Redemption, part 2 Options

[jack cloudy]

Click here for Redemption Part 1


Alright, part 2. Still not much redeeming going on but whatever. Now instead of continuing the story, I figured I'd use this post for all the miscellaneous stuff. Things like a character list and the recap for part 1. So be warned that this post CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!


RECAP FOR PART 1 Again SPOILERS!

One night, the palace is breached by unknown assailants. Following standard protocol for such events, the Emperor is secretly transported to the prison by his Blades. The Imperial Battlemage, Ocato, declines to join him, claiming that the situation is under control and that his services aren't needed.

Despite having reached the prison safely, the Emperor soon finds that he is still in danger. It is then that Uriel receives help from an unexpected ally. Angoril Bobardi reveals that the very cell he has inhabited for decades, contains a secret escape route that was built during the simulacrum at the order of Jagar Tharn. With this passage and the considerable magical prowess of Angoril, the Emperor manages to flee the deadly trap.

Also freed from the prison by Angoril is Maorlatta Orgnum, a young (by elf-standards) and somewhat naive girl who was arrested for the crime of sleeping in the park. Once free, she quickly makes herself scarce and eventually finds herself in the shack of an old fisherman who lives on an island in Lake Rumare. The fisherman seeks the help of the thieves guild to rid her of the manacles and prison outfit that would have every Legionnaire arrest her on sight. Unfortunately, the one assigned to pick the locks on the manacles informs Vicente Valtieri instead, who takes a personal interest in the girl’s talent for camouflage. Maorlatta is saved by the Redguard Sorian, a young and rather strange lad who keeps going on and on about something he calls an Ansei. The two team up to go treasure hunting in a nearby Ayleid ruin.

Meanwhile, Angoril returns to the prison. Pretending to be from the palace, he gets a vital clue from the Argonian private investigator Grey-Tongue. The Argonian sends him to Chorrol to find the source of the assassins distinctive red robes. To get to Chorrol, he summons a shiftgate, circumventing days travelling. From Chorrol the trail leads to Kvatch, a city whose precise location he does not know. Unable to summon another shiftgate with reasonable accuracy, Angoril seeks more mundane passage to Kvatch.

While Angoril is travelling, Maorlatta and Sorian hit the Ayleid ruin. After some trouble with a zombie, they strike gold and find an abandoned office with some intact artefacts. They attempt to sell the artefacts in the Imperial city, where they are intercepted by Grey-Tongue and then Vicente Valtieri. Sorian again makes the vampire flee. The next morning Maorlatta wakes up in the Imperial palace with no recollection on how she got there or what happened during her stay at Grey-Tongue’s house. Jauffre interrogates her in the garden at the top of the tower.







Redemption's persons of questionable importance

Main characters:
Angoril Bobardi: An Altmeri sorcerer who inhabited a cell in the Imperial prison, fully aware of the secret escape route. After leaving the prison, he makes it his task to track down the leaders behind the red-robed assassins.

Maorlatta Orgnum: A Maormer from Pyandonea, sent to Tamriel at the command of king Orgnum. Circumstances land her in the same prison as the Altmer. After escaping, she returns to the pursuit of her own goals, one of which is to become filthy rich.

Side characters:
Grey-Tongue: An Argonian private investigator. He is a friend of Hieronymous Lex and has been hired by the guard-captain in the past. Grey-Tongue is hired now as well by the city-guard to investigate the events at the prison and find Uriel’s corpse.
Guard-Captain Hieronymous Lex: Hieronymous Lex is the man put in charge of investigating the massacre at the Imperial Prison. Upon finding that Uriel Septim was seen entering the prison that night, he hires Grey-Tongue to help him uncover the truth.
Sorian: A Redguard who saves Maorlatta from Vicente Valtieri. A simple wandering swordsman with a slight Ansei-obsession.
Rajn Geydar: A Wood Elf who lives in Kvatch. At one point possessed a piece of the Balac-Thurm.

Others:
Guard-Captain Argelius: A colleague of Hieronymous Lex who describes him as the man to call when you need subtlety.
Bannon: A merchant who travelled with Angoril from Chorrol to Kvatch
Baleni: Daughter of Rajn Geydar
Doruk: The Bouncer who worked at Rajn Geydar's restaurant. Deceased.
Penald Baurus: Blade and bodyguard of Uriel Septim.
Berius: Lord Protector and Head of the palaceguard in the Imperial City.
Valen Dreth: A Dunmeri prisoner. Not the most pleasant sort.
Jennifer Renault: Blade, recently promoted to captain.
Glenroy: Blade and bodyguard of Uriel Septim.

Fenasim: A member of the emperor's Palace guard.
Mankar Camoran: The father of both Raven and Ruma. He is the leader of the Mythic Dawn and its prophet.
Raven Camoran: The ‘Hand’ of the Mythic Dawn, an organization with an unknown purpose. What is certain however, is that the Dawn wants Uriel Septim dead.
Ruma Camoran: The sister of Raven, she serves the Mythic Dawn as Priestess. In the same night that the attempt on the emperor’s life is made, she infiltrates the vaults beneath the Imperial palace to steal two artefacts.
Harrow: A member of the Dawn, Harrow used to be an Armiger stationed in Vvardenfell.

Ludius Bester: Member of Bester and Bester, the Kvatch Hall of Mercantile Interests. He runs the office in lower Kvatch.
Aelwin Merowald: An old fisherman who lost most of his leg to Slaughterfish. Friend of Delmar Tunius.
Rajn Geydar: Owner of the Eight Provinces, a restaurant in Kvatch.
Ra’Jezhr: A Khajiiti lockpicker in the employ of the Thieves Guild, Ra’Jezhr is also coerced into serving the Dark Brotherhood’s interests.
Simanuel Rosendorf IV: The owner of a silk-plantation near Chorrol

Umbacano: An Altmer who lives in the capital city. A well-known collector of Ayleid artefacts.
Uriel Septim VII: The Emperor of Tamriel.
Brother Tanner: A priest who serves in the Kvatch-temple. Looks like a Septim.
Delmar Tunius: An old fisherman who lives on a small island in lake Nibenay.
Vicente Valtieri: A member of the Dark Brotherhood, he takes interest in Maorlatta’s talents at stealth, and desires to make her an assassin, with or without her cooperation.

Latta’s evergrowing list of people only she knows:
Levvelyn of Glashorn: The hero of a popular series who spends most of his books saving the world, slaying vicious monsters, duelling devious Altmeri warlords and chasing the girl.
Irrillys: A fictional princess of Pyandonea, she is Levvelyn’s love interest. Posesses an unfortunate talent for being kidnapped by devious Altmeri warlords.
Mettildi: The Maormer that taught Maorlatta how to fight, though his methods traumatized her to the point where she is mentally incapable of defending herself.
Master Zelthir: Another Maormer put in charge of educating Maorlatta. Master Zelthir is a well-known and highly respected healer.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Sep 22 2013, 07:36 PM

[jack cloudy]

Thanks, everyone. Thank you.


Chapter 7.2


The market consisted of three different types of stalls. There were the simple tents erected by passing merchants such as Bannon, or more often local farmers coming to sell their harvest. Second were the slightly more durable stalls with a wooden or straw awning. Last were the vendors operating out of an actual building. It were these that held his interest. Only a large clothier could have provided the robes. Not so much because of the number but because of the material. Silk was expensive and not something given to any random peasant trying to make extra coin during winter. The robe had also possessed a certain feature he had only discovered when it literally turned to sand in seconds. Or more accurately, the sand which had been turned into a robe returned to its proper state. It was a magecopy which gave further weight to Rosendorf’s implications. There had never been robes. There had only been one, devoid of frills to cheapen its cost, then multiplied by a mage.

The magic holding his copy together had grown so weak by the time he got his hands on the cloth he hadn’t noticed it was there till it was too late. The mage in him derided the spell-use and his own failure to detect it as sloppy while the politician realized that it was exactly what he would have given his assassins to wear. Though the magic matrix would have made them stand out like a lighthouse, their plan had not involved much stealth during its critical phase. It was likely that the assassins had timed their attack to take place when the robes were near their limit, using them as a way to hide their appearance rather than their presence. And what better disguise than one that would cease to exist after its purpose had been served?
“If I hadn’t been there to provide some free samples, they might never have been found at all.”

He went into the only clothier he could find and looked around. Boxes with folded pants, shirts, vests, dresses and skirts were placed throughout the sole room in an efficient manner while a rather more disordened pile lay atop the counter. No red robes however.
“Of course not. That would have been too easy.” Angoril thought.
“Just a moment!” A voice called out from the back of the store. A young Breton came and added a pair of shirts to the pile. Angoril appraised the man with a single glance and concluded that he would find no helpful information here. The storeclerk was more a boy than a man and too untidy to have inherited the store. More likely he was a hired help, here to run the place for a day. But it was too late to run out now and he wasn’t going to gamble on being right. So when the boy asked how he could help, the Altmer retrieved a small scrap of red silk and held it up.
“Would you happen to sell anything like this? I bought it not too long ago but I require a replacement now.” He said, remembering that the robe had looked brand-new when he got it.
“Ah, you mean in that material?” The wipnosed Breton asked after the scarcest of inspections. Angoril nodded and decided to keep things simple.
“For starters. It used to be a robe I’d bought for our wedding’s anniversary. But the dog got to it before I could give it to my wife. Stupid mutt.” He grumbled.
“This was all I could save.”

To the part-time clerk’s credit, he did help Angoril sift through the boxes but neither found another robe matching his recollections or even colour. Further inquiries in who owned the place didn’t help much either, as the store was apparently ran by half the clothiers in Kvatch as a communal place to offload surplus stock.
“You could try Bester and Bester. Go out the door and turn left. Their place is built into the left wing of the barracks. If anyone knows the shops out here, its them.” The Breton finally offered. Seeing no other solution other than heading for upper Kvatch, Angoril decided to follow the advice. Once there, he knocked on the door and entered. A luxuriously moustached Imperial greeted him at the door.
“Hello there, sir Altmer. Welcome to the Kvatch Hall of Mercantile Interests. I’m Ludius Bester and that young lad minding the books over there is my son Antonius.” The words came out with the ease of something he’d said daily for years, but they had not been dulled to mindnumbing routine. Ludius Bester led him into a smaller office while Antonius excused himself.
“Hopefully he’ll join in a year or two and then we can rename ourselves into Bester, Bester and Bester. Try not to repeat it, you might bite your tongue. But have a seat! Thea?”

Angoril repeated the story about the dog and his irate wife. Bester asked a few questions but became quiter and less excited with each answer. Though Angoril did wonder if he’d made an error in his story, he pressed on. Correcting earlier details was the quickest way to make a bluff fail. At the end Bester sighed and held up a hand to cut off the description of the robe’s weave. The other hand plucked at his moustache.
“I know the guy you want, but there is a problem.” He admitted and elaborated when Angoril frowned.
“There was an accident not too long ago. He’s dead.”

The Altmer let the news sink in. The man who possibly sold the robes, or at least the original, to the assassins was recently killed in an accident. He didn’t buy it. It would be too much of an coincidence. There was another option which he believed more likely, but he needed more information to make sure.
“My condolences. What happened?” He asked.
“He had a flying loom, know what that is?” Bester responded, now plucking the other end of his facial hair. He stopped only after a sudden wince and pang of pain told him he’d pulled too hard. Angoril shook his head. He'd never heard of such a thing.
“It’s a fancy contraption some guy in High Rock invented a decade or two ago, lets a single man weave more than five. Lovely thing, but gives an unfair advantage over the competition so we removed a few key components. Not to mention the accidents we had when untrained personell used it. Lost fingers mostly, but bad enough to outlaw it. Father has the parts in his vault at upper. Guess poor Belgoth forgot and took his chances. He was found, strangled.”
Bester couldn’t give anymore details and Angoril wasn’t going to ask. His interest would be too suspicious for simple Tennil. But it seemed likely that this Belgoth did not have an accident at all.
“If I had to get a costume made for my intrepid band of kingslayers, I would make sure to silence the source. And that loom would be an awfully convenient excuse. Legion investigators wouldn’t know how it worked and after Bester explained to them its purpose and the removal of vital items, they would rule it out as an accident. Though if I needed a costume, I would have gone for something that could implicate my enemies, not something that stands apart. Their choice of garb didn’t seem so much pragmatism but rather a religious statement of some sort.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.” Bester apologized after they left the office.
“That’s alright. Have a nice day.” Angoril muttered with a smile, his thoughts already elsewhere. He decided to head for upper Kvatch and see if he could break into Belgoth’s store for further clues.
“I’ll ask Bester about the other stores. Knowing their locations would allow me to indirectly narrow down the place of Belgoth’s.” He told himself and turned to ask but the Imperial had been thinking as well and come up with a plan of his own.
“Wait, I got an idea. We’re holding an open sale at Belgoth’s place to get rid of any leftover stock. If you return here tomorrow, I’ll take you to upper and show you in. Perhaps you’ll find something that suits your wife’s tastes. Junior can mind the office for a day. It would be good practice for him.” He suggested, brightening up again. To Angoril this seemed perfect. It would save him a lot of trouble and allow him legal entry instead of being forced to sneak in during the night.
“I’ll do that, thank you. Till tomorrow then.”



OOC: Added Bannon and Ludius Bester to the character list.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Feb 24 2013, 03:19 PM