Cyrodiil Options

[Alexander]

Ok, so for the unavoidable introduction babble, as most of you know I was rather pleased with Morrowind. I thought it was far better then the dribble I wrote prior to that, and most people seemed to agree with me. After I finished Morrowind I already had an idea for a sequel, I actually wrote the very first chapter of said sequel while I was posting up parts of Morrowind. Unfortunately though, after that first chapter I kind of lost interest. I didn’t think the ideas I had back then were enough to weave an entire story together, and I was probably right.

But as these things have a habit of developing themselves, over the past months I kept thinking back to the sequel, and kept adding ideas to the pile I already had. Now it’s done. I once again enjoyed writing this, and I hope you’ll have similar fun reading it.

As I’ve explained in the past, I’m not very good at making up things like titles, Akatosh knows it took me about as long to come up with the various titles of the chapters as it did to write the entire thing, so I’ve named the story “Cyrodiil” (catchy wot? )

Before I end my babbling and get on with posting the story, I once again would like to thank Treydog for agreeing to help with my story as editor, and for fixing the many, many, many grammatical and spelling errors, and placing every comma, semicolon and whatchamacallit in the correct place. And thanks to everyone who ever read Morrowind, and commented. I really enjoy the comments.


Now, while you don’t have to have read Morrowind, I believe in order to get the most out of Cyrodiil, it would be recommended.


So, enough babbling and on to Cyrodiil.

[Alexander]

Chapter 9 Morrowind revis(it)ed.

Morrowind in recent years had undergone quite a few changes. At the border with Cyrodiil, as well as the other provinces, a giant Ghostfence now made sure no one could enter the province without the Dunmer or other inhabitants knowing about it. Baurus snuck into the province on the tail of a Caravan

The recent war that had culminated in the creation of the new Ghostfence had seriously changed the balance of power in the province. Where once House Hlaalu was the dominant force, mainly thanks to Imperial backing and their vast network of spies, now it was reduced to a second rate House.

Even though the new leaders of the house had declared they were in full support of the undisputed ruler, the Lady Barenziah, other Houses still looked at them with distrust. One does not shake the stench of betrayal easily. That was how the other Houses perceived it anyway, as a betrayal. How could you not know your king was in reality a battle mage, the son of one of the Empire’s greatest enemies?

Baurus thought the difference was not hard to notice. Walking through Balmora, once arguably the center of Hlaalu power on Vvardenfall, he thought it looked more like a slum than the prosperous city it had been when he had been there once before. But his mission did not allow him time to dwell on the changes- he had come to get directions. He wasn’t too certain where Galom Daeus was, but no one in Balmora seemed to have heard of it, or if they had, they weren’t saying anything.

On the other hand, when he came into Suran the difference was even greater. It had once been a Hlaalu town, but had been captured by the Telvanni during the war, and never returned. It now served as gateway into the Telvanni parts of Vvardenfall. One could still see the original Hlaalu architecture, but now it was intermixed with Telvanni Tels. Where once the manor of the local Hlaalu leader had stood, a giant Tel now rose out of the ground to loom over the town. It had also grown a lot since Baurus had last seen it, and was now at least twice as large as before. In fact, it appeared there was only one building in the town that had fallen into disrepair, with a weathered sign that named it the former slave market. Baurus assumed it was a none-too-subtle sign to all visitors- a reminder of Telvanni power and of the force of Nerevar’s will.

Fortunately, someone in Suran did have directions to Galom Daeus. After asking around for some time, an old man came up to Baurus, a Breton, if Baurus was any judge. He used a staff to help him walk and had long white hair and an almost equally long beard. He looked none too strong, and looked better suited for lying in bed, but he explained to Baurus he was going in the direction of Galom Daeus himself. Apparently the old man lived in the middle of nowhere and only came to town once a month for some fresh provisions. Baurus was happy to have him along, to serve as guide and companion. It was better then trying to find his own way in the Molag Amur region , where everything looked alike and the next hill of dust looked exactly like the last, and the one three hills over.

Setting off early the next morning, the Blade found the old man had no trouble keeping up with the pace Baurus set. He was also very talkative; keeping up a constant stream of comments during the entire trip, occasionally asking Baurus about this or that, although, thinking back, Baurus couldn’t really remember the questions. They must have been trivial if he’d forgotten them so soon.

Midday found them looking up at the shapes of Galom Daeus. Baurus turned to the old man,
“Well, I guess we’re here. Thank you for showing me the way. I think I’d better enter alone, though; you never know what might be waiting inside such ruins.”
For some reason the old man giggled at that. “You’re right young master; of course you’re right. But I feel tired, and my legs are killing me, so I think I’ll take a little nap around here before moving on. Good luck inside, and maybe I’ll be here still when you get back. I always like a good story.”

At that the old man lay down, turned around and within seconds was snoring away contentedly.

Baurus smiled at the sight; he hoped he was still moving as well himself when he got to that age. Turning around, he now looked at the entrance to Galom Daeus. It looked menacing, an old Dwemer door leading into what would likely be a nest of vampires. Baurus had made sure to stock enough restore health and cure common disease potions to be ready for most anything, but wondered if it might still prove to be more than he could handle.

Setting aside his doubt, he put his hand on the crank that opened the door and pushed. With a creak the door slowly opened inwards.