Chapter One: The Conclave - Continued

“I think you lie, Saranna,” He growled. “For that, you’ll be punished.” I watched tears roll down her face as he muttered under his breath. I watched the veins in her body burst, releasing what looked like a river of blood. It bubbled and ate into the floor. I watched the blood that remained in her carcass eat it away.

“Yes,” he stated. “I turned her blood to acid. Remember something, Nym… In the remnants of the once-great world of Nirn, you must be strong to survive. I’m stronger than a lot of people.”

I looked at the blood that had stopped eating into the floor and the melted flesh that was marinating in it. “The Council awaits us.” We both appeared in a dome-like building and around us sat several robed humanoids.

“This is the one you spoke of, Gulas?” a hoarse voice asked. “Interesting. Why? He is young and naïve.”

“My lord, we all were once young and naïve, but we must remember that he will grow and mature,” Myneld stated. “How can I convince you, Milord?”

“Take your seat and we’ll see if he’s fit.”
The Dunmeri wizard took his seat at the edge of the circular room and a zombie appeared. “Kill or be killed,” the voice ordered. “It will have no pity.”

The zombie scratched at my face, but I body-slammed it. It bit at me, but I shoved it hastily. The adrenaline of battle pumped as I wrestled with the maggot-ridden corpse. I had never felt as alive as my fist crushed into his skull.

When I got off, it was stationary. “Well done. Return to him what is rightfully his.”

A woman’s sigh could be heard as one of the humanoids muttered. My throat burned with intensity that felt as if somebody were scratching it with a knife and I said, “Ow.” Except this time, I heard my voice. My beautiful voice was making sound once more.

“Child, the Council has a task for you. Cyrodiil is little more than a wasteland, in the Arcane University there vault remains untouched,” the hoarse-voiced leader commanded. “Enter the vault and bring to me, the Necromancer’s Amulet.”

“Why?”

“I had a vision several nights ago about a lich claiming it, you must stop him before he succeeds.”

“I understand, take me to Cyrodiil…”

I was outside the ruins of a town by the sea. The sign said, “Anvil.” The town was dead. The buildings were musty and old, the windows were cracked, and the town itself was decaying into the sands of time.

I had never been to Cyrodiil, I guess I would need to search the ghost town for a map.

GAAAAK !!! I should never have tried to read this while eating... GAAAK! ... breakfast ...

I am always amazed how you weave your world-building in and out of Cyrodiil - Awesome Write ... gross, but Awesome, lol.

Malx, I'm not aiming to make it gross. I kind of inspired to use the blood-to-acid spell in a few ways. In Mannimarco, the King of Worms, it says his blood was acid. So tadah! We have the feared blood-to-acid spell

Chapter One: Conclave - Continued

The cold oceanic air touched my skin gently and I could see my breath. I walked into the city which had the remnants of stone-walls and a castle.

The sun was beginning to set. Out of the seemingly dead city came a soldier in chain-mail. His armor was older than me by many years, because it some sort of tabard on it. “Leave this place... or die,” he warned. “Your life is forfeit if you stay.”

He approached closer and I saw that his bony face was really just a skull. “Anvil is a necropolis,” the soldier stated. “It is our home; we defended it against the invaders during the Shattering hundreds of years ago. You shall not take it.”

“Your entire city is—,” I managed to say.

“Dead, yes,” he interrupted. “This is our home. Continue asking questions and your life will end just as ours did, except you’ll stay dead.”

“I seek the Necromancer’s Amulet, rumor has led me to believe it is in the Arcane University, I need a map,” I responded. “Give it to me and I’ll be gone.”

The skeleton looked at me in the eye; at least I think he did. “We shall retrieve the amulet, but in return we have a request.”

“What?”

The skeleton turned around and looked off into the sky that was ebon and littered with bright, white lights and a moon. “You must stop it. For over a century, we have lived. The night terrors haven’t died,” he stated as he rubbed his chain-mail covered hand across his skeletal face. “You must help us reach death.”

“Wait, you want me to kill you and your friends?”

“Castle Anvil holds secrets from us. For decades we have tried to enter, but the dead can’t enter,” He sighed. “The Wizards will have it by the dawn.”

“Seal our fate and the amulet will be yours.”

I nodded and started walking towards the ruined castle. The skeletal inhabitants stared at me. When I got near a bridge to it, a glove-covered hand grasped my mouth and pulled me into an alley. “Listen good, I don’t care what he told you,” my captor whispered. “You’d best stay far away from Castle Anvil, cowards like him may not enjoy the gift, but we do.”

He let me go and hissed, “Meet me here, tomorrow at midnight and I’ll have your amulet.”

I nodded and muttered under my breath to cast a spell of chameleon. With the night on my side, I managed to cross the bridge without him knowing. I opened the door and walked in. It hit me…hard. The stench of death and decay invaded my nostrils.

Blood stained the stone-tile floors of Castle Anvil. Lifeless skeletons loitered on the ground. I saw something written in blood on the wall. I looked at it, “Death is eternal.” Something was strange about it. I examined it closely, it was fresh…

Taking a familiar place like Anvil as a stage to this story is AWESOME !!! I know the castle, the secret passageways - and can easily picture from the great descriptions - the wreckage of it in its current state! Really great write, and I am especially tickled about your making it Wizards - because Anvil has history with them.

Wizards standing on the hill and castle ramparts brought an end to Captain Dugal, the Red Sabres, the Black Flag by sealing them inside that hill that Castle Anvil sits on - the island across from it used to be part of the land the castle sits on - that battle was done in the name of Commodore Fasil Umbranox (thereby bringing the curse on the heads of all Umbranox - a questline Bethesda may have dropped)

Also, when you first enter that area around Castle Anvil, you are attacked in a random encounter with a wizard around the area of the castle, and whereever he dies he drops a bag of loot with an enchanted ring in it.

Awesome Write, Zalphon !!!!! Very Intriguing !!!

I'm glad you liked it.

This post has been edited by Zalphon: Dec 22 2010, 04:59 AM

Anvil, destroyed and filled with undead. Well, there goes property values along the Gold Coast.

This is quite clever!

I loved that line too, caught a laugh from me, lol.

I try to bring a little light humor in. But the main ambience I am aiming for is to show that the world is torn apart from this Cataclysmic event and the people have changed. I think I may tie in the War of Necromancy in the lore of the Zalphon-Verse with changes of course. Maybe a few references

Question? Is that generally allowed to tie RPs in with lore of fanfics?

If there are rules, I don't know about them.

I wove a little of my own theme into my story - but still try and keep the Lore intact, sometimes running a subplot alongside it so people can look at the Lore and determine timelines, etc.

(Like Dagoth-Malan in my story). He was made by Bethesda to have been turned into an Ascended Sleeper by Dagoth-Ur - that is game Lore. But Bethesda dropped him before Morrowind came out, I just picked him back up and made a history for him that explained why it was commonly thought he was an ascended sleeper - and what he became after escaping Red Mountain.

Also, Azzan came from Sutch in the original plans for the game - but they dropped the town of Sutch before making Oblivion. They kept Azzan, moving him to Anvil. Some of his dialogue still showed him from Sutch before the first patch of Oblivion - I made him from Sutch in my story, which meant saying the town of Sutch was obliterated in an attack. The history of that will come out when Azzan's character is developed later.

But our own role-play and imagination has to come into the fiction, I think. Otherwise, it would just be a game journal.

This post has been edited by mALX: Dec 24 2010, 08:28 AM

Chapter Three: Cloak and Dagger

My knees gave out and everything went black…

I awoke in a suit of black-leather armor. At my belt were a short-sword and a dagger. And a black cloak with a hood rested on my back. “Nym,” I heard a woman’s voice state. “I thought you’d never wake up.”

“Where am I and who are you?” I asked as I sat up. A young Breton woman stood in front of me. Her raven-like hair was cut at her shoulder-blades and she wore a suit of armor similar to my own.

“You know who I am, Nym,” she sighed. “It’s me, Belle.”

“What in Oblivion happened?” I asked as I rustled my hand through my ebon hair. “Last I remember, I was in Castle Anvil.”

“You got into Castle Anvil?” Belle questioned with a grin. “You got into Castle Anvil? Did you plunge your dagger into the Lord’s wicked heart?”

“No, I didn’t find anyone; I just fell into a dark sleep.”

“By the gods, you were so close to freeing the people from his oppression and you failed, Nym. You were so close and you failed,” she sighed. “Look outside; people are starving to death, because of his greed. We’re the last stand, by that I mean the Order of Shadows.”

“The Order of Shadows?”

“You really must’ve been in a deep sleep. We’re thieves, nightblades, bards, and others dedicated to freeing Anvil from our ‘ruler’.”

I looked out at the city. I watched a child grab bread from a merchant and sprint off with it. Then I watched the guards cut him down. The moonlit streets of Anvil were home to the tyrannical guards and the oppressed citizens.

“Got a plan?” I asked.

“Always,” she grinned as she pulled out a map and plenty of papers.

You are weaving a thick plot here, with the corruption of Anvil as a basis - this has to be the most intriguing beginning to any of your stories to date, I am totally rapt in trying to figure out what you have planned next !!! Great Write !!!

Well readers, I think I'm going to discontinue this story, and consider it non-canon in the Zalphon-Verse, as well as the previous story...

GAAAAH !!!

I don't like the path it has taken

This post has been edited by Zalphon: Jan 15 2011, 05:10 AM

Ok. Well, I'm sure it will somehow help you and make your next one even better! Speaking of next one, we look forward to it!

GAAAAAH !!!!