The Story of Trey Chapter 10 Options

[treydog]

Thanks to the efforts of Stargelman and Alexander, Chapters 1-8 are available in the Fan Forge section of the main page. So rather than clutter things with reposting all that, I will start with the current "live" chapter.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke

Chapter 10

Before I relate the next phase of my adventurers in Vvardenfell, I find it necessary to talk for a moment about time. As I have written it, this story seems to be a continuous description of events, one following swiftly on the heels of another. That is not completely accurate, for several reasons. First, there were periods of several weeks that I spent recovering from wounds or from the strain of the many missions I undertook. I have not felt the need to burden the reader with a recounting of all those “slack” periods. Second, certain things occurred during the time of this story that I am not yet ready to reveal. There may come I time when I feel able to relate those other stories, but that time is not now. When I left “home” and made my way to the Imperial City, I was 17. And I celebrated my 18th “birthday” in Vivec. So it may seem strange that such powerful figures as Athyn Sarethi and Sul-Matuul entrusted one so young with the difficult and dangerous tasks that they gave to me. The reason they did so is this- by the time I set my reluctant feet upon the Path of the Nerevarine, when I went into Kogoruhn and came out again, I was 23. Often, in those difficult days, I felt much older, despite the “immunity” to aging that corprus had granted me. Those years had given me a fair number of scars, physical and emotional, and the wisdom that went with them.

While I recovered from my exertions in the ancient House Dagoth stronghold and contemplated my quest to find the Cavern of the Incarnate, I decided that I needed to do two or three other things first. For one, I needed to find out as much as I could about the House Dagoth creatures I had encountered. If I was destined to fight those foul beasts, it would be well to understand the nature of my enemies. The best place to gain such knowledge would be the Ghostgate, where Ordinators and Buoyant Armigers daily fought against the creatures of the Blight. If they would share their wisdom, I might have a better chance of survival. The second task I wished to accomplish was the creation of a better weapon- a sword for preference. In my many battles, I had managed to soul-trap several fairly powerful creatures, and one those soul-gems could be used to enchant a long sword with useful spells. My struggle against Dagoth Uthol was fresh in my mind as I considered this. Because my own skill at enchanting was marginal, I would need to seek the services of a Mages Guild enchanter. The sort of enchantments I had in mind would cost considerably, so I would need to find a way to raise the necessary gold. Such were the mundane thoughts with which I occupied my mind- mostly to avoid thinking too deeply about what would happen when I found the Cavern of the Incarnate.

After frankly moping around Ald’ruhn for two or three days, I decided that it was time to put my plans into effect. My first task would be to have a sword enchanted by Galbedir in Balmora. Here I ran into my first problem- although I had appropriate soul-gems for the sort of enchantments I had in mind, I did not have a good enough sword to take the enchantments. It seemed that an item’s capacity for enchantment was related to the material from which it was made. The best weapons for enchantment were Daedric or ebony, followed by Imperial and Dwemer. Due to its nature, glass was among the worst materials for enchanting- Galbedir tried to explain the reasons, but I fear I quickly got lost in the arcana of her explanation. What it came down to was this- if I wished to have major enchantments placed on a weapon, it would have to be Daedric or ebony. And the best place to find a Daedric weapon was the sort of place I had scrupulously avoided- a Daedric shrine. The items were so rare and so difficult to find that no merchants carried them. Some ebony weapons were rumored to be stored in the Great House vaults in Vivec, but even I didn’t want to think about burglarizing those. And even if I did raid one or a dozen Daedric shrines, there was no guarantee of finding a long blade- it was merely a possibility. Even better, the likelihood of finding such a weapon was directly proportional to the likelihood that said weapon would be guarded or even wielded by some particularly powerful summoned creature. The irony was almost too much for me to bear- in order to create a weapon that would give me a decent chance against the creatures of Dagoth Ur, I would have to face the almost equally nasty summoned creatures of Oblivion. Unfortunately, there was nothing else for it- I simply HAD to have a better sword. And I knew of at least two Daedric shrines that were fairly close to Balmora- Shurinbaal, near Gnaar Mok and Ald Sotha, near Vivec. As I set off for Gnaar Mok, I wondered at the ultimate irony- the cruel twist of fate that had turned me from a thief into a crusader.

This post has been edited by treydog: Oct 22 2009, 05:43 PM

[treydog]

My desire to find a better weapon turned out to be one of those proverbial “good news/bad news” situations. The good news was that I was able to find a really powerful sword without ever going inside the Addadshashanammu Shrine (to be known forever after as “the shrine south of Gnaar Mok.”) No wonder people consider Daedra evil- it talks a truly warped and sadistic mind to come up with a name like that one. But anyway, back to the sword. My previous experience with Daedric shrines, although limited, was sufficient to tell me that there were always a number of summoned creatures guarding the grounds surrounding the shrine itself. Therefore, once the eye-popping, stomach-wrenching shape of the shrine became visible, I conjured a bound longbow and cast Beggar’s Nose. The detection spell indicated quite a few potentially hostile creatures, but it did allow me to distinguish, say a netch from a Clannfear. In order to determine the actual kinds of creatures, I would have to see them. And, if I could see them, they could see me. At first, the hunt went well. I downed two Storm Atronachs, a scamp, and a Clannfear without taking serious harm. Perhaps that success made me overconfident, or perhaps I had simply developed tunnel-vision- I needed a sword, I would find a sword, nothing else mattered. Up to a point, my reasoning about how and where to find a Daedric sword had been sound- a Daedric shrine was the perfect place to look. The flaw in my logic was this: such a weapon would almost certainly be in the possession of a creature that would want very badly to KILL me. And worse still, a Daedric sword would provide a quite effective means of achieving that purpose. And that was the bad news.

As I rounded a corner, seeking the entrance to the shrine, I saw a figure clad in red and black armor. Clearly, it was a Dremora. That did not fill me with the fear it once would have; after all, I had killed Dremoras before. Better still, as I thought, was the fact that this Dremora seemed to be wielding a long blade of some sort. All I needed to do was cut the creature down and take possession of the sword. Simple, right? There was only one serious problem with that plan- this was no simple Dremora, but a Dremora Lord. The sort that possessed some major elemental damage spells as well as the wit to use such spells to weaken me before it got within reach of my sword. Flame washed over me once, twice, three times before the spawn of Oblivion rushed forward. Thwarted from my plan of peppering him with arrows by the greater necessity of staying alive, I downed a couple of restorative potions and went to meet the Dremora Lord blade to blade. It was then that I discovered the other attribute that makes Daedric weapons so highly prized- they are sharp as razors and inflict massive damage. In this case, the massive damage was being inflicted upon me. Meanwhile, I was swinging for all I was worth with the Icicle blade I had purchased some time back. It felt as if I were trying to stop an avalanche with a broom- the Dremora’s blows opened huge rents in my armor and my flesh, while my strokes seemed to slide off of his armor. Only the fact that I was able to deflect many of his swings with my shield while imbibing potions kept me alive. Ultimately, it was my ability to repair the damage that kept me alive. That, and the fact that I started using the point of my sword to thrust through the weak points in his armor instead of taking full swings that left me vulnerable to counter-attacks. At last, the Dremora Lord disappeared in a puff of noxious vapor, leaving a little pile of ash and, most important, a Daedric dai-katana. It was then that I discovered the final attribute of Daedric weapons- besides having high enchantment potential and inflicting massive damage, the things were heavy as sin.

Still, there should be some way to overcome the weight problem; I needed to learn to pare down the amount of equipment I carried when adventuring, anyway. Some of my readers may be wondering why I had been so determined to obtain a physical Daedric long blade when I could learn a spell that would allow me to conjure one. My reasons were twofold- first, you cannot enchant a conjured weapon. Second, and more important, a “bound” weapon only remains in existence for a limited time. I could imagine nothing worse than having my blade go “poof” in the middle of a life-and-death struggle. As I stood there admiring my new sword, I was reminded that you shouldn’t declare victory before the battle is over. Warned by the sound of running feet, I looked up to see a most peculiar creature racing toward me. In appearance it was a female of the fabled race called the “Chimer”- the gold-skinned elves that were supposed to have been the forebears of the Dunmer. The being also wore a winged helm, and armor of a sort that I did not recognize. Strangest of all, her face was absolutely expressionless. However, the sword she was waving at me was a hint that her intentions were not peaceful. This was a difficult opponent, particularly because my Daedric sword precluded the use of my shield. On the other hand, no creature could long stand up to the terrible wounds the blade inflicted. When the creature lay dead, I took a moment to examine her. With the advantage of relative calm to study the corpse, I soon realized that this must be one of those creatures of Oblivion known as a “Golden Saint.” They were even more powerful than the Dremora Lords- were, in fact, the most powerful of the summoned Daedric creatures known. Although I had been fighting for my life at the time, I wished I had had the presence of mind to soul-trap this creature- the soul of a golden saint could power a major enchantment. All was not lost, though, the Golden Saint had dropped an enchanted glass sword, which I quickly acquired. I had achieved my goal and hadn’t even gone into the shrine. Deciding that now was a most propitious time, I cast Almsivi Intervention and found myself in Balmora. Now all I needed to do was decide what enchantment to place on my Daedric blade.