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]

Hey, I don't mind. After all, your story is great because of the work you've put in it. If that means that you don't have much time to follow other stories, than it isn't so bad.

Anyway, an update again.



I won’t talk about what I did at the Erabenimsum camp. Let’s just say that there was a small political change when I left. As well as a drop in the population. My next camp was the Ahemmusa camp, the same one as with the white Guar thing. On the way, I dropped by at Tel Vos to talk about becoming a Hortator.

I’d never seen Aryon laugh before, but he did now. ,,You are already the Arch-Magister! Why do you ask? You can just name yourself Hortator. After all, you are the big boss of the Telvanni.” I hadn’t thought of that myself, but it sounded nice and simple. Alright, I named myself Hortator and got a fancy robe from Aryon.

In the Ahemmusa camp, I had to escort their Wise Woman to the center of Ald Daedroth, a Daedric shrine to the north of the camp. I remembered having been there earlier. Last time I came through, there was a big war going on between Ordinators and cultists. I let them sort out their differences and looted the shrine when no one was watching. This time, I scouted out the area to clear it of rats and cliffracers and then brought the Wise woman to it with no problems.

The last camp was the Urshilaku. Once there, Sul-Matuul named me Nerevarine with no further problems. He’d probably ran out of warrior’s tests. So now I’d become Nerevarine of the four Ashlander tribes. That left becoming Hortator of House Hlaalu and House Redoran.

I began with House Redoran, cause their council was closest. The people were all staring at me, maybe cause I’d been out in the Ashlands for too long and needed a bad. The few people who were willing to talk to me directed me to a certain Sarethi as he would be most willing to listen. I dropped in and told him my story. It wasn’t smooth sailing, but at least he didn’t dismiss my story as the result of my imagination.

Sarethi promised me that he would attempt to persuade the other councillors on my behalf. There was only one condition, I had to save his son from a big fat pig with the name Bolvyn Venim. Oh, and I couldn’t kill the pig while I was walking around. Damn, why did things always had to be done the hard way?

I walked into Venim manor and took a good luck around while pretending to be a new recruit for House Redoran. Nothing that seemed to show a clue about Sarethi’s son in the entrance and asking the people probably wasn’t such a good. Idea. In the end, I decided to just take the first door and search the whole manor.

I got lucky, the door I took led to a set of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs there was a corridor heading left and one heading right. The right corridor was a dead end with a carpet hanging in front of the wall. It looked rather suspicious. Why make a corridor if you’re not going to use it? And why was that carpet so far away from the wall? I waited till the guards had moved away on their patrol before taking a look behind the carpet. Bingo, one locked door.

I used the carpet to hide myself as I fiddled with the lock. A few moments later, the lock clicked open and I went in. Inside, I found young Sarethi. He seemed to follow the same kind of fashion as Caius did, or maybe shirts were just hard to find these days. I told him who’d sent me and we prepared for a mad run out of the manor and back to Sarethi.

So we did. We ran like maniacs. I also saw an advantage to being half naked. The young Dark Elf was far quicker than I was and soon got ahead. In the meantime, I was about to be surrounded by rather angry guards. It would be no use to run myself.
,,Get going!” I shouted at young Sarethi and turned around to face the incoming guards. Instead of dashing out of the door, the man stopped and went to my side as if he wanted to fight the bad guys with his bare fists.

,,I won’t allow to let anyone die so that I may live. I shall fight by your side.” He said. Redoran and their stupid honour.
,,Hey, no one said anything about me dying here! Now just get to your father. We’ll discuss our business after I’ve mopped up these guys!” I snapped back at him. He got the point and bolted out of the door. Now I’d just have to face five guards on my own. Easy.

,,Fool! How dare you to barge in here and intervene on Redoran matters!” The closest guard barked at me. I gave a big grin in return.
,,Oh, I don’t have a really important reason. Unless saving the world and destroying the ultimate evil is seen as important. Now you people can either turn around and get back to your patrolling, or I’ll have to turn you into Dwemer scrap metal. Your choice.” I said back. As expected, they charged.

Now Dwemer armour might look intimidating and stylish, but it did have several flaws. One, it didn’t offer the same protection that Ebony did and two, it was somewhat clumsy. I darted between two of the guards and avoided both their blows, causing them to hit each other instead. One hit of Chrysamere, and I knocked out one of the two.

The remaining four circled me cautiously. I knew what was going to come, this happened all the time in those old stories. The hero is surrounded by enemies and waves his sword in a circle to defeat them all. Sorry, but I had a different idea.

Suddenly, they all attacked from four directions at the same time. Unfortunately for them, I’d levitated up to the roof and was now raining fireballs on their heads. By the time the smoke cleared and my levitation spell ran out, they had all stopped breathing.

,,You, I will let you go this time. But next time you interfere, I shall kill you personally.” A fuming Dark Elf in expensive clothing told me. I bet that this was Bolvyn Venim himself.
,,Sure you will. If you want to have me expelled from House Telvanni, send a letter to the Arch-Magister. I have a reputation of a troublemaker with him. He’ll know what to do.” I replied and walked out. It would be fun if he actually did that. I could then sent back a letter to tell him that I wasn’t willing to expel myself. After all, I was the Arch-Magister.