The Gweden report, A story of the story of the stories. Options

[ghastley]

Until I complete the other mods, there's not a lot to add to their stories, so I thought I'd tell the tales associated with Gweden while I work on them.

That mod's anything but linear, as you can do the individual quests for most of the girls in any order. That meant I'd have to come up with a narrative that links them all together and creates a sequence. Rather than take the easy way out and describe it all from the Player-character's viewpoint, I thought I'd try a different approach entirely.

So I'm going to write a story, about a reporter writing a story, about the stories of the girls who work at Gweden. They'll tell them to him one at a time, and there will be a bit of extra narrative added beyond what actually happens when you play through each of the quests they're describing.

The Champion is arbitrarily male as before, and of no specific race. Because of the requirements of the mod for some of the quests, he's also the Madgod, Master of the Fighter's Guild, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, Arena Champion, and Archmage, although I'll try to play those down as much as possible. All of those things are less important to his employees anyway. He's the boss, and he did something special for each of them, or they wouldn't be there.

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Prologue

"Listen up girls," Tsarrina began. "This one expects you've all heard the news by now. The Oblivion Crisis is over, and the Gates are all closed. Martin Septim is no more, and the Elder Council is running things ."

"Our boss is now the Champion of Cyrodill, and so everything he does is front-page news in the Black Horse Courier. They're sending a reporter down here to do a story about this establishment of his, in the next few days."

"This one doesn't want it to be just another story about the boss. He's getting a bit tired of that himself. This one wants it to be our story. Your story."

"We probably won't make the front page, as it appears they're sending a junior down to do the interviews. But that should work in our favor. He'll be young, and you'll all appreciate that. Especially Juliana. This one wants you to be ready if he's really inexperienced. The rest of you are to make the best impression you can. We can get some really good publicity from this."

"Should we start shopping for new clothes?" asked one of them, hopefully.

"No, you won't be needing those much," Tsarrina chuckled, "but make sure anything you do wear is is the best you have. And by that, this one means the most effective, not the most expensive. Unless it's both. Dark-eyes, get your uniform starched up and crisp. Cybeline, that red velvet number with the plunging neckline that you keep for special occasions. This is a special occasion."

Everyone looked at Prizna. She just laughed, and Tsarrina had to grin, too. "This one does not expect you to start wearing clothes now."

"This one wants you all to be ready to tell him how you came to be here, and what part the boss played in that. It will keep the stories relevant to his assignment, but they'll be about you as much as they are about the Champion."

"We'll make use of the old farmhouse as the interview room. It's nice and cozy in front of the fire there, and we'll put some comfortable chairs either side. We should keep the main rooms in the Lodge open for business. There's no point losing any trade while he's here, after all."

"Will he be staying at the Count's Arms while he's here?", asked Maeva. "I can walk up with him in the mornings if he does."

"No, we'll keep him here at the farm," Tsarrina decided. "He'll use the main bed in the farmhouse, and this one doesn't want him sleeping in it alone! You'll each get a turn to tell him your story. Make sure you also get a turn to show him what you can do."

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Future pieces will have each of the women telling her story of how she came to be at the Gweden Brothel, or the reporter putting the report together. I'll add a postscript article from the Black Horse Courier about Cousin Miranu's miraculous potion at the end, which should take a post or two to cover it. I have most of the stories drafted, as they come straight from the mod itself, but I'm still working on the wrapper narrative, and haven't finalized the sequence of the individual tales yet.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Oct 7 2016, 04:47 PM

[ghastley]

@Acadian I didn't know that "disintegrate weapon" would work on arrows. Is that any use in the game, or is it just useful in FF?

@Grits He's trying to maintain a professional detachment. The interviewees would prefer a professional attachment, so there will be a bit of friction until this is reconciled. (No, wait, hold the friction, that will only make things worse.) He's going to lose anyway, there's too many of them, and only one of him.

I wanted the female Dremora to be as opposite to the males as possible, so voice was another opportunity for contrast.

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Virgilia

The next girl who came into the room next was naked, too.

"Virgilia," asked Tsarrina "did Prizna put you up to this?"

Virgilia giggled and nodded her head vigorously, which set most of the distracting parts of her body jiggling. And he thought them particularly distracting. She was an Imperial like him, and quite the prettiest he'd ever seen. Certainly the most naked one he'd seen, and perhaps that might have been biasing his opinion. As a reporter, he wanted to be unbiased, but he was finding it hard not to look.

Which was exactly what she wanted. Virgilia leaned back in the chair and uncrossed her legs. With all the willpower he could muster. he looked her in the eyes, and asked "Shall we begin the interview?"

She held his gaze for long enough to know he wasn't going to look where she wanted him to, and nodded agreement. More jiggling resulted, but he was already concentrating on his notebook.

My story really only starts when my father died. He was a member of the Imperial Watch, and he was killed trying to arrest a thief who turned out to be a Vampire. My mother mourned for the required period, and started dating again. After a while she found another man she liked and re-married. That was Viator Accius, the proprietor of Stonewall Shields. We moved into his shop and I started to attend the Arcane University.

My stepfather wasn't too happy about that. He knew what my mother was like, and he assumed I'd be like her, and chasing after men if I got the chance. But my mother assured him that I'd be kept too busy with my studies. I was only there during the day, and I wasn't allowed out in the evenings, so that was all too true.

But I did get to meet a lot of intelligent young men.They were eager to help with my virginity problem, but we were watched too closely at the University. The closest I got to success was when one of them learned a nice long-lasting invisibility spell. I took him home with me to the Market District, and he cast the spell just outside the shop. We entered, and I led him up to my room. I opened all the doors and closed them behind us, so he wouldn't have to do anything to make him visible.

I think it was closing the doors that made my stepfather suspicious. He was always shouting at me to come back and close doors, and that evening he didn't have to. Anyway, he must have followed us.

I took off my dress and lay down on my bed, ready for my lover-to-be. But just as he touched me, he became visible again, and the door burst open. I screamed and covered myself up, as my stepfather chased him out of the window. He had the presense of mind to cast his invisibility again when he landed, so nobody could see which way he ran off. Or that he was naked.

Well I wasn't going to be allowed to go back to the University after that fiasco. Mother suggested sending me away to stay with her sister down in Leyawiin. That would keep me away from the mage students I'd been plotting with, and Aunt Rosentia could teach me a few things, too. She was quite an expert on Daedric artifacts and knew a number of conjuration spells that I could learn.

We all traveled down to Leyawiin and Mother explained to her sister what had happened back in the city. Aunt Rosentia promised she'd take proper care of me and my virginity, and my stepfather appeared to be content with that. They returned to the city the same day.

Aunt Rosentia took me shopping. She thought I needed a new dress, as I couldn't keep wearing my University robe if I wasn't going there any more. She bought me a nice suit of armor too, in case I needed some adventure. It didn't look like it would protect me much, but it did look pretty.

At that time, she was a bit preoccupied with cleaning her house. Apparently, she'd had Scamps living in her home and they had left a nasty smell behind. She was still trying to get rid of it. I told her I couldn't smell anything, but she kept scrubbing the floors, and bringing in fresh lavender.

She told me that she'd bought a staff from a spellsword that had passed through the town. He'd asked for a suspiciously low price, but she she couldn't resist the bargain, and bought it. Then she noticed an inscription on it in runes. It wasn't a real word, but she could read it phonetically and pronounce it. When she did, the Scamps appeared!

After she realized they weren't going to harm her, she tried to drive them out of the house, but they just followed her everywhere. They were following the staff, but she couldn't put it down. Eventually she got word to her friend Alves at the mages guild, who researched the item for her.

The Staff of the Everscamp was created by Sheogorath to drive its owner insane, and it was working. She could only let go of the staff if someone else would willingly take it from her, or if it was returned to his shrine in Darkfathom Cave.

Fortunately, before long a hero had arrived to do that for her. He'd taken the staff to the cave and the scamps with it. She was so grateful, and gave him a ring she'd bought for an ex-lover who hadn't worked out so well. She was expecting him to visit again, and I got the impression that she had another reward to give him.

When he arrived, Aunt Rosentia introduced us. "This is my niece Virgilia, who's staying with me until she grows up a bit. I hope that won't take her too long".

It was the Hero of Kvatch! No wonder he'd had no problem sorting out Auntie's scamps for her. I was a bit eager and asked him if I could go along with him on his next adventure. Auntie thought that wasn't a bad idea and sent me upstairs to change into my new armor. "Take your time," she told me, "We have a lot to discuss while you're changing, and you need to make sure all the straps are done up properly."

When I came back down, the Hero looked at my armor and raised an eyebrow. He walked around me slowly, appraising it carefully. "Alright, let's go!" he said "Did you have anywhere in mind?"

The only place I knew to explore was somewhere called Barren Mine a short way north of towm. I'd heard someone say that there were Goblins there, and I'd never seen one of those before.

We left town through the North-East gate and headed up the road, with the Hero following me. After a while, he decided it would be better if he lead the way, so he could concentrate on watching out for wild animals.

That was all right with me, as it wasn't easy to stride along looking confident in those high heels, and the back of my armor does show a lot of skin! Well the front does too, but he'd need eyes in the back of his head - like my stepfather had!

Virgilia strides along

We reached the mine and slipped inside the door into the dark tunnel. I was quite excited at being alone in the dark with a man, but that was all ruined by a screeching, smelly creature who ran at me with an axe! I pulled my claymore off my back and defended myself as best I could, but there were too many of them. Something hit me on the back of the head and it all went black.

When I woke up my head hurt and the smell wasn't making it feel any better. There were several of the foul creatures lying dead, one of them on top of me. My armor wasn't covering everything it should, and I had to wriggle it all back into place. The Hero was watching with considerable amusement, and I was totally embarassed.

I wanted to go back to town, right away. We abandoned our exploration and headed back. It was just as well, my sword was bent, my armor dented, and I had a headache. And my boots may have looked good, but they weren't meant for comfort.

When we got back to town, he asked if I'd learned anything from our trip. I told him I never wanted to see a Goblin again. He asked about my impractical armor, and what I thought it was good for.

"Aunt Rosentia said it would be perfect for the type of adventure I needed" I replied. "But it was useless for fighting Goblins".

"That's because she was thinking of a completely different sort of adventure" he told me. "The kind that happens when men notice how pretty you are. And that armor was intended to make them notice. Does it unfasten easily too?"

I felt so stupid! I'd assumed that Aunt Rosentia was supposed to be holding me back, but she was really on my side! I was about to run back to her house and apologize for misjudging her, but the Hero said she might be busy.

I didn't understand that either, at the time.

We talked a bit more, and he asked me if it was my mother who'd sent me down to Leyawiin. I replied that it had been her idea, and he nodded. "I'd better go have a word with her," he said. "First though, we should go get some breakfast at the tavern."

I got back to Aunt Rosentia's just in time to see a stranger leaving the house. A rather good-looking man, with a smile on his face. When I went inside, Auntie was sitting at the breakfast table, wearing a thin night-dress.and an even bigger smile than the man's.

By the time the Hero returned from the city, I wasn't the same girl he'd left. I could call myself a woman now, Auntie reminded me. Once we'd cleared up the misunderstanding, she'd been able to help me to ... achieve my goals. Maybe she'd been too successful, as Leyawiin wasn't a large town, and there really weren't enough men to go round.

Our mutual hero had a solution for that problem. He'd talked to my mother, who had no objection at all to what he suggested. When he told me about Gweden, it sounded like the perfect answer.

"Bring your armor" he told me "you might get to use it again."

I did bring it, but it just reminds me of Goblins. I hate Goblins.

She shuddered when she said it, and that distracting jiggle happened again. She could tell that he'd noticed her this time. He was finding it diffficult to conceal his interest. She ran off to let the others know, and he permitted himself to watch her leave.