The Saga of Vvardenfel, My fanfic, a conversion of Morrowind main quest. Options

[Gaius Maximus]

Well, this is my Morrowind fanfic, a story of my used-to-be minor now main character, Gaius Maximus. Since I didn't find it interesting to re-write the main quest of Morrowind, I decided to try it how I imagine it going after joining Imperial Legion and not touching the Main Quest for 6 in-game years. Any constructive criticism welcome.

The Saga of Vvardenfell
The Legionnaire, the Legend and the Island.

Grand Chapter 1: Every legend has a beginning...

Chapter 1: New Assignments.
Chapter 2: The Night before journey.
Chapter 3: Urshilaku Camp, part 1.
Chapter 4: Urshilaku Camp, part 2.
Chapter 5: Welcoming committee.

Grand Chapter 2: Closer to the Red Mountain.
Chapter 1: Odd Encounter.
Chapter 2: The Trial worth Our Hero, part 1.
Chapter 3: The Trial worth Our Hero, part 2.
Chapter 4: Veni, Vidi, Vici.
Chapter 5: Fire and Ice.

Grand Chapter 3: In the caverns of Vvardenfell.
Chapter 1: Dungeons, without Dragons.
Chapter 2: Dwemer Forge.
Chapter 3: Arming.

(Also note that I'm not sure if there are any more of the modern words left - do say if you see some. Help with that will be highly appreciated.)

Chapter 1: New assignments.

Gaius Maximus was a simple Imperial Legionnaire. Only possessions of his were the Divine Intervention amulet for quick escape, his Imperial steel armor and his broadsword, enchanted with his very own enchantment, made from a soul of a Dremora lord. The enchantment was pretty simple – it inflicted fire damage, along with a weakness to fire spell, which, combined with the steel itself, was pretty good for taking care of bandits, outlaws and other creatures, those native to the land of Vvardenfel.

Gaius was shipped to Vvardenfel 6 years ago, and the trip was quite interesting. During it, Gaius received a strange dream, about the troubles of Morrowind and Vvardenfel in particular, and how he was to save everything. Gaius never told anyone about it, as he later heard about strange dreams troubling people. He doubted they were different from his one, but he wasn’t able to ask anyone, as these so called ‘Dreamer’ and ‘Sleeper’ people would only ramble nonsense when talked to, if they wouldn’t attack him on sight.

Gaius lived in Gnisis, mainly in the Madach Tradehouse, where General Darius was taking residence. Darius would occasionally seek Gaius out, to give him harder assignments that other legionnaires couldn’t carry out. Like that time when he was assigned to rescue a priest from a Daedric ruin, in which he got that soul of a Dremora lord. Or when he was to investigate the mysterious happenings around a Dunmer stronghold, and ended up in a strange Dwemer ruin, fighting a creature called ‘Ash Vampire’. After a hard battle, Gaius beat the Vampire, and after coming back to Gnisis, he heard rumors about Red Mountain erupting and Blight Storms stopping for several hours.

Even now, Gaius was sitting at a table in the Tradehouse, with a bottle of Cyrodiilic brandy. Being rewarded quite healthy for all the special assignments, one would have retired from the Legion already if he was in Gaius’ place, but Gaius liked the Legion for some reason, and had no interest in retiring. As the assignments were given secretly, he never got a lot of promotions, as he couldn’t be promoted for what wasn’t a ‘Legion matter’ as Darius called it.

He heard news of some ‘Nerevarine’, a person claming to be an ancient hero reborn. Yeah, and I’m a trader. Gaius thought, taking another gulp from the brandy bottle. If he knew Vvardenfel right, the poor man would be executed by the Temple in a few days, if he was lucky, after a week. It was even a constant subject for bets in the Legion – how long would a new ‘Nerevarine’ last? They were just appearing out of nowhere – Ashlander tribes, guilds, Temple itself, Great Houses – or just freelancing adventurers, seeking for fame. Now that the Dagoth Ur problem was getting really nasty, everyone seemed to wait for the ‘Nerevarine’ to come, and rescue everyone.

After living in Vvardenfel for 6 years, Gaius soon noticed that whatever the Temple said, everything was turning wrong, and getting out of hand. The Ghostfence was getting weaker, as Gaius noticed while traveling near it, Corprus beasts – more frequent, and assassinations on important people even more frequent than the beasts. The Tribunal wasn’t that much of a help, and more people turned on worshiping Daedra, as Gaius found out while wandering in the ruins.

Gaius was distracted from his bottle by a man walking up the stairs – it was the same Orc that seemed to spend his whole life in Darius’ office. As he walked up to Gaius, the Imperial sighed. No doubt, this meant work.

“General wants to see you. Now.” The Orc said. Gaius never really liked the Orcish names, so he couldn’t recognize them, but he was pretty sure every one of them included ‘gro’.

“Sure thing, officer gro-Mamblang.” Gaius said, and stood up.

“For the last time, my name isn’t gro-Mamblang! One more time you call me like that, and I’ll… I’ll…” The Orc stammered.

“You’ll stammer when speaking with me?” The Orc swore, and rushed off into Darius’ office, with Gaius close behind.

Soon, Gaius was inside Darius’ office. “What now… sir?” The Legionnaire asked, catching Darius’ glare.

“I have another task for you. This one, though, will be official, though it’s quite dangerous. You’re up to it?” Darius began. As if he needed to ask.

“Of course, sir! Which ruin am I going to now?” Gaius asked.

“No, you’re not heading for a ruin this time. I want you to do a harder task this time. It’ll be a really long task, and I could only entrust you upon it. I know this’ll sound weird, but…” The General said, and silenced.

“What is it?”

“I want you to make a go for the Nerevarine prophecy completion.” Darius said.

Gaius felt something blow up in him. For a moment, he almost thought it was his brain. The Imperial Legion wants him to make a go for the Nerevarine Prophecies? What the?! “Okay, is this a really weird kind of joke?” Gaius finally asked, hanging on his last hope. Unfortunately…

“No, I’m absolutely serious.” Darius replied, and raised an eyebrow.

“But… But why? You want to make a bet for how long will I last?” Gaius asked.

“Not funny, Trooper. The Emperor wants to prove to the people of Morrowind that the Empire – and it’s Legions – can offer protection to the people. With the Temple unable to do anything, it’s a perfect chance to gain the trust of the people. You won’t understand it, its political business.” The General said. “Now, I want you to finish off any business before I give you your first assignment concerning this.” With that, he released Gaius.

Gaius went up shocked. Next thing he wanted to do was head into the Barracks and speak with Irr’cah, an ex-thief.

End of Chapter 1.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Nov 18 2007, 12:41 PM

[Gaius Maximus]

This took some time to get around writting - this chapter was hard to get myself to do, because the first major journey's description wasn't very attractive for me to write. Fortunately, I managed to write it, finally. Here we go - Chapter 4, and the continuation of Urshilaku Camp, part 1. Chapter 1 of my story approaches the end... But, fortunately, comming is Chapter 2, which will include some more action, as well as the introduction of one of the main villians of the story.

Okay, enough preaching! Let's get posting, so I can get to writting the dialogue between Gaius and Ashlanders faster!

Chapter 4: Urshilaku Camp, part 2.

Gaius barged into the barracks eagerly, closing the doors with a loud thunk. Wait. The legionnaire forced himself to stop and think. Where does Irr’cah sleep?

Oh, that was just typical. Once again, Gaius was searching for something like he knew where it was, though didn’t have a slightest clue how to find the thing.

Figures. Now I’ll have to search every bed for him. Gaius shook his head, grumbling something quietly. Only separate words could be heard, and from the constant ‘Shield and sword…’ repeating, one could guess the legionnaire was swearing – this was his favorite word to use, since Gaius didn’t follow a religion, neither did he believe in any of the upheld figures or relied on them for help.

Fortunately, Irr’cah could be found in the seventh bed Gaius searched. The bed was giving out a strong smell of fish, and apparently, Irr was eating it in his bed – this was strongly supported by the several fish bones that were lying around, or even on the bed.

Leaping forwards, Gaius started tugging the Khajiit, who was soon to wake up at the cold steel gauntlets moving him. “No! Don’t hurt this one! This one will pay the rent, soon enough!” The cat-folk exclaimed, still half asleep. That was before he realized that Gaius was the one moving him.

“Oh. Good friend Gaius should learn to wake more pleasantly.” Irr muttered, getting up from his bed with some difficulty. Gaius grinned, and impatiently lifted the Khajiit up from his bed himself.

“What do you expect from me – a song? I’m a legionnaire for a reason.” The Imperial said, as he put Irr down on his feet. The Khajiit grunted, as Gaius’ heavy gauntlets finally were removed from his shoulders. Following the grunt was a shake of his head, which caused the ears to move in a funny manner.

“Being a legionnaire doesn’t mean good friend Gaius has to wake this one up so rudely.” Were the words Irr spoke. Gaius was the one to shake his head now, which caused his stack of brown hair to cloud his field of vision. Once he finally got the hair out of his eyes, the legionnaire literally dragged Irr’cah out of the bedroom without waiting for the Khajiit to finish his usual yawning and stretching, and into the dining room.

“Here. Get some food, and then tell me whenever you’re still coming with me. It appears this won’t be so hard after all – all I need to do is take a walk towards the Ashlander camp, then back here after gathering some info.” The Imperial proclaimed, as Irr’cah managed to sit down, rubbing his shoulder. To Gaius’ great surprise the Khajiit hissed angrily.

“Ashlanders are very bad people! This one doesn’t like them. This one owes them…” He began, but silenced after realizing that too much was said. Gaius smiled, but the smile did not go without derision.

“Owe them what? Four guar hides?” The legionnaire asked, taking a seat next to his Khajiit friend. “Or is there something else the Ashlanders own? Oh, wait – I know! Three Kagouti tusks.”

Irr’cah frowned. “Actually, this one owes them four barrels of Guar meat.” The Khajiit proclaimed, pouring himself a glass of water. Apparently, he wasn’t very hungry, for his plate only included a Kwama egg so far.

“Four barrels?! I hope they aren’t hostile towards you because of them…” Gaius exclaimed, then sighed. This should have been foreseen – when traveling with Irr’cah, the Khajiit will always have a debt to pay everywhere, even in the most remote spots of Vvardenfel.

Irr’cah replied with a shrug. Gaius slapped his own forehead. This is getting complicated…

*

After a quick breakfast, and an uneventful bath, Irr’cah was set and ready to go. About time, as Gaius thought – the time approaching 7 AM. Little did the legionnaire knew, this would be one of the worst days he ever had, and also one of the most eventful days. This was the first day of the Seven, during which, his journey into being accepted as Lord Indoril Nerevar Reborn would take place.

Finally, the quite odd pair left Gnisis. Only one man saw their leaving, and that man was a Dunmer merchant. His jaw slowly left the usual state, as this was an indeed odd pair – an Imperial Legionnaire, clad in steel Legion armor without the helmet, muscular build, is leaving with a relatively small, thin, sharp-looking and fast Khajiit, dressed in a Netch cuirass, black pants and leather gloves. But soon enough, that memory was overwritten by the thoughts of customers and merchandise.

The two travelers were already quite far away from the gates by the time the Dunmer merchant forgot about them. The Imperial and the Khajiit were traveling near the slopes of a mountain, and currently were arguing over which path to choose – Gaius found a gap in the rope barrier, and believed they would save lots of time by taking that passage.

“Good friend Gaius is wrong – this one says that below, there are beasts that would assault us, and a lot of plants that would slow down our progress.” Irr proclaimed, then gestured towards the road they were following for now. “We should take the road – it is much safer, and faster to travel.”

“That road leads either up into the mountains, which we don’t need, or into Ald Velothi, which isn’t our destination. The road-less path, on the other hand, leads us wherever we want – being the Urshilaku Camp.” Gaius argued, gesturing his path – a quite steep slope, which led down into what seemed to be a dried river of sorts.

“But good friend Gaius – Ald Velothi is on the only path leading further into the Ashlands! It will be our course in any way we walk!” Irr pointed out. Gaius shrugged.

“Not if we take a little swim. You’re following?” The Legionnaire said in response, turning towards his ‘passage’. Irr’cah sighed, following Gaius, who was running down the slope with great speed that could result in tripping should he not watch where he is running. True enough, the legionnaire was rolling down the hill soon enough.

“Th-thi-this i-is so-some fu-fun!” He managed to yell, before slamming into the ground. Irr’cah, who tripped as well (due to running after Gaius with not recommended speed when descending down a steep slope), slammed next to the legionnaire.

“Gaius should speak for himself.”

******

A long journey through Gaius’ ‘shortcut’ following, the pair took a little swim, arriving into the Ashlands soon enough. On their way towards there, they didn’t encounter many beasts - only several Kagouti, and two Nix-Hounds, as well as one Cliff Racer. Despite Irr’cah’s prayers, they didn’t meet a single Guar, oddly enough. Wild Guars were supposed to be common around here, though more common in the Ashlands, as Gaius told his Khajiit friend to cheer him up.

Now, the two were making their way through the ashy, uninhabited (if beasts don’t count as population, in which case, the Ashlands were one of the most inhabited places in Vvardenfel, as Gaius soon realized) wastelands that were called ‘Ashlands’. Gaius dubbed them ‘the Cliffracerlands’ after coming across perhaps the tenth of those bird-like creatures.

An hour-long walk, several tenths of Cliffracers, and a pack of Alits later, the pair finally found themselves on the top of a hill, from which – oh, goodness! – the Ashlander Camp could be seen, though it would take some more walking to reach. Their timing was good enough, though the pair would have to speed up – judging by the increased wind, strange smell (that reminded Gaius’ home-made food in a way) and the clouds that were covering the sun, an ash storm was coming from the Red Mountain.

End of Chapter 4.

Oh, and you'll notice that the number of *s vary - this describes the time I skipped. One * means only a little, like, 10 minutes, while six *s would mean an hour.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Aug 28 2007, 08:38 PM