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]

Indeed, it was Azura that appeared. (and as for how long will it take for Gaius to realize, it's either until the 'Ashkhan' jumps at him with giant tentacles, or someone says it to him.) Though I'm not here to say just this - I'm here with a new chapter that I titled after a famous line of Gaius (Wait a second...) Jullius Caesar - "Veni, Vidi, Vici." "I came, I saw, I conquered." Though our Gaius didn't find it that easy, and didn't really acomplish the 'I conquered' part.

Chapter 9: Veni, Vidi, Vici.

After an hour of sweet sleep, as well as a short meal, the ash storm began to die down. Gaius decided they would leave under the cover of ash, in the event of someone watching them. Even if no one did, it was apparent that the thick wall of ash would soon settle down, and they would be in Ald-Ruhn quickly. And then it was whatever that laid inside the city against the pair.

With moaning and grumbling, the pair took off into the Ashlands once more. They didn’t want to set out again, even though Gaius was being bugged by waiting and delays – it was much more comfortable to just stay here and wait more in comfort the fortress-city offered. And the fact that a storm was raging didn’t help – now it seemed even worse than before, given the fact that they were already used to no ash flying into their faces.

Fortunately, the storm died down soon enough, leaving them to find out that the sky was getting darker. The sun was heading west already, though they wouldn’t arrive into the previous seat of Redoran during night – with the ash storm down, their pace increased. Though, as Gaius stated, ‘It’s not if it wasn’t good to arrive at night’.

*********

Finally, the two stood behind the Skar. A massive building, the shell of the Emperor Crab itself, it used to be the base of Redoran… Though it was obvious it was no longer used for that purpose. Corprus beasts sluggishly walked around the entrance, waiting for a ‘guest’ that was Gaius. Several dead bodies were lying around; some already clean bones, sinking into ash slowly. Irr didn’t want to think of what happened to them so they’re so clean.

“Alright… So there we are, standing behind Ald-Ruhn, our destination.” Gaius muttered, scratching his chin. Since the Ash Storm died down, he no longer had the need for a full-face helmet – its not that if Corprus monsters had bows or something, and Gaius found it hard to breathe with it.

“This one doesn’t like the way this looks… Doesn’t good-friend Gaius think that the twisted beasts should be more alert?” Irr replied, whispering as well. They had no intent to alert the monsters that seemed to have so kindly not noticed them.

“You’re probably right… It’s too quiet.” Gaius turned his head a bit, facing Irr. It was then when a load roar, accompanied by a couple of groans, shook the air. Both the Legionnaire and the thief swore heavily, turning around.

A group of monsters seemed to have ambushed them. How they managed to get into intelligent actions like that was beyond Gaius… But for now they had more worries.

“You know, now, suddenly, it’s too loud. I really preferred when it was quiet.” A comment was made by the Imperial, before he leaped on the top of the Skar. Irr darted off under an invisibility spell – they already discussed what he would do in case of an ambush.

The front Corprus beasts were foolish enough to stumble down the quite steep hill which stood near the Skar, and on which Gaius stood moments ago. The others leaped on the roof of the Skar as well, alerting the other monsters with loud groans and other noises.

One of the beasts was ahead of the others, probably intending to claim the honor of slaying Gaius himself. Unfortunately, the legionnaire unsheathed his broadsword in a wide motion, leaving a scratch on the beast. The wound itself wasn’t too dangerous, though what came after them was by far much worse – the monster was in flames, caused by the sword’s enchantment. The second enchantment was what kept the flames growing over time, finally reducing the monster into ashes from the intense heat.

By the time the first monster burned down, others reached Gaius. There were quite a lot of them, and their numbers and sheer strength usually made up for the lack of intelligence. Not this time…

Even though Imperials were good with blades, Redguards were better. And a combination of the two was quite devastating – the speed of Redguards along with the strength and tactics of a trained Legionnaire. Thus, beasts fell left and right, some engulfed in flames, others killed by the steel itself, dying before having the chance to burn. The sounds of battle were heard inside the Skar…

“Good, he arrived. It is the time to put him down.”

A ring with a large blood-red diamond slipped off of an Indoril gauntlet, before white flames claimed the person that wore the ring. The armor melted into the skin, connecting to the bones; ash blue skin turned into white, and the face was covered up with a golden mask that came seemingly from nowhere.

The Ash Vampire stood straight. He towered above the Ash Slave in front of him, both in rank and in height.

“Let him come. Let him come NOW!” The Creature roared, slamming its fist into a wooden pole. The thing broke, loosening the bridge it was supposed to hold. Both the bridge and the part of the pole that was chopped off fell down to the bottom of the Skar.

Gaius let go of another swing, though was surprised to hit nothing but air. Corprus beasts slowly retreated from him – either from fear… or from something else. But there was no time to assume and theorize – he had to move fast. There was one place in which he could find all the items - the Skar.

And thus, Gaius hurled himself off of the roof. At a younger age, he received some training in acrobatics and stealth from a travelling acrobat. If he was ever to continue training that, he could become a great acrobat. But fate placed it that Gaius had more strength than stealth now, given the fact that he became a legionnaire. Still, he had knowledge of how to land from heights properly without injuring himself.

Gaius landed near the entrance. He only had to step several times before reaching the oddly shaped entrance to Skar’s interior… But the push he gave the doors revealed a view the legionnaire had not expected. A gasp left his mouth, only to be distinguished by loud roaring laughter.

End of Chapter 9.

[I guess I don't have to tell you who's the Ash Vampire. Seriously.]

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Nov 6 2007, 08:48 PM