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]

Trouble is beginning to form between the two, that might prove to detrimental to their mission as it seems that they often must rely on each other to get out of sticky situations. Hopefully they manage to patch things up shortly.

How that will end is beyond even me - I just wrote the most logical response which I would give if a good friend of mine suddenly dragged me away for apparently no reason. I guess it's one of those times when things develop all by themselves. You might notice that in this chapter, Gaius is no longer 'good friend', only 'friend'.

While I am disappointed that they didn't go through the doors, some of my curiosity has been satisfied and I'm confident that they will return.

I should mention as a funfact, it's going to be Gaius' personal quest. I was waiting for the opportunity to write of Gaius questing alone, and it came with the second fanfic about Gaius...

My only comment on the writing is that yu might want to consider some more imagery in the description which is already very good.

As a matter of fact, English isn't my first language, only second. It's nothing hard to write basic things, though I should say that since my native language has a much wider selection of words of the same, or similar, meaning (whereas English has more than one meaning to most of words, making it quite a difficulcy for me to type so it seems normal) that I can't really use much imagery. Though I'm learning. You might notice that (at least, in my opinion) there is quite a change between how I wrote in the frist chapter, and how the later chapters are done.

And now, a new chapter. Every hero needs a weapon (well, at least every TES Nerevarine that doesn't punch everyone, which is quite rare), and Gaius is getting at least a temporary one.

Chapter 13: Arming.

It wasn’t a pleasant activity for Gaius, to brush his hand against a somewhat slimy, cold earth that surrounded them as walls, in search of door of some sort. The darkness was almost solid; it seemed to bear down on the Legionnaire like a cloth of some sort, making it hard to breathe. Alongside the walls, the darkness seemed almost magical, creating the illusion of someone – or something – breathing down your neck. Gaius wasn’t a coward, for sure, but something caused shivers on his spine there.

Irr, on the other hand, had no better time. For whatever reasons, he did not possess the ability to see in the dark – which is very odd, considering that all Khajiiti have it – and his position was equal to Gaius’, maybe even worse, since his paws were notably larger than Gaius’ feet, so the Khajiit would occasionally yelp after hitting his paw against a sticking out rock.

I’d kill to get out of here… The Legionnaire thought, muttering something along the same lines under his nose. And – a miracle or maybe just a coincidence – his hand touched cold metal at the same moment!

For a short moment, Gaius assumed this could be the same old large door. He brushed that theory away immediately, though – he would’ve known if it was the gates. First, he would’ve made a turn, which he did not. Second, there was no special feeling to touching the doors, only slight vibration. And third, he would be in the light that the doors seemed to emit, but he was still in darkness.

So, he found something new. Perhaps that something would lead them out of this place…

“Irr, come here. I think I found something.” Gaius called out, giving the metal a push. He could hear a slight creak, though nothing more - the thing wasn’t going to give up easily, whatever it was. Nevertheless, the Legionnaire didn’t give up, continuing to push.

“Would friend Gaius mind explaining to this one what he is doing?” Irr distracted the Imperial. Though neither could see each other, the Khajiit would easily know where Gaius was from his heavy breathing. Gaius, on the other hand, would only know where Irr was from his speaking.

“I’m trying to make sure whenever this is a door leading out of this accursed place or just a random section of Dwemer metal on the wall. Mind helping?” The legionnaire gave a short description of current events, stopping the pushing for a moment as he talked, before resuming the work. Irr shrugged.

“This one thinks this is better than doing nothing…”

*

Finally, after ten minutes of pushing, the thing gave in to the combined strength of Gaius and Irr. Now, there was a gap large enough even for the Legionnaire to slip through, and, even better, inside, several Dwemer lamps were located, as far as they could see. The pleasant light shed by the devices cheered them up, and encouraged to continue on. Thus, both slid in.

And froze in their tracks.

They were at an end of a long Dwemer-constructed corridor that branched into many directions. Gaius could see that the nearest branching had a set of Dwemer Runes nearby – probably describing where did the branch lead to. Neither of them knew how to read Dwemeri, so they did not know that the inscription meant ‘Tureynulal’.

On the ceiling, Dwemer lamps were positioned, creating the odd lighting present in all Dwemer ruins. On the ground, an odd shape was present – what appeared to be a golem of some sort, defending against a large snake. Further were pictures of what appeared to be a daemon of some sort, a tower, a dancing woman, a standing woman, a tall man with quite long arms, and a man with a dagger.

But the greatest wonder was the walls, and what rested nearby them. It was a true paradise for an archaeologist or a scholar.

Hanging on the walls were various graphics, depicting such things like large robots of some sort, ships with odd engines, scarabs, spiders, and the like. Others even included such things like doors similar to those that indicate a Dwemer ruin, also some tunnels and underground facilities. Gaius roughly assumed these were Dwemer devices.

And the thing that interested the Legionnaire and the ex-Thief most was the tables that were positioned alongside the walls. On the tables rested weapons, small devices which could be lifted with one hand, and armor, also various small wrenches, nails and the like. The weapons that interested Gaius so much were unlike anything he’d seen.

They seemed deadly, yet somewhat light, constructed from the same material as sort-of common Dwemer weapons, though more… agile. Curved edges, decorations, gems – they seemed to be weapons of kings and emperors, belonging to a treasury, and not a mere Dwemer-built corridor. There were axes, spears, halberds, daggers, shortswords, longswords, claymores, honoured user swords, bows, darts, arrows, throwing stars...

Needless to say, the armor differed as well. Unlike the usual heavy Dwemer armor, this one seemed more... round, sliding. The armor looked like it would be designed for quick movements. Needless to say, they were also decorated heavily, and not even the Emperor Tiber Septim would’ve felt satisfied wearing them.

Gaius’ eyes seemed to be devouring the weapons on the spot – how much they weighted, were they endurable… In contrast, Irr was wondering how much money he could earn by selling as much of this as he could lift. Probably the price would’ve been much higher if it depended on how much Gaius could lift – with such fine weapons before him, the Legionnaire was willing to lift the world to be able to use them.

“Irr…” Gaius finally managed to put his mouth into use, though not yet fully. While he spoke, his eyes didn’t leave the weapons for a single moment – every moment spent without watching the weapons was a huge loss for him now. The Legionnaire didn’t realize how he bore with the broadsword that was shattered recently.

“Friend Gaius..?” Irr managed to respond. His thoughts seemed to be similar to those of Gaius.

“Do- do you think it… You think it would be thieving if we took a weapon for ourselves? Because I figure if someone left these things without care here, then they ought to be no longer needed…” Gaius asked, trying to make an excuse before his own eyes for his greed.

“This one… doesn’t think so. No… Friend Gaius is probably right… Th- they’re probably no longer needed…” Irr replied, speaking in a manner similar to the Legionnaire’s. After these words, the Khajiit took an unsure step forward.

Gaius, satisfied with the excuse he needed only to feel clean, took a much more confident step forward. Irr also seemed to gain confidence in the fact that the weapons weren’t needed – and thus, the two people followed the same lie they made up only to make an excuse in their own eyes, like smart vassals that make up excuses for keeping a thing and not handing it over to their suzerain.

The table nearest to them had a wide assortment of weapons, though the one that interested Gaius the most was a lean, long dai-katana within a sheath decorated with rubies. Unsheathing the weapon revealed a quite light and swift weapon. With several swings into air, the Legionnaire found out that the dai-katana was light enough to be held only in one hand. The Dwemer metal contrasted greatly with the swiftness of the weapon, though Gaius figured that it would trick his opponents – while usually, Dwemer weapons were heavy like stones, this one – either because of the shape, or because of some special way the metal was worked with – was light, seemingly lighter than paper.

With a satisfied grin, Gaius strapped the katana’s sheath to his back, before sheathing the weapon. It slid in without any problems, leaving the Legionnaire satisfied – it wouldn’t get stuck in a critical moment.

Worth mentioning is the fact that the blade was decorated. A large serpent was depicted on the blade, beginning from the very bottom-most point of the hilt, where the tail was located, curling around the blade to the very tip, where the opening mouth was shown. The sheath possessed a snake on it as well, though this one’s head was located nearby the part where the hilt collided with the sheath. The ruby was in the place where the eye of the snake should’ve been.

Due to these decorations, Gaius dubbed the sword ‘Serpent’.

Irr, at the meantime, was interesting himself with a short scimitar. The thing wasn’t as lean as Gaius’ dai-katana, but it was notably shorter, allowing it to move with greater speed. It reminded the legionnaire of the blade of the Ash Vampire-Ordinator he faced not that long ago, though it was shorter. The blade was decorated with curved lines; this, and the shape of the blade made Gaius dub the weapon ‘Wisp’. There was no sheath, only a simple leather strip that was wide enough for the blade to freely enter, though not enough for the hilt to pass through.

The weapon didn’t feel enchanted as well, though it seemed to be fast enough to make up for the lack of magical effects. Just like with Serpent, the Dwemer metal seemed to be unable to store such speed, so it could’ve earned Irr the upper hand.

Without much hesitation, Irr strapped the blade to his simple belt. What took more will to overcome was the urge to pick up every weapon and piece of armor on the table, though the ex-thief overcame that as well.

Gaius fixed his gaze on the corridor in front of us, finally removing them from the magnificent weapons and armor. The corridor – or, rather, the tunnel – was so long he couldn’t see the other end of it. Great. Another enormously long trip underground.

“We should probably get moving, and see where this corridor will lead.” The Legionnaire suggested after starring at the path in front of them for a while. Irr, with some difficulty, nodded, and followed the Imperial’s lead. A short smile passed over the Khajiit’s face, too quick for Gaius, who was looking in front of him, and not behind, to notice. The sight of a heavily armored Legionnaire with a katana strapped to his back was quite odd, considering that katanas and dai-katanas alike were considered fast weapons, used by lighter and more acrobatic people.

End of Chapter 13.