Shades of Ending, set after the oblivion MQ Options

[haute ecole rider]

Thank you for your glacial pace!! It allowed me to catch up on this story fairly easily (compared to certain others)

I continue to enjoy the trip through what I consider to be one of the most beautiful areas to be found in Oblivion. And I really like how "Necromancer's Moon" starts here, not as a go-and-see-what's-going-on-because-we're-too-frecking-lazy-to-do-it-ourselves quest as we have in game. I am interested to see what happens next.

And as you continue to develop Ferir and Ruben's characters, I continue to be awed by how you can take characters that are neither heroic or evil and make them into people I care about.

[Lady Saga]

Hey Olen, I'm Renee. This thread bounced up so I just started reading it. I think I'm reading something like 10 stories now here. I had a little trouble in the OP understanding what's going on, but once I "got" what it's about, wow, am I hooked.

Early on when I showed up at Bethsoft forums a couple years back, I wrote a thread that was supposed to be seen through the eyes of a typical Cyrodiilic enemy. I wrote about what a bandit, a necromancer, and other typical NPC's actually feel and witness when one of my adventuring characters discovers their lair, or camp, or whatever. Sadly, Bethsoft has a habit of "cleaning up" its forums, and this particular thread got lost.

...What I'm trying to say is this story reminds me a lot of that thread I started, and Bethsoft destroyed.

Also, as a struggling (I hate the word 'recovering') drug-addict myself, I can certainly relate to the early skooma scenes! Take care and I'll be reading up as time permits.

Bookmark: P26

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Jun 4 2012, 06:22 PM

[Olen]

Sorry for the massive delay in posting. As it turns out a few of my exams were a bit hard. Posting should resume it's sporadic pace now though, there's still a small amount unposted too. This part is very short I'm afriad but the next one has no obvious break for quite a long section and I didn't want to make a monster by attaching this to it. This also serves to get things going again before the next bit which is a biggy.

McBadgere - Glad you like Adriel, to be honest I'm not exactly sure who's good in this piece either.

Athynae - I wouldn't take my view of TES as anywhere near cannon, I'm quite willing to modify it for fiction and fill in blanks. Where there is lore I try to useit as a foundation but in places there either isn't or it makes no sense...

SubRosa - Goos to know you're enjoying, and yes that little reference was waiting to be picked up.

In this case I did mean outwith, that meaning of without isn't one I would ever use. I think it's a dialect thing.

Ghastley - Without meaning to confuse things

Grits - Your comments are always very much appricited, I can guage whether half saidthings are noticed and that the characters are going the right way from them. I'm so glad you picked up on that half formed thought, and as awful as it is who wouldn't think it? The dagger is another shade of grey to play with, there will be more.

Haute - I always aim to create characters who people can sympathise with while they do often questionable or even just wrong things so I'm glad I have people liking them. It makes the whole moral thing more fun to play with. The mages guild quest line is going to be very loosely interpreted in this piece, as you may have guessed.

Renee - Confusion in the OP, I suppose I agree. I like to start in media res and explain after, I glad the hook worked

Where we were: Ruben and Ferir had gone to investigate a purple light (the Shade of the Revenant), been attacked by a pair of necromancers and a zombie before they got to it and then escaped with the mysterious Adreil. We join them, all still alive, in the morning.


3.4 Old Ways

"So where are you headed?" asked Ferir. The sun still lurked below the jagged peaks of the Valus mountains. The pre-dawn light washed the forest in blood.

Adriel gave a short laugh. It was shrill like a weird echo to the absent birdsong. Ferir felt the hair on his neck prickle. "Where the wind blows. We are few, and disorganised."

Ferir let a half smile creep onto his features. Where the wind blows. The phrase could mean a thousand things but Adriel lived it. It took one to know one, and he saw the signs. Ruben was quiet and it wasn't just his obvious malaise. It had been close the night before, had there been another, had luck been against them, had the wine been stronger. Had any of a thousand things happened differently they would be dead, or worse.

But they weren't and the sun was rising and the wind was blowing under the free sky. "How long have you stalked them?"

Adriel went to her pack and started filling it before she replied. "Hard to say. I've noted where they are for years now but never taken much interest. They are changing though. Even so I still walk the wilds more than I watch them. And you? What brings a vagabond and a..." she paused. "I'd say mercenary, but I'm almost tempted by guard..." Ruben looked with a scowl. "It's in your movements, if you don't want people to know don't make it blatant. What brings you here?"

"The wind," answered Ferir as he started on his own pack.

She smiled, this time it reached beyond her mouth, but was no less unsettling. "And you're following it?"

"We're headed for a cave, my former home."

She paused at his tone. "I may follow for a bit, with you if I am welcome."

Ferir looked sidelong at her. "Why?"

"Don't worry I mean you no ill, but you interest me. The timing, the circumstance, you. Can it all be chance?"

***

The trail had been laid by men of some description but had seen no traffic in a long time. Briars and vines crawled over the rounded cobbles. The fingers of nature scratching an old scar. In places tree roots ripped up the surface, in others water had torn trenches though it, the dead grass and dried scum the only remains of the power of winter's floods. Ruben watched the witch jump one where she walked ahead of them. He'd motioned Ferir back almost half and hour before and was grateful the man had kept his silence. His face almost ached from the scowl etched on it, she was out of earshot now surely?

Even so he whispered, "I don't like her."

"I'd noticed." Ferir's tone was dry as ever. At first Ruben had taken him as odd, then unfriendly but there'd been enough chinks in that façade now. True it was probably his way, but it was holding a lot back and Ruben was worried what might happen at the cave. That in itself was a surprise.

He snorted a dry laugh. "There's something weird about her."

"Something you're not used to you mean? She might well have followed anyway so might as well have someone else to gather wood."

Ruben snorted. "At least she's easy on the eye before she kills us."

"If you say so. I doubt she wants to harm us though, she already could have done."

"Fine comfort," said Ruben. A silence stretched between them. What had happened at the cave? What would happen? There was afterward too, what then? Too many questions filled his mind but at least they helped obscure the memories of the previous night. Necromancers. Like before. "Are there many necromancers in the wilds?" he asked.

"Not if you avoid obvious places," replied Ferir, "Ayleid ruins often harbour them but I've never heard of anyone coming across them like that. Though I suppose you wouldn't."

Ruben winced at the half jest.

Ferir glanced then returned his gaze to the road. "Sorry," he said after a moment. Ruben said nothing. "I don't really know about..."

"About my squad being wiped out?" Why wouldn't he drop it?

Ferir didn't reply.

"There were a couple of skeletons, barely anything we smashed them. The place was a maze, all dancing shadows and ancient magic. The stones whisper you know. Then they sealed the door behind us. Picked us off, played their games. Only I escaped." He still felt the fear, like the echo of a shadow and even so it was dreadful. Not quite helpless, but futile. That was the crux of it. And the deaths, and blood. Awake or asleep they occasionally returned.

"And you can't escape things, but a deep enough bottle gives brief relief."

Ruben nodded.

"She's waiting for us."

Ruben glanced up along the long disused track.

This post has been edited by Olen: May 26 2012, 11:08 PM

[SubRosa]

The pre-dawn light washed the forest in blood.
It seems not just the light that is doing that...

It looks like Adriel is taken with Ferir. I wonder if that is a good thing, or a bad one? She is more than a little creepy.

And a little scene from Ruben's pov, and a little more insight into what makes him tick. A sole survivor thanks to necromancers.

So far your tale seems to be sending us in a distinctly necomantic direction. I expect we have not run across the last thing that goes bump in the night by far.


nits:
Ferir felt eh hair on his neck prickle.
I suspect that was meant to be a the?

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 26 2012, 02:13 AM

[haute ecole rider]

So Ruben isn't so certain about Adriel, is he now? Honestly, I don't blame him. It's good to see him developing a sense of paranoia, because that's what keeps one alive in uncertain times. And with necromancers all about, it's a good thing. Just as long as Ruben doesn't take it too far . . .

[Grits]

Adriel (or as Ruben thinks of her, “the witch” ) may be easy on Ruben’s eye, but she is definitely creepy! Especially when she said “we are few.” I get a feeling that she might be considering a new recruit.

But they weren't and the sun was rising and the wind was blowing under the free sky.

That says a lot about how Ferir copes, even as he is drawn back to Sundew.

Funny how while Ruben was wondering what happened at the cave, Ferir was wondering what happened with Ruben’s squad. Adreil’s new strangeness sort of emphasizes how much Ruben and Ferir are getting used to one another. Ruben is surprised by his own concerns about Ferir’s crumbling reserve, and then Ferir shows his perception with the deep bottle remark. A lot in a short episode.

[McBadgere]

Even so he whispered, "I don't like her."

Well I do...Mysterious, powerful, hot...Cryptic to the point of confusedness...Sounds like the wife... ...

Excellently done...Loved the heart to heart the lads had...

Looking forward to the giant next post...*Rubs hands with glee*... ...

Nice one!!...

*Applauds heartily*...