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]

I just couldn't decide how I wanted to write the next chapter. Should I do a quick summary, have captain Renault tell it in first person or third person. Or should I use the omnipresent narrator I use for the Angoril portions? I decided on the latter.

After that, the big question was basically how I could get the Emperor out of his home without making everybody involved look like incompetent idiots. And how could I make Ocato brush the whole thing off as 'doesn't need my help'? Heck, I'd never really thought about it much myself and I've got the feeling that the writers didn't at all. The Oblivion script probably started with "Emperor get's murdered, player is a prisoner, find a way to put those two together."

It would have made more sense I think if the game had started with the player in court, right when Uriel is about to give his verdict (no need to explain the crime that way.) Then BOOM! In come the Mythic Dawn! That way there is no need for an old man to run through half the city, across a bridge, into a prison and down a supposedly secret passage...while leaving the door open for pursuers.

But we didn't get that and I started my story in the stock prison, passage and everything. I think I have it now though.

So anyway, here's the start I'm going with. Next up will be a fight-scene, something I haven't done properly in ages.



Chapter 8: Night of disaster

Berius was a tall man and built like an ogre, though he only counted Imperials among his ancestors. Medals covered his broad chest like the glittering scales of a dragon. There was the crowned dragonhead that marked him as a member of the Emperor’s elite bodyguards. Other marks linked him to the Blades, the first Legion and the mage’s guild. There were medals of valor from campaigns in Skyrim and High Rock. There was the crossed sword and sceptre of the battlemage. One emblem he gave more care than all the others, always wearing it prominently at the center.
It was a small and shattered mask, a reward that had been given to less than a dozen men and women in all Tamriel and only issued once. Though Uriel Septim himself had given each of the masks, there had been no grand ceremony. Instead it had been conducted in a small room away from the public eye. If asked, he would not be able to reveal who else had received that same reward. But he could speak of why he had received it and so he often did with pride.

He had been there, wielding the sword, that day when the traitor Tharn and his demonic horde was defeated by the Eternal Champion.



Now older, balding and head of the palace-guard, he had lain aside his armour and sword. The fighting was something he left to his younger subordinates, such as the two that flanked the door leading to the Emperor’s suite. Berius stopped before them and silently appraised the two silverclad guardsmen. Being equals in length and weight, the two could have passed for identical twins or statues. Only the slow synchronized rising and falling of their chest revealed the life within the armour. Berius judged their stance, the condition of the ceremonial halberd in their hands and the more functional katana at their waists. He paid exceptional attention to the condition of their armour, noticing that no errant scratch, dent or speck of dust marred the polished facets. Finally when he was satisfied, he spoke.

“Wulfharth, you’re a bit jittery tonight. Nervous you’re going to emberass yourself in front of your new colleagues?” He laughed. One guard tipped his head and shrugged.
“No sir. I’m nervous that they will emberass us. Have you seen how young they are? That Redguard isn’t even close to hitting thirty!”
Berius shook his head. He understood the Nord’s problem. The palace guard were the elite of the elite, handpicked from the Blades like the Blades recruited among those with years of proven ability in war. Yet the only grand conflict in the last two decades had been a single battle in Morrowind.
“We recruit for skill, not age. Reserve your opinions till after observing their response to the mock intrusion I have planned. We’ll start shortly after they’ve arrived. For now I shall go in and prepare our lord.” He said.


He pressed his fingers against the bronze door and chanted the spell of release. With a soft click, the internal mechanism unlocked and the door sank downwards. He passed through the opening into a short corridor that hummed and warped under the influence of countless wards placed upon it. Wards that sapped his magicka, wards that held off the undead, that revealed the invisible, prevented conjurations and spells of destruction. A second door lay at the other side, sealed with the same mechanism as before though requiring a different chant to unlock. Berius opened it and entered the first room of the Imperial residence. There, seated amongst the furs of mammoths and the fragrance of Argonian incense, was Uriel Septim.

The man was asleep as he often was these days. Tired from the day’s politics and hard to wake. Berius shook the emperor gently till he stirred and began to rouse from his slumber. He knew from experience that it would take time for Uriel to fully awaken and that he was swift to drift away again. To help the former and counteract the latter, he moved to the bar that was nestled in one corner of the room.
“I shall pour you something hot, lord.” He muttered and reached out for a bottle of mead. His hand stopped in midair as he stared intently at the glass. The liquid inside sloshed around gently and he became aware of a vibration in the air, just beyond the edge of his hearing.
“What is going on?” Berius asked himself and turned towards the door he’d entered from.

The door clicked and sank beneath the carpet.