Ian, I was thinking of something new..... Options

[Lord Revan]

Well, for anyone who's read Revan don't worry I'm not abandoning it. I just decided to do a story on my actuel oblivion character. So I'm hoping you guys like it.

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Prologue: Vice and Graft

It was "happy hour" in the Flowing Bowl of Anvil. Most of the patrons were sailers on leave, "leave" in drunk sailer meant: take a break and get broke by drinking 'til you pass out. Beanlorn glanced around the crowds, and saw a familiar shape stride through the door.
Beanlorn knew the man and had even expected him. Ian did favors for certain people, and those people often did transactions in the Flowing Bowl. It steered some paying customers Beanlorn's way, so he kept quiet about the shady work going on in his establishment.

Ian spotted Beanlorn at the bar, and approached him. He casually dropped a pouch of coins on the counter, which Bealorn peeked into (he never was very subtle) to check that those were septims not some trash before he gestured to the rooms. As Ian stood in front of the 'wall' a board slid aside to let two eyes appear and make sure it wasn't some drunk Nord or something. The board closed again, and then a crawlspace revealed itself. The small meeting room, which was was illuminated by four blue lanterns in each corner, was occupied by his Argonian client and his two handmaidens.

Ian distained such flaunty displays of wealth and power (although he himself was a wealthy Imperial), but this was an Argonian, after all most were poor or only slightly rich. The client -Hurmun- squinted at him, with his lizard eyes. "Have you recovered to artifact? Or are you just wanting a chance to annoy me?" touchy little lizard, he thought. Reaching into his satchel, Ian removed a spherical humming rock. Yeah I got the sigil stone for you, Hurmun. Now do you have my fee? Or are you trying to waste my time?" Hurmun stared at the deadric artifact in his hands, then nodded at Ian. One of the Argonian maids brought a huge bag of gold, and handed it over.
"Now, Ian, I have a little matter that you can help me with before we depart." Ian furrowed his brow and frowned, "What would that be, lounge lizard?" Hurmun gritted his teeth (he did that when he was losing his patience) "A few of the bar patrons here don't want me to leave the inn.... alive anyway. I want you to.... dispose of these drunks." "Fine, but this had better be worth it." Then as an afterthought, he said "If you got gutted, it would be no skin off my bone -I have other clients"

Ian made his way down the stairs, there were four target he would have to kill: two Nords, an Imperial, and a Redguard. They were all leering at him, as he strode out the door. There weren't many bystanders on the docks, but the four brigands followed him out. He spun on his heel and unsheathed his elven shortsword, which was met by three cutlasses. The drunks were bigger and stronger, but they weren't thinking straight, and were clumsy. The commotion caused all the other patrons to come and watch in earnest. Ian held his sword loosely before him; the two nords tripped when they met less resistence than expected, and were caught between the hammer and anvil. Suddenly shouting came from the city gates and five guards charged toward them. The Redguard and Imperial, in a drunken frenzy, charged screaming at the watchmen, but were stabbed by the Anvil guard. Not eager to make a similar mistake, Ian sheathed his blade and set it on the ground along with his bow and arrows. "You have been found illegally brawling in the city limits, but you surrendered without conflict; that will be recognized by the judge, come with us...."

[Lord Revan]

Chapter 8: The Quest.....

The walk to Weynon Priory wasn't half-bad, aside from the occassional wolf or bear, but nothing that was particularly threatening. Ian mulled over his recent change from an agent working in the down and dirty criminal world, to a pawn of the Emporer. I could always back out of this....... why haven't I?

When an answer didn't reveal itself, he shook his head and let out a weary breath. Why didn't I just sell the blasted amulet in the Imperial CIty, or hand it over to Chancellor Ocato? Again an answer illuded him, and he continued to stalk through the Great Forest. The way I see it, he thought sourly to himself. Is that I have no reason to do anthing more then give this monk the Amulet and leave this all behind.

After a couple of hours Ian spotted the priory house, and approached the courtyard. The chapel, which every priory seemed to have as custom, sat to his right, the towering structure about tow-three stories tall. Ignoring the dunmeri shepard, Ian walked into the house and was greeted by a man in his late fourties.
The monk asked him why he was here, and Ian answered in a slightly agitated tone. "I'm here to see Juaffre, my business is private." The man muttered, "We get a lot of people coming that want to see him, I did't think about it until that young Altmer came by....." Ian, for reasons he couldn't grasp at the time, was interested in this High Elf the man spoke of.
When asked he rolled his eyes. "Some young woman wearing robes came by awhile ago to talk to Juaffre, and then left without any explanation." Most would have discarded this as irrelevant, although Ian was tempted to ignore this information, he knew better then to think heedless of his instincts.

Pushing his suspicions aside for now, he climbed the stairs to the study where the grandmaster was supposed to be. Ian didn't know what he had expected to see in the leader of the Blades, but a curt, past prime-fighting-age man wasn't it. "My name is Juaffre, what do you want?" Ian wordlessly passed him the Amulet of Kings, and the old man dropped it to the floor and jumped back when the trinket touched his hand.
"BY THE NINE DEVINE!" He shouted sweating greatly, and clutching the table for support. After two minutes of shock, Juaffre suddenly stood up with a dagger aimed to Ian throat. "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT AMULET?" He roared at the agent.
Ian remained as motionless as possible, being stabbed wasn't on his list of things to do, he held up his hands in a gesture of peace. "Hold on now, Uriel Septim gave it to me to give to you before he died, and I still don't know why he gave it to me instead of his ever-so-powerful Blades."
He regreted those last few words as they left his mouth. Am I trying to calm this guy down, or get myself killed? Juaffre held his dagger rigidly but was obviously thinking about Ian's words. "Though I would normally have killed you for illegally possessing the amulet, I am inclined to trust you, only Uriel's spirit and Talos could have brought you here with it."
He sheathed his dagger, and Ian relaxed as the tension deminished. "The Emporer said you know where the last hier resides...."