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]

Unfortunately, the doors will have to wait - opening them now or in nearby future would provide a plot distraction too great to overwhelm. Then again, after the Saga of Vvardenfell, I'm devoting a fanfic only to the secrets of the doors (Also the creation of Gaius' full-time weapon. That's right, I'm not giving Gaius Chrysamere, the probably most popular Nerevarine blade.). For now, though, you'll have to be satisfied with what I give you in this chapter.

Chapter 12: Dwemer Forge.

For several minutes the pair stood speechless. The sheer grandness of the door amazed them so much that they couldn’t make a move, even though their curiosity grew – both wanted to find out what such a door is guarding. Surely, there was something important behind them, and both wanted to find out, though for completely different reasons.

Irr was a Khajiit, and an ex-thief, and his instincts, though mostly kept at bay, now took over. If there was something valuable behind these doors, it would be even more valuable in the underworld than in legal world. He had enough connections to sell an artifact with ease, and a large amount of money could ensure a safe travel towards Elsweyr… The province which was the home of his kinsmen, though he never saw it. It was a great dream of his, to feel the warm sands of desert beneath his feet (or, more correctly, paws)…

Gaius, on the other hand, was being a practical soldier. Even though he was expected to become a great hero and the like, he still couldn’t ignore such basic things like arming himself – just like Irr, his kind-of instincts took over. If there was something valuable behind these doors, chances were that that valuable thing was a powerful weapon, which he would require to defeat whatever he had to. A soldier without a weapon felt like a horse in trousers, and that’s the obvious truth.

“So… You think we should try to open them? The doors?” Gaius finally spoke after a long silence. He was still considering his chances of finding a powerful weapon behind the massive gate, so paid only so much attention to what he was speaking, resulting in not really tied sentences.

“This one thinks so… Perhaps there is something that could be of use there… Behind the doors.” Similarly to Gaius, Irr was also speaking quite dreamily. His eyes were glass-like, staring at the doors in a way it seemed that if he would stop, something terrible would happen. He even stopped blinking, deep in his thoughts.

Gaius took a step forward, quite a slow and small one. The acoustics in this hall was better than in any other place, resulting in very loud footsteps. With every step, the already massive door became a bit larger and the noises from behind it – slightly louder. The gap between the tow metal doors increased a bit, as the soldier took another step forwards.

Finally, he approached enough to be able to press himself against the cold metal, and look through the gap. At the moment his cheek collided with the yellowish material, his heartbeat increased… Blood started running through his veins faster. Something behind these doors made him feel full of power, and the only time when he felt like that was when he interacted with a mage of great power…

Through the gap, another large room was visible. It looked like a very advanced smithy, with a large anvil, apparently made out of the same material as the doors, several tables, littered with (Gaius’ heart jumped slightly) various weapons of seemingly Dwemeri production… Many other tools, required for the work of a smith were also placed there, along with buzzing, puffing glass devices of unknown purposes. While Gaius stared at all these wonders, a noise of metal hitting against metal dragged his attention.

In the corner of the room, a person was working. A red piece of odd metal that was being obviously shaped into a sword was placed on top of a significantly smaller anvil than the one in the middle of the room. As far as Gaius could see, both the weapon that was being worked on and the hammer that was used for the work were of Dwemeri production. But the most interesting feature was the person working.

Due to the fact that Gaius was on the other side of the heavy doors, he couldn’t compare his height with that of the person’s on the other side, though he was quite sure, if taking into account the distance and optical tricks, that the smith was slightly taller than him. When the hammer hit against the weapon, creating a cloud of ember for a short amount of time, the legionnaire could see the lush, long beard of the person, as well as deeply black eyes. He knew that Bosmeri had deeply black eyes, and he saw several pairs of such eyes himself, but in comparison to this, they were dull grey. The eyes of the person seemed to be hiding thousands of years of experience, and great knowledge. It was obvious that a Man couldn’t live long enough to gather such knowledge – only an Elf could live long enough… But there were no such elves in existence, who had such eyes and could grow such beards…

Unless…

No, that cannot be it. Impossible. Gaius rejected the theory immediately. For some reason, panic filled him, and he had to force himself off of the surface of the doors. As soon as he was no longer touching the cold metal, his heartbeat returned to normal, and his flow of blood slowed down… He could almost feel the heat going out of his face. It was similar to hanging upside-down for some time, before returning into the normal position, and feeling the blood flow out of your head.

“Is good friend Gaius okay?” The question woke Gaius up completely. He once again had full control over himself, with the doors no longer influencing his state… However they did that. In order to make sure he didn’t belong to the gate in front of him, the legionnaire shook his head.

“Yes, I’m fine… it’s just that we should move on. The-there’s nothing interesting on the other side.”

“Go already? This one wants to see for himself what is behind the doors…” Irr was obviously disappointed by such a solution. He approached the doors himself, though Gaius grabbed his arm with great strength, dragging him back. The Khajiit frowned, jumping back as the legionnaire let go of his arm as suddenly as he grabbed it, as if it burnt him.

“I- Sorry, Irr, but there’s something about the doors… Something I don’t like. They contain…powerful magic. We would be risking our lives if we were to attempt breaking in.” The words were somewhat distant-sounding to Gaius. It was as if someone was speaking through his mouth. Someone who knew things about magic – Gaius did not.

Irr shot another suspicious glance towards Gaius, then shifted it towards the door. For a moment, it seemed as if he would attempt to get to them even after such drastic measure were taken against the action, though just shrugged and turned away from the gate several moments later. Gaius sighed in relief.

“Come on. Help me… There should be another way out of here. I have no intent to go up the stairs and start a brawl against the Cliff Racers.” He gestured towards the walls, looking at Irr with a questioning look. For a short moment, the Khajiit seemed to hesitate.

“Well… Okay, this one agrees. There is no fun, nor point in trying to fend off the Air-Rats with a shortsword…” He finally replied, before walking towards the walls. They were made not out of the Dwemer metal, but of the odd material Dunmeri used for their tombs. With an uneasy look, Gaius approached the walls as well. His actions seemed to create a rift between the pair… And only time would tell what this seemingly small thing will become.

End of Chapter 12.