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]

One thing that made me laugh was the fun you poked at Gaius' fake identity. It really made the Ash vampire look like a total idiot.
,,I know your name, mortal! For I am blessed with great powers you can't even comprehend!"
,,Actually, the name you said just now is so stupid, no one would ever name his child like that. So no, you don't know."
,,.......Crap."

Yeah, it is quite annoying when the bad guys always know your name and have 'great knowledge blahblahblah', so I though Id poke some fun at it.

Jack summed it up well. Excellently described fight scene. I could follow each blow easily. Now with the big baddie dealt with, Gaius shouldn't have too much of a problem clearing out the rest of the vermin. One can hope I guess.

Oh, Ald-Ruhn will have to wait until later to be dealt with. (COUGHDuringtheendCOUGH)

It appears that Gaius no longer has a sword?

Indeed. And it will be some time until he finds one that will stick - many blades will be used throughout this story.


Chapter 11: Dungeons, without Dragons.

The kind-of-fresh air outside was a welcome change from the smell that was reigning within the Skar. Of course, the fact that stench of Corprus beasts was surrounding everything didn’t really help make Ald-Ruhn the number one visited spot in Vvardenfell, though as long as some leap-like-Oblivion shape shifting Ordinators weren’t trying to kill him, Gaius was fine with it. Especially since the monsters didn’t see him. The legionnaire wasn’t feeling very courageous without a weapon, and the spell shrouding him was a relief, mostly because spells tended to go against him, and not WITH him.

Even though shrouded in magical shadows, the minutes spent dodging the Corprus creatures were still tense. Only now did Gaius realize how many servants did Dagoth Ur possess – there were seemingly hundreds of Corprus monsters patrolling in the streets of Ald-Ruhn. Many buildings they passed on the way were completely destroyed by the monsters, others only partially damaged. The Skar seemed to be the only structure that did not receive some kind of ruining.

Finally, after minutes that seemed to be hours, the shadowy outlines of Gaius and Irr made it out of the city. Ash began blowing into their faces once again, drastically decreasing their field of vision. Before that, it was already hard for the legionnaire to spot Irr. If it was not for the fact that invisible people could see other invisible people as purple outlines, he would’ve probably got completely lost. Now, it was a nightmare.

Oh well, A not very comforting thought came up. At least I’ll surely get lost now.

And such, driven by pleasant thoughts, Gaius followed the purple wisp of smoke that at the moment was Irr, supposedly heading towards a good hideout. From there, they could plan their actions further, without the fear of being roared upon by large deformed meat sacks. That alone was a plus, not to mention the fact that they will have a cover from the ash.

It did not take long for Irr to reach the entrance to the cave he found. It was looking like a traditional Dunmer Burial Tomb, with the exception of skulls hung at the archway that covered the doors. Whatever inspired Dunmeri to build a tomb in wilderness was beyond Gaius – how comes they didn’t just place it in a town?

But there was no time to wonder. Even through the whooshing ash, Gaius heard the already familiar screech of a Cliff Racer. Since he had no weapon, the legionnaire found no time to punch the creature to death, and instead just ducked inside the tomb. Irr was already inside, that was obvious for the fact that the doors opened themselves several moments ago.

With a sigh of relief, Gaius closed the massive wooden doors behind himself, then turned around to face already-visible Irr. Wearily pulling the ring off of his finger, Gaius handled it to his Khajiit companion, before proceeding to give this supposed tomb a closer look.

Inside of this tomb was completely different from any Dunmer Burial Tomb Gaius ever saw.

The walls were from the same material from which the other Tombs were constructed, though they were covered with carvings of some sort – Daedric Runes, and pictures. The pictures depicted either a hammer and an anvil, or a head with horns. Whatever that meant was beyond Gaius – only that it probably meant something dangerous. The Daedric Runes he never knew how to read, and wasn’t intending to learn.

Many skulls were placed on both sides of the stairs that went deep down, further than Gaius could see. As far as he noticed, they were widening, as indicated by the increasing amount of space between the lights – there were candles placed inside the skulls. It was evident that whoever built this place wanted no guests, since an entrance like that was sure to scare off even the most curious people.

This looked very suspiciously to Gaius, like it would’ve looked to anyone else. Of course, not many people would’ve suspected this being a dwelling of a white-skinned large Ash Vampire. But in this Legionnaire’s case, everything seemed possible.

As the Imperial was staring down the stairs intensively, oblivious of the rest of the world around him, Irr decided it was the time to snap the legionnaire out of this dreamy state and return him to the real world.

“This one is concerned about those stairs. Perhaps if we were to stay here-“ He began only moments ago, and already did Irr see his words wouldn’t help. Gaius’ eyes lit up with the adventure flame that always was there before something bad occurred to them.

“You must be kidding. There’s probably a nest of those Sixth House creatures down below, and we’re not going to let them get away with that!” With these words, the eager Legionnaire began walking down the stairs in a hurried step. His Khajiit companion sighed, rolled his eyes, and then followed down into the unknown.

*

“Well, undoubtedly, that has to be the longest set of stairs I’ve ever climbed. But now, we can finally see what’s down here.” Gaius exclaimed as the end of these seemingly endless stairs came into view. By now, the staircase was wide enough for four horses to ride at once, and still have enough space to maneuver.

“This one suffers endless joy.” Irr responded grumpily.

“Oh, come on. D-“ Gaius did not finish, stunned by the view they came to see after descending down the stairs.

A large metal door, seemingly Dwemer of construction was standing there in their path. It was, without doubt, the largest door either of the two ever saw – perhaps as tall as seven Altmeri place on one another, and as wide as five Ogrims alongside each other. Crafted from the same yellowish material like all Dwemer doors on Vvardenfell (it was said that there were different variations of Dwemer metals on the Mainland, though Vvardenfell Dwemeri obviously relied on this type), it was locked by a fittingly large lock – perhaps the size of an Ogrim. All out of sudden, it was obvious why such stairs were needed.

Behind the doors, a distant sound of metal hitting against metal was heard… With the occasional noise that seemed to be the roar of flames.

End of Chapter 11.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Oct 21 2007, 09:21 PM