Rashelle At Lokken, WWOLM fanfic Options

[blockhead]

Around the end of February and the beginning of March I posted a short fan fiction on a small intimate forum and there were some positive responses. This story is being posted here on the chorrol forums as I am eager to see the responses from the larger fanfic-oriented crowd here. This seems to be where the "pros" of the Morrowind fanfic world congregate,

This will be posted this in sections, serialized as it was originally. It would be easy to just post the entire thing all at once but I thought it would be more fun not to.

This story is based on the main quest of Emma's "White Wolf Of Lokken Mountain" plugin. It contains spoilers.


Rashelle At Lokken
by Blockhead

1. Arrival, Tension

Snow. The ground covered with it. The trees white with it. The late afternoon sun reflecting off of it. The landscape was that of a magical wonderland. My adventures in Solstheim had not reduced my wonder at this phenomena. I had never seen snow where I grew up and there was certainly none in Vvardenfell.

Although I was the Nerevarine and an experienced adventurer, I arrived at Lokken gawking and gaping like a tourist at the Imperial City.

The Lokken leaflet had been in my pack for some time and I had finally decided to see what it was all about. I had no great desire to hunt animals merely for sport (as advertised) but I have always liked to explore new places.

My adamantium boots crunched on the snow as I stepped out from the boat.

"You had better talk to Ragnar Fire Hair before you do anything else, lass. Without his permission, you are not allowed to be here", admonished the boatman again.

Yeah, whatever.

I paused to look around some more. Ahead lay the village, the road ahead rising up towards the mountain. Up further, to the left, could be seen the castle, covered with snow and looking amazing, like a fairy land castle in some painting.

As I slowly walked up the road I tried to stop and chat with some people but they all seemed preoccupied ... no ... afraid. At first I thought it was me, all decked out in my ebony cuirass, dark brotherhood greaves, adamantium boots, and the sword Chrysamere on my back. That and my bare arms making me look more a barbarian than a spell-sword could perhaps be intimidating. I suppose also my coal-black eyes and coal-black hair (an odd color for a Breton) marking me as Not A Nord did not put anyone at ease.

Several people had white hair. It was not the usual blond that Nords tend to, nor a light gray. It was a bright white, like snow. I had only seen such a pure white on the fur of snow bears and other animals. Something in the water perhaps?

A woman who did not have white hair (it was brown) was little friendlier. When I approached her she said "Hello there. Your face doesn't look familiar to me. I'm Silja. Welcome to Lokken. Don't expect to find much here, though. This is a poor village. Since we are not allowed to hunt in the forests anymore, it's hard for us to get by. I assume you have been invited by our chieftain, Ragnar Fire Hair, and that you have his permission to hunt? If not, you had better stay away from the Lokken wildlife."

I thanked her and walked up the road a little further before a guard named Gudmund also told me that it was very important that I see Ragnar Fire Hair first.

"I will, but first could you direct me to a trader or general store? I may need some warmer clothing."

That generated a smile and some directions the Lokken Clothier. I actually did not need the clothing. Despite my origin in warmer climes, I have an unusual tolerance, actually an affinity, for cold weather. What I was wearing now was comfortable and the only concession to cold I had was a sleeping fur in my pack. Still I had broken the ice a little bit. That was progress. It also gave me an excuse to try to talk to at least one more person before heading for the castle.

I walked into the clothing shop. I briefly talked with the woman there, Anna. She was also nervous like the people outside but gave away some more information. The people here were in fear, but from one of their own, not from me. Apparently this Ragnar Fire Hair, their new chieftain, was not liked and was a not a nice person. He had some men loyal to him and a shaman. They were also feared.

Thanking her I left and continued to the castle, stopping only once more, at the brewery. I had been in many a bar and tavern but never in a brewery and I was curious. There were big metal vats and kettles. It was rather complicated looking and awe inspiring in the manner of certain Dwemer ruins. By that I mean I had no idea how it worked.

Some chitchat there with Borka, and his wife Gwenn, yielded more information: the people who actually lived in Lokken were not allowed to drink the mead, or at least not much of it. It was reserved for Ragnar Fire Hair and for his guests. What little they were allowed was at three times the price that guests paid. I was beginning to dislike this Ragnar and I had not even met him yet.

Thus forewarned, I approached and entered the castle.

I entered an anteroom of sorts. A guard was there. He said nothing but pointed to the door on the opposite side of the room. I nodded and went to the door.

I entered the throne room. There were animal pelts on the floor and tapestries on the walls to warm up the cold stone room and to provide an ambiance conducive to the hunting enthusiast. There was a bar on the left.

A bar in a throne room: that's not something I've seen before. Convenient I suppose if one were more concerned with entertaining than the usual duties of ruling. There were four guards; one on either side of the door I had just entered and two closer to the throne at the far end of the room.

The throne was on a raised section of the floor and on it sat a large mean-looking Nord with red hair who could only be Ragnar Fire Hair.

To his right stood a man in dark robes who had to be his shaman.

My boot steps were the only sound as I approached the throne. I presented the leaflet to Ragnar.

He tossed the leaflet aside and spoke: "Who the oblivion are you? You have no business being here uninvited and I'm sure I didn't invite you."

He paused and studied me. I stared back at him. I'm sure my eyes now had the hardness of obsidian as well as the color. I adjusted the angle of the sheath on my back.

He looked tough. And huge. A great bull of a man, and Nords are already kind of big. I wouldn't want to fight him, at least not alone.

"Well, you look like you can handle yourself in the wild. There is one way that perhaps you can be allowed in the forests."

I raised an eyebrow.

"I want you to hunt and kill a certain wolf. This is no ordinary wolf. It's larger than the regular snow wolves, though it is white like they are. It has unnatural blue eyes. My men and I have pursued it on numerous occasions and it has always gotten away."

"That's not something you see every day," I quipped. Oh Rashelle, you must stop this business of talking without thinking!

"Exactly. it is obviously not natural, not of the All-Maker. It is a daedra-spawn, an abomination, a menace that must be killed for the safety of my people," he said, not picking up on my sarcasm.

I nodded, not trusting myself to not again say something wrong, and to also buy myself a second or two of time to think of an appropriate response.

This man mentioning the All Maker rubbed me the wrong way: after my adventures amongst the Skaal I had some respect for their beliefs. I somehow knew that Ragnar had no right to call on their All Maker.

"So, oh chieftain of Lokken, so long as I Quest for this White Wolf, I am permitted in the forests of your island?"

"Aye, with my blessing. Bring me his head there will be a reward."

"I shall begin at once. First I will question the guards and villagers as to sightings."

"Excellent" he said, waving me away, obviously tired of talking to me now that I had agreed to his business.

I definitely did not like this man.

As I turned away I got a better look at his shaman and I liked him even less. My magical sensitivity picked up on an evil from him that I had previously only sensed from Sixth House minions. I tried not to display my feelings: a shaman is very sensitive and notices many things. Around him it would be best to appear to be a simple non-magical warrior and not a spellsword.

I strode away from the the throne. Before I took more than a few paces I could see that the woman at the bar was trying to get my attention with her eyes.

I sauntered over to the bar. Might not be a bad idea to get a mazte anyway. I cannot not stand mead. I love snow, but the Nords can keep their mead.

"I'm Kielreen"

"Rashelle. Got any mazte?"

"Yup".

"Please".

She poured me a mazte and started to speak very quietly. Not a whisper. That would have attracted attention, but she obviously wanted only me to hear.

"he's asked you about the big white wolf, wants you to kill it, right?"

I paid and took a sip before replying.

"Yes."

"Don't. There is something strange about the creature."

I took another sip.

"Things are not as they seem in Lokken."

That much was already obvious.

"Talk to my aunt Gwenn at the brewery."

I had just been there. Maybe mentioning Kielreen would get Gwenn to say more than she had the first time. I nodded ever so slightly. Picking up my drink, I walked to one of the one of Ragnars guards.

He at first did not want to speak but I can be charming when I want to be. I asked him about the white wolf and any sightings of it. This did not yield any new information but would go back to Ragnar and would keep him complacent about my activities. I had already decided that I was not going to kill this mysterious white wolf.

After talking to the the other guards I finished my mazte, left the mug on the bar and exited the castle. It had begun to snow. I caught some flakes in the palm of my hand and watched them melt.

This post has been edited by blockhead: Mar 30 2007, 11:41 PM

[blockhead]

8. Hammer

I don't know how long I stayed there, aghast at what I had done, before I was interrupted.

"Lass, are you OK? What's going on?", called out a Nord male voice.

I started. I had completely forgotten that I had come in here to rescue someone. Focus Rashelle; get a grip.

"I-I-Ingemar, is that you?", I called as I pulled myself to my feet.

"Yes, I'm up here".

I picked up my sword from where it fallen and sheathed it. I walked back towards the entrance, wiping my eyes.

Unnoticed before, I saw a thin fissure or channel in the rock that led up to a second smaller chamber, high enough that a bear could not reach it. Ingemar was there. The fissure could be used by a man or mer as a climbing aid but not by a bear.

"Ingemar, I was sent to rescue you by Gartheim. Nothing here will attack you now."

He descended and I then asked him about Thorjan's gauntlets.

"Oh yes, I know where to find them! I was actually planning to go there, myself, but the place is supposed to be filled with evil creatures, and after facing this snow bear beauty, I've had enough of creatures for quite a while. It's a pity, because the gloves are supposed to give their owner incredible strength."

He explained that they were in the Grundalund cavern. The entrance was halfway up the mountainside on the north-west side of the island. I would most likely need a levitation potion to get up there. The entrance should be facing the water.

He looked towards the back of the cave and saw the two cubs.

"If you leave those snow bear babies, they will starve to death. They are too young to fend for themselves".

"I know," I said quietly.

I went back to the snow bear cubs. I stroked their fur and they bumped against me like cats sometimes do.

"Come on little ones," I said in a small voice, "I'm going to take you with me. I-I'll find you a new home even if I have to take care of you myself."

The cubs followed me.

Ingemar was gone. I guess he had departed to rejoin his friend.

The cubs and I left the cave. It had stopped snowing and the sunshine was bright. From the position of the sun it was now mid to late afternoon.

I decided that either Fjorngrin or the Snorri would know what to do with the bears and I concluded that Fjorngrin was closer so I'd go there now. The bears were slow but they followed me faithfully.

Something interesting happened on the way. We were attacked by a frost boar and the cubs defended me by hurling frost bolts at it! I had not realized that snow bears had that ability so young.

We arrived at Fjorngrin's house without further incident.

"Fjorngrin, it's Rashelle. Please come out."

The door swung open and his eyes widened when he saw me crouched outside his house, one arm protectively over each snow bear cub

"Fjorngrin, Don't kill them. They are with me."

"What happened?"

"Their mother attacked me. I had to defend myself. I didn't know she had cubs. I couldn't leave them. I have to find them a new home."

"I can raise them," he said, "it's no trouble."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, they'll be good company."

"You won't kill them?"

"Lass, have no fear. At this young age they can be made accustomed to people ... well, to their owners anyway. If you introduce them to me now and I raise them, they'll be tame around us. I wouldn't take them into the village though."

I nodded. I understood.

I know bears can't understand human speech but it helped me to speak to them anyway. "This is Fjorngrin. He's a friend. He's going to take care of you. You'll be living with him now. This is your new home."

With surprising tenderness, Fjorngrin petted the bears. They bumped up against him just as they had for me.

I stood up.

"thank you Fjorngrin. I know it's a lot to ask but I know I could not raise them."

"Lass, I'm a man of nature more than of the village. The bears and I will enjoy each others company immensely. Have no worries: I raised a snow bear once before, back when I was a lad."

I had never seen him smile a smile that big before: I had made the right decision.

Feeling much better than I had in the past hour, I forced myself to return to business: time to find the gauntlets and then the warhammer.

I had spent enough time in Lokken to get a sense of what was where. The mountain behind Laurenna's house was actually the center of the island. I Recalled to Laurenna's house to give myself a shorter trip.

"Laurenna. I received some information and I'm off to fetch the gauntlets. Not sure when I'll be back so don't wait up."

"Be careful, Rashelle."

I walked down the trail. When I reached the castle I turned right. This lead downhill and away from the castle and into the forest. Once safely out of sight of the castle I cast levitation and turned to the right, and up.

Snow covered landscape is beautiful from the air as well. I floated North. The mountain was on my right.

I floated along a little longer and I spotted something on the North West face of the mountain: a little black box.

I descended. As I got closer it grew and I could see that it was actually a Nord barrow. I was looking for a cave, not a tomb, but the location was about right.

I landed at the foot of the door and canceled the levitation. Slowly I spelled out the Nordic runes on the door. G-r-u- ... yes it was the Grundalund cavern.

I looked through my potions, placing the healing ones where I could grab them easily. Really I would have to make more soon.

Sword out and ready, I entered. It looked like a Nord tomb inside as well.

A skeleton berserker rushed towards me. I met it with Chrysamere, shattering it into bones with two strokes.

I moved forward. The corridor turned to the right. I crept stealthily, slipping on my chameleon ring. The corridor turned left into a branching of the ways. As I stepped into this branching, two skeleton berserkers attacked from my left and a draugr from my right.

The combat was fast and furious and generated a lot of noise: so much for the stealthy approach. I parried the Nordic silver longsword swung by one of the skeletons, then swung Chrysamere around to the right to chop the draugr.

Dropping and rolling to my right, I managed to put the draugr between me and the skeletons. Undead are generally not that sharp and this was demonstrated again as both skeletons swung their swords and killed the draugr for me.

This was all fine but a skeleton champion and a bonewolf appeared from behind a corner and were also attacking me.

Nothing but to take it, and dispatch them one or two at a time. I shuddered as each sword or fang was stopped by my armor. The bonewolf was doing the least damage but was easiest to swing at so I killed it first (if one can speak of "killing" something already dead, that is).

I ducked another sword-slash and smashed one of the skeletons. Two down, three to go.

An elbow to the skull got one skeleton champion away from me for a few precious seconds, leaving me able to focus my attention on the other skeleton.

A swing left and the skeleton was shattered. A swing right and my sword bit into the skeleton champion. Another swing and it was over.

The passage in front of me simply looped around to return as the passage to the right. I turned left and pressed on.

The corridor almost immediately turned to the right, then to the left. This led out into a cavern. Four skeletons came at me.

I swung and shattered the closest one. I parried three swords, shoved them all to the side, and got a slash in.

Two left.

Another slash. One left.

A sword bounced off my cuirass. I chopped. None left.

There was nasty gash on my arm I hadn't noticed before: quaffing a potion handled that.

I moved forward into the cave. There was a pit to my left. Skeletons in it ran in frenzied circles. They couldn't get up here and none had bows so I ignored them and moved on, passing from the cave chamber into a sort of natural corridor.

Five skeletons, two of them the berserker variety, ran towards me as I entered the next chamber. By dodging side to side, while either kicking or using my sword I fought and destroyed them.

This chamber was larger. Like the previous one it had a pit, but this was a larger pit and it had a ramp formed from a large stone. Up this swarmed more skeletons.

Parrying and swinging, I fought through the mass of skeletons and descended the ramp.

Splish splash: I hadn't seen it from above but this lower chamber had a foot or so of rather cold water. At least it was shallow.

Up ahead of me the floor rose up from the water. Relieved, since I don't like water, I followed. This led into another passage. There was only one skeleton in it: that was a nice change. Two swings: that was easy.

I only had a few minor wounds so I paused to use a simple healing spell instead of wasting a potion.

A hail of arrows met me as I entered the next chamber. I ran back the way I came, sucking a health potion since one arrow had gone into my arm.

Only one skeleton followed me, and it had a sword, not a bow. That was easy.

I waited. The archers were not following me. Odd.

I ran into the chamber again, this time casting a large fireball. Now I could see by the light of the flames why the skeleton archers had not followed me: they were on the opposite side of a larger deep pit. They had no way to get across.

A second, larger, fireball finished them.

Now I was alone and had time to look around a bit. I cast a light spell. In front of me was the pit. I could not see how far down it went, although I thought I could hear water. To my left was a stone door. Across the pit, in the opposite wall of the cave, was a sort of natural platform of stone. That was where the skeleton archers had been. There appeared to be a box or something over there. Just then my light spell expired.

I cast levitate and floated over.

As I set down on the platform I could see that the box was a chest. A moment to pick the lock (I could have spelled it but I like to practice my non-magical skills) and I had the chest open.

Inside the chest were two gauntlets. A prickling sensation of enchantment ran through me when I touched them. The enchantment on one was a powerful Feather spell, allowing large burdens to seem lighter. The other had a powerful fortify strength spell, allowing one to lift still more and to also have much more force in any blow dealt with a weapon.

Both enchantments were continuous: constant effect.

These had to be Thorjan's gauntlets. Nice.

I almost Recalled back to Laurenna's there and then. I would then ask around the town to find the warhammer. However, a thought occurred to me: I had not explored the entire cavern system. What if the warhammer was also here? From what I had been told it would be useless without the gauntlets. Logically, one would expect the gauntlets to not be far from the warhammer.

I levitated back over the pit. The levitation spell cut out and I opened the door. It was a large block of stone and it swung ponderously aside.

Stepping forward, I found myself in a large chamber, taller than it was wide. Scattered around were skeletons ... but the dead non-moving sort. That was a change.

Various weapons and pieces of armor were also scattered about.

There were some Nordic tomb lights, the sort that look like truncated stone pillars with flames on them.

On the far side of the chamber, past two thick stone pillars. stood a man in odd-looking armor. The armor was a cross between Nordic mail and some sort of custom armor. A skull motif featured in it. The helm had a huge set of horns on it, looking both ridiculous and oddly sinister at the same time. It was an open helm in that it revealed a chin with a white beard, but it covered the rest of the face, with only eye-slits like a closed helm. I dubbed him "Bull man" because of the horns. Presumably he had something to do with the skeletons on the floor. Later on when I related the tale to Laurenna, she explained that he was probably the legendary berserker known as "The Mad Bull".

Behind him were two torches and two more stone pillars. Between the pillars was a door.

Bull Man zapped me with a frost spell. I guess we were not going to talk. My magicka level rose as the spell was diffused and its energy absorbed. He tried it again. This time the powers of my birth-sign did not absorb the spell, but I've always had this strange affinity to cold, like a Nord. The coolness felt refreshing. I laughed.

Bull Man made a sound somewhere between a scream and grunt and then rushed towards me.

I stood and held my sword ready, intending to meet his charge.

He approached at an alarming rate. He was big: even bigger than Ragnar Fire Hair. Oh oh: change of plans.

I dropped, rolled, swung. Chrysamere connected but didn't do much damage. The roll and the swing gave me momentum to dodge his charge and his axe-swing.

Like a bull, he didn't turn until after he had run a few yards past me. He made a sound like a grunt of rage.

I hit him with a fireball and then cast a levitation spell on myself. The melee combat thing was not going to work here.

I cast a spell to reduce his resistance to fire-based spells before casting another fireball.

I suppose this would have been a good time to take a bow out and pepper him with arrows, from safely up in the air. The thing is, I never could get the hang of the whole archery thing.

I hit him with a simple but powerful health damage spell. It should have killed him.

It didn't. Bellowing for all the world exactly like a maddened and injured bull, Bull Man ran around in circles.

I flew away from him and swooped down to fetch an axe from the floor. I rose again, hefting the axe to get a feel for the weight and the balance. It was a nice large double-edged battle axe.

Come on Bull Man, stay still for a second!

He didn't stand still but at a time when he was running in a straight line I threw the axe. It spun towards him. I throw better than I shoot. The edge of the blade chopped him right in the face. It should have killed him.

My thrown axe fell and clattered to the floor.

With a gurgling sort of bellowing, he shook a fist upwards at me and took another swing in the air with his axe.

I rose higher, positioned myself, stopped the levitation, and fell like a stone. I smashed down on his back with my feet. He was down, still struggling, when I swung Chrysamere.

Finally he was dead.

I searched the body and took some coins and a key.

I walked to the back of the cave, between the two torches, to the door. The door was locked but Bull Man's key unlocked it.

Readying my sword, I opened the door and walked though.

I walked along a passage that opened up into another chamber. It was a pleasant surprise to enter a chamber devoid of hostiles.

I sheathed my sword.

There was a pile of gem-stones and gold coins. I took the emeralds, as they are useful for making health restoration potions, and left the rest.

Behind this was a stalhrim coffin with a skeleton in it. The rubies in the eye sockets were a creepy touch. Presumably this was the tomb of Thorjan, whose warhammer I was questing for.

Behind that, on a high stone pillar was a warhammer. I levitated up to it and tried to lift it. I could not. Good: it was the right one.

Mission doubly accomplished: not only did I have the gauntlets but I now also had the warhammer of Thorjan. I slipped the gauntlets on and then lifted the weapon.

I floated down, canceled the levitation and took a few test swings with the warhammer. Oh yes, very nice! Man, I could do some damage with this thing.

The warhammer was most likely too heavy for my pack to hold without breaking so I simply carried it.

It was sunset when I exited the caverns. From this height it was quite a sight. I sat down to watch it. I munched some food from my pack and ate some snow. It was dark when I was finished.

Rather than risk drawing attention to the area around Laurenna's house, I levitated North and then East around the mountain. Once I saw the ground turn from white to dark (which would be green had it been daylight) I flew lower, below treetop level. The levitation spell wore off and I fell to the ground. My acrobatics are decent so I landed without breaking anything. Two frost boar objected to my landing spot but that was a trivial matter. I sent one flying in the air with the warhammer.