The Interim, Part One, A Morrowind Fanfic by BBQ Platypus Options

[bbqplatypus]

Author's Note, Five Years Later:

So yeah. This is a story I wrote quite some time ago about an idea that had long percolated in my head - what happened to the Nerevarine that caused him to bugger off between Morrowind and Oblivion. Not an inherently bad idea for a story - in fact, I still think it could make a pretty good one. This is not that story. In fact, looking back on it now, it's hard for me to imagine any sensible reaction to it other than OHMYGOD THIS IS SO FRUCKING FUCKBAD. Of course, everyone who's ever tried writing started out by writing ten thousand pages of crap. This right here constitutes five of my ten thousand.

I'm not gonna delete it - I'll leave it up, mostly because this forum doesn't seem to allow me to delete topics. But if you've come here by browsing the forums or through some random Google search, please hit the back button immediately and save yourself some time. This story isn't worth yours.






An Account of the Events of the Interim of Grignr the Nerevarine, Between the Fulfillment of the Bloodmoon Prophecy and His Departure to Akavir

Being An Anonymous Account Discovered, Compiled, and Edited by Bereditte Jastal


Editor’s Note: The non-academic nature of this account (its authorship is uncertain, and it is clearly written in prose form, with considerably more detail than one would expect from a typical “journal” or even a memoir) makes it a tome of questionable historical accuracy. The Nerevarine as portrayed in this account – a Nordic male named Grignr Star-Mane, married to an Imperial Legionnaire named Imsin the Dreamer, is b- [a blurry food stain blots out the next few words]-sistent with the details of Hasphat Antabolis’s authoritative (though not universally accepted) account, The Life and Times of the Nerevarine, which [Another food stain, this one with the general texture and coloration of kwama cuttle]

It should be noted that Antabolis’s account of the “interim” period (detailed in Volume IV) is rather sketchy compared to the immaculately detailed chronology of the first three volumes. Many of the events related in this text are [The rest of the page has been torn out, presumably used as a napkin].


Chapter I

The air was warm, heavy, and perplexing, draped like a thick, wet blanket upon the shoulders of the harsh, rocky coastline west of Gnisis. The dark, bloated clouds in the sky grew fat as they slowly drew in the oppressive moisture, accumulating and converging as one. A storm was coming, and we were miles away from cover.

We were one of several detachments that I myself had sent to seek out and clear smugglers caves along the coast of Vvardenfell. This particular group was assigned to investigate the drainage basin of the River Samsi (wherein many underground streams flowed). I led at my own insistence. As Hortator and Knight of the Imperial Dragon, no one dared to argue with me.

“Tread carefully, men,” I called back to the twelve Redoran soldiers who trudged miserably behind me. “We’re a long walk from Gnisis, and we only have so many Intervention scrolls to go around. We don’t want to have to carry anybody back to the Temple.”

“Understood, muthsera,” grunted Tedril Doren, the acting second-in-command of the detachment. His voice carried a ragged and weary tone to it – for he, like the rest of the men, had been marching now for several hours - in full bonemold armor - with very little rest. Even I was starting to feel a bit tired – enchanted armor can only do so much.

“We’ll keep marching until nightfall,” I said, turning my head toward the lieutenant, “and then we’ll head on home.”

The soldiers behind me grumbled a bit, but I could tell they were fairly content with knowing that the march would at least end sometime. For now, though, we would continue to plow ahead.

After a couple minutes of marching, Doren hastened his gait to move abreast with me. “May I speak with you privately for a moment, sera?” he inquired in a low voice.

“Fire away,” I replied quietly.

“Are all these men really necessary? Could you not have conducted this raid by yourself, sera? It seems an awful lot of trouble for us to have to go through.”

“You can never be too careful, Doren. We might catch them in the middle of restocking. Not to mention the amount of contraband we already have to carry back.”

I could tell that inwardly, we both knew the pointlessness of this mission. Even if we were to kill or arrest every man and mer in every cave, hideout, and abandoned fortress in the entire province, there would always be others to replace them. The drug trade is a horrid, unkillable beast, and we were both well aware of it. But I knew better than he did – I knew how to stop it.

It was all a matter of bribing the right person: Orvas Dren. If I could convince Orvas Dren to tell me the names and locations of the major members and safehouses of the Camonna Tong (an organization that I controlled in theory, but not in practice), I could send the full fury of the Dunmer and Imperial military after them, setting the drug trade back months – maybe even years. It only required the right application of bribery, blackmail, or brute force.

But I dared not do such a thing. It would shatter the uneasy peace I had forged with my fellow Hlaalu councilmen (most of whom I didn’t trust as it was), and would put myself, my family, and many of the people I had sworn to protect in danger. And so here we were, scrounging and combing through the caves of Vvardenfell, fighting a war that could not be won.

We marched silently for a minute or two. We were sloshing through the water to skirt a small cliff face when a voice suddenly emerged from the rear of the ranks.

“Come look, sera!” one of the soldiers exclaimed. “I think I see an opening! It’s…submerged, but there’s a door there.”

The rest of us doubled back to see what he had found. Sure enough, there was a weather-beaten, half-rotted door nestled into a small indentation in the cliff face.

“Yes, that’s a cave, alright,” I said. “And from the looks of it, there are or have been people in it. Doren, have one of your boys dive down and check it out.”

“Yes, sera.” He turned to a subordinate. “Arinith, I hope you can swim.”

“I can, sera,” the soldier answered. He dove into the frigid water, nudged the door open, and ducked under the low ceiling into the cave.

We waited what felt like an eternity for him to return. We waited for two minutes…three minutes…four minutes. Finally, after about half an hour, Doren spoke. “I do not know what is taking Arinith so long, but I think we should assume the worst.”

“I agree,” I said grimly. “Which is why I’m going in. I want you and everyone here who can swim to follow me.”

“We’ll be right behind you.”

I dove in and entered the cave.

This post has been edited by bbqplatypus: Mar 28 2013, 06:01 AM

[bbqplatypus]

I stepped off the boat and surveyed my surroundings as I waded toward shore through the shin-deep water. It was a craggy, miserable little rock – ill-suited for habitation, or for any purpose for that matter. We had disembarked near the least steep and most approachable part of the island. Where the rest of the island was surrounded by sheer cliff faces, this area was more of a steep, graduated incline, with a modestly-sized flat section near the water’s edge. Further north, the shoreline indented inwards to form a sort of miniature bay spanned by a crude, arch-like rock bridge.

“Their hideout is probably near that indentation over there.” I motioned for the Legionnaires to follow me.

But no sooner had we started toward the bridge when a wrinkled, white-haired Dunmer in fine robes made his way over the top of the hilltop and into our line of sight. The archers noticed this quickly and readied their weapons, arrows primed to fire.

“Hold!” I ordered. Then, I called out to the Dunmer. “Halt! Identify yourself!”

The mer laughed and began muttering something under his breath. Then there was a brief crash of thunder. Suddenly, a massive shockwave of magicka exploded from out of the ground itself, knocking me off my feet and onto my back. By the time I got back up, the island was quickly being enveloped in a thick fog. Within seconds, I could not see past my own outstretched hands.

“It’s a trap!” I gasped. “We have to get out of here!”

One of the soldiers behind me spoke up. “How? We can’t even see where we’re supposed to – AAAAAAAUUUUUUGH!” He let out a piercing scream and fell silent.

For a few agonizing seconds, all was silent. And then, nine hells broke loose. Terrified shrieks of agony and death filled the air, accompanied by the distinctive sound of sword slicing through flesh, and punctuated by the loud CLAK! of heavy boots against the ground as the Legionnaires desperately tried to flee. This was no battle – this was a slaughter.

I tried to focus my innate Tower-sense upon my surroundings in an effort to search for traps or enchantments, but it was to no avail. The wizard had silenced me.

I had to think fast. The lives of myself and the men under my command were at stake. I could not see the end of my own sword, but I knew that I was dead if I just stayed where I was. I needed to dispel the wizard’s curse.

Just then, I could feel a faint, rippling breeze coming from behind my neck. Realizing what it was, I ducked and dove out of the way. A split second later, I felt the cold WHOOSH! of a blade passing over me as I hurtled through the mist. Unfortunately, my momentum carried me over the edge of the narrow path on which I was standing. I tumbled down the steep slope onto the rocks below.

I landed with a mighty crash. Winded but alive, I slowly got to my knees, reached into my pack and groped around for the potions. I rummaged through the bag, squinting hard to read the labels on the vials. Finally, I was able to find what I was looking for – a Dispel potion. I quickly drank it and stood up as I grabbed a potion of levitation from the bottom of the bag.

I could feel the magic of the Tower flow through me and everything on the island as I focused my inner eye upon my enemies. There were about twelve of them near the shoreline, each of them armed with poisoned shortswords, plus enchanted amulets that presumably allowed them to detect us. The wizard was higher up, near the top of the hill at the center of the island. I had to kill him and lift the fog.

I floated silently up to one of my assailants. I knew he could see me as well, and had my sword at the ready. I could sense the location of his short blade as he moved to attack. But I knew quite well how to fight in the dark – Imsin herself had trained me how to do it, back in the days when she was master-at-arms, and I her pupil.

"Make contact...maintain balance...keep moving...let the enemy's blade move with yours...make use of your senses!"

I no longer needed to remind myself of these things. They were now second nature to me.

My sword met his, and then swiftly swung around to strike at his torso. The invisible assailant blocked my strike just in time. However, he had left his flank wide open. I kicked the hazy expanse where I knew his stomach to be. My left foot connected with his stomach, and he fell back, dazed and short of breath. I plunged Trueflame into his chest and charged up the hill.

Every step up the rocky incline was a leap of faith; I had only my intuition to guide my footsteps. Soon, I was beset on both sides by no fewer than three enemies. With only my inner eye and sense of direction I thwarted their attacks, slashing, blocking, ducking, and dodging my way around and through them. One by one they fell until none stood in my way.

The wizard’s powerful staff betrayed him to me. But he was not blind, either – I felt him getting farther away from me as he fled down the other side of the little mountain.

“Come back here!” I snarled, unslinging my Daedric longbow. I focused my senses again, getting a bead on his spiritual aura and letting fly a bonemold arrow into the murky void. A whimpering cry of anguish let me know that my shot had connected.

I calmly strolled down to where the wizard lay, unable to walk. He had been shot in the leg.

“Please…” he pleaded. “P-please don’t kill me…please, I don’t –“

I didn’t allow him to finish his sentence, separating his head from his shoulders. Good men had died because of what he had done. Men whom it was my responsibility to lead. Some of them I knew quite well. These were my friends; my comrades-in-arms. It was nothing less than what he deserved. If it hadn’t been me, it would have been the executioner.

Gradually, the fog began to clear. As I stood there, carefully cleaning the blood off of my sword, I heard a voice cry out behind me. “Watch out, sir!”

I pivoted to face the threat, only to recoil in fear and surprise. Two tall figures were racing toward me, each dressed in black from head to toe, with a single glass eye gleaming on the left side of their faces. It couldn’t be…

They were no more than five feet away. I couldn’t stop them; there was no time. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the inevitable sting of their glass daggers…but the impact never came. One by one, I opened my eyes. The assassins lay face down on the ground, arrows sticking through the backs of their heads.

“The Dark Brotherhood…” I murmured incredulously. “They must have set this trap for me…” Then it began to dawn on me. “Imsin…”

“Is something wrong, sir?” a voice called out. I looked to the top of the hill. A Redguard in Imperial uniform stood there, his long braided hair flowing in the breeze.

“No…nothing. It seems I owe you my life, soldier. What’s your name?”

“Trooper Sadean, sir. I am…or, was…head of the detachment of archers you brought here.”

“I see…are there any other survivors, Trooper?”

“No, sir,” he replied grimly. “Just me.”

“Damn…we’ll need to report this to Fort Wolverine. You’ll have to do it yourself, unfortunately. I have to go. There’s…something I need to see. Oh, and by the way, congratulations.”

“Congratulations? For what?”

“Your promotion, of course. Best of luck to you, Agent Sadean.”

I slipped on my Grandmaster’s Signet Ring and teleported to Rethan Manor, terrified at what I might find there…

This post has been edited by bbqplatypus: Sep 24 2008, 07:13 AM