The Ordinator, The time of change is approaching... Options

[Gaius Maximus]

So, I decided I would psot it ehre as well. Enjoy!

Chapter I

Raynari Vandareth sighed in relief, taking off his Indoril helmet. Sweat gushed down his brow, and he could feel the same was happening to his back, which gave him an uncomfortable feeling, since he could do nothing with his armor on. However, he wasn’t an Ordinator captain for nothing, so he could endure this feeling, like he endured the hits that came from Corprus monsters a mere several minutes ago.

“Captain? Are you alright?” A voice distracted Raynari from the dead body of a once-man in front of him.

Turning around, he was faced with an Indoril helmet, worn by one of his Ordinators, with whom he was tasked to clear out a nest of Sixth House heretics.

“Yes… Yes, I’m fine. Only several dents in my armor… Those damn monsters know how to pack a hit.” The Ordinator Captain replied, cleaning the sweat off of his brow with a gauntlet-less hand. The gauntlet that was supposed to rest on the hand was lying in dirt, deformed to the point where it was impossible to use it for its original purpose.

“Casualties?” Raynari finally asked after a moment of silence.

“We’ve got at least half a hundred of those beasts. Yet at a high cost, they took at least a quarter of our own men, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s double the number of them left in this cave.” The lower-ranking Ordinator replied with a sigh. Raynari shook his head slightly.

“Tell the remaining men to regroup into a schiltron. The heretics aren’t known for patience, they’ll come at us soon, so we have to be ready.” The Ordinator Captain ordered with a weary voice, again cleaning the sweat from his brow – it was still pouring. “Dismissed, Suleri.” Raynari added, cleaning the tip of his spear into the ground, which was also stained in blood.

With a salute, the Ordinator called Suleri hurried off, leaving Raynari alone with his thoughts once again. However, those thoughts weren’t the nicest ones, as the Ordinator Captain could hear footsteps approaching them – more Corprus beasts were coming into the cavern in which the Ordinators were trapped.

If this lasts for long, we’ll all be dead. Apparently, the informant underestimated the Sixth House while gathering information about this goddamn cavern… Vehk save us if no reinforcements come. Raynari sighed again, then shot a glance at his Ordinators. They were all weary, yet still more than willing to fight for the glory of the Temple and the Tribunal. They didn’t have much hope of surviving, and the little hope they did was in the form of a circular schiltron, a forest of spears deadly against cavalry and useful against infantry.

When the second wave of Corpus monsters finally began, the spear-armed Ordinators met it with grim face expressions and tightly gripped spears and shields. However, the mad beasts did not stop for even a moment of consideration, slamming into the schiltron. The tight formation retreated slightly, yet suffered light casualties, while leaving many bodies of Corprus monsters on the ground.

The Corprus monsters slammed into the schiltron again, suffering more casualties, yet making the circle of spears retreat a bit more. This was certainly not a welcomed situation, as soon enough, the Ordinators would be pushed into the wall, and their formation disrupted. Raynari had to quickly think a way out of this. However, it wasn’t that hard.

When the Corprus monsters slammed into them for the third time, he yelled out the command that could either doom the Ordinators or save them:

“ATTACK!”

Thus, when the Corprus monsters slammed into a part of the schiltron, their flanks were crashed into by the other Ordinators. Soon enough, the Corprus monsters were forced into fighting on three sides – their flanks and the front. Now was the time when Raynari had to lead a handful of Ordinators to smash into their rear, an action that the Corprus monsters would not expect.

As fast as possible, the party of some ten Ordinators separated from the main force, trying to stay away from the fighting. It didn’t take long for them to reach the location from which they could charge down on the rear of the Corprus beasts, hopefully turning their attention away from the other Ordinators long enough for the fighting to turn the way they wanted.

Raynari smirked, looking at the temptingly vulnerable rear of the Corprus monsters. However, the smirk was left unnoticed by his companions, since his head was covered with the Indoril helmet, which was in turn smeared with blood, as was his whole armor. He knew that soon enough, his armor would receive a new layer of blood, and a new set of dents from the monsters that fought ahead of them. Since there was no time to be wasted, the Ordinator Captain lifted up his spear into the air, then yelled out the phrase that all of the Ordinators were eager to hear:

“CHARGE!”

It took several moments for the Corprus monsters to realize what happened when the handful of Ordinators slammed into their back, and when they did, several of the monsters’ numbers were already dead with spears in their backs. However, when they did realize what happened, they turned to fight with ferocity that Raynari had not foreseen.

The Captain himself, though, fought with ferocity that equaled, if not surpassed, the ferocity of his enemies. However, his ferocity blinded him temporarily, which almost cost him his life. As he impaled a Corprus monster with his spear, another one lunged at him from behind, knocking him on the ground.

Raynari was unfortunate enough to land on a rock with his unarmored hand. With a sickening crunch, he looked as his arm twisted in an unusual way, indicating that it broke. As if that wasn’t enough, he cut it quite deeply, and blood started gushing out of his wound. But it wasn’t the only of his problems – the Corprus monster jumped on him, pressing him to the ground.

After a bit of struggling, Raynari managed to turn himself around, coming face to face with the disfigured face of the monster. A sickening stench blew at his face, though he did his best to ignore it, hitting the monster in the face. This didn’t seem to have much effect, though, and in return Raynari got a hit that broke his nose. He felt warm blood on his face, yet ignored it, moving his head to avoid another such hit.

What the Corprus monster failed to see was that Raynari’s fine arm managed to grasp the shortsword that hung at the Ordinator Captain’s side. Just as the creature was going to land another hit, Raynari swung the shortsword. It too several moment for the monster to realize what had happened, yet it soon roared in pain, staring at what was left of its arm. The rest of it landed nearby, cut off by Raynari’s shortsword.

Blood poured out of the remaining part of the beast’s arm, mixing with the blood on Raynari’s face and arm. The Dunmer frowned in disgust, then drove the shortsword in his hand into the creature’s neck, causing more blood to pour on him and mix with that of his own. With a one last roar, the monster fell down on Raynari in full weight, hitting his head against a rock.

The last thing Raynari heard before passing out was cheerful shouts and heavy footsteps of many armored feet.

***

Raynari looked around a large room, seemingly made out of gold. He did not know where he was, nor how he got here, yet what he knew was that he didn’t want to be here. Still, the room was so beautiful, and the wooden door leading outside seemed so ugly in comparison, he couldn’t make himself leave. What drew him more were other doors, made out of precious gems and diamonds of all sort.

In an oddly sluggish way, Raynari walked towards the diamond doors. It took only several moments for him to reach them and open them. However, when he did, he felt himself falling through the floor before he could even see what was inside. As he fell into the abyss, darkness surrounded him. The Ordinator Captain heard someone laugh, before opening his eyes.

Sweat gushed down his enormously hot brow. Raynari felt weak and sick, which was probably the case, as the first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was a man in blue robes – the Ordinator healer. Raynari was back in Vivec.

[Gaius Maximus]

You just wait for what happens later. We're going to get some major siege action when Raynari stops messing around.

Chapter V

Bright light swirled around Raynari, and he soon clenched his stomach, feeling weaker and weaker as his spell faded. If he would’ve been standing on firm ground, the Dunmer would certainly have collapsed – however, there was nothing firm beneath him to speak of, thus nowhere to collapse. However, that did not remove the increasing weakness Raynari was feeling, and black circles again began dancing in front of him.

Where am I traveling? Raynari wondered, before that thought was replaced by a sickening feeling that he was about to throw up. However, he was no longer capable of holding his hands against his stomach, so the two limbs slipped to his sides slowly as the ex-Ordinator began loosing control of them.

Suddenly, Raynari’s feet collided with something firm. He wasn’t ready for this, and even if he was, the Dunmer’s feet were too weak to hold anyway, so he fell down to his knees. This time, however, unlike the time when he landed in Ebonheart, the rest of his body was too weak to hold as well, and the last thing he knew, his head hit cold metal floor, and blackness came.

***

Raynari groaned, yet he was filled with terror upon hearing his own voice. It was a low moan, completely not like his voice… Immediately, he looked around to find out if there was no one nearby. However, the area around him was empty.

Shaking it off as an effect of having slept on such a surface, Raynari took his time to look around. He was obviously no longer nearby Vivec. Very far away, actually, as could be judged by the drastic change of surroundings.

The area in which Raynari found himself was covered in ash completely. The same ash was in the air, flying around – he was obviously in the middle of an ash storm. However, asides from Dwemer metal pipes and the door next to which Raynari was lying, there was nothing special to the area, or so the ex-Ordinator thought upon looking around for the first time. Soon, though, one another thing caught his eye.

A slight distance away, where, as far as Raynari could see, there was a great hole in the ground, the ash was swirling in a very odd way, forming a column that was beginning in the hole and rising up and up, until finally spreading. This was very odd, as Raynari was certain that ash storms were caused by strong wind picking up the ash from the ground, and not by a hole somewhere.

However, after staring at the column of ash for several moments, realization hit him.

He was not in a simple ash storm. Raynari was in the middle of a Blight storm, and he was next to what was causing the blight – the crater of the Red Mountain. By whatever means, he had reached his destination.

Only after realizing that did Raynari notice one another thing. It shocked him even more than the fact that he was in the Red Mountain.

Only now had the ex-Ordinator noticed, he wasn’t a Dunmer anymore, at least not if judging by appearance. He was a monster – his skin was of a mix of grey and tan. Growths had appeared on his whole body. However, his new state had not altered his mind at all, as it seemed. Yet it did strengthen him psychically, as Raynari was feeling even stronger than he was before catching Corprus during that accursed mission.

Sluggishly, Raynari forced himself on his feet, and took a step forward, only to slam into Dwemer iron once again. Oddly, he only barely felt the impact, and thus could immediately begin attempting to open the circle of iron in front of him.

After a few minutes of vain attempts, it became obvious that brute strength would not do him any good. There must be an entrance into this thing… Raynari’s thoughts floated around slowly, something which he blamed on his new state. Maybe it did affect his way of thinking, after all, but at least not to the point where he was unable to do that.

Slowly, the Corprus-infected Dunmer looked around. His eyes were captured by what seemed to be a lever, fixed to a pipe in the distance. Knowing he would loose nothing more while checking that, Raynari directed himself towards the thing.

It didn’t take much effort in his new form to move the lever, and soon enough, the iron circle began opening. Raynari smiled slightly, something that disfigured his face completely, before making his way to the newly-revealed door, also constructed of Dwemer metal. So far, so good. I can only hope that this does not prove to be a false hope… Or just a dream…

***

The wooden doors creaked slightly as Raynari opened them. He was surprised to find something made out of wood in this place of obviously Dwemer construction. It could be easily guessed that this was a newer addition to the structure, as it seemed as if the wall that was originally there was broken through, and a new cave was dug.

I dislike this silence. How comes there’s no one here?

Suddenly, Raynari was taken aback by the first thing he heard in this entire ruin - an odd voice he immediately recognized from his dreams.

“Dagoth Ur greets you in the Red Mountain, Indoril Nerevar Reborn. I am glad to see you are finally here.”

The voice belonged to a tall white-skinned figure, wearing a golden mask that covered his face. There was no doubt as to whom this was, not after the noisy introduction – this was Devil Dagoth Ur, once a friend of Lord Indoril Nerevar, as whom Raynari was now greeted. Due to the sudden appearance of a form of life, it took several moments for Raynari to understand the words that were thrown at him. When he did, though, one obvious question arose:

“Indoril Nerevar Reborn? Who… who are you speaking of?” The noise Raynari managed to release sounded awfully like a series of groans and moans, yet Dagoth Ur seemed to be perfectly capable of understanding that.

“I am speaking of you, Nerevarine of Vvardenfell. Come – there is much you do not know of yourself currently. I can tell it to you… All of it.”