Bloodlust, Written by a Fan Fiction Newbie Options

[Black Hand]

You cruel son of a mating kagouti!!!

Excellent Update, my friend.

[Abu the Cat]

Ha! I'll be surprised if it's Savlian!

[The Metal Mallet]

Simion slowly spun around to face his assailant. The whole time he wondered what he possibly could’ve done to be caught. He had been so careful! At least as careful as he could be; the voice did cause a few slip-ups, but those mistakes couldn’t have hinted that he was coming here.

Once Simion’s eyes fell on his captor they widened. He was staring straight into the eyes of a determined looking Captain Savlian Matius. Savlian smirked with a hint of darkness at Simion’s reaction.

“H-how…?” Simion managed to choke out as a whisper.

“A fortunate series of events for me, but they would be unfortunate for you,” Savlian said evenly, readjusting his grip on his broadsword.

Savlian’s cryptic answer set off a nerve in Simion. “No! I need to know how! I deserve that much!” he whispered heatedly at Savlian, his voice heavy with conviction.

“What you deserve is a good hanging. But I’ll satisfy your curiosity if you satisfy mine,” Savlian said, pausing to wait for an answer. Simion nodded, so Savlian continued. “The first thing I knew about you was that you were supposedly abandoned by your parents, as they had disappeared on you. Then you, yourself said that they disappeared on you. It just so happened that when I was talking to Count Goldwine, he said something that jogged my memory. You see, I know about what Goldwine does to the people of Kvatch. What he collects is additional money and if people catch on, he gives them a warning to shut up or they next time he “makes them disappear”. Recently, I found out that before I arrived in Kvatch, Goldwine was doing this business himself in order to fund himself for his quest for Lordship. Given that you were a child when Goldwine was doing this, and the repeated fact that your parents “disappeared”, I just made a connection from there.”

“If you knew what was going on, why didn’t you stop him?” Simion asked.

“Because I’m a man of the law. He deceived me when I first started working here. Since then, I have been making the best effort possible in curbing the amount of “disappearances”,” Savlian said and then asked, “Now, for my own curiosity, was I correct? What really happened to your parents?”

Simion stood mute for a few moments, thinking on his possibilities. Here he stood with a sword to his neck, his whole operation smashed along with it, and his captor wanted to know about his parents. Something was odd about this, Savlian wasn’t trying to slap him in chains and take him away. It seemed like the only reason why he had a sword to his neck was to keep Simion from attacking. The thought of attacking did cross Simion’s mind. The operation could be saved if he could kill Savlian quietly with a surprise attack. The problem was, Savlian was a seasoned veteran, he knew what he was dealing with here and Simion didn’t think he was fast enough to get away from a sword that was all ready pressing against him. He decided that the best thing for him now was to hear out the Captain and figure out what he wanted.

“Fine, Captain, I’ll tell you what happened…”



The storm came shortly after the Mandrake family’s evening time meal. The chill brought on by the heavy winds caused the family to huddle close to the fireplace. Vincent Mandrake, the man of the household, spoke quietly with his wife, Mayden. Simion sat upon her lap, listening to their conversation every now and then or fixing his attention on the dancing flames in the fireplace. Eventually, Simion began to doze off, soothed by the pleasing voices of his parents.

When the quiet snores of Simion reached his parents’ ears, they ended their conversation in order to put Simion into bed. There seemed to be no frets for the family at all as they all retired for the night, the howling winds buffeting the home ineffectively.


Simion woke to what he thought was a peal of thunder. He found that odd, as he wasn’t expecting a thunderstorm, just a lot of wind. Listening carefully, he could still hear the winds moaning through the air but there was something else as well. Murmurs. Curious, Simion left his bedroom and started to head downstairs, where the source of the murmurs originated. He stopped a few steps down, just enough so he could see the bottom floor.

His father was holding his mother against him while three men stood around him. Even from a distance, Simion could see the tears in his father’s eyes. He had never seen the men standing around his father before. They certainly didn’t look friendly. They were all Imperials, but the one closest to Simion’s father stood out from the other two. He seemed to exude power, a very dominating one. The large rings on his fingers also told Simion that he possessed wealth.

“You’ve been cheating me, Vincent. I don’t appreciate that at all. You’ve just received only a small taste of what’s to come,” the lead Imperial said darkly.

“Vernon, with taxes so high I only have so much I can give you. I need to provide for my family,” Vincent pled, still cradling the still form of Mayden in his arms.

One of Vernon’s thugs turned to the other and said, “Hey buddy. Would you call a male widow a midow?”

The other thug laughed. “That was a good one!”

Vernon turned around and looked at the two thugs sourly. “Shut up you two.”

The Imperial then turned his attention back onto Vincent. “As for you, it’s time for the payment,” he said as Vincent began to back away, terror struck.

Simion couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene before him as the three Imperials began to beat on his father. Vincent couldn’t put up a fight, his will was shattered with the death of his wife. Only the occasional whimper or cry of pain rose from Vincent.

The Imperials backed away momentarily and Simion saw that Vincent was unconscious, his body beaten badly yet was not bleeding. He noticed Vernon nod to one of his thugs, who then proceeded to snap Vernon’s neck.

The sickening crunch caused Simion to cry out in fear, anger, and pain. Immediately three heads swivelled in his direction. Vernon smiled mischievously and motioned for the thugs to get him.

Simion didn’t know what came over him but when the thugs reached him on the stairs, he lashed out with his foot on the knee of the closest one. The blow caused the man to cry out in pain and fall backwards, tackling his partner with him as they crashed down the stairs.

Instead of fleeing, Simion went straight for Vernon, bolded by his attack on the thugs. Simion lunged at the man who was still wearing his grin. For his size, Vernon was nimble enough to side-step Simion’s attack. As Simion turned around to face his opponent, Vernon’s ringed fist slammed right into his face, toppling him to the floor.

Dazed, Simion felt wetness on the right side of his face, above the brow. He couldn’t regain his feet and terror rose up within him as he thought that he was now going to be the next corpse.

Vernon simply stood there, inspecting his ring for any damage. “That took some courage kid, but we have more important things to do than play fight with you,” he said smirking.

The last thing Simion saw before blacking out was Vernon walking out of his home with his thugs carrying the bodies of Mayden and Vincent Mandrake.

“…Shortly after that, I left home. I simply couldn’t live in the place where that happened,” Simion finished, voice heavy with emotion.

Savlian remained quiet throughout the whole recollection. He saw something new in Simion now, a loss of innocence. Since that night, Simion has faced a hard and cruel world all on his own, and it was way too early for him to do such a thing. Simion was a victim of circumstances. But this still raised questions.

“Why did you have to kill my men when all you wanted was Vernon?”

“I figured that if Goldwine was now Count of Kvatch, then his whole damn organisation would be corrupt. I would be doing the town a favour by getting rid of them,” Simion said calmly, his caution receding due to the lack of being arrested as of yet.

“You figured wrong. Those were good men you killed. But I’m willing to make a sacrifice for them…” Savlian trailed off, fixing Simion with a awkward glance.

This was what Simion was waiting for. “You want to make an arrangement of sorts?” he asked, all ready knowing the answer.

“Yes. If I walk away from this, I want this to be your last murder. I won’t pursue you about your previous murders, though that breaks me inside, I’ll do that much for you to get rid of Goldwine. Overall, more lives will be saved this way,” Savlian said, not sounding happy about the situation one bit.

Simion extended his hand and said, “My last murder.”

Savlian felt like he just made the biggest mistake of his life as he gripped Simion’s hand and walked away.

[Abu the Cat]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm... I suspect the Daedra attack soon.

[Black Hand]

HaHA! So I was right, but not in quite the way I was suspecting...

Very good.

[minque]

Indeed very good Mallie! In fact really darn excellent!

[The Metal Mallet]

Time to move things along. Hopefully I can keep things interesting after this. And I'll tell Abu this right now. The daedra attack on Kvatch won't happen in 'Bloodlust'. If I do decide to write it, it'll be in a sequel. Hopefully I'll keep the sequel a little shorter than this, and move onto a project that might prove interesting to my fellow writers here. But that's getting a bit ahead of myself. Here's the update!


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Vernon walked briskly, his cloak swishing softly with each step. Anticipation poured throughout his body, excitement and nervousness flirted with each other. Vernon needed to remain a sombre demeanour though. He couldn’t express his true feelings, but by the Divines, he was happy. He was getting what he wanted, he was sure of it.

He finally reached the large double doors at the end of the hall. They were heavy with intricately gilded designs crawling up the sides of the doorframe. The dark brown object was his only obstacle, one he simply needed to push past. Vernon took pleasure in doing so, throwing the doors wide open as he stepped through them.

Bright sunshine greeted Vernon as he entered his large courtyard in front of his castle. A respectable, awed hush from the crowd outside reached his ears. That only enhanced his feeling of greatness; it gave him the power to do what he wanted to do. He saw how every eye in the crowd followed him as he made his journey across the courtyard to where his throne sat awaiting him.

He also noticed that some of the crowd would break their gaze on him to murmur something into their neighbour’s ear and glance over to their right. That was acceptable as well, considering the event about to take place. It wasn’t often that an execution of this scale happens.

Beside the crowd was Vernon’s newly constructed gallows, specifically made for this execution. It was a monstrous pile of greyed wood, practically an eyesore compared to the beauty surrounding it, but that was how Vernon wanted it. Punishment was meant to be ugly and scary. Intimidation was the only way to get through to the criminals that their fate was sealed as soon as they committed their crime.

At least the crimes that Vernon didn’t want.

The point of being a Count was control. That even goes for crime. There is no way that all crime could be abolished, so the next best thing to do is at least control the crime. Vernon had that controlled, for the most part. There were just a few loose ends to deal with.

Vernon reached his throne and regally sat himself down. All murmurs in the crowd immediately silenced. All were anxious to hear what Vernon was going to say. It always amused Vernon how the public thirsted to witness death. He intended to quench their thirst this afternoon. He, above all, was a crowd pleaser.

Standing in front of the gallows were three men, two of them in Vernon’s colours and the other, an Imperial, held in between them, his head bowed. His sandy brown hair was stringy and dry, his skin pale in drawn. Captain Savlian certainly wasn’t the proud man he used to be.

It had taken quite some time in Vernon’s personal dungeons to break the Captain. It was a personal triumph for Vernon once he did though. Now was the time to make use of his scapegoat.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Vernon started, drinking in the crowd’s attention, “I’m sure you have all been interested in what has been going on over the last few days. As you may have known, some unknown “serial killer” has murdered members of our Town Guard. Captain Savlian here was assigned to the case in catching this killer. Since assigned to the case, the killer has killed three more guards. Captain Savlian’s negligence raised my suspicions, so I had the Captain followed. My informant passed on information that he witnessed Captain Savlian murdering the fourth victim. Since being arrested, Captain Savlian has also admitted to murdering countless other residents in Kvatch who were thought to have gone missing.”

Upon hearing Vernon’s words, the crowd rose up in a flood of heated voices, angry at the one responsible for killing their own people. Surely, some participants in the crowd had family members that had gone “missing”. Vernon could barely suppress a snicker at his ingenuity. Captain Savlian worked perfectly as a scapegoat for the “missing” people since he was taking the blame for murdering the guards. Sure, the actual murderer had yet to be found, but he had Hlodir on the case now and Vernon felt confident in Hlodir’s abilities.

Vernon raised his arms to the air to silence the crowd, which slowly complied. “As your Count, I am equally as appalled as you are about Captain Savlian’s crimes. As Count, I have deemed his punishment to be death by hanging. Many the Divines judge you appropriately,” Vernon concluded to the appraisal of the crowd turned mob.

The two guards led Savlian up the stairs to the top of the gallows as the mob shouted their profanities at the dispirited Captain. He kept his head bowed the entire trip as the guards stopped him in front of the rope. They slipped the looped rope around his neck and awaited Vernon’s command.

Vernon silenced the crowd once more. “Would the Captain like to say some final words?”

All attention was turned to Savlian, curious to see what a mass murderer would say before death. Many were disappointed when Savlian simply shook his head no, followed by a drop of liquid falling from his bowed head.

Vernon nodded to guard by the lever, anxious to see the results. The guard complied and pulled the level down. A loud groan erupted from the gallows as the trap door fell open with Savlian plummeting downwards…


A shadow crossing across the moonlight on Vernon’s eyes snapped them open. Before him stood an ominous shadow, which began to lean before him. Before he could call out, the shadow wrapped a hand over his mouth, efficiently muffling it.

Horrified, struggled within his covers that were binding him from escape. The shadow brought its head to Vernon’s ear. “Time to pay for what you did to me, Vernon. Vengeance is mine!” It whispered harshly.

Vernon moaned in horror as a glint of steel appeared in the shadow’s hands.




Four riders, dirty with the dust and dirt of travel entered through the gates of Kvatch at dawn. Three wore simple brown robes, two of them were Dunmer, and the other a Khajiit. A Dunmer in a well-made red robe rode slightly in front of the three.

Clenching the reins in black leather gloves, the red-robed Dunmer turned back to his three companions. “Find Lavos, report at the assigned location 24 hours from now. After that, we’ll go from what we find out,” he ordered quietly as the three riders rode off in different directions.

Hanging back, the red-robed Dunmer hoped that Lavos would be found. Things could get quiet messy dealing with Simion if that wasn’t the case.

[Black Hand]

An old friend is in town!!!

[Abu the Cat]

Hmmm... I wonder how they'll get him.

[jack cloudy]

Oh, will he get time to finish the job or will he be stopped by the sneaky assassins? Tune in next time.

[The Metal Mallet]

Well, jack, I think this update tells you whether or not Simion completed his deed or not...


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Savlian didn’t know what to expect when he entered the Count’s bedroom. To say he was shocked would be an understatement. The once pristine white covers were stained so heavily with crimson it looked nearly black. The stench of the blood was all ready rank with decay. Once Savlian’s eyes fell upon Count Vernon Goldwine, he couldn't believe what he was witness to.

The sight of him nearly caused Savlian to vomit on the spot. He was forced to turn his back on him to recollect himself, taking several deep breaths before returning his gaze on the fallen Count. The display of absolute violence done upon the Count astounded Savlian. The Count was still in his bed, hands bound to the bed posts and his back against the headboard in a sitting position. His throat had been sliced completely open, yet that was not the disturbing factor for Savlian. It was that the Count had been disembowelled quite thoroughly. Savlian could tell that the Count lived through some of it at least, since Vernon’s face was the perfect image of convoluted agony and fear. It amazed Savlian how Simion was able to do this without Vernon screaming in pain and anyone noticing. Not to mention how frightening that aspect was. This was a prime example on how talented Simion was at his profession.

A young Imperial Town Guardsman walked up to Savlian, a grim expression on his face. “Did you notice the body in the hallway? Looks like the butler. Brixley I think his name is, or was, actually.”

“Yes, I noticed. The way I see it is that the butler basically led whoever did this to the Count’s room, took out the butler to insure privacy, then proceeded with their grisly attack on the Count. I’m still shocked that no one heard anything all night,” Savlian said, turning towards the guard, “If you were being disembowelled, wouldn’t you scream and yell for help?”

“Maybe the killer sliced his throat before doing that,” the guard offered.

“No, judging by the expression on the Count’s face, he saw what was happening to him and didn’t enjoy it. This was a crime of emotion, possibly vengeance. The killer wanted the Count to see what was being done to him. Who ever did this likely enjoyed what they did, simply because this would take time to do. They didn’t seem afraid of being caught,” Savlian said solemnly, shaking his head sadly.

“Do you think this was done by whoever has been killing guards in the Town Guard? Brixley’s execution out there looks like something from one of those crime scenes,” the guard inquired, looking to see if his deduction was a good one.

“Possibly, I certainly agree with you on the execution of the butler, but looking at this… this is completely different. This is vicious, vile, vengeful. It’s also unrelated to the Town Guard. I don’t see any reason for whoever has been killing our men to do this,” Savlian answered, retaining his grim expression.

“Sounds reasonabe,” the guard agreed, “Have you’ve seen all that you need to? I think it would be best if we get things a bit more pleasant looking before those rats at the Black Horse Courier have a field day with this.”

“Sure, go ahead. I need to deal with the succession issue for now,” Savlian said before dismissing himself from the room.

With Vernon dead, the next ordeal to deal with would be who was to govern Kvatch. As with most hierarchies, the next in the bloodline would be given control of Kvatch. If Savlian remembered correctly, that would be Vernon’s younger brother, Ormellius Goldwine. Vernon had never taken a Countess for his court, so he had no children.

If Savlian’s memory was correct, Ormellius was currently living in Chorrol, serving as an army commander. Savlian needed to get word to Ormellius quickly before a power struggle within Kvatch erupted. His fear of this was mainly due to Hlodir. As being the Count’s right-hand man, and likely having influence with most of the Vernon’s household, he posed a threat on the leadership of Kvatch.

Knowing the network Vernon had created, word of his death would have all ready reached Hlodir’s ears. One of two things would happen. Either he would flee, taking as many men as possible, or try to overtake the castle.

It was then that Savlian realised how empty the castle was. Hlodir had all ready evacuated his men. Was he planning an attack on the castle, or simply fleeing back to his drug lab hideaway? Or maybe, something else?

I’m going to need to act quickly, because the sooner I’m done dealing with this, I’m bringing you down, Hlodir, Savlian thought as he headed to his barracks.

[Black Hand]

Yes...bloody wonderful!!!

[Kiln]

I really like the detective-like manor expressed in this update, it allows the reader to really build a visual image of whats going on in the story. Great work, please continue.

[jack cloudy]

Yuck. I hope that Simion washed his hands before leaving.

Hmm, I don't trust Hlodir. I've got the feeling he'll pop up behind our good captain's back real soon.

[The Metal Mallet]

Commander Ormellius Goldwine and his detainment had rode out of Chorrol shortly after receiving the word that his brother, Vernon, had been murdered. When reading the letter that was sent by the Captain of the Town Guard, Ormellius could feel the sense of urgency of the writer. He had been keeping a steady observation on what was happening in Kvatch, just in case he came into power there, and now he was certainly glad he did.

Ormellius was quite the opposite from his brother; while Vernon had distanced himself from his family to make his own money in Kvatch, Ormellius devoted himself to the military. Around the time that Ormellius was becoming a decorated soldier, Vernon purchased his title of Count of Kvatch. It came as no surprise to Ormellius, Vernon was always resourceful. He knew Vernon’s personality, so Ormellius found it hard to believe that Vernon purchased his title legitimately. Eventually, Ormellius had established himself as a worthy commander of the Chorrol Garrison. With that power, he was able to set up his own private investigation on what was going on in Kvatch.

He had found out that a lot of dirty business was going on in Kvatch. Unfortunately, his investigation never led to any connections to Vernon directly. Kvatch’s tax records were unattainable, so he had no way to prove the complaints of citizens being overtaxed. He also knew about the mysterious “disappearances” and the skooma drug ring. Again, they didn’t have any names on which to continue the investigation. It was a very frustrating matter at the time. Ormellius intended to correct these problems now with his brother gone.



Ormellius was about two hours away from Kvatch when along the rode they were travelling on riders began to materialise in the distance. The roads had been quite quiet during their journey; with only the odd merchant wagon or farmer greeting them along their way, but this was their first time coming across a group of riders.

Suspicion gnawed on Ormellius’ mind, so he decided to hold up the horses and wait for these riders to arrive. The detainment, confident in their commander’s action, complied readily, some making sure their weapons were easy to reach.

As the silhouettes of the riders became more distinguished, Ormellius noticed that they only numbered three. With only three, the riders would have to all be accomplished mages or masters at their weapons to defeat Ormellius and his detainment. His apprehension receded with that assurance.

Moments later the riders, consisting of two Nords, and an Imperial, stopped before the Commander’s detainment. The large Nord at the head of the group stepped down from his horse and walk towards Ormellius on his horse.

“Greetings, Count Goldwine. I wish t’be the first t’congratulate you on your succession as Count o’ Kvatch,” the Nord said rather elegantly, despite his rough looking clothes, and bowed down to a knee.

Ormellius kept his face emotionless as he answered. “Thank you, Nord. Might I ask whom I am speaking with?”

“My name do be Hlodir Windblower, faithful servant o’ the former Count,” Hlodir replied from his knee.

So this is whom the letter mentioned to be wary of… Ormellius thought as he studied the Nord. “What is it that you wish to speak with me about, Hlodir?” he asked in a light tone.

“Well, sir, I was hoping t’keep serving the Count o’ Kvatch. I offer “services” that your Lordship would find quite beneficial,” Hlodir said, flashing the best smile he could.

Ormellius flashed a smile as well. “I’m sorry, but I have to inform you about some disheartening news for you. I am not my brother. I have no use of your “services” whatsoever. Now I suggest you ride along before I decide to enact your punishment for your crimes right now,” he said, his tone becoming harsher with every sentence.

A scowl of hatred replaced the smile that was on Hlodir’s face as he rose from his feet. “With Vernon dead, you don’t want me for an enemy. Kvatch is mine!” Hlodir nearly hissed at Ormellius as he hopped onto his horse.

“Well be sure to stay out of “your” city, or else you’ll be arrested and executed,” Ormellius called out to the backs of three riders heading north.

Well, so far, so good.




A red-robed Dunmer sat at a corner table in “The Flying Bosmer”, eyes casually scanning the patrons milling about in the tavern. There was a grey haze cast about the rafters of the room due to excess amounts of tobacco smoke. The Dunmer added a puff of grey smoke himself, but of the hackle-lo variety that he brought along. He had tried tobacco once before and found the stuff vile. Plus, the restorative effects of the native to Morrowind plant seemed more effective than what these Cyrodillic called “quality smoke”. He shook his head in disbelief of the ego of the Empire. He had to admit though, they made good brandy…

Looking up from the table, he noticed his fellow companions making their way to his table. The Dunmer finished off his hackle-lo; eager to hear the report, yet he kept his face even.

The Khajiit was the first to speak. “Rah’mirr has heard no news about Lavos. Rah’mirr fears for the worst,” the Khajiit said solemnly.

The red-robed Dunmer nodded thoughtfully then turned his attention to the two other Dunmer, who shook their heads sadly.

“Then in all likelihood, like the note said, Lavos is dead. How Simion could kill his best friend is beyond me, but since he has, we’ll have to be extremely cautious. Right now, we scout for him. Everyday, at this time, I want reports. Once we find him, I’ll take it from there,” he said, his tone deadly serious, “No more Tong members are going to die from here on out. Understand?”

The Dunmer watched as three heads nodded in compliance before leaving.

Black leather gloves creaked as the Dunmer flexed his fists as he stared down at them in retrospect. The lump of a ring predominately caught his attention. With that ring, everything had changed for him; he went from a simple assassin to a leader of an entire province for a time that had the greatest need for him. The ring had certainly cost him much, but he persevered to do what was needed.

He sighed. “Just when I hoped the burdens on my life were finally vanquished, this had to happen,” Sethyas Velas quietly said out loud to no one in particular.

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I would just like to thank Black Hand for allowing me the privledge of using Sethyas for cameo purposes. Hey, if Tellie and minque can do it. I can too!

[jack cloudy]

Sorry Hlodir, no candy this time. I'm sure that we haven't seen the last of him.

Sethyas versus Simion? This would be an interesting battle. The master assassin against the madman with quite a bit of skill of his own. I bet my money on Sethyas though. Hey, Sethyas killed a god, I haven't seen Simion do that.

[Black Hand]

Wow. Not stroking MY ego here, but Mallets, you got all the intricacies down pat, you definitely have been paying attention to my story, and of course you wrote it down in the style I have come to love!
Keep it up!

[Taillus]

Oh me oh my! I have sooooo much reading to do!

I decided to start on your story first because I wanted to see what some of the "New Blood" had to offer since I was last here. It seems that the writing is as strong as it was before (No big shock with that one) which makes me want to catch up on each and every story here. It will take me a while to do it but I will read them all!!!!

Mallet I do have to say you really have a talent for writing and I think that you enjoy doing it as much as we enjoy reading it. Keep up the good work, it was a lot to take in reading all seven pages at once but if that is what it takes then so be it! Congrats on a great story, a riviting storyline and spectacular characters. Keep it coming!

[Abu the Cat]

Bloody Nord! Woops, did I say that? Anyway... nice one!

[Soulseeker3.0]

I can't believe i missed this much, were have i been? Anyways.... fabulous! I loved all the description you put into it all. It was grisly but well done... so, was it a silence spell or just a good hold onto the mouth? I love the conversation between Goldwine and Hlodir, even if it was anti-climactic (at the moment, I'm sure something big will happen eventually). I love this story, please keep up the good work.