Oasis chapter 4, The sign of prophecy. Options

[jack cloudy]

chapter1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Alright, I couldn't stop writing so you'll get the start of the fourth chapter early.



Chapter 4: The sign of prophecy.

My first action was to gulp down all the potions I had, but even they could not remove the power of the curse. Already I could feel it draining my mind and my will. I could slow the curse with my own magicka, but I could not stop it.

I realized that I was doomed and sank to the floor. It would be best for the island if I destroyed the entrance to the cave and made it my tomb. Yet, there were still a few things I had to do. To clear my mind, I looted the chamber and was rewarded with two gauntlets of a strong material. I put them on and then sat down with a few bits of paper and began to write.

,,You’re back? Good, I was worried.” Caius said when I stumbled into his home. He then noticed that something was wrong.
,,What happened?”

,,I killed Dagoth Gares. He gave me the Corprus. I am a death man, Caius. Take these papers. It will tell you everything you need to know. Ajira will receive the Warlock’s ring and the staff of Magnus. Felisa Ulessen of the Telvanni will get my stronghold. You will get the money and my weapons. If you excuse me, I’ll leave now and go kill myself somewhere quiet.” His response to those words surprised me.

,,Fool! Do you really want to give up that fast?! I will not let you do this! As your commanding officer in the Blades, I order you to go out and get yourself cured.” He grabbed the paper out of my hands and ripped it into little pieces.
,,It is no use to give me a last will if you are not death. As a matter of fact, I have been doing some research while you destroyed that base. A Dunmer named Divayth Fyr is apparently the leading expert on the Corprus disease. Find him and see if he has a cure. But first, you need to rest.”

My objections that his bed might become infected with the disease were met with a smile. Caius wasn’t expecting to use his bed any more. I cast whatever spells I knew to slow the curse and went to sleep. I was once again assaulted by nightmares of the man with the Golden mask. This time, I knew it was Dagoth Ur. He was alive, and not happy with my existence.

,,Luper! Wake up! We’ve got guests of the bad kind!” Caius shouted which caused me to awaken. Through my blurred vision, I could barely make at that there were two people in the room, trying to kill each other.

I tried to get up, but the Corprus seemed to have taken hold of me which made moving very difficult. I pulled my ring of my finger.
,,Caius, catch!” The blurred figure who was coloured the lightest turned towards me for a bit. I threw the ring before dropping back into a slumber.

,,Luper, are you awake?”
Caius towered over me with a worried look. Clearly, sleeping when infected with the Corprus was a bad idea.
,,I’m fine. What happened?”

,,It looks like the Sixth House is getting worried about you. One of their minions paid us a little visit.” Caius handed over my ring.
,,Interesting weapon you’ve got there. It saved our lives. I’ll give it back to you, you’ll need it when you seek out Divayth Fyr. Unfortunately, I don’t know where he lives.” Caius said. He also gave me the last of his money and a Dwemer artefact. He called it a little investment.

Caius didn’t knew where to find Fyr, but I did. We were neighbours, sort of. I’d never spoken to him, but I knew where to find his mushroom. One recall later, and I arrived home from where I could begin my journey.

Travelling was the easiest bit, keeping my sanity wasn’t. By the time I made it, I could feel my mind beginning to slip away. Fortunately, I didn’t need to say a word. One of Fyr’s “daughters” took me straight to him where he revealed his plan to me.

He would give me a potion that theoretically should cure the disease, except for that small detail that it killed everyone who tried. In return, I would take a walk in his Corprusarium and pick up a bunch of boots from Yagrum Bagarn. I was not allowed to hurt any of the other victims, even if they tried to kill me. Brilliant as usual. Any other ways to get myself killed?

I had barely made a single step inside before the first corprus victim moved towards me. My first idea was to simply forget about it and just hack my way through, but I needed the potion. Seeing no other way out, I started running.

I ran and ran, picking my direction at random. At one moment I came across something best described as a humanoid body slapped on top of a Spider Centurion standing next to a pair of Dwemer boots. I grabbed the boots and kept running till I found the exit. The warden slammed the door shut behind me, and a dozen Corprus victims slammed into it.

Before me stood Fyr, clapping his hands and smiling as if he had just seen the most amusing thing ever.
,,Splendid, just splendid! It is a shame that you didn’t tried to raid the chests on the way. I love to tempt a thief. Anyway, a promise is a promise. I’ll take the boots and give you the potion which you should drink immediately.” He said.

I could only nod and the last remains of my mind were now slipping away. It took the help of the warden to restrain me as the Corprus took control of me. I never remembered what happened in those few seconds. Fyr must have given me the potion.

It was all over in a few seconds. When I realized that I was alive, I realized something else at the same time. Not only was I alive, but I was completely back to the way I was before being infected. The only sign that reminded me of ever having been infected where my muscles that had grown while I was cursed. Fyr took me over to his office where he explained things to me. I was not freed of the Corprus. Merely all the bad effects had been removed. The good effects, which included immunity to disease and a stop to the aging process of my body were still there.

Aging process? According to Fyr, I would live far longer than any Redguard and even far longer than an Elf if I didn’t met my end on the blade of a weapon. He suggested that I took things slowly, for I now had plenty of time. I merely smiled and didn’t told him what I really thought of that. I’d seen Therana, who had gone crazy through her age. No, if I was immortal I would have to be impatient in order to preserve my sanity.

I took up the offer to spend the night in the guest room. When everyone was asleep, I got up again. So Fyr liked to tempt thieves to rob his Corprusarium? Well I felt more for robbing his house.

I came up with the fur of some creature made into a cuirass. hanging in a closet. It looked expensive and all, so I took it. My second prize was a bit harder to obtain. It all started when I took up a key and used it to open a small chest from which I took an amulet. Out of fun, I put the amulet around my neck.

Before I knew what had happened, I was standing inside a Daedric shrine.
,,So, mortal! You have come to challenge me, Dregas Volar?! I shall bathe my Crescent in your blood!” A voice boomed through the shrine. A Dremora leapt out of the shadows, holding a sword with two blades shaped in half a circle.

I ducked around the first blade and parried the second with my summoned sword. Daedric against Daedric, if I was still using my Glass Longsword, it would have snapped like a twig.
For a few minutes, our swords clashed. I was grateful for the excellent protection of the Lord’s Mail, as well as my new Flamelance spell that focussed what would have been a large fireball into an area the size of a coin to cut through its target. Finally, I gained the upper hand and defeated the Dremora. I just managed to grab hold of its sword before the amulet transported me back to Tel Fyr.

After that, I decided that it would be safest not to find out what would be protecting his other treasures and performed a Divine Intervention back to Sadrith Mora from which I travelled to Caius.

[jack cloudy]

Must...resist....urge...to...write.
Anyway, another update. Man, too bad I'll have to go to school tomorrow.
Also, I've began work on another fan fic that takes place after the main quest with new characters. I think I'll actually write that one completely before posting instead of writing as I play.



Caius was smiling so much that I feared his face would rip in two.
,,You’ve come back and you are cured. That’s so wonderful, Oasis!” He said.
,,Oasis?” I swear, he actually blushed in embarrassment after I said that!
,,Umm, I heard that friends call you that. I’m sorry.”
I laughed. It was good to be alive. As they say, you don’t know what you’ve got till you lose it.
,,I’d feel honoured if you called me that. But enough fooling around. How did your search for the Dissidents go?”

His smile disappeared.
,,Mehra Milo from the hall of Wisdom in Vivec said she found out something. I lost contact though. Maybe you should go and take a look. If anything is wrong, she would leave a note under the name Amaya.”
He took a deep breath.

,,And something else, I’ve been recalled. Must have been the Skooma. I’ve thought about disobeying, but they’ve got my family. I waited in the hope that you would return. I’ll promote you to Blade operative. That makes you the highest ranking member that I know of. It means you can maintain your independence. Open my chest, I’ve left some of my clothes in there that are made from a sounddampening and lightabsorbing material. It even includes a shirt. Feel free to use my house while I’m gone. And one last thing. Forget about the Empire. Dagoth Ur is a far greater threat than any of those silly politicians back there realize. Do what’s needed and don’t be afraid to step on the Emperor’s toes.” He walked to the door.

,,Caius? Thank you for everything and good luck. I’ll continue your task here. Just take care of your family. I’ll have good old Dagoth flat on his nose in no time at all.” One last smile, and the old man was gone. I just hoped that everything would turn out to be alright. In the meantime, I realized that Dagoth Ur would be one tough opponent.

I opened the chest and took out his clothes. Fortunately, they were just my size. For all that mattered, I doubted that their properties would help my sneaking with all the armour I wore, but I still liked black, so I put them on.

So now I had to find Milo again. I took the first Silt Strider to Vivec and made my way through the city while doing my best to ignore the Ordinators. She was not in the library, so I went over to her room for a quick investigation.

No one there but I did found a note for Amaya. At first glance it didn’t look all that bad but reading between the lines got me worried. Ok, so she was held in that huge rock floating in the sky filled with Ordinators and I had to break her out. Sure, no problem. If you felt like getting yourself killed, that is. I was only safe from diseases and aging, not bloodthirsty Ordinators.

What had to be done had to be done. I conveniently spent time in a nearby pub till night came before levitating up. If this thing fell out of the sky, I sure wouldn’t want to be inside. There were two entrances. Since no one would expect that, I took the upper one.

I used my amulet of Shadows to hide myself from the eyes of the Ordinators and crept through the corridors. I had left my armour at the bottom of the lake for later pickup. As things were, making noise was a bad idea. I was glad for wearing Caius’s sneaking clothes that dampened every sound I made. Along the way, I entered the office of the High Inquisitor.

He looked around before turning back to his work muttering:,, Must have been the wind.” I noticed the fancy ordinator armour. On top of that, we were nearly the same size. That gave me a plan which just might work.

I normally didn’t feel much like killing people who were taking a nap, but I had no choice. My summoned sword severed his head and I hid the body parts in a few sacks. Some ash to give me the right skin colour and Ordinator armour was all I needed for my disguise.
I walked out of the office and spoke to the nearest Ordinator.

,,New orders from Vivec. Let’s go to the cells.” I told him.
,,High Inquisitor, is something wrong with your voice? You sound a bit strange.” Bummer. Oh well, I knew something to say against that.
,,Just a cold. Now let’s get moving. We don’t want our Lord to wait.”
I then followed the Ordinator who soon brought me to the cells.
I would have preferred to free everyone, but who knew how long my disguise worked.

,,Open the cells to Mehra Milo!” I ordered. It was quite amusing to see the Ordinators bowing and running off to do my orders.
After the doors had opened, I stepped inside.
,,What is it this time, High Inquisitor? I have nothing to tell you.” Good, they hadn’t broken the woman.
,,Your friend Amaya has pleaded for your cause. Lord Vivec himself has shown compassion and hereby orders your release. Take this scroll and use it. You are hereby banished from Vvardenfell. Do not return.” I said, handed over the scroll and turned around as the priest disappeared in a cloud of magicka.

,,If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my office.” I muttered before marching back. Once I was out of view, I activated the amulet of Shadows again and left the floating rock. I picked up my gear at the bottom of the lake and recalled to my mushroom where I happily added Ordinator armour to my growing collection.