The Saga of Vvardenfel, My fanfic, a conversion of Morrowind main quest. Options

[Gaius Maximus]

Well, this is my Morrowind fanfic, a story of my used-to-be minor now main character, Gaius Maximus. Since I didn't find it interesting to re-write the main quest of Morrowind, I decided to try it how I imagine it going after joining Imperial Legion and not touching the Main Quest for 6 in-game years. Any constructive criticism welcome.

The Saga of Vvardenfell
The Legionnaire, the Legend and the Island.

Grand Chapter 1: Every legend has a beginning...

Chapter 1: New Assignments.
Chapter 2: The Night before journey.
Chapter 3: Urshilaku Camp, part 1.
Chapter 4: Urshilaku Camp, part 2.
Chapter 5: Welcoming committee.

Grand Chapter 2: Closer to the Red Mountain.
Chapter 1: Odd Encounter.
Chapter 2: The Trial worth Our Hero, part 1.
Chapter 3: The Trial worth Our Hero, part 2.
Chapter 4: Veni, Vidi, Vici.
Chapter 5: Fire and Ice.

Grand Chapter 3: In the caverns of Vvardenfell.
Chapter 1: Dungeons, without Dragons.
Chapter 2: Dwemer Forge.
Chapter 3: Arming.

(Also note that I'm not sure if there are any more of the modern words left - do say if you see some. Help with that will be highly appreciated.)

Chapter 1: New assignments.

Gaius Maximus was a simple Imperial Legionnaire. Only possessions of his were the Divine Intervention amulet for quick escape, his Imperial steel armor and his broadsword, enchanted with his very own enchantment, made from a soul of a Dremora lord. The enchantment was pretty simple – it inflicted fire damage, along with a weakness to fire spell, which, combined with the steel itself, was pretty good for taking care of bandits, outlaws and other creatures, those native to the land of Vvardenfel.

Gaius was shipped to Vvardenfel 6 years ago, and the trip was quite interesting. During it, Gaius received a strange dream, about the troubles of Morrowind and Vvardenfel in particular, and how he was to save everything. Gaius never told anyone about it, as he later heard about strange dreams troubling people. He doubted they were different from his one, but he wasn’t able to ask anyone, as these so called ‘Dreamer’ and ‘Sleeper’ people would only ramble nonsense when talked to, if they wouldn’t attack him on sight.

Gaius lived in Gnisis, mainly in the Madach Tradehouse, where General Darius was taking residence. Darius would occasionally seek Gaius out, to give him harder assignments that other legionnaires couldn’t carry out. Like that time when he was assigned to rescue a priest from a Daedric ruin, in which he got that soul of a Dremora lord. Or when he was to investigate the mysterious happenings around a Dunmer stronghold, and ended up in a strange Dwemer ruin, fighting a creature called ‘Ash Vampire’. After a hard battle, Gaius beat the Vampire, and after coming back to Gnisis, he heard rumors about Red Mountain erupting and Blight Storms stopping for several hours.

Even now, Gaius was sitting at a table in the Tradehouse, with a bottle of Cyrodiilic brandy. Being rewarded quite healthy for all the special assignments, one would have retired from the Legion already if he was in Gaius’ place, but Gaius liked the Legion for some reason, and had no interest in retiring. As the assignments were given secretly, he never got a lot of promotions, as he couldn’t be promoted for what wasn’t a ‘Legion matter’ as Darius called it.

He heard news of some ‘Nerevarine’, a person claming to be an ancient hero reborn. Yeah, and I’m a trader. Gaius thought, taking another gulp from the brandy bottle. If he knew Vvardenfel right, the poor man would be executed by the Temple in a few days, if he was lucky, after a week. It was even a constant subject for bets in the Legion – how long would a new ‘Nerevarine’ last? They were just appearing out of nowhere – Ashlander tribes, guilds, Temple itself, Great Houses – or just freelancing adventurers, seeking for fame. Now that the Dagoth Ur problem was getting really nasty, everyone seemed to wait for the ‘Nerevarine’ to come, and rescue everyone.

After living in Vvardenfel for 6 years, Gaius soon noticed that whatever the Temple said, everything was turning wrong, and getting out of hand. The Ghostfence was getting weaker, as Gaius noticed while traveling near it, Corprus beasts – more frequent, and assassinations on important people even more frequent than the beasts. The Tribunal wasn’t that much of a help, and more people turned on worshiping Daedra, as Gaius found out while wandering in the ruins.

Gaius was distracted from his bottle by a man walking up the stairs – it was the same Orc that seemed to spend his whole life in Darius’ office. As he walked up to Gaius, the Imperial sighed. No doubt, this meant work.

“General wants to see you. Now.” The Orc said. Gaius never really liked the Orcish names, so he couldn’t recognize them, but he was pretty sure every one of them included ‘gro’.

“Sure thing, officer gro-Mamblang.” Gaius said, and stood up.

“For the last time, my name isn’t gro-Mamblang! One more time you call me like that, and I’ll… I’ll…” The Orc stammered.

“You’ll stammer when speaking with me?” The Orc swore, and rushed off into Darius’ office, with Gaius close behind.

Soon, Gaius was inside Darius’ office. “What now… sir?” The Legionnaire asked, catching Darius’ glare.

“I have another task for you. This one, though, will be official, though it’s quite dangerous. You’re up to it?” Darius began. As if he needed to ask.

“Of course, sir! Which ruin am I going to now?” Gaius asked.

“No, you’re not heading for a ruin this time. I want you to do a harder task this time. It’ll be a really long task, and I could only entrust you upon it. I know this’ll sound weird, but…” The General said, and silenced.

“What is it?”

“I want you to make a go for the Nerevarine prophecy completion.” Darius said.

Gaius felt something blow up in him. For a moment, he almost thought it was his brain. The Imperial Legion wants him to make a go for the Nerevarine Prophecies? What the?! “Okay, is this a really weird kind of joke?” Gaius finally asked, hanging on his last hope. Unfortunately…

“No, I’m absolutely serious.” Darius replied, and raised an eyebrow.

“But… But why? You want to make a bet for how long will I last?” Gaius asked.

“Not funny, Trooper. The Emperor wants to prove to the people of Morrowind that the Empire – and it’s Legions – can offer protection to the people. With the Temple unable to do anything, it’s a perfect chance to gain the trust of the people. You won’t understand it, its political business.” The General said. “Now, I want you to finish off any business before I give you your first assignment concerning this.” With that, he released Gaius.

Gaius went up shocked. Next thing he wanted to do was head into the Barracks and speak with Irr’cah, an ex-thief.

End of Chapter 1.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Nov 18 2007, 12:41 PM

[Gaius Maximus]

Sorry for the lack of updates, my keyboard was messed up. And that was before the comp was completely re-newed, meaning a new (and totally weird and non-understandable) version of Word. It took me some time to get used to it, writing bits of stories (including a guide to Vvardenfell Island, as well as a journal of an Argonian slave) which I may some day finish, though I wrote them for the purpose of getting used to Word so as to be able to write the Saga of Vvardenfell properly.

But anyway, a new chapter is up!

Chapter 8: The Trial worth Our Hero, part 2.

“Let’s go, Irr. There’s nothing more to this camp for now. We’ve got business to do…” Gaius sighed, starting to walk. He would have to save some strength for Ald-Ruhn, though he wanted to reach it faster – the sooner something happened, the better… Waiting was an awful feeling, it burned Gaius from inside, annoying him, and, over time, it would consume him, probably. It was best to face what the city had to offer right away, whatever it was…

Irr had a worried look on his face. He was as happy as Gaius with this task, which equalled to disliking it – both hated this task of sorts, and both shared the same feeling someone was trying to get them killed – of course, they both named it as unintentional, and not true attempts to kill them, only a way of testing them… Oh, how wrong they were.

And thus, with the Ashstorm raging, the two travelers took off. Not a very wise move, butgaius wanted to prove himself, and end this whole ‘stupid ritual blah-blah, prove yourself to the Gods that you think fraud’ thing. It was a lot simpler in the Legion – ‘go kill this-and-that, get back here and get your money’. Not to mention, it didn’t include the preaching part – which would surely follow should the Legionaire survive this, seeing as he was searching for infromation… And information tended to come in the form of preaching. Whoever possessed the information always turned out to be a walking library of sorts, even though it would usually not include other points of interest – coincidentally.

The Ashkhan watched the pair disappear in the clouds of ash. A silent laughter left his lips, a twisted grin forming on his whole face. He believed the pair would never come back from Ald-Ruhn, given what was ruling it now… And if they did, he would finish them personaly. After all, an Ascended Sleeper picked by Dagoth Ur himself should be more than cappable of taking down a Legionaire and a thief…

As he turned around, a silent gurgle left his mouth. He ripped off the amulet on his neck, before his body deformed heavily – his bones twisted, became larger, thicker. The Chitin armor melted into his skin, turning into a robe, as odd tentacles emerged from his face.

Taking a few steps forawrd, the Asscended Sleeper opened the secret hole with one of his tentacles. Using a telekinesis spell, he dragged out a tied, beaten Dunmer that looked surprisingly like the form he possessed with the amulet.this was the true chieftain of urshilaku – though he was replaced by this Sleeper several months ago.

“When I’m done with them, perhaps the orders will come from Red mountain, and allow to kill you. How much of a relief it would be.” The last stage of Corprus spoke in an odd, silent, hoarse vice. The Askhan was gagged, so he gave no reply other than a hateful look towards the Ascended Sleeper.
------

Meanwhile, Gaius and Irr were struggling to reach Ald-Ruhn through the storms. Their efforts were in vain, though – it soon became apparent the pair would have to wait for the ashstorm to finish before carrying on. Climbing over hills was a huge pain, not to mention the cliff racers. All in all, they had to stop, though where?

“I swear… The Red Mountain should be cursed just for the fact that it produced the Ashlands…” Gaius muttered, struggling to get on top of a hill, Irr alongside him.

“This one agrees… The ash-skins should have found out a way of-“ he didn’t finish, though, as the pair reached the top of the hill, and gasped. This, in turn, made Irr’s mouth full of ash.

While the Khajiit was spitting the unpleasant thing out of his mouth, Gaius looked at what was below them – some kind of a dried river. Probably a foyada, as he soon realized – the remains of lava rivers that once flowed from the Red Mountain. The foyadas were used for travelling, and the pair could use them for that as well, not to mention it was a fine hideout from ash.
Thus, it was natural the two hurried down the slope of the hill they just scaled. This will speed up their progress greatly. And, if Gaius’ knowledge of Vvardenfell’s north-west side was correct, there was a pathway to Maar Gan from what appeared to be Bani-dad Foyada. Maar Gan wasn’t inhabbited, seeing as the threat of attack from Ald-Ruhn grew, but it had walls and huts.

****

With their new path, the pair reached a set of Redoran-fashioned stairs soon enough – this indicated they have reached Maar Gan, and could soon enjoy the safety of its walls. There, they could wait for the ashstorm to pass, and perhaps eat – both were exhausted from travelling through such terrain. There was bound to be some food left there.
“Well, it’s about time… I thought we’ve passed it on the way.” Gaius muttered in relief. Irr was already climbing the stairs, and the Legionaire hurried up as well.

And finally, in front of them stood Maar gan – a fortress of the Redoran. It was built in an odd kind of way, reminding gaius of buildings back in Gnisis – a welcome feeling. They seemed to have left a month ago, while truly it was an hour after the afternoon of the same day the left. It was because of the two tiring journeys it seemed so long, Gaius assumed…

After reaching the walled city, Gaius and Irr engaged in a short argument, finally deciding to take refuge in what was supposed to be the local Tribunal Temple – it was the largest building, and the one in the highest spot as well. It was certain that they would find beds and food there, maybe even some weapons and potions as well.

The Temple’s interior was nothing special, actually. Gaius had a good laugh on the Temple beliefs once more after finding a huge rock there, which seemed to be religiously important (‘They worship rocks? How ridiculous is that?!’). Irr made the situation more serious after finding a Dremora downstairs, which they locked up soon after, seeing as there was no time to fight the thing.
On the other hallway leading down, they found several beds. Each rested some, with the other keeping guard, Gaius being the first to guard.

While he was watching, an unusual event occurred.

When his shift was coming to an end, Gaius was pacing back and forth in the room, till worried of his task in Ald-Ruhn. Occasionaly, he would give the staircase a short glance. And, during one such glance, he froze in his tracks – what seemed to be a Dunmer female in a white dress stood there. She was translucent – Gaus could see the wall behind her. Before the Legionaire could do anything, though, the figure nodded to him, before fading away into nothingness, leaving Gaius to stand there and blink, frozen in surprise...

End of Chapter 8.

[Points to anyone who can guess who was the 'Dunmer female in a white dress'...]

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Oct 6 2007, 03:18 PM