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]

It was about time we checked up on how the other protagonist is doing. Last time we saw the Altmeri sorcerer, Angoril Bobardi, he was trying to find the assassins in the red robes. His search took him to Chorrol and then Kvatch. While in Low Kvatch, which is a 'temporary' and unofficial district located on the road between the cities of Anvil and Skingrad, he found his next clue. Ludius Bester, of the Kvatch Hall of Mercantile Interests, told him which Bosmer could have made the robe. Unfortunately, said mer got caught in a fatal accident not too long ago. Angoril still wants to inspect the store however and uses a coverstory to get in.

In his cover identity he is Tennil, a much simpler Altmer who is frantically looking for a dress for his wife after the last one got devoured by their dog.





Chapter 9: Ghosts of the Past

Low Kvatch

Ludius Bester had come to collect him long before sunrise.
“Best eat hearty.” He’d said. “The climb to Upper isn’t to be done on an empty stomach.”

It was no exaggeration. Like a stairway made for giants, the road to upper Kvatch looped its way up the mountain. Though the sun had not yet risen when they stepped upon the first tile, a good score of carts were ascending already. Each cart was pulled along the sideramps by as many as eight of the muscled beasts and carried food, lumber, stone, luxuries and a wide variety of other goods that had been brought to Low Kvatch by the caravans. Up above, Angoril Bobardi saw a trail of ants making their way downhill. More carts, this time with goods to be sold and taken to Skingrad or Anvil.
When Magnus rose in the east, it baked the path in its light and the temperature rose exponentially. To the Altmer the heat was a forgettable discomfort but to Bester it was a formidable foe that sapped him of his strength and breath. He had to rest often on benches that stood in the shade of a few lonely trees. It was therefore more due to the physique of his companion than the length of the climb that Angoril arrived at Kvatch proper several hours later.

He looked upon the massive walls, higher than ten men and thicker than Valenwood’s oldest trees. They were dark, pitted and scorched with the scars of many sieges long ago. Within the shadow of those walls, Kvatch was laid out like a maze of tiny alleyways and hovels as more and more people had to make use of the limited living space behind the stone ring. Only along the main streets did there seem to be any room to breathe or build spacious dwellings. Even that space however, was limited. The inner keep claimed Kvatch’s heart and the Divines mandated grand gardens around their temples. There was little doubt in the Altmer’s mind that the landprizes were as massive as the citywalls.



The portly Imperial brought him to a medium-sized building, two floors high, just off the main street. Its owner looked to be well-off, where it not for the fact that he was dead. There was a sign mounted above the front door.
‘Belgoth’s on demand fabrics’ it said in golden lettering. Bester produced a large keychain with a flourish and with almost excessive delicacy selected one of the barbed rods which he inserted into the door’s lock.
“I thought he sold clothing. Why does the sign not mention this?” Angoril mentioned when the door came unlocked. Bester shrugged in response.
“Belgoth sold both. Fabrics were his main product but if you wanted them stitched into something, he was always willing to set some local lasses on the job. Course, that cost extra.” He pushed open the gilded door and waved the Altmer in.
“We’re still looking for any heirs he may have had, but until someone steps forward who can make his or her claims stick, Mercantile Interests is going to sell off everything that isn’t nailed down.”


The Altmer looked around and let the first impressions wash over him. Belgoth’s store was a single room, quite spacious. On the right side, he saw a counter and racks filled with rolls of fabrics in all colours, including the elusive red. On his left, was a bizarre contraption of crisscrossing treads, levers, copper tubes and wooden frames.
“Was that, the loom?” He asked the heavy-set man he was with.
“Aye, that’s the cursed thing.” Bester answered. “Strung him right up, like a moth in the spider’s web. Feet reached for the ceiling, his eyes studied the floor. It was a dreadful sight, sir Tennil. Very dreadful.” He crossed his hands to ward off evil and then shook his head. Angoril also shook his head in what Bester took to be pity and empatic sorrow for the dead Bosmer. In reality, it was sceptiscism the Altmer felt. The machine looked like a fragile thing to him and he doubted it could have taken the weight of a man, even one as light as most wood folk were, and continue to function long enough to wrap up the poor soul.
“There are a few articles of clothing upstairs. Call me when you find anything of interest. I’ll be in the office. I just can’t stand being in this room, you see.” The merchant said as he walked away.

As soon as the Imperial’s shoes vanished up the stairs, Angoril began to investigate. He ignored the fabrics for now. Instead he focused his attention on the machine, or the flying loom as Bester had called it. The Altmer knew little of mechanical devices and the spinningmachine’s complexity was far beyond him. He didn’t dare guess at what each part did and the device wasn’t even complete.
“But would this Belgoth really forget that the Besters had stripped out some ‘vital components’? And say he had, then what of it? Given this store’s expense, I’d take him for a manager, not someone who gets his hands dirty on the workfloor.”
He told himself and let a finger run across one of the madly twirling pipes. When he pulled his hand back, the tip was covered in a fine layer of dust.
“It hasn’t been used in a while…wait.” Again he reached out to touch a section of the machine but this time, his finger was clean when he pulled it back.

He looked over his shoulder and listened for any noise coming from above. After some time, he made out the sound of paper rustling. Concluding that Ludius Bester was busy with paperwork of some sort and wouldn’t interupt, he returned to his investigation. A closer look of the clean section revealed ragged screw holes in the wood, as if whatever had been attached to it had been crudely torn free rather than unscrewed first. He found more screw holes when he looked further, most old and clean but some fresh and damaged.
“So assuming for the moment that the old holes are from when the Hall of Mercantile Interests removed the key parts, then someone has taken more components at a later date. And he was in a hurry.”
He listened for more activity from the Imperial upstairs before lowering himself to the floor and looking at the thick dust that covered the floor beneath the device. Spying a squarish bit of metal, he drew it towards him and turned it over in his hands. Two bent screws were sticking to it, and one side of the plate bore stenciled writing. It was a set of instructions for the use of the flying loom. The plate only contained a subset, but it was enough to reveal to him that the contraption could not work without constant activity of its operator. Every single movement required the handling of one or more levers and wheels. Even if Belgoth had fallen into the strings and gotten himself tangled up, the machine would have stopped instantly.
“That does it. Belgoth was definitely murdered. The perpetrator must have taken the instructions to keep the guards from realizing how impossible the accident was.”


He pocketed the plate and turned to the rolls of fabric that were lined up on the other side of the room. He was content to leave Kvatch in its misconception regarding this incident. It was far better than letting them know and in doing so, reopen the investigation. The red-robed men might learn of this and go underground. That was something he didn’t want to happen.
“They came too close to killing Uriel last time, even with me there. I’m not going to give them the chance to prepare a second strike. Anyway, I won’t find anything else down here. The weave is right, but there’s no silk.”

Angoril took a random roll of linen and tucked it under his arm before going upstairs. The second floor of Belgoth’s fabrics was smaller than the first. The area dedicated to the store was only the size of a small walk-in closet and held only three shirts. All the other rooms Angoril surmised to be the general living facilities. Bedroom, kitchen and the like.
“Sir Bester?” The Altmer called and heard the Imperial reply from behind one of the doors. He found the man sitting in a luxurious office, reading a document with one hand and plucking his dark moustache with the other.
“Sir Tennil. Did you find anything?” The man asked him. Angoril let his eyes casually wander across the room, seemingly without focusing on anything in particular. In that casual look however, he read the titles of several volumes, discovered the corner of a wallsafe peeking from behind a deershead, and noticed the deskdrawer from which Bester had taken the document.
“I found some linen. My wife would like a colour and I’ll look into a place to have it sewn up.” He answered while still looking. The other man put the file back in the drawer which he locked with a key. He then lead the Altmer out of the building while they discussed his other plans for the day.

“I was thinking of visiting the temple. It has been some while since I gave the Divines their proper due. The roads aren’t a place for worship.” Angoril told the man.
“You do that. Me, I’m going to visit my pop for lunch while I’m here in Upper. By the time I got back down, it would be far passed noon. Good day to you then, sir Tennil.”

He took one last look at the building as they parted and he turned for the spire of Kvatch’s temple.
“I’ll come back after nightfall. If Belgoth kept a copy of his accounting, it will be in that safe.”