Niamh's Adventures in Nirn..., This is a thread featuring a digest of stories about... Options

[PhonAntiPhon]

NIAMH.
But first, who is she?
Well she's a character who I have been acquainted with for a very long time, and with whom I have travelled across many worlds.

She's a Wood-Elf, in Nirn terms - of about 30. She's very much her own boss, and not a terribly pleasant individual. She is, to employ a cliche, "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". She's a hard drinking, promiscuous, authority-hating rebel with baggage enough and troubles enough to fill a volume of psychoanalysts' shelves.

She's maybe 5 feet 8 inches in height, very slender, with pale skin and long black hair and dark, chestnut eyes in deep sockets. She had a predilection for body-piercing and a bad-attitude to personal hygiene. She's a thief and an assassin and pretty much anything else that will garner her gold and a thrill.
In the Nirn universe - (Cyrodiil) - she lives principally in Bravil, but has a shack on the waterfront outside of the walls of the Imperial City, although she spends much of her time in a rather dysfunctional relationship with Jo, one of the local "courtesans", who you will not be reading about on here(!).
In Morrowind she was a loner who pretty much stumbled upon a destiny of sorts more by simply being in a certain place at a certain time than by design; whilst she arrived in Skyrim confused and somehow "altered", more feral and wild, as part of a story arc that started in Cyrodiil and ended back there amidst death and heartache.
Since then she has had a second chance, but is squandering it, reverting once again to type...

Throughout her adventures in Nirn - Morrowind, Cyrodiil, and Skyrim, her character has evolved and changed. She's taken on aspects of each of these variants to become something "other" than what she started as; more rounded, but far more complicated. The ultimate expression of that is in the world that she now inhabits - Varrius, a world created for her specifically, with it's own story arc and characters.
Anyway, that's by-the-by, for the nonce, this thread will have various stories and vignettes that I have written involving her, and the characters that she has interacted with, during the time that she has inhabited the Elder Scrolls universe.
(Only some of the stories are on here, as this is a 13-rated forum, and not everything I write is... suitable. For stories not on here, do feel free to visit Niamh's blog, in the signature.)

I hope you enjoy her stories, it's gives me a lot of pleasure to write them.

This post has been edited by PhonAntiPhon: Jan 19 2013, 04:22 PM

[PhonAntiPhon]

[Another earlier tale, which sees Niamh and Vilja getting themselves into trouble whilst exploring. Pretty much anyone who is familiar with Oblivion will know who Vilja is - (thank you Emma) - the Vilja in Niamh's world is a little bit "different" from the original...]

--

DUNGEONEERING

"Ssh!" Said Vilja, looking admonishingly at Niamh, "I can't believe you're making so much noise!"
Niamh shot her an irritated glance and went back to disentangling herself from the hanging roots that depended from the low ceiling of the dank cave they had found themselves in. They'd come across this one a little way outside of Bravil, its opening covered by the familiar wooden door, rotting now and hanging slightly askew from its equally worm-eaten frame. Vilja was still recovering from her - albeit entirely self-inflicted - alchemical accident and was suffering a little in the noonday heat, so it had seemed like a good idea at the time to seek a break of sorts in the cool, moist darkness of the cave.

It turned out that the place was infested with Daedra which, whilst providing a diversion from the otherwise tedious trip southwards from the Imperial City, did nothing to improve Vilja's mood.
"I hate creature caverns." She said, pouting, her silvery eyes flashing in the gloom. "Lots of work for very little loot. And my face hurts..."
Niamh rolled her eyes and, raising them to the rough rocky roof of the entrance passageway, mouthed a small prayer to Sithis. "I'll make your face hurt in a minute sweetie." She said under her breath, however, turning to her companion she said brightly, "Look V, think of it as a little diversion from the trip, you didn't like it out there either." She gestured back to the door.
Vilja harrumphed and signalled, not without a degree of ill-humour, for Niamh to lead the way deeper into the system.

++++

The "diversion" had not proven to be a smooth one. This close to the bay the floor was puddled and in some places covered to a depth of 2 or 3 feet with cold, murky water seeping in from the Silverfish River. Niamh had received a Slaughterfish bite to her ankle which had resulted in a deal of frenzied but surreptitious thrashing about, hindered in part by Vilja's refusal to assist and constant abjurations to "Be Quiet!"
Now after several Scamps, a Daedroth and a Land Dreugh, they had finally emerged from the most recent watery tunnel and had found themselves in a root-choked cavern lit faintly by luminous fungi. Niamh could just make out a wall to their right but little else though a constant low breeze blew on their damp bodies, prickling their skin and making them shiver. It seemed to be coming from somewhere ahead of them and indeed, once Niamh had extricated herself from the clinging roots and started forward once more, she could see a darker area to their front that appeared to be the source of the airflow.
Reaching out for Vilja's hand in the dimness, she grasped it and led her companion over to the nearest wall. It was slick with moisture and lichen; she could feel tiny, and not-so-tiny, cave-dwelling creatures scurrying over her feet. From somewhere in the distance came the echoing sound of something large moving about. The sound of trickling water came from over to her left.
She lent close to Vilja who turned to look at her, her damaged eyes glittering in the lambent glow of the fungi. She said she could see just as well as before and indeed it seemed so, nevertheless Niamh couldn't help but resist a shudder at what could have happened. Vilja's mother really would throw a fit if she could see her now.
"I'm going to light a torch." She whispered. "See what's about." This close to Vilja she could smell her skin, Vilja always smelt faintly of roses, albeit somewhat masked by the more pressing odours of sweat and general dirt that both of them carried with them on the road.
"I don't know why you don't wear that helmet thing you've got." Vilja replied. Her breath was warm on Niamh's face, carrying with it the scent of almonds which under other circumstances would have been pleasantly distracting, however;
"It's made for humans." Niamh shot back testily. "It hurts my ears. You've tried it as well."
Vilja was silent for a moment.
"Ok. I'm sorry Niamh." She said quietly. "Guess I'm a bit fed up today."
"It's ok," lied Niamh, "We'll talk about it when we get out of here. We'll get to Bravil and sort out S'krivva; hole up in an inn for a couple of days and take some time. Ok?" She touched Vilja's arm lightly with the tips of her long pale fingers; chipped and cracked black varnish on the nails, Vilja's skin was cold and damp, the hairs on it standing stiffly to attention.
The glowing orbs in Vilja's face looked at her intensely for a moment, black pupils narrowed to tiny points despite the gloom.
"Ok." She whispered.
It wasn't ok and both of them knew it but that wasn't a discussion for here, now, that was something for later...
Niamh reached behind her and rummaged around in her pack, attempting not to cut herself on anything sharp. There was so much in there at the moment that she had a job to find what she was looking for. Finally grabbing hold of a torch she pulled it out and held it whilst Vilja, taking a couple of pieces of flint, struck them together against the tarry wadding at the end.
The atmosphere in the cave was close, fetid and damp and it took her several attempts before she could raise a spark and she cursed under her breath. Eventually the flints connected successfully and the wadding flared alight. Vilja turned briefly away and Niamh squinted against the sudden flickering glow, holding the torch away from her body and peering into the cavern lit now by a smoky yellow flame that though strong enough, still flared and popped fitfully in the moist air.
With Vilja tagging along behind brandishing her katana - a wicked looked double-handed affair with a black blade covered in mysterious red Akaviri runes - Niamh cautiously padded across the weed- and rubbish-strewn floor, her eyes scanning all around for signs of anything of interest or danger that came within the dancing circle of torchlight.
There was a scrabbling sound off to their right and Vilja's hand went to Niamh's shoulder, halting her.
They stopped dead in their tracks.
The noise came again, from ahead of them now. It was the sound of something large and chitinous tap-tap-tapping across the floor at the far end of the cavern, where the opening was. They waited, holding their breath.
A third time they heard it, closer now and definitely the sound of large insect-like legs. This time however it was accompanied by a scent; not unpleasant but unlike anything else on Cyrodiil. Vilja had little concept of space - the firmament above - but what little she did know led her to believe quite firmly that it must smell something like that scent.

In the darkness she moved still closer to her companion, putting her lips right up against Niamh's pointed, be-ringed ear.
"Spider Daedra..."