Alexander in Morrowind (2) Options

[Alexander]

Alexander in Morrowind, Chapter 2


I spent more then a year at Tel Fyr. And many things happened there, but I will not go into all of them. Suffice to say, after I had found myself using magic Divayth offered to take me in for some time and teach me the basics of magic. He promised me that the headaches would never return; the cause appeared to be the gift of magic seeking release and not getting it. But Divayth also made it clear to me that while he could teach me the basics, the rest I had to learn for myself. “It’s always hard to teach someone else what you know, because their brain works in another way, but with you being also from another world, the makes it even harder,” or so he told me. And I’m sure had it not been for the second gift of Azura, I would not have been able to remember everything I was told and thought in that time.

So in that year he taught me many a basic spell, how to transport your body or that of another person, how to levitate or make someone else do so. How to heal and how to damage. How to calm people and how to get them into such a rage that they act without thinking. He taught me how to lock and unlock doors and how to cloak myself with my surroundings. And much, much more. I cannot and will not even begin to try and explain the procedures here as I’m sure you either already know them yourself, or do not and if you do not, then there must be a good reason for that.

During this time I found myself growing fond of not only Divayth but his daughters as well. Now, just so you know nothing ever happened there; Divayth had made it clear that he would not allow that and I’m not a man to not honor his host’s wishes. But we did grow to be friends.

Now all this time I hardly ever set foot outside Tel Fyr so I had no way of knowing what was going on in the outside world, but Divayth kept me informed there as well. He also told me things about the history of the province, how the Chimer became the Dunmer, how the Tribunal had come to be and more. So I can safely say after that year, even without the help of Divayth I would be able to make my way around Morrowind, well so long as nothing bad happened anyway.

Then one day Divayth approached me and told me that I should think about moving on and what I wanted to do with my life here. I knew I couldn’t stay at Tel Fyr for the rest of my life, especially since I knew I would never die of old age anyway, so I had thought about this a lot. And I made my decision then. I asked him, “How do I become a part of the Telvanni?” I knew being a part of a house would help me more then anything else to adapt here and looking at the three houses, the Hlaalu would never be my choice; they were backstabbers and nothing more. The Redoran were the most honorable without a doubt, but also the ones that had the most rules, and with all their honor, they had allowed a dishonorable person like Venim to lead them for so long- no, that would not be my choice either. Now the Telvanni, having never been fond of rules in the first place, and with their great towers, the choice was easily made.

I did not get the reaction I had expected from Divayth. I had maybe expected him to make me a member himself or something like that, but he just stood there and told me:

“If this is what you wish, then I show you the way. Though it saddens me to say, I will not be able to help you further there. To advance it will take your own effort. Becoming a Telvanni is easy, staying one and not getting killed by competitors is much harder and I do not have the time to constantly protect you from others. So if you want this, you must do it on your own.”

I guess that was one thing I hadn’t taken fully into account. Being a high ranking Telvanni was the same as being in jeopardy all the time. No rules meant that anyone that killed you would gain status in the eyes of others. But even then, I realized it was either Telvanni or no one, so my choice was made. And I made that clear to Divayth.

He announced that it was time for bed and that tomorrow we would go to Sadrith Mora and get the easiest part out of the way there.

On the morrow we were awakened by banging on the door; being the one closest to it I went to see who would be calling this early in the morning. It appeared to be a messenger carrying a package who told me he was in search of the Lord of Fyr. I told him where to find him and that was the last I saw of him. He left when I was eating that morning. And then Divayth appeared in the doorway carrying the package the messenger had brought. He gave to me and told me it was a gift he had ordered brought from the House Vault in Vivec. I opened it to find an Ebony Long sword of the finest quality. I knew from what I’ve been told that this was a princely gift, not many swords were a match for this one and so I thanked Divayth many times.

And then it was time to go. I said my goodbyes to the daughters and followed Divayth outside; he told me he had never been very fond of water so we would be transporting ourselves to Sadrith Mora instead of taking the boat. Which I, of course, found amusing seeing as how his tower was surrounded by water on all sides. But we all have our little quirks now and then so doing as he asked and taking his hand, we went to Sadrith Mora the fast way. I can hardly described how that felt, it felt like having your body split into many tiny pieces and then being put back together somewhere else, and the funny thing was, my first thought there was, “I want to go again.” And then I looked at where I was, Sadrith Mora, the biggest city of the Telvanni and the home to both one of the masters and the Mouths, as some of the most trusted servants of the masters were called.

Now Sadrith Mora could best be described of as a Mushroom city. All the houses, all the buildings, everything was of the same material as Tel Fyr only smaller and in different shapes. I had already been told that the manufacturing of the towers allowed for much diversity but this was beyond what I had imagined. In the center of the town was what I found is Tel Naga, the tower of one of the oldest members of the Telvanni. And off on the west side of town was an equally impressive building which had to be the council hall. Walking there alongside Divayth I took in the surroundings even more. And especially what appeared to be a slave market ahead of us. I looked upon it and felt my blood begin to boil. One of the worst things I could imagine was slavery and I had always held it in contempt. We actually walked right past it and I saw the slaver there take his whip and threaten one of the caged Khajiit. Noticing my enragement, Divayth stopped and leaned closer to whisper something to me;

“One of the prime values of the Telvanni is to act on your own. Let no one tell you what is good and what is not but decide for yourself what is. And to want the power, you must be ready to wield it as well without hesitation.”

I got the hint and approached the slaver slowly., Upon seeing me he came to me and asked me if I perchance wanted to buy one or more slaves. He assured me that they wouldn’t die, well not too soon anyway, and that they were perfect for use in experiments of any kind.

Well that was not a smart thing for him to say.. Focusing my will I released it on him and he suddenly found himself floating upside down several feet up in the air. Probably without thinking about it he whipped out his whip and tried to swing it at me- a thought later and his whip was incinerated. I guess that got the message clear because he now resorted to begging for his life. I wasn’t going to kill him of course, but I did want him to know he could not try and hit me without getting something back for it, so I sent him spinning round and round till he was so dizzy his face was turning green. Not wanting him to soil my nice robe, I let him back down and once he had given in to his urges, I demanded the key to the bracers and cells of the slaves. He reluctantly gave them to me but warned me that Master Neloth would hear of this. I knew of course that was the local Telvanni master but I was bound to make some enemies anyway so no sense in avoiding it.

[Alexander]

I approached a woman called Arielle Phiencel and found I was in luck, she was just the person that held the staff and told me she would sell it for 300 drakes. l Money wasn’t the issue here so I paid and in passing asked her if she knew anything about the black jinx ring. It so happened that she did and that she knew it was held by someone called Alven Salas. He was a member of the Morag tong, the local assassins guild,. and that I would find them beyond the hole-in-the-wall tavern where I had spent the night. So, having done what I came to do, I went back to the council house, delivered the staff and got a nice dagger as a reward.

But next came the hard thing, how would I convince an assassin that he hads what I wanted, and moreover, that he should hand it over to me? That crossed my mind on my way to the guildhall of the Morag Tong. Finding it not hard to recognize the guildhall, I entered and found myself confronted by one of the assassins of the Morag tong. He never even introduced himself to me and asked me my reason for being there., I explained to him I was there to get the black jinx ring and he only laughed and told me to go and find Alven in the back. He was easy to find and, deciding there was little sense in subterfuge, I came out and asked him for the ring. He told me that he wouldn’t give it up just like that and that I would have to duel with him to get it. Well I had fenced back on earth and I had practiced a bit with Divayth, but I was unsure if my skill would be up to that of an assassin and did not wantito find out. Instead I resorted to what already came more naturally. I focused my will and he was the second person in this town to suddenly find himself floating in thin air. It was not hard to convince him then to give the ring to me but he did continue to utter curses at me. So I left him in mid-air and went back to the entrance.

This is where I learned one of the most valuable lessons in my life- never turn your back on an assassin, not even when he’s in mid-air. He must have had some dispel potion hidden on his body because the next thing I felt was his body as he jumped me. I was taken by surprise and we rolled down the stairs and wound with me lying under him while he sat on me with a dagger at my throat. This was clearly not going as planned, and I knew if I didn’t act soon he would slit my throat and that would be the end of my story. Fortunately, he wanted to gloat for a moment before finishing the job, which gave me time to strike out with my will and hurl him from me. The force of the spell was so strong that I knocked not only him but the other assassin out as they hit the wall.

Gathering the ring I made my way out as quickly as possible and back to the council house where I gave the ring up and was rewarded with a demoralize spell. And found myself promoted to Oathman as well. Needing time to heal the cuts and bruises, I decided to call it a day and go back to the hole in the wall and rest and heal myself.


Going back the next day gave me a small surprise; even though Mallam Ryon had said previously that he did not have any quests for me, he told me he had one now. He told me Divayth requested the plans to Nchuleft. He told me Divayth was again working on something that involved the Dwemer history. He explained to me the site for the ruins was quite a way to the west of Tel Mora. He also advised me to speak to Galos Mathendis as he remembered him having a chore that was in the area anyway.

As I walked over, Galos gave me a warm smile and welcomed me on behalf of his master Aryon. He told me the Alchemist in Tel Vos was short on cure blight potions and asked me to bring three potions to him. He did unfortunately not have the potions with him so I had to go out and buy them myself. This was quickly solved as the local Alchemist was someone who always hada lot of potions in store and happened to have these as well.

Taking the boat from Sadrith Mora to Tel Mora and then to Vos gave me time to study the surroundings. Where Tel Mora was another standard Telvanni town, Vos and certainly Tel Vos were not. Vos was definitely Telvanni but with many buildings in it in the normal Imperial style. And Tel Vos. Well now that was something definitely unique. It looked like a cross breed of a Telvanni tower on one hand and an Imperial fort on the other. Galos had told me that I could find the alchemist in the services tower and it was indeed easy to find. After having the local alchemist there thank me many times, I was off again. Determined not to dawdle, I left Tel Vos behind me as I headed west.

The local area was called the graze lands and for a reason. Plains as far as the eye could see, with small hills decorating the landscape.

There were a few local animals roaming the lands but several fireballs made sure they wouldn’t follow me and attack me when I wasn’t looking. After about an hour of walking I spotted Dwemer ruins in the distance; that must be Nchuleft, I thought. I found the entrance to the ruins and slowly made my way inside.

I’d never been inside one of these so I knew I had to be careful. I had no idea what to expect but I would soon find out as from around the corner, a Dwarven ghost appeared. Without thinking I threw a frost ball at him. Not wanting to find out if maybe it had friendly intentions, I assumed being here while it was dead for centuries couldn’t have improved its mood. Luckily I found the ghost to be quite fragile and easy to deal with. Casting a look in the other direction revealed yet another ghost. And close by yet another one. As I said, easy to deal with. These ghosts did not stop me from going deeper into the ruins but something else almost did. I had found a barrel and wanted to check it for valuables, even with the money I had received as gift, it never hurt to have a bit more. Just above me I suddenly heard a clonk sound and, spinning around I found myself face to face with a centurion sphere armed with a crossbow. This was the first time I had seen one of these in real life whereas before I had seen them only on schematics in possession of either Divayth or Yagrum.

So I looked at it with interest for almost 3 seconds before it shot another bolt at me.
With that, it was time for another destruction spell. Scientific knowledge is fine, but I wasn’t going to stand around being shot at to gain it. Knowing I would rather be safe then sorry, I unsheathed my sword and held it at ready. Determined to cut down the next thing to come in my path, I was disappointed when the stairs came to a rather large room with some strange mechanics in it,. but no enemies. To the left I saw some shelves and, wouldn’t you know it, one of them held a schematic. Well, of course, not knowing if this was the right or even the only schematic, I made my way back down and decided to head into the other corridor, and at the bottom of the stairs I was glad I had unsheathed my sword because with high speed, I found myself approached by a spider. Working at the same time to ward off its legs and finding its weak spot to strike proved quite troublesome. But in the end it was dead and I was free to explore this room as well.

Looking to my right revealed the fact that I had done the right thing by exploring further as I found yet another schematic. Either one of them should be the right one so I decided to head back to Sadrith Mora. Packed as I was with assorted jewels and such, I decided not to walk all the way back again., but to use a recall. I had fortunately marked the Council house and with a small bit of will, I was back in the entry and Dalyne was so scared of me teleporting in there that she was cowering against the wall. No wonder the mouths had not given her any jobs yet; a mouse would have scared her.

In the hall of mouths I reported my success to Mallam and, for bringing the other schematic as well, he not only gave me some gold but a magical helm. Not wanting to upset Mallam of Divayth I accepted it but promised myself to sell it first opportunity I got. Not that it wasn’t magical and helpful, it wasn’t that. It was the fact that it was ugly as could be.

I then asked him for more chores and he told me Galos wanted to see me once I got back so I made my way to his platform and asked him what I could do for him. He thanked me for delivering the potions first, and not only gave me a nice reward by teaching me a cure blight disease spell, but he also promoted me to Lawman in the House Telvanni. He told me Master Aryon had asked to see me once I got back if I could go there in the morning. Well of course I agreed. This would be the Fourth master I would meet in the house and so far I had met the oldest living man in the world, the craziest still living old woman in the world, someone like Neloth that looked more cadaver then anything else, and I would love to see if the house could surprise me even more with yet another of those colorful figures.