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]

Chapter 5: Welcoming committee.

Gaius motioned Irr to keep up. It was quite odd, considering that the Khajiit was lighter, and faster. But the real problem was behind his fur – Khajiiti didn’t seem to be designed for warm climates, deserts, and the like, due to the thick, warm fur covering their bodies. Gaius himself wasn’t very much against heat, and suspected that might be due to his father having a part of Redguards. This also could be seen in the way Gaius fought – quite quicker than your average Imperial, and better with the blade.

Irr’cah sighed, muttered something about ‘unfriendly people’ and ‘not the thing This One wants to reach faster’. Following that were several grumbles and grunts, as the Khajiit ran down the slope of the hill. Gaius was ahead of him, just in case the Ashlanders proved to be… unwilling to negotiate. Irr’cah would get his back – that was their plan (to which, quite unsurprisingly, Irr agreed right away).

It didn’t take long to reach the camp itself. Gaius was quite surprised – this was nothing like he imagined. More… organized. At least much more than could be guessed by the tales he heard.

The camp itself was formed up from several scattered yurts, though none sticking out too far, in case of an attack. A Silt Strider shell was placed near the middle, housing several guars. The guars were the reason behind the strange heavy smell that was floated around, and the several dead hanged shalks didn’t help very much.

In the very middle, a huge skin was covering several yurts – probably the chief, and the other important people lived there – something like an advisor, the second in command, the strongest warrior, and a merchant, something of the sort. Only later Gaius found out that the Wise Woman – what you could call an advisor, though also sort of a ‘lore expert’ and ‘shaman’, all in one – lived in the largest yurt aside the yurts under the skin.

The area in front of the ‘important’ yurts had a strange green lighting, probably acquired on purpose. The heavy smell of guars and other beasts wasn’t present, probably removed through the means of hanging herbs and plants that have a strong smell. A fire was burning in the fireplace, used for rites and the sort – separate fires were made for cooking when the need arose.

The arrival of Gaius and Irr’cah didn’t go unnoticed. Soon enough, they had a large Ashlander warrior, spear in one of his hands, clad in Chitin armor (which Gaius considered to be silly and not thick enough), running at them in full speed. Seeing as his spear was quite ready for a blow the Netch cuirass wouldn’t hold (by the screams ‘You fetcher! Treacherous cat-man!’ it could be guessed the Ashlander was aiming for Irr), Gaius’ hand slid down on the handle of his broadsword.

“You’ll pay for the guar meat you owe me! Five years! FIVE YEARS I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR IT!” The Dunmer yelled, leaping forwards with great speed, bringing his spear down on Irr. But Gaius was faster yet, and managed to stick his sword between the weapon and the face of his friend, and, before the Ashlander could react to this fast attack, increased the range between two objects, whose coalition would provide a bad end for Irr’cah.

“Step aside, Imperial outlander!” The warrior howled, grasping the spear with both hands, pressing it down in full strength. Gaius did the same, grabbing the handle with both of his hands, and the position of their weapons didn’t change.

“No I won’t, Dunmer inlander! That spear will touch the face of Irr only over my dead body!” Gaius growled back, trying to bring the weapon up. Little success, though the Ashlander did seem to be confused after being called ‘inlander’. It was amazing how fast Gaius would come up with strange terms.

The two struggled for a while, with no success. Apparently, both had equal strength, and, since Irr was trying to get the Ashlander while being covered up by Gaius’s massive body, it was getting dangerous for the warrior to continue this competition. Apparently, the Dunmer came into realization quite fast:

“I will remove my spear, if you and the lying n'wah, the Khajiit, will remove your own.”

Gaius considered the options for a while – if they would continue fighting, the other Ashlanders would probably come to the warrior’s help. Bad odds for the other side. And if they would manage to fend the Ashlanders off (unlikely) and escape, Gaius would have done nothing to approach the completion of Nerevarine Prophecies. Therefore, the option proposed by the Dunmer seemed to be the best one.

Gesturing Irr to sheathe his weapon, Gaius slowly removed his sword from the spear. The spear was put on the Ashlander’s back, who grunted something along the lines of ‘You’re lucky to have a warrior with you’ before walking away. The other Ashlanders didn’t seem very pleased by this fast fight.

“Come on, it’ll be better if This One and good friend Gaius hurry up. The angry-Ashlanders don’t look amused.” Irr muttered, and Gaius felt an attempt to push him towards the leader yurts. While usually Gaius would proclaim that he’ll ‘be back one day to deal with the opponent’, this time, the process was skipped – it would further anger the Ashlanders. Not a very good thing, given the current situation. Thus, the legionnaire started walking towards the yurts in a fast step. Irr’cah was more than glad to move, and soon darted forwards.

As the pair reached the ‘skinny yurts’ as Gaius dubbed them, the winds started whooshing stronger. The stronger smell sensed before, and the fact that most of the Ashlanders were gone by the time the pair reached the skin suggested that the ash storm was on their back (or tail, in Irr’s case).

End of Chapter 5, as well as Grand Chapter 1.

Coming next: Grand Chapter 2: Closer to the Red Mountain. (Too close, if you care to hear Gaius’ opinion…)

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Oct 14 2007, 10:03 PM