be expected from a world with so much magic. Regardless, keep up the great work.

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 9 2006, 10:04 PM

Thank you, thank you. If anyone wanted an update, time to rejoice.



And after the boring trip to Gnisis came the boring trip to Ald’rhun. The weather was simply horrible, but I suppose that was normal here. Still, I hated ash storms. No doubt cleaners were very popular here, seeing as I left a big pile of ash in the hall upon entering. Edwinna didn’t are though, as her happiness was bordering on the insane upon seeing the tube.

,,This is an excellent specimen, thank you. I’ll take care of it. Now, Luper Alkad, I have another mission for you if you are interested.”
Another one, where do they get these? On the other hand, I should get out of here before the cleaner showed up.
,,Sure, if I can put my stuff in a chest till I come pick it up. What do you want me to do?” I asked.

,,I want you to check up on the exploration team I sent to the Nehuleftingh ruins. It is somewhat north from mount Kand. I suggest you travel to Suran and then head north-east into the Molag Amur region. They’re supposed to send me a report every month, but this month’s report is taking ages to arrive. Please find out what’s going on and bring that report back to me.”

I dropped my loot in the small room they’d given me to use. After that, I transported to Balmora where I had my equipment repaired at the local blacksmith. Some potions from Ajira and I was ready to go. I took a Siltstrider to Vivec and then continued on to Suran. From there, I entered the Molag Amur region.

This place was just the way I had always imagined Oblivion would be. Ash storms hit me every hour and there were plenty of Cliff racers which I slayed as well as a couple of Kagouti who I avoided. Finally, I made it to the familiar sight of Dwemer ruins and entered, grateful for the protection against the storm.

Though I was worried for a moment, it turned out there were no Centurions here. Not on the upper floor at least. I met with the leader of the expedition who explained things to me. Apparently, their guide had found an entrance to the lower levels. The leader mentioned something called passwall but I was already gone.

If the guide made it down below, he could be in danger. Finding him as soon as possible was the only thing I could do. I feared he would be death by now. I took quite some time to get here. I moved into a room filled with Dwemer machines. This was were the guide disappeared. There were several cranks. I pulled them.

,,Hey, what are you doing?! We haven’t researched them yet!” The expedition’s leader complained.
,,I’m going to find your guide. That’s what you should’ve done several days ago. Now shut up and let me clean up your mess.” I responded and walked through the door that had opened.

I found the guide soon enough. He was dead. Two Spider Centurions were at his side. I must say I’m quite impressed with how he defeated them using his dagger but the wound that killed him wasn’t caused by the spiders. It was caused by a sphere.

This time around, I knew the trick behind battling Centurions and I didn’t hesitate to use it. Every single piece of moving metal would receive a good bolt of ice. Only after ridding the ruins of every single Centurion, did I return to the guide.

He had the report with him, so I took it. Now that that was done, I figured I could satisfy my own curiosity. He was also carrying an ancient book. I couldn’t read it, but I clearly saw that it was written in two different languages. Maybe someone could use it to translate Dwemer runes?

I re-emerged on the upper levels a few hours later, carrying some more armour pieces, a Dwemer War Axe, the report and the strange book. The leader started complaining about my artefact theft, but I ignored that.

,,Look, you’ve simply allowed that man to die so don’t expect me or anyone else to listen to you. Besides, I am under direct orders from Edwinna, not yours. So feel free to try to stop me if you dare. And finally, get the hell out of my way before I kick you in the face.” I told him and pushed him aside. Once outside, I cast my recall spell and transported back to Edwinna.

Posted by: mplantinga Mar 10 2006, 12:20 AM

So Luper is getting a bit snitty. Why does everyone writing stories about mages make them into bullies? Still, it is clear that Luper learned his lessons well, and the centurions didn't pose any problem for him this time. I wonder how Edwinna will respond to Luper's treatment of Senilius?

Thanks for another interesting update.

Posted by: Agent Griff Mar 10 2006, 08:35 AM

I must say, this story is great! At first, I thought of your character as an arrogant b@stard but now I think more highly of him. I liked how you developed the relationship with Caius, at first you were pretty hostile with one another but now they seem like friends. I am now officialy a fan of your works. Great job and I also wish you luck in continuing them. And thanks for posting so much in my own fan fiction. Cheers!

Posted by: Taillus Mar 10 2006, 02:43 PM

Cloudy and Griff both I root for you guys and will always support your works because you joined here just about the same time as me. I have been following the Oasis story from the very beginning and I love it. I always look forward to reading it and I love the attitude he gives. Takes no guff from no one! keep it up and keep showing those Centurions who's boss!

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 10 2006, 08:27 PM

Thank you. Hey everyone, please update your stories soon. I have yet to see a story here that I don't like.

Ok, an update. I manipulated the plot a bit from what you get in game.



Edwinna was happy with the report and immediately suggested that I looked up on an expedition she sent to a ruin near Dagon Fel. Wow, she really was into this Dwemer thing. I told her I would leave in the morning and took a nap.

The man with the golden mask had come back to haunt me in my dreams.
,,There are many rooms in the house of the Master. Be easy, for from the hands of your enemies I have delivered you.” He said.
I could see myself lying on a table like a corpse. Fortunately, I awoke soon enough.
These dreams were beginning to take their toll on me. I needed two whole minutes to calm down.

But duty called and I forced myself to get up and ready. I would need a ship to reach Dagon Fel. I would take a breakfast consisting of some scrib jelly and Kwama cuttle once on board to save time. My best bet to find a ship was Vivec, so I had myself transported there.

,,Hi there, Luper Alkad! Just the person I need! I could use a favour!” Trebonius shouted across the hall mere seconds after I arrived. What was it this time? And could he lower his voice a bit, it was giving me a headache.

,,What’s the matter, Archmage?” I asked as I donned the face of Imperial spy again. With a bit of luck I could get him out of my way in just a few moments.
,,I need someone to find out what happened to the dwarves. I’m sure it will be an easy job for a lad like you.” He leant over and started whispering.

,,By the way, was the information I sent you of any use? I sent you ten letters, but never got an answer.” What, he actually did that? Great, now I had my own spy network!
,,I couldn’t answer cause it would draw attention to you. We don’t want an assassin near your bed, do we?” I whispered back and watched with satisfaction how he went pale.
,,Right, Archmage. I’ll get to it as soon as I finish my current studies. Now if you excuse me, I have a boat to catch.” I spoke in a louder voice and left the hall.

The boat wasn’t too big and I decided to hire myself out as an extra hand instead of paying for the ride as a passenger. I grew up on a boat, so making a bit of money during the trip would be easy.

I arrived in Dagon Fel a couple of days later. The place was quite a bit bigger than I expected, seeing as it is the farthest away from the mainland. I walked into a place called “the end of the world” for a quick drink before setting of for the ruins.

The place was crowded. There were Imperials, Nords, Khajitt, Dark Elves and even two Orcs. The Orcs were particularly loud and I could easily eavesdrop on their conversation from the other side of the room.

,,Another good find today, my friend! Many Dwarven artefacts! Let us drink on it!” One of them boomed and raised a big bottle of flin.
,,A good find indeed. Now what are we going to do with those mages that stumbled in the other day?” Mages? Where they talking about Edwinna’s expedition?
,,They interfered with our business. I believe we’ll kill them and send their heads to the guild as a message. But first, let’s drink!”

I left the tavern before the bartender could bring me my drink. I did leave a few coins on the tap. There was no time to lose. With those two Orcs drinking like that, they’d probably pass out and wait till morning before returning to the ruins. That meant I had one night to find the ruins, infiltrate them and make my way past an unknown number of enemies whose capabilities I didn’t knew to save the expedition. That wasn’t a lot of time and there were too many things I didn't know for comfort.

I spoke to the nearest guard to ask where I could find the ruins.
,,Ay, Redguard. Are you sure that would be a good idea? The Centurions have all been reduced to scrap by now, but there is a vicious band of Orcs there. They’ll kill you.” He must have seen my determined expression, for he stopped trying to make me forget about it.

,,But if you really must, the ruins are just to the southwest of here. You’ll have to move around the mountains. Be careful of Kagouti and Cliffracers. After an hour worth of walking, you should see the door past a bridge.” I thanked him and rushed of.

He said that the ruins were close to the village. I didn’t had time for a long walk, so I would just have to climb and levitate over the mountains. I did so and slid down the last ridge leading to the bridge barely half an hour later.

A rat stood guard. The moment it noticed me, it came at me and tried to bite me with unimaginable fury. My sword made a huge wound in its back that should’ve severed its spine, but it didn’t seem to bother the monster at all. My next hit severed the head and the rat finally accepted death.

I stood over the corpse, having completely forgotten about my rescue mission for the moment. Blight, the rat was blighted by the disease that increased your strength as well as making you mad with bloodlust. Wasn’t that disease supposed to be contained by this thing the Dark Elves call the ghostfence? What was going on here?

Posted by: Taillus Mar 10 2006, 08:37 PM

Uh oh. Those cursed blight creatures managing to escape the fence. Great update and like always I will be awaiting the next one.

Posted by: mplantinga Mar 10 2006, 09:56 PM

An interesting development. Those orcs in Mzuleft always did a number on me; I hope that our mage friend fares okay.

Posted by: Tellie Mar 10 2006, 10:42 PM

Great as always, no remember to be carefull down in tose ruins, I have been killed more than once down there. I do hope that our mage friend can conjure up andother amazing plan and make it out of there more than less in one piece.

Posted by: Agent Griff Mar 11 2006, 08:21 AM

Wonderful update. I love how you handle the Trebonius problem in such original fashion. You are a very creative writer I must say that and you also breath life into your characters in a manner that I pure and simply can't. Your character is much more laid back and informal as oposed to my character which is quite the oposite, a serious guy but he ain't as serious as some of his fellow knights.

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 11 2006, 04:26 PM

Thank you all for the compliments. At first I tried to come up with an ubercomplex plan, but I settled for something a little simpler.





Whatever was the case, I had more important things to deal with. Steeling myself for what was inevitably going to be a slaughter, I head inside.

An Orc was standing right at the bottom of the stairs, and immediately noticed me.
,,Redguard! What are you doing here?! Speak from where you stand!” He shouted in an aggressive tone. Sure, if he wanted me to talk I would give him something. Maybe I could even get them to all leave.

,,Hello there, Orc friend! I am a Pilgrim who arrived in Dagon Fel two hours ago. One of your people requested my help. He has ran into a small problem with the guards and been imprisoned. He would like you to go and rescue him.”
The Orc frowned and I could almost hear him thinking.
,,What does a Pilgrim do with a sword?” He finally asked.

,,My pilgrimage takes me through the dangerous Molag Amur region. It would be unwise to go unprotected. But please hurry to Dagon Fel, for your friend will be executed by morning.”
Now I hoped he would run out of the door.
,,I must ask our leader first. Stay there and don’t move, Pilgrim.” The Orc replied and moved to a door, the wrong door. Great, the time of talking was over.

I ran up behind his back and swung my Claymore at it and only managed to blunt my blade. That’s what I hated about Orcish armour. It was so though my sword simply bounced of it!

,,Coward! I’ll feast on your bones!” The Orc screamed in rage and took out his axe. Luckily, his bloodlust made him a bit clumsy and I danced around his blows till his axe finally came in contact with the wall. The impact with the wall was hard enough to make him drop it and I took advantage of the situation by attacking the only part of his body that wasn’t protected, his head. It rolled over the ground a moment later.

Orcish armour. The stories that Orcs are some of the finest armorers in Tamriel weren’t exaggerated. It was much stronger than Bonemold yet the difference in weight was small. If I made it out of here alive I would take some of it with me to use.

But if all the Orcs were armoured like this, I wouldn’t stand much of a chance in contest of swords and axes. I would be better if I had a small advantage, such as being invisible.
I took the amulet of shadows out of my pocket and hung it around my neck. I then moved to one of the round Dwemer doors with one hand on the amulet and knocked.
,,What is it?!” One Orc shouted very annoyed. The moment he opened the door, I activated the amulet and melted in with my surroundings.

,,What is all that noise good fo……AARGH! Where are you, intruder?! Show yourself, coward!” He growled when he saw what happened to his friend. He then started to run through the room while swinging at the air. Fool, I just needed to wait near the wall for him to pass after which I cleaved his head in two. Two Orcs down, an unknown number remaining.

I had no idea how long the amulet’s charge would last, I’d forgotten to ask the previous owner about that detail. It was time to move on. The last Orc left the door open so I could go through it without making any unnecessary noise. There were two doors I could chose from, I picked the upper one.

I knocked on the door and waited. Another Orc came through and I put one of my daggers in his throat. Normally I’m more of a sword person, but daggers were very effective for close-quarters surprise attacks. He dropped without a sound. The next room was empty. I was beginning to believe that there was one Orc in each room. If I could surprise them all like this, I might stand a chance.

A big cylinder in the center of the room drew my attention. There was a big piece missing on one side, like a door. The cylinder was hollow and the floor was missing. I crept closer and looked down.

The cylinder descended downward into a pit of lava. On the bottom, there was another hole in the wall, as well as an Orc standing near the pit gazing upwards. At least he didn’t see me.

That was, till my Chameleon spell suddenly dissipated. I noticed that I’d been spotted by the surprised look on his face. For a few seconds, the Orc just stared at me before reacting. Then, he took a step backwards, no doubt intending to rush up through the corridors to fight me. I reacted quicker though, and pulled him into the lava with a bit of Telekinesis.
,,And for tonight’s diner, fried Orc.” I muttered in mild amusement.

A Slowfall spell allowed me to descend through the cylinder and land in the lower room without ffalling into the lava myself. I figured that people would be more intent on looking towards the door for an approaching attacker than the cylinder. The room turned out to be empty. One Orc in each room seemed to be the rule here.

Opening the door revealed the corridor I had passed through earlier. Fine by me. I went back to the entrance and took the last remaining door, after activating my amulet.

Another Orc, he never even saw me coming before his head was separated. There were some shelves in this room, but my attention was drawn to the door on the other side. I could here voices coming from behind it, mostly pleas for mercy. It looked like I had found the mages, and they were guarded.

Slowly, I eased the heavy door open and slipped through after activating the amulet. The Orcs were too busy torturing their prisoners to even notice. Orcs, there were two of them this time. One of them looked like a mage and the other like a warrior. Now I could only kill one before the other would notice something was wrong. Which was the most dangerous, the mage or the warrior?

I allowed fate to decide for me, with a bit of help.

I picked up one Dwemer cup and threw it at the warrior’s back when the two Orcs had their back turned to each other.

,,Ow! Why did you do that?!” The Orc grumbled as he turned to the mage. In no time at all, a heated argument was started that ended with the Orc taking his axe and being electrocuted by the mage.

Ok, one left. At this time, the amulet decided to stop working again and the mage spotted me.
,,You! Coward, you make us fight amongst ourselves! When my brothers come here, you are dead!” Even being a mage, the Orc could still make a lot of noise that would’ve warned the other Orcs, if they were still alive.

,,What, are we feeling cheated? Sorry, but your brothers are all headless. I took care of that. As for you, you may live if you leave now. The mage guild does not tolerate people who imprison their members.” I responded and raised my sword. The blood and blunted edges showed the truth behind my words.

,,You want me to flee as a coward with no honour? NEVER!” The Mage screamed and started hurling spells at me. I ducked the first few and then cast a shield spell to protect myself. As the first bolts impacted with the magical shield, I charged the mage and ran my sword through the chest followed by a dagger in the back of the skull. Both wounds were lethal and the fight was now over giving me plenty of time to free the mages.

After freeing the mages, I posted the whole group near the entrance while placing two of them outside as a lookout for when the two Orcs from the tavern returned. All the mages had at least some skill in the school of Destruction and the fireworks when those Orcs entered the ruins would be impressive.

I took the time to collect a full set of Orcish armour minus the helmet and used their tools to fix up my sword. After that, I collected anything I found of interest, including another Dwemer book and what looked like the blueprints for something. Finally, I put the heads of every dead Orc in a big bag. After saying goodbye, I levitated over the mountains again. I’d reached Dagon Fel in no time at all.

The guard who had given me the directions to the ruins took the bag reluctantly.
,,May I ask what’s in it?” He said in the official tone of a guard on patrol.
,,Just some food for the Slaughterfish. If you excuse me, I’ll be going now. Goodbye.” I answered and recalled home.

Posted by: Tellie Mar 11 2006, 04:47 PM

Oh great jacky, i like that, I guess the slaughterfishes owe Oasis one now. thanks for updating, considering how difficoult those orcs normally are, i believe that oasis have gotten up a few levels. Exellent installment as always.

Posted by: Agent Griff Mar 11 2006, 05:04 PM

Great update. Luper Alkad had a very stylish way of dealing with his enemies. And the food to the slaughterfish bit was also funny and well composed. Great story, keep the updates coming. I'm curios to see if Luper will catch the "Divine Disease" and give Divayth Fyr a visit.

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 12 2006, 07:25 PM

Thank you. I don't know if he will get this Divine disease. If it's the Blight, he could cure it, if his max magicka was big enough for it. Now for the update.




,,Journeyman Alkad!” Uh oh, Edwinna looked rather angry. What did I do to deserve this?
,,Yes, steward?” I answered. It was probably best to stick to a formal tone for the moment, who knew how far developed her skills in the school of Destruction were.

,,Do you know what you’ve done? I should banish you from the guild where you stand!” Oh great, there goes my career.
,,No, steward, I don’t know. Perhaps you could be so kind as to explain?” I would be damned if I allowed them to kick me out of the guild without knowing why.

,,I will. Remember that expedition I had you check up? Well, I just heard that you threatened its leader. You threatened a fellow member of the guild as well as sabotaging his research. And finally, you stole a few priceless artefacts from those ruins. What do you have to say about that? I’ll give you one chance to defend yourself, with words.”

,,About the expedition, that guy simply allowed his guide to die down there which got me a bit angry. That is all I have to say about that. Now here’s the situation in Dagon Fel. Your expedition there had been captured by a group of bad-mannered Orcs. I killed the Orcs and freed your expedition. And I’ve got an idea. Can I bribe you with these Dwemer blueprints?”

Edwinna eagerly pulled the blueprints out of my hands. This just couldn’t fail. She was such a Dwemer nut that I could’ve killed the whole guild and still bought her off with something Dwemer.
,,Hmm, yes this is very interesting. I’m sure it was all just a minor misunderstanding. Thank you for the blueprints. These will be very handy in my research, Evoker Alkad.” Hold on, Evoker?

As it turned out, the blueprints did a bit more than keeping me in the guild. Edwinna had just promoted me for them. She did sent me to a certain Skink in Sadrith Mora. I was wondering if the real punishment would come from this Skink.

The hall in Sadrith Mora was a single room inside a castle. As such, finding Skink who turned out to be the local steward was easy. He was an Argonian by the way.

,,Ah, yes. You must be the mage Edwinna would send me. I have a very delicate task to perform and Edwinna said she would send someone to me with all the necessary skills to survive in the wilderness.” He said.
,,So where is the Dwemer ruin this time?” I asked.

,,Ruin, there is no ruin this time. All stewards have their interests. Edwinna’s is the Dwemer technology, mine are the Ashlander clans. I want you to negotiate a meeting between me and a wise woman. Go to the Ahemmusa camp, near Tel Vos on the north-east corner of Vvardenfell. I suggest you take the boat from here to Tel Mora. You will find the harbour on the west side of Sadrith Mora. Good luck, Evoker.”

And there I went, out of the door. A meeting between the mage guild and these ashlanders, how weird could things get? It didn’t matter though, as long as I followed orders. Yeah, maybe there were a few interesting ruins along the way to loot.

Once again, I decided to hire myself out as an extra help instead of paying for the trip. Once in Tel Mora, I waterwalked over to the main island after which I set off for the Ahemmussa camp. The Azura’s Coast region was filled with Mudcrabs, Kagouti and Cliffacers. Especially the Cliffracers were annoying. They were everywhere. At least I wouldn’t get lost, I could just follow the trail of Cliffracer bodies back to Tel Mora.

After a long walk, I made it to the camp where I was greeted less than friendly. I was either ignored, or simply told that they didn’t like outlanders here. Only a woman seemed to threat me with some form of kindness, probably because I looked useful.

,,You, outlander. You are the one I saw in my dreams, the one who shall safe the clan.” She said in a very mysterious tone. Oh great, a dream. I didn’t believe in that superstition. Then again, those nightmares of mine felt quite real, what if there was truth behind those dreams? I allowed her to ramble on.

,,In my dream, I saw how you followed a white Guar. Go and find the Guar. I saw it where the roads separate and rocks grow out of the ground like fingers on a hand. Please, outlander. I beg you for the future of my clan.” If I stayed around any longer, she would end up on her knees crying. I decided to get out of the camp for a while and see if I could find this Guar, or anything else for that matter near those rocks. If her dream was true, then so was mine. Should I hope for that, or should I fear it?

Posted by: Tellie Mar 12 2006, 08:12 PM

great jacky...I liked this one quite a bit...i just shows how corrupt Morrowind actually is.As always oasis manage to get himself in trouble, and now he have to go and find the white guar huh, well good luck with that one.

Posted by: Agent Griff Mar 12 2006, 09:05 PM

Great update! I liked how Luper smooth talked his way out of that situation with Edwinna. I also liked the "Well done, Evoker Alkad" part. It was unexpected. Your character has a very creative way of wiggling out of trouble I must say. Keep up the great work and good luck in finding the White Guar. I've heard a rumour that Daedric princes have internet and that they predict the future using 'sites' like "Hannah's Whereizzit". Maybe you can find hints of the white guar there

Posted by: Sirin Mar 13 2006, 02:25 AM

ive only read some of these stories, jack, but you've got something going on here. the ,, '' thing sorta bothers me, but it's nothing you need to stop. the light hearted nature of this story, and also Oasis' dedication to doing good really cause me to enjoy this. keep it up.

Posted by: Tellie Mar 13 2006, 03:10 PM

I cant agree more with the above ones, you really are a good writer Jacky....please let a new update come as fast as possible...I'll be waiting...

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 13 2006, 05:26 PM

Thank you for all the compliments and wait no more, cause another update is coming.
So there is an even greater force than the Daedra? I knew it, internet conquers all!
And dedicated to good? I thought it was more along the lines of it gets kinda thrown in his way. Funny thing is, originally I had intended him to be more along the lines of: ,,You can all go and **** yourselves. Just leave me alone. And this Dagoth Ur is going down if he doesn't stop farting all the time. Those Ash storms of his are driving me nuts!" But being semi good is probably better and easier. Anyway, update.



The Ashlanders weren’t much of a help in finding the place, so it looked like I had to do things myself. The walk around the Grazelands was calming to the mind, even though there were way too many Cliffracers around. The breeze, the sun, this was definitely a massive improvement over the rain and the ash storms I always got stuck in on the mainland.

Along my search, I came to Tel Vos. Now this was a weird place. It looked like someone tried to make a crossbreed between an Imperial fort and one of those giant mushrooms. The result was bizarre, to be honest. I stared at it for a while, but then turned back. I’d probably gone too far and missed the spot. Maybe it was further to the North.

It was when I took a break after fighting of three Cliffracers simultaneously that I saw it. It was like a ghost, I could see the landscape right through it. The grass didn’t bent where it went, nor did the ghostly creature cast a shadow. But the strangest thing was that it was a Guar, a white one.

I’d never seen a ghost that didn’t looked vaguely like a human or an elf, so this was weird. I’d never seen a white Guar either. The moment I got close to it, it began to walk towards the setting sun.

This was all the proof I needed, there were a few rocks around as well. Seeing as it didn’t stop, I walked after it while keeping an eye out for any Cliffracer that might want to do it harm.

Finally, it stopped near some brushes. By now I was seriously considering if I’d gone nuts and that this was a warning from my imagination. I kept walking towards the west while looking away from the thing. When I looked back, it was still where it had stopped. If this was my imagination going crazy, it was damn stubborn.

Maybe this was real and I wasn’t crazy, it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at those brushes it was looking at.

There was a woman lying under the brushes, a Dark Elf who looked like she’d been batted around by the Kagouti. She was quite dead. So this was what the Guar had brought me to, how was I supposed to save their clan like this? All I could do was to walk back and say that I found a death Dark Elf.

I was about to turn around and ask the Guar if he could give me a hint on what to do when I noticed something. Even in death, the woman had one hand clenched into a fist. I could vaguely make out the glow of an enchantment emanating from between the dark fingers. I knew I was going to regret it, but I pried the cold death flesh of her fingers open. In her now opened hand, there was an amulet.

I picked it up. Though I wasn’t much of an expert regarding enchantments, I had the distinct impression that this amulet was overflowing with restorative enchantments. Save the clan, this thing just might do it.

I was rather rudely interrupted by the battlecry of a Kagouti followed by a massive hit that sent me flying. I hit the ground rather painfully and went through my ankle. Damn lizard.
The kagouti cried again before storming at me. I did the first thing that I could think of. With a quick gesture, I lifted a rock in the air and hurled it at the thing's head with the help of a good bit of telekinesis.

Distracted, the stupid thing spun around to look for its new enemy, completely ignoring the Guar. The Guar was definitely something from my imagination, but it was a bit too coincidental that it brought me here. Someone must have planted the thing in my mind.

But that wasn’t really such a high priority at the moment. My highest priority was to get rid of the Kagouti. I pulled out my Claymore and cast a levitation spell so that I wouldn’t have to stand on my foot. The levitation also proved itself to be helpful when I used it to sail over to the Kagouti and land on its back. One quick stab in the neck below the bony shield on its head, and the thing crashed to the ground where it moved for a few seconds before dying.

The amulet I’d found healed the ankle, thereby proving my expectations about its enchantment. I buried the woman and set of for the Ashlander camp.

Posted by: Agent Griff Mar 13 2006, 07:24 PM

Interesting update. To be honest it wasn't as good as the other because Luper was alone and he didn't have anybody to communicate with. He is much more witty and interesting when he's with other people. Good luck figuring out what to do with the White Guar anyway!

Posted by: jchamber Mar 13 2006, 07:29 PM

sweetness, within a minute or two of first comment....
I really like the new style of writing you are using....the um.....first person....past tense, without quotes.....and all that, very nice indeed. Keep up the good work. I like how the guar was not really a physical thing.

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 14 2006, 07:44 PM

Glad you all like it. I must say I'm having a bit of trouble with it at the moment. I just couldn't think of anything for him to say that wouldn't get him killed by the Ashlanders. They always sound very easily provoked when I'm around. So I sticked to some (for his doing) polite stuff.





When I arrived back at camp, I was already being expected by a cheering mass of Ashlanders. What in the name of the Daedra was going on here?

,,Welcome back, Outlander. I’ve seen in my dreams that you found the white Guar. Do you know how to save the clan?” The woman who got me on the whole Guar thing in the first place asked.
,,Well, I did find an amulet. Maybe it is of any use to you? At the very least it can patch up bad ankles.”

She grabbed the amulet before I could decide whether or not to give it to her. Having an extra method of healing around always comes in handy. Too late now, taking it back could turn that now cheering group of Ashlanders into a bloodthirsty one real fast.

,,Yes, the amulet of Ashamanu, our old healer. It is unfortunate that she has met such an end. With this amulet, I’ll be able to save my clan from the Blight. I thank you, Outlander.” She motioned to one of the Ashlanders who came forward with what looked like a Chitin shield carrying a weak enchantment.

,,The shield of the Undaunted. It is one of the most valuable possessions of the clan. May it protect you well, Outlander. Now you may enter the yurt of our Wise Woman and seek your own answers.”

I was directed to the largest tent like structure in the village. It was dark inside, but there was still enough light to see the old woman inside.

,,Outlander, what do you want?” Ok, so despite having just saved the clan, I still was a filthy Outlander? Why did Skink send me here? Cause I was the only one who refused to get pecked to death by Cliffracers, that’s why.

,,I bring a message from Skink, steward of the mage guild in Sadrith Mora. He would like to arrange a meeting with you for the purpose of exchanging information.” That was all I had to say, now I needed to wait for an answer.

,,I do not want to meet an Outlander. Yet, you bear the shield of the Undaunted. Yes, if you prove yourself to me, I will consider your request. Go to the west, past the Daedric ruins and meet my apprentice in the Favel ancestral tomb. She is much too kind to Outlanders. If she wants to become the next Wise Woman, her views will have to change.” So I was to go and present myself as a rude evil Outlander? This woman was really nuts. Okay, if it had to be done, I guess I was going to do it. After saying goodbye, I left the camp. With a bit of luck, I should be done before sunset after which I could recall home.

The Daedric ruins looked like ridiculous. If you thought Dwemer architecture looked weird, go take a look at Daedric architecture. I guess that being the meanest monster in town allows you to do this without being laughed at. They looked empty, so I could just walk right through them instead of wasting time on a detour.

Empty turned out to be the wrong thought. A green lizard like creature ran up to me while screaming in an annoying tone. Clannfear, great. As they say, where there’s a Deadra, there’s a cultist with lots of loot. I rammed my sword in its mouth and walked towards the door after it had died. Lots of loot sounded good. Besides, how hard could a cultist be?

Posted by: Tellie Mar 14 2006, 08:13 PM

Hmmmm. cultists can be harder than Oasis thinks...I know Telina will have some trouble with cultists. But well I liked this one really good, and although it lacked the normal humour, it was still an exellent update.

Posted by: Taillus Mar 14 2006, 08:29 PM

Yeah I agree with Tele. It did lack some of the ever popular humor but for goot reason. We don't want to have poor Oasis scalped or anything. It is probably in his best interest that he continues to behave for the time being. Good update!

Posted by: Agent Griff Mar 14 2006, 09:26 PM

Great update! Now that Luper (you don't mind me calling him Luper do you?) is back with people he can use his superior wit and charm. I liked his comments as always. I liked when he was annoyed that he was the saviour of the tribe but the wise woman still called him outlander. I hate it when people in Morrowind call me outlander too. It's so annoying. Keep up the good work!

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 15 2006, 06:24 PM

You know the drill, enjoy the update. And you can call him anything you want, Griff.




While the outside looked ridiculous, the inside of the ruins looked quite impressive. At least there was this huge statue in this huge cavern. I wondered how they ever managed to fit that statue through the door.

,,What are you doing here, Outlander?” Oops, I should have taken a better look at my surroundings. Whoever had that sword in my neck had the distinct voice of a Dark Elf. Not my favourite kind of company. I could make out the silhouette of two other cultists coming closer. Three cultists, just my luck.

,,Hi, is this the cultist recruitment center?” I asked in an overly optimistic tone. If only I could catch these guys off guard, I would be gone before they knew what happened.
,,Recruitment center? What are you up to, Outlander?”
,,I just want to join, that’s all. Long live the Daedra!” Right now I was really beginning to sound like an idiot. The things I do to save my skin.

In the meantime, I’d managed to get a better look at the other two cultists. One of them was a Dark Elf mage and the other, a Redguard warrior. Out of all things that could’ve happened, I met a Redguard. Why are we Redguards among the best warriors in Tamriel? It makes fighting another Redguard way too hard.

,,We don’t recruit here. You may try in Vivec. There is a shrine in the sewers. Now leave.” The man who was behind me said and removed the sword. This was my chance.

In a blur of movement, I rushed forward and planted a dagger in the mage’s face while casting a levitation spell at the same time. I then flew up to the head of the giant statue where I landed. With their mage gone, there was no way the cultists could reach me. But they were the ones with the food, so I couldn’t just wait till they got bored.

I fumbled around in my pockets and took out the large collection of enchanted rings I had collected since I arrived here. On their own, they weren’t much but together they could do quite a lot of damage. I slipped the first one on my finger and paralyzed the Redguard after which I rapidly made my way through my collection of rings starting with small fireballs, followed by ice which was in turn followed by poison. One big fireball from my own magicka reserves finished him of.

The Dark Elf proved to be a bit more of a problem. I had already spent the element of surprise on the Redguard and the mage, so he wouldn’t let his guard down. After missing him a few times with my fireballs, I figured I would have to fight him directly.

A slowfall spell enabled me to descent from the statue safely with my Claymore in hand. Once I came close to the ground, I immediately had to parry a low swing of his own sword. Without pausing for a single moment, the Dark Elf launched blow after blow. I was forced to step back in order to maintain the range advantage my Claymore offered over his longsword, but it did left me without opportunity to attack. This guy was good.

A high chop was followed by a thrust which was in turn followed by a wide swing to the right followed by a quick swing to the left. I was beginning to see his pattern. After he performed his chop again, I spun to my own right to move around his thrust and the first swing. One big swing and his head fell to the floor, soon followed by the rest of his body.

That took care of the cultists. I took my dagger that was still sitting in the face of the dead mage and wiped the blood of it with his robe. Now it was time to take a good look at the loot.

It was rather disappointing, at the foot of the statue I found an Iron Saber, an emerald and a heart. Nothing I could really use unless you counted the saber, but that was a weapon that I’d dropped ages ago in favour of better swords. I did pocket the emerald and after some disgusted looks, put the heart in a bag.

Whether it was the sound or the feeling of expanding air, I didn’t know but it was something that made me instinctively rolling to the side. It was a good thing I did, as the altar was smashed by a club with inhuman force.

The Creature that had appeared out of thin air looked like a walking suit of very evil looking armour. It swung around a club that looked like it was made out of something’s arm or leg. I used my higher speed to land a hit with the Claymore, but to no effect. Its armour or skin was simply too strong to penetrate.

I tried to get away from it and in the end found myself on one side of the statue with the armour thing on the other side. Unfortunately, it was on the side with the door and I’d have to move past it if I wanted to escape. How to get out of this mess.

After a few moments of thinking, I got a plan. It was so stupid, it just had to work. I gathered all of my magicka into one spell, a blast of Telekinesis aimed at the giant statue’s head. Slowly, utterly slowly, the statue began to move. Soon it picked up speed and in the end it toppled over, right on top of the creature that was too slow to get out of its way. No matter how strong its skin was, it couldn’t handle the weight from the statue. I left the shrine as fast as I could before more of those things showed up but not before saying one thing to the fallen statue.
,,Does this mean that a Daedra will be mad at me?”

Posted by: Agent Griff Mar 15 2006, 06:31 PM

Great update. You portrayed the battle with the Dark Elf well. I also liked how you used telekinesis in a creative way to kill the dremora. As always I liked his comments. This guy really isn't backing down from saving his skin isn't he?

Posted by: Taillus Mar 15 2006, 10:27 PM

Fast thinking coupled with a a desire to live makes Oasis a strong man. Way to end those cultists. I thought he was going to be in trouble once the dremora showed up! great update Cloudy!

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 16 2006, 07:23 PM

Thank you. Just a short one for today.


After the ordeal in the Daedric ruins, it was rather satisfying to disappear in front of the eyes of the three very angry Ashlanders who tried to club me with some cheap Chitin. I raided their chest for a few coins of gold while they weren’t looking and moved on. I loved my amulet of Shadows.

The Favel tomb looked absolutely normal on the outside. A tomb was a tomb, and skeletons didn’t really frighten me so I went in without hesitating. The first room was empty of undead nasties, and I only saw a Dark Elf, the kind that was still among the living.

,,What can I do for you, Outlander?” She called me outlander, but it lacked the usual insulting tone. Quite nice in my opinion, there was no need to change that attitude if you asked me. Stupid Wise Women and their fear of outlanders.

,,Greetings, my dear. I’ve been sent over by the Wise Woman of the Ahemmusa to inquire if you require any form of assistance. Is there anything I can do for you?” Wow, I’d never sounded so polite in my whole life.
,,I appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid there is nothing for you here. I’ve been sent here to put the spirit of an ancient ancestor of the clan to rest, though I’ve failed.” She said, with a couple of big tears forming on her face. Being the apprentice of that old hag was probably a hard life. I hate crying, I just can’t stand it.

,,I’ll go and take a look at this spirit, perhaps I can persuade him to go to rest. I have a talent with words. It won’t take long.” I said and went into the next room where I closed the door behind my back.

,,Outlander! You dare to desecrate the tomb with your foul presence?!” Now that was a very bad attitude, even for a ghost.
,,Calm down, great spirit. I’ve come here to ask you to go to rest. Is there any way I may be able to please you?” Damn, what was going on with me, those tears from the apprentice must have made me soft.

,,Perhaps if you would kill yourself, I might go to rest.” Now that was the worst answer it could give.
,,Sorry pal, but that isn’t going to happen. Now you can either go to rest or I’ll have to persuade you with a few pounds of good old silver. I have plenty of experience at ghostbusting. Now what is your answer, filthy piece of ectoplasm?”

His answer was a mad charge at me which ended with a thrust of silver and a big ball of fire. I wiped the drops of ectoplasm of my armour and went back to the Dark Elf.
,,He has agreed to go to rest, miss. You may return to the camp now. Oh and if it’s possible, could you possibly arrange a meeting between Skink from Sadrith Mora and the Wise Woman? I’ll have to go now, so I bid you farewell.” I recalled back to the guild hall. The woman had a much greater chance at persuading the Wise Woman then I did. It was all a matter of skin colouration.

Posted by: Tellie Mar 16 2006, 07:50 PM

Oh nice new update here Jacky, I'm sorry I did not reply on your last one.

AS normal, you give us a nice update, filled with Oasis facinating thoughs, and a little exitement, mixed with a little humor....please give us more.

Posted by: Agent Griff Mar 16 2006, 08:35 PM

Good update. When he said that he was going to put the ghost to rest I presumed that Luper was going to put it to rest the old fashioned way. I am waiting for the next update patiently.

Posted by: minque Mar 17 2006, 09:08 PM

As usual, I´m not commenting as much as I´d want to....but I have to agree with the other readers here, it´s a very good story and I´m enjoying reading it...even if I don´t comment after every installment!

Posted by: jack cloudy Mar 17 2006, 09:32 PM

I apreciate all the nice comments. This is probably the end of chapter 2. Luper won't get problems with the mages anymore (Though he does get problems with other people). I need some preparation for the next chapter, so it might take some time before I post again. Anyway, enjoy!



Skink was pleased to hear that I had managed to find someone who could arrange that meeting for him, but he was a bit distracted to say the least.
,,Blight, what makes it that more creatures are blighted every day?” He said to no one in particular.

That reminded me of the rat I’d met near Dagon Fel. If this Blight was contained by the Ghostfence, it wouldn’t hurt to start a small investigation of my own. I first transported to Balmora where I bought a couple of potions from Ajira as well as placing my mark back at my house there. After that, I transported to Ald’rhun from where I followed the signs to the Ghostgate.

Ashstorms, more Ashstorms and Cliffracers. How could those stupid birds possibly fly in this kind of weather? The closer I got to the fence, the worse the weather became. No matter what the damn Ghostfence contained, its weathercontrol was pathetic.

I only noticed he Ghostgate when I bumped into it. After hacking my way through a pair of Cliffracers, I felt my way to the door and went in.

The place I’d entered was known as the tower of dusk, according to the sign mounted on the wall. The place combined Redoran architecture with my least favourite people, Ordinators. I was going to hate this place.

Some of the people here displayed excessive wealth. I saw a few walking around in suits that had green crystals of some kind embedded into it and even a few with masks that looked like the head of that thing I met in the Daedric ruins.
,,I should kill that Guar, these boots are ruined.” And they had a herd of Guars around somewhere.

I rented a room for the night and then sat down with a drink to wait for the storm to pass.
Most people I saw in the room were pilgrims who had apparently come to visit a shrine. They were all laughing and telling stories about the hardships they had to endure while coming here. Among them was a very drunk mage who was talking about how he saved his life by summoning some sort of ridiculously overpowered Daedra he probably imagined on the spot.

He was getting louder with each glass he threw back, and more annoying. In the end, he had decided he would prove his skills at summoning and brought a Scamp into the room which started to trash the furniture. All the other pilgrims scattered in panic. So much for his super Daedra, Scamps weren’t very dangerous.

I put down my drink. You couldn’t even relax here with these drunks around. I took my Claymore out of its scabbard that I’d put on the ground next to my chair.

The Claymore sank deep in the Scamp’s chest and it clawed weakly at the blade as it blew out its last breath. The Claymore lifted out of the body and returned to my hand. I hadn’t even left my chair. Telekinesis was great if you felt lazy.
,,Next time you do that, this Claymore is going to end up somewhere else. Understand?” I said to the mage and returned to my drink. The room had gotten nice and quite. Probably cause I just scared the hell out of everyone.

I did some sightseeing as well as popping in at the armorer’s shop. This guy was loaded with the green stuff which he called glass. Damn expensive also. Just the sword would take all of my money. But there where always alternatives.

I waited till everyone went to sleep before coming out of my room. With a hand on my amulet of shadows, I went back to the armorer and robbed him blind. I then went into the room of another pilgrim, who had been boasting about his expensive suit of Ebony and relieved him of the burden. With the help of a few feather spells, I lugged it all out of the building and buried the stuff out of sight behind a hill. I also put my own possessions like my armour in the hole. With the ash blowing around, no one would know that I’d been digging and my clothes had already been dirty with the ash when I first came here, so no one would suspect me. Satisfied, I went back to my room to catch some sleep.

Next morning, I was awoken by the sound of people shouting and running around. Before I knew it, an Ordinator barged into the room.
,,You, Outlander! You must be the thief!” Yep, being an Outlander sure is handy.
I looked around the room as if I was confused and then answered on my most outraged tone.
,,Me, a thief?! I’ve been robbed blind myself! Where’s my Orcish armour?!”

The morning was quite funny. The Ordinators ran all over the place to interrogate people and find a suitable suspect. No one even thought of suspecting me since they all saw me as the victim. Finally I decided it was time to play out the last part of my scheme.
,,That’s it. I’m leaving!” I yelled and walked to the door. There were a few people claiming it would be suicide without armour and weapons, but I didn’t listen.

Outside, I took a look at the Ghostfence for the first time. It was a wonderful barrier of magicka, but I missed the roof. How where they going to contain anything if there wasn’t a roof? Any cliffracer or levitating mage could get past easily. That concluded the investigation, I dug up my loot and recalled back to Balmora with it.

Posted by: Tellie Mar 17 2006, 09:55 PM

HAHA...that one was truly funny...a real Oasis solution, robbing eberyone blind while they were sleeping. But be carefull, he might get caugth.

AS for the whole chapter, I loved it, you have a really funny style to write in, and I have had many fun moments on this story. Thanks alot.

Posted by: Taillus Mar 17 2006, 10:57 PM

Hahaha case closed, Ghostfence has no top. That makes perfect sense. Keep up the great work! I love this series!!!!

Posted by: Kiln Mar 18 2006, 12:20 AM

Hehe, that last bit was pretty funny. I love the comical aspect of this story, it seems as if the main character does not intend to be funny but he just is. I really like this story, please continue.