The Talendor Chronicles, Part One Options

[TheOtherRick]

AUTHORS NOTE AND DISCLAIMER

This is my first attempt at fan fiction. I am not a writer, by profession or hobby. At least it wasn't a hobby until now. We'll see where that goes. So since I am not a writer, grammatical and spelling errors may slip past the spell-check from time to time. Please feel free to point them out so that I may make the proper edits.

I have read very little fan fiction, which is to say that I have not finished reading any story that I started reading...yet. But starting to read a few has put a flow in my creative juices. (Go Buffy!) Any similarity to any other fan fiction posted in this or any other forum is purely coincidental, with one exception. I have posted this story on another site. I am posting it here because I would like feedback, and I am not getting any at the other site. The readers here seem to post more feedback than readers at the other site. I'm not trying to be a glory hound, and I encourage constructive criticism.

The story is a gameplay narrative. It starts in the 3rd person for the prologue only, the rest will be in 1st person. It is not a walk-through of the Main Quest. However, as it is a gameplay narrative, so readers will have to plod through the tutorial section much as I had to plod through while writing it. The tutorial is essential for character development, as you will see. The posts will be relatively short so that the reader will not have to wade through miles of text per post. To keep them short, I am going to borrow Acadian's chapter numbering system (1.1, 1.2, etc.) so I don't end up with three digit chapter numbers.

I hope you will enjoy...The Talendor Chronicles

Post Script - I have already screwed up. Instead of putting "Authors Note and Disclaimer" in the subject line, it should read "Part One". Is there a way to change that?

Post Script #2 - The first four installments after the Prologue are way too long. This was a rookie mistake and has been rectified Beginning with Chapter 3. I apologize for the long posts, but I promise you'll be glad you slogged through them.

This post has been edited by TheOtherRick: Feb 5 2011, 02:00 AM

[TheOtherRick]

Chapter 1.1 – Out of the Cell

Okay…I have to get a handle on this. Just think for a minute.

I looked around the room where the guards and the man that called himself “The Emperor” had left me. They went through a gate and locked it behind them. I barely had a moment alone when I heard a scratching sound and suddenly stone blocks tumbled into the room. Just as suddenly, the biggest rats I have ever seen jumped through the new hole. Straight at me! By reflex alone, I swung my fist and stunned the first one as the second one jumped through. Swinging my fists and stomping, I fought them off until I finally felt a skull crack under the weight of my foot as I choked the life out of the other rat.

Panting, I looked at the dead vermin. They were huge! They were easily three feet long and probably thirty pounds each. I looked at my wounds from the battle. Nothing serious, but they will need cleansing. I took a deep breath.

Get a grip. Use your head.

I quickly reviewed the events that had brought me here. I had awakened in a jail cell. Some dark skinned fellow with pointy ears had told me I was going to die in that cell. Then the guards came. There was an elderly man wearing a velvet and fur cloak accompanying them. He had told me that his name was Uriel Septim and that he was “my Emperor”, and that I was a citizen of Tamriel. I asked him why I was in jail and he told me that maybe the Gods had placed me there so that we may meet.

That was as good a story as any, because I have no clue how I got here.

A female guard stood near the bed when it sank into floor and the wall behind it slid away. One of the other guards muttered something about it being my lucky day, and they all started off down the tunnel that led from the cell. I just stood there for a second, and then I followed them. Anything was going to be an improvement over the cell. The tunnel walls were raw stone and after a short distance we passed through a hole into a basement of some kind. Stone block made up the floors, walls, and arched ceilings. I remember thinking the masonry work was amazing.

Suddenly the guards ran off and I could hear fighting. As “The Emperor” and I rounded a corner, we saw the guards in combat with several figures clad in a dark shimmering armor. The din of clanging metal and yelling echoed loudly off the stone block walls of the chamber. One of the combatants was slain, and suddenly the figures shimmered out of focus as it fell to reveal a human dressed in a red robe. When it was over, three robed figures and the female guard lay motionless. “The Emperor” and I walked over to the guards. “The Emperor” asked about the female guard, a Captain Renault, and was informed of her death. The guards and “The Emperor” walked toward a metal gate. After telling me to stay here, they passed through the gate.

Tamriel? Okay. Focus. Act. You can’t stay here. Get moving! Think and move!

I looked at the dead guard. She had weapons. There was no way that armor was going to fit me though. It was way too big.

Too big? What has happened to me?

I grabbed both swords. One was shorter, double-edged with a hardened steel blade. The other had a long, slightly curved blade, thin with a single edge. It was amazingly light. With a little coercion, I was able to tie a scabbard to each side of my pants. The guard also had a torch and flint, which I liberated from her as well. I moved to the robed bodies and searched them. Two of them had bottles with strange writing on them. The labels read “Heal” and “Sorcery”. I briefly considered trading my rank clothing for a cleaner, if not blood soaked, robe. But the guards had just killed these people. Wouldn’t one kill me if he saw me in a red robe?

How did I know what that writing meant? Because it is plain as day you idiot! But the characters look so strange.

I took off my shirt, tied the sleeves together, and placed the bottles in my make shift satchel. I glanced at the dead rats again as my stomach growled. The thought of eating the beasts repulsed me. Maybe just a little, I thought as my stomach performed a reprise. I used the short sword to slice off about a half pound of meat and tucked it the shirt-bag. I placed the torch between my legs, then pulled out the flint and rubbed it briskly over my wrist irons while holding them over the business end. It caught flame on the second pass.

That was too easy. What else?

I scanned the room once more and headed toward the hole in the wall. The moment I stepped through, a high pitched screech stopped me. There was another of these huge rats charging toward me. I quickly drew the katana and clove the rat in two as if I had been doing it all my life. It was too easy, like instinct or natural reflex. A couple more rats charged and I dispatched them with the same ease.

Where did I learn to do that?

As I moved through the tunnel, I came across chests, barrels, and crates. I would look inside each of them because, well, you never know. I found all sorts of things. Gold coins, tools, cloth, but no food. My stomach was really growling loud now. I was worried that it might be heard by rats…or worse. I sliced a chunk of the rat meat and skewered it on the end of the sword. I held it over the flame of the torch for about five minutes, turning it every so often. When I took it from the flame, I had to blow it out. This was going to be a greasy, nasty nightmare. I popped it in my mouth and chewed, swallowing as fast as I could. It could have tasted worse I suppose, but yuck!

I continued through the passageways, always checking the crates and such for useful goods. I came to a room that had a well, the usual rats, and what appeared to be a corpse. After dealing with the rats, I went to the well. I was parched. The well had a bucket tethered to a wound up chain. The chain was completely rusted to the point of being an orange welded mass.

So much for a drink of water.

I went over to the corpse. It was little more than a clad skeleton. Any gore from decomposition had turned to dust ages ago. I grabbed the leather cuirass and shook the bones and dust from it. This was going to be better than what I was wearing, and maybe I wouldn’t appear to be a prisoner to any guards I might encounter. Under the corpse laid a quiver with arrows. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder. There had to be a bow. I looked around and there it was, next to a leather shield. When I picked the bow up, I held it out straight with my left arm. I drew an arrow from the quiver, nocked it, drew the bowstring to my check and let the arrow fly. It didn’t make it half way to the well. Frowning, I stood the bow on end and applied pressure to release the bowstring. I shortened it by a couple inches, replaced it, and repeated the same motions again. This time the arrow flew true and hit dead center of the bucket with a satisfying THUNK.

How on earth did I know how to do all that?

As I adjusted all of my newly found equipment, I felt or heard metallic sounds from a pocket on the cuirass. I reached in and found several lock picks. I have no idea how I knew what they were, but I knew as sure as I was breathing. There was a chest near the corpse. Looking closer, I noticed a lock pick sticking out of the lock. I knelt by the chest, lowering my head so I could hear the tumblers, and started working the pick. Back and forth, up and down, and…click! I opened the chest to find some gold coins and the biggest sapphire I had ever seen.

WHY DO I KNOW HOW TO DO ALL OF THIS?

I shuddered. This situation was beyond comprehension. I know things I have no reason to know. I can read things written in characters I have never seen. I am so small. Rats were easy, but what if something bigger comes along?

Keep moving.

I stood up and continued on my surreal journey. At the other end of the chamber was a door and something lying near it. I crept forward until I could be sure it was dead. It was one of the ugliest things I had ever seen. It was humanoid, a little shorter than me if it was standing. Its face was frozen in a contorted snarl for eternity. It was a goblin, the part of me that knows what I’m not supposed to know told me instantly.

Keep moving.

I went to the door. Locked! The door was made of a heavy enough wood that I could hack it until the cows came home, or the guards showed up, and it would barely show a scratch. I turned and leaned my back against the door and pushed as hard as I could. Nothing. I was facing the goblin. It was clad in a loin cloth and leather vest. Something metallic glinted in the breast pocket. I moved closer and pulled the key from its pocket. Am I that lucky? I placed the key in its home and turned, grinning as the tumblers tumbled and the lock released. Fortune smiles on the foolish, I thought with a chuckle. Maybe the guard was right when he said it was my lucky day. But what was on the other side?

More rats. My frustration at encountering more of the over-sized vermin was uttered in what sounded like a foreigner belching with a mouth full of marbles. As I made this odd noise, my right arm came up and pointed at the charging rat. Instantly a ball of fire shot from my hand and hit the rat in the face. It flew backward about four feet, landing dead and cooked.

What did I say? I said “fire”. How? Keep moving.

I continued forward and rounded a corner to see three more rats. Two were charging at me and a third seemed occupied with something around the next corner. I made the strange noise again with the same rat roasting results. I grinned when I realized there would be no more torchlight cooking. These babies were ready to go. I started to chuckle again when a new sound came from around the corner. I looked up from picking up the second roasted morsel to see a rotting corpse walking toward me. I jumped up and retreated several steps. Will the fireball work on this thing too? I shot one at it. Not the same as roasting rats. It kept coming. Fear seized me. This was the first thing that had not died quickly at my hand. I didn’t know whether to draw sword, nock arrow, or keep trying to cook it. I decided on one more shot of the fire before I retreated further. I worked! The corpse was once again an inanimate one, albeit smoking now. A relieved grin sprang out on my face, although I was still shaking from fear.

What kind of place is this where rotting corpses come after you? Zombies. Keep moving.

Beyond the passage where the zombie met his fiery demise was another chamber. It came with the usual number of rats. I sincerely hope that the places where normal people live have cats as well, and that these vermin are down here hiding from them. But this room came with an unexpected treasure. Food! How fresh food made it here I have no clue, and I don’t care. There was cheese, lettuce, and a tomato that I ate right on the spot. I had tossed away the raw rat meat, replacing it with cut portions of the rats that I had fried. There was another skeleton here, but this one was clad with armor that was made from iron plates. The cuirass alone weighed thirty pounds if it weighed an ounce. The greaves fit without causing too much restriction to my mobility, although they were definitely over-sized. Better than getting my shins and thighs wounded further. The rat bites I had already sustained were tender and swelling.

A thought hit me like a boulder. I opened my shirt-bag and grabbed the bottle that said “Heal”. I hesitated for only a moment. I opened the bottle and upended the contents into my mouth. It tasted sweet, like blueberries and grapes with a hint of peaches. An indescribable feeling washed over me. It was health, as if you could grab or taste pure health. Tangible health soaked through every part of my body. I laughed out loud at the sensation, and then stifled it as quickly, listening to my laughter reverberating around the chamber and down the passageways.

Keep moving.

I was beginning to wonder if these passages would ever end. The tunnels had lost their stone block sides in favor of raw stone, hewn by hands ages ago. I reached yet another wooden door. When I passed through it, the atmosphere changed. There was a faint sound of wind passing through the passages. Stalactites and stalagmites were visible in the dim lighting. I relit the torch to get a better view. Having the torch lit made me nervous. Could zombies see? I proceeded forward for several yards and quickly doused the torch after I heard a guttural sound from around the next bend. As I crept forward and reached the bend, I saw another goblin. This one was quite alive. He was standing by a fire, rotating a rat on a spit over the flames. Slowly, I raised my bow and nocked an arrow. In an instant, the arrow struck the goblin between the shoulder blades. I am pretty sure it must have injured it, but I am positive it became angry. It let out a screech, turned and bolted straight for me. I had just enough time to nock another arrow and let it fly. The arrow hit the creature right between the eyes and sent it backward to land next to the fire.

Letting out an exhale of relief, I walked over to the creature. It looked like the other one. It had a make-shift helmet made from a ram’s skull with the horns intact. A rudimentary cuirass made of bones and a loin cloth. Its skin was greenish grey and rough in appearance. Any remorse at killing what was obviously a somewhat intelligent creature was lost in the memory that it had meant to kill me. I would have to remain cautious as I moved along because where there was one of these creatures, they would probably be more.

There was a wooden stool next to a crate. On the crate were a mortar and pestle, some mushrooms, and a green bottle. The bottle had something scratched into the surface, but I was unable to discern what it meant. I was very thirsty, so I uncorked it and sniffed the opening. I recoiled immediately. It smelled like I had opened a crypt where the coffins had been left open. Perhaps it was some kind of poison. Looking at the mortar and pestle, and then at the mushrooms, that inner knowledge that has been with me since I awoke in the cell led me to place the mushrooms in the pestle and crush them together with the mortar. Instantly, the fungi congealed into a gelatinous mass that quickly liquefied. It smelled the same as what was in the green bottle. Glancing around, I located another bottle and poured the contents of the pestle into it.

Okay, now I don’t care how I know all of this. I want to see the sky. There might be more goblins. Keep moving.

Progressing through the cave, it wasn’t long before I realized the truth of that thought. I entered a room that had a torch burning in it. While searching a chest, I noticed a couple apples on the ground near a smashed barrel. I moved over to retrieve them and heard goblins screech and start running up an inclined passageway. I spun to face them and ducked behind a pile of logs to avoid arrows that were whizzing past my head. The logs shifted as I leaned against them and started rolling down the passage. When the noise stopped and the dust cleared, there were two dead goblins intertwined with the jumbled logs at the bottom of the incline.

I hope this luck can last. Keep moving.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to lug all of the items I had found. This trek seemed to go on forever and fatigue was starting to weigh on me. I entered a large chamber that had several fires burning. There was a goblin not twelve feet away from me. I dropped the shirt-bag, and fired two arrows in rapid succession. Both hit home in the goblin’s chest. He let out a yelp just before the second arrow sent him tumbling away. I stood motionless to see if the yelp had alerted others. There was no noise to indicate that the goblin’s short warning had been heard. I crept forward and saw a second goblin on the other side of the chamber. I poured some of the poison that I had made onto an arrowhead and fired at the goblin from across the chamber. It barked, turned to run toward me, and fell dead after two steps.

I could see yet another goblin at the far end of the chamber. It was standing in the glow of light that was let in through a hole in the ceiling. I anointed another arrow with poison and dropped the goblin with a single shot. As I moved toward this latest victim, another goblin howled in the pit that made up the center of the chamber. It was up the side and upon me before I could react. I drew the katana while trying to dodge its attacks. The shear ferocity of the creature amazed me as much as its skill with the dagger it was using against me. A final thrust with the katana left it quivering on the blade. It slumped lifelessly to the ground as I withdrew the sword from its chest.

I was bleeding from several wounds. I raised my right hand and muttered another, different, of those marble-mouthed words. That same feeling of swimming in tangible health from the potion washed over me, but not as strongly. I repeated the sound a couple more times. I examined my wounds after the third utterance and was amazed to see that they had closed and the bleeding had stopped. They were still tender to the touch, but healed.

I looked down into the pit that the goblin had climbed out of. There was a caged area with several rats in it. I have really grown to detest these things. I decided to use them for target practice and dispatched them all with one arrow each. Then I headed to the dead goblin that was lying in the swath of sky light. This one looked different than the others. Its clothing was more ornate. On the ground next to its body was a staff capped with the skull of a goblin. It seemed to give off power. Not visibly, nor audibly. When I picked it up, it felt like the wood it was made of. Nothing felt out of sorts, yet I still had the feeling of power emanating from it. I pointed it toward the far end of the chamber and spoke some more mush-mouthed gibberish. Lightning shot from the end of the staff and slammed into the far wall of the chamber with the sound of a thunderclap. I jumped and dropped the staff.

This is really crazy! Keep moving!

I picked up the staff again. The weight of everything I was carrying had become too great to manage, so I inventoried what I had and left some items I thought were less important behind. I reached the continuation of the passages and pressed forward, coming to yet another wooden door. What was I going to find beyond this one? Rats, goblins, and zombies were quite enough for me. I hoped that this might be the last door, and that I would see sunlight at the end of the tunnel. I hoped…