This part gets fascinating to me, because it is a part to the game I never knew you had to do before confronting Dagoth Ur - I love this!!!

No worries. I only made the comment because this is one of the seminal moments in Morrowind and I don’t want you to think that you need to break it up for our benefit.

I like the way that you are taking your time dissecting the prophecies. I wonder if Nibeni’s reluctance to tell Rales about the Cave of the Incarnate has more to do with mistrust, or fear. The early description of Corprus brought back bad memories!

Rales is being shown the map that he must follow to embody his destiny, here’s hoping that he is equal to the trials ahead.

I don't know from prophecies, so this is all new to me. . . and fun to read and discover.

ohh now he's into it! i'm very fond of the little dunmer, so fond of him! haha he's related to my charachter....that's awesome.!

More Rem, please!

A short one but that's because I am still working on what comes after it. It comes hard, don't know why so might take me another week getting it updated (still no Word on my own PC so can only work on it for 1 maybe 2 hours in a week)

‘A Hortator sets an example, he takes the fight to the enemy and vanquishes the evil in its own lair. As Hortator and Nerevarine, you must unite the Velothi. The Great Houses and the four tribes; The Urshilaku, The Erabenimsun, the Ahemussa and the Zainab tribe. Uniting the four tribes that have been warring each other for centuries would truly be a miracle. A miracle the Nerevarine must perform.
‘Like in the fourth and fifth trial?’ Zerina commented.
‘Exactly,’ Nibeni nodded. ‘But first,’ she eyed the both of us. ‘you must rest. You can use my tent, I need to speak to Sul-Matuul anyway and will be away for hours.’ As she laid her hand on the the leather slab that acted as a door, the Wise-Woman turned towards us and winked. ‘Behave.’
Zerina and I looked at echother grinning ear-to-ear. ‘We will,’ we said in unison.
‘Good.’

Of course, as soon as we had laid ourselves down onto the thin, but surprisingly comfortable bedrolls, it took mere seconds for the both of us to fall asleep.
How exhausted we had been exactly was obvious the following day. Apparently we had slept over twelve hours straight because when we emerged Nibeni’s tent, it was already mid-day.
‘Feeling rested?’ Nibeni asked us when we encountered her outside.
‘Very,’ I answered. ‘Thank you. We hope we didn’t keep you from your own nightrest though.’
She smiled mysteriously. ‘No, Sul-Matuul and I are…close friends.’

‘I am starving, let’s go find something to eat,’ I said smilingly. I was hungry but it was more a subtle way to move the conversation away from Nibeni’s love-life I didn’t really wanted to learn more about.
‘Finally. Some sense,’ Zerina jested and rolled her eyes towards the heavens.
I scoffed. ‘I didn’t hear you come up with it.’
She hugged me still laughing. ‘Sometimes you’re adorable, Rales.’
I wasn’t sure that was entirely a good thing but how could I keep a grudge with her?

The Wise-Woman showed us where we could restock our exhausted supplies. The trader also sold us some bowstrings. To prevent the disaster from last time, we stored the strings in a small oiled leather sack and hung it around my neck for safe keeping. For all we knew, our lives could depend on it.
One string was used for the bow we so painstakedly had retrieved from the tomb and what a weapon it proved to be! Sul-Matuul had said his father had named it Bonebiter and it was clear why. With the drain-agility enchantment on it activated, its target was rendered practically helpless and could be picked off easily. Like shooting cliffracers in a cage. It wasn’t as powerful as a longbow nor did it have the range of one but it was extremely light and the enchantment more than made up for the disadvantages. Even Zerina could easily handle and string it.

It's been wholly too ling since I replied here. Great as ever, and good to se it continued. I love reading about Morrowind, it's making me think of writing something set there.

It's excitingly written and I can't wait to see how you handle the next quest...

EDIT (after post below): I know I'm writing something in morrowind but it only touched on Vvardenfel and was set about 30 years after the Nerevarine.

This post has been edited by Olen: May 26 2010, 07:15 PM

Ahh, the ever adorable Rales. Good to see him (and Zerina) back. He has to unite all of the Velothi? Yikes, killing Dagoth Ur sounds much easier!



You are writing something set there!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 26 2010, 04:44 PM

I am 100% with Rales on this, some images are best left unseen! Now I can never play Morrowind again without imagining the two of them together!

I love the lore-friendly analogy!

I think we all know what it’s like when the words just refuse to come. All you can do is keep plugging away at it. I hope you get your new PC soon so that we can get more Rales and Zerina!

A turkey shoot with cliffracers!!!!!! My favorite line was already picked by Destri, but it is worth posting twice!!!!! Love it!!!

This made me smile:

Glad to see an update of Rales and Zerina!

This short story was stuffed with names that are foreign to me; that's why Rales is my guide to Morrowind, lol. The love between Rales and Zerina continues to shine like a wonderful beacon though. Well done!

Thanks for the kind words everyone

PC isn't the problem, I have an awesome machine The problem is that I have windows 7 HE premium and that doesn't include the Office package.

Words are starting to come. I actually wrote a couple of sentences yesterday hehe. sometimes all you need is a single sentence to set an entire chapter into motion. Just need to find that one

A couple of suggestions:
AbiWord is very much like Microsoft Word and can read and save as .doc format. It's free and open-source so no need to pay, it's stable and no nasty surprises. It's also availible in a variety of languages. IMO it's better than Open Office Writer unless you need to embed graphs (which I'm not expecting to see in Reles... )
If you don't want to install software then Google Docs isn't too dreadful and runs in browser. It has spell check etc.

Just a couple of options if you get a sudden urge to write...

Thanks Olen! Will have a look at that tonight Office package costs about 80 Euro so this is a much cheaper solution to my problem.

Wow, Rales. You've changed so much over the time I've read of your crazy adventures. Perhaps you could take me, a humble scribe along with you? I have basic knowledge of first-aid and can be of assistance, Mr. Sarethi.

An update. (yes really hehe) Let me know what you think. I had to move the story on but I hope I dind't cut too many corners. I allowed myself some leniancy from how the game goes. Some events in Tower of Fyr are a bit strange. Everyone having played through the mq will know what I mean. The thing with the boots you have to get...
Anyway, I won't spoil anymore; here it is.


Chapter 7: Decisions

Happily we trotted around the grazelands aimlessly for days. Having suspended the fulfillment of my destiny, it was like a load had fallen of my chest. I imagined even breathing came easier. Again, we lived on what Vvardenfell had to offer and on the supplies we had purchased in the Urshilaku camp. Zerina and I had hourlong conversations and training sessions together. Every night she amazed me with her arcane skills and a certain night she had entrusted me with a secret that had blown me away. Her mother was originally a powerful Telvanni mage but had refused to become a councillor. In fact; she was now an exile because she had freed a slave and had run off with him.
When I asked her if Athyn had known that truth she had shaken her head. Appararently, Telvanni wizards usually are rather eccentric and keep everything that happens within the House silent. Her mother and her father had been helped by another Telvanni master-wizard but she wouldn’t disclose who because her mother had vowed never to tell it to anyone.

We utterly lost track of time as we slowly headed south. Days became weeks and weeks became months as we got to see most of the northern part of Vvardenfell. The only indication of the passing seasons was an increase in temperature. Zerina still bathed every single night before going to bed and I was increasingly less reluctant to join her in the cold rivers. When we got close to a town – a smoking chimney usually was the tell-tale of a nearby settlement – we briefly entered for supplies that were hard to get by, like salt and fresh water, and had our gear repaired when necessary. After all the months of hard use – sometimes as a shovel when needed – Wretched still didn’t show any signs of being dull or of burs anywhere. ‘Forged with Oblivion’s blood,’ Zerina had said.

Zerina was most impressed with the improvement of my magical skills in the few months we had been practicing it. Over time I even managed to cast a spell while in combat. Deliberately, we looked up places where I and Zerina could practice my skills. Some were easy, some had ended with me needing healing. Badly. And, of course, at the times I needed it most, Zerina refused and said I had to do it myself.
Initially, I was puzzled why but soon - as I was patching up another bloody hole in my leg from a dart - it dawned to me it actually made sense. I had to be ready to heal myself in an emergency situation, even when wounded badly. My life could depend on it.


Several months after we had left the Urshilaku camp we returned to Balmora, only to find our house in a dreadful shape. Fear of what might have happened seeped into both of our minds. All colour drained from Zerina’s face when she noticed stains of long-dried blood all over the place. Her mouth formed the word “Uryne” and I could see her eyes filling up with tears. With trembling hands I opened a dusty letter I found on our doormat.

Sera Rales and Zerina,

With pain in our heart we inform you about another attack on your house while you were away. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to locate you to inform you about the dreadful news and hope you find this letter soon. The Sixth House scourge have slain Uryne and

I could’t read any further. I sank to my knees while tears poured down my cheeks.
‘Why?’ I screamed and threw my arms up to the sky in despair. ‘Why her? I should have been here! I could have…’
‘Shhh..’ Zerina shushed me gently while kneeling next to me and embracing me. ‘No point in torturing yourself with such thoughts. We did what we had to do.’
I shook my head violently in anger and grief. All of my uncertainty, fear and hate converged into a smouldering point in my mind and exploded in a single burst. The Sixth House was going to pay. Dearly. I growled like an animal and jumped to my legs. Again, I lost all restraints and self-control. Not even Zerina could calm me down that day. She didn’t even try.

***

In my blind rage I stumbled into a familiar cave. I should have recognised it but I didn’t. The last thing I remember was a maniacal cackle and a malevolant shroud engulfing me. Every now and then I had brief moments of clarity after that but they were as incoherent as my own dispersed state of mind.

‘Found him wandering around, mumbling your name over and over.’

‘Bring him in, gently.’

‘…. can’t help him, maybe our old friend…..’

‘…...it could kill him….’ A coarse voice.

‘He’ll die anyway if we don’t.’

A burning potion was poured down my throat. I could feel it make its way to through my throat, into my stomach and spreading from there.

‘It’s working!’ The same coarse voice again. ‘The symptoms are vanishing.’

Then… darkness.

***

‘How are you feeling?’ I recognised that voice.
‘Weird. Like I haven’t been myself lately. Where am I?’
‘With an old friend.’
I started looking around me. My day brightened when I saw Zerina’s smiling face. Around me several Dunmer were standing, most of them I didn’t know. A very old man, dressed head-to-toe in armour as black as Wretched, was intensely looking down at me. ‘You were lucky, Rales,’ he breathed. ‘So far, you have been the only one ever to survive.’
‘Survive?’ I mumbled. ‘Survive what?’
‘Corprus,’ was the short answer. ‘You attracted the Corprus disease somewhere, so you might not feel like yourself for some time.’
He was right, I didn’t feel like myself at all. Something was different. I felt stronger, yet weaker at the same time. My mind was sluggish.
‘We decided to use my cure - well, it’s not really a cure, I will explain later - on you even though it hasn’t worked before. We were afraid it would kill you like it has previous cases but if we hadn’t you would’ve either perished or ended up like my poor patients in my Corprusarium anyway. Rest now, we will explain later.’

This post has been edited by Remko: Jun 1 2010, 06:18 PM

Oooh! You really stepped it up in this one!!! Awesome emotional scenes, you did excellent on them!!! Oh! And I can't wait, here comes Divayth Fyr!!!! WOOOOOO HOOOO !!!!!

Now this is new to me! Are we now up to new stuff for you as well?

Certain diseases have a way of blurring time and space for their sufferers. Good job on capturing that void and confusion!

More, please!

The wandering around in the Grazelands was a double-sided edge. I needed the couple away for a time to insert some drama.
I also moved it away from the game's events slightly. It always struck me as odd the PC gets Corprus (which basically turns you into a unthinking, berserking monster) and still manages to keep his/her head straight and find his/her way back to Caius before being sent out to find a cure.
I gave it my own twist, glad you liked it
Updates will come quicker now again.

This post has been edited by Remko: Jun 1 2010, 06:26 PM

Yay! Rales returns!

Things are pushing on quickly I see. With the attack on Rale's house, his becoming a corpuscle, and the 'cure'. I have not played far enough into Morrowind to be familiar with what that really is, so I am rapt to discover it in future posts.