Oasis, my first story Options

[jack cloudy]

Allright, first off. I've only barely reached Balmora in my game and ran around for 2 gamedays looking for Caius, so don't expect too much in the form of knowledge. Also, my computer shouldn't be able to handle Morrowind. I'm using an s3 savage or something like that which I remember to be in the list of unsupported 3d cards. Result, clashing colours, face textures on walls and anything enchanted or some forms of magic make the game hang. I can handle the colours and am attempting to remove the hanging by throwing away the enchantments with the help of a mod.

I'll try to work these hardware problems in the story somehow without having to make my character into a drug addict.

Now for the story. Comments, critics and suggestions are welcome.

Chapter 1: Oblivion or not?
I awoke on the wet floor, feeling sicker than I ever felt before. Holding my head, I looked at my surroundings. Yep, I was still on the same boat. If I had anything in my stomach, I would’ve vomited. I’m not a sailor.

,,Get up, you’ve been sleeping all night. Not even the storm could wake you.” The halfnaked elf with a huge scar on his face said. He was the only other living being in this room, if you didn’t count the rats and the worms. Now what was his name? Oh yeah, Jiub. And about the storm, the storm was what knocked me out in the first place, so it couldn’t possibly wake me up.

,,What’s your name?” Jiub continued. It looked like he had more trouble with names than I do, and I have a lot of trouble with names.
,,Luper Alkad.” I answered.
The elf rambled on that we’d reached Morrowind, wherever that was. And that he was sure that they would let us go. In your dreams, pal.
I was convinced that Morrowind had to be inside Oblivion, just listen to the name. Morrowind, that sounds like something a sick Daedra could come up with.

I didn’t really care where we were. Jails were all the same, no matter where they where located.

,,Quit, here comes the guard.” If I didn’t felt so sick, I would have hit him and said that I didn’t say anything for the last five minutes. He was the one who was constantly talking.

The guard smelled like he’d been drinking all night. How someone could possibly get drunk, or even drink on a boat in that storm was beyond me. Either way, the guard tried to drag me along but I easily pulled myself loose. The guard didn’t even notice and I followed the drunk idiot up to the deck, still cursing my fate for what it brought and feeling dizzy. I hate boats.

When I reached the deck, the drunk guard remained behind. Fine, he smelled bad anyway. A second guard told me to get off the ramp and into the building I could see through the fog. I looked at the village. The place was a mess. The guards really must have been pissed off to take me to this place. Welcome to Oblivion.

Oh well, I guess that’s what they call life. You can’t have everything. I walked off the ramp and started to feel a bit better already. I love solid ground, even if it was as wet and damp as the ground there. Everything was better than the damn boat.

Yet another guard stopped me at the bottom of the ramp. What is it with these guards? They’ve got more guards than villagers it seems. This guy wanted to know where I was from for no good reason. I am a Redguard, shouldn’t that tell enough?! ,,From your dreams.” I answered.

The guard looked at me for a while. ,,Whatever, I’m sure you’ll fit right in. Just go into the office.”

The office looked reasonable. If it wasn’t for the current inhabitants, it would make a nice place. Anyway, an old guy named Social Erratica or something like that wanted me to fill in some forms. The good news was that Jiub was right, they were going to release us! The bad news, the old guy was a freak and this place was Oblivion.

There were three ways I could fill in the forms, pick from a list, fill them in myself, or let him ask a bunch of questions to analyze my personality. See, I told you the guy was a freak.

I decided to fill them in myself. Now I had two choices, to lie or to tell the thruth.

[jack cloudy]

First walk outside town is done. I've also done my first battle scene. I'd like some comments on that one.


Despite my expectations, the area surrounding the village was quite peaceful. In fact, I didn’t meet anything but a bunch of flies, worms and other stuff too small to worry about. The path branched in two directions. I chose to take the left pad.

,,AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHH!” Before I knew what was going on, I heard the sickening sound of bones being crushed. I spun around, trying to identify the source of the sound. It wasn’t too hard to notice. I just had to look at the center of a quickly expanding pond filled with a red liquid. The kind you usually find inside living stuff, blood.

I rushed over to the body, my heart pounding. What in the name of Oblivion just happened?! He was dead, no way you’re going to live after having every single bone crushed, shattered and snapped. Not to mention the damage to the organs, or bloodloss.

Next to the body, I found a large book. Only two pages had anything written on them, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened.

The dead elf was named Tarhiel. Apparently, he figured out a new form of transportation. Basically, he made a super-duper ultra mega jump spell. He wrote that he checked every aspect of the spell twice. But I think he still forgot something, gravity. Three scrolls were lying at the edge of the red pool. I quickly grabbed them before the blood would reach them.

A quick look at the writing confirmed my thoughts. These scrolls were written in some sort of magic language. In other words, funny markings I couldn’t read. I believed that these contained his spell. I figured it was best not to use them. Falling to your death isn’t my idea of a nice way to end your life.

The clothes he had on him were quite nice. The robe was warmer than the cheap shirt I was wearing right now. The hood looked funny. I carefully undressed Tarhiel’s corpse. The clothes would need some cleaning before I would even attempt to wear them.

I hope nobody minds that I emptied my stomach behind a rock after that. When I came back, I buried the poor fellow. I don’t know why, but I respect him. Maybe it is because he pursued his dream to the very end.
The last thing he had on him was a sword. Touching the blade caused a few small sparks to shoot through my fingers. I cursed myself for being so stupid. If somehow the enchantment hadn’t been weakened, I would’ve had a shocking experience. I took it with me. At least the dim glow looked nice.

I figured I had seen enough of the countryside by now and wanted to get back into town as fast as possible, before any more elves came falling out of the sky. So I left the path and wandered among the rocks and the trees.

That taught me another lesson. Don’t investigate strange moving rocks without wearing armour and your sword sheathed.

The creature that I would later come to know as a Mudcrab got in the first blow. Without any armour to protect it, it nearly managed to break my leg. I screamed, and threw what I was holding in my hands on top of its shell. Surprised, the Mudcrab let go and soon found itself entangled in Tarhiel’s clothes. Who said they’re only good for wearing?

With the filthy creature distracted, I had plenty of time to unsheathe my sword and give it a good hit between the scissors. After picking up the clothes again and stripping a few bits of meat from the death Mudcrab, I limped on. I was definitely not having my day.

Death people seem to be quite common here in Morrowind. I came across yet another corpse when I tried to find my way around some rocks. This guy was called Processor…Never mind, I’m not good with names. Anyway, he was the local tax collector and someone had beaten him to death. Just what the hell a tax collector was doing outside of town, I didn’t know.

Good news, this guy was loaded with coins. At least 200 septims! I felt filthy rich. He also had a scroll on which he wrote from who he’d collected taxes and how much. That was pretty neat. The last thing he had on him was a pretty nice looking ring which I slipped on my finger.

I stashed the septims and the scroll. I left him there. It was already getting pretty late and the Mudcrabs had already done most of the work anyway. If I wanted to have a chance to watch for this Fargoth guy, I would need to hurry. Only problem was, I had forgotten to ask just who Fargoth is.

When I finally arrived, I dropped my loot in an hollow tree trunk near the back of the lighthouse. I then stumbled inside, said something along the lines of being the fire brigade and stumbled up the stairs. The woman didn’t come after me. She seemed occupied with something.

I noticed a book on the top floor. I grabbed it. No better way to spend a few boring hours than with a good read. And the lighthouse’s occupant didn’t seemed to notice.

The Nord was right about one thing. You really could see the whole town, and it was quite a view. I settled in near the fire and prepared for a long night.

My leg still hurt a few hours later. I hate it when I get hurt with no way to heal. As for the town, nothing interesting. Most people had settled in for the night and a few guards patrolled the streets, torches in their hands.

I was just about to decide that this was all ridiculous and that I should take some sleep when I did notice something interesting. One of the villagers was still awake. Small and with a torch, I cocnluded I was looking at a Woodelf. They tend to be small. But that wasn’t all, the guy was sneaking! Now who would be sneaking in the middle of the night? Not someone with good intentions.

The little figure slowly made his way to the Lighthouse. I crouched down and tried to be as invisible as possible, just to be sure. Suddenly, he reversed his direction and went straight for a pond with a treestump in the middle of it.

I waited till he moved away from the pond, now simply walking and without a torch, before I got up. There was still one problem. The woman who lived in the lighthouse was probably sleeping now. How would I explain it if I came down the stairs in the middle of the night?

Solution, try to climb down and end up falling instead. My leg now really hurt. Whatever the little elf put in the treestump had better be really good.

I didn’t even bothered to sneak as I limped to the stump and waded into the pond, cursing as usual. I hate mud.

What was in it? Septims, which was great, some small trinkets and what do you know, the ring from the barrel. So the little woodelf I met outside the office was Fargoth! The ring turned out to be very nice. Touching the small gem on it caused healing magicka to flow through my body. It was barely enough to heal a scratch, but with enough time, it could heal anything. After I expended all the charges, my leg still hurt, but now I could walk.

I spent the rest of the night on a rock, trying to get some sleep.

Next morning, I used up the charges that had accumulated in the ring again and had crabmeat for breakfast. I then paid the trade house a small visit and bought a whole set of something called Chitin armour. It was light and quite comfortable. No Mudcrab would get my leg that easy again.

,,Hey, Redguard! Have you found my lost heirloom?” The Nord boomed through the room. ,,Sorry, still looking.” I answered. It was probably best if I didn’t told him I had just used up quite a large chunk of his “heirloom” to fund the armour. He deserved to be cheated on anyway, the lazy honoured user.

I walked out with a clear purpose. Using the tax collector’s notes, I would pose as the new tax collector and squeeze the village dry before moving on. Do not underestimate the power of greed.

Some guy called Foryn Gilnith was the one with the largest debt of the ones who hadn’t paid, so I decided to go to him first. It was a simple matter of asking a guard. I claimed that I wanted to buy some fish. I was in a fishing village after all.

,,Who are you, Outlander? What do you want?” The dark elf who smelled like fish asked. Oh, he would pay for that attitude. No one calls me an outlander. At least not in that tone.

,,It’s about your taxes…” I began but was shocked by his interruption. ,,Yes, I killed him. He squeezed us all out and lived from our money. I led him outside Seyda Neen and killed him. And I’m proud of it!”

In the name of Oblivion! Here I was, trying to pose as a tax collector, and I run into a freaking murderer!
,,But, that’s coldblooded murder! How can you be proud of that?!” I screamed at him. That was the wrong answer.

,,So, you’re with them. I can take another Imperial lackey!” Before I knew it, he planted his fist firmly in my face. I hate it when they go for the nose. I desperately tried to unsheathe my sword as I dodged his blows. There wasn’t much skill behind them, but brute strength compensated.

I heard his scream together with the sound of cracking bones as his left fist came in direct contact with my lovely new shield. For a moment, I thought I had the upper hand. But that thought was beated out of me by his right fist in my face. I went down.

He towered over me and was getting ready to plant his foot in my face when I finally managed to unsheathe my sword. I just swung at him without aiming and cut into his leg. Now he fell down beside me.

I was the first to get back on his feet and grabbed my sword with both hands. I plunged it into the dark elf’s chest with everything I had.

I had killed someone, again.