The Ordinator, The time of change is approaching... Options

[Gaius Maximus]

So, I decided I would psot it ehre as well. Enjoy!

Chapter I

Raynari Vandareth sighed in relief, taking off his Indoril helmet. Sweat gushed down his brow, and he could feel the same was happening to his back, which gave him an uncomfortable feeling, since he could do nothing with his armor on. However, he wasn’t an Ordinator captain for nothing, so he could endure this feeling, like he endured the hits that came from Corprus monsters a mere several minutes ago.

“Captain? Are you alright?” A voice distracted Raynari from the dead body of a once-man in front of him.

Turning around, he was faced with an Indoril helmet, worn by one of his Ordinators, with whom he was tasked to clear out a nest of Sixth House heretics.

“Yes… Yes, I’m fine. Only several dents in my armor… Those damn monsters know how to pack a hit.” The Ordinator Captain replied, cleaning the sweat off of his brow with a gauntlet-less hand. The gauntlet that was supposed to rest on the hand was lying in dirt, deformed to the point where it was impossible to use it for its original purpose.

“Casualties?” Raynari finally asked after a moment of silence.

“We’ve got at least half a hundred of those beasts. Yet at a high cost, they took at least a quarter of our own men, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s double the number of them left in this cave.” The lower-ranking Ordinator replied with a sigh. Raynari shook his head slightly.

“Tell the remaining men to regroup into a schiltron. The heretics aren’t known for patience, they’ll come at us soon, so we have to be ready.” The Ordinator Captain ordered with a weary voice, again cleaning the sweat from his brow – it was still pouring. “Dismissed, Suleri.” Raynari added, cleaning the tip of his spear into the ground, which was also stained in blood.

With a salute, the Ordinator called Suleri hurried off, leaving Raynari alone with his thoughts once again. However, those thoughts weren’t the nicest ones, as the Ordinator Captain could hear footsteps approaching them – more Corprus beasts were coming into the cavern in which the Ordinators were trapped.

If this lasts for long, we’ll all be dead. Apparently, the informant underestimated the Sixth House while gathering information about this goddamn cavern… Vehk save us if no reinforcements come. Raynari sighed again, then shot a glance at his Ordinators. They were all weary, yet still more than willing to fight for the glory of the Temple and the Tribunal. They didn’t have much hope of surviving, and the little hope they did was in the form of a circular schiltron, a forest of spears deadly against cavalry and useful against infantry.

When the second wave of Corpus monsters finally began, the spear-armed Ordinators met it with grim face expressions and tightly gripped spears and shields. However, the mad beasts did not stop for even a moment of consideration, slamming into the schiltron. The tight formation retreated slightly, yet suffered light casualties, while leaving many bodies of Corprus monsters on the ground.

The Corprus monsters slammed into the schiltron again, suffering more casualties, yet making the circle of spears retreat a bit more. This was certainly not a welcomed situation, as soon enough, the Ordinators would be pushed into the wall, and their formation disrupted. Raynari had to quickly think a way out of this. However, it wasn’t that hard.

When the Corprus monsters slammed into them for the third time, he yelled out the command that could either doom the Ordinators or save them:

“ATTACK!”

Thus, when the Corprus monsters slammed into a part of the schiltron, their flanks were crashed into by the other Ordinators. Soon enough, the Corprus monsters were forced into fighting on three sides – their flanks and the front. Now was the time when Raynari had to lead a handful of Ordinators to smash into their rear, an action that the Corprus monsters would not expect.

As fast as possible, the party of some ten Ordinators separated from the main force, trying to stay away from the fighting. It didn’t take long for them to reach the location from which they could charge down on the rear of the Corprus beasts, hopefully turning their attention away from the other Ordinators long enough for the fighting to turn the way they wanted.

Raynari smirked, looking at the temptingly vulnerable rear of the Corprus monsters. However, the smirk was left unnoticed by his companions, since his head was covered with the Indoril helmet, which was in turn smeared with blood, as was his whole armor. He knew that soon enough, his armor would receive a new layer of blood, and a new set of dents from the monsters that fought ahead of them. Since there was no time to be wasted, the Ordinator Captain lifted up his spear into the air, then yelled out the phrase that all of the Ordinators were eager to hear:

“CHARGE!”

It took several moments for the Corprus monsters to realize what happened when the handful of Ordinators slammed into their back, and when they did, several of the monsters’ numbers were already dead with spears in their backs. However, when they did realize what happened, they turned to fight with ferocity that Raynari had not foreseen.

The Captain himself, though, fought with ferocity that equaled, if not surpassed, the ferocity of his enemies. However, his ferocity blinded him temporarily, which almost cost him his life. As he impaled a Corprus monster with his spear, another one lunged at him from behind, knocking him on the ground.

Raynari was unfortunate enough to land on a rock with his unarmored hand. With a sickening crunch, he looked as his arm twisted in an unusual way, indicating that it broke. As if that wasn’t enough, he cut it quite deeply, and blood started gushing out of his wound. But it wasn’t the only of his problems – the Corprus monster jumped on him, pressing him to the ground.

After a bit of struggling, Raynari managed to turn himself around, coming face to face with the disfigured face of the monster. A sickening stench blew at his face, though he did his best to ignore it, hitting the monster in the face. This didn’t seem to have much effect, though, and in return Raynari got a hit that broke his nose. He felt warm blood on his face, yet ignored it, moving his head to avoid another such hit.

What the Corprus monster failed to see was that Raynari’s fine arm managed to grasp the shortsword that hung at the Ordinator Captain’s side. Just as the creature was going to land another hit, Raynari swung the shortsword. It too several moment for the monster to realize what had happened, yet it soon roared in pain, staring at what was left of its arm. The rest of it landed nearby, cut off by Raynari’s shortsword.

Blood poured out of the remaining part of the beast’s arm, mixing with the blood on Raynari’s face and arm. The Dunmer frowned in disgust, then drove the shortsword in his hand into the creature’s neck, causing more blood to pour on him and mix with that of his own. With a one last roar, the monster fell down on Raynari in full weight, hitting his head against a rock.

The last thing Raynari heard before passing out was cheerful shouts and heavy footsteps of many armored feet.

***

Raynari looked around a large room, seemingly made out of gold. He did not know where he was, nor how he got here, yet what he knew was that he didn’t want to be here. Still, the room was so beautiful, and the wooden door leading outside seemed so ugly in comparison, he couldn’t make himself leave. What drew him more were other doors, made out of precious gems and diamonds of all sort.

In an oddly sluggish way, Raynari walked towards the diamond doors. It took only several moments for him to reach them and open them. However, when he did, he felt himself falling through the floor before he could even see what was inside. As he fell into the abyss, darkness surrounded him. The Ordinator Captain heard someone laugh, before opening his eyes.

Sweat gushed down his enormously hot brow. Raynari felt weak and sick, which was probably the case, as the first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was a man in blue robes – the Ordinator healer. Raynari was back in Vivec.

[The Metal Mallet]

I'm sure this will be just as well received here as it is back at TESF.

[Gaius Maximus]

Chapter II

Come to me…

Raynari looked around the pitch-black space, seeing no one to whom this voice could’ve belonged. This slightly unnerved him, as voices that came from nowhere was an almost sure way to make sure you were crazy.

“Hello? Anybody?”

Let me take you…

The Ordinator Captain frowned, grabbing for his scimitar, yet finding nothing. Then, he cursed, remembering that all of his weapons were removed from him, including his backup weapon, the Ebony Scimitar.

“Who are you?”

You belong to me…

Raynari looked behind himself, feeling as if he was being watched. However, when he was again looked in front of himself, he saw an enormous golden mask, larger than himself. The mask had no expression; neither did it seem to have eyes.

“The hell..?!”

All out of sudden, the mask’s mouth opened, becoming large enough to consume him. In a lighting-quick motion, it moved up to the Dunmer, and the last thing Raynari knew, he was being devoured, screaming from the top of his lungs.

“Raynari!” A distant voice called, and Raynari looked up. As if through mist, he saw a pair of eyes, looking at him with great concern. He felt a slight pull by his chest, and he opened his eyes again in his sweat-soaked bed back in Vivec. The Ordinator healer was standing next to him, and it became apparent that the concerned eyes belonged to him.

“Raynari, are you alright? How do you feel?” The healer asked, seeing as Raynari regained consciousness.

“Weak...” Raynari groaned silently in response. This was indeed true, for he felt extremely odd, sick and weak – his brow was extremely hot, he was entirely soaked in cold sweat, his body shivered slightly, his left eye was twitching a bit, and his hand and nose hurt like hell. The Ordinator frowned slightly, pressing his hand against Raynari’s brow. A moment later he removed, his frown growing.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re getting any better…” The healer muttered, partially to himself. Raynari sighed deeply, attempting to stop his eye from twitching. However, that failed, so he gave up and turned his attention to the healer again.

“Getting any better from what? And why do I feel like… Well, like crap?” These questions came in the form of a low grumble, yet the healer was able to understand what his patient had said.

“I don’t know what’s with you. You’ve been like this ever since they’ve carried you back from that cave…” Noticing Raynari’s puzzled expression, the Ordinator added: “One of your Ordinators found your body beneath a Corprus monster after the battle. Reinforcements set out as soon as a pilgrim explained the true situation in the Cultist Lair to the Office of the Watch.”

Raynari nodded, then sank in his pillow. His eyes were beginning to close, and he wanted to sleep, so he tried to make himself comfortable by turning away from the candle on the small table alongside his bed. The healer took the hint, and put the light out, then silently left the room. Raynari heard the door creak, before he drifted away into an uneasy sleep.

***

Come to the Red Mountain… Claim your destiny. None can take what is rightfully yours…

Raynari was once again in a black void, surrounded by nothingness. The voice spoke to him again, making shivers run up his spine – there was something… unsettling to this voice. As if it wasn’t a human who spoke.

“What do you need from me?”

I need nothing from you… Yet you know what you need, what you want. You want power… I can grant you power.

***

Raynari woke up in the same room with a flinch. His heart was beating madly, though sweat stopped gushing down his entire body in streams. Even more, his eye was no longer twitching, yet he developed a major headache.

He looked around, hoping to see the healer, yet saw no one. However, this allowed Raynari to get a clear look at the room he was currently in, something that he failed during his first and second awakenings.

The bed he was currently lying in appeared to be positioned in the corner of the small room Raynari was carried into after he lost consciousness. Alongside it, a small table stood, and on it was placed a candle, the same one that was put out by the healer earlier. Another object near Raynari’s bed was a simple wooden chair, on which the healer must’ve sat. Apart from those objects, though, the room was empty.

With a sigh, Raynari shifted his position, looking up into the ceiling. There was nothing special to it, though, nothing that would’ve captured his interest, so he soon moved his eyes towards the wall alongside which his bed was placed. Feeling unpleasantly hot, Raynari lifted his head up slightly, pressing his brow against the wall. This action sent a shiver throughout his body, yet he felt good for a moment.

After the part of the wall that Raynari had pressed his brow against became warm, he again lied down on the soft pillow. After a short while of staring at the wall in front of him, the Ordinator Captain yawned, still feeling rather sleepy despite the long hours of sleep.

However, remembering the dream, Raynari dared not to close his eyes again, and struggled hard to keep himself awake. He did not know what those dreams meant, but they were certainly nothing good. The fact that a small part of him was dragged to the Red Mountain didn’t help as well.

As much as he wanted, though, Raynari couldn’t rest sleep for a long amount of time. After some ten minutes of yawning and struggling to stay awake, he didn’t manage to stop himself from closing his eyes, drifting into the same pitch-black void again.

[Steve]

Hey, this aint bad! lol
I really like where this is going!
Very descriptive I must say and for this particular story I find it good! Though, this must be from one of the earlier games because I have no idea what you're talking about.... But I can understand for the most part! LOL!!!

[LadySaira]

It's Morrowind!
Well, sillywatching Ordinators or no, the story is good.

[Gaius Maximus]

Thanks for the replies! I finally present you with the third chapter.

Chapter III

Raynari groaned, throwing the blanket off of himself. Sweat was again covering his body, and he felt hot… Too hot, given that he was a Dunmer, and only on rare occasions would feel like he was now. However, the thoughts of heat were soon pushed out of his minds, as his whole attention was focused to his arm. A loud gasp left the Mer’s mouth.

There were growths appearing on his left arm, which was also changing color to oddly gray. It was almost as if it was rotting, yet instead of decomposing, it seemed to grow… And, no stench had appeared, the reason why Raynari only now found out what happened to one of his limbs. The others, he could see, were also showing signs of change, yet none were as obvious as the ones on his left hand.

I had seen such things before… But…Where? I’m sure it wasn’t that long ago… Slowly, he forced himself to think. Whatever disease he had caught had disrupted his thoughts, and just made it hard for him to think at all. Raynari blamed hat on the disturbing dreams that followed him every time he went to sleep, always insisting that he ‘belonged to ‘me’, whoever the ‘me’ was.

Even with his slow mind, it didn’t take long for Raynari to realize where he had seen such growths and such color. He gasped loudly again, as the realization wasn’t at all pleasant.

Corprus monsters… I’ve seen it on Corprus monsters… Those smaller ones, they had similar skin color… And growths, that too… Soon after that thought hit him, Raynari threw up on the floor, sickened by the possibility of becoming such a monster.

However, as he cleaned his mouth slowly, another thing struck him.

If I am infected with Corprus… And I am in the middle of Vivec… Then… He forced himself to continue thinking, yet he almost fell unconscious in the process. .. Then I’m going to be killed by my own comrades! As a simple beast! The realizations truck him again, yet Raynari kept himself from throwing up again.

The Captain’s eyes widened slowly, as he remembered another case similar to his. An Ordinator had caught Corprus as well… And he himself had killed the man right after the first signs of Corprus began appearing. Now, the same was going to happen to him…

Unless… Raynari lifted up slightly. Unless I run, flee Vivec and go into hiding. However, two obvious problems presented themselves immediately – where was he to go, and how the hell would he escape Vivec in the first place?

The answer to the first question came soon enough.

Red Mountain… I was invited there. It is the only place where I would be welcomed after the change will be complete. He remembered the invitation that came through the dream, urging him to come to the Red Mountain, right into the hands of the Devil Dagoth Ur. His choices were not the best – Raynari could either remain here, where he would be executed, or go to the Tribunal’s worst enemy, who seemed to be inviting him? It did not take him long to decide, and when he did, the small piece of him that wanted to go to the Red Mountain all along seemed to explode, filling him completely.

Now, the only question that remained was how was he to get out of Vivec. After that, Raynari would’ve had enough time to think about how would he reach the volcano or what would he do upon reaching it.

However, Raynari believed it not to be much of a problem, if he wasn’t separated from his possessions. Once, he had bought a Divine Intervention scroll from an outlander, in the case he ever ran out of Almisivi Intervention scrolls. He could use that scroll to get to the nearest Foreigner city or fort, and from there make his way out into wilderness, to seek out a road that would lead him to the Red Mountain, and supposedly his destiny.

Slowly, Raynari tried to get up, in order to begin fulfilling his plot. However, he was immediately faced with the issue of being too weak to walk. Now that was a problem. He knew a weak spell that would’ve enhanced his strength for a period of time, yet Raynari was no magician, and even the maintenance of such a simple spell would’ve cost him enormous efforts.

Silently, the Ordinator muttered the right incantation, and again attempted to stand up. This time, he had more success, yet only barely was he able to stand still. The world around him swirled like the thoughts of the Mad God and his movements were very reminiscent of those of a drunkard.

Still, the Captain continued onwards, and managed to reach one of the two doors that was in the room, on the opposite side of the room than the door through which the healer had left. What lay behind those doors would either deem Raynari’s plan either successful, or a failure. Thus, it was nothing odd that his heartbeat rate increased when he turned the handle slowly.

Equally slowly, Raynari opened the doors, careful not to make any noise that could’ve attracted the attention of the people he knew were patrolling behind the other door. After he had made a gap large enough to look through, the Corprus victim pressed his head against the door, peering into the room.

Only barely did he hold himself from shouting in joy. Behind those doors was a set of Indoril armor, battered and broken at places, which Raynari could identify as his own. Next to the armor hung a blue cape, the standard robe of a Temple priest. And placed against the wall was a large chest.

Grabbing the robe, Raynari kneeled down before the chest, and opened it with some difficulty. His shivering hands slowly searched through the contents of the chest, looking for what he needed for his escape – a Divine Intervention scroll. It took some effort to locate it between the countless Almisivi Intervention scrolls, also simple scrolls that contained notes that were important in the past.

Finally, however, Raynari held in his hands a scroll that gave out a slight purple-ish glow. Daedric Runes that were on the scroll recorded the incantation that was a one-way ticket to Ebonheart.

With some effort, Raynari managed to cover himself in the blue cape completely. He was feeling even hotter within the robe; yet it would’ve attracted far too much attention to just appear in the middle of a city almost naked. Thus, confident that none of the signs of Corprus are visible, Raynari unfolded the scroll, the read the incantation, and disappeared in a flash of purple.

Next thing the ex-Ordinator knew, he had slammed down on the ground on the docks of Ebonheart, the largest foreigner fort in Vvardenfell. Raynari’s weak strength fortifying spell was not enough to keep him up, though, so he was forced on his knees upon the impact. However, in the bustling crowd of people that currently covered seemingly every brick of Ebonheart, the new arrival was barely noticed.

[Steve]

Ooh! What a nice addition!
Keep it coming!

[minque]

Great stuff Gaius! Continue please!

[Gaius Maximus]

And continue I shall! Some madness in this chapter...

Chapter IV

Slowly, Raynari got on his feet. He was shivering slightly, which looked somewhat odd, since he was dressed in a warm robe. His face was paler than usually, too, and that had already dragged some attention his way, mainly from guards. One of them was already trying to reach him through the crowd, so the Dunmer had to hurry.

Ignoring the fact that his left eye began twitching, Raynari slowly stepped forward. His step wasn’t a very straight one – thus, he would’ve looked like drunk, if it wasn’t for the fact that his skin was changing color very fast. The wave of weakness and cold that hit him almost got the Dunmer on the ground again, yet he just focused on the spell that was the only thing that kept him going, and took another step forward.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

The heavy footsteps of the guard echoed in his head like war drums, messing with his brain. The Ordinator took another step forward, only barely avoiding slamming into a passing Nord.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

The sound of metal hitting against stone seemed to be louder than any other noise to Raynari. The footsteps of others, including his own, drowned in those of the Imperial Legionnaire. With enormous effort, he took another step forward, then almost tripped over himself, taking another step forward.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

It was getting unbearable, the sound that was pursuing him. Raynari began feeling as if he was slowly driven mad. Black spots danced in front of his eyes, and he was only so far from passing out. Every footstep seemed to be draining him of his strength, as well as his focus. His spell began getting weaker.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

It must stop…[i/] Raynari babbled under his nose, his appearance reminding a madman now, no longer a drunkard. His red eyes darted around the crowd, yet he saw nothing, asides from faces that danced around him. They were laughing at him, yelling at him… Slowly, Raynari began loosing his sense of the world around him.

[i]Thunk, thunk, thunk.

“ENOUGH!”

After the loud yell, everyone around him froze, slowly turning their heads towards the obviously crazy Mer. Raynari ignored them, grumbling things under his nose. Yet the sound of the guards footsteps did not stop – worse yet, it seemed to be growing louder.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

With a loud roar that sounded like that of a wounded beast, Raynari stumbled forwards, then forced himself to run. The footsteps behind him got faster as well, and he could feel the eyes of everyone in the docks on his back… Sweat began covering him once again.

This all felt like a very real dream. The colors around him seemed to be oddly bright, and he did not feel as if he was in his body. He could see the guard behind him, running after him, with a pike in his hands… And behind him, Raynari could see hundreds of eyes, all fixed on him. Such a feeling was overwhelming, and he could feel that his grip on the spell that kept him running was loosening.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

***

Far away from Raynari, in the fiery chambers of the Red Mountain, a tall, white figure moved his hand over what seemed to be a glass orb, yet on the surface, a complicated dance was performed by thousands of moving red shades. It was a beautiful sight, as much as it was an unnerving one – inside the orb, a heart, at double the size of a man’s head, was beating.

The orb and the heart were fixed to a strange pipe, which was in turn attached to a bone-like thing, shaped in the form of a giant ribcage. The ribcage was only one part of an enormously large humanoid figure, which seemed to be dragged out of an old Dwemer scheme. And truly, it was, for this was the Akulakhan. The heart that was to fuel him was the legendary Heart of Lorkhan, which was said to grant godhood to those who had the knowledge to use it properly.

Currently, the heart was in the possession of someone who should have never got his hands on it – the Devil Dagoth Ur, once a friend of Lord Indoril Nerevar. After he was defeated, Dagoth Ur had managed to survive, and even more, he managed to bind himself to the Heart, and assemble a ‘family’ of sorts, a group of generals to aid him. His plan was now very close to being successfully finished, yet if he was to succeed, he would need one last figure, one last card.

This card, this figure, was very dangerous to him, as it could’ve meant his doom, even if Dagoth had it in his hands. However, if this card was to become his general, he would be victorious.

“Very good, Nerevarine… Come to your destiny. Let it be fulfilled.” Dagoth Ur grumbled, watching the orb, which showed a Dunmer in blue robes run wearily, only one thing on his minds – the Red Mountain. Cards were falling into his hands, as it seemed. However, maybe it was time to speed up the play, to the point where all the good cards were in his hands, and it was time to put them on the table…

***

Looks like I’ve lost him… Now that he was alone, Raynari was able to think more clearly. His eye stopped twitching, and the sense of the world around him began returning slowly. He was able to focus enough to keep his spell from fading away. The drums stopped echoing in his head, too.

Currently, Raynari was somewhere past Vivec, on the road that led, besides many other places, to Seyda Neen. The journey ahead of him seemed very intimidating, as the Red Mountain was in the middle of the island, while he was nearby the shore. It would take weeks for him to reach the volcano…

However, the will of others more powerful than Raynari was not such. Suddenly, the Ordinator felt a slight pull by his stomach, and the next thing he knew, a purple light devoured him.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Mar 8 2008, 11:16 AM

[Steve]

OOH!
The mystery! This story did just get BIGGER!!! much bigger!
Poor guy though, being sick and all that.

Well Gaius, your story continues to interest me. I will await for more!!!

[Gaius Maximus]

You just wait for what happens later. We're going to get some major siege action when Raynari stops messing around.

Chapter V

Bright light swirled around Raynari, and he soon clenched his stomach, feeling weaker and weaker as his spell faded. If he would’ve been standing on firm ground, the Dunmer would certainly have collapsed – however, there was nothing firm beneath him to speak of, thus nowhere to collapse. However, that did not remove the increasing weakness Raynari was feeling, and black circles again began dancing in front of him.

Where am I traveling? Raynari wondered, before that thought was replaced by a sickening feeling that he was about to throw up. However, he was no longer capable of holding his hands against his stomach, so the two limbs slipped to his sides slowly as the ex-Ordinator began loosing control of them.

Suddenly, Raynari’s feet collided with something firm. He wasn’t ready for this, and even if he was, the Dunmer’s feet were too weak to hold anyway, so he fell down to his knees. This time, however, unlike the time when he landed in Ebonheart, the rest of his body was too weak to hold as well, and the last thing he knew, his head hit cold metal floor, and blackness came.

***

Raynari groaned, yet he was filled with terror upon hearing his own voice. It was a low moan, completely not like his voice… Immediately, he looked around to find out if there was no one nearby. However, the area around him was empty.

Shaking it off as an effect of having slept on such a surface, Raynari took his time to look around. He was obviously no longer nearby Vivec. Very far away, actually, as could be judged by the drastic change of surroundings.

The area in which Raynari found himself was covered in ash completely. The same ash was in the air, flying around – he was obviously in the middle of an ash storm. However, asides from Dwemer metal pipes and the door next to which Raynari was lying, there was nothing special to the area, or so the ex-Ordinator thought upon looking around for the first time. Soon, though, one another thing caught his eye.

A slight distance away, where, as far as Raynari could see, there was a great hole in the ground, the ash was swirling in a very odd way, forming a column that was beginning in the hole and rising up and up, until finally spreading. This was very odd, as Raynari was certain that ash storms were caused by strong wind picking up the ash from the ground, and not by a hole somewhere.

However, after staring at the column of ash for several moments, realization hit him.

He was not in a simple ash storm. Raynari was in the middle of a Blight storm, and he was next to what was causing the blight – the crater of the Red Mountain. By whatever means, he had reached his destination.

Only after realizing that did Raynari notice one another thing. It shocked him even more than the fact that he was in the Red Mountain.

Only now had the ex-Ordinator noticed, he wasn’t a Dunmer anymore, at least not if judging by appearance. He was a monster – his skin was of a mix of grey and tan. Growths had appeared on his whole body. However, his new state had not altered his mind at all, as it seemed. Yet it did strengthen him psychically, as Raynari was feeling even stronger than he was before catching Corprus during that accursed mission.

Sluggishly, Raynari forced himself on his feet, and took a step forward, only to slam into Dwemer iron once again. Oddly, he only barely felt the impact, and thus could immediately begin attempting to open the circle of iron in front of him.

After a few minutes of vain attempts, it became obvious that brute strength would not do him any good. There must be an entrance into this thing… Raynari’s thoughts floated around slowly, something which he blamed on his new state. Maybe it did affect his way of thinking, after all, but at least not to the point where he was unable to do that.

Slowly, the Corprus-infected Dunmer looked around. His eyes were captured by what seemed to be a lever, fixed to a pipe in the distance. Knowing he would loose nothing more while checking that, Raynari directed himself towards the thing.

It didn’t take much effort in his new form to move the lever, and soon enough, the iron circle began opening. Raynari smiled slightly, something that disfigured his face completely, before making his way to the newly-revealed door, also constructed of Dwemer metal. So far, so good. I can only hope that this does not prove to be a false hope… Or just a dream…

***

The wooden doors creaked slightly as Raynari opened them. He was surprised to find something made out of wood in this place of obviously Dwemer construction. It could be easily guessed that this was a newer addition to the structure, as it seemed as if the wall that was originally there was broken through, and a new cave was dug.

I dislike this silence. How comes there’s no one here?

Suddenly, Raynari was taken aback by the first thing he heard in this entire ruin - an odd voice he immediately recognized from his dreams.

“Dagoth Ur greets you in the Red Mountain, Indoril Nerevar Reborn. I am glad to see you are finally here.”

The voice belonged to a tall white-skinned figure, wearing a golden mask that covered his face. There was no doubt as to whom this was, not after the noisy introduction – this was Devil Dagoth Ur, once a friend of Lord Indoril Nerevar, as whom Raynari was now greeted. Due to the sudden appearance of a form of life, it took several moments for Raynari to understand the words that were thrown at him. When he did, though, one obvious question arose:

“Indoril Nerevar Reborn? Who… who are you speaking of?” The noise Raynari managed to release sounded awfully like a series of groans and moans, yet Dagoth Ur seemed to be perfectly capable of understanding that.

“I am speaking of you, Nerevarine of Vvardenfell. Come – there is much you do not know of yourself currently. I can tell it to you… All of it.”

[Gaius Maximus]

Chapter IV

Raynari sighed, the sigh sounding a lot like a moan. It was, however, distinguished by the sound the Dwemer mechanisms caused, and once again, he regretted choosing to think alone for a while before making his decision. Already he had developed a headache from the unstoppable clanging, puffing and humming of the mysterious machines, and the pulsing of his head made Raynari believe that this headache was only getting worse.

Attempting to ignore the horrific noise, he buried his face in his disfigured palms, closing his eyes to think about what Dagoth Ur had told him of his supposed past.

Can I even believe him? All the things about the Battle of Red Mountain, how the Tribunal are evil, how they claimed the Heart of Lorkhan for themselves after Indoril Nerevar was dead… How Nerevar was tricked by the Tribunal into killing him, Dagoth Ur, who was actually still loyal to Indoril Nerevar… How Dagoth managed to survive and bind himself to the Heart… How he is actually fighting for the good of Dunmer, while the Tribunal are trying to hide their past and thus proclaimed him as evil… Many thoughts swirled around in his head chaotically, and the noisy engines only made it harder for him to put them in a more orderly way.

Raynari covered his ears – or what was left of them – with his hands, clenching his teeth tightly, trying not to hear the annoying din. To no avail though, as the noise seemed to get past his hands, through his ears and all the way to his brains. Has to stop… Sooner or later it will stop… or I hope so. He was exhausted from all this noise, and slowly, a twitching feeling developed where he knew his temples were when he was a Dunmer, yet he wasn’t sure if they were still there… Or still his.

***

“Ah, Nerevarine. You have made your decision, then?” The already-familiar white figure inquired, moving forward towards what remained of Raynari. The torchlight danced on the golden mask Dagoth Ur hid behind, creating the odd illusion of him making faces. However, the somewhat-Dunmer knew that the Devil had only one expression, and it was the cold stare of the golden mask.

“Y- Yes, I have.” The only reason he stammered was that his own voice made Raynari unnerved – he couldn’t accept that he was what he used to kill, and hung on the illusion that there were Corprus beasts behind him. At the same time, though, he realized that such hope was stupid. And yet, he couldn’t let go of it.

“So?” Dagoth’s voice obviously suggested he was getting curious, as much as a daemon could get. However, it also hinted that he wasn’t going to wait long for Raynari’s answer. Knowing this, he hurried up to answer.

“I- I have decided… to accept your proposal. I shall serve your cause.” Again, he was scared by his own voice.

“I am glad to hear it, Indoril Nerevar! We shall again be friends, brothers in arms against the world, perhaps… But now, I shall need to know that you are willing to be loyal to me. For because we can become friends again, I need to make sure that the Tribunal hold no more power on your minds, and that you are free of their lies that have made you turn on your most loyal ally.” Dagoth Ur paused for a slight moment, as if enjoying what he was going to say now. Finally, the words came:

“I want you to rip out your eyes.”

Silence occupied the cavern for a moment, as Raynari tried to realize what words were thrown at him. The realization struck him like an enormous hammer, like a punch in the face, dealt with an iron gauntlet – he had to rip out his eyes, or he would almost surely die. After all, he was quite certain that Dagoth Ur wouldn’t take well if someone – even more so someone whom he apparently believed to be the Nerevarine – would come to his lair, reject the offer to join him and leave in peace.

However, even if he does allow me to leave if I refuse to rip out my eyes, where the hell will I go? Everybody will want to kill me, almost surely…I’ll probably have to live nearby the Red Mountain, due to the Ghostfence…

With such thoughts, it didn’t take long before Raynari nodded. “I will do it.” With such words, he brought up his hands to his face, trying to see as much as he could with what he believed would be his last look at the world. With a deep sigh, he tried to suppress the scream, to ignore the pain that slowly filled him…

When Raynari removed his hands from his face, his eyeholes were empty, and blood covered his hands. Before he could say something more, he collapsed to the ground, fainting from the pain.

***

Raynari was waked up by the sound of howling wind. He couldn’t see anything, but he could feel that something was hitting against his face, and that it was entering his mouth whenever he opened it. An Ashstorm. He finally realized, struggling to get up on his feet. However, it proved that this was much harder to do without his eyes than with it, and he fell down a few times, tripping over something.

When he did get up, he tried to clean off the dust that he guessed to be on his body. To his great surprise, though, his skin was much softer than it was before he had to get rid of his eyes. It was the same way as when he was a Dunmer… However, to his great pity, he couldn’t see what happened to him, though, and had to be satisfied by assuming that he had changed again during the time he was out.

However, Raynari’s thoughts were cut short when a voice yelled something. It seemed oddly loud, louder than any voice he hard heard. It didn’t take him long to recall the stories of blind men, how their senses increased after they lost their sight.

Yet, once again, he had to force himself to drop the subject, as the voice began yelling something again:

“Prepare for the march! We have been given a task, to scout out the enemy movements spotted nearby their stronghold they call the Ghostgate, and we shall do it for Lord Dagoth and the Red Mountain!” Only now had Raynari realized how different this voice was from a Dunmer’s voice – it sounded much more like moaning and groaning, similar to the noises he made when he spoke while in what he assumed to be the first stage of Corprus.

He had to forget the voice when someone began beating what he assumed to be guar skin drums. A command “March!” was given, and Raynari heard several tenths of pairs of feet begin walking. After a bit of hesitation, he himself began moving towards the direction from which the noise of drums being beaten came.

Thus, the small scouting party, made up from some thirty Ash Slaves, among them Raynari, and led by an Ash Priest, began marching towards the direction of the Ghostgate.

***

Raynari was used to such marches, given that he used to be an Ordinator Captain. Thus, it didn’t tire him at all, the short march. It did give him a good chance to become at least a bit accustomed to moving without his eyes. However, he wasn’t the slightest bit ready for what was to come soon.

They weren’t marching for longer than half an hour, when Raynari heard a noise which made him stop – the noise which he recognized as an arrow being fired. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one to notice this, as the drum beating ceased, as did the sound of footsteps of their small party. The only sound that remained seemed to be the whistle of the arrow – it looked to Raynari was if it was louder than the Ashstorm.

If the sound of the arrow seemed loud, then the short yell and the sickening gurgle that came after that was even more so. However, even those noises weren’t louder than the yell “ATTACK!” that came from somewhere to Raynari’s right. The yell “AMBUSH!” drowned in the many war cries of their ambushers.

To his great surprise, Raynari could make out one set of footsteps very well. He didn’t know why was this happening, but it seemed like these footsteps were louder than all others, for whatever reason. From the noise that was made each time when the owner of these feet took a step, he could assume that this runner was armored heavily, maybe even an Ordinator.

Instinctively, Raynari ducked. He only narrowly avoided the spear that was thrust at him by his attacker, the owner of these same feet he could hear so well. What Raynari didn’t know, was that this was Suleri, the same Ordinator who was his second-in-command in many assignments, and who was promoted to a Captain after Raynari disappeared.

Purely out of habit, Raynari reached out to grab his shortsword, yet grasped only air. Thus, without knowing what he was doing, he thrust his hand forward. It hit against a breastplate, and, without even realizing it, Raynari pushed forth a shockball.

A spell from so close staggered Suleri. Realizing what happened from the step back he heard his opponent take, Raynari leaped forward, throwing himself straight at the chest of his opponent, and bringing him down.

A hard ‘thunk’ suggested Raynari that his opponent hit something on his way down. Taking advantage of that, he did the first thing that came to mind, and slammed his head against that of the Ordinator. After such an attack, he proceeded to grab Suleri’s neck, first with his left hand, then with his right, trying to strangle him.

With his Corprus-enhanced strength, it didn’t take long before his opponent stopped struggling, and Raynari realized – whoever was in front of him, was now dead. He had no idea, though, that he had killed one of the few close friends he had in the numbers of the Ordinator.

It took several moments for Raynari to get back on his feet. As soon as he did, however, cries filled the air. He could make out such yells like “The Captain’s down!” ”RETREAT!” and “Press on, for Lord Dagoth!”. He could only assume that their cause was the body of the Ordinator in front of him, still warm.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Mar 15 2008, 08:37 PM

[jack cloudy]

I haven't kept track of this one for a while but now that I've come back to it....Holy crazy cows, a story with Nerevarine joining Dagoth Ur. Awesome!

Although, ripping out his own eyes? That sounds painful. Ah well, he'll probably grow a new face and become an Ash vampire in short order.

[The Metal Mallet]

Let the brutality begin! Hehehehe!

Excellent update.

[Gaius Maximus]

Although, ripping out his own eyes? That sounds painful. Ah well, he'll probably grow a new face and become an Ash vampire in short order.

Exactly. Because he's the Nerevarine! (Insert the "'Cause he's such a good fellow" melody here)

Let the brutality begin! Hehehehe!

You haven't yet seen half of it!

Chapter VII

Two weeks. Two long, long weeks. Perhaps they were actually months. Maybe years. Decades, even… After all, Raynari had lost all sense of time after he transformed into this creature. At least I have my eyes back. This was his only relief, for ever since he was deemed worthy to become a ‘priest’, he had been hearing voices; sometimes whispering, sometimes yelling. They were always in his head. Or maybe, always around him – he wasn’t so sure.

Raynari was suspecting the strange altar, which he was told to protect, as the cause of all this madness. He had seen them on several occasions back when he was a simple Ordinator, and every time he would approach them, a chill would crawl down his spine. There was something… something evil about those ‘altars’, something which he seemed to be able to sense much better as an Ash Ghoul.

Raynari wasn’t the only guardian of the altar – there were many more creatures in this strange cave, and all answered to him. Dreamers, Ash Zombies, Ash Slaves… All lowly creatures, with their enormous strength being the only thing keep them alive. All victims of the dreaded Corprus… yet they seemed to be more acceptant of their fate than Raynari.

Like thus was Raynari living for the past few days – guarding a cave that he guessed to be some sort of a ‘chapel’; surrounded by creatures that considered him their leader; slowly drifting into madness. From time to time, he would feel an urge to put his hands on the altar, feeling as if something depended on it. Yet, nothing would happen, no matter how he would press his hands against the thing.

He was disappointed with the fact that nothing would happen, and yet, even now, Raynari was making his way towards the large, red statue, driven by this almost beastly urge. He wasn’t expecting anything to happen, but he still laid down his hands upon the cold, rough surface of the accursed thing.

Raynari almost yelled out in surprise after a loud voice boomed. Like with the other voices, he couldn’t make out whenever this was only in his head, or coming from somewhere around him. Yet he was certain regarding as to whom the voice belonged.

“Dagoth Ur greets you once more, Indoril Nerevar. I am glad you have accepted another bit of the True Power into your body.” Even if Dagoth Ur wouldn’t have introduced himself, his voice was unmistakable.

“But I haven’t called you only to congratulate you for successful service. There is a need for you to prove yourself to me once again, like you did earlier.”

“A group of the followers of the False Tribunal had set up a camp nearby their pilgrimage site. They are nothing more than a minor threat, though their attacks had disrupted some of my plans for the area. I want you to crush them for the good of the Sixth House, so that I may concentrate on more important matters at hand.”

‘I want’… Like it differs much from ‘I order’. Raynari sighed. He had no other choice than to nod in agreement:

“I shall do it, for the good of the Sixth House.”

***

Raynari could barely hear the sound of the guarskin drum being beaten. After he had changed again and recovered his eyes, his senses seemed to become… blunter. When he was but an Ash Slave, he could easily hear the drums, even in the middle of a storm.

Still, if he couldn’t hear it, his Ash Slave could easily. Thus, the group managed to march in cohesion, organized into three squares. The front one was made up of Ash Slave. In the middle marched the Ash Zombies, and finally, behind them, the Dreamers.

In such order, disguised by the ash and the wind, the forces of the Sixth House advanced towards the Ordinator Outpost. Raynari was worried his troops might not be able to stand up to the Ordinators entirely in close quarters, though there was no turning back at this point.

***

“Priest Raynari,” One of the Ash Slaves, sent out as scouts, kneeled down in front of him. Raynari gestured him to carry on impatiently. “We have reached the heretics’ outpost. They seem to be unprepared.”

A good sign. If not a false one. Raynari nodded, before dismissing the scout. Then, he proceeded to turn around, facing the drumbeaters, who were all Dreamers.

“Guide the Ash Zombies to the front, then form them up in a three-ranks-deep line. The Slaves are to be placed behind the main line in three colons, four-ranks-wide and eight-ranks-deep, and between every servant there is to be an amount of space equaling the amount the Slave himself takes up, in all directions. The servants behind the first line of the colons are to stand in a place that if they were to take a step forward, they would fill the gaps. The same applies to the line behind, and so on.”

The drummers nodded. These orders were unusual, though the Dreamers did not actually have much of a mind of their own, so they obeyed without questions.

While the Ash Slaves and Ash Zombies were assuming positions, Raynari positioned the Dreamers in the back of the entire formation. They would serve as the reserve, since there were no other troops to spare. The Dreamers weren’t the best of the Sixth House, yet they were better than nothing.

Finally, the forces were arranged and, at Raynari’s signal, advanced again. According to the scouts, they would catch the Ordinators unaware.

However, the Ordinators apparently figured out that enemy was present – Raynari was greeted with four square schiltrons six-ranks-wide and six-ranks-deep, arranged into a line.

Raynari, who was currently between the front line and the colons, yelled:

“Line, down! Colons, first two ranks, down! Colons, first four ranks, bold fire!”

The drummers echoed the respective part of the orders through the ranks they led, and, soon enough, the Ordinators were faced with a rain of magical lighting bolts that flew right above the Ash Zombies.

“Colons, third and fourth ranks, down! Fifth and sixth ranks, bolt fire!”

Much to the dismay of the Ordinators, the bolts continued to rain on them. Unwilling to take more of the ranged attacks, the Ordinator line moved forward.

“Colons, fifth and sixth ranks, down! Seventh and eighth ranks, bolt fire!”

Even though several more Ordinators fell, the schiltrons pressed forth. Given their marching speed, they would soon reach the thin front line of the Ash Zombies. Raynari didn’t really need to have it pushed back:

“Colons, close in ranks! March forward!”

The noise of guarskin drums immediately passed his order to march through the ranks of the Ash Slaves. The colons moved, filling up the gaps as they did.

The colons reached the Ash Zombies’ line almost exactly after the Ordinators did. At first the thin line was pushed back slightly; however, after they were reinforced with the colons, the balance was tipped for the favor of the Sixth House – the deeper ranks managed t start pushing the schiltrons back.

However, when it seemed that the battle was going in their favor, another schiltron moved out of the camp, with the obvious intentions of outflanking them. There was nothing more Raynari could do than send the Dreamers to engage the new threat. And while the Dreamers outnumbered the Ordinators two-to-one, he was almost certain that they would be destroyed.

In hopes of inspiring his followers, Raynari decided to lead the Dreamers personally. And this action, in fact, was what practically decided the outcome of the battle.

The lightly armed and unarmored Dreamers quickly reached the Ordinator detachment. The enemy, apparently, thought they would deal with the assault easily, and turned to face the oncoming force. They, just like Raynari, however, underestimated the inspirational power of fanatical faith, which was further strengthened by the presence of a priest, who was Raynari himself.

At first, the engagement was rather even – the Ordinators had superior weapons and armor, which gave them an edge. However, even the trained soldiers of the Temple and House Indoril were taken aback by the ferocious fanaticism of the Dreamers. Slowly but surely, the schiltron was being pushed back.

Raynari, taking a guess that he was the reason for all of this, made sure to be fighting in the front lines. This seemed to help - the Ordinators slowly began crumbling under the pressure. In an attempt to rally his force, the Ordinator Captain that led this force jumped into the fighting.

However, after their captain fell with a crushed skull, it was obvious that the Ordinators had enough. The schiltron began retreating; however, the retreat soon turned into a rout.

Seeing his chance, Raynari didn’t allow the Dreamers to pursue the fleeing enemy. Instead, he ordered them to re-group into a six-ranks-wide and eight-ranks-deep colon, then turned to the temptingly vulnerable flank of the Ordinator line.

However, just before his colon engaged the Ordinators’ main force, Raynari had to duck to avoid a large fireball. Predictably, the spell flew above him. It did not completely miss, though – moments later, a loud explosion roared as the stone that symbolized the Red Mountain pilgrimage site was destroyed.

At first, the Ordinators didn’t notice that – they were more than busy with the mater of another colon pushing its way into their ranks. However, almost immediately after several of the Ordinators decided it was time to run, it was realized that the very object they were defending was destroyed.

The result of this, combined with the flanking attack, was disastrous for them – after a few more minutes of desperate resistance, their force began crumbling, before all the remaining soldiers turned and ran in an all-out rout, intercepted by magical lighting bolts.

***

Some half an hour later, Raynari was inspecting the battlefield with a guard of some five Dreamers. After what happened at today’s battle, he was already making plans of turning the Dreamers into an elite, well-armed and armored fighting force.

However, he pushed those thoughts back once something else dragged his attention – a small yellow metal door. It was probably uncovered by the explosion… Raynari sped up with the intention of investigating this door, which seemed to be of Dwemer origin.

Moments later, the doors were opened, revealing to Raynari a room about the existence of which everyone seemed to be unaware for a very, very long time, probably even thousands of years.

The room wasn’t very large. It was built out of the same metal as all the Dwemer building in Vvardenfell. There were many mysterious devices inside, more than a few of them broken. From the look of them, Raynari assumed that they were related to alchemy.

What caught his eye, though, wasn’t one of the devices. No, it was a table in the corner. Many books were lying on top of it, which was the thing that interested Raynari most – he had been spending some of his time reading the past few days mainly about Dwemer.

What might we have here? Curiosity arose in him as he took of the dusty books. He could read Dwemer very well, but he remembered some of the letters rather well. As far as he was aware, the title of the book read:

‘Notes on the subject of the Black Powder’

[Gaius Maximus]

Chapter VIII

Another month. Contrary to the first few weeks in the service of the Sixth House, it flew past like a single day. There were many thins to be done – organizing the smuggling of weapons into the Red Mountain, inspecting the Dwemer room, supervising the training – especially that of the Dreamers – and at the same time studying Dwemer alphabet in order to decipher the many notebooks.

Raynari had also performed several more tasks – enough to promote him to an Ascended Sleeper, and grant him more authority – and more servants. His base of operations was moved from the previous cave to a larger one, which, by his personal request, was close to the previous pilgrimage site of the Temple (which Raynari, in his own time, visited as a part of his initiation into the Temple and the Ordinators).

With a greater cave came more servants. The only Sixth House members to move with Raynari were his Dreamers. Other servants were replaced with more numerous others, the exception being the Ask Zombies, who could not be found in Raynari’s new ‘residence’ – they were replaced with more of the Ash Slaves.

However, it wasn’t only Raynari who made progress in the Sixth House. The various engineers, consisting of Dreamers and Ash Ghouls alike, had been working on a way to employ the newly-discovered ‘black powder’, how the Dwemer called it. The result of their near-endless work was the iron ‘cannon’ – a massive iron tube that could, with the help of the black powder, fire large stone projectiles.

So far, the cannon was yet to be used against the Temple in the never-ending war, as, after the Ordinators protecting the pilgrimage site were routed, the Arch-Canon was yet to proclaim any other actions against the Sixth House. Still, from the fact that Dagoth Ur had ordered massive amounts of iron to be smuggled inside the Red Mountain – a very difficult task, especially under the noses of the Ordinators and Buoyant Armigers – it could be judged that a major offensive was being planned.

Until now, Raynari, like most of the servants of Sixth House, had only loose guesses regarding this subject. Still, he had hope Dagoth Ur would, sooner or later, contact him on the matter of some task that was connected with the preparations. After all, he was, supposedly, Indoril Nerevar’s Reincarnation and a trusted general who was responsible for the discovery of black powder.

With such hopes did Raynari approach the Ash Statue of his cave, driven by another of his urges. Others probably understood this as praying, yet to him, it was but a way to receive tasks. An unusual way, perhaps, but a way all the same.

Dagoth Ur hadn’t contacted him in a while, so Raynari almost jumped up (not that he could perform such an action in his current state) when the already-familiar voice boomed from uncertain direction:

“Indoril Nerevar. We had not spoken in a while, and I am glad to see that you are well. We were, after all, friends, and who knows, perhaps we shall be so again one day. But I have not come here to discuss old times.”

“No, there are more important matters. With your precious help, the Sixth House has acquired a new weapon, two examples of which I had recently sent out to you in hopes of aiding your task, which I am about to explain. We are ready to open our way out of this prison, and conquer Resdayn back from the Imperial yoke. Yet, before we attack their Ghostgate, there is a need for some to inspect the situation, and that someone shall be you.”

“For the Sixth House, you shall march out with the cannons and your forces, and find out what numbers does the Gate hold. Do not attack under any circumstances, though defend if necessary.”

“For the good of the Sixth House, I shall accomplish this task.” Raynari replied. He didn’t even feel unpleasant upon hearing his own voice any longer – after all this time, the ex-Ordinator had already gotten used to the low moans and grumbles that now indicated his was speaking.

***

The familiar noise of guarskin drum once again echoed in the ashy wasteland that surrounded the Red Mountain, as the forces of Raynari marched on. The Dreamers and Raynari himself couldn’t really hear the drums, as usual, but they didn’t really need to – they had eyes that could see despite the ash that was flying all around them. After all, they had spent more than enough time inside the Ghostfence to get used to the constant Blight Storms.

According to the scouts, they would soon reach a suitable position to set up nearby the Ghostgate. It was, from what Raynari could understand, a steep hill alongside one of the many Foyadas that etched the surface of the earth around the Red Mountain. The foyada went straight to the Ghostgate, which would ease the task of reaching it, whereas the hill was an excellent defensive position to withstand attempts of driving them back.

***

Slowly, painfully slowly, the two cannons were carried up the hill. The twenty deformed, horrifying Corprus beasts, known to Raynari as ‘Lame Corprus’ from his days as an Ordinators captain, moaned and groaned loudly under the weight. Still, with the help of their enormous strength, the metal tubes were carried up the hill and placed on wooden platforms that were placed there earlier. From there, the metal barrels were aimed at the foyada, to counter possible offensives from the Temple.

Meanwhile, while those preparations were accomplished, a party of some twenty ash slaves, accompanied by drummers, was slowly making their way towards the looming structure of the Ghostgate, the only way to leave the Red Mountain region while the Great Ghostfence was still there. However, the small scouting party had no idea that several pairs of crimson red eyes were looking down at them from one of the many hills surrounding the foyada.

***

“Lord Raynari! Lord Raynari!” A shout captured Raynari’s attention, heard even through the howling wind. When he turned to look at who was calling him, the figure of a Dreamer appeared in front of him. However, something was very wrong – the Dreamer was bloody, bruised and alone, which was odd, since Raynari clearly remembered sending him out with a scout party. However, before he could even ask, the Dreamer answered his unspoken question:

“The heretics ambushed us! They are coming this way!”

Raynari would’ve frowned, if his current face would’ve been capable of expressing any emotions. However, it could not, so he had to be satisfied with moaning at his cannoneers (who were, predictably, Dreamers):

“Aim the cannons and prepare to open fire at my command!”

The cannoneers nodded. However, Raynari was no longer paying attention to them – he was issuing orders to the drummers and the Ash Ghouls. The orders were to arrange the Ash Slaves in the usual gapped colons, and to fire in one accord with the cannons, then close in at his order.

By the time the colons were ready, the scouts reported that the Ordinator schiltrons were nearby. They were marching forward confidently; completely unaware about what was waiting for them. They had, after all, never encountered cannons before, or even heard of such devices.

Finally, the Ordinators came into view. They were marching in a line, made up from seven squares, seven-ranks-wide and seven-ranks-deep. To respond to this, Raynari hid five colons, five-ranks-wide and seven-ranks-deep. In addition, there were the dreamers, positioned in a phalanx ten-ranks-wide and eight-ranks-deep, armed similarly to the Redoran phalanx, only with 16 feet long pikes and smaller shields instead of 8 feet long spears and larger, grasped shields.

The Ordinators schiltrons advanced steadily, unaware of the danger they were sticking their heads in. On the top of the hill, hidden by ash, Raynari was almost dancing from joy – everything was going just perfectly, so perfectly that the Ordinators were soon right in front of the cannons. Deciding to waste no time, Raynari turned to the cannoneers:

“Open fire!”

With an enormous rumble that drowned out the wind for a few moments, the first cannon spat out a large stone ball, sending it flying towards the front schiltron. This shot was echoed by a rain of lighting bolts, coming from the colons.

The cries of horror and confusion of the Ordinators were probably second to none in the history of Tamriel. They wouldn’t have been more horrified by the death of their Tribunal than they were by the noise of the cannons, most likely. Limbs were torn and bones were crushed, while the Ordinators turned into a large mass of men, trampling all discipline and making themselves perfect targets.

The second cannon roared, sending another cannonball at the confused Temple Guards. Raynari, satisfied with the results of the cannonade, turned to the drummer behind him:

“Signal the colons to attack.”

The drummer nodded and, soon enough, the colons moved forth, the gaps filled in by Ash Slaves.

The colons soon collided with the Ordinators. The panicking Temple followers didn’t manage to fight back efficiently – the yellow mass gave in almost without resistance, and it seemed that the battle was completely won.

However, a faint sound of a horn reached Raynari and the Dreamers on the hill. From the ash emerged another colon, one of Vivec’s own Buoyant Armigers, armed in the fashion of a Redoran phalanx, only with Chitin armor instead of Bonemold of the Redorans.

The colons did not yet notice this threat, as they were still busy with the Ordinators. Thus, in order to save himself from possible casualties, Raynari turned to the same drummer that had just recently ordered the colons to advance:

“Signal the Dreamers to move out.”

The drummer again nodded, then turned to the anxious Dreamers. And only the presence of Raynari stopped them from cheering at the order that left the drumbeater’s lips:

“Pikes down! Advance forward!”

Needless to say, the orders were almost immediately obeyed – not because of great discipline, but because of the joint wish of the soldiers to go there and slaughter the ‘heretics’. Thus, soon enough, the pike phalanx of the Dreamers descended down the hill, becoming visible to the Armigers.

If the Armigers were surprised by the sight of a phalanx in the ranks of the Sixth House, it didn’t show – as soon as they noticed the Dreamers, all the spears were lifted up in unison, then lowered again after the Armigers had performed the turn. Thus, their weapons lowered, the two phalanxes engaged each other.

However, it soon became apparent that the Dreamers had the upper hand. With their pikes being twice as long as the Armigers’ spears, they were easily able to keep themselves out of the enemy’s reach, while still managing to reach them. Thus, the only thing the Armigers could do without impaling themselves on the pikes was hiding behind their shields, which wasn’t coming out as very successful – more and more fell from the pikes.

Still, the battle could’ve lasted for a while, if it wasn’t for the aid of one of the colons – while the Armigers were occupied with the phalanx in front of them, they didn’t notice the Ash Slaves, who successfully slammed into their backs.

After that, the Armigers did not hold for long. Some ten minutes later, Raynari watched the last of them disappear into the red wall of ash.

That, however, was the last thing he saw before purple light surrounded him. After only a few moments, the figure of Dagoth Ur appeared in front of him. The wind was gone, and Raynari realized – he was in the Citadel of the Red Mountain.


This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Apr 25 2008, 03:35 PM

[jack cloudy]

Aha, moving up through the ranks and at quite a good pace even.

One thing, you actually said gunpowder once. It's nothing big, but since you talk about cannons all the time, not about guns and because it was in all other cases identified as 'black powder', I think it's a typo.

Oh, and did I mention I loved the 'hail of lightning' formation?

[Gaius Maximus]

One thing, you actually said gunpowder once. It's nothing big, but since you talk about cannons all the time, not about guns and because it was in all other cases identified as 'black powder', I think it's a typo.

Oh, and did I mention I loved the 'hail of lightning' formation?

Ah, thanks for pointing that out. I'll be sure to edit it...

And, if you care to listen, the 'hail of lighting' (How comes I didn't come up with such a name for it?) idea was inspired by the French Colons from Napoleonic Wars. The formation seemed impressive, since it conquered almost the entire Europe (until Wellington got smart and unleashed ownage upon French generals).

Chapter IX

Raynari smiled slightly, looking at his reflection on the large, blood-red jewel that was fixed on the ring which rested on his armored finger. Slowly, his right hand lifted up, the Indoril-armored palm pressing against the soft, ashen blue skin. Again a Dunmer… How very grateful I am to Dagoth Ur for gifting me like that. A soft sigh left his lips, and a burst of joy flew up from the corners of his heart. The ex-Ordinator wanted to laugh, to laugh and dance – it did not matter any more that he had betrayed the Temple and the Tribunal, that he had been infected with Corprus, that he was serving the creature that he once considered to be the greatest evil to be found in Tamriel, except perhaps the Four Corners of the House of Troubles.

“Dagoth Nerevar?” One of the Dreamers dared interrupt his euphoria. Raynari turned to the Dunmer at his side, and what the lowest servant of the Sixth House saw unnerved him slightly – the Grand Commander of the Sixth House Army in the Ghostgate Operation was smiling almost like a madman, his crimson-red eyes gleaming slightly, something that was visible even through the ash.

In truth, Raynari was like that ever since the time Dagoth Ur teleported him back to the Ghostgate – almost insanely happy. The reason of this was the slightly glowing ring on his gauntlet.

You see, when Raynari was recalled to the Red Mountain, Dagoth Ur told him many things, continuing the tale the Devil had began on the day the Reincarnation of Lord Indoril Nerevar had come to him. He told Raynari how Almalexia, Vivec and Sotha Sil betrayed both him and Indoril Nerevar. How they turned Nerevar on his most loyal servant, Lord Voryn Dagoth. How Nerevar slew Dagoth, and then was slain by his three advisors, who then made themselves Gods with the Tools of Kagrenac and the Heart of Lorkhan.

It was after Dagoth told Raynari that tale that the ancient wizard led the Nerevarine inside the Hearth Chamber, where his Akulakhan was being built, and where the Heart of the God was kept. There, Ur turned Raynari into an Ash Vampire, and named him Dagoth Nerevar. As proof of this, and as an attempt to buy the complete loyalty of the Nerevarine, he gave newly-named Dagoth Nerevar a ring. The ring had the power of creating an illusion, a very powerful one, which the wearer himself would fully believe. The illusion was that of Raynari as a Dunmer, exactly how he was before the failed attack on the Sixth House Base.

Dagoth Ur was completely right by assuming Raynari longed for his Dunmer body. Now, it did not matter to the supposed Nerevarine that Ur could be lying or attempting to trick him – all the ex-Ordinator could see was his mortal flesh, his armor, and the ring that returned it all to him.

In this blindness, Raynari accepted the title of ‘Grand Commander of the Sixth House Army in the Ghostgate Operation’, and agreed to march on his former kinsmen. He was to command an army of thousands of Sixth House followers, and capture the Ghostgate from the Ordinators and the Buoyant Armigers. To aid him in this task, Dagoth Ur had dispatched 40 of the cannons, all which were produced since the discovery of the black powder (‘cannonpowder’). However, the number of cannons did not matter to Raynari now – all that did was his skin.

The Grand Commander was still in this state when the Dreamer informed him that the army of the Sixth House, along with the cannons, had arrived and was ready to begin the assault of the Ghostgate.

“Everything in its own time. Everything in its own time…” Raynari replied to this announcement, before turning around to face one of the several Ash Ghouls that were standing near him.

“I need you to take a party of Ash Zombies and attract the attention of the Or- Heretics. Try to keep them focused on your for as long as possible – we’ll need all the time we can get.”

The Ash Ghoul bowed. “Yes, Dagoth Nerevar.” He grunted, before turning around and hurrying off. Raynari, though, wasn’t looking at him by then, no – the Grand Commander shifted his attention towards the cannoneer officers, as he needed to give out orders as to where to place the cannons. By now, he had the area in front of the Ghostgate scouted out, using his previous force so he didn’t need to waste time when the main force had arrived. Time was of the essence to them – they needed to take the Ghostgate as fast as possible, so that they were able to press forward to Ald’Ruhn before their cannons were reported to the Arch-Canon and reinforcements were sent for the Ordinators.

***

The lone Ordinator leaned against the wall of the Tower of Dusk, yawning beneath his helmet. Silently, he cursed the idea of him standing on duty today, since the weather was as bad as ever. If this continues, I’m going to go mad from the howling wind alone, not to mention the gods-damned Blight storm… He grasped his spear tighter, yawning again. At least I’ve got the helmet, so ash don’t fly into my mouth every time I open- However, his thought was cut short when a fireball exploded inches away from his head.

Bluntly, the Ordinator turned his head from the small dent in the wall to the direction from which the fireball came. There, he saw an outline of several figures, before another fireball flew into the wall.

This time, the watchman reacted, ducking into the Tower of Dusk, yelling ‘Alarm! Alarm! Sixth House Devils are attacking!’

By the time the Ordinator poured out of the building, the decoy was only a barely visible outline in the wall of ash.

While the Ordinators were busy dispatching forces to pursue the possible threat, they didn’t notice that on the slopes of the two hills that surrounded the Foyada that led towards the Red Mountain, forty iron cannons were being set up and aimed at the seemingly impenetrable Ghostgate. Of course, the rule that the gigantic stone gate was hard to breach only went with engines that the creators of this gate were aware of, which, obviously, did not include cannons.

***

The decoy did its job almost perfectly, and the Ordinators noticed the cannons only when they were aimed at the Ghostgate. However, when the party of Ordinators sent out to pursue the Ash Zombies returned yelling something about ‘unholy devices’ that were about to unleash their fury upon the Gate, forces were quickly mobilized. In fact, those were almost all the forces in the Ghostgate, and they were quite massive.

The entire backbone of the force was a line, made up from 5 schiltron squares, twenty-ranks-deep and twenty-ranks-wide. In the back, two more squares were present, who were to help the line in the case it was breached, or stop possible flanking attacks.

On the left, the Ordinators were protected by a Buoyant Armiger phalanx, one hundred-ranks-wide and eight-ranks-deep. The right flank was made up of three schiltrons, fifteen-ranks-deep and fifteen-ranks-wide. In total, the Ordinators had almost four thousands three hundreds of soldiers to fight against the Sixth House.

In response to this force, Raynari sent out eight colons of Ash Slaves, eight-ranks-wide and thirty-ranks-deep, arranged in the usual order. In the back, as support, was an Ash Zombie line four-ranks-deep and two hundred-ranks-wide. On the left flank, were two lines of Ash Zombies, four-ranks-deep and a hundred-ranks-wide. On the right were a line of the Zombies, four-ranks-deep and a hundred-ranks-wide, and two colons of Ash Slaves, eight-ranks-wide and thirty-ranks-deep.

Thus, the Sixth House had almost four thousands five hundreds of servants to oppose the Ordinator force.

The left and right flanks of the Sixth House were echeloned forward by 45 degrees, positioned nearby the cannons (20 on each side of the Foyada) to protect them. The Temple was probably intending to start the action in the flanks, as the phalanx and the schiltrons were slightly ahead of the main line.

After his scouts reported that, Raynari reacted accordingly – he ordered his left flank to advance and meet with the Ordinators. At the same time, he signaled his colons to move forward, and the line to be closely behind them, preparing to land a blow through the gaps.

The middle colons began approaching the schiltrons, firing lighting bolts as they did. However, the Ordinators were ready to counter that. As soon as the first bolts were shot at the Ordinator line, shields against lighting magic started forming around the schiltrons, put up by the Temple priests. They successfully absorbed the magic, forcing the colons to close the gaps and increase their marching speed. Thankfully, the enormous shields kept the priests focused enough not to be able to fire anything back at the Sixth House forces.

On the left flank of the Sixth House, another story was unraveling. Since the lines could not fire bolts at the Ordinators, the priests were free from maintaining any shields. Thus, several fireballs flew at the Ash Zombies somewhere from the middle of the squares. Several of them hit a Zombie, bringing the creature down, yet many flew over the heads of the Sixth House followers, due to the bad visibility.

On the right, at the meantime, the Buoyant Armigers were increasing their pace. Yelling their war cries, the Armiger hoplites slowly entered into a run, presenting the Ash Slaves and Zombies with a wall of Chitin and Steel. One that was moving at them with quite some speed, too. Seeing this, the Ash Priest that was in charge of the right flank ordered the line and one of the colons to retreat, while beginning to outflank the Armigers with the remaining colon.

Thus, the two forces collided, driven by fanatical hatred towards the other side. In the background, the cannons rumbled, sending stone balls flying towards the menacing walls of the Ghostgate.

Slowly, the dust of the initial collision settled, and the situation became clearer.

In the middle, the forces seemed to be equal, with the two combating sides locking in place. Raynari heard only mixed yells, groans and moans, crackling of the lighting bolts and ring of weapons from that direction; however, his scouts reported what was going on in the battlefield.

Slowly, however, the balance was being tipped to the Sixth House’s favor by the very laws of nature – the deeper colons began pushing back the schiltrons, who were inferior in depth. Still, it was a painfully slow process, and it wasn’t clear for how long would this go on – the rearguard of the Ordinators was nowhere to be seen.

On the Sixth House’s left, the battle was going more to their favor. The Ordinators were pushing their way through the two lines, what with their superior depth, yet they were sticking their heads into a loop that was the superior width of the lines – while the schiltrons carved their way through, they were slowly being surrounded by the Ash Zombies that they couldn’t engage. It was obvious that soon enough, the Ordinators would be encircled.

Yet on the right, things were not going as well. The Buoyant Armigers caught up with the Colon and the line soon enough, and slammed into the colon, forcing the line to come to its aid. However, that was something that did not go very well, as the Armigers were superior in depth (except for the spot where they were faced with the colon) and equal in width with the Sixth House force.

With these advantages, also their superior weapons, the Armigers soon pushed back the Ash Zombie line, and turned fully on the colon, beginning to press it from the flank and the front. Now, only the colon that was supposed to outflank the Armigers could save the right flank.

Yet, Raynari did not have time to pay attention to the fact that his right flank was crippling. Instead, his attention was focused on the opposite flank, where he had a possibility to beat the Ordinators back and turn on the Ordinators’ main line, landing a blow at their flank, which would then be temptingly open.

Thus, he did not waste any time. Slowly, the cannons were aimed at the mass of men that was the engaged fighters. However, the situation was a difficult one – the combatants appeared only as a grey and yellow mass to the cannoneers, and they couldn’t fire without risking hitting those of their own.

Yet, soon enough, there was no more need for the cannons to interfere. The Ordinators stopped pushing forward, realizing they were surrounded from all sides by their enemy. Raynari, wishing to be over with the three schiltrons as fast as possible, decided to make himself present, if only for the impact the appearance of an Ash Vampire would have on the Ordinators’ morale.

Following this plan, Raynari took the ring off of his finger. Slowly, his bones grew, absorbing the Indoril armor into themselves. His ashen blue skin turned white, his nails grew longer and sharper. His helmet was painfully embed into his skull.

Slowly, Dagoth Nerevar straightened his back, his Indoril-fortified bones releasing a silent ‘crack’. For a slight moment, a purple light emerged from his hands, and the Grand Commander of the Sixth House Army in the Ghostgate Operation leaped forward. Due to the powerful Jump spell he had just cast, Raynari’s leap ended an incredibly far distance away from where he started – the Ash Vampire landed nearby his struggling left flank. Without a further ado, the Dagoth howled, then leaped into the combat.

The Ordinators, already demoralized by being surrounded, were almost completely broken after an Ash Vampire appeared out of nowhere and started blasting fireballs left and right. At Raynari’s orders, the Zombies opened up a gap, funneling the Ordinators out of their midst. As planned, what remained of them did not stop outside of the ring and regrouped, but kept running towards the Ghostgate, thus leaving around seven hundreds of Ash Zombies free from combat and ready to crash against the flank of the Ordinators.

While the left flank of the Sixth House began preparing to attack the Ordinator center, and their right flank was being pushed back, the center was under heavy pressure on the right, where the rearguard of the Ordinators began their attack. Still, it didn’t look like they would soon shatter – Raynari still had time to pull his attack.

Which he did. Soon enough, the Ordinators heard war roars of the Ash Zombies, and the next thing they knew, two colons slammed into them from the left (their right), led by an Ash Vampire or, as they considered Raynari, one of the Devils of Dagoth Ur.

Slowly, this tipped the balance more and more to their favor. Encouraged by the presence of their leader, the Sixth House Forces began fighting with increased ferocity. The Ordinators, on the contrary, became less willing to fight, as they were pressed by two sides and were fighting one of the greatest evils they could imagine.

Thus, it was no wonder that the Ordinators began slowly crumbling, their resistance weakening, though painfully slowly. Noticing this, the Buoyant Armigers slowed down their progress on the right wing of the Sixth House, turning around to help their allies. Yet, they were prevented from doing this by a rain of lighting bolts that came from behind them – the outflanking colon finally joined into the battle, after finding its way back to the battlefield, from which they had wandered due to mistakes of the scouts.

Thus, with no support coming, the Ordinator main force began crippling. Soldiers in the back ranks broke off, one by one or in groups. After some half an hour of fighting, all that remained in front of Raynari was a thin crescent that was bound to crumble within minutes.

Indeed, it did, and, seeing that, the Buoyant Armigers began retreating. They were the only part of the Temple’s forces in this battle that managed to retreat with discipline; the rest of them routed or were killed, as there was no surrendering in this battle between mortal enemies.

Following this defeat, the Ghostgate fell in a short time. After three days of intense cannonade, the structure began giving in to the cannons. Soon enough, the remnants of the Temple forces abandoned them, allowing the Sixth House to take complete control of it.

In the Battle of the Ghostgate, the Temple lost around one thousand six hundreds of Ordinators, excluding the one hundred of Buoyant Armigers and the four hundreds of Ordinators that died on the battlefield after the battle was over. Thus, the Temple lost around two thousands and a hundred of their force; more than half of them routed or retreated.

The Sixth House suffered lighter losses. In total, nine hundreds of the entire force died, excluding the three hundreds that perished from wounds later, after the battle was over. Thus, they lost one thousand and two hundreds of their force. Those losses were made up for by the two thousand Ash Slaves and Ash Zombies, commanded by Dagoth Endus, which joined Raynari on the second day of the Siege of the Ghostgate.

This post has been edited by Gaius Maximus: Apr 25 2008, 06:35 PM

[Gaius Maximus]

Chapter X

Raynari frowned, lifting his palm up above his eyes. Pressing the cold Indoril gauntlet against his brow, the Dunmer shielded his eyes from the sunlight, fixing his gaze on the dark clouds that were looming in the distance. His eyes registered a quick flash, which he identified as a lighting bolt.

Slowly, the ex-Ordinator lowered his hand again, grabbing the rein of his guar. His head turned a slight bit, a ray of sunshine quickly crossing his face, which made his frown grow.

“Looks like it’s going to rain tonight, Endus.” The Dunmer murmured, which made the Ash Vampire sniff loudly:

“I can see that myself.”

Raynari sneered, the frown quickly morphing into a smirk.

“Oh, can you now? One could think that after years of lurking within a dark Dwemer Ruin, your eyesight would become very poor. I’m glad my advisor is not blind.” Then, without giving his companion a chance to reply, he released a loud click with his tongue, urging his guar on to tread down the hill, where the clouds in the distance seemed to be mirrored by a large mass of Sixth House creatures.

Ever since Endus had arrived by the order of Dagoth Ur, tensions were high in the Sixth House camp. Raynari, while Endus’s superior in this operation, was considered below him by the Ash Vampire himself. Likewise, Raynari, who quickly formed the opinion of his second-in-command being a fool, held him to be a lower creature. The Ordinator, after all, never did learn how to behave around those whom he regarded as fools – a trait that could be blamed upon the fact that he was born under the Steed, and was thus sometimes too quick to decide abut people, or would, from time to time, suffer from the lack of patience.

Still, Endus had to behave. Dagoth Ur made it clear who was to be regarded as the head of this camp, and those few soldiers that still managed to think after being mangled by the Corprus disease had formed an opinion similar to that of Ur after the battle and the following fall of the Ghostgate. And those who did not preserve their minds during their evolution from a mangled beast into a somewhat Dunmer-like being did not matter – they would follow anyone.

Thus, Raynari still kept all the power and authority as the Grand Commander of the Sixth House Army in the Ghostgate Operation, only with added fame for accomplishing the Ghostgate Operation so quickly. Currently, he was the Grand Commander of the Sixth House Army in the Ald’Ruhn Operation.

Of course, not only the title of the operation had changed – Raynari had to perform different objectives as well. Currently, those were to capture the Redoran Council Seat, Ald’Ruhn, which was supposed to provide an anchorage point for future attacks against the Great Houses and the Empire. In reality, Raynari did not believe that it would hold for long – Ald’Ruhn, like any other city in Vvardenfell, was not a city suited to withstand a siege. Its walls were low, and it had only a few towers and no gate to speak of. The only really imposing military structure there was the Buckmoth Legion Fort, which was currently home to II, III, IV, V and VI Cohorts of the Legio VII Resdayn. The presence of Imperials Legion forces was what unnerved Raynari the most – as if the Redoran phalanx was not enough to deal with.

However, Raynari put much hopes into the terrain when it came to defeating the Redoran Phalanx. After all, the land around Ald’Ruhn was far from suited for a phalanx to fight on. Many rises and falls, many large boulders, and almost not a piece of flat land. Not even the ground in the city was flat – it was built on the slope of a hill, this was very uneven.

With such thoughts, hopes and concerns, Raynari rode down the hill, appearing right in the front of the leading Ash Slave colon. Endus stood on the hill for a few moments, muttering curses and insults, before the Ash Vampire descended as well, taking the lead of the rearguard.

***

Slowly, the sun was sinking beneath the mountains that overlooked Ald’Ruhn. Several Redoran watchmen lazily leaned against the walls of the tower, their blank gaze wandering around the bare landscape, their short spears thumping against the floor in a monotonic tone. As usual, it was not expected something would occur, even though rumors of the Ghostgate falling into the heretics’ hands have reached the Redoran Council, and the Strategos, Fadril Sendal Redoran had ordered the lookouts to be sharper than usual.

Thus, you could imagine a watchman’s surprise when his eyes spotted ranks and ranks of what were obviously soldiers of some sort, marching towards Ald’Ruhn through the Foyada. His spear’s counter-balance hit against the floor loudly, causing the other Dunmer to fix their attention to it.

Several moments later, a loud yell ‘ALARM!’, accompanied by the noise of a guarskin drum beaten in a steady manner disturbed the peaceful evening.

When those noises reached Raynari’s ears, the Ordinator smiled slightly, watching as alarm fires were being lit up in the several guard towers. Undoubtedly, the Redorans would soon mobilize a defensive force to fend back the Sixth House forces. Knowing this, Raynari turned slightly on his mount.

”Prepare for battle and press forward, for the glory of Sixth House!”

The tempo of the Sixth House drums became faster and faster as a result, urging the Ash Slaves and Ash Zombies to hurry their step. If all went well and according, they would have the suburbs of Ald’Ruhn before the night fell over the city. By then, though, the Redoran will probably have a strong force ready, yet Raynari hoped that they wouldn’t dive into the chaos of night warfare, allowing him time to prepare to take Ald’Ruhn by storm.

***

Indeed, Raynari could soon congratulate on a job well done. The Redorans did not even attempt to hold the buildings outside their walls – the Sixth House found them completely abandoned. The entrance to Ald’Ruhn looked temptingly vulnerable, yet Raynari knew better than let his army to fall into what could be a possible ambush, as he imagined the Redoran might not have been as unprepared as it seemed.

Thus, as the Great Magnus Hole disappeared to be changed by the twin moons and a number of smaller holes in Oblivion, Raynari was busy not with directing a battle – no, instead, the ex-Ordinator was busy planning, while the numerous lesser Dagoths concerned themselves with establishing night watch.

Leaning against a well-made redwood table with his hands, Raynari sighed. It all seems to be going too smooth. If the Redoran would’ve wanted, they would’ve made a stand here and perhaps held some of the buildings. Instead, they retreat, against all previous cases of Redoran action on the field of battle… With another sigh, the ex-Ordinator buried his face in his palms. The Redoran Strategos is not a fool. While their Council Leader might be just a figurehead, someone who has no idea about things not involving swinging, the Strategos was always someone with a clear mind. We must tread lightly…

Without realizing it, Raynari drifted off to sleep, surrounded by the darkness created by his palms.

***

The Grand Commander woke up to the sound of thunder, yells and clanging weaponry outside. At first, Raynari thought that Endus had arrived with the rearguard and caused confusion – the Ash Vampire had stopped somewhere halfway to Ald’Ruhn due to some troubles with discipline in the march order. However, what struck him as odd was the sound of clanging weapons – none of the Sixth House troops carried anything that could’ve caused such noise.

Half-awake, Raynari stumbled up the stairs, and basically rammed the door down, charging out of the small manor he had chosen to be his headquarters. Almost immediately, he had to brandish his Ebony scimitar, acquired in the Ghostgate, and defend himself.

After landing a successful blow to the throat of his opponent, Raynari looked around, rain pounding down on him. A lighting flash made the situation clear for a moment, and revealed to the ex-Ordinator what was happening.

Somewhere nearby the walls of Ald’Ruhn, he could see the shape of a large mass of men, moving towards the manor. Several loose engagements were taking place already, mostly between the peltasts of the Redoran and the Sixth House servants that made up the night watch. For a minute, the thunder distinguished the sounds of combat that disorientated Raynari, allowing him to notice fires in the direction of the Ald’Ruhn gate – obviously, the suburbs were on fire, but that did not prevent the forces there to keep fighting for the burning ruins.

With rain sending wave after wave of large drops into his face, it took Raynari only several seconds to wake up completely. Yet it took a bit longer until he could actually begin giving out orders – the thunder overwhelmed him, ringing in his ears, the loud noise crashing against the sides of his skull.

Finally, though, Raynari turned to the nearest figure:

“Gather what forces we have available here, and retreat them towards the back of the manor!”

To his luck, the person appeared to be a Dreamer. The Dunmer nodded quickly and bolted off towards the direction of all the noise. Raynari, on the meantime, got a hold of his guar, and managed to mount the steed, getting himself together completely. It was not the most pleasant feeling, to have to begin acting almost immediately after waking up, yet, by sheer force of will, he concentrated his attention to the battle at hand, not letting confusion to overcome his brain.

While Raynari attempted to rally his forces near the manor, Dagoth Endus had noticed the flames in the distance, and sped up his force. Despite what Raynari thought of him, Endus was not a complete fool – he knew quite well how to act; else Dagoth Ur wouldn’t have chosen him to be one of his generals.

Dagoth Endus could not see anything else than the burning suburbs, so he directed his force there, with intentions of aiding the forces there, who were in a dire situation – the fire and the Redorans had cut them off of the rest of the force, and they were heavily pressed by the enemy, who received constant reinforcements from the city gates.

While Endus maneuvered to engage the Redorans in the suburbs, Raynari had already managed to assemble his force, and begin a coordinated defense. The Redoran phalanx, blindly marching towards the outline of the manor, was soon greeted by a hail of lighting bolts, sent towards them by the Ash Slaves. Their tight-packed formation made them easy targets, and the noise they caused on their march gave away their positions. Thus, many soldiers from the front ranks fell, and the second and third ranks almost tripped over the bodies, disrupting the phalanx. As if it was not enough, in the darkness, some of the front-rank soldiers, those who did not fall, continued marching forward, Dunmer behind them following suit. Those that pressed forward soon began stopping, however, upon noticing that there were none around them; still, the entire slope of the hill they were marching down had turned into a giant pool of mud by now, and the hoplites continued sliding down, some tripping.

Using this moment of weakness, Raynari ordered his troops forward. Yet they were not professional soldiers, and even if the Ash Slaves and Zombies could keep cohesion well enough in daylight, it did not mean the same would happen during nighttime. To increase the disruption, the Sixth House forces had to climb up the muddy hill, and it was not an easy task.

Thus, by the time the tow forces had collided, both were unorganized, dirty, and weary. Still, Raynari had the advantage – his forces, even if they had to climb up hill, were still more prepared for combat than the Redoran hoplites, who were being slowed down considerably by their heavy armor. Also, the phalanx had not managed to aim their spears at the Sixth House troops properly – when Raynari had reached them, most of the hoplites were still struggling to get up, or confused about whenever they should turn back or press on.

Since the Redoran did not manage to fight back with much efficiency, the Sixth House troops continued pushing forward, and soon managed to convince the hoplites that they had to retreat. The Dunmer began executing this maneuver, yet it soon turned from a retreat into a rout.

In the other places, the Redorans were facing similar difficulties, not to mention the arrival of a fresh force of Ash Slaves and Zombies in the suburbs, where the main fighting was taking place. Slowly but steadily, the odds started shifting towards the Sixth House’s favor, and the Redoran Strategos, Fadril Sendal, was soon forced to begin retreating his forces into the city.

With more or less cohesion, the Redorans started pulling back. However, by the time Fadril had ordered a retreat, Raynari had arrived to the suburbs with his Ash Slaves. Weary as those Corprus monsters were, they were still more capable of fighting than the Redorans, due to their enhanced strength and lack of any armor to weight them down.

Raynari had made up a quick plan during his advance towards the suburbs – after several more lighting flashes, he had noticed that the Redoran were receiving reinforcements through the gates. Thus, he decided to cut them at their roots, so to speak. Indeed, soon enough, his detachment slammed into the retreating Redorans’ flank, and effectively pushed them off from the gates, cutting the remaining hoplites off of the rest of their forces.

Surrounded, the remaining hoplites lined up back-to-back, in a schiltron-fashioned way. Still, they did not hold out for long against the hail of lighting. The Sixth House had earned themselves a moment of peace, during which Raynari and Endus needed to agree upon what actions were to be taken now.

And thus, as the sun again began resurfacing from behind the mountains, the two generals met.

Raynari’s appearance had changed considerably since the last time the two had spoken. Previously, the Grand Commander was almost gleaming, his armor polished and without a dent. Now, Raynari was bloody from the tip of his toes to his hair. Numerous dents and gaps were visible in his armor, and several cracks could be seen even on the scimitar – after hours of cleaving through the armor, flesh and bones of the Redoran, not even the nigh-unbreakable Ebony could come out without a scratch.

On the other hand, Endus seemed to be exactly the same as before, and Raynari knew the reason for this- the cowardly rat had not fought along his men, or at least not on the frontlines. Still, he swallowed whatever comments he might’ve had about that, instead starting their ‘meeting’ with different words:

“Ah, Endus. So good to see you here. I am glad that you managed to find your way to us after all.”

The Dagoth sniffed silently.

“We have no time for this, and you know it. We need to decide what to do next, and the responsibility falls on you… Dagoth Nerevar.”

Raynari smirked slightly, yet the smirk soon turned into an expression of pain as the ex-Ordinator clutched the left side of his stomach – his armor did not completely protect him, yet he was almost sure this could be healed easily enough. If not, he could just morph into a Dagoth, and, according to Ur, all of his wounds would be healed.

Still pressing his hand against the hole in his armor, the Dunmer spoke:

“There’s no question in what we do next. We’ll press into the city, and destroy what is left of the Redoran Army.”

“And what of the Foreigner Fort?” Endus motioned towards the imposing structure that was looming in the distance. Oddly enough, the Fort stayed silent during the entire night of combat, even though the alarm fires were burning brightly in the towers ever since the suburbs had caught on fire.

“If they do not react, then we won’t touch them until Ald’Ruhn is ours. Just to be safe, though, have a fifth of our men guard our back and alarm us in case the Legion marches out.”

Endus nodded, for once without any sniffs or sneers. The Ash Vampire hurried off to his generals, leaving Raynari alone with his wounds.

***

As fast as possible, Raynari gathered his remaining forces. The night assault cost them one fourth of their entire force, yet Raynari hoped they had inflicted higher casualties to the Redorans. While Endus had the forces Raynari ordered him to assemble lined up outside the suburbs, Raynari and the four-fifths of the remaining Sixth House force advanced into Ald’Ruhn through the main gate.

At first, all seemed quiet – the Ash Slaves and Zombies marched through the main street undisturbed for several minutes. The rain had died down by now, yet the land was still wet, so their progress was slow.

However, somewhere halfway through the main street, when Raynari could already see the Skar in the distance, shouts and clanging of weapons was heard behind them. Upon turning around, Raynari was faced with a phalanx that steadily advanced towards them, cutting them off from Endus.

Knowing that coalition would not end well for them, Raynari ordered the usual hail of lighting to meet the Redorans. However, after all the ranks of the Ash Slaves had released their bolts, they began again, forcing the phalanx to speed up. Still, the effects of the rain of lighting was similar to those seen previously – the marching Dunmer tripped over their dead comrades. The only difference was that this time, the Redorans were advancing uphill, and instead of sliding away from the soldiers behind them, the hoplites who tripped or were cut down by the lighting slid at the ones behind them, further adding to the confusion.

Giving the phalanx a bit more time to completely loose cohesion, Raynari ordered his Ash Slaves to advance. The phalanx, however, did not even attempt to engage the attackers – instead, they began pulling back, managing to gain back their cohesion as the retreated, testament to Redoran training and discipline. Raynari, of course, had his own theories, especially regarding the leader of this phalanx – he suspected that Fadril Sendal was personally in the lead of this force.

These Redorans were the last major force left in Ald’Ruhn. Following their retreat out of the city, Dagoth Endus attempted to draw them into battle, however failed, and the phalanx successfully retreated to the Buckmoth Legion Fort.

Raynari, upon the retreat of Fadril Sendal, began the liberation of the city from the ‘heretics’. Each and every citizen unlucky enough to still be in Ald’Ruhn were given a choice – follow Dagoth Ur, or die for the Tribunal. After the predictable massacre, given that this was a Redoran settlement, and Redorans were fiercely loyal to the Temple, Ald’Ruhn was left with only several hundreds of citizens.

However, before Raynari could begin the assault on Fort Buckmoth, Dagoth Ur sent a message through one of his Ascended Sleepers, that Raynari was required back in the Red Mountain. Without delay, the ex-Ordinator mounted his guar and left, leaving Dagoth Endus to plan the assault on Fort Buckmoth alone.

[raggidman]

Bravely done! No autobiography this. It may be about the Nerevarine, but this is a story/history' as it might have been if 'Morrowind' had not happened.

And I remember that there was a prediction that if the Nerevarine failed then Dagoth Ur might conquer all of Tamriel

This post has been edited by raggidman: May 8 2008, 07:39 PM